I CAUGHT A UNICORN! 

I have often heard tales of this mythical creature that can sometimes appear at art shows. The Unicorn will enter an artist’s booth point to multiple items while saying “I’ll take that one, and that one, and this one over here, oh and that one too, ……”. The Unicorn will not haggle for the price of the art and will smile while handing over a credit card.

I had thought that this was just Tall Tales or Urban Legends that helps artists sleep at night, hoping that tomorrow they might spot and catch an Art Show Unicorn. But I am telling you now that THEY DO EXIST and I caught my FIRST ONE (in 8 years of doing ~35 shows a year) this February at Old Island Days in Key West Florida!

Needless to say, my Unicorn made my show very profitable and made this O.I.D show my BEST SHOW OF 2021 (so far). Saturday’s show was just average sales, but Sunday was when I caught him. Without my Unicorn I probably would have had a below average-to-average weekend of sales. But I DID capture his interest and I did close the Big Sale. Yes, you may think that I “hit the lottery” or “got lucky” but to hit the lottery you have to *play the game*. If the show didn’t happen I would not have had a great show. If I didn’t apply, get accepted, pay the fee, show up, and display my best pieces I would not have caught my unicorn.
 

**WE NEVER KNOW WHEN A UNICORN WILL APPEAR. WE NEED TO DO THESE SHOWS TO CAPTURE THEM BECAUSE THEY DO EXIST!!!**

(This is only a slight exaggeration of my sales at this Key West show)
 

*Setup and Tear-Down: Was fairly easy. It was Friday from 1PM-6PM but you could stay longer if needed. Security was from the Sheriff’s Department and there was an officer there from Friday evening until late Sunday night. This show moved from downtown in previous years to a narrow but long strip of concrete on the water this year. So the space got tight at the one end that I was located as one artist refused to move their truck while he was setting up his booth. A show personal offered help and also asking this artist to move his truck, but no luck. Other artist’s worked together to get in, unloaded, and parked in a timely manner.

Tear-Down was easy for me as I was the very last person to tear-down and get my trailer loaded. But there was a show volunteer and an officer there the whole time, until I pulled my trailer out. Other artists were asked to not pull their vehicle in until they had torn down their entire booth.

*Organization; Grace Epperly, Show Director, was fantastic! She was very communicative and gave updates before the show and during the show. She was there if we had questions of issues. There was coffee, water, bagels, snacks, juices, and fruit for the artists and that was appreciated. She also made everyone feel safe with the usual CDC guidelines in place with the added precaution of doing temperature check on all guests. The police officer was stationed near the entrance to make sure people followed the rules as well as providing security.

(People lined up to get temp checks and to enter show)


(Great weather and great turnout!)

(I was set up in the shadow of a US Coast Guard Ship!)
 

*Weather: UGH! THOSE WINDS! The Wind Gods demanded many sacrifices this weekend and I provided them, unwillingly, a small sacrifice in the form of a small metal that flew from my walls and got bent. I saw a large umbrella take flight and land in the water, never to be seen again. And I know I heard a sacrifice given from another booth a few rows down from mine. The winds were technically 15-25 MPH on Saturday and 10-20 MPH on Sunday. But I swear they seemed TWICE that much down at the end of this park on the water! I used every weight, strap, bungie, and cord I had to tie down and keep my booth and art in place and not end up in the ocean! It was a struggle the entire weekend. Other than that the weather was perfect. HA! It was mostly sunny with high only of 80-82* both days.

* Lodging/Food: Lodging in or near Key West in February is expensive! The best I could do was a lower-end motel on a different ‘key’ 45 minutes from the show site. UGH. It was $159+fees/night. I am not much of a foodie but I did eat a KiKi’s Bar and Grill every night as it was open late, near my hotel, and was VERY good.

*Judging:N/A

*Return in 2022?: HELL YES! I will have an improved ‘Unicorn Trap’ for 2022 (new art, better art!) You never know. This was the first year I have done this show. In previous years it is much larger than the 100 artists this year and it is also on one of the main downtown streets of Key West, from what I understand. So I am hopeful/confident that 2022 will return to the downtown streets and the show will back to its normal size and attract a whole ton of people and even a few more Unicorns.