2011 Summer Arts Festivals Preview Guide

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect dates for the Stockley Gardens Fall Arts Festival. The festival will take place Oct. 15 and 16.

Lynn Harrisberger has a feel-good button. Sunday morning in Williamsburg, whenever the jewelry artist made a sale, a patron pushed the button and heard the funky sounds of James Brown.

"I feeeeel good!" 

Mike Dennis hides his prices, sort of. On Sunday afternoon in the East Beach section of Norfolk, he stepped outside his tent to watch curious customers pick up an unwieldy, 36-inch-diameter sculptural form he lathe-turned out of red oak burl.

"I put the price on the bottom so you have to turn it over," he said, chuckling. "You have to pick it up."

To handle wood, in his mind, is to love it.

These are strategies, of a gentle sort, that local artists use to help boost sales at outdoor shows.

In Hampton Roads, the outdoor art show season is just getting started, and it lasts into the fall.

The first of the major southside shows takes place this weekend. About 125 artists will be set up Saturday and Sunday in Olde Towne Portsmouth for the Gosport Arts Festival.

The 27th annual Stockley Gardens Spring Arts Festival takes place May 21 and 22 in Norfolk's Ghent. And in mid-June, the grandmother of the region's en plein air shows opens: The 56th Boardwalk Art Show & Festival, run by the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, will lure more than 300 artists from across the nation to display their work at the Oceanfront.

All in hopes of sales, sunshine and soul satisfaction.

Hundreds of local artists enter the local shows, even those whose work is of a national caliber. That way, they don't have the added expenses of long-distance travel, lodging and meals out.

Harrisberger has traveled north to Buffalo, N.Y., and south to Atlanta, but this year she's staying close by. Besides last weekend's Art on the Square show, the Virginia Beach artist will bring her one-of-a-kind wearable art to Stockley Gardens, the Boardwalk, and the Seawall Art Show in August.

Harrisberger doesn't rely on jewelry sales for her living. The art/creative director has run her own agency for 30 years.

In 2002, she decided to delve into jewelry. So she learned how to cut stones and solder metals. By 2003 she had progressed enough as a designer to get into the competitive Boardwalk show, which, like all of the top shows in the region, is pre-juried by art experts.

From there, she built a clientele and broadened her exposure, like lots of artists, by trying out various shows and creating a website. Her jewelry is high end, with prices ranging from $300 to $2,000. When the recession settled in - again, like many artists - she experienced a slump in sales.

"I could have made a lot of $59 earrings, and it would have destroyed my soul," she said. "I held onto my values, what I did best."

She sold six pieces last Sunday. For her, she said, "that's as good as a three-day show. I think it's indicative of a possible (economic) turning point."

Brian Murphy of Newport News has garnered his entire income from art sales since 2003. This year he'll be in more than 20 outdoor shows, including Stockley and Boardwalk.

The painter of outdoor scenes spent last weekend at a show in Oklahoma City. "Outdoor shows by far are more lucrative than galleries," he said, speaking by cellphone from his booth. The limited time period encourages sales, he said.

The toughest part of being a sunshine artist - an artist who constantly travels the outdoor-art-show circuit - is dealing with poor sales. "It can play games with your confidence."

And then the next show may bring great sales, which boost the morale. It can be an emotional rollercoaster.

Any sales strategies? "If I have a history with a show and a past clientele, I will send out postcards prior to the show."

Murphy said his business wasn't too affected by the economic slump. "I think the people buying original oil paintings have had, and still do have, that discretionary income that the average person might not have."

His oils on canvas bring $375 to $4,200.

By contrast, Cynthia Quesenberry's prices are affordable for nearly everyone. The Suffolk glass artist's most popular items involve recycled glass melted down, or fused, and fashioned into wind chimes, trays and other forms.

Her recycled glass pieces cost $10 to $30.

She'll be at Gosport this weekend with plenty of inventory, also including her popular fused glass jewelry, also priced from $10 to $30.

The data quality manager doesn't look to sales for her salary. Still, she's able to keep prices down "because it really doesn't cost that much to do them." She gets the recycled bottles for free. Her only big expense was the purchase of four kilns, and the electricity used to fire them.

Dennis, who will be in Boardwalk and several other local shows this season, makes his living as a general contractor. He got excited about turning wood a decade ago.

He can't imagine trying to make a living with his sculpture, which was priced last weekend from $75 to $7,500.

Both he and Harrisberger spent much of Sunday explaining their materials and the technical aspects of their work to potential patrons. Dennis told how the best wood for turning was either diseased or insect-infected. He described how he waited for years to procure a dying tree with lots of gnarly growths on the trunk, which are called burls and are as desirable as diamonds to a woodworker.

He built a studio and showroom for his work in his backyard in the Croatan area of Virginia Beach. "I do this every night," he said. "It's a passion."

Like most artists, Harrisberger occasionally gets asked in regard to the price, "Can you do any better?"

"It's not nice to barter with artists," she stressed. "We're not a flea market. We price our work fairly based on the cost of materials and our time."

And it's not all about product and money.

"Art is all about feeling good," Harrisberger said, explaining that James Brown button. "To me, it's about putting smiles on people's faces."

Teresa Annas, (757) 446-2485, teresa.annas@pilotonline.com