Connecticon Forum
What Artists Want for Their Money
Final thoughts - we as artists aren’t attacking you, just as you aren’t purposely trying to make us unhappy. There needs to be some middle ground that everyone can agree on, and there needs to be helping hands from both sides. Perhaps at the end of the con there should be a “meeting of the minds” so to speak, or perhaps after the event there could be an open dialogue (either in the forum or via email or whatever) between both sides to discuss any issues and offer solutions. This isn’t a one-way street; I don’t expect you all to wave your magic wands and make everything better. I’m willing to do my part to help, and I’m sure others are as well.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Re: What Artists Want for Their Money
I’ll see what we can do about working in a discussion session, perhaps Saturday afternoon/evening, (before Inix’s party) since they give us a hard “be out of here by” line on Sunday, especially with Riverfest. I don’t think anything else would be particularly conducive to a rational discussion at this point.
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Aren’t you going to tell me to change something, too?.
No, I just want my dress to be cool.
Do you not like the color?.
The color’s fine, just make it look cooler.
Do you not like the shape?.
The shape’s fine, just make the whole thing you know, cooler….
It needs to be about 20% cooler.
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic - Suited For Success
I’ll see what we can do about working in a discussion session, perhaps Saturday afternoon/evening, (before Inix’s party) since they give us a hard “be out of here by” line on Sunday, especially with Riverfest. I don’t think anything else would be particularly conducive to a rational discussion at this point.
Just FYI, Inyx doesn’t do the artist alley networking party at Connecticon any more. It was moved to Anime NEXT since that is the AA she runs. I don’t know about doing a discussion mid con as people will want to be selling during that time. I honestly don’t know of a good time, since the hours are so long. But doing it in person post-con doesn’t work for most as many artists who go are out of state (NY, PA, MA, NJ, NH, etc.).
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Re: What Artists Want for Their Money
[quote author=“yuureikun”]So people should pay $70 or $140 (or $170/240 if they are new to CT selling - yes that isn’t CTCon’s fault but it is something you need to adapt to) to sit at a table, and not sell? We are paying to be able to sell. That is the point of my purchasing a table and going to CTCon. If you had major industry guests (marvel, DC, etc.) who are looking for potential artists for their projects, then maybe you could tell us that the point of this AC is to show your portfolio to the industry and get your contact information in their hands. But Connecticon’s AC has always been a place to set up shop, meet one another, get art out there, and turn a profit for our hard work. We’re not webcomicers. They have a different ideas (and most of them prefer the dealer’s room now). The dealer’s room was never INTENDED for artists. Most of the crafters you have in your dealer’s room started in AAs. But we shouldn’t be forced to go into the dealer’s room to be able to make a profit.
If the model for the CTCon AC is that we do not profit, then I will not bother with the CTCon AC again.
Actually, if someone came to CTcon just to display their artwork and not sell there would be no need for the tax license. The tax license is only your right to do business within the state by collecting the tax in return. The tax license holds no bearing on exhibiting. I highly doubt anyone is going to spend the money on an Artist Alley (Colony) and not try to sell anything, but for promotional purposes it happens quite a bit in the dealer’s room. I’m sure this doesn’t limit CTcon from requiring “dealers” that are only displaying for promotion to have a tax license. In this case all the artist/dealer is doing is subletting the exhibition space from the convention who is renting it from the convention center.
This is a silly point to take into consideration since the only people who are going to spend to exhibit and not sell are going to be businesses with enough money to put into promotion without a return.
[quote author=“yuureikun”]
And wait a minute. I know almost everyone who has posted here. I know all of their displays. And they all have at LEAST half and half original/fan art.
Actually very little of our artwork is fanart. We have found our niche of an original idea. If the staff really want to get on us about copyright and trademark issues then it would be about the artwork being based on real cats. Because of the picky nature people have gotten into about copyright Keevs never sells commission pieces as general work no matter how generic the image can be. The simple reason is that we have a lot of people commissioning their own cats. I can’t tell you how many random pictures of peoples cats I have gotten on my phone. I have to remember to delete them after each convention.
Of the fanart that we have had it has always been very limited and Keevs has also been wanting to weed it out. Personally for our needs I could do without dealing with fanart.
I can turn myself into a hypocrite by having my issues about the rule changes and now saying that ultimately they don’t really affect us very much. Our display has always been modifiable since we never know what we are really getting. I never expect the table size posted on the website. My favorite is Otakon who always posts a narrower table size than they actually have set up. Anyway, my point is that you always need to be ready to adjust. Our miracle setup was fitting a 6’ display into a 4’ space at AB last year. It was tight, but we made it work. I think we did go a little higher than normal, but it was a solid structure. When it comes to setting up my collar display I can easily keep that below 6’ from the ground.
My reason for voicing my concerns is that someone needs to stand up for the artists that are afraid to be verbal. I don’t want to be a pain by complaining and sometimes I will get angry and riled by an issue that leads to a ranting post rather than constructively stating issues, but I generally won’t say something unless I feel it is worth being heard. I am glad to see other artists starting to chime in. I tried making my previous posts as constructive as possible because I saw the direction this forum was headed. It really looked like it was a small group teaming up on the same core points.
I really appreciate that Matt appreciated my suggestions and will use them for discussion. I think that this forum was a long overdue discussion and we are all seeing that one thing has been agreed on: a lack of communication. Because of that the communication has opened and the tension that was stated at the beginning of this forum has dropped drastically. At some point in time an unspoken tension between the artists and staff must have formed to the point that each side blames the other, but this is the exact thing I have seen every time communication is lost. Trust me, I went through years of a job with a boss who eliminated communication from the department and the only reason faculty relied on me so much is because I opened communication with them.
I feel that I have rambled a little too much in this post and I hope I got a reasonable point across. This is why I shouldn’t stay up too late reading forums.
A little off of my post’s topic: Inyx’s problem with the display, beyond not liking that she has to chop her display in half, is that she uses large wire panels for a sturdier display and easier set up. Yes, maybe at AB she was over 9’ tall. But that’s not the point: there she was able to. Her problem (and correct me if I’m wrong, Inyx!) is her panels are 4’ high. At least let the display be 4’ from the table surface.
Yes, my wire grid panels are 4ft high. And I use wire cubes zip tied together to support my banner on top. Everything is very sturdy, zip tied together and not going to fall over unless someone physically attacks my booth. And as brawls don’t break out in the Artits Alley, I don’t see this happening any time soon.
I also would like to see an discussion between staff and artists at Connecticon. I suggest Thursday night, right after check in and set up time. We would all be in the Artist Alley anyway, and can take a look at displays, etc for examples. And it really is the only time when Artists won’t be focused on sales and our customers. Or just plain tired from a full day of sales.
/edit: And we are still waiting on the Height Restriction from the “Top of the Table”.
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Hemlock Inyx~
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Re: What Artists Want for Their Money
Okay… for now we’re settling on a 6’ from the floor, or 4’ from the top of the table limit for display heights.
As for a meeting, at the moment I’d prefer a Friday or Saturday meet, so that a) everyone is there, since not all the artists actually arrive on Thursday, and b) so that we’ve had a chance to see the rules in action.
Signature
Aren’t you going to tell me to change something, too?.
No, I just want my dress to be cool.
Do you not like the color?.
The color’s fine, just make it look cooler.
Do you not like the shape?.
The shape’s fine, just make the whole thing you know, cooler….
It needs to be about 20% cooler.
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic - Suited For Success
Okay… for now we’re settling on a 6’ from the floor, or 4’ from the top of the table limit for display heights.
As for a meeting, at the moment I’d prefer a Friday or Saturday meet, so that a) everyone is there, since not all the artists actually arrive on Thursday, and b) so that we’ve had a chance to see the rules in action.
I’m thinking that Friday would be best for any kind of meeting. Saturday is going to be the busy day for everyone and both staff and artists are likely to be exhausted come closing time <!—s:)—>
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Okay… for now we’re settling on a 6’ from the floor, or 4’ from the top of the table limit for display heights.
As for a meeting, at the moment I’d prefer a Friday or Saturday meet, so that a) everyone is there, since not all the artists actually arrive on Thursday, and b) so that we’ve had a chance to see the rules in action.
Thank you for the update, please don’t forget to update the rules thread with this as well, just in case someone misses it here.
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Hemlock Inyx~
PopCult Anime! We have the magically delicious buttons!
