steamed!

I need to rant. I will not mention any specifics though, so that I don't get myself into too much trouble!

There is a show (western trade show, things like art, tack, clothing, etc) in late April that I visited last year and thought was cool. So cool, in fact, that I wanted to be a part of it. I sent off for information, and received a concise form letter telling me to "submit my information" and they would consider me for next year's trade show. Well, that's pretty unspecific. Most shows will give you a deadline, for example, and be pretty specific information about what to include.

But no matter. I talked my saddlemaker friend Brian into applying to split a booth with me, figuring my work would be "backdrop" for his tack. It would be awesome. So knowing that *most* art shows (granted, this is not an art show, but whatever) require one to submit entries up to three months ahead of time, I played it safe and made sure to get our information in FIVE MONTHS ahead of time. I wrote a nice letter explaining what we both do and how we had in mind to share a booth, I spent a couple hours compiling an 8x10 collage of each of our work, spent money getting those printed out as nice glossy photos, included a self addressed envelope, etc.

So the months passed and I did not hear a word from them. Not a "thank you for your interest," not a "we'll let you know," not a darn thing. I figured I would hear something in January, or February at the latest.

So today I just happened to poke around their website, and saw the 2006 trade show vendor list. Am I on it? Well no, of course not. And in itself, that's fine, I sort of didn't expect to get in (let's face it, I'm some weirdo drawing chickens and occasionally horses, do I really fit into the hardcore buckaroo scene? Um, no. But that they didn't accept Brian on his own, that floors me, I'm shocked). So anyway, I'm not that bothered by not getting in, I'm bothered that they lacked the common decency to even say a word. At the very least, the VERY LEAST, there should have been a "thank you for your submission, accepted vendors will be notified" letter. Having them drop a note saying that we didn't get in would have been nice, the ole "we regret to inform you" letters are standard practice in the art world, I've received more than one or two... And I wouldn't have minded if they would send back the photos! Heck, for all I know the darn thing got lost in the mail! Or stolen! Or abducted by aliens!

So yeah, what a bunch of elitist pigs! How dare they!

It's their loss. They're missing out on the best damn chicken artist around these parts (oh yeah, and I can draw horses too to fit in there!) and truly they have overlooked the most incredibly talented saddlemaker. What a crock.