{"id":2289,"date":"2017-04-25T21:44:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T21:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/?p=2289"},"modified":"2017-04-25T21:45:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T21:45:17","slug":"spectrum-fantastic-art-live-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2017\/04\/25\/spectrum-fantastic-art-live-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"\"$ I\u2019m back in studio\u00a0from Spectrum Fantastic Art Live<\/a> and this was\u00a0my favorite SFAL yet. What a tremendous weekend of world-class art, amazing friends, and celebration. Thank you to John Fleskes + Cathy and Arnie Fenner for making this all happen, along with incredible collaborators such as Carl Anderson, Jeff Smith, Mark Roth, Kathy Chu, Monica Carson, Arlo Burnett, and more.\n

It was an honor to be one of the Spectrum Award presenters Saturday night, and that felt like a perfect culmination of the jury responsibility. I was grateful to be a part of the effort, and I\u2019m really proud of the finalist and medal selections\u00a0that my fellow judges and I chose for the upcoming annual.\u00a0So much emotion during this year\u2019s ceremony. It was great to see, as was the energy of this show from both pros and fans.<\/p>\n

I loved the new facility and thought the\u00a0artist booth layout fit well. I\u2019d love to see SFAL happen here in future years. I think there\u2019s no longer any question that\u00a0Kansas City can carry SFAL on a permanent basis. It\u2019s not because of any one particular factor, and it wasn\u2019t because of any massive influx of attendees, but I think it\u2019s the feeling that the group of people listed above are made of too much win for this effort to fail. I think SFAL is a few key personnel away from being a major international art destination for art buyers. Kansas City can support this show without a doubt, and we\u2019ll wistfully look back on these formative years as the \u2018remember when you actually had elbow-room at SFAL\u2019 years. The quality of the artists in attendance, the quality of the show\u2019s signage and the operation, as well as the overall production value of the whole event \u2014 those are\u00a0rock-solid and world-class.\u00a0The level of outreach and marketing will\u00a0catch up, but it\u2019s not because of a lack of effort or brainpower. It\u2019s a matter of a few more foot soldiers and a few more key champions behind-the-scenes to complement the extraordinary team that is already in place. They\u2019re giving max effort and I\u2019m especially in amazement at the job that Carl, Jeff, and Mark do. They seem to have eight arms and the ability to teleport. When this team gets a few more key pieces to carry the buildup to the event, this show\u00a0will\u00a0explode to a whole new stratospheric\u00a0level.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ As it stands right now, there\u2019s no other art happening quite like SFAL, and if you missed this year, then you missed out bigtime. The energy, camaraderie, and inspiration from both the art and the artists was off-the-charts. On a personal note \u2014 I had my most successful sales year ever at an SFAL,\u00a0thanks to my \u2018La Botella\u2019 drawing selling to one of my favorite collectors. Loteria Grande Cards sold briskly. I loved watching my fellow artists such as Donato Giancola, Allen Williams, Colin and Kristine Poole, and more have really solid sales at this event as well.<\/p>\n

It was the best of times, and I hope we get to do it all over again next year, Kansas City.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"