What is the scene like for artists in the Folsom area? (San Francisco: sales, real estate)

[thinkingThingsOver]

I'm a full-time artist thinking about relocating my family from the Bay Area to Folsom. I'd be making the move for cheaper housing and good schools for my kids. My biggest worry is that Folsom seems very 'vanilla' to me - there is nothing 'funky' about it. I'm wondering if there are communities of artists in the area, and how supported artists feel in the region.

I'm also curious about the gallery scene in the surrounding regions. I get the feeling that I'd generally have to work with remote galleries and that the market for art in the Sacramento area isn't particularly strong. I'm I wrong? Is there a strong 'open studio' system? Art organizations?

It also seems that there are more artists as one heads up 50 towards Placerville. True? Placerville doesn't seem to have strong schools - hence why I'm thinking Folsom.

All feedback and thoughts appreciated. Thanks !

[wburg]

I suggest nice paintings of fruit and sunsets. Be sure to use colors and sizes that will match people's couches. Calling Folsom "vanilla" is almost an understatement. It's a perfectly fine suburb, with all the tract housing and shopping centers you could want, with plenty of free parking, but funkiness is not a quality one finds in Folsom. I think they have a monthly "art walk" event, but it's pretty small compared to Sacramento's "Second Saturday" art walk.

More artists east towards Placerville? Where, exactly? I assume there are some galleries in the small mountain towns, and maybe some higher-end customers in the foothills, but there really aren't many people out that way, so not much of a customer base. What gives you that feeling?

Note that "cheaper housing" and "good schools" are generally not found in the same place--cheaper housing means lower tax base for schools and less wealthy residents. I realize that "cheaper" is a matter of degree, but Folsom is one of the more expensive suburbs in the Sacramento region.

As to Sacramento, Second Saturday is popular, but generally not very much art is sold, it's mostly gawkers there for free drinks, with various wacky sideshow stuff ranging from ice skating rinks to Jell-O wrestling. There are a lot of small studios and a few more established ones, but fairly small compared to the Bay Area.

[FentonForche]

Why the great Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light, hails from Placerville. How can you say the eastern Sacramento environs aren't a stateside version of Montmartre?

[DMenscha]

Originally Posted by FentonForche

Why the great Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light, hails from Placerville. How can you say the eastern Sacramento environs aren't a stateside version of Montmartre?

I would say "I rest my case"

[bluevelo]

Can you paint on velvet, and have you practiced your Elvis?

I can understand wanting to leave the Bay area... but, the schools are terrible here.

[thinkingThingsOver]

wburg - all things are relative. Folsom housing is cheap compared to the bay area.

bluevelo - in my checking around I got the impression that the Folsom schools are strong. See:
http://www.greatschools.org/search/search.page?state=CA&q=folsom&type=school

Am I wrong? What's the problem with Folsom schools?

And as for Placerville, I know a few artists that have moved to the foothills and there are some organizations up there like the Sierra Pastel Society:
http://www.sierrapastelsociety.net/

Still wondering - is there any decent base of artists in the area?

[heartfocus]

Yes, Nevada City and Grass Valley, on the other side of hwy 80 from Placerville/Folsom.

[wburg]

As you say, thinkingThingsOver, all things are relative. Yes, there are artists in the Sierra foothills, but not very many compared to the Bay Area, or even to Sacramento proper, and most of the region's population is west of Folsom rather than east. There are a lot of galleries in the city of Sacramento, and organizations like the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission ). If you're looking for someplace a little more funky and less "vanilla" than Folsom, Sacramento isn't quite the "chocolate city" that Parliament/Funkadelic sung about, but it's a bit closer to Rocky Road than Folsom's vanilla suburbs.

[iajo]

Under the hobby loss rules, the IRS makes a distinction between hobbyists and artist. Basically if you make more money than you spend on an activity in 3 out of 5 years, the IRS considers you an artist. Otherwise its a hobby.

The reason I make this distinction is that its useful in cutting through a lot or b.s. that is put out by the local real estate pimps.

In the Sacramento area, there is actually a very small community of people who actually make enough money to support themselves by there creativity. This group is often affiliated with a college or university. CSUS art department was known for the Royal Chicano Air Force. UC Davis made a name for itself in pop art. Both Wayne Theibaud and Gregory Kondos spent time teaching at Sac City College.

If you look at this crowd, they tend to be spread out in some of the more expensive neighborhoods in the region. Wayne Theibaud lives across the street from Shelfield Park in Carmicheal. Kondos lived for a while in Land Park. The most successful writers in the area, left to become more successful. Joan Didion moved to NYC, Richard Rodriguez moved to San Francisco.

What I would say is that for the successful artists, it really doesn't matter what neighborhood they actually live in because there work is going to be sold at galleries, not in their garages. Find a neighborhood you feel comfortable in. Your work is sold based upon you talent, not based upon your address. The customers in the gallery have no idea where you live.

Based upon past history, if you are truly trying to support yourself in the arts (and move beyond engaged hobbyist), I would at some place near one of the colleges or universities in the area, and possibly take a job at one of the community colleges (including the one in Folsom). To support yourself fulltime doing this, you need to put in a lot of time on your work and the colleges and universities give you enough time to build up your portfolio.

In this area, you also have people who work as waiters or assistant managers at Pepboys who figured out that labeling themselves an artist is a good way to get laid. Most of these people call themselves struggling artists because you get more social respect for being an artist than a waiter or Pepboys employee. I am going to call this crowd the engaged hobbyists. I put myself in this category. My day job is physical therapy. I live in Citrus Heights. In college I got interested in painting and photography mostly as a reason to meet/get women naked. But I enjoyed painting so I kept doing it.

In just about every community in this region, you have lots of engaged hobbyists. You have the wanna be hip hop moguls in Meadowview, Del Paso Heights and Citrus Heights. You find the garage bands practicing in Foothill Farms, Rancho Cordova and Hollywood Park.

The local real estate pimps, trying to push expensive artists lofts in bad neighborhoods claiming that some area is the local home for artists in the region. But the "artists" in this neighborhood are more the engaged hobbyist, than people actually supporting themselves off their creativity. I have met plenty of doctors and lawyers in artists lofts, but I have never met an actual artist in an artist loft. In the surrounding neighborhood, you have the collection of waiters and Pepboys assistant managers, but they can't afford the artists lofts either. So avoid all artists lofts like the plague if you are actually trying to deal with someone in the arts.

As for the arts community in this region. Most of the art galleries in this region are selling the wares of the engaged hobbyist. Its rare to find a gallery selling stuff for more than $600 a piece (given that the gallery is going to take half of that, its pretty difficult in this area to support yourself exclusively based upon sales in this area.) There is some stuff offered for more than that, but again that stuff isn't really selling well locally (unless you are affiliated with one of the colleges and universities in the region) The gallery scene locally is limited by the income of the residents. You don't have the internet moguls/investment bankers locally with the funds to buy the more expensive works. The city requires spending a certain percentage of all buildings be spent on art, but the art review board tends to be fairly incestuious. (meaning that it really helps to be affiliated with a local college or university art department)

The local music scene again is mostly of the engaged hobbyist variety. You have lots of people making music on the nights and weekend, very few people are doing it locally as there sole basis of income. (the musicians union is really weak here). At just about every light rail station, you will find someone trying to sell you there hip hop cd. Throughout the region, you have various establishments playing local music, but most of the people playing at say the Boardwalk in Orangevale aren't going to be quiting there day job anytime soon.

If you are looking for a really strong art scene in Sacramento, honestly its not very big and its still mostly through the various different art departments at the local colleges and you might find it lacking compared with the much more vigorous and established art scenes in the bay area.

On the other hand, if you want to be around other engaged hobbyists, then I think Sacramento is excellent. There is a tremendous number of local bands playing local venues like The Boardwalk in Orangevale or at several dozen other venues through out the region. The local gallery scene works the same way. It mostly shows the work of engaged amaturers, from through out the region. I have sold stuff at the 20th street gallery in Sacramento and at a Gallery in Santa Rosa. Physical therapy is my day job, and quite honestly, I doubt I will ever make from my art to quit that. But my art has paid for several trips down to Baja Mexico.

As for Second Saturday, I sold most of my work in the presale before the offical unveiling on Second Saturday. First, I presented my work as part of a combined show. My work sold well there, so I was invited to do my own show. Again most of my work sold in the presale period. Remember in a given area you probably should only have one gallery representing you, otherwise the gallery sees no reason to promote your work. (I got some grief for doing a show in Nevada City) So spend some time researching your galleries before you decide to present them your work.

[northern cross]

I would say fine art market in Sacramento is frozen or never existed before i moved 1.5 year ago.