Fine arts festival at Eisenhower Park

Bill Kinney measures success in two ways at the second annual Long Island Fine Arts Festival this weekend at Eisenhower Park.

First, as show director of the Centerport-based Paragon Fine Arts Festivals, which organizes events up and down the East Coast, he wants all 125 artists in the show to sell enough to cover expenses, at least, and turn a profit for Paragon. And, as an art photographer, Kinney hopes to sell his seascapes and turn a personal profit.

The first festival last May at the East Meadow park earned an average of $3,800 an artist. "That's a good number for a first-time show," Kinney says.

As rated by Sunshine Magazine, the national trade journal for outdoor arts-and-crafts festivals, Paragon's shows rank in the top 100. Kinney expects the Long Island festival to "crack the top 50" when Sunshine's 2010 ratings come out in June.

Despite the success, Paragon limited this year's festival to 125 booths. "We're trying to keep the show at a moderate size to give the artists a better chance to succeed," says Kinney. "Bigger shows become overwhelming."

Even so, he says, "This is the largest outdoor show of its kind on Long Island, in terms of exhibitors and the number of people browsing and shopping for art."

Eisenhower Park officials estimated last year's two-day attendance at 30,000. No exact figures are available because admission is free.

What you'll find

Kinney says the exhibitors are a combination of emerging artists and lifetime professionals. While you won't encounter works by the masters -- as in the high-end ArtHamptons show in July -- there's an array of work by living artists. In most cases you can speak to the artist in person. Last year, says Kinney, "three-dimensionals -- sculpture, jewelry, fiber -- really carried the show. Some of the two-dimensionals -- paintings, drawings, photographs -- brought in high numbers, but they were a smaller percentage."

Far and near

Many of the artists also exhibited at the inaugural festival. Nnamdi, a sculptor from Nigeria, says: "As far back as I can remember I've been drawn to art. Later, I realized that my sensibilities were best expressed in the three-dimensional art of sculpture."

His work can be found in galleries across the country. He now lives in Fayetteville, N.C., and his monumental-scale works grace public sculpture gardens. The artist is himself of monumental scale: At 6-foot-9, he came to the United States on a basketball scholarship, earning a fine arts degree from Brigham Young University.

Kinney, who lives in Centerport, doesn't reveal where his seascapes were shot. "People ask me, 'Is this from Jones Beach?' 'Is this from Amagansett?' Rather than disappoint, I let them assign their own location."

But no one is more local than Geri Geremia, whose East Meadow home/studio is barely a mile from Eisenhower. Geremia took up painting full time after raising her children. She studied with watercolorist Charles Reid, turning out representational work until switching to abstract in 1999. "There's always something new to learn," says Geremia, who makes a living from her art. "It keeps me ticking."

Although 2009 was a dismal sales year -- "zero, zero, zero," she says, the market improved last year. "I had nothing to lose," she said of the first Long Island Fine Arts Festival. "It was just around the corner. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went."