I had never thought . . .
Roy van der Aa
On FaceBook at Roy Vanderaa, Art by Roy van der Aa and The Ink Newspaper Art website at www.royvanderaa.com
(April – 2020) I had never thought of what a pandemic would do to my business. For 22 years, I have sold advertising space for the monthly arts centered newspaper, The Ink. I have owned the paper along with my wife, Robin, for 20 years and we personally deliver the majority of each issue throughout about one third of New Mexico. The paper gives us at least 90% of our monthly income with the rest coming from occasional graphic art jobs and painting sales.
The issue for March was largely unaffected as the paper is organized and assembled from the 15th to the 25th of the month and is usually printed by the 26th. During the beginning of March—just after distribution of the March issue—the COVID-19 virus became an imposition, then an outright threat. My largest ads are placed by the big theatres for their monthly concerts, then the museums and galleries, special annual events, then ads by artists for their individual shows. The theatres and events were the first to drop out as gatherings were restricted to 100 people. This was close to a third of my revenue.
On March 13th I had the opening of a new exhibit of paintings at the Mandrake in Las Cruces just at a time when the gathering size restriction had dropped to 10. This was manageable as all doorknobs and flat surfaces were disinfected. There was a little nervousness, but people came. Surprisingly, about 75% shook hands. I sold one piece. The day before, I had opened a new show for another painter at AA Studios, my gallery and working studio. Attendance was at the usual level and two pieces sold. As both shows went into April things changed drastically.
On April 6th, Governor Michelle Grisham issued a stay at home order. The previous weekend, the 4th and 5th, my artist at AA had come to the gallery and done a live stream walk-through of the show. By this time all the artwork was posted on her own website with PayPal buttons for payment linked to each piece. By the time she got home, two more pieces had sold.
My show was different and it ended on the 6th due to understandable safety concerns of the gallery owner. Located downtown, there had been a spate of break-ins in the area and my artwork was returned to me. A second potential sale, for which a small down payment had been received fell through when the prospective owner lost her job.
The April issue of The Ink became progressively harder to put together as the museums shuttered, only to be followed by the galleries. At this point 70% of my income was gone. I decided to get creative and added a section of artists ads at a heavy discount. I called this section “Through the Gallery Window” because, at that point, that was the only way to view art—by peering through the windows of a gallery. I called every current advertiser and we discussed what their plans were and their ads were adjusted accordingly. The paper came out and all associated expenses were paid, but I was down over $2000 for the month. My son did the deliveries that month, telling me, “You’re [expletive deleted] OLD and you’re staying home!” My wife had already been staying at home since she cares for her 93-year-old mother and didn’t want to chance her getting sick.
I went straight into the May issue without taking my customary 2 weeks off to paint. I began to use Facebook a lot more (although my family feels I am glued to it all the time anyway) and did what I had to do, I asked for help. Ads slowly began to come in. With repeated postings the number of ads grew in fits and starts and my calls for help were shared over 50 times. One museum and two theatres decided to advertise with generic ads. One theater was conducting rehearsals via the Zoom meeting app. It seems to be the new norm in our current circumstances as I was using Zoom myself at this point for church services and choir rehearsals.
I am a bit over a week away from my scheduled print date for May and I really don’t know if I will have enough revenue to go print or not. I have been dealing with rotating bouts of euphoria, depression, and helplessness. There have been tough months before, but this is something utterly different.