One Bazillionty Degrees Fair-in-height
A fan art original by Nix Winter capturing the spirit of Art Fair.
I snuck out halfway through the day on some vacation time to “do” Art Fair. Well Fairs technically as there are 4 of them but it’s all one big mess of hot, crowds, art, things that wish they were art, crack krazy prices, and sidewalk sales when you boil it (them) down to the basics. We (TheMan, Badmovie, his new housemate Nix and I) started our trek with Food-a-palooza food and a nice sit in the Quad. Nobody comes into the Quad hardly because…ummm…I have no idea. I think the architecture scares them off which is fine by me. I like a little peace and quiet lunching. TheMan had to return to work so Badmovie, Nix and I headed on out to look at art.
In actuality, this Art Fairing wasn’t so bad because we strolled down to Main street, did some art ogling and then rolled into the Starbucks for a cold coffee smoothie and a bit of a sit down. Then we went out to see more art…
like this guy who is always on or near Main and Liberty and whose art piece prices always make me go “Guh!?!”. Take the upper left piece: $5500.00. Yikes!!! I could get a decent used car for that price with enough change left over so that I could drive myself to an art museum to look at art. $5500.00!!!
We also came across this guy from last year. I snapped a surreptitious pic of his stuff from several booths down but this year I asked if I could take a pic. He asked which piece I wanted to take a pic of and I wasn’t sure if “the mess of them on the wall” or “This one here” was the better answer. He then said I could take just one pic (one pic only Pricilli) which was even weirder but hey. I got his permission so I chose to do a many piece pic to get the feel of his style. I still felt a little weird about the whole deal.
Then it was time to relax at Border’s with TheMan, who had just joined our group, and wait for LunarGeography to saunter on by. I had a Border’s coffee smoothie drink.
After a bit of a sit down (in the AC), it was out for more fair. I always like finding this guy because he has HYOOJ pieces. Hee, YMCA kids! I didn’t catch the price but he often wins the “Most expensive art” part of the Art Fair game. That is when the giant spider guy isn’t there.
Beware of dog indeed!
There are also a skad of sidewalk sales going on and I thought this was pretty clever. Sale Price Balloons!
This just cracked me up. Faux black Patten leather Birkinstocks. Dress Birks for sure.
Another Art Fair constant are the various people trying to sell you water. It’s always a dollar and it’s always ICE cold WATER! I was amused by the fella doing an auctioneer style ice water sell until we found these guys hamming (and pizzaing and waffeling and…) it up on the corner. They were AWESOME in their hawking technique complete with boom box and boy band moves (a-la food suit style).
We decided that we ought to partake of food (and more AC) so we sauntered into Cottage Inn and enjoyed a pitcher o’ sangria and some tasty appetizers.
Our loooot! We picked up another piece from Swanson’s Reflections to go with our very slow accumulation of arty pieces.
For comparison, here’s the new ginkgo leaves (GINKGO!) roughly sorta in the semi position (as much as you can while having misplaced the picture hanging kit) it will occupy more or less when we find the picture hooks. I got to choose the ginkgo for our medium art piece and next year when we complete the milieu with a smaller single leaf, TheMan will have a say in what it is.
We also picked up something from these guys and they gave us a wikid cool canvas bag for free! Their only stipulation was that we carry it around as advertisement for them. I think it’ll be a cool reusable shopping bag (I’m thinking of getting a mess o’ them to haul with me shopping soas to save the whales or whatever) and hey! I can one up them with the whole carrying thing, I can give them a shout out on the blog! WHOOT MOTAWI!
2007: At about 9am, my sister called me saying “Hi!!!! Call in and play hooky with me today!! Let’s do Art Fair!!!”
2006: There was a short span of time in which I thought we were going to witness a blimp-cident. OH! The HUMANITY!
2005: Let me contemplate shiny faux leather Birks for a bit.
2004: JSFR: Chocolate Orange Pocky
2003: It’s the film degree. Really, it taught me to convincingly come up with sound arguments for the most ludicrous things.