“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton
Mile Marker 166, 35x51
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Why I can't write more...
After a great show at the Sun Valley Arts and Crafts Festival, great camping in the Sawtooth National Recreational Area, and some great meals, Kyle and I made our way to the Canadian Border where we stored our van and camper for a few days to vacation in Vancouver with our great friends and hosts, Jim Brown and Matt VanderWerff. Continue reading
I just returned from my 6th show of the year, this one in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. It was a fairly typical fair, with all the stimulus that entails: the thousands of people in the hot sun, the hundreds of fantastically talented artists’ booths, bands playing, dogs and strollers jockeying for position and making their standard noises, the smell of the brats being cooked on the corner. It can be overwhelming, and occasionally I have to seek a reprieve in the back of my booth, a quiet moment to myself that acts as a reset of sorts.
At this particular show, however, my booth space backed up against the front stoop of an apartment building. For this weekend, it too became a place of respite, the rest stop for the tired or overwhelmed fair goers. I was fascinated by how this public place had become a quiet, intimate place of rest, and began documenting the people that sometimes needed a break like I do. The ones that need a moment to themselves to reset, to recompose. And it struck me that it was all the same – the back of my booth, the front stoop, the open plain. They all can become a place to catch your breath, a quiet interlude before diving into the fray once more.
“this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees & for the blue dreams of sky & for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” ~ E.E. Cummings
Mile Marker 275, 22"x34"
From the painter that creates in their dining room on Sunday afternoons to the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City supports the arts and it is becoming not only local but national news. But for artists that participate in art festivals this comes as no surprise. Kansas City is host to two of the highest ranked juried art festivals in the country (based on sales and attendance), the Brookside Art Annual and the Plaza Art Fair. And I am thrilled to be participating in both of these spectacular shows. Thank goodness I’m not superstitious – it will be my 13th year in each!
So while the art community continues to grow, and get press in the New York Times, and the New York Post, Frommer’s names Kansas City one of top destinations for 2012 (the only US city to make the list). Even our “rival cities” along I-70, Saint Louis and Denver declare, “Score one for Kansas City,” and “Kansas City is a cultured place.“.
The individual artists that have long been bringing great art to the streets of Kansas City and come visit us at the Brookside Art Annual.
Art Fair Hours:
Friday, May 4, 5pm-9pm
Saturday, May 5, 10am-9pm
Sunday, May 6, 11am-5pm
While in Brookside visiting the art festival be sure to visit the other small locally owned shops that make up the wonderful neighborhood. Brookside in the KC Star
Not in Kansas City? Visit my schedule to see when I will be in a town near you. Or come visit us in Kansas City for the Plaza Art Fair and see all the great things that the “Paris of the Plains” has to offer.