Although Steven and I have lived out in the cold Tundra (called Minneapolis) for over 15 years, we had never visited the Uptown Art Festival. I think it's because we avoided crowds when our kids were small, and then when they grew up, we always stuck closer to home for art (our town hosts a wonderful art festival each July called "Art on the Lake" in Excelsior).... going to Uptown, dealing with traffic, parking, etc... just didn't appeal to us. We've gotten really spoiled living in the 'burbs!!!
So we decided we would hit Uptown this year... check it out. It was a scorchy 96 degress HOT HOT HOT! -- but we still managed to visit all 3 of the participating areas... it worked out great with the bus shuttle between Uptown, Loring Park, and Powderhorn Park......
This is a "juried" event, so I was expecting a bit more...... more what? D.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.Y. Although every booth was beautiful, there seemed to be quite an overlap within the mediums. However, there were a few artists that truly captured the spirit of "uniqueness" for me.....here are some that really stood out.... (at least for me! Steven was drawn to the painting and wood carvings)....
These floating images were created totally out of wire! I almost passed them without noticing, as they were flying high above us.... the pics do not really do them justice.... they were truly art in motion!
...and then, we came to this beautiful wood nymph, carved out of wood.... every inch of her was exquisite! Her hair consisted of a cascade of leaves...... she had an infant (almost embryotic-looking) curled up at her feet (all 4 of them)....
...and a FROG, with such life-like eyes that he scared me (I hate frogs!)..... resting at her feet.
..isn't she incredible? For a mere $12,000, I could have brought her home... (sigh) maybe next time.
...then we came to Kina Crow's booth www.KinaCrow.com... .I couldn't decide if her pieces were creepy or cute..... decided they were a bit creepy, but grew on you as you looked at them; so that in the end, they actually looked cute. Maybe not exactly the effect Kina was going for, but it made people stop and look.
titled "the rude little piggy king"
...see what I mean about creepy? This one is titled "the thought escapes me"
...but my absolute favorite amongst all her displayed pieces was this one..... (it has a specially meaning in our family because when my daughter was little we used to say that girls didn't ((fart)) --they have powder puffs!) I couldn't stop grinning when I saw this....
...and then, when we were finally exhausted and drained from the heat (plus, the event was closing in a half-hour, we walked to the Art Hop stop to wait for the bus back to our car..... but when I looked across the street, my eyes rested on this beautiful church, nestled in the shade of the trees, and I ran across the street to snap a quick pic! Once again, I was attracted to the door and windows.... and remembered that I have all these fabulous pictures I took in Paris last Spring that I still need to do something artsy with.....
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