Art is Work

Last Thursday I set aside everything else to go with Linda and "do a show," Broadripple Art Fair put on by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Linda books the same motel year after year where there is a big retention pond in the middle of a great deal of urban construction. Previous years we've fed the ducks.

This year Linda fished, every night. Fishing is a passion, and if she had her druthers she'd do a lot more. That striped stool carried a lot of gear; the brown vest the same. She opened her tackle box in the room and ooh'd and aah'd, but I didn't fall for it. I know fishing from nothing. She caught bass and sunnies (whatever they are). She put them all back. I wonder if she caught any twice.

We left for Indianapolis Thursday afternoon; Friday morning we arrived early at the art museum to set up.

It was cold and wet, and became colder and wetter in the falling rain. Many set up the following morning. Linda's youngest cousin, Bruce, arrived to help. Bruce is fifty five. He has a lot of good setting up years left in him.

Saturday was too cold and miserable to recount. When not huddled in my chair I wandered around. All weekend I watched a bus being painted. I once painted all our interior booth set up brown, using spray cans. My index finger was numb for a month. These fellows used the index finger method. I've seen thumb controls that can be put over the button. Perhaps they haven't arrived yet in Indianapolis.

Do not be deceived by blue sky. The temperature did not reach sixty that day.

Another great find while walking for warmth! An art teacher put together this hands on children's project. She and her assistants built geodesic domes using dowels. Think Tinker Toys! Covered the dome with chicken wire. Strategically placed bins of rag strips and invited passers by to weave. They had a four harness Nilus LeClerc on a table, to demonstrate "regular" weaving. It had less than an inch of work on it. The domes were covered by Sunday night.

 Plenty of "real" art on display. The artist in the upper left won a third place ribbon. Sadly, I never located first and second. They must have been something!

The weather was beautiful for Sunday; sixty and sunshine. Ten degrees from perfect, but not bad.

Some garden art. I could go on and on; there was more than enough to look at.

My favorites, the children. I asked the young father permission to snap his little girl, and he smiled, too.

Then it was Sunday night, and over. Tear down, pack up, go home. Our neighbor was a glass artist. As he packed up I saw the paint brush on the back of a panel. Removes dirt from those pesky spots in his creations, I'm sure. I loved the dad going for their van, trailed by his boys.