Sunday, September 9, 2007

Art in the Park

It's a good thing we went to Art in the Park yesterday, because it is pouring rain today, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop. That may be a good thing for me, though, because I am sorely tempted to go back and take another look at one of the booths where we made a couple of purchases yesterday.

I love going to Art in the Park, and we have attended it every year since we moved here. I will tell you two awesome things about it, right off the bat: it is free and it is a five-minute walk from our house. Once we get there, we stroll through the rolling hills of Fred Fuller Park looking at a wide variety of beautiful and interesting things created by talented artists and artisans. There are paintings and photographs, jewelry and clothing, handcrafted wood and ironwork, and, our perennial favorites, blown glass and ceramics. (Some of you may think of it as "pottery," as I did prior to my stint in the College of Fine and Professional Arts.)

If we only had the money to buy everything we wanted, our house would be even more overloaded with beautiful and unique things. But we have to choose carefully, which is not a bad thing. Yesterday we bought a Christmas present (for one of the regular readers of this blog, so I can't divulge what it is - other than to say that it is beautiful and unique, just like the person it is destined for.) Ben bought me a necklace that is a ceramic (big surprise!) leaf on a cord. It is in beautiful earthtones, and I put it on as soon as he bought it for me.

We also bought two ceramic pieces from an artisan we had never seen there before. She is from South Euclid, actually, and attended Ben's alma mater, Charles F. Brush High School. Her work is so interesting and different from the things we usually see there. It is her booth that I would like to take a second look at, but perhaps it is best if I don't. Although I think I could fit another piece or two on the bookshelf in my bedroom...

7 comments:

jamanci said...

oh alas for art in the park... i'm sad that i missed it this year! i think i went for 4 years straight, and i hope i can go again.

kent's art in the park is the best i've attended. the environment is great (the gentle hills and the many huge shade trees), and the diversity and quality of items is amazing. i'm a fan of pottery/ceramics and of glass, but it's the wood i'm often drawn to. all of those are 3D, so more interesting (and affordable!) than the many paintings that are also available.

the other two i've been to--in west akron and in bel air--were flat, hot, and sunny, with too high a mix of "kountry krafts" stuff, photoshopped photographs, and store-bought jewelery. plus they had the "treat your basement walls" and "free chiropractic exam" booths that these things sometimes attract.

the more i think about it, it just flat out sucks that i missed the show this year!

anne mancine said...

Oh, well, uh, I meant to say that it really wasn't that good at all, and you probably wouldn't have liked it. Feel better?

jamanci said...

oh yeah, i bet it wasn't that good. ;)

the main thing is that art in the park is where i get the majority of my new art objects for a year. i hate to have to wait another year to get more!

maybe we could make a pre-christmas trip down to SE ohio, to all those galleries and stores!

hey, what IS the difference between pottery and ceramics? they do get used interchangeably too often, and i'm sure they're different. but how? i picture ceramics tending to be glazed more, or more heavily, or something.

Kristy said...

I love art fairs and am going to one today, but I never could understand how to get art into my home without it looking mismatched or cluttered. Please, oh wise woman, share with us your secret of getting all these cool things into your home without turning your home into a cluttered mess. No matter how much stuff Tom and I get rid of, we always seem to have so much clutter. We've really pared down our knick knacks too and that has helped a little bit, but we're nowhere near to the zen of the Mancine home, showcasing just the right amount of really cool, arty and interesting pieces and creating a relaxed environment with no clutter. How do you do it?!

Also, you should both check into the indie DIY craft shows - we have a few in Chicago and I always find really cool things there. There's also etsy.com, which provides an online storefront for thousands of indie crafters. All of these things remind me of the craft fairs I used to go to with my mom as a kid, minus the "kountry krafts" and ceramic geese couture.

Kristy said...

Oh, and pottery is a subset of ceramics. Generally, pottery is a vessel for something else (you know, like a pot), where as ceramics describe a much larger set of all clay based art. Potters are people who cast clay objects on a pottery wheel, but pottery doesn't always come from the wheel although a very large portion of it does (think pinch pot).

Ben said...

Kent's Art In The Park was pretty well attended despite the constant threat of rain. Seems like a few more dealers every year, and the live hippie music felt kind of fun. More food dealers this year too, although Uncle Mo was not there again this year. I miss his pea pies 'n' hot sauce. Mercifully the old fart (aka "Poet 1") who strolls the grounds reciting Robert Frost poems hadn't gotten there yet, and the rain held off the whole morning we were there. We found some great stuff and actually had to think about what we liked the most. I was quite taken by this large painting on plywood entitled Pirate's Nightmare, but it was out of our price range.

Today the show was a complete wash out, so no chance to go back and spend more. It was also the day of the combination air show and pancake breakfast in neighboring Stow. The rain canceled the hot air balloon launch, but it didn't stop (or quiet) the screaming F-15 fly-overs.

Jules I'm sure Mom could be talked into a SE Ohio shopping trip. ;-)

Kristy that was as clear an explanation of pottery/ceramics as I've ever heard. When I mentioned to my dad that Anne was getting into ceramics, he was confused; "You mean, like flowerpots? Or Hummels?"

anne mancine said...

Kristy, thank you for that excellent explanation. Clearly, you are speaking as one who has actually used a potter's wheel.

Also, thank you for your kind words about our home decor. I think the blame/credit has to be shared by both Ben and me. We pretty much have decorated the house together. I will say that I firmly believe in the "less is more" adage, however. We do periodically purge, and then feel much better. And then we put out a bunch of new stuff(!)

For some giggles, I will show you photos the next time you are here of how our apartments looked when we were newlyweds like you and Tom. "Mismatched" and "cluttered" are definitely in there.