The Other Art Festival

Last year I went to the Des Moines Arts Festival downtown. I can't say there was a single thing that impressed me. Only things that left an impression on me. The biggest impression that I left with was the thought, "Wow, no need to go to this thing again."

What I didn't know or didn't realize was that at the same time that the Des Moines Arts Festival is going down, there is another affordable art festival going on at the State Fairgrounds. On Saturday I met Shannon down there to check it out.

I learned a few things. I learned that there was more and more interesting (and utilitarian) things at the State Fairgrounds. Shannon had told me that this festival was considerably more affordable.

It certainly was more affordable. Although neither of us bought anything (unless you count the pie pan that Shannon bought for a friend) there were many things I considered buying. I heavily considered buying a painting of a cow or a pig. I also considered buying a letter opener from Shannon's legendary knife guy. I had heard her spin many a yarn about his knives for quite sometime now, so it was exciting to actually see him in person. He does make beautiful knives, but I couldn't pull the trigger on the deal. I already have 3 letter openers at home that I don't use.

I also learned that Shannon is big into mixed media. I also learned that her hyper-organized mind is drawn to art that is very structured. I on the other hand do not like that much structure in my art. I also revealed a strong affection for paintings that could be found in children's literature.

There are times that I consider trying to have a booth at an art festival. What I noticed from looking at the photographers that were set up was that they all seemed to have a specialty. There was the person that did flower pictures. There was the person that did Iowa landscapes. There were people that had pictures of specific foreign countries. There was a person thats specialty seemed to be splitting landscaped up into three separate pictures.

There was a person whose specialty was making photos look like paintings.


Something like that

There was a person whose specialty was desaturating everything in a picture except one thing.



Something like that


Another person made photomosaics.



Something like that (Hope you can recognize the original image.)

To see the full Photomosaic click on the link below:


Photomosaic
It is a big file! Over 26MB. The tiles are from pictures I took in June.

Fortunately nobody was there with what is well known to be my specialty.

Pictures of Godzilla statues composited with real life images!

So looks like I would not have any direct competition if I got a booth there next year.

I also snapped a couple of photos on my return journey to my car.

I will return to this festival in the future. Despite the lack of a single black and white photograph of a naked chick on a beach holding a sword and flowers.