Blog

First Reports from Fort Worth

Posted by Connie Mettler on April 18, 2011 at 1:30pm

While we all sit here twiddling our thumbs waiting for the reports from our many members who were in Fort Worth this weekend for the Main Street Arts Festival, here is the news I have so far:

Strong Winds Blow Through Festival -- here's a scary video, especially for artists, holding their tents down, although it looks like it didn't stop the festival: http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-main-street-arts-fest-fort-worth-winds-story,0,7882129.story

On a more personal note, member Jim Parker, had his fully loaded trailer stolen from the hotel parking lot where he was staying on Friday night -- hope all went well for you, Jim, and that your booth was fully stocked. Enjoy pulling that U-Haul back to Michigan. We're waiting for your report.

If you are not familiar with this event, here is an opening night video report: http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-main-street-arts-festival-brings-the-countrys-top-artists-to-fort-worth-20110414,0,1179720.story

Fort Worth, Main Street Arts Festival, Texas art fairs, bad weather

★

Votes: 0

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of Art Fair Insiders to add comments!

Join Art Fair Insiders

Comments

Jim Parker April 19, 2014 at 8:57pm

There's a Jim Parker that does fancy knives and some wildlife photography. And there may be another as well that I haven't met.
S Brian Berkun April 19, 2014 at 7:42pm

I was "number one" on the wait list but it sounds like maybe I dodged a bullet, or maybe not...I was at The Woodlands Waterway Show. By the way, are there two Jim Parkers?
stephanie swift April 29, 2011 at 4:33pm

I agree it's a long show, but since I drove for 19 hours, it being four days made the drive more worth it. Also, since i never did the show before, I was glad to have thursday to work out kinks in my booth arrangement before it was too crazy.
MICHAEL ALAN STIPEK April 21, 2011 at 7:30pm

Wind chimes? There were wind chimes at Ft. Worth? How do you jury with wind chimes? Ye gods, when I'm next to wind chimes and the wind is blowing, not even as bad as at Ft. Worth, the sound drives me crazy - and that's a short drive. Some shows have banned them, because of so many artist complaints about the noise.
Dean Russell Thompson April 21, 2011 at 12:34pm

I thought it was kind of odd the way the cash awards were distributed by medium. If I looked things up correctly all but one of the merit awards went to Jewelers or Ceramics. The one that didn't was multi-media.

Best of show went to the same artist who won it last year (fibers).

Guess 2D artists were out of luck this year...
Jim Parker April 21, 2011 at 11:29am

Well, it's okay, cause us artists are made of cash. We make such a killing at these shows that we can afford to replace the trailer, and all of the artwork maybe two, three times a year.
MICHAEL ALAN STIPEK April 21, 2011 at 10:59am

Oklahoma doesn't require trailers to have either vehicle registration or vehicle tags. It's a huge business to steal trailers anywhere in OK or neighboring states and sell them in OK, because there's no paper trail required. The artwork more than likely ends up in a flea market.

Jim's right - get wheel locks or a super heavy hardened chain or cable and lock down the wheels - at least two of them if you have two or more wheels.

Three years ago, a friend of mine was dollying his work two blocks from one of the tents at Ft. Worth, on teardown. He made maybe six trips. On the last trip, he forgot to secure the padlock to the side door of his trailer and in just a few minutes, all of his work (repros, thanks, since his original paintings were locked in his truck) was gone.
Jim Parker April 20, 2011 at 12:51am

And to add insult to injury, huge storms blew across much of Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois tonight. I missed the actual tornados, but friends Marc and Wendy Zoschke holed up underneath an underpass near Litchfield IL, just half a mile from a larger twister that blew across I-55 earlier this evening, on their way back from Atlanta Dogwood. I was delayed nearly two hours near Hope, Arkansas due a hazmat spill this morning. Maybe I'll get home by tomorrow just in time to drive back to Ft Worth to pick up my trailer :-/
Jim Parker April 20, 2011 at 12:45am

Unlikely that the trailer will be recovered. I have heard that the crooks take orders, find the trailers, and drive them across the border before you even know it's gone. after it was taken, heard from others who have also lost trailers in Ft Worth. I would highly recommend the use of a wheel lock or a heavy motorcycle chain when in Texas. I also had my catalytic converters chopped out of my truck in Scottsdale one year. Private house, early in the morning. They take them for the heavy metals.
Nels Johnson April 19, 2011 at 10:14pm

Cue my blog tomroow, we wil get into a "blow by blow' description of Friday.