Every year I travel to Racine for this little festival held by Lake Michigan. The quality of this show has held up far better than the local economy. There is a nice selection of artists, wide variety of price points and a nice atmosphere. Racine has farm country to the west, the lake to the east with a gorgeous lighthouse and is the home to many companies that actually got their starts in Racine (Insinkerator, Golden Books, Horlicks Malted Milk products, Case farm and construction equipment-Go Red, and Johnson Wax). A lot of the artwork reflects the area.
One of the best things about this show is I get to see AFI member Linda Anderson, her husband Neil and her wonderful photography. Linda specializes in Tall Ships and you can see her passion for the subject in her work. In addition to her shots of the ships at sea, she captures unusual shots from a different perspective than you would expect. Linda is printing and then stretching her own canvas photographs. I know there has been a lot of debate about these on this website but if you saw Linda's, the discussion would stop. Her shots on canvas are like looking at HD pictures compared to the regular shots of her standard photos. They are very impressive.
Short story--last year I was lured into a booth at a festival in Lincolnshire, IL by the wonderful work of digital artist Carol Pflughoeft. Her work was matted in odd sizes. I suggested that with framing as expensive as it has become, standard sizes of the art would be nice. Her booth was across from Linda's in Racine and I thought I saw 16x20's in a bin in her booth. I figured if she was nice enough to accommodate my interest in standard sizes, it was only right that I buy a couple. We were talking about last year's conversation and art fairs in general and I mentioned that she should read AFI. She said she did. Then as I handed her a credit card, she looked at my name and said "Oh, your Geri!" I am happily building a nice collection of AFI artwork.
Monument Square is an interesting show. You never know if the person walking into your booth is a worker from a factory or the VP of Case Credit. And as you are leaving town, you have to stop in at O&H Danish Bakery for the best chocolate donuts and outstanding Kringle.
Comments
This was our first time at this show. We do hand-colored b/w photographs. I really liked the location and the staff were very helpful. I know 2 of the booths next to me did very well. Although we didn't make expenses, I will definitely try this show again. This is only my second year doing art fairs. It's a huge learning curve!
I'm sorry I missed you Geri. Linda couldn't say enough wonderful things about you:-)