Old Town Art Fair

Today was a perfect Chicago day!  Nate and I made blueberry oat scones for breakfast - a recipe from our latest issue of Bon Appetit.  Then, because the weather was too beautiful not to, we made our way down to the Old Town Art Fair, one of those things I've been wanting to do every year since I moved to Chicago and today was finally the day to do it.  

The fair is nestled in Old Town, one of the nicer (richer) neighborhoods just north of the Loop.  The smaller streets and older, single-family homes made me feel like I was at an art fair in my native New England.  Many back- and side-yard gardens in the neighborhood were open to the public and Nate and I were happy to go snooping.  

       We also saw a lot of great art, but none that were either the right size or, more commonly, the right price for us to take home with us.  I did pick up a lot of business cards though, so I would like to share with you, dear readers, some of my favorite artists from the show.

Nick Wroblewski makes some really neat wood cuttings - in a style that seemed very Arts and Crafts to me.  Hiroshi Ariyama does prints of my own beloved Chicago.  John Petrey makes very sturdy dresses for very little people - okay nobody would ever wear them, but they're 3D and very neat to look at.  Giampietro Filippetti does very simplistic and beautiful mosaic tile wall hangings.  Betsy Youngquist makes little statues - they're kind of like dolls, but kind of like collages of found objects.  Audrey Heller photographs tiny dolls tampering with everyday objects.  And last, Michael Schunke blows glass - this was the closest I came to buying anything today - very simple, average shapes, in such great, bright colors.  And that was it for us and the Old Town Art Fair.  We finally went.  Maybe next time we go, we'll be ready to buy something.  

Now I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Sunday by reading and doing a puzzle.  Tomorrow marks the beginning of my summer - full days of work on Mondays and Tuesdays with the rest of the week off (crafting?).  Yay for my students being out of school!  Hopefully they will use some of that free time to practice . . .