Is There Art at the Fair?

“What’s the difference between a puppy and an artist? “
“A puppy will eventually stop whining.”

I stumbled on Sharon Donovan telling this joke to a Michigan Theater employee. “Do you work here at the Michigan?” I asked. “Oh no, I have a booth – I do jewelry.”

It’s an age-old observation by Ann Arbor residents that there seems to be very little ART at the Art Fair. They gripe about the outsiders who come into town, take up our parking spaces and congest our streets, all to simply go home with a garden ornament on a stick or a straw hat (seemingly particularly popular this year).

I am not one of the malcontents. I LOVE Art Fair. Have, ever since I lived on campus when I was in school. And of course, out of hundreds of booths, there’s lots of real art. One of my favorite artists is Bert Beirne, who is a part of the State Street Art Fair and always has the same spot under the Maynard Street parking structure. A couple visits to Amsterdam have made me a little bonkers for Dutch and Flemish paintings, a style Beirne is clearly emulating. Her prices also emulate the Dutch Masters – this painting was one of her least expensive at $1,900. Most are in the $4,000-$6,000 range.

Another favorite I always try to find is the Hibbs Art Glass Studio, with a booth usually on North University. Karen Hibbs' stained glass has a bit of a Craftsman feel, but incorporates fossils and other unexpected elements from nature.

After having such a nice conversation with Ed Walter during set up, I stopped by his booth to see his jewelry. One ring I admired had a lovely, simple square gold setting and a square iolite stone. Ed said iolite is from Brazil and similar to a blue sapphire or tanzanite. I asked Ed how business had been so far, and he replied “so so.”

The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair is the granddaddy of the fairs, and supposedly has the strictest jury. Of the Ann Arbor residents who shun the whole event, some will pop in just to visit the high-quality artists at this Fair. And most of my favorites tend to be there, too. For instance, I’ve admired the work of Kathleen Eaton for years. A neighbor bought one of her paintings a couple years ago, of which I am very covetous. Though I think they had to sell a car to afford it – Eaton’s paintings run in the $3,000 range or higher.

Frank Relle is a photographer I discovered last year, when he showed a number of amazingly evocative paintings of devastated houses in post-Katrina New Orleans. Relle uses complicated lighting and exposure techniques to achieve these wonderfully spooky photos in the city I love so much. I asked him about the gallery where he exhibits in NOLA, and he said he had recently left because it made showing at fairs difficult (he also does booths at Jazz Fest, plus fairs in Des Moines and Denver). A friend who is a fine artist once explained to me that galleries still require artists to give them commission (sometimes half the price!), even when the works are sold at a fair.

When the Value of Your House Has Shrunk 10%,
Do You Really Want to Drop $4,000 on a Painting?

The Award for Excellence and Originality at the Street Art Fair went to James Petran, another wonderful painter of still lifes. I asked James about business. “I haven’t talked to a single artist who said they’re having a good fair,” he replied. And we spoke for a while about the economy. I asked Petran if he and the other out-of-town artists had heard about the Pfizer layoffs, or the housing slump here in town. “Yeah, but Ann Arbor still has all the white-collar jobs at the University,” was his response. “Sweety, the 2,500 jobs Pfizer eliminated WERE white collar, “ I pointed out. “And we’re not that big a town – only 100,000.” He didn’t believe my population number, until a local artist nearby chimed in on the conversation.

This causes me to wonder if the out-of-town artists at the Fair have a clear understanding of the economic picture here in Michigan? Petran, like many of the other high-end artists, had priced his work in the thousands. Who is the market for that in Michigan these days? I understand that artists are business people who need to price their work fairly. But, have some of these folks priced themselves beyond what our market will bear? And if so, whose fault is it if they aren’t selling at the Art Fair?

So what did I spend at the Art Fair? $100 on blown glass balls that I save for Christmas to give as gifts. $100 on three sundresses from Betty’s Tropical Designs (I’m a loyal customer) in the much-maligned King’s Courtyard fair. And $65 each for two photo prints from Barbara Gundle, who exhibits in the South University Art Fair. Gundle spent her early career as a photojournalist for at a west coast newspaper, and her work really has the emotional immediacy of that genre. “Documentary photography is really my first love,” she told me. Gundle also gives 10% of her yearly profit to organizations that support grass roots social change in third world countries. Her booth was packed with customers making purchases, and I overheard conversations with two returning clients. So while her prints may not be one-of-a-kind and cost thousands, they sure seems to be giving people a lot of pleasure, and doing some good in the world, too.

“How many artists does it take to change a light bulb?”
“10. One to change the bulb, and 9 to talk about how much brighter the light was three years ago.”

Thank you for that dose of humor, Sharon Donovan