LURKING IN THE DARK/SUMMER 2001                                                                                                                                  ISSUE 3


ART FEST 2001, by VSGal
 

 
          Being oblivious to the fact that there even WAS an Art Festival this weekend, I didn’t show up until Sunday (the last day of the Festival).  However, once I finally arrived, I realized what an enormous Festival it was!  Booths stretched from Broad Street, down the riverside past COSI, across a bridge, then stretched south to Waterford Tower, and back to Broad Street on the other side of the river.  The booths made sort of a lowercase “h” shape with the bottom of the “h” meeting at Broad Street.  It was amazing.  There were hundreds of artist booths, so I will never be able to remember them all.  A lot of the art, I thought I had seen before at the Gallery Hop, but some of it was very new to me. 
          My favorites included many different forms of art, medias, and presentations, but I seem to favor the subjects of flowers, angels, and nudes.  There were some jewelry stands and clothing booths, which caught my attention, but the attention never reached so far as my pocketbook.  I doubt I could have afforded any of the items I liked. 
          An artist from New York was featuring silver and platinum rings.  I noticed one special ring.  It was a platinum band with little polka dots of diamonds spread throughout the band.  It was different, tiny, quaint, and original.  I’ve never seen anything like it.
Can you believe it?  They even call “clothing” art!  There were quite a few weavers, but most of their wares were scarves, coats, and sweaters – all winter items.  Although lovely, who the Hell wants to try on winter clothes in June???  One booth caught my attention though.  It was a clothing company called Colors.  They featured sleeveless dresses in various patterns and colors.  Most of the dresses were hues of blue, green, purple, pale orange, mauve, and gray.  The material was thin, flowy rayon.  Perfect for summer, perfect to sell in June.  I tried on a few outfits.  A pale blue, double layered sleeveless top.  The top layer of smooth material featured dark blue vines of color splashed over the pale blue background.  Underneath, pale blue crinkled rayon.  There were pants or a skirt to match.  The pants were drawstring waisted with slits near the outer ankle.  If the pants were too long, I could pull the strings by the slits, and make the pants hang in a shorter angle, showing off my ankles and feet.  The pants were made entirely of the pale blue crinkled rayon material.  The skirt however, was similar, but at the bottom there was a wide band of the smooth blue vines on pale blue material – to match the top.  I thought the clothes were very comfortable, but again price was a concern.  The top sold for $40, the pants for $70.  The entire outfit was $110.  There were no sizes for these clothes either.  They were one-size-fits-all.  I think that is a lovely idea for hats, but not for clothing.  What if I wanted to accentuate my figure?  I couldn’t!  The clothes were loose, baggy, and comfy, but not flattering to any particular body shape.  So, reluctantly, I handed the clothes back to the designer, thanked him, and moved on to the next booth.

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