Saturday/Sunday September 17-18, 2016

 

It was a busy arts filled weekend as I attended both an arts & crafts fair as well as a gallery reception and an old fashioned rock 'n roll show.

After years of meaning to attend one of the quarterly Avante Garde arts shows at St. Agathe's in Upper Arlington, I finally made it to one. I especially wanted to attend the September show since the $3 admission price was earmarked to benefit one of my favorite local charities, Pets Without Parents, whom I have supported in the past.

Having attending the Columbus Arts Festival and the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival, I have become spoiled by being exposed to so many fine artists. It's not really fair to compare the Avante Garde show to either one of the above because it's simply so much smaller in scale, and is a charity event.

Depending on what you were into, you could find some nice things. Honestly though, at most booths I could take it or leave it. At the food booths I would have loved to have bought it all, but wishing to still lose a couple pounds this fall, I gave most of it a miss. However, I did purchase some tasty biscottis with my last $4 from one of the booths, and had a nice chat with the lady who made them.

I was especially impressed with the jewelry from Pat McCabe's line called EnWraptured by Nature. I had a really hard time choosing just one necklace from all her beautiful seaside jewelry (many of the shells came from Maui she told me). If shells, sea glass and other beach debris are your thing, you won't be disappointed by the quality of her pendants.

The practical side of me was drawn to the spray painted notebooks created by Spray Art by Rick (not sure of his surname) and his eighteen year old daughter. I bought two. I defy you to choose which one was done by the professional since they're both so skillfully painted.

On my way out I spied a booth selling wind chimes (Olde Tyme Chymes), many of which were constructed out of small colanders. Having made planters out of two slightly larger colanders this summer, I knew the wind chimes would match them perfectly. I ended up selecting one of the sort of aqua green colander sets. However, because I was already weighed down with two bags and already thinking about an errand I wanted to run on the way home, I managed to walk out without my purchase. It is to Mr. Schoedel's credit that he was willing to personally hand deliver my wind chimes to me on Sunday after I contacted him Saturday night once I realized my oversight. Not sure my husband is too crazy about the wind chimes, but I'm glad I wasn't out $30 (though Mr. Schoedel said he immediately refunded me after he couldn't find me on Sat).

After lunch I attended the Artful Books gallery reception. I think I've been spoiled by Pinterest, because I had really expected to be more impressed by what I saw, and perhaps hoped for more pieces overall. Not wishing to offend any of the artists, I did like what I saw, but wasn't really wowed or inspired by too many of the pieces. To the artists credit, most of what I saw was highly original not having seen anything similar on Pinterest or in a book.

I was glad to run into my friend, Ayn and meet Brooke Hunter-Lombardi who will be teaching the Artful Books class on Saturday Oct. 1st.

Sunday night my husband and I attended the free "British Invasion" concert held on the little island they call the pavilion ampitheatre over at Mill Run. We've seen British Invasion perform there many times over the years and always enjoy them. Plus, it was free, so can't beat that! We lucked out in that we got to hear the entire set (in spite of arriving late) because they were still drying off their equipment after a pop-up shower that had occurred shortly before we left. The band called it a night at around 7pm (which was supposed to be their finish time anyway) due to another storm that was supposed to pass through. It was good timing for us since we had to go home and get dinner out of the oven anyway.

All in all a pretty good weekend.

Have a great week everyone!