July 16

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The 16th was the second day of Art Fair.  Hundreds of artists and tens of thousands of spectators converge on central Ann Arbor, for four days in a row.

It was a gorgeous day.  Beautiful skies, and not too hot, hooray!

Burton Tower houses the older of the University's carillons.

A really, really nice day.

As I approached the art fair, the very first booth of stuff I found interesting said "NO PICTURES."

While I certainly appreciate that too many people feel just fine with ripping off other people's labor, because it is easy to do in these days of excellent cheap cameras, it always puts me off when I'm told "no pictures."  *I* won't misuse anyone else's work, and I find it annoying when other people's bad behavior results in restrictions on mine.



So I began in a rather cranky mood.

At least no one will tell me not to take pics of the University's flowerbeds!

I walked around.  I looked at what was offered for sale.

Once upon a time, many years ago, I was a student at the Ann Arbor Potters' Guild.  The Guild lets students sell their work at their December and June sales.  I did that many times.

It's hard.  It's hard work getting everything all set up (lugging around shelves and the cinder blocks that would hold up those shelves!), and it's hard lugging the pots around.  They are heavy, as well as fragile.

I was making minimum wage at my day job.  I depended on selling pots to pay for the class that allowed me to be there selling those pots.

I found it hard to watch someone carry one of my pots around for 15 minutes, only to put it down and walk away.



I looked at the artists at Art Fair, sitting outdoors for the second day of four full days of selling their wares.  I imagined that they had some of those same feelings.  Eagerness any time anyone paid attention to their work.  Disappointment when people just walked on by.

Maybe it would drive you crazy if you couldn't let go of all of that, and professional artists are much better at letting it go than I was.  I hope so!


But as I walked around on the 16th, the story in my head was that needing to sell artwork was an awful way to make a living.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought I'd rather be at home, making something myownself, than looking at what other people were making.   I decided I would be happier to go home and make something.

Especially as it grew more and more crowded at Art Fair.



So I went home and messed with some pictures.  Of stuff that no one was telling me I shouldn't take pics of.



A constant at the Art Fair is that people dress up.  It's very common for the artists (even those who are not selling garments) to be more exotically decked out than the rest of us.  I saw a woman my age ("gray-hair age," let's call it) whose hair was bright orange, about two inches long, and, with the help of some sort of stiffening product, sticking out, all over her head.  (Think Guy Fieri, only orange.)  Not my style, but I silently wished her well.  "Go for it," I thought.......

These guys were headed into Starbucks.

I call this image "Alike, and Yet Different."

I'm wishing them well, and silently telling them "Go for it," too.  This would be exotic if there were just one of them, but a matched pair.... Go for it, I say.



I walked through Art Fair on my way home.  I saw many things that I thought were admirable, and some things I even wanted, only not enough to try to find places for them in a too-crowded house.

I am so glad I can take what is, for all practical purposes, an infinity of pictures, and have them take up basically no space at all.  This is one of the things I love about digital photography......



Here is my comment on my visit to Art Fair in 2015.  I'm almost entirely sure this mark was made by city workers, getting ready for some sort of project.

I call it "X, pink"

Detail:  X, pink

Not too much farther along, I admired the rocks in the concrete of some older sections of sidewalk.  I'm always taken by how much variety there is in random, throw-away pebbles that end up in concrete.

Same image, with the saturation boosted, so we can see the colors better......

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