Cottonwood Art Festival, Spring 2009

What a lousy weekend for the poor artists at the Spring 2009 Cottonwood Art Festival. I don't think they are going to be impressed with their sales.

First the swine flu is keeping people away from crowded areas, and then the weather has trashed out their site for the weekend.

The boys and I arrived at the festival yesterday right after the heavy rains. Most of the booths had shut down. The grounds were flooded to the point that I had water over my ankles at one time. The areas where the water was not standing, were caked in squishy mud.

Despite all that, I saw some terrific art in the few booths that had opened back up.

I enjoyed visiting with Dan Ferguson of DaNisha Sculpture. He was running a rainy day special of 15% off, but he did not have any turtles.

Mike and Patty Albin's art is breathtaking. You can go to www.albinarts.com to see their amazing art, which is a blend of photography and painting. I wish I could afford one of their pieces. They had a wildflower piece that actually made me gasp it was just so incredibly stunning.

Julia Watkins' energism art is amazing. She had prints available as well as originals, but the prints did not do justice to her work. They do not capture the lushness of the colors and the amazing ridges in the paint. It was fun to look at the paintings and try to see the hidden creature. When you look at them on the website the hidden items are obvious, but when you see them in person, especially before you know you are to be looking for something, you do not notice what is hidden.

Tai Poon had beautiful pieces, but not really a style I would purchase. However, I did enjoy going through all his prints.

I thought about going back down there today, but decided that I had sloshed through enough. I talked to enough people and saw some enough beautiful things to be satisfied this time around.

I would have liked to have seen more of the work by Roderick Stevens. He had some amazing items, but unfortunately most of the ones I saw were covered in plastic to keep them dry in the rain. I did laugh at the "Davinc a Sketch" though.

I hope the fall show has better weather.