Perhaps this is a false memory, but around the time I was in high school, a local art show largely consisted of paintings. Today, most of what I find at them are not paintings. There is pottery, jewelry, various kinds of clothing and hats. And there are photographs, a good percentage of which seem to be digitally enhanced.
That is, most art shows are actually crafts shows where participants are there to sells their wares.
Capitalist swine that I am, I think there’s nothing very wrong with artists and craftsmen trying to earn a living, and the only way to do that honestly is to sell your labor or the fruits thereof. As Trump might say about a starving artist: Sad!
My problem (not necessarily yours, but MINE) is that I don’t find crafts displays very interesting. In part that’s because I’m almost never in the market to buy crafts, so therefore I’m not as mentally engaged as I would be if I had something in mind to shop for. Another factor, again a highly personal one, is that the arts that interest me the most are those that I have done: basically, graphic arts.
The recent arts fair in Edmonds, Washington at least had a room devoted to (mostly) graphic arts that were judged and where prizes were announced. I found that interesting for the reason just mentioned. Unfortunately, only a few of the participants really knew what they were doing.
The big annual Bellevue show is coming up in a month. It features a huge amount of crafts. I’m not sure if I will attend.
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