The further explorations of the Art Fair on the Square, Part Two

Continued from Part One, here.

This second half of the exploration of the annual Art Fair on the Square starts off on a bit of a low note: blatant theft of intellectual property!

Seriously, wow. The booth was fairly packed so I didn’t get any closer, but what you’re looking at is a wide selection of purses, made from book dust jackets. That’s right; copyrighted, published artwork, taken and converted into ‘art’ for sale.

I don’t even know where to begin on how wrong this is. Wrong to call it art; completely lacking in merit and integrity, and, surely, illegal too. Trademark infringement? I THINK SO.

I don’t know how Karla Staley gets away with it, I really don’t. The Twilight people surely have about a thousand angry lawyers; not pictured were other purses, including ripoffs of prominent album covers by the Beatles! Paging Sir Paul! (Or his army of solicitors)

Next up, some great, though creepy as hell, 3D plaster art.

This stuff is by a man named Marc Sijan, who has a very distinctive style of sculpture/modeling. Again, some of his work hangs at my roommate’s workplace, and it’s… creepy. Really uncanny valley stuff. Amazing technical skill.

Now this was amazing. He had this Sturgis biker guy standing out on a corner for the crowds to see passing by.

From the first shot, the distance shot, you could believe this was a breathing person, couldn’t you? He’s almost real.

I also liked this blue woman, made out of… a material I forget the name of now. Very beautiful work.

Several sculptors had these sort of larger, outdoor display areas.

This one looks a little… err… hmm. I’ll leave it to over-active imaginations like mine.

Here were some fun masks/sculptures; this one was called Sunday School, I believe.

Here were some large sort of mural/sculptures. I believe these people had a small No Photography sign too, which is just asinine considering they face a crowded public street, from a sidewalk area. Bizarre how some people think their rights trump everyone else’s.

Next up was a gourd-art seller of some kind; the work didn’t interest me, but the bad pun of a name deserves mention.

Then there was a booth by Jay Long, an artist who does these great, somewhat menacing fairy-tale paintings. We actually got a print of the large owl painting you can see in this shot (to the left of some weirdo in a Topatoco shirt)

Now, this sculpture thing was just weird.

It’s… a… man?… made out of animal parts. That’s creepy enough (as is his vaguely effeminate G.W. Bush face), but just wait, it gets better.

That’s right; BADGER-CROTCH!

Here is a sculpture that looks, intentionally or not, like a wedge of cheese. Appropriate for the setting.

Finally, we have an outdoor garden of the ‘Kinetic Sculpture’ of one Andrew Carson, who makes these giant, wind-driven metallic windmills. Gorgeous, and they actually move, often along several axes at once.

Sadly I don’t have any really good close-up shots, but, yet again, my roomie’s employer has one of these beauties, so I might get some better pictures at another time.

Well, that’s it for the 2009 Art Fair on the Square.