The Ann Arbor Art Fair

Art and People

Evelyn and Miriam at the ceramic fish artists’ booth. The family is spending the weekend here,
partly to visit the Art Fair.

Two of the ceramic fish.

Skin art (we saw lots of this)!

After over a 24 hour delay, thanks to the airline chaos this weekend, Alice is here in time for the end of the Fair.

Food at the Art Fair

Friday: a black bean burger. Saturday: candy-coated nuts.

At the Carl Milles Fountain

The beautiful Carl Milles Fountain is always surrounded by Art Fair goers and food stalls.

Appreciating the fountain.

Ibrahim, the Vendor of African Art

As we often have done in the past, we found Ibrahim, who deals in African tribal art.
He usually finds a place to set up (unofficially) but this year he was disallowed,
so he only spent a few hours selling from the back of his van.

Some of Ibrahim’s selection of masks: not the one we bought.

In the center of our mantlepiece: the sculpture we bought this year.
The other two sculptures are from earlier years at Ibrahim’s stall.

Saturday Night Dinner

Blog post and all photos © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Deb’s  Sunday Salon.

Saint Louis Highlights

 

The Saint Louis Art Museum and the iconic statue “The Spirit of Saint Louis.”

This statue of King Louis of France, for whom Saint Louis was named, is a symbol of the city.

The Missouri Botanical Gardens contain fantastic plant life and also art works. In this photo you can see some of the
statues by sculptor Carl Milles, glass “onions” by Dale Chihuley, and the famous Climatron, a geodesic
dome invented by Buckminster Fuller.

Inside the Climatron, more Chihuly creations among the tropical plants.

We plan to drive back from St. Louis to Michigan tomorrow, and I’ll organize more photos and write about the gardens and the museum. The purpose of our trip was to visit family, which we’ve been doing during all three days of our visit here.

Light and Shadows

 A Walk near the Huron River

A Walk on the University of Michigan Campus

Burton Tower.

One group of figures from the fountain created by Carl Milles, “Sunday Morning in Deep Waters” (1940)
The water has been drained for the winter season.

This fountain is my favorite local work of art.

The fountain in summer during the Ann Arbor Art Fair, 2019.

A cupola above the Engineering Arch at the University of Michigan, no longer dominates
the skyline as a new high-rise apartment building is under construction nearby.

Photos © 2023 mae sander

Graffiti and Real Art

On the University of Michigan campus: a fountain by sculptor Carl Milles.
One of my favorite local art works by a great artist.

NOTE: for a survey of fountains by Milles, see this blog post:

"Exploring the work of Carl Milles."

On the street: a graffitied electric box.

As I snapped the picture, this car came by.
More street art?

At a park outside of town, graffiti on the bridge — maybe changed since the last time I was here.

Blog post © 2022 mae sander.

Shared with “Sunday Salon” and with Sami’s weekly “Monday Murals.”

 

The Ann Arbor Art Fair

Bicycles are on my mind because of the Tour de France.

The fountain by Carl Milles was a welcome sight. Last year they never removed the winter covering,
thanks to the pandemic. Now it's back to normal.

The fountain and the iconic campus Bell Tower.

Artist Ray Kenyatta

This year's poster.

The Ann Arbor Art Fair has been an annual event every July since 1960 -- except for last year when everything, yes everything, was cancelled. The welcome decision to hold a fair this year was made very late. The size of the fair is much smaller than in the recent past, and the fair only lasts for three days. I didn't see any food trucks in the usual food vending area, so I suspect that outdoor dining was cancelled as well. The Ann Arbor Potters Guild participation seems not to have happened this year either.

We walked through quite a bit of the fair this morning, and my favorite photos are above. We were also very charmed by two artists: Ray Kenyatta, who makes silk screen images from his photographic negatives; and Radim Schreiber (https://fireflyexperience.org/), who photographs insects, especially fireflies. We bought one of Schreiber's works.

Today was Day 1, and it wasn't very crowded. I hope the artists do very well. 

Blog post and photos © 2021 mae sander