Art at the Denver County Fair

The 2nd Annual Denver County Fair was held this month and I attended again. It seemed a little less exciting this year, perhaps this is because the newness last year gave it that extra something, perhaps it was the Devo show last year, I don’t know.  Anyway, this year was so so.

It’s held mostly indoors at the National Western Complex (where the stock show is held) and it’s broken up into “pavilions.” You know, one pavilion is for crafts (speed knitting contest and booths), one is for kitchen (pie eating contest and other demonstrations), one is for the holistic pavilion (think crystals and psychic readings). You get the idea.  True to county fair style, it did have animals – chickens, llamas, ducks, rabbits, goats, etc. Here’s a sample of these guys:

The Fair was full of contests. In addition to pie eating and speed knitting, there was a spelling bee and a chicken dance contest and lots of other opportunities to win blue ribbons (!). I enjoyed the art though. In the crochet contest there was this green thing and a hat:

I believe this next one (a blue ribbon winner) is a needle point entry:

There were some interesting and hip quilts too, here’s an example (not a blue ribbon winner):

Here are some other pieces I enjoyed:

We passed one of the 4H tables on the way out and saw these two masterpieces (does that first one say “fail”??):

All in all it took about two hours to experience the fair with mostly passing glances. I think I’d go again sometime so this is a quasi-endorsement of the event. Go. See for yourself next year.

Gummy love

I found these two gummy lovebirds perched on a flower on 14th Ave.

Seeing these little guys reminded me that finding love is random and that it often exists on a parallel path.  You could easily be oblivious to it and just go on about your life. Luckily this time I didn’t miss it.  

10

This bit of Exploding Dog art expresses so much about my life right now.

Canadian street stuff

I’m sitting in the Austin airport as I type this.  In my travels around Austin I got a total of three photos of stickers or street art.  Toronto on the other hand was rife with these street art things!

Not sure what this means but it was everywhere.  I didn’t love it but thought I must include it because it was so pervasive.

This little heart was also pretty common (not quite as common as the black and white bird though). Here it’s in cardboard but it was also a sticker in some spots and just painted on in others.

I love the robot below but I was equally intrigued by the OperationMaple.com sticker (Take Canada Back!)…

College St was where the real action was though.  I found this:

and my favorite – the two rabbits:

There were other little ones here and there:

I was pleased with the quantity and quality of finds in Toronto.

Toronto – various

As opposed to taking photos of buildings or neighborhoods or historical things, I end up taking photos of random signs, public art and so on.

For example, these two larger than life monsters below were in the Distillery Historic District:

I found this “no trespassing” sign amusing because it looks like you aren’t supposed to lightly dance.  I don’t think it’s very intuitive…

These turtle signs requesting motorists to drive slowly were all over.  At first I thought it was just the work of one specific neighborhood, but they were everywhere.

This sign was slightly perplexing – was the kid looking for water or playing with a sling shot before he was zapped for touching something?

So, I did take a photo of one building.  I walked through a neighborhood to get to an Indian area of Toronto.  This neighborhood had lots of row houses and duplexes.  The duplex below stood out because the two owners clearly did not agree on the design!

When walking on Spadina Ave, I passed a store that had this human model in the window (see below).  Either the owner is really prudish or there is something really surprising beneath that square of paper towel!

I do have some evidence that I was there – even though there are no Toronto-specific things in the background…here’s me!

The public library had some interesting elements on the building – this owl was my favorite:

On my way to breakfast one morning I passed Wendy’s, which had this little mural on its external wall. I liked it not only because I know a Wendy (and she’s amazing), but also because it’s cool – it has such a laid back feeling. 

Finally, this is what I saw on my way home somewhere over the midwest:

Stay tuned for the final installment – Toronto street art!

Cherries and white wine

In contrast to my last post, this post will feature items I’ve mined from the internet while enjoying cherries and white wine (post cheese, of course).

I’ve unwittingly devoted my evening to viewing random blogs and websites. 

PetaPixel

This website is really for photographers and covers topics of particular concern to them.  However, as you might imagine, there are some interesting photos on the site.  Like the dogs shaking their heads:

The site also had humans shaking their heads but this was less interesting:

Speaking of dogs, I found a website for Martin Usborne that has a section entitled “MUTE: the silence of dogs in cars” and is worth checking out – if you are a dog lover that is.  I have to warn you though, the photos are more melancholy than they are cute.  Here are a couple to get you going:

This website had a page on tree planter graffiti, which was highly appealing to me (the project website is here):

I also came across “extreme sheep LED art”:

Not sure if you are familiar with decorator crabs but the video below gives you an idea of how they work.  They will take whatever is around, tear it up and use their saliva to adhere it to their bodies. Fascinating creatures.

Ok, that’s enough for now. Over and out.