The painters, potters, glassblowers, metalsmiths and other exhibitors who bring their goods to Cherry Creek each year are, without a doubt, the hardest working people in the art business.
Not only do they make their own wares, spending countless hours standing over kilns, canvases, looms, blow torches and saws, they also load up their products, assemble their booths and peddle their goods, often with little outside help.
In a sense they are fabricators, shippers, merchandisers, shopkeepers and accountants all at once. And getting a spot in the Cherry Creek Arts Festival is not easy: The 255 presenters set to show this year were selected from more than 1,800 applicants.
There are rewards for all that effort. The outdoor fair, always held over Independence Day weekend, is the biggest visual arts event on the region’s cultural calendar, and can attract more than 300,000 attendees over its three-day run.
That equates to high visibility for any artist or craftsperson — along with a financial promise. The fair can do more than $4 million in sales and participants often use the event to make connections and cultivate collectors year-round. It’s good for commerce — at least when the weather cooperates.
For consumers, the fair has benefits as well. It is a swell place to find a quality piece of art at a reasonable price, and to get up close and personal with the human who made it.
Art can be a mystery for many people, and some dealers like to keep it that way so it maintains its aura as a precious commodity. But fairs break down the barriers. The ability to meet artists, ask casual questions about their process and do direct trade with these small operators makes it simpler, understandable and less intimidating.
Plus, it is a festival, a family-friendly event with food, music, kids’ activities and neighbors. If community events are your thing, this fair is a good bet.
All that said, the shopping can be a challenge. There is an overwhelming array of products at varying price points. And there is pressure to buy — the fair is just a few days long and many of the artists come from out of town. There is a now-or-never level of stress that comes with this kind of consumerism.
Plus this: Art is all about personal taste, and deciding what you like or don’t like, and what you can afford (or at least what you are willing to spend) is a challenge. It can be hard to pin down all those factors while standing on an asphalt street with the sun beating down on you.
My strategy each year is to check out the Cherry Creek Arts Festival website before the event and look over the lineup of artists and the photos of their work. The site is well-organized and there are links to the exhibitors’ personal websites so you can learn a bit about media, materials, fabrics and techniques in advance.
It does not always pay off — sometimes the goods don’t live up to the digital hype. In person, they might not seem worth the money, or the quality is not what it appeared to be. But, like a lot of people, I like the looking more than the actual buying, so it gives me a place to start.
Here are five artists I’ll be looking out for, broken down by category. Some are familiar to fair-goers like me; others are new.
Category: Glass
Missouri-based glassmaker Sam Stang is a regular at art fairs, including this one, and I always look to see what he is up to. He is a traditional artisan whose methods are rooted in European methodology. But he has the ability to dazzle and his pieces are surprisingly durable. For a couple hundred dollars, you can acquire a keepsake.
Category: Ceramics
Marge Marguiles’ pieces have an easy-to-like energy about them. The California ceramist has a distinct style that feels both forward-looking and nostalgic. Her color-packed works have a playful edge, and they walk the line between objects to admire and everyday household goods that you can actually use.
Category: Photography
New Mexico artist Kristin Schillaci has an eye for solitary scenery — abandoned buildings, barns, roadside signs and barbershops — that have seen better days. But she frames things in a way that makes them feel important, both as pieces of history and as markers on the road to civic progress. They are wistful and romantic at the same time. She also respects her art form’s past, using old-school photography techniques to create her work, and that alone warrants a serious look.
Category: Metalwork
Arunas Oslapas’s metal pieces have a contemporary appeal. They are often made of recycled materials that would normally go to landfills. But Washington-based Oslapas reshapes them into functional objects with a hand-made edge. He is probably best known for his baskets, made from strands of metal banding used to strap industrial products to pallets, that he weaves and paints into colorful decorative works.
Category: Fiber
This husband-and-wife team of Louise Valentine and Brian Provencher have been working together since 1992 making scarfs, shawls, jackets and other items using fiber art techniques based on centuries-old methods. There is an elegance to their dyed, pleated and hand-painted objects, but also a relaxed feel that keeps them from being too fancy. To me, these are exactly the kind of wares — when well-presented and fairly priced — that make art fairs worth the effort.
IF YOU GO
The Cherry Creek Arts Festival: July 1-3 in the Cherry Creek North neighborhood, along Second Avenue from Clayton to Adams streets, and between Second and Third avenues from Detroit to Adams streets. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday, July 1 and Sunday, July 2; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Monday, July 3. Info at cherryarts.org.
