Saturday, June 19, 2010

Old Town Art Fair

This past weekend, the Old Town Art Fair took place in the triangle.  Rain or shine, the art fair has run continuously since 1949.  This year it featured 260 artists, representing a very impressive array or artistically styles and mediums.  The juried Old Town Art Fair is one of the oldest in the Americas and is popular amongst casual art fair goers and art aficionados alike.  This year rain fell heavily on Saturday, the 12th, but crowds still turned out in large numbers to enjoy the art, eat fair food, listen to music from local musicians and have pleasant conversation with their neighbors.

Rather than attempt to discuss the fair in depth, I would like to highlight a single artist who struck me as particularly inspired and will represent, I hope, the scope of the art presented at the fair. 

Cindy Wynn, a sculptural artist from Keywest, Florida, uses found objects, primarily metal "junk" to construct beautiful pieces of furniture.  I had a chance to speak with her for a few minutes and I was very impressed with the depth of her knowledge about welding and metal work.  To the uninitiated, suffice it say, not all metals are created equal and not all metals are weldable.  Quality welding is a skill that is both procedural and artist, and Cindy commands both with great expertise.  I've photographed several of her pieces to share some of the flavor, though it needs to be experienced in person to fully appreciate. 

You can find much more of her work here at her website, and here at her Flickr page.

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