Every year, the festival has a feature theme. Last year was art cars (cars decorated in unique ways) and this year was Lego life art.
The sculptures some people made with Legos astounded me. Instead of the whimsy I had expected, I found that many people took a metaphysical route. My favorite two which I wish I had pictures of to show you were #1 a plain man in a suit with an inner man made of red legos tearing his way out of the abdomen of the suited man and #2 a grey man who was slowly dissolving. I was practically giddy with excitement.
There was more than just Lego art, however. Photographers, painters, jewelers, sculptors, weavers -- all were represented in some form. I was so impressed that I intend to be part of the next art festival, hopefully doing life drawings. There was someone there doing on-the-spot linearts, but I didn't see a single sketcher. I would have a year to practice until then and I bet I could make some good money.
The art festival has one hurdle, though. The artists fail to represent themselves as a business. They're displaying their work and charging outlandish prices for it. Keep in mind, I do know and respect the work that goes into art, being an artist myself, and I know that the work was overpriced. Even if they wanted to charge those prices normally, they should have been running specials for the art show. Or at least catered to the people like me who wanted to maybe buy a little sculpture, but couldn't afford $500 for a twelve-inch tall glass vase.
I did buy something, however. This beautiful sterling silver celtic knot ring set with garnet my birthstone.
It was reasonably priced, especially for the quality. A good sterling silver band alone can cost anywhere from $25-$40 and this one includes garnet. Yet it was only $25. His booth was packed with people. I'm lucky I managed to get ahold of this, to be honest. I really love it and I think it will join my Abstinence Ring as one I never take off my finger.
This was not the only thing I was tempted to buy, however. There was one booth that claimed to be selling bracelets inlaid with 2000 year old glass from the Indus river valley. Now, lemme tell you, I am a modern pirate. I hoard treasure like no one's business. I have tons of unset gemstones and many coins. My prized treasure is a pendant set with a Jewish coin dating back to the time of Christ. With that in mind, you can understand how owning an ancient Indian artifact so desperately appealed to me. All they were asking for this piece was $350, which, according to the salesman, was half off of the gallery price. Naturally, the beautiful deep blue piece I was eyeing was the most valuable.
I thought and thought and thought about buying it, leaving and returning to the booth time after time to look at the piece again. The salesman he did seem more like a salesman than an artist even took it out of its glass case and let me try it on. Silly people think I'm so easily influenced...
Honestly, it almost worked. The blue looked stunning against my light skin and the thought of owning it as treasure was nearly making me weak. I put it away and went off to think about it one last time.
This is where the advice comes in. If you are planning to collect anything deemed "ancient" or "artifact," do not make the purchase unless you are holding a CERTIFIED certificate of authenticity in your hand when you buy it. Don't take their word for it, don't give them your address and ask them to mail it to you. Hold it in your hand. It's the only way you can be sure your "artifact" is genuine. I'm always careful with my treasure to read it over and double check everything. Most of the time artifacts are expensive investments -- you don't want to find out it's fake.
So did I buy the bracelet? No. I never saw even a line of a certificate. So, despite how desperately I wanted it, I walked away from it. Was it probably real? Yes. Maybe. Who knows? I don't want to take chances.
Be a pirate, but be a wise one.
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