“Every Saturday—free to the public” said the Mesa Arts and Culture Festival brochure.
What better way to spend a Saturday in November than strolling down Main Street, talking with artists and looking at their sidewalk exhibits.
And it’s absolutely free.
With some free time on my hands after a morning meeting last Saturday, I decided to check out the art festival.
I walked the south side of the street from McDonald to Center, talking to a few artists, including one who had once been in the circus. I circled around to the north side of the street when a print caught my eye at one of the exhibits.
It is from a painting of a Roadrunner.
Unlike any Roadrunner that any camera has ever photographed, this bird is festive and full of fun or maybe just orneriness in a cartoon sort of way. This is the work of an unfettered imagination.
The exhibit includes paintings of a bright green frog and a colorful hummingbird. Bright colors are everywhere.
“Jenny’s Art” made me smile.
So I went for my wallet, pulled out a $10 bill and handed it to a cheerful Jennifer K. White.
On the back of the “Arizona Roadrunner” note cards that I bought is a notation that told me something about the young artist.
It says that the price of the cards includes a donation to the Arizona Lions’ Camp Tatiyee for children and adults with mental or physical disabilities.
What a great day. It was almost free. And the happiness that looking at Jenny’s Art gave me was more than worth the ten spot.
Down the street at the corner of McDonald, I was headed toward the car when an exhibit of photographs pulled me into a tent.
The photographer is Lee Travathan from Chandler.
Her photography is in contrast to the landscapes of the Superstitions and the desert at other booths. She likes to focus closely on objects and capture the beauty of patterns, whether it’s a flower or a metal object.
It’s like peering into the soul of things.
Along with her photographs were copies of a book that she is selling.
Travathan bills herself as “The Rebel Writer” and is an author and filmmaker as well as a photographer.
Travathan talked about her work and the severe case of Valley Fever that almost killed her and turned her hair snow white. What helped pull her through, she said, were all the connections she has with people around the world through her Web sites.
I later looked at her Web sites on squidoo.com and myspace.com and decided that what she does for a living is, indeed, look into the soul of things.
What made me reach for my wallet was a close-up photograph of a broad-billed hummingbird feasting on Turk’s Cap flowers at Boyce Thompson Arboretum just this side of Superior.
I decided to share the fun.
“You have to come down and meet these artists,” I told my wife over my cell. “And it’s free.”
My wife looped to the Jenny’s Art exhibit.
Out came the credit card as my wife had to have a print of the bright green frog.
We headed to the south side of Main with our loot on the way to the car when I saw a booth filled with photographs of familiar looking birds, including a Green Heron.
Tom Janca is a big man with a white beard and a stunning portfolio of bird photographs—many of which were taken at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve on Guadalupe at Greenfield Road.
In processing his photographs, he all but isolates his subject from its environment. There’s little in the picture aside from the bird and a hint of place.
The one I couldn’t take my eyes off of is of two Black-necked Stilts, their images reflecting from the water in which they are standing.
It was credit card time again.
We went home with treasures.
I’m not just talking about the art work. We made connections with fascinating people who peer into the soul of things.
On one of Arizona’s beautiful Saturdays, do yourself a favor and take a walk down Main Street in downtown Mesa. You’ll make a lot of new friends, and it’s absolutely free—well, sort of.
thanks for a great read and more importantly for supporting the arts in this area. As am artist I speak from experience when I say that there is little that builds more confidence and motivation in an artist than a sale to a stranger. That simple exchange is worth a great deal to any artist of any age. Few people realive the fortitude that it takes to exhibit ones art out in the public eye. To have it appreciated and then bought is a major step in helping that artist continue on with their struggle to be better at what they do and not just in the art area but in their life in general. We desterately need to pay far more attention to art in the school system and give that area 10% of what is lavashed on sports. The art departments would have so much more money than they do now they would not know what to do with it. While sports may make you stronger in body art makes you far stronger in heart and sensitivity something this entire world could do with a great deal more of. again thanks for the story and for the purchase of those pieces, now you have made may day as well as the artists you bought from.