Art Fair 2023

Laumeier again hosted its annual Art Fair on Mothers’ Day weekend May12-14, 2023. 150 artists were selected to show and sell their work. Friday night, judges got a jump on the show and deliberated into the -night to determine the best and most prize-worthy. By Saturday morning winners proudly displayed their achievement in their booth space.

Artist Judges Vaughn Davis Jr., and Artist Gary Passanise, Jennifer Scanlan of the Craft Alliance were impressed by the quality and variety of the participating artists.

Sarah Lorenz painting

Sarah Lorentz landscape painting received an award for excellence saying that she found the Saint Louis region full of unique and wonderful settings for her plein air painting style. Wendy Franklin from Indianapolis was recognized for her more abstract canvases and Indianapolis artist Angie Theiszen’s unique printmaking impressed the judges as well as did Mays Mayhew of Aurora, Illinois. Also notable was the precision painting and almost digital precision Chesterfield, MO arists Sadoth Gonzalez and paintings of Shane Anderson, amazing stitchery of YanFang of Alameda, CA, Jeff Hornung works in wood, and ceramics, leather, jewelry and more.

The Main Stage featured a robust schedule of performances by Beth Bombera, Starwolf, The Kevin Bilchik Band, Boxcar, Western States and more from Friday night through Sunday evening with a stirring finale featuring the Funky Butt Brass Band. Concessions were plentiful and maybe a dozen commercial venders greeted the visitors as they entered the park. There was also a creation station area that invited children and the child at heart to channel some of their creative energy to make a collage or perhaps a self-portrait.

The Annual Art Fair is a major fundraiser for Laumeier and proceeds support the mission of engaging the community through art and nature.

The fair had only a minor interruption with rain on Saturday afternoon – a downpour that lasted perhaps 30-40 minutes. The rain resumed Sunday evening after 6:00p.m. Overall a pretty positive weather weekend at Lauemeier.  

       

 

   

Shane Anderson, MN Painter

Woodworking star from Florissant, MO

The Funky Butt Brass Band performs with finesse on Sunday afternoon.

  

Ask Your Doctor

The pharma industry in the United States has advertising spending well over $6.5 Billion a year (since 2018). Pharma is the fourth-largest spender on TV ads in the country, after retail, financial & real estate and technology.

Maybe I’m watching too much television at home this week. I might overdose on detective Monk, Dateline secrets, Jeopardy or whatever is on. Having invested a chunk of my career lifetime in the advertising business I’m scratching my head though. How can big pharma believe that the billions of dollars invested in prescription drugs is worth the money. (I can only assume that they are raking in so much cash that they have no choice but to throw it at the heavily legislated mass media channels that used to be dominated by packaged goods.)

It's a little frightening. In the past week alone the commercial breaks in my viewing are filled with the alphabet soup of product names that, to me, feel made up. (VERZENIO,TRULICITY, DUPIXENT, KISQALI, KESIMPTA, ENTYVIO, COSENTYX, VRAYLAR, RYBELSUS, ZEPOSIA, MAVYRET, TREMFAYA, NYVGART, ULTOMIRIS, PAXLOVID, OTEZLA, CAPLYTA, REXULTI, SKYRIZI. ENTRESTO. RINVOQ, LYBALVI, JARDIANCE and on and on. These are real products yikes.)

With apologies to those people who might depend on these drugs I am sure that I am not alone in blanking out on most of the messaging except the horrible warnings of consequences of taking these products could cause. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I am a bad customer, I know, because I don’t even take over the counter (OTC) solutions. I guess I’m not a good prospect, especially when the broadcast commands me to ASK YOUR DOCTOR about Breast Cancer, RMS, releaf/remission of something, UC, Migraine, Arthritis, Hep C, Diabetes, Bipolar, Depression, Crohn’s Disease, Heart Failure, Schitzophrenia, Diarrhea, Vomitting, Nausea… I hope my doctor can answer all of those questions.

Do we really need all that medical influence peddling? I think not.  

  

The 10 and The 8

 

Lady in White 1901 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) at Saint Louis Art Museum

The Ten, group of 10 American painters who first exhibited together in 1898, in New York City, and continued to do so for the next 20 years. Most members of the group painted in an Impressionist style. Although their work did not differ radically in technique or subject matter from that of the artists who participated in the large annual exhibitions of the Society of American Artists and the National Academy of Design, they chose to exhibit independently, hoping to draw public attention to their paintings. The members of the Ten were Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, J. Alden Weir, Thomas W. Dewing, Joseph De Camp, Frank W. Benson, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Edmund Tarbell, Robert Reid, and E.E. Simmons. When Twachtman died in 1902, William Merritt Chase replaced him as leader of the group.

10th Street Studio, 1880 by William Merritt Chase at Saint Louis Art Museum

The Eight, group of American painters who exhibited together only once, in New York City in 1908, but who established one of the main currents in 20th-century American painting. The original Eight included Robert Henri, leader of the group, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks, and William J. Glackens. George Bellows later joined them. The group’s determination to bring art into closer touch with everyday life greatly influenced the course of American art.

McSorley's Bar, 1912 by John Sloan

Betalo Rubino Dramatic Dancer 1916 by Robert Henri