Images of the Salem Art Fair

Every year, for three days, the Salem Art Fair enables Salem to toss off its boring, conservative, uninspiring persona and become the place it should be all the time: colorful, creative, uninhibited. Here’s some of what we saw during our highly enjoyable five hours at the Fair last Saturday.

I can’t imagine that there is a more attractive setting for an art fair in the northwest. Maybe anywhere. Bush Park is perfect for this event. Massive oaks shade the booths. Grassy open spaces are for sitting, playing, and eating.

At first I thought my digital camera captured a paparazzi photo of Billy Bob Thornton at a hat booth. But on closer inspection, I couldn’t detect any signs of Angelina Jolie tattoos. So I guess this really was Ron Morey, dignified President of NorthStar Consulting in Seattle, who spent the weekend with us.

Ron’s wife, Rita, came along too. We had fun dressing up Ron.

Later Rita got to model a really nice, and really expensive, handmade piece of wearable art.

If you’re an artistically inclined wood worker, what do you do with an old toboggan? Why, make it into a lounge chair, of course.

I spent a lot of time “enjoying” (in the very best quotation-marks sense of the word) this view of the art fair. It seemed like there were lots more dichroic glass earring booths this year. I was happy for Laurel. I really should get my ears pierced, and embrace more of my feminine side, so I could be equally happy.

The didgeridoo booth was popular. I think kids are attracted to these things because they sound so much like farting when a neophyte blows on them.

Going to an art fair makes you realize how uncolorful much of American culture is, and how nice it is to be immersed in color for a few hours.

The “Oregon Reads” Author’s Table was disappointingly deserted. Of course, authors are used to being ignored by publishers, agents, reviewers, and worst of all, readers. Writers are tough. But now I feel bad that I didn’t visit the booth. These guys look lonely.

We always end our Art Fair visit by sitting on the grass and listening to music. This year, boogie-woogie music. I was fascinated by how this hot dog’s tongue matched the lady’s shirt. The dog’s owner probably wondered why I snapped so many photos of his otherwise unremarkable (though engagingly cute) canine.

As we were about to leave the fair Billy Bob almost succeeded in running away with my wife. But I won her back with a promise of more dichroic earring shopping. To keep her, a man has to know what really turns on his woman.