Festival of the arts

Every once in a while, I remember that it's nice to spend a day out of the apartment. Today was one of those days. First, I met a large group of friends and co-workers for a brunch of dim sum, which was surprisingly good, especially considering where it's located (behind a Tire Barn). But it was good. Mmmm... glazed pork buns.

Then some of us headed over to the Broad Ripple Art Fair, where I purchased a couple of prints for my apartment, included the one at right by Larry Stephenson, an artist who made the trip from Kansas. He's a collector of old toys, which he then prominently features in his paintings. Great stuff. I love the graphic sensibility he has. And he even included this little history of the Giclee print (how he and many other artists now reproduce their paintings), which was pioneered by, of all people, Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash. Who says you don't learn something new every day? I also got a cool illustration by a local guy named Josh Johnson, whose website doesn't seem to be working, but I'll link it anyway in case it's a temporary thing. We featured him in the magazine a few years back, because he's got these crazy characters he's created, so his work has their story running through it. He's got a sort of "twisted children's book" featuring these characters, The Spindletons, coming out in June.

After I had finished running up my credit card balance, my friend Tony, his neighbor Sean and I sat on their front porch and had a little jam session with our acoustics. We ran through a slew of songs like the Chili Peppers' "Breaking the Girl", Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" and a sloppy but fun version of G N' R's "Sweet Child O' Mine" for an audience of 1 (another friend, Allison) and a variety of passers-by from the Art Fair. All in all, a pretty good day. Definitely got my creative juices flowing.