Artsplosure

 

Ok, so I was driving home from the kiddies Friday afternoon and I heard about Artsplosure, which is taking place this weekend in downtown Raleigh. It sounded fun and interesting so I talked to the boy Saturday morning and we checked it out.

Maybe I just didn't know what to expect or maybe my expectations were too high but I wasn't really impressed by the festival. Perhaps, I was looking for more art taking place, things being displayed, performance art, and all that. The festival was meant as an "explosion" of "exposure" to the city of Raleigh to all types of art.  All in all, it seemed like the craft section you see at the State Fair or any seasonal local festival. All around Moore's Square, it was lined with small booth's that local artist could sell their goods and promote their name as an artist. Spotted in and out of the booths were some food stands that offered the usual fried fair food. There were two cool areas in Moore's Square where you could play chess and see a sandcastle being built. That was the most interactive art we saw though. To me what they had planned was geared more towards families. They had at least three stands for face painting and several areas where kids could go and do crafts.

What really caught my attention on the radio was the news reporter talking about the Impressionist Sculpture Garden that sounded like the feature exhibit of the festival. Impressionist paintings are one of my favorite forms of art so this sounded like an interesting and different take on art. First, let me say that this exhibit had to potential to be amazing but it feel short. The sculptures themselves were beautiful and the portraits in the original paintings were brought to life, in life size form. However, the landscapes in the paintings were not translated very well in the "garden." Two or three of the gardens were done fairly well with plants all around them bringing out the feel of their original paintings but the rest just had one or two around them.  This was opportunity for local landscapers to show off... and well, they didn't. However, a nice touch was that they had easles set up around the area that you could try your hand at painting your own piece or art.
 

This was my favorite one, mainly because of the yarn :P