Spring Art Tour

It is the start of the 2009 Mount Horeb Spring Art Tour. It will be held today, June 12th through Sunday, the 14th. Last year was my first year as a participant. In 2008 the road between Mount Horeb and Blue Mounds was under construction. It needed it. There was also the rain. It was torrential and kept coming throughout the weekend. In spite of this, people showed up at my studio door. There were not a lot of people, but everyone who appeared, was here for a reason. They were a great and receptive audience.

This year the tour coincides with the dates of the Old Town Art Fair in Chicago. Old Town is one of the grand daddies of art fairs in the US going back to 1951 (the year of my birth). Old Town is a quaint neighborhood located just north of the Chicago loop. I began particpating in this art fair in 1981. I was still a kid looking for a means to make a living with my art. Throughout the years, Old Town has been a mainstay for me. It is an event that had its own personality before there was a recipe for art fairs. The ingredients were their own and they invented them. For this reason, it was and continues to be valued by me. It was a tough decision to make, but after close to thirty years in my shady booth on Lincoln Park West in Chicago, I opted to drop out of the Old Town Art Fair and stay close to home, participating in the area art tour.

My first visitor today was my good friend, Charlie Baker. He came with his son, David, driving over from Mineral Point. We had a great visit. Several additional people have come since the event began 2.5 hours ago. Some were on a mission to visit all of the participating artists' studios. Others simply saw the signs, followed the arrows and stopped in. Each artist was provided with ten signs. While Pat, my wife, was baking cookies for me last evening, I mapped out the strategic spots to place my signs. At 7AM this morning, I was staking the signs into the earth. After that, I worked on location on an etching plate that I have been working on. Then I went for a bike ride riding to Barneveld, a neighboring town, with one side trip that took me accross 18/151's four lanes, but into new territory. As I ride, I compose, doing quick mental sketches of the places that I see. I was motivated. I like the pace of a bicycle. I also like knowing the fact that I need to remember what I am seeing...the unbelievably long row of trees along the edge of a field, the starkness of their profiled shapes. The shadows thrown down the hill from the forest higher up. Knowing that I needed to return for the start of the art tour, I curtailed my adventure and rode back to Blue Mounds via the Military Ridge Trail. Good. There was still time for me to mow my tiny opera house lawn. I also went to the nearby grocery. I had sugar, but I needed cream for the coffee pot I had put on and also needed to distribute fliers to a few of my neighbors who I hoped would drop in. If you want to visit the tour electronically, go to www.springarttour.com

I am upstairs at my desk writing this. I hear my door opening downstairs. I hear voices. I need to go and see who it is.