Artrageous Weekend in Wausau

I love the second weekend in September in Wausau! It is Artrageous! We kicked off the weekend at Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum on Friday night with the annual Birds in Art reception and dinner. This is such an exciting event!! About 110 artists are chosen each year to be represented in the BIA exhibit. And most of the artists come from all over the world to meet and greet with the museum members this weekend. The reception is held at the museum so we got a chance to see the exhibit and talk to people in the community and the artists. After there is a dinner for the 'friends' of the museum and the artists featured. We hosted a table this year and we were very fortunate to have 2 artists at our table as well as another couple that we knew. Erin works at the museum in art education and helped me with the Fairy & Gnome Scavenger Hunt so it was fun to sit with her and her husband, Nick. Our first artist was Larry Barth, a talented and accomplished carver from Pennsylvania. This is Larry's 30th year in BIA! His piece was so life like it was as if we were looking at the actual birds. He also recently built his own canoe which he does use. Our second artist was Esther van Hulsen who did a watercolor & gouache painting of a great cormorant that looked like a photograph from 2 feet away. That is how detailed it is! She is a lovely young woman from Oslo, Norway and was so interesting to talk to. This was both her first time in BIA and in the US. I wish she would have been able to see some more of our great country while she was here but she and her boyfriend didn't have time to travel elsewhere. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't feeling well during dinner so I wasn't on my A game.

Saturday, my mom and I started off the morning early and went to the Farmer's Market and bought some delicious treats (like a new apple variety that I had not tried- Wealthy- very good!). We then went to Art in the Park in Marathon Park which we were there for a total of 30 mins. I don't like this part of it, personally, which is more of a craft fair. There are too many people and it is not things that I particularly like. I looked for one woman who sold these adorable fairies a couple of years ago- I found her but she doesn't make the fairies anymore because they are too much work. I left bummed. But we headed over to Festival of Arts downtown next which is the part that I really like. I regularly buy from these artists! It's kind of funny that I can point out all the tents that I have purchased from. There are that many.

I like Jay Nielsen's jewelry. He does some very cool pieces!

I bought a purse from Helen's Daughters last year that I use all the time. My mom bought one last year and this year! I may order another one from her...

Andy Hall is a photographer from St. Paul, MN and I especially like the purple crocus popping through the snow. I talked to him about that picture and he said it was just after an April morning snowstorm and that the snow melted later that morning- but he still got the shot! I think it is gorgeous and so representative of spring in the Midwest!

(The 4 above photos were taken from Festival of Arts Facebook page from 2008's show)

A pendant I bought from Michelle Moss of The Sterling Flower in Plover, WI. I couldn't resist it- those are my colors!

I am a repeat customer of Adrienne Brebrick of Wausau. A couple of years ago I bought a vase for a friend of mine getting married and this year I bought this bowl for my hubby's office for candy. He broke the last one I gave him. He better not break this one!

I just love the green!! It is so pretty! :)

This raku vase I also bought from Adrienne. She lives just down the hill from me. In her tent I saw some pictures of her firing bowls in what looked like garbage cans in her driveway in the winter! I told her I was going to come over sometime just to watch her (I'd help if she needed it) and she said, 'Sure! Come on over!' I have a serious weakness for raku. I love, love, love the colors the heat produces. But, alas, I bought this for a co-worker of Steve's who is doing our will for us. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled for another just for me to add to all my other ones I have bought!

I really didn't buy as much as I usually do. I wanted to buy another turtle to add to my collection in the yard but I just couldn't pull out the credit card. Last Wednesday we spent a small fortune taking down two ginormous dead trees in our yard so my turtle will have to wait. Oh! And we went to Red Eye Brewing Company for lunch which I don't go to nearly enough but it is SO good! The Chicken Soprano panini is one of the best sandwiches (the chicken was absolutely perfect) and my mom had a salad with spiced candied pecans that I could've eaten all day long!!