This is what I bought today at the Des Moines Arts Festival. The picture doesn't even begin to show you how freakin' beautiful it is!
It's a hand dyed turquoise and teal fabric piece. It's fairly small, at 16" x 20". It was on sale. And for that reason I'm extremely grateful. I loved this artist's work but I'm broke.
Her name is Mimi Damrauer and she's from Chicago.
Here's her website :
http://www.mimidesigns.tv/index.html#hero-gallery-1
Not only does this woman have fabulously beautiful work....she's extremely nice! I mean, to the point I'm writing about her!
I first visted her booth after being drawn in by all the colors in her work. I love me some color yo. and this woman knows color. And my guilty little secret (not really a secret or all that dirty) is my love of quilts. Her work has a look of quilting to it.
You'd think I'd be better at describing work after studying art history. But that was a hundred years ago and I didn't do so well in school....
ANYWHO, back to the story. So she is immediately friendly and talkative and tells me there are some "sale" items that her boyfriend told her she needed to mark down cuz they didn't fit in her car anymore! love it. and all her "sale" pieces are beautiful. I'm immediately drawn to a bright fushia and pink circle piece and the turquoise one I bought. I couldn't decide. So I told her I'd be back.
And in reality, I wasn't really planning on coming back. I wanted one of the large pieces but I don't have $2500 and then I start to fight myself in my head about all the other things I could buy with $100.
So we leave and finish the loop. Which for some reason is really short. I would love for someone to tell me why there are more beer tents then artist tents at the Festival. stupid.
And we do end up walking by again, so I HAD to stop and look again. The artist wasn't there but stepped away for lunch. The helper girl there was hilarious and was adamant I call the artist immediately to ask her the price of "my" piece. I didn't want to bother her. I mean, I hate being interupted during my lunch...
But I called her after being bullied about it. I felt like a dork. The artist was so gracious, she offered to run back to her booth right away. She told me the piece was $100 but would "work with me". YAY!
I told her I'd come back later after her break...and I meant it this time :)
So my sister and I wander to look at more stuff we may have missed. We did stop at a jewelry booth that was being attacked by what seemed like every woman in Des Moines, all of them wearing really ugly hats. I thought it must be some really cool jewelry to be surrounded like it was. I was kinda annoyed to find the so called "art" was what appeared to be mass produced necklaces and bracelets for really cheap. They actually were made of PLASTIC and painted to look like silver!! WTF? I thought this was supposed a fancy shmancy art festival. stupid.
As I'm trying to hide my disgust at the made in china booth, Mimi the artist calls me. Perhaps she thought I wasn't coming back? Is she psychic but with timing issues? She tells me she's at her booth and she'll sell the piece to me for less if I buy it. That kinda doesn't make sense but whatever.
So 10 minutes later I am the proud owner of the beautiful turquoise piece you see above!! Mimi was really so nice and sweet and not to mention generous. Did I mention she told me the piece originally was priced at $300? I'm a lucky girl.
If you're in Chicago, or anywhere around the midwest and happen upon an art festival and you happen to walk by a booth exploding with color, stop by and see Mimi's work.
She also will give you homemade cookies shaped like her artwork!!
