Artists sell masterpieces on Fourth Street

Underneath the beating sun, hundreds of Bloomington residents and IU students guzzled lemonade and fanned themselves as they sweltered in the heat. They were not tailgating before IU's football victory in the home opener -- they were browsing the booths of artists and community groups at the Fourth Street Festival of Arts and Crafts. \nThe Fourth Street Festival, a Bloomington staple since its inception in 1976, celebrated its 28th year of displaying the arts Saturday and Sunday on Grant and Fourth Streets. What started as a small-town art fair has evolved into a regional show with talented artists from all over the country selling their art on the streets of Bloomington. Booths filled with everything from gourd masks and instruments to hand-decorated chairs lined the streets. Community groups displayed information and distributed flyers about their activities and goals, while local restaurants sold samplings from their menus to the lunching attendees.\nSitting among intricate mosaics -- on everything from a mundane mirror to a leg ending in a high heel -- Bloomington artisans Cappi Phillips and Bud Fick sipped lemonade and watched the crowds peruse the offerings. \n"This is our fifth year being involved with Fourth Street in one way or another," Phillips said. "We have served on the committee and participated as artists. This is just a great place to sell art. The customers are very knowledgeable."\nHowever, not all artists are given the opportunity to sell their wares at the Fourth Street Festival. \n"There were about 300 applicants this year," Phillips said. "And each artist sent in their slides. A four-person jury ranked each artist within their category, and the highest scores were invited to participate. Almost all of the artists selected decided to participate."\nOne of the 109 artists present was Suzie Seligman, owner and artist of Tesoro Mio which specializes in hand-decorated chairs and pillows. Sitting among her collection of intricately designed chairs, decorated with a range of themes, she discussed her art and creative process. \n"I am a textile designer, and I decorate these chairs by either hand-painting them or combining vintage fabrics in a new, interesting way," Seligman said. "I collect old chairs and redo them, so they become one-of-a-kind works of art. I travel a lot to collect the fabrics and gain inspiration for my chairs. Each one is a combination of the right chair and fabric."\nSeligman's displayed wares included a chair hand-painted with a French theme, brightly painted wooden chairs with cloth cushions and small pillows. Using everything from hand-painted designs to the vintage fabrics of '70s fabric designer Vera, the brightly colored and diverse chairs drew a crowd.\nOne piece offered by Seligman was a chair reupholstered in an orange wool tartan, with an interesting twist -- instead of just a plain chair, it was already the seat of a two-dimensional witch. \n"I found this fabric at a store in San Francisco, and thought it would go wonderfully with a chair I had just acquired," she said. "The leg of the chair was too gnarled to redo in a luxurious manner, but the orange plaid just said 'Halloween'. The plaid with the scruffy chair really worked, and I created the witch on the chair to complete the theme."\nA few stalls down, Bloomington resident Carolynne Gieryn, who has displayed and sold her knits at the Fourth Street Festival for the past 10 years, sat knitting and answering questions about her selection of hand-knitted sweaters, socks, headbands and hats. Surrounded by colorful wools, she talked about her passion for hand knitting with festival goers. \n"I would say that knitting is my passion, rather than a weekend hobby," she said. \nGieryn said she couldn't pick a favorite item among her brightly colored sweaters knit in a Swedish tradition.\n"I couldn't choose a favorite thing to knit," she said. "But I can finish a sweater in about a week. I don't know how many hours it takes though -- it's not like I punch a time clock!"\nHowever, one of the booths that drew the biggest crowd was not selling a thing, but rather, giving them away. The WFIU/WTIU booth, distributing free fans to the melting festival goers, was filled with employees extolling the virtues of the stations. \n"I think that the stations are a cornerstone of the community of television and classical FM radio," said John Winninger, senior producer and director of WTIU, while handing a fan to a festival-goer.\nBehind him, filling balloons, Ann Wesley, the director of marketing for WTIU/WFIU explained why the station had a booth at the festival.\n"The Fourth Street Festival gives us an opportunity to meet the members of the community who support the stations and the chance to meet the members of the community who don't," she said. "This is a great forum for people to discuss the programming with us. Everybody loves public broadcasting, and everybody is complimentary about what we broadcast."\nIncluded in the WTIU display were flyers displaying some of the locally produced television shows that have been broadcast on the station, including documentaries about IU legend and former IU President Herman B Wells and the architecture of Columbus, Ind. \n"We are the only station that produces local television and news," Wesley said. "That's why we are happy to celebrate WTIU being on the air since 1968 and WFIU being on the radio for close to 60 years."\nFor more information on the Fourth Street Festival of Arts and Crafts or an application to participate next year, see the Web site www.bloomington.in.us/~fourthst. \n--Contact staff writer Brittany Ausmus at bausmus@indiana.edu