A pleasant Sunday off, head on down to the Market Collective, now moved to the Chinese Cultural Center. One of the better sources of Arts and Crafts in Calgary, there are some remarkable locally produced things...
Portraits out of leaves, owls, animals, extremely well done, brilliant, even, although unfortunately available as scanned prints and not originals, there are "fashionable" pictures out of rocks (cool, but you know you're looking at next years kitsch), artisnal belts, and handcrafted chocolates, knit toques and mittens, occasional stalls filled with Bric-A-Brac, a couple of accomplished children's book illustrators...it is a bit of sensory overload, and I make a few passes trying to think of everyone on my list..
There's a child artist, maybe 8 years old, small little postcard sized sketches, classic child art, one catches my eye, "The Moustache Girl", no end of people I could give that to, inquiring the price she tells me "$20.00". Having engaged her I'm now committed, her mother explains to me apologetically that it's her own business, she's bargaining hard, I offer $5.00, nope, we compromise at $10.00, the most expensive postcard ever, but charming...she could be hipster imitating child, or child imitating hipster, I like the uninhibited style, I like child art, "The Moustache Girl", an in joke with an Italian girl at work, pupils drawn so large and the smile so wide it looks as if she's seen her mom tripping, this will suffice.
And there are other artists, too many to list, and I know some of them, not them, personally, but I recognize them from their artwork, look at a dozen or so pieces of somebodies art and if it's good you can see into their soul, I know them but leave the conversation for another time.
They've a musician, actually several, a great little stage, $5.00 admission, really, it's even better than shopping at "Community Natural Foods", a couple of hours that brighten the day...