My dad is a supremely awesome welder.  He is very meticulous and thorough-- and creative to boot.  In my adult life, I have taken a fancy to working with my hands.  I've always been a bit of a princess (albeit a tough one)... now I'm a princess who likes to play with power tools and grinding wheels.  For a few years now, my dad and I have both talked about how fun it would be to have a giant metal shop out back to play in and make sculptures.  This summer we are going to attend a "Sculptural Welding Workshop" together at the local community college (which I am really excited about).
    So today he and I hit the art fair with my girls to check out a particular artist's metal work:  Fred Conlon.  His collection of creatures that go by the name "Gnome Be Gone" were well displayed in a rare grassy spot-- perfect placement, considering the gremlins are featured carrying off garden gnomes and ripping the heads off flamingos.  Mr. Conlon, if you happen to Google your own name and come across this obscure blog, might I suggest you add a model that involves one of your little guys kicking the "giant wooden polka-dotted behind" right in her fanny?  Here's some of that free advertising I promised: http://www.sugarpost.com/.  It's cool.
    After we hit the featured destination, we tooled around a bit, looking at this and that.  I'm usually more drawn to the more three-dimensional art--  sculpture, pottery, jewelry, woodworking...  but the only other artist that caught my attention enough to warrant me having any idea what his name was happened to work in the decidedly more two dimensional world.  Check it out and see if it makes me strange to have really enjoyed identifying familiar characters from Sesame Street and Alice in Wonderland with my four-year-old.  She also really enjoyed Humpty Dumpty (who was apparently not suicidal at all...):  www.kevineslinger.com.  Make sure and check out his celebrity portraits as well.  Tim Burton is awesome.
    So that's what I've got for you today.  Peace out... or whatever it is the cool kids say these days.

CL