Where most kids spend half of their lives being dragged around the mall by their mothers, I spent the better part of my childhood existence at art festivals.  Being raised by semi-hippies, they despised commercial consumption, but seemed to justify spending all of their money at arts festivals because they were supporting “handmade and local.”  Go figure.  Anyway, I loathed arts festivals for the better part of my first 16 years until my friends starting hanging out around them and then they were all of a sudden “the place to be,” but I still hated them.   

College came and went and I landed a wonderful office job that included 14 hour days followed by sleepless nights.  Soon enough, I found myself frequenting arts festivals on the weekends, just to take in the mellow vibe of the whole thing.  And one thing I quickly noticed was the happiness that the presenting artists seemed to be enjoying, something that I was definitely lacking at that point.  It was obvious that nobody striving to make it as an arts festival artists was going to be driving a Bentley any time in the future, but they seemed to be content for the most part.  Soon enough, I had ditched the pant suit and was trying to feed myself selling the handmade jewelry I had secretly been making over the previous 5 years. 

 It was quite intimidating to try and sell something that a month earlier you had never even dared to admit you were doing.  Fortunately, my first art festival went fairly well, and after some creative math, I came to the conclusion that I just might be able to survive in this lifestyle.  Now, handcrafted jewelry is incredibly competitive in arts festivals.  The jurying process was strict and I luckily had a unique little product and was successful in being accepted to the majority of festivals that I applied to. 

To make a long story short, after five years on “tour,” a was able to shift my little business into some different avenues, and after having a baby I decided that I should give up my “gypsy life” altogether.  Life happened and I simply didn’t make it to another art festival (as a visitor) for close to 10 years.  About 3 years ago, I decided to check one out just for fun.  I had wondered through about half of the 200 booths when I came to a definite conclusion….”None of the jewelry is wearable.”  I obviously was paying closer attention to the jewelry booths and I was amazed at how gottee (sp) the majority of the jewelry was. 

These artists were obviously talented, but I couldn’t imagine actually wearing any of the pieces.  The sheer bulk and “busy-ness” of so many of the pieces made it so the only possible clothing option would be a plain white t-shirt.  I think that most people would agree that if you spend $2,500 on a piece of jewelry, you probably aren’t planning on wearing it to the market with a t-shirt and Levis.  I still stop by art festivals as they show up in the summer and the “unwearable jewelry” famine. 

The only explanation that I can come up with is that art shows jury jewelry the same way that they jury mediums such as metalwork, water colors, and glass work…..the bigger, funkier, and more intricate something is, the more “artistic” it must be.  Last time I checked, you don’t wear a glass mosaic around your neck or wrist.  Let’s keep “gallery art” in the galleries and “art festival art” in the art festivals.  When your clientele is strolling around with gyro’s and beer, they’re not likely to put them down to throw thousands of dollars down on handmade jewelry. 

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