Carmine Magazine was nice enough to do a Q&A with me, as well as feature quite a few paintings with their bios. You can read it all here.
The past weekend was the 4th annual Bazaar Bizarre here in Cleveland, and while everyone seemed to be selling more of the smaller items, it was by far the best one put on thus far. Craft fairs aren't really my thing, but my pal who organizes the show lets me burgle in on her booth while I act as security guard for shop lifters (seriously, the little old ladies are always the ones taking a 5 finger discount!). I was totally cranky and having my energy drained by florescent lighting, but I find craft fairs to be very interesting to observe.
One thing that I noticed was all the fabulously dressed women. Where did they come from? Am I still in Cleveland? Do they just hide out and only go to rock shows or Bar Cento? I actually went and dressed up a tad on the second day because I looked like a slob compared with most women — for real.
Then there was the drama, the drama. There are at least 2 crafters every year that make drama out of nothing and act as if they were the only PROFESSIONALS in the country. They need to chill the fuck out. Because really people, it is a craft fair, you aren't Madonna+Mariah+Oprah+Tyra with a dash of Donatella, and this isn't Paris Fashion Week. These are the people convinced they could run the show better, and I say fine, go ahead and see if you can be the orgainzer and not have something go wrong or someone complain about something. It all turns out okay in the end as usually the dramarama people get banned henceforth.
I like to observe the older ladies who don't normally look like indie craft fair buyers of any sort. Sometimes they aren't old, infact, they just have such poor fashion taste that they could be 33 and look 60 easily — bet Tyra could help them. These are the women who have no idea what Etsy is and find out about the show through those old paper thingys you call newspapers. They are part of a group I call "the christmas sweater gang". Although sometimes the Christmas sweater is replaced by Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse in warmer months. You can find these types across the US, Canada, and parts of the UK. Their hair has not changed since 1980, wear cheap gold jewelry that screams bad taste, own 4 pairs of mom jeans, and I imagine they probably own an RV or ATV. There is one I see every single year; she comes on both days, reads through every book, picks up every item, asks a ton of questions, and never buys anything – ever. After two full days of this show in particular, I saw she had bought a few bars of soap. Wow, she must really be bored and need to do something with her time, I suppose.
In the end it was fun to meet new people and it served a purpose. Appearantly my images get around, and so do the people who see my shows. It appears that Varuca is a popular LiveJournal avatar — who knew?
Arty Farty 
