Art and Architecture

The fall TACA Craft Fair disappointed even my friend, who has been making and selling crafts and attending such fairs for many years. I was disappointed, too. We agreed, there at Centennial Park and over lunch, that nothing said buy me or bring me to the shop so someone else can buy me.

So many silversmiths, and so little variety. So many photographers, only one with enchanting images. The first flying pig I saw, made from a grill gas container, was clever, and I was tempted . . . until I saw at least five vendors with similar swine. 

Perhaps the most skillful thing we saw were white oak baskets made by an older couple: she picks the tree, he cuts it down, they drag it out of the woods, he strips the wood, she weaves the baskets. One was a true one-of-a-kind with deer-horn handle ("My grandson killed the deer, and we ate it," the basket maker said). Few such makers still work in these parts, and although we left empty-handed, we didn't leave these folks unimpressed.

Today, standing at the edge of one row of booths, I envied the young men playing ball in the field between us and the Parthenon, a wondrous work of architecture, more artistic than anything we saw.