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61st Park Forest Art Fair Running Strong


Carol Robinson at Park Forest Art Fair
Artist Carol Robinson with her treasure of carefully edited photos on canvas. I have three of her works. (Photo: Gary Kopycinski)

Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Comparing each and every Park Forest Art Fair to the art fair from last year or years before is like comparing water in the same river.

It’s never the same.

You can’t step in the same river twice. Thus spake Heraclitus (“δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης.”).

Brought to us by Tall Grass Arts Association, the Park Forest Art Fair is a living thing, always in flux, always changing, never the same.

And this year is no different.

Pictured above is artist Carol Robinson. She has been coming to the Park Forest Art Fair for a long, long time. Stop by and speak to her about her craft, her view of the many incarnations of the art fair. Through the years, I bought three of her works: two Buddhas and a beautiful shot of Monet’s Garden. All three have a home in my classroom, nice additions for my World Religions students.

The weather Saturday was perfect. Really. And Sunday looks to be more of the same.

People love to talk about themselves, and artists are no exception. Ask them about their crafts. Ask them to explain their techniques, their favorite mediums, what got them into art in the first place.

Their stories are fascinating. Their artwork one-of-a-kind.

You may even find that piece you can’t live without. That piece of jewelry, hand-made, that stands out. That ring. That wooden shelf (my destination tomorrow), that dove.

Yes, our own Patricia Moore is making Peace Doves again. I thought she had stopped. She started when the United States invaded Iraq and vowed to create Peace Doves as long as the Iraq War persisted.

I thought she had stopped. Thought she had had enough.

But she’s making Peace Doves again, and I took one home. Mom and Dad already have one in their living room in Pittsburgh. It’s been there several years.

As this insane war has persisted far too long.

This insane, unnecessary, unprovoked war, goes on and on and on. Many Iraqis now find themselves refugees in their own country, forced from their home cities by Daesh. (I refuse to call them IS-anything. They are not an Islamic state. They are frauds, loose on the world stage.)

I know one of those refugees. She’s a brilliant woman, and she wears a veil. She and her people deserve much, much better.

I’ll think of her when I look at Pat Moore’s Peace Dove. Perhaps give the Dove a home in my classroom so my students can remember our refugee. One out of thousands.

Stop by Tall Grass Arts Association. Sign up for a membership. Stop by Salon Artists Gallery. Visit with Patricia Moore and the other local artists.

You just might find something you can’t live without.

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