when the going gets tough the tough go shopping

Saturday one of the other artists and I went to the Folk Art Market. This takes place every year at Museum Hill, where the Folk Art Museum and several other museums are located. They charge to get in but we managed to sidle along the side at the entrance along with a slew of other people. We spent plenty of $$$ there so we didn't feel at all guilty.

The other artist, Kaili, is from Hawaii and is a native Hawaiian. She was a little irritated at the way artisans from other countries were trotted out to be put on display at their booths. There was beautiful work there, though. I bought a few goodies for Christmas gifts and two scarves from an Indian artisan who ties tiny string knots on silk in a pattern, then dyes the silk and takes out the knots, which are done with one long piece of string.

We ran into the artist I had seen on the panel, Rose Simpson (she is the niece of Nora Naranjo Morse.) I got a little flustered (as I often do) telling her how we enjoyed her talk. She looked bemused. She's a beautiful young woman with a small silver spike going through her nostrils. It's quite striking, but for me, with constant nasal leakage, it would be a nightmare that would result in a lot of shredded tissues.

I wanted to talk to Wael Shawky, the artist from Egypt, who was with Rose and another guy. I've met him a couple of times, since he stayed here and knows Kaili and a writer who has been here for a few months. He's Muslim and did a performance piece once where he read the Koran in a church, so he's thinking about cultural and religious overlap. I'd like to see the Koran read in a synagogue, ha. As if.

I took out my pen and a card to write down my cell phone and the pen started to drip ink all over the place, getting on my shirt, my purse, and the ground. Wael took the pen from me and threw it away. Staples special, they work for a while but this isn't the first one that has leaked. Anyway. Today Wael is supposed to come over here for something, so maybe we can talk for a bit.