Palm Springs Fine Art Fair

An event that shows itself off

Modernism week in Palm Springs is here!  And to me that means one thing – Palm Springs Fine Art Fair!  Although the modernism stuff is wonderful, for me, art is my drug of choice.  When someone tells me to go to my happy place, that place is a museum, a gallery or an art fair.

The Palm Springs Fine Art Fair is a great event. Walking past all the exhibits is like walking through different worlds. It is an opportunity to see through someone else’s eyes. It can be inspiring or disturbing. It can

make you laugh, make you cringe, make you dream and so much more. Not everything is a hit. I do not claim to be an expert on art.  Nor do I want to be. I just want to enjoy it, not understand it. Because I will never understand paying $40,000 for an 8’x8’ canvas painted red. It is beyond me.

Many artists’ work caught my eye this year, such as Phil Shaw- shown by the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.  One of his works looks like a Mondrian piece and when you look closely at the books, all of the titles have something to do with Mondrian.  Fun.

The exhibit of the Chandelier Dresses by Susan Taylor Glasgow, by the Habatat Galleries, made me want a real dress that looks like the art. Barrier Meditation by JD Hansen displayed by Hohmann Fine Art while very interesting, just made me think that wasn’t the way to go for me and a wedding veil.  A bit heavy.

Everywhere I looked there was another piece that pulled me in for a closer look. Works by Arthur Sarkissian, presented by Caroline Tufenkian Fine Arts, drew my attention and made me walk close to see why I liked it.  He silk screens a variety of disparate images on canvas and embellishes with paint to make unexpected, yet compelling art. The trains by Gregg Chadwick, presented by Sandra Lee Gallery, evoke the wonder of a bygone era with his dynamic locomotives.

And as I walk around, the realtor in me looked at these incredible works and thinks of the fun I could have staging with these pieces.  So many homes with blank walls or sad art (art done by people with little to no talent) could be energized with the right picture in the right place.  Oh to have the budget and the storage for all the art!

But one of the truly inspiring exhibits for me this year were photographs presented by the Pablove Shutterbugs.  The photos are taken by children with cancer.  The mission of the Shutterbugs “teaches children living with cancer to develop their creative voice through the art of photography.” Seeing the world through children’s eyes is always intriguing but add the component of living with such challenges to overcome and their visions are inspiring.  The photos are fun, joyful, unexpected. And very professional.  When I saw the prints, I thought they were fabulous.  When I realized who the photographers were, I was floored.  Take a look for yourself at pabloveprints.org.

And that is why I love art.  It is comforting and irritating, obscene and elegant, accepting and offensive. It is everything and everyone.  It is my happy place.

~Andrea Quinn