On Sunday The Homegrown Experience was held at the Nicollet Island Pavilion. It was organized with a “focus on sustainability, connecting people to the land and providing healthy and enjoyable experiences” and featured demonstrations by chefs, local restaurants, farmers, CSAs, co-ops, food producers, local vintners and brewers. We enjoyed many excellent food and beverage samples – iced Peace Coffee! tea sandwiches! crostini! oysters! chocolates! cheeses! more! – before ambling over to St. Anthony Main’s adorable Aster Cafe for a spell.

Sunday wasn’t quite so pleasant. Our booth at the Uptown Market? A complete bust. Between the three of us sharing the tent only one made a sale. But I can’t blame folks for not coming out (or for being too apathetic to browse or buy if they did). The heat index was something like 105°. I can’t recall the last time I was so very hot and uncomfortable for such a long period of time. Still, I think the idea is sound:

The Uptown Market is a venue to enhance the quality of life for the community through the gathering of local artisans, craftspeople, small business owners, area farmers, and neighbors.

A place where small vendors can come and sell their goods to the public, the Minneapolis Uptown Market unites the community. The Uptown Market will offer an opportunity for community organizations to outreach to the public.

And I do plan to try again – just during better weather. Sweater weather. I yearn for yarn!

This week? The long-anticipated opening of Smell the Glove: a Spinal Tap Art Exhibit. I managed to get my submission in for this group show (albeit a little late). A friend paid me the compliment of calling it my Mapplethorpe. But you’ll just have to swing by the exhibit to see for yourself! One of my models asked me not to post the photo on the internet, and to keep his identity anonymous. But if you come to the PG-13 opening Saturday night, August 7th, you will have the chance to check it out.

This weekend contains other photographic adventures as well. I have an engagement photo shoot lined up for a lovely couple, which may include some of their household’s critters. And I will also be sharing a booth – selling prints and postcards and whatnot – at the Uptown Art Market which is going on at the same time and very near the annual Uptown Art Fair. Stop by and say hi if you can.

In May, ceremony and reception held at the Minnetonka Orchards

In July, ceremony at Father Hennepin Bluffs Park followed by a reception at The Soap Factory

In September, ceremony at the Walker Art Center’s Sculpture Gardens with a reception at the Riedel Mansion

Art Shanty Projects is an artist driven temporary community exploring the ways in which the relatively unregulated public space of the frozen lake can be used as a new and challenging artistic environment to expand notions of what art can be.

Over the last several years the ASP has helped me look forward to January and February rather than dreading these cold, dead months. Admittedly we did luck out with extremely mild weather for this year’s opening weekend, but we would have made the trek anyhow. And you should too. Head to Plymouth’s Medicine Lake, weekends from January 16th – February 7th.