Ventured out to the 62nd annual Halifax Art Festival at the Riverfront in Daytona. The location was Beach Street that used to be Daytona's Main Street even though there is a real Main Street, a seedier beachside place that our parents warned us to stay away from.
Beach Street was home to department stores such as Sears and Penney's. We used to get our Boy Scout stuff at Penney's, and our Catholic School stuff too. The movie theater in the 1960s showed first-run movies including all the Gidget and Teens Having Swingin' Fun On The California Beaches I films. Also, James Bond.
It was a big deal to have your homecoming parade down Beach Street. Father Lopez, with its student body of 400, couldn't come up with a huge parade. Ours featured a couple of decorated parent's convertibles and a few floats. No marching band. We didn't have any kind of band let alone a marching one.
Malls arrived. Department stores and others abandoned Beach Street and seediness set in. Malls, now, are transitioning to megachurches and private schools and consumers have decided to return to bistros and shops on Main Street, I mean Beach Street.
We walked the many blocks of the art festival. Beautiful work by artists so committed to their vision that they schlepped it from Fort Pierce and Gainesville. They they arrived at dawn Saturday to hang their art in their booth and hope to make enough money to defray expenses. This is not a pursuit for the feint of heart. You are inspired to create and then comes the marketing and web sites and travel.
Chris bought some beautiful beach scenes for our walls now dedicated to Rocky Mountain vistas and wildlife. We like a mix. A splendid photo of fall colors in Wyoming's Aspen Alley next to an oil painting of a manta ray slipping through blue Atlantic waters. Yellowstone bison next to a Florida armadillo. Sunsets from all over. I bought some note cards of the art I admired because I still send art cards to family and friends. We celebrate the beauty while we can.
We are entering the prime season here for outdoor arts events. Wyoming artists have either put their work away or back on gallery walls. Some may answer the poo-tee-weet of the elusive snowbird and gone to Tucson or Marfa or Daytona. We shall see you soon.
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