Ours was a glorious, if brief, summer’s idyll this past Sunday. Taking a route to Des Moines that threaded around or parallel to Route 80, Craig and I drove through countryside that was ridiculously, lushly fertile and green.

Ancient Forest by Deborah Butterfield at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park (photo by Rodney White / Des Moines Register)

Alternating between walks through the Pappajohn Sculpture Park and the displays of artists participating in the Des Moines Art Festival, we found favorites and friends: Deborah Butterfield’s bronze horse, “Ancient Forest”, in the sculpture garden was powerful to see in person. We were also reminded of her husband’s (John Buck) relief prints exhibited last year at CRMA.

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum mug by Amanda Barr / No Tengo Miedo Clay (photo by Amanda Barr)

We purchased work from a delightful “emerging” artist, Amanda Barr, who explained that she was lately and happily single as well as “emerging”. Craig Lossing sent us away with new, exotic wood vases. And, George Lowe did not let us leave his booth empty-handed. We chose the most cunning small pieces from an array of his sensitively crafted ceramic vessels.

One of Craig Lossing’s beautifully delicate turned wood boxes

BTW, George’s parents, George and Alyce Lowe donated the land on the north edge of Marion for the creation of Lowe Park. It is there that my pup, Buddy, and I have most recently been doing our morning run. I am currently working on drawings of the wild flowers that bloom in the tall grass prairie tracts that surround Lowe Park’s Arts and Environmental Center. The generosity of the Lowe family and the work of dedicated volunteers have made this park an incomparable escape for our community!

Running with Buddy at Lowe Park

If you have visitors for the Fourth, I hope that you’ll stop by while Carlos Ferguson’s “Suspended Worlds” are still being exhibited. Delights await you.

Happy firecracker day!

Blowing on dandelions with Charlotte at Squaw Creek Park

Other than play with Charlotte, I think that one of the most enjoyable things that I have done of late has been to host the artists’ talks here at the gallery. Last Thursday night, Carlos Ferguson showed us how he made boxes with “little worlds” inside them. The worlds can be viewed through lenses placed on either side of the box, after pulling each box to eye level from a counter-weight system suspended from the ceiling. The boxes are magical. Seldom have I seen people look at art with such a sense of delight.

Carlos Ferguson speaking about his little worlds at Campbell Steele

And Peter Feldstein talked about shooting at least two photographs each of all the residents of Oxford, Iowa- twenty years apart. The Oxford Project, the book that he produced with Stephen Bloom, marries photographs with text that absolutely and unsentimentally portrays the humanity of each individual, and penetrates to the core of life’s experience- anywhere.

Carlos’ and Peter’s works remain at the gallery, and I hope that you’ll stop to see them. Our next artists’ talk is June 10 and features Marcia Wegman and Gordon Kellenberger.

I first met Carlos Ferguson in the summer between his junior and senior year at Grinnell College. He was venturing into the fabled printmaking program at the U. of IA, where I was a graduate student. My hours at that point in my life were ungodly. I got up at 4:30 to journey from Cedar Rapids to the print studio, and work in the pre-dawn quiet.

Leaving the print studio one afternoon, Carlos declared to me that he was going to do a reduction wood-cut of a self-portrait that he had drawn. Carlos had already proven that he was good for his word, but I have to admit to unabashed amazement the next morning when I walked up to the corridor that (then) housed the work areas of aspiring printmakers. I was greeted by the glorious sight of a clothesline-like arrangement of a succession of wood-cuts of Carlos effigies. The draughtsmanship that informed the image was so strong, and the printing was masterful. That was in the summer of 1989.

Carlos’s modified Airstream

Carlos has continued to be an artist whose activity has been a source of wonder and inspiration, so when he told me that he had wearied of the isolation that the artist’s life had imposed on him, I was interested in how he would resolve this issue. He started working in collaboration with friends, first adapting old Airstream trailers by cutting the middle from them and fusing the front and back into magical, beautifully finished “pods”. These, he uses as mobile, community-animation studios. He travels (often with his friends) in these pods in what is dubbed the “tiny circus”. This summer, I watched the tiny circus working on animations with folks visiting the Des Moines Art Festival. In the evening the animations were projected from the pods onto a nearby screen.

A constellation from Tiny Circus

If you’re having difficulty envisioning just how all this works, you’re in for a treat. tiny circus will be featured during the gallery tour on Oct. 2 by the Marion Arts Festival. Look for the Airstream trailer in front of the gallery! The festival has tiny circus on board for festival day in the spring of 2010, so this is a sneak peek at this most innovative approach to art. Come see the tiny circus Friday, October 2. The fun starts at 5, and never seems to end around here.