Living on the west side of El Paso in the Upper Valley puts you within 30 minutes of Las Cruces.  I don’t know if its the water, the elevation or the fact that it’s in New Mexico but there’s a different vibe from El Paso there.  Every Saturday they have a market downtown where they show case local artists, farmers and crafts that stretches for about 4 blocks.  Its quite impressive.

View Las Cruces Farmer’s Market in a larger map

This past weekend they added chalk artists to the mix giving the boys something to look at other than boring plants, they were especially interested in this one:

the chalk artists occupied about half a block and they even had a section of a parking lot taped off so the kids could go and create their own drawings.

Of course our boys paid no attention to the taped area and drew on the side walk but in their defense there wasn’t much room left.  Since the street is blocked off it gives the vendors lots of room to set up on both sides of the street utilizing the center for walking and additional space if necessary.

They have such wide variety of vendors and artists you never know what you’ll stumble across.  The local Humane Society even had a selection of dogs available for adoption.

We had originally went to look at the chalk artists but by noon many were still working on their pieces and we were ready for lunch.  We headed out for a quick bite and then off to  check out a British car show in old Mesilla.

Las Cruces Market on Flickr

I’ve finished off the car, next will be to tidy up the plane.

On my way in to work today, I spied something odd sitting at a bus stop at Country Place and Country Club Road.  Driving by it looked like a person covered in cellophane:

I instantly thought of Mark Jenkins and turned around to check it out.  Parking was kind of dicey though, Country Club is a two lane street that is kind of a mess in the morning.  Props to whoever did this, it certainly was collecting a bunch of stares from the morning commuters that passed by.  Upon closer inspection, there was a few things that were a little off…time for an impromptu art critique!

Jekins’ balloon pieces work because their interaction with the surroundings is subtle but integral to the piece as a whole, the piece below is an example:

The bent bus stop becomes the perfect prop for the balloon boy to pull down.  The illusion works because the angles and proportions are correct fooling your mind into believing the impossible.  I had initially thought that maybe the anonymous artist might have reconstructed the bus stops signage to be incorporated into the message but that’s not the case. Its a simple advertisement for insurance.  So what is the message here?

Scrawled in black sharpie are several words:

Fat, Disproportional, Dunce, Thunder Thighs, Empty, Cow

Note, I would have not known this by simply driving by.  The text isn’t large enough to discern from the street.  The intent may have been to draw the viewer in but without adequate parking most people will go on with their lives.

If you did stop you would notice the figure appears to be female so in that context the words are some sort of play on two possible obvious themes. One, disparaging remarks made unto the sculpture as a reflection of the artist being treated by others or Two, a inward projection out, of how the artist feels about themselves. There is a crumpled bag of Funyuns under its right hand so we might have a clue.

Now to me that presents a bit of a problem. Are you fat and have thunder thighs because you eat junk food all the time? Do you eat junk food because you feel empty causing you to be fat thus fulfilling your our self hate prophecy? Was the Funyuns bag just trash that happened to be there during the installation.  As the viewer we don’t know. There’s not enough information.  Using big heavy rocks to hold the sculpture in place, breaks up the continuity of the piece as well and distracts from the intended message.  The black X across the heart may have any number of meanings but the X on the right thigh only confuses that.  Is the whole thing some sort of “Anti Bully Message” that’s all the rage in schools these days? Who knows.

I will say this, I did stop and take a look so in that regard the piece was successful. Despite some presentation and constructions problems it did make me snap a few pictures and write about it so the joke may be on me.  Well there may be a few other people who get duped into taking a look at it.  As I was leaving, I heard sirens in the distance but couldn’t place the direction.  Traveling up Country Club over the Rio Grande bridge, an ambulance passed heading towards the bus stop quickly followed by a fire truck.  I guess somebody else saw it but didn’t have the time top stop and check it out before reporting it to the authorities, funny.  Score one for guerrilla art!

Full Set of photos here: The Fat Dunce

This past Saturday we headed to the Union Plaza area in downtown El Paso to check out the DWNTWN ARTMRKT:

DWNTWN ARTMRKT

The market is a chance for local artists to showcase their wares and runs every Saturday on Anthony Street.  The first time I went a couple of weeks ago the winds were terrible and made it quite unpleasant.  This weekend the wind was gone, the temps were higher so we had a chance to really walk around checking things out.  There was a booth setup for free ornament making for the kids so our boys had blast making a little art of their own.  Thanks to Katie and her friend for helping our hooligans out with their ornaments!