The South Australian Living Artists Festival is on again in Adelaide and around the state. It is amazing how many businesses and venues get into supporting local artists and how the city is transformed for a month into a more beautiful place to be.
Your mood will be lifted by the taste of something new and exciting in your local coffee shop or dress store. You can float around being only peripherally aware that art/life is taking place all around you or you can grab a catalogue and really get into it. Organise a day trip with a bunch of friends or take your dear old mum or dad on a guided tour and let them educate you with their parental wisdom.
My advice is to attain the relevant magazine when it comes out this month and have a plan of attack that either involves what you would normally do plus art or make a special day of it and cover as many places as you can in one area. It will be available in all places that stock free mags and news agencies. It's a great excuse to get out to that café you always meant to go to at Port Norlunga and if it is a favourite artist or style of yours it is great to see how places can be transformed by some well executed and placed colour.
You can make a day of it hopping from one place to another, appreciating art and food. If you're poor you can take a juice box and walk into some swanky places just to have a gander at the artist on display. Get out that yellow highlighter and mark out your favourites, pretend you're a tourist in your town.
It never ceases to interest me as to which places choose which sort of art to show their involvement in the creative community and the festival. There is also an end of festival celebration in Hyde Park on the 26th, called SALA on Sale, where there will be art stalls where you can meet the practitioners and buy their wares while plying them with annoying curious non-artist questions.
They love it) There will also be artists in residence on the day performing art miracles before your very eyes.
If you are extremely lucky someone may even create a master piece in which case shooting stars riding rainbow unicorns will fall from their beaming eyes or perform the elusive public manoeuvre of the 'learning mistake', in which case they will magically acquire lots of red wine and espouse life philosophy. Those crazy artists! Would you really want to miss it?
