This weekend is the popular Atlanta art festival – Inman Park Festival 2010. I’ve personally gone to the festival for the past few years now and I always love the diversity of artist and vendors of this particular festival. As a fellow artist, I love to be inspired by other artists works and I usually am very inspired by the time I leave the Inman Park Festival! So here’s all the details you should know before you go!

• What: Inman Park Festival 2010
• When: Saturday April 24 and Sunday April 25, 2010
• Where: Inman Park
  • Atlanta, Georgia
• Days and Times:
  • Saturday, April 24, 2009 – 11 am to 8:30 pm
  • Sunday, April 25, 2009 – 11am to 7:00 pm
• Admission is Free For General Festival
  • Special Events may have a cost
• Parking is Limited! Take MARTA
• Arts & Crafts Show and Street Market
  • 11:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday
• Parade Saturday, April 24, 2009 – 2:00 pm
• Free Shuttle Bus on Tour Route noon to 6:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday

Chomp and Stomp
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Cabbagetown Atlanta, Georgia
10 am – 6 pm

Chomp and Stomp is a November festival offering a chili cook off with chili samples while they last, artist market and music all day. Although this festival has passed,  I would recommend it as a must attend event for next year.

The 2nd Friday Art Stroll at Castleberry Hill is a unique way to experience the Castleberry Hill area with galleries and shops open late and most serving free refreshments. Everything from art to jewelry and everything in between, this event is a great place to discover that unique gift you’ve been shopping for.

Junktique was designed in mind for you to buy food, crafts and vintage items.  This is a benefit for the Oakhurst Elementary School.

Sunday, November 15, 2009
Congregation Etz Chaim, Marietta, GA
11 am – 5 pm

I personally have never heard of this Artisans at the Etz festival but I don’t live in Marietta or East Cobb. Gathering information from their website, there will be approximately 45 different vendors with arts and crafts and it is free entry into the festival. If you are in this area, this may be a good chance for you to get outside and enjoy the great weather we are supposed to have this weekend.

The Decatur Terrific Thursdays happen every Thursday from now until December 17, 2009. As the exact times are not mentioned, all participating stores and galleries throughout Downtown Decatur will be open late with special offers and even snacks and beverages. Once you arrive and park your car, you can get a free pedicab ride to the participating vendors within the downtown area.

This Indie Craft Experience has been a fairly well promoted event through my artist friends who have been accepted into this holiday art market. There is a $5 entry fee for this holiday shopping spectacular. Judging from the the listed artist vendors on the website, I would say the $5 will be well spent to see what’s inside this event!

Did I miss an event worthy of mentioning here? Let me know in the comments section!

100% Cool and Absolutely Right Brain in 2009 Chomp and Stomp

The annual 2009 Chomp and Stomp Chili Cookoff and Festival takes place tomorrow, Saturday, November 7, 2009, in Cabbagetown, from 10 am – 6 pm. Featuring a chili cook off contest, artist market of 60 + artist and craft booths, beer from local Sweetwater Brewery and Blues music from local bands, this festival has been described as one awesome festival to attend. Per the Chomp and Stomp website, over 5000 people attended last year and they are expecting a higher turn out this year.

This year, I, Kim Wolfe of Absolutely Right Brain, will be working my friends 100% Cool booth. 100% Cool and 100% Original, Inga and Evija specialize in creating fashionable wearables out of recycled materials and fabrics. GOOD for the environment and GREAT for you. The 100% cool collections includes: bags, wristlets, scarfs, necklaces, key chains and wallets and passport holders. To all of the loyal 100% Cool fans out there, yes Roxy will be missed in GA to be in LA (lower Alabama) this weekend. But have no fear, Kimmie is here and will be the 100% Cool representative this weekend. May I note that I AM a loyal fan of 100% Cool myself?!

As an artist myself, these friends have been gracious enough to allow me to bring in a few pieces of my own to represent as well. I will be featuring my ever popular limited edition Atlanta City Limits, California Dreaming, Decatur City Limits and more.

So come on out and enjoy what is projected to be a GORGEOUS Saturday.  No rain and all sunshine to experience or even re-experience the Chomp and Stomp Cabbage town festival! Make sure you stop by the 100% Cool booth and give me a “howdy”!

Kim Wolfe in the 2009 Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival

So let me clarify how I am going to review the 2009 Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival. My review is based on being an artist in the artist market of this festival, not a consumer or local resident.  I was not able to  walk around much to check out all of the festivities as I was busy working my own space for Absolutely Right Brain. So my opinions are based on a vendor perspective and being an artist participant in the artist market.

If I had to rate this festival on a scale from 1 – 10 with 10 representing “the best festival to ever be in” and 1 representing “don’t do it, waste of your money”, I would have to give the 2009 Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival a 6.  There were some glitches and some triumphs and highlights in my overall work day.

One downfall I experienced was the lack of communication on collateral of where we were supposed to enter into the festival. Granted Oakhurst is NOT a huge place and this was my first time participating in this festival. This festival and all Oakhurst festivals are in Harmony Park located at the corner of East Lake Drive and Oakview Road. I knew this as it was obviously stated on all materials including the hand drawn copied map. So when I arrived at the stated intersection, parts of the intersection were blocked off by local police because of the 5K run that had apparently begun. With the police, there were no visible Oakhurst volunteers around to help guide us. We, myself and my helper for the day, could see the general area of where we were supposed to be but could not figure out how we were to enter. After we had turned around,  we slowed down and asked one of the police officers. He looked a little puzzled and then pointed and said, “just go into that parking lot and take a right”. Not really sure what that meant, we turned around again and followed his instruction. We entered into the parking lot and attempted to take “that right”  but there were cars and trucks coming out of  “that right”. I even pulled over and got out of my vehicle to go ask and no volunteers seemed to be around at that moment. Still puzzled, we eventually were able to enter into “that right”  as vehicles seemed to be entering and exiting out of this same entrance which happened to be Mead Road. To sum this up, we ended up spending about 25+ overall minutes by the time we got there and finally figured out where my tent was. We ended up taking Mead Road all the way down away from the festival to E. Collage Road (Close to Downtown Decatur) and turning onto Oakview Road from E. Collage Road to eventually find another entrance with a volunteer who guided us to where we needed to be. We were both a bit frazzled at this point as we didn’t expect the entry to be that difficult. Specific directions on our collateral would have been helpful to avoid this situation. If I missed this detail somewhere, please educate me!

2009 Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival Artist Review

The second downfall was my particular location. I wasn’t in the best of the location however, not all artist would say the same. As you can see by the map above, I was in booth # 33 which was quite far from and pointed away from the center of activities which is indicated with the reddish-orangish triangle shape. I remember taking a break to go to the bathroom and I thought, “There are alot of people here!”. I never thought that from judging by the traffic in front of my tent. The location of our row was like a back alley. My view was a strip of retail about 10′ ahead. There was enough room for 1 row of vehicles to load and unload our tents but that was about it. I think the only reason some people actually discovered us was because some of the retail including including Saba and Matador Mexican Restaurants. The overall traffic flow in front of our row of tents seemed to be slow and kind of sparse.

Now away from the negative glitches and on to the positive highlights. First, I was able to make back the money I invested into the show with the tent fee, artwork supplies, etc and was able to profit about $100. Secondly, the festival volunteers were very friendly and helpful when they were around which was really all the festival with the exception of the morning entry part. When I was setting up my tent before the festival, a volunteer actually came to me and asked if I had received my check in packet. Since we were behind our schedule on setting up, I forgot to go do that and wasn’t sure where the check in pavilion was anyway. This volunteer was extremely nice and went personally to check me in and hand delivered my packet to me at my tent. At one point, I was manning the booth myself and needed to go to the bathroom. I flagged a volunteer down and within seconds, I had someone manning my booth and I was free to go relieve myself! Thirdly, I made a good a contact for possible future retail store showing of my works.

So all in all, this festival was a good experience and good exposure! I certainly could have done without the entry complications first thing in the morning but I’m probably asking too much to have an event go absolutely perfect!

Pet Portraits by Kim Wolfe

If you are like me, you are just now thinking of potential ideas for Christmas gifts this season. There are many people who are not like me and who have already started their Christmas shopping like last year but maybe they are still looking for that PERFECT gift for that SPECIAL someone! Well I ask all of you to consider custom pet portraits as that perfect gift. Just about every portrait I, Kim Wolfe, have done have been gifts of some sort whether it was for Christmas  or birthday or even an anniversary!

Above is Tyrone, a great gray cat who loves to play with his play mouse and seemed to be a character liking to get inside things. When asking about Tyrone and his personality, he was described to me a more  like a dog because he actually fetches his mouse. So you’ll notice we incorporated mouse images into the portrait accordingly.

Tyrone’s pet portrait was a birthday or Christmas gift for his dad and was well received! Here are a couple of pictures of Tyrone originally sent to the me. The first photo is the one I used to do the actual portrait.

Ok. So you are interested but what is the process for a custom pet portrait?

• 1. Simply pick out your favorite emailable digital photo of your pet.
• 2. Copy and paste these questions into an email or word document and answer accordingly.
• a. What is your pet’s name?
• b. What type of breed is your pet?
• c. What’s your pet’s favorite toy?
• d. What is your pet’s favorite thing to do (activity, etc)?
• e. What are some words you would use to describe your pet’s characteristics.
• f. What are some background colors choices you would like to see in proofs?
• 3. Contact me through my contact Kim Wolfe form with your order. Simply copy and paste your questions and answers in the “Request for more information” box.
• 4. I’ll confirm order and details.
• 5. I design the digital proof of portrait and email a proof when it is ready.
• 6. We make changes if necessary and once approved, we go to digital print.
• 7. The print is made into 2D
• 8. The 2D portrait is matted with a white mat and framed in a black frame.
• 9. We arrange delivery of your custom Atlanta pet portrait.

And that’s it! Order now to have ready by the holidays.

So I’ve already posted that I am going to be in this show. I wasn’t planning to preach to come see me or my artwork. If you want to read that post you can at Kim Wolfe in Oakhurst Festival. I simply wanted to remind about the event itself and encourage all to come out and enjoy! This coming Saturday, October 10, 2009,  is the day for the annual Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival. This festival is located in Oakhurst Village at the corner of East Lake Drive and Oakview Road.  Featuring 50 artist, music entertainment and food vendors, this is a great event for the entire family in cozy, quaint Oakhurst inside Decatur just behind Agnes Scott College. This event is from 10 am – 7 pm so plan to make a day of it. Just Maybe, (I’m really praying MAYBE), the rain will go away for Saturday

Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 10, 2009. I am in the artist market of the Oakhurst Arts and Music Festival. From 10 am – 7 pm, the Oakhurst Festival will showcase approx. 50 artist along with music all day long and art activities and a parade at 2 pm. If you have never been to Oakhurst which is a town inside of Decatur, Georgia, then this is a great opportunity to check this eclectic, cozy little town out. I’ll be featuring my popular digital collage, Atlanta City Limits, and second popular, Decatur City Limits. I’ll also be showcasing other works including custom pet portraits I’ve done in the past. I’m looking forward to greeting some old fans and hopefully, meeting new ones. So don’t miss out! Hope to see you there

Atlanta City Limits Art by Kim Wolfe

When I’m not working my full-time job in REAL ESTATE internet marketing or making and drinking beer, I do ART! Taking from my graphic design degree background, I like to make art on the computer using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. My most popular of my art pieces currently is the digital collage “Atlanta City Limits”. This is a digital image composed of multiple Atlanta visual icons and trademarks  including the Varsity, High Museum, Vortex, Junkman’s Daughter and many more! This art piece is printed and stripped / mounted for a 3D finished appearance and is for sale as a numbered / limited edition. Click the link Atlanta City Limits for pricing information and to purchase.