So...best in show!! This was an awesome event for me, and I can't believe I won the top prize! I felt kind of confused and in shock on the stage, and I had trouble shaking the lady's hand. So, yeah, the show went great and I sold all my new fashion plate paintings, which I forgot to photograph, sadly. I'm going to have to head back out to the garage and do some more work...yay! Thanks to everyone who came and supported!!
Here's the article form Sunday's Grand Forks Herald, should you care to read it:
By Paulette Tobin
"Art and food lovers strolled the paths of the Grand Cities Art Fest on Saturday, taking in the sights and smells under a blue bowl sky that emerged after a couple of cloudy hours earlier in the day.
The Art Fest, which continues today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Grand Forks/East Grand Forks, was a welcome break after a series of chilly, rainy days.
Thousands of visitors took advantage of the sunshine: parents and grandparents pushing babies in strollers, couples walking hand in hand, pet owners with dogs straining at their leashes, and shoppers carrying ceramics, jewelry, clothing and other pieces they'd bought from the 14 dozen or so Art Fest vendors.Customers examined sparkling jewelry, marveled at wind chimes made out of silver teapots, spoons and kitchen utensils, and sniffed soy candles and lavender sachets. They listened to jazz music and watched costumed Polish dancers. At one booth, a vendor poured something on his arm, then said to a couple of customers: "I know my arm is hairy, but feel how soft it is."
Elsewhere, children pleaded with their parents for ice cream. People visited with friends and family while munching from giant bags of kettle korn. Others sat at picnic tables, eating fried cheese, deep-fried Oreos and funnel cakes slathered with whipped cream and berries, or rediscovering that there is no graceful way to eat Indian tacos with a plastic knife and fork.
Art Fest organizers pride themselves on carefully selecting the artisans who set up row after row of white, open-sided vendor booths to sell fine arts and crafts during the two-day event. Saturday, when time came to announce artists awards, Grand Forks native Michelle Brusegaard was declared the Best in Show, winning a $1,000 cash prize.
The first thing Brusegaard did was text message the news to her husband, law student Jesse Mondry, who was in San Francisco.
Brusegaard, a Grand Forks Central High School graduate who graduated from UND in 2005, won an award in the mixed media category. Her booth was lined with big, colorful oil on canvas portraits, batik scarves, screen prints and photographs.
A full-time artist since she and her husband moved back to Grand Forks, Brusegaard has art in the Grand Forks You Are Here gallery, and at a place in Minneapolis called I Like You. She started showing at the Art Fest in 2004, after graduating from the Emerging Artist Program, a program in which she received a free booth at Art Fest, and help from artist and mentor Dyan Rey with pricing her art for sale and other advice.
"It was really an awesome program," Brusegaard said. "I didn't even expect to sell anything, but it went really well and now I'm hooked on this."
