Location: The Scioto Mile, Rich and Main Street bridges and in front of COSI (Center of Science and Industry).

Sidebar:  Warning! Warning! In order to shorten this article I posted the interviews with Kelsey Merkle, Ludie Stentus, Jamie Welsh, Sabra Richards, Douglas Polczynski, Adlai Stein, and Robin Lauersdorf. This is still a LONG article. Pace yourself….

What are you doing?

Wood Churning demonstrations. She is creating a natural edge vase out of cherry wood. She is shaping and contouring the inside. After she is finished with that she will shape and contour the outside.

How long would the vase take to make it look good?

About an hour and a half.

How long would it take a person who doesn’t know what they are doing?

With the right instruction, a couple of hours.

What is he doing?

He is turning his own slim line pen. People can make their own wood turn pen for about $25. It takes about 20 minutes. Or you can turn a wand in the style of Harry Potter.

Sidebar: If I wasn’t carrying all my gear, I would have paid $25 to make my own pen. Regrets!

How long does it take to complete a piece?

It depends on what I am doing. Some pieces take a few minutes. Others take a few days.

How much do you sell a big piece for?

A thousand to a couple of thousand. It depends on the surface, the form and how good a piece it is.

Anything low budget?

The smaller functional pieces. The larger pieces are considered art. You are not going to take a Picasso and throw it on the ground.

Anything else?

I started at age 11 and now I’m 46. I am a professional wrestler for the Art Wrestling League. I have a studio at 400 E Rich.

Tell me about your group.

We are an eclectic group. We do a variety of music genres from old jazz age to modern tunes. We do music in Spanish, Italian, French and so on. We pretty much sing whatever sounds good to us. We have done some covers. We respect the original song; then, we bring our feel to it.

How many languages do you speak?

Don’t be misguided, I only speak two fluently. I love learning different languages. There is beauty in diversity and that is one of my ways to express that.

How long have you been a group?

5 years.

Do you have a CD?

We are working on a CD release that will be done; hopefully, by the end of the summer. If not, watch out for us sometime later this year.

Anything else?

Thanks for showing support for local artists and local music.

Where do you primarily perform?

Various places around town and out of town. For example, Rambling House Soda, Java Central Café, Roastery in Westerville, and the Columbus Arts Festival (the one we always look forward to every year).

Tell me about your background and what you are doing.

I am a mixed media artist. Primarily a graphic designer. I enjoy painting on everything. This car is themed Columbus neighborhoods. I chose that because I am born and raised in Columbus. This is a great opportunity for local artists. We have the city scape on one side and the neighborhoods on the other. We have done some street sign highlights on there.

Why the Columbus Arts Festival?

I’ll take any chance to spin to music.

What are you doing?

These are called poi. You can spin them around. You can light them on fire.

Once you light them on fire, do you throw them away or can you reuse them?

You can reuse them, they are made out of Kevlar. You soak them and relight them.

How do you avoid catching yourself on fire?

Lot’s and lot’s of practice.

Have you ever caught yourself on fire?

Not yet.

Jay wasn’t the only one enjoying the music…

Street musicians:

The front lawn of COSI was filled with children participating in hands on activities.

Pets and owners who attended the Columbus Arts Festival 2019:

My Take on the Columbus Arts Festival 2019:

Prior to attending the event, I went to the festival website (https://www.columbusartsfestival.org/ ) to determine what art I wanted to view. If I had not done that, I would have been on festival overload. Be prepared to walk, as festival was most of the riverfront (the Scioto mile, COSI, both Main Street and Rich Street Bridges, all the way to 400 W Rich Street, etc). I visited 4 ((Bicentennial Park Stage, Big Local Music Stage, Acoustic Lounge, and Dance and Theater Stage (COSI), out of the 5 stages the festival offered. I didn’t make it to the Ohio Magazine Word is Art Stage. I decided to leave that for next year. This years highlight for me was the Big local Arts Village. That was the location to see a local band performing live and to view the hands on demonstrations.