Five Fun Facts about DEAF13 & Schedule of Events

The Fair is only a couple of sleeps away!  With another fun-filled family event nearly upon us, the organizers wanted to share a few facts about this annual neighbourhood event.  And see below for the full schedule of events and activity for Saturday and Sunday.

Danforth East Arts Fair: Five fun fair facts about DEAF13

1. Milestone: The Fair is turning FIVE YEARS OLD this year! It’s hard to believe it, but the Danforth East Arts Fair is half a decade old already. The Danforth East Art Fair sprang from the drive of neighbours and dedicated volunteers of the larger Danforth East Community Association (DECA), which supports many other great initiatives in the area that help to make the community more vibrant, walkable and fun.

2. Better and better: Since its first year, the Fair has grown to include more artists from all disciplines along with live entertainment, food vendors and arts demonstrations. Our home is East Lynn Park, and our vendors’ tents fit perfectly in it.  While we’ll likely never get significantly bigger than our current size, we do strive to make the event *better* every year. That means we offer a variety of exhibitors selling a range of unique, high quality goods and services that includes photography, framing, paintings, clothing, ceramics, glassware, bath and beauty items, crafts and more.

3. Fan favourites and exciting new vendors. Some favourites are back this year, including Horst Herget, who makes portraits while you wait using tintype, a form of photography popular in the late 1800s that yields a noteworthy photo with an “olde-timey” feel. And Henna Planet and Henna by Holly will once again be painting lovely temporary henna designs on visitors! As well, we have new artists such as photographer Teresa Miller, mosaic maker Roberto Centazzo of Stone Folio and Fernand Ciraco of local business Ciraco framing, who will be selling unique storage and shelving cleverly repurposed from frame samples. (Ciraco is also a volunteer extraordinaire, more on that later.)

4. Local and beyond: This year approximately two-thirds of our vendors identify themselves as being located near East Lynn Park. We’re so proud to be encouraging creativity in the community! Our jury hand-picks every exhibitor, and while we do encourage local artists to apply, our final cut this year includes artisans from all over Ontario and even Quebec.

5. Volunteers: The Danforth East Arts Fair is completely run by volunteers. The planning meetings start in winter and the jury meets regularly to choose which artists will be included. Leading up to the event, there are volunteers arranging for everything from the live entertainment to the on-site ATM. A big thanks to head organizer Melanie Ramsay, along with volunteers Melissa Peretti, Julie Glick, Mary Vallis, Shauna Rempel, Fernand Ciraco, Danna Lynn McCullough and many more working behind the scenes to make the event a success.

Event post

For more info on the Fair, visit deca-arts.ca/. Or just come on by! DEAF13 goes rain or shine from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in East Lynn Park.

Danforth East Arts Fair: Meet artist Eric Davy

It’s less than a week until the 2013 Danforth East Arts Fair (DEAF13) in East Lynn Park. There will be dozens of artists offering a range of artwork, gifts, crafts and clothing as well as food, live entertainment and other family fun. In this post, we learn a bit more about Eric Davy of Davy Glass. Davy and his collection of hand-blown colourful glassware were a fan favourite last year, winning the People’s Choice award. He speaks with DEAF13 organizer Shauna Rempel about his inspiration, where his art has taken him and what he thinks about beige.

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1. What is the best way for people to learn more about your work (besides coming to East Lynn Park this weekend)?

I prefer for people to learn more about my art through my website DavyGlass.ca as it gives the broadest scope of the work I make.

2. Please describe your work in 10 words or less.

Hand-blown classical shapes, featuring modern surface design.

3. How did you begin your creative journey? How did it evolve?

I began working with glass at 16, I dropped out (of high school) and apprenticed under Alfred Engerer, who steered me clear of trouble. Later I went to Sheridan College and now nobody asks about high school.

Since then I have worked with artists and in factories all over Canada.

Three years ago I began my own business and doing shows, gathering gallery representation along the way. I am now the featured glass blower at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Macao, China twice a year for two months and the resident glass blower at the Red Barns and Artists Play Ground for three.

4. What inspires you?

I take much of my inspiration from the feelings that certain times of day, in certain settings can conjure — in a word, nature.

5. How is your work different from that of other artists in your field?

I embrace a certain amount of chaos, my work is loud and aggressive. I feel we live in a beige world and we need more accents.

6. Finally, what are you most looking forward to at the Danforth East Arts Fair?

Winning the viewers’ choice competition a second year in a row.

E.J. (Eric) Davy of Davy Glass at work while an artist in residence at the Venetian resort in Macau, China.
E.J. (Eric) Davy of Davy Glass at work while an artist in residence at the Venetian resort in Macau, China.

To learn more about the Danforth East Arts Fair, visit deca-arts.ca/, follow us on Twitter (@Deca_Arts) or find us on Facebook.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?

Something Old

Tintypes are back!

If you came to last year’s Danforth East Arts Fair, you likely noticed a photographer hiding under the hood of an old-timey camera to take portraits of other patrons. That’s Horst Herget, and he was creating tintypes right in East Lynn Park, developing the images on tin in just a few minutes and recreating an ancient art form in the process. Perhaps you caught his recent “Face the Danforth” show at Crema.

We’ve been getting questions about whether he’s returning on September 15 & 16. Lucky for you, the answer is yes. If you’re interested in having Horst take your picture, click here to drop him a line in advance, or stop by his booth in the northwest corner of the park.
Prices range from $45 to $75. You can even get your image framed right there in the park after Horst develops it. Doesn’t that make gift giving easy?
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Something New
Have you noticed the store called Shoe Clearance on Danforth, just east of Monarch Park?
This is a clearance store associated with a shoe store with locations in Riverdale and the Beaches, with many prices discounted to far less than half the original. So our neighbourhood gets great quality shoes for adults, kids and babies at a fraction of the cost? Yay us! Open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 noon – 7 p.m.
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Something Borrowed
You’re invited to the next DECA Board Meeting
The next DECA Board meeting is on September 11, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. Are you a DECA member who would like to attend, or someone else with a reason to want to go? If so, we’d love to borrow you for an evening. We meet at a local licensed establishment, so think of it as a night out with neighbours rather than a “Board meeting” per se. If you would like more information, please email info@DanforthEastCommunityAssociation.com and someone will get back to you with more details.
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Something Blue
Did you stop receiving DECA Diaries to your email?
We’ve heard that some people stopped getting our blog posts right to their inbox. We think that this occurred when the emails stopped coming from Natasha’s email account, and switched over to decadiaries(at)gmail.com. If this happened to you, please check your spam filters and add our new email address to your safe list. You can click here to notify us if any problems persist.

At the Market this week: Green thumbs of little ones

This week at the East Lynn Farmers’ Market!

Garden Jane: 

Garden Jane will be on hand to teach kids how to make compost tea and red wriggler homes for worm composting.  For more information on what this dynamic garden educator does, check out her website.

A family affair… 

Like many of the farmers who bring their produce to East Lynn Park each week, Larry Short of Sun Ray Orchards comes from a long line of farmers. He now runs the Beamsville farm that his great-grandfather ran and lives a farmhouse built in 1830 with his wife Tammy and their five children. You can’t miss them, just look for the tent filled with red heads.

Larry is always interested new and challenging ways to keep youth interested in farming. That’s why he involves all five of his children in the farming operations – whether it be picking the tomatoes, helping produce the baked goods and jams, or coming to help sell at the market; and, it seems to be working.  Larry says that his children are already excited to see what they can plant on their own next year.

So if you’re looking for some berries, peaches, watermelon, pies, jams, cider, or even a little parenting advice on keeping children interested in farming, check out Sun Ray Orchards.

Come see us! 

If you haven’t stopped by the DECA tent lately, you should.  You can find out about our upcoming DECA events, including the Arts Fair, Applemania and Harvestfest.  You can also pick up one of the colourful DECA t-shirts that we have for sale. If you live in the DECA borders, please consider getting or renewing a membership for $10 per household. We’re your neighbours, so you can even come and just say “hi”!

DECA’s borders are Monarch Park Ave to Mortimer/Lumsden to Main St down to the train tracks. To learn more about DECA please visit our website.

The East Lynn Farmer’s Market runs every Thursday from 3-7 p.m. between June-October at East Lynn Park, located on the south side of Danforth Ave, just west of Woodbine Ave.