If you were in the market for a chain mail bikini, an air plant growing from an animal skull or a less-than-friendly garden gnome, Saturday’s Area 22 Arts, Crafts and Oddities Fair in downtown Elgin was the place for you.
At Sarah and Eddie Emerson’s Big Daddy’s Chain Maille Creations and Eddie’s Little Bear Sundries booth, for example, patrons could choose from among a variety of steampunk and renaissance fair items, including a handmade plague mask made of leather, a chain mail top and custom-printed cutting boards.
Not far away was Chicagoan Lauren Muskara selling wild boar vertebrae and mink and raccoon skills adorned with plants; the Horror Floral booth, featuring curios made of bones and pinned insects; and the Gnomes for Homes display, with “redecorated” garden decor being sold to benefit PADS of Elgin.
You could even check out a giant take on the classic board game Operation.
The event was the brainchild of Tanner Melvin and Erin Rehberg, co-founders of the nonprofit Side Street Studio Arts in Elgin, which served as organizer and host of the decidely unique fair held on Riverside Drive. That it was held on the same day as the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago was a fact not lost on Melvin.
“I see Area 22 as competing in a way with Lollapalooza, but in our hometown,” he said. “Plus, it’s free, accessible and people can come to have fun.”
He and Rehberg say they would like to see their fair grow into a multiday event that spreads from Riverside Drive into adjacent Festival Park and features live musical acts, other types of performances and a sculpture garden.
“I was inspired to start this by the last Art & Soul on the Fox, which took place in downtown Elgin in 2018,” Melvin said. “That stuck in my brain — that and the one Next Wave event here at The Haight in 2012.”
The event’s name is a takeoff from “Area 51,” the local name given to the classified U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada known for its alleged connection to UFOs and aliens, he said. While researching the Fox Valley, he realized downtown Elgin is in state Senate District 22, he said.
“It helped with branding our ‘22 Crew’ of volunteers and staff, and it offered a hint of the eclectic subculture we wanted in the event,” Melvin said.
Area 22 featured 50 vendor booths and 75 artists. One of them was Mary Sweeney, of Sycamore, whose business finds beauty and makes art out of discarded things and items related to death. It started 10 years ago when she started researching green burials, she said.
“We are separated from death in our culture and tend to keep things about it hidden,” said Sweeney’s sister, Jennifer Sweeney, of Champaign, who also had pieces for sale. “Our art is about accepting death and death positivity.”
Sarah Emerson said the beaked leather masks she makes, similar to those donned by doctors in 17th century Europe during the plague, sold well during the COVID-19 pandemic. They attracted a lot of attention has did Eddie Emerson’s chain mail clothing.
“I’ve sold the top to women who wear it to clubs,” he said. “One of (my customers) dared me to make the bikini, so I did.”
Chicago artist Arturo Aldama, who goes by @artgod9 on social media, said he finds inspiration in Mexican culture. The items he made included a portrait of Frida Kahlo and objects based on images from loteria, a Mexican board game.
The Gnomes for Homes benefitting PADS was an idea that Elgin philanthropist John LaFleur came up with in 2015, according to PADS development manager Jen Keller.
LaFleur obtained the gnomes, found grant money and convinced area artists to decorate the garden statuary. A good many of them available Saturday were made over to look like witches, wizards and zombies, which they hoped would appeal to those anticipating the coming fall season, Keller said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
