BRIGHTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — More than 120 jury-selected artists lined Main Street in Brighton this weekend for the Brighton Street Art Fair, drawing crowds eager to explore not just the artwork on display, but the stories behind each piece.
Watch Faraz Javed's report below
For Kaila and Patrick Duffy, the fair offered the perfect chance to explore their new community. The family, including their kids Wesley and Alyla, moved to Brighton in December and said this was their first time attending.
"We've just been walking around, we're looking for what we like," Kaila Duffy said.
"I think we're looking for paintings, you know, for paintings," Patrick Duffy said.
"We do kind of go towards like nature and landscape," Kaila Duffy said.
"There's some really talented artists here," Patrick Duffy said.
Among those artists is 32-year-old Alexzandra Hayes, a jeweler and member of the Michigan Silversmiths Guild, one of seven guild artists represented at this year's fair.
"I try to make everything that I produce look like it was taken from nature. So most of my stuff is casted and hand sculpted," Hayes said.
Tina Sayer, vice president of the Michigan Silversmiths Guild, said the opportunity to connect directly with artists is what sets events like this apart.
"The reason why you come to an art fair like this is that you get to meet the artist and the artist can tell you something about the piece that you're buying and they can give you the story," Sayer said.
Patrick Duffy agreed.
"That's a nice aspect of it for sure," he said.
Sayer said the guild's presence at the fair goes beyond selling finished work. Guild members offered live demonstrations, giving fairgoers a firsthand look at the craft of metalsmithing.
"We all have our own techniques. We're all having a demonstration where we're actually physically making some of the things that we work on. But really the guild is about trying to get people excited about metalsmithing," Sayer said.
Hayes demonstrated the process firsthand, crafting a small wearable piece designed to hold flowers collected on walks in nature — completed in about 2 minutes.
"This what we're going to work on today is something that you can wear and pick flowers when you're on your walks or in nature and carry them with you," Hayes said.
For Hayes, the work is about more than the finished product.
"Art is creativity, love and expression. It's being able to let somebody else see a world that they can't see from your eyes and they can finally see it too. I think it's really special," Hayes said.
The Brighton Street Art Fair runs through Sunday. For more details, visit www.theguild.org/fair/brightonstreetartfair
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