Your guide to the 2019 Salem Art Fair and Festival

It's been 70 years since the first Salem Art Fair and Festival, and the tradition has only grown over the decades. 

The Salem Art Association is expecting about 35,000 to attend the three-day event this year, which runs through 5 p.m. Sunday. 

More than 200 artists from states including Oregon, California and Washington have come to showcase their work. Festivalgoers can expect to find quite the array of mediums, from fiber to mixed media, metalworks and photography.

Live entertainment on three stages will keep the energy high, featuring music from local talent like Wild Ire, Erin Westfall and Gabriel Cox.

Salem music:Wild Ire is one of Salem's most sought-after bands

Con Brio, a soul/R&B group from the San Francisco Bay area, and Too Slim and The Taildraggers, a blues band, will be the weekend's headliners. 

And, of course, feed the soul with local food and drink vendors including Gilgamesh Brewing and So Cheesy.

With so much to do and only three days to do it, here are some tips to make the most of this year's art fair:

Getting there 

Street parking around Bush's Pasture Park is available, as well as the stadium parking lot along Mission Street SE.

Handicapped parking spots can be found on Leffelle Street SE and the parking lot of the Bush Barn Art Center and Bush House Museum.

But parking is limited — that, truly, cannot be stressed enough. If you'd rather skip the stress, here are some other transportation options:

• Lyft, call a local taxi service or Uber
• Walk and bike 
• Carpool 
• Free shuttles from the Marion and Pringle downtown parkades, courtesy of Groome Transportation 
  • 10 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Saturday
  • 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday

Keep up on local events:Consider subscribing to the Statesman Journal

Five artists to check out

Jeni Lee

Jeni Lee's paintings reflect the light and movement of places she's been — or the one's she dreams up. 

Most of her paintings are of landscapes, many depicting Oregon destinations like the coast, mountains or any number of rivers.

The fluid acrylic paint she uses works well with water and helps her achieve movement, layers and rich color.

Lee, of Portland, uses a lot of water in work, she said, which gives her paintings a soft effect. She even takes some into the rain, letting it fall and create a glitter-like effect. 

Medium: Painting

Location: Aisle 1, booth 2

Information:@jenileeart

Aaron Coleman

Aaron Coleman's stop at the Salem Art Fair is one of multiple he has planned this summer. 

It's his fourth time at the art fair, and he said he likes coming to the Pacific Northwest to get away from the Kansas City heat. 

After Coleman lost his job during the recession, he said he had nothing to lose when he immersed himself into art. He uses a variety of mediums to create his bright, textured pieces of work. 

Medium: Mixed media

Location: Aisle 3, booth 20 

Information: studiocoleman.com

Andrew Holmberg 

Andrew Holmberg has been creating blown glass for 23 years.

He stumbled into the medium while attending art school, and has been doing it since. Holmberg said his work is predominately featured outside. 

The Salem Art Fair is the fair closest to his home in Portland. He said he's been a vendor at least 10 times.

"I've had so many customers who have kept coming back for 10 or 15 years," he said. "(The art fair) has that community feel, which is fun."

Medium: Glass

Location: Aisle 5, booth 38-39

Information: andrewholmberg.com

James Diem

James Diem fell in love with ceramics while pursuing an art teaching degree.

"I like how you can go from a lump of earth into something functional," he said. 

Diem, of Hood River, does art shows all over the Northwest. It's his fifth year at the Salem Art Fair, which features high-quality art and beautiful scenery, he said. 

Medium: Ceramics

Location: Aisle 16, booth 163 

Information: @jamesdiem

Abigail Merickel 

When she was 25 years old, Abigail Merickel moved to Venice, Italy, on her own. 

"That totally changed my life," she said. 

Merickel, of Hood River, attended art school there and was introduced to printmaking. The process of creating one of her prints has many steps: polishing steel, covering it in varnish, drawing into that varnish and putting it into an acid bath, for example. 

Once a plate is done, it's hand-inked, applied to dampened paper and put through a hand turn printing press, she said. 

Since she hand inks them, each of Merickel's original prints is different. 

Medium: Printmaking

Location: Aisle 21, booth 222

Information: abigailmerickel.com

WATCH:What's playing in Salem movie theaters this week?

About the fair, Salem Art Association

The Salem Art Fair and Festival is one of the most vital fundraisers for the Salem Art Association, established a century ago in 1919.

Not only does it support the artists, organizations and vendors who participate, but it helps sustain things like the annex, Bush Barn Art Center and other community arts programs. 

In conjunction with their centennial year and the art fair, "Salem Salon 100" is an exhibit featuring art from 100 artists within a 75-mile ​radius of Salem. It's located in the upstairs gallery of the Bush Barn Art Center. People attending the art fair are encouraged to stop by and vote for their favorite submission. 

The Salem Art Association's 100th anniversary will be commemorated this fall.

Abby Luschei is the entertainment reporter for the Statesman Journal and can be reached at aluschei@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6747. Follow her on Twitter @abbyluschei or facebook.com/luscheiabby. 

Interested in telling at one of the upcoming Salem Storytellers Project events? Submit your story: www.storytellersproject.com/tell

If you go 

When: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with live music until 9 p.m. July 19-20 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 21

Location: Bush’s Pasture Park, 600 Mission St. SE

Cost: $5 day pass, $10 three day pass, free for ages 16 and younger and Oregon Trail Card members, free for all between 3 and 5 p.m. Sunday

Information: salemart.org