Destination Chesapeake

two views of Touchdown! front and back.

Destination: Crabtown
by M.L. Faunce

Hon, if you think crabs are in good supply now, wait until you walk the streets of downtown Bawlmer, the Inner Harbor and a multitude of other city neighborhoods, from Hampden to Roland Park. Crabtown, U.S.A., otherwise known as Charm City, has spawned a summer treat fitting this historic Maryland harbor town.

The Crabtown Project, a public art and fundraising project, is in full swing with some 200 fiberglass crab sculptures, decorated and sponsored by local artists and community and corporate sponsors, displayed at popular and well-traveled spots throughout Baltimore. The sculptures will be auctioned off in November, and proceeds, estimated at $5,000, will benefit the Believe in our Schools Fund. The Baltimore Community Foundations says funds raised will “go to much needed facility improvements to city schools.” 

The Crab and the Cow;

The craze of cities displaying decorative theme animals is not new in the U.S., nor to Baltimore, where in 2001 the Fish out of Water project had city streets swimming with artistic fish.

Some favorite crustaceans are —

Camden Crustacean at 100 Eutaw Street in front of the Marriott Inner Harbor;

Old Bay Crab at 501 E. Pratt Street;

Touchdown!” with ravens Edgar, Allan and Poe, at Light and Pratt streets;

the Bawlmer Crab with mock formstone.

We hear there’s a Donald Schaefer crab and a Cal Ripken crab, but we’ll leave them to you to discover.

Hon, you don’t need a passport to go to Baltimore, so let Bay Weekly hear what your favorite crab is this summer.

Pure Art is Pure Vibrance
Creative playfulness leaps and bounds from Providence Center
by Carrie Steele

Bright and bold, Pure Art at Maryland Hall bursts with life. Some 50 artists — displaying nearly 80 works — have drawn, painted, colored and sketched with all the variation of a jumbo box of Crayola Crayons — the kind containing every hue imaginable and its own crayon sharpener.

Splicing and meshing Pure Art’s colors — including canary yellows, tropical greens, Caribbean blues and fiery oranges — are budding artists from the Providence Center’s Art Institute, which provides professional instruction in visual and performing arts for developmentally disabled adults.

Mostly abstracts, the works take on carefree shapes and expressions. A zoo of animals and forests of foliage grace a dozen works; a handful are figures and human impressions.

Ed Doben’s “Leaves in a Red Pond” highlights greenish-yellow and blue leaves on an autumn red background. In Wes Clark’s “Sunset,” a yellow, flaming disc sets behind a landscape of glacier-striped mountain, yellow and green rolling hills and a checkered blue-purple ocean.