If you can't get into the Utah Arts Festival, being near it is the next best thing.
Local artists Jason Wells and Jeremy McNeeley set up a booth for their art lines -- Glitch Wear and Crooked Look Art -- on the grass at Washington Square, along 400 South.
It's perfectly legal, McNeeley said. They have a street vendor permit from the city, and as long as they set up in one of the city's "free speech zones" and are at least 150 feet from the entrance, they're fine.
Besides, McNeeley said, they have friends who are displaying their art inside the festival.
Wells -- who makes framed stained-glass pictures and a line of messenger bags made from recycled materials -- was among the applicants for UAF this year, but didn't make the cut. "Try again next year," he said.
McNeeley's work includes watercolors and monotypes (one-off prints made on glass), as well as scrap-metal sculpture and rings made from discarded flatware.
Getting into UAF means exposure, McNeeley said. "It's building connections, too," within Utah's artistic community.
