Flea Market gives local artist the chance to display work

NEGAUNEE — A portion of Iron Street in downtown Negaunee was closed for a better half of the day due to the crowds of people stopping by for the Free Friday Flea Market.

Anyone from the area was invited to set up a table and sell their goods, all in celebration of Pioneer Days. From clothes and shoes to books and artwork, a variety of products were up for sale. One local artist who has been painting for around fifteen years brought his pieces to sell, which include abstract surrealist type paintings.

He was originally inspired to pursue this style of painting after seeing children at an art gallery being unable to identify what they were looking at.

“Kids in a gallery were looking at artwork and they couldn’t figure out what they were looking at so that kind of started off my whole career and style. I wanted kids to be able to go into an art museum and see what they are looking at, appreciate the artwork without having to think too hard about what they’re looking at,” said Awakened-Art Artist, Jason Jensen.

Prints of Jason’s paintings can be found at the Michigan Made locations across the U.P. The flea market was held until this afternoon, up next on the activities for Pioneer Days is the Mr. U.P. Pageant which will be Friday night at the Historic Vista Theatre.