The Chocolate and Art Show is a two night, 21 and over event with an underground vibe, where you can socialize, listen to live music, buy art and other goods, and watch live body painting. Local bands can sign up to perform, and vendors and artist can sign up to have their art and goods displayed and sold (but will have to have someone else of age represent them if they are under 21). The event brings support and attention to the non-profit organization “Artists for Trauma” (AFT), which pairs artist of various disciplines with recovering military and civilian trauma survivors, to improve their long-term rehabilitation process.
The Chocolate and Art Show takes place in multiple states across the US, but I attended locally at The Vortex in Los Angeles, California, where finding parking can become more difficult depending on what time you arrive. Attendees of the event are able to freely go between the inside and outside portion of the venue (which is the private gated parking lot, kept free of cars to make room for vendors and artists). When I went, the inside portion of the event was crowded because everyone wanted to look at art, and get chocolate, which meant always having to push past people, but if you don’t mind crowds, it's not that big a big deal.
As the name suggests, the chocolate—which is kept flowing through a fountain—is a selling point for the event. The line for the chocolate fountain gets long, and even if the people in line are moving fast, the line never goes away. There are pretzels, cookies, marshmallows, strawberries, and bananas to dip in a milk chocolate or white chocolate. Proceed with caution. It can be messy. My cookie immediately fell from the skewer into the fountain and I had to use that skewer to push it into my bowl, getting chocolate on my hands.
As you eat your chocolate covered snacks (and possibly drink alcohol), you can see people get their faces or bodies painted, and browse the walls of art. There were plenty of celebrity paintings and original creations of various kinds, such as marijuana inspired art (because California does that), fantasy paintings, body painting displays, and art made with repurposed objects. There were re-imaginings of cartoon and anime characters, such as Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus. You can buy canvas art, or cheaper small prints, postcards, bookmarks, and pins. There are different things for everyone’s budget.
The parking lot of the venue contains vendor stalls, live music, and food trucks. There are handmade goods such as clothing, jewelry, stickers and plushies that you can browse through while you listen to live music, or socializing. My heart was stolen by a purple crotchet octopus with a top hat, who reminded me of the stuffed octopus ‘Octi,’ who belonged to Bubbles from the ‘Powerpuff Girls” (1998-2005).
I was able to browse through most of the art pretty quickly, so, for me, the event was mostly about socializing. It was fun to have a chance to look at great art while enjoying sweet chocolate. I am looking forward to going next year and seeing what new artists attend and exhibit their unique art.
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