An eclectic collective of unusual characters, including a cyclops and a bearded peeing dwarf, magicians, psychics, aura readers, tarot
card readers and fortune tellers roamed beneath the Bowman Arts Centre, Feb.13 during a special fund-raiser for local art collective Trap\Door.
They prowled through tables full of books on witchcraft, tables offering tarot card reading, aura painting and majick ‘artifacts’ like severed fingers, Kurt Cobain’s hair, bones, a bigfoot footprint and even a ghost piano player.
Trap\Door is a non-profit-artist run centre formed in 2004 to promote challenging and critical contemporary visual art.
They have no permanent home, so all money raised at this event goes towards artists fees and exhibition expenses plus the direct costs of providing access to visual art.
“I thought it would be fun to dress up as a roaming sideshow freak,” said Charlie the Cyclops, aka artist Aaron Hagan taking off his canvas head.
“I wanted to work the bar but the one eye is limiting to my peripheral vision,” he laughed adding there were 15 participants in the first ever Bowman Arts Centre psychic fair and a dozen booths, half of which were serious booths.
The others, like Roderick the horny wolf dwarf life coach, were just for fun. Approximately 100 people passed through the fair to check out the action during the four hour event.
“Trap\ Door is an artist run centre supporting contemporary art. It’s another form of fundraising for it,” Hagan continued.
“Probably close to half of these booths are serious, the other half are totally there to 
add an element of fun, but still get people to think about art,” he said.
