In the basement of The Casbah Market, 803 Massachusetts St., is a friendly and colorful place called Wonder Fair Art Gallery. Unique local artwork hangs on the walls and fun, artistic handmade products from across the U.S. are available for purchase.

KU almnus Eric Dobbins is the man behind it all, and he recently took some time away from the gallery to chat with Jayplay about Wonder Fair, as well as Lawrence’s Asteroid Head art club.

What is Wonder Fair?

Wonder Fair is kind of a little bit of everything: gallery, boutique and studio. We sell a lot of handmade goods, cards and prints, lots of art merchandise as well as exhibiting monthly shows — solo or group shows — with finer works on half of it and fun, more affordable stuff on the other half. We also have a screen printing shop where we do t-shirts, a lot band posters or business posters and it’s open to the public so they can get their stuff printed for various groups, bands or organizations.

What is the meaning behind the name Wonder Fair?

It’s the result of what’s going on here, the diversity of the space. It’s colorful, unique and interesting. There’s so many areas and styles. It’s fun and puts people in a good mood, sort of like a fair.

Why in Lawrence?

I was an illustration major at KU, and when I graduated there was a big lull in art spaces. This opened up and I was in the mood to do something like this. I had been waiting tables for a year and a half or so and making a little bit of art, preparing an illustration portfolio to shop around, but not being too serious about it. I felt this place was well needed. I felt it was filling a void.

What do you sell?

Art books, comic books and zines. For the most part I get a lot of stuff from New York, San Francisco and Chicago — the art havens.

How do you choose your artists for the gallery?

More or less, the work I’ve been interested in. Living here I’ve gotten to know artists that I’ve watched grow and develop and I want to exhibit how they’ve grown. It really just depends whether or not I like the work. It’s mainly my taste.

Being an artist yourself, what kind of things do you do and what inspires you?

Illustration-based and print-based drawing and cartoon styles. I’ve been doing the KJHK poster for the past three semesters. Illustration is dictated by what the client wants from you, but my personal work looks the same but typically a direct result of books I’ve been reading or circumstances that I’ve found myself in. Interests, concerns and what I’m focusing on as a person.

What is Asteroid Head?

A local art club that I’m a part of that meets weekly and we put on various art events and parties. They’re the group of artists on display in the gallery right now. They’re heavy in performance art in costumes and uniforms. We produce zines that showcase everyone’s different styles of art.

What is Asteroid Head doing around town?

We did a time capsule launch to celebrate the opening, which was time capsules attached to balloons. We had included information about the club, t-shirts and tickets for pieces of art. One crash landed on 9th street, but one made it 200 miles into Missouri on a family farm and the family actually got in contact with us. Soon we’ll be doing wheat pasting in the Taproom bathroom, decoupaging the bathroom walls with illustrations. And we’re currently trying to increase our online presence in the blog and are preparing to take the Asteroid Head club on the road with a tour of the United States.