WINONA LAKE – Over 70 artists from Indiana and beyond displayed and sold their work at The Village at Winona Art Fair Saturday and Sunday. The public also got treated to live musicians, Sean Fitzpatrick and his 3D chalk magic on Canal Street, food vendors and kids’ activities. Bill Carver, from Whiteland, came with his rock art. “I take flat creek stone, also known as river rock, and using the natural shape of it that might suggest something, I paint on it whether that’s a turtle, fish or whatever,” he said. Once the piece is finished, he then puts it on driftwood from the Ohio River. The rock comes from Southern Indiana. Before painting on flat creek stone, Carver said he used to paint on canvas, but was looking for something different. He found the rock and thought it would be a great way to recycle nature. “People seem to like it,” he said. “The comment I often get is, ‘I’ve never seen that before.’” Carver said he’s been making the rock art for about six years. The biggest measures about 3 feet long by 2 feet tall. “I used to do real small pieces, but it was so much work. It was as much work as the bigger pieces,” he said. His art can be put on display outdoors or indoors. “They are waterproof,” he said. Most of the things he paints are nature or fantasy like fairies. He also does some landscapes and an occasional lighthouse. His work is only available to buy at a show, as it’s not sold online. “I try to stay pretty much in Indiana, but I do do surrounding states,” he said. Technically, Winona Lake’s Kristy Zink has been creating her illustrations for the last three years, but she’s drawn her whole life. “I was a graphic designer before my kids were born,” she said. She now puts her illustrations on paper products like stationary and cards, “anything that can go through a printer,” but she’s also venturing into textiles. She has many sketchbooks she hand draws her work in. She then scans her drawings into her computer, and then uses software like Photoshop to give the sketches color. Finally, she prints them out using a high-quality printer. This past weekend’s Art Fair was her first, she said, but she also sells her illustrations online through Etsy at etsy.com/shop/KristyZink or her own website at www.kristyzink.com She said she needs to go to some local shops and see if they would sell them for her. Most of her work is kid focused. “I would call it children’s art,” she said. “The goal is to maybe work in children’s books.” Artists Connie and Jimmy Langford are from Cumming, Ga. “We are in Logansport over the summer and we do art shows all over the Midwest in the summer,” Connie said. Describing their art, she said, “It’s contemporary metal wall sculpture. It’s kind of abstract.” They use copper metal and give pieces patterns when Jimmy etches them with a grinding wheel. A metal dye is used to give the pieces color. She said they don’t really use found objects. “We start with flat copper and build it up from there,” she said. The Langfords have been doing their art for 25 years “in one form or another. It’s evolved over the years. You just have to keep evolving and changing or you just get left behind.” While they don’t have a website, Connie said people can email them at langford.jimmy@gmail.com “With our work, I feel you have to see it and touch it. A website doesn’t do it justice,” she said. Rick and Janice Moore brought their work to Winona Lake for a second year from Bryan, Ohio. It’s fused glass made into lawn art mostly, but there are some glass faces for the indoors. Rick said the amount of time they put into each piece depends on the individual piece. It could take a day or a week. It also may depend on how long it has to be in the kiln. They’ve been making the fused glass pieces for about eight years. “She got a fine arts degree from Bowling Green University. We’ve played with different things over the years and decided on fused glass. We kind of like it,” he said. Their art is a partnership. “She mostly does the glass and I do the metal work,” Rick said. The theme for the ink-and-watercolor artwork of John Schrock, Goshen, and his cousin Brian McKelvey is the pubs of the cities. “It’s ink and watercolor originals. We do prints from originals. The originals are usually 20 (inches) by 40 (inches),” Schrock said. He said McKelvey is the “creative genius, but we do everything together from the conception to the completion.” Their theme of pubs of the cities is a “way to pay tribute to the towns we’ve been to.” He said they’ve done over 60 cities, but for some cities like Chicago they have four or five different scenes they’ve done. “We hope to have a Blackhawks scene done by next week,” he said. Over the last year, Schrock said they’ve been focused on Ohio. Their website is at pubsof.com Marty Pat Wallen, who lives in Warsaw but has a studio space in Winona Lake, had her smaller pieces on display at the Art Festival. One was a bronze piece, but the rest were resin, and the largest over the weekend was 5 foot. “I’m known for my elongated figures,” she said. “The higher they go, the harder it is for balance.” She’s been doing the elongated figures for the past 14 years. She’s represented by some “top-end galleries” and the Winona Lake Art Festival is the only outdoor show she participates in. She does a lot of international shows. She preferred to talk more about how great the Winona Art Festival is than her own work. “This show is great. As far as this show, it’s great. They treat the artists with the utmost respect. The artists are wined and dined,” she said. “Everyone in the Village is on board for the show,” she said. “The show gets the top artists.”
