FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WKRG) — Artist of the Year Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival They come from far away.
And perhaps this year they'll come from further afield than ever before.
“I'm in a VW pop-up camper (1983) and I've been driving 55 mph up here,” said Ileana Fowler, a North Carolina native visiting Fairhope for the first time. “Some people use a wooden bowl and a few pens. All I do is a pen and pencil.”
For people like Ilyana Skrobaskak, who says, “I'm from Knoxville, Tennessee,” by way of Bulgaria, that path is just part of being an artist.
“Our life is traveling to art festivals all over America,” Skrobaskak said. “Travel from Montana to Key West.”
In the process, they bring unique and beautiful pieces.
“In the felt way, I paint. My pictures have a 3D effect,” Skrobaskak said.
Traveling from one festival to another may be a way of life.
“I consider myself a nomad,” says artist Jenna Hart, who has been handcrafting and selling jewelry for 34 years.
And sometimes that can be an inspiration.
For Hart, that means “collecting beads and pendants and returning to America to weave them into jewelry.”
These are just some of the artists who will go anywhere for their art, and this weekend their creative impulses came to Fairhope.
