By ROBIN STANTON GERROW
BG Independent News
This year’s visual arts shows at the Black Swamp Arts Festival (BSAF) feature pottery and paintings, photography and jewelry and everything in between from artists near and far.
Narrowing down 259 applications for 108 spots was a tough job for the jurors making the selection. It wasn’t any easier to decide for the Wood County Invitational show, which had 95 applicants for only 50 spots.
“The process was very competitive this year for both shows,” said Megan Newlove, co-chair of the Visual Arts Committee.
“The overall structure of the show will be the same,” she said. “The mix of artists is what keeps the shows changing and evolving from year to year. There is always a different pool of applicants and different jurors, so the show ends up being a mix of favorite artists from past years and new artists to discover.”
Last year the Visual Arts Committee was in flux and without leadership. Newlove said there was a learning curve for the new committee, but they benefited from advice from other committees with years of experience.
“I have enjoyed seeing the quality and number of artists applying to the show,” Newlove continued. “It is really impressive to have a show of this size and quality that has been and continues to be completely run by volunteers.”
One local artist who has been a volunteer and participated in the Wood County Invitation for many years is making her first appearance in the Juried Show this year. Penny Evans-Meyer is a familiar face to anyone who attends art and artisan events in Bowling Green.
“I have enjoyed the festival since the early years as a parent with young kids, as a co-chair with Youth Art, as part of the dawn patrol at 5 a.m. and then more than 10 years in the Wood County Invitational show,” Evans-Meyers said. “At the fest, I’ve been able to chat with others about art, share ideas, talk about my work and help visitors find their ‘perfect’ hat. The Wood County show was my first show as an artist. This year, I am honored and excited to be a juried artist on Main Street for the first time.”
Evans-Meyers uses a variety of knitting and felting techniques with different yarns and fibers to create distinctive hats.
“I create fun, stately, classic and whimsical felt hats,” she said. “I call my work ‘feltigraphy.’ I begin with layers of looped yarn as I knit, then a hot wash shrinks and thickens the fiber to form felt. Hats are sculpted when damp to form a crown, ridge, visor, flap or brim. The process is part-planned and part-surprise. Different yarns, fiber, shaping, time worked and needle-felted designs make each hat unique.”
Last year’s winner of the Best of Show prize, Harry Welsch and Kimberly Wellman of Wellman and Welsch Pottery, will be back this year.
“The community seemed to be knowledgeable and interested in our work, which is sort of expected in a college community,” Wellman said. “We are now working on bigger pieces incorporating other found objects as additions and handles.”
“While we are artists, this is also a business,” Welsch said. “We are back because the community was very receptive to our work and that is not always the case.”
