Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
More than 250 artists from across the country gathered at the Maryland State Fairgrounds for the 42nd Annual Sugarloaf Crafts Festival to convey history, emotion and knowledge through their distinctive art.
An estimated 17,000 customers, tourists and curious onlookers crowded the Timonium facility on a cool and rainy Sunday to view and purchase handcrafted pottery, home goods, paintings, jewelry, and ornaments, said festival official Andrew Bassett.
Surrounded by his watercolor paintings, Burl Washington, an Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War, explained that he produced watercolor paintings based on the struggles and contributions of African American and military history that often are overlooked. For example, he displayed a series on the Buffalo soldiers who were African American soldiers stationed in isolated areas in the western frontier during the Civil War. Buffalo soldiers controlled the West, kept adversaries away, and paved the way for settlers to move into Western towns.
“Threads of a Generation Painting” is about the times Washington’s grandmother, mother, and aunts would congregate to make quilts, an African American tradition of sewing together fabric pieces until they expand into a covering. The quilts are often passed down to younger generations to retain family history and heritage.
Washington also recalled making his own butter on a farm with his family and preparing what he called “cow peas” or black-eyed peas. He credited Norman Rockwell and Charles White as artists who influenced him.
Ceramic artist Charlene A. Randolph from upstate New York said that she made her art out of ceramic clay, pottery, and glass. Randolph said she uses realism and nature in her paintings, asserting that she likes texture and that glaze brings the art to life.
“Aside from loving the feel of the clay,” Randolph said, “I like that in pottery there is more freedom to have the creativity come from inside versus reproducing something I saw. I love that you can go in so many different directions with clay. It’s never boring.”
Randolph said her favorite art piece is a texture design she had stamps made of. She said that each coil was rolled by hand, pieced together and set inside a form and then glazed. She completely covered it with a black under glaze.
A lot of Randolph’s work has human-like characteristics, she said, explaining she made an art piece that resembled the rompers she used to wear in the summer.
“It’s always interesting to see people’s reaction to your work,” she said.
Painter Irina Russell explained in a Russian accent that her Christmas-themed bowls, vases, and ornaments showing the nativity of Jesus in Jerusalem, snow, and the nutcracker, were made from glass and painted with oil paint. She said that she painted the ornaments from the inside and painted the bowls from the outside.
She said that she produced her art based on her imagination. She explained that although it does not snow in Jerusalem, she painted the image of snow on an ornament to bring her imagination to life.
She said that she uses festivals and art shows to teach Americans the process of how her art is made.
“In Russia we were born on art,” she said. “We know art so much and since America is young it needs a bit of education.”
Russell added that Americans were surprised her bowls were hand-blown. She affirmed that the ridges on her bowls were where the torch cut the bowl while it was being hand-blown.
“One lady came by and tried to scratch the ridge of the bowl thinking that it was a defect, it’s not a defect, it is proof that the bowl is hand-blown glass,” she said.
Bernie Legrande, a festival visitor, said that she comes at least once a year and appreciates artists. She added that she looks for water colors and unique art work such as her favorite art piece of colorful clocks that uses a guitar as a pendulum.
“I don’t have much appreciation for abstract art,” she said. “I like realistic art. If it’s a horse I want to see a horse. I don’t want to see the artist’s interpretation of a horse.”
Legrande added: “This festival gives artists the opportunity to be creative and to share something you wouldn’t normally see because when you go to a department store today, everything is mass produced and has no creativity.”
Davis’ friend and ceramic artist, Ellen Horowitz said she also has delved into painting, and quilting.
“Part of the search in the festival is for you to find something that you would find meaning, humor or joy in,” Horowitz said.
Davis recalled seeing a photograph of a building with gas stations, which reminded her of her grandparents who owned a gas station and filled her with nostalgia.
Horowitz explained that a photograph of a soldier putting American flags in graves reminded her of her father who died and was a Marine.
The Sugarloaf Crafts Festival was established in 1975 by George and Deann Verdier, who created the Sugarloaf Mountain Works organization to provide a platform for artists and small businesses at a low-overhead cost.
A year after beginning, in 1976, more than 10,000 people attended the first Sugarloaf Crafts Festival in Gaithersburg, Md., but officials said the first festival in Timonium was held in 1978.
Bassett, known as the Support Agent, said the festival tours twice a year in the fall and in the spring in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and three times a year in Virginia. Approximately 20,000 people attend every year on average, and the tickets are $8 online, $10 at the door, and free for children under 12 years old.
Booth fees for artists depend on the state the event is held and the size of the booth, said Bassett. In Maryland, festival artists can pay a minimum of $595 for a 10-by-10 feet booth and an additional fee of $50 for 300-watts of electricity. Artists also can pay a maximum of $1,745 for a 10-by-30 feet booth plus a $120 fee for 900-watts. If an artist wants a corner booth, then he or she must pay an extra $100 fee, said Bassett.