LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Artists from across the Commonwealth covered the vending area of Alltech Arena with booths to display and sell at the Kentucky Crafted Market on Sunday.
“I love what I do,” said Dan Neil Barnes. “I’m a glass artist, and it’s what I was given as a child. It’s what I was good at and what I love doing, so it’s become my life.”
Artists like Dan travel the country to shows like this, selling their art to make a living.
Barnes said, “This show at Kentucky Crafted is literally a mile from my home, so this is one of the only shows I do that I actually get to sleep in my own bed, so it’s really kind of fun.”
In its 41st year, Kentucky Crafted aims to promote visual and craft artists within Kentucky. This includes artists like Laura Green McGee, a silk artist from Bowling Green.
“I learned about silk painting by taking a weekend course,” McGee said. “I just loved the way the colors are so vibrant, and I can touch the brush to the silk, and the designs turned out so wonderfully. I’ve been doing this for several decades already."
Other artists started their trade for different reasons. Park Crain, a carpenter by trade, began making unique coat hangers.
“I’ve always tinkered in my small shop at home and given things away for Christmas to family and friends, and then a couple of years ago, I thought, maybe I can sell some of this,” Crain said.
George McCord grew up canning items with his grandma when he saw someone’s homemade jelly and felt he could do better.
“One day, I just saw somebody’s jelly. I said, well, I can do that, and I have. We started out with five flavors, and now we’re up to about 30. So we call ourselves the Baskin Robbins of pepper jelly,” McCord stated.
One group even creates unique handles to go on top of broomsticks.
While the Kentucky Crafted Market only stretched throughout this past weekend, many of these artists will return on Aug. 17 and 18 for the Woodland Art Fair in Lexington.
