Artists Hannah Ellingwood and Katie Pugliese bring nature to life through their art.
Both artists will be first-time showers at the Francestown Juried Arts and Crafts Fair, during the town’s Labor Day celebrations this Monday. There will be a total of 28 artists featured, with nine artists new to the exhibition.
Both Ellingwood and Pugliese are among the new talent being featured. Though they work through different mediums, both draw their inspiration from animals and their rural environments.
“I think I’ve always felt awe when I’ve seen a wild animal when I’m out in the woods. I want people to get that same sense of awe when they’re looking at my art,” Ellingwood said.
Ellingwood works with layered paper cuttings to depict animals such as fox, moose, and grasshoppers she’s spotted while out on walks with her camera, as well as the occasional less common animal, such as an octopus.
Pugliese, who works with needle felting to make anthropomorphic characters, also bases a lot of her work on the depiction of animals, though her work typically takes a more whimsical approach.
Pugliese began needle felting about three years ago, she said at her home in Mason.
“I’ve always been into art in one medium or another. I was given a bag of raw wool three years ago by a friend, and they said, ‘Can you do something with this?’” Pugliese said. “I said, ‘Not yet.’”
Pugliese dug into books and blogs on felting to learn the technique, and now, three years later, she has a motley collection of felted critters – a singing ladybug with a backing band of grasshoppers, a gardening raccoon, and a disgruntled fox having his first cup of coffee of the day.
“It looks mostly like a wooly blob in the beginning, but usually as I’m making the character, they begin to get an expression. Sometimes I start with an idea, but sometimes the inspiration comes from the work,” Pugliese said.
Her fox, she said, got his cup of coffee because he looked rather crotchety – not the other way around.
Despite the characters being made from a single material – wool – Pugliese said it comes in so many varieties, she never feels limited by it.
“Different types of wool behave differently. There are so many different colors and textures. You’re only limited by your imagination,” Pugliese said.
Ellingwood also taught herself her particular medium, out of necessity while chasing a particular artistic look, but lacking the needed equipment.
She started as a printmaker, she said, which is an artistic technique in which you create individual layers of colored ink to make a single image. However, after leaving school, she didn’t have access to the kind of printmaking machines to get the images she wanted.
So instead, she began creating those same effects through layers of paper. Using a surgical scalpel – more precise than an X-Acto knife – she starts with a white outline, which includes cut-outs to represent feathers, fur or scales, and different colored paper underlies the top layer. The more intricate the design, the more layers she uses.
“It has the same look as block print,” Ellingwood said. “A lot of people say that, which makes me happy, because that’s exactly the look I’m going for.”
Ellingwood said she’s recently begun adding a new level of complexity to her work, by adding in backgrounds and landscapes as backdrops for her animal creations.
“I’m excited to explore that aesthetic,” she said.
The Francestown Juried Arts and Crafts Exhibit and Sale is planned to be held during Francestown’s Labor Day celebrations on Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Francestown Improvement and Historical Society Park on Main Street in Francestown.
There is no admission fee, and original works will be for sale. Ellingwood will be providing demonstrations of her paper cutting technique.
For a full list of featured artists or more information about the exhibit, visit www.francestownhistory.info.