Carmel painter Taylor Walker will be among artists at the Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts in Bloomington over Labor Day weekend.
BLOOMINGTON — The annual Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts will return to Bloomington on Fourth Street between Lincoln Street and Indiana Avenue from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 2 and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 3.
The event, now in its 47th year, is one of most beloved and anticipated events on Bloomington’s art and culture calendar. Typically, in any given year, at least one-third of the juried artists are displaying their work at Fourth Street for the first time.
Four of this year’s new artists, from various Indiana communities, are painter Taylor Walker of Carmel, potter Kelly Meska of Bloomington, jeweler Heidi Mandich of Indianapolis, and wood turner Samuel Dean of Whitehall.
While each artist has their own genre and techniques, they all share a passion for creating art and making things, a love for detail and teaching, and all are committed to experimenting, continually learning and perfecting their art, and are well-tuned into the business aspects of making a living with their art.
Taylor Walker is an expressionist painter who is passionate about animals and focuses on them in her work. Kelly Meska has been a potter for 25 years and has also been an art teacher most of that time.
Jeweler Heidi Mandich has a different background.
“I was not an artist or a teacher by trade,” says Mandich, “I took my first metalsmithing class at the Indianapolis Art Center in 2006, and did my first show a year later.” Soon, she was teaching metalsmithing at the art center, and realized that she loved both.
Samuel Dean has been a woodworking hobbyist for 35 years. His father had a woodshop where he would make sculptures, carvings and furniture. The wood lathe was one tool his dad didn’t use, making it available for Sam to practice with.
These four artists are just a handful of the 100-plus artists in 2D, ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, painting, photography, sculpture and wood who will line Fourth Street over Labor Day weekend, eager to talk with patrons about their work, their inspiration, and techniques.
Whether for a couple of hours or the entire weekend, festival organizers encourage art lovers to soak in the beauty of the designs and artisanship, and to connect with the stories of the people who create them.
Information: 4thstreet.org.
