Festival sparks imagination, creativity

When some people see old signs and scrap steel, they see garbage. Lucas Stokes sees canvases and feathers.

He used a 4-inch-by-4-inch "for sale" sign from outside an old apartment building as a canvas for "The Tavern."

The oil painting depicts long-haired fairies lazily kicking back in a bar through a haze of smoky green and orange. The intricate feathers in his sculpture "Crow #1," are leftover scrap steel from his day job as a

metalworker.

Stokes, an Ohio native who lives in Sheffield, is one of about 96 artists from the Southeast who will take part in the 22nd annual Arts Alive juried fine arts and craft festival at Wilson Park and the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts in Florence.

On Saturday and Sunday, artists display and demonstrate a variety of media in booths at the park, including paint, photography, sculpture, jewelry and wood.

Other works will be on display at the arts center.

Atlanta artist Vivian Moody has been an Arts Alive regular since 1994.

Primarily a commissioned portrait artist, she doesn't travel to many arts festivals, but said Arts Alive's sense of community keeps her coming back year after year.

"I love the people over there," said the Franklin County native. "I've always said that was my Mayberry over there."

She photographs her subjects before painting them.

One, of a black woman wearing a turquoise turban looking down, titled "Queenie," will be on display at the arts center.

Trafford artist Bill Hill is one to watch this year, said Mhairi Frank, chairwoman of the festival.

"I've never seen someone with as much diversity as he has," she said. "He goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, but his ridiculous is so unique."

His diversity in media ranges from watercolor to ink, but his subjects usually retain humor.

Artists will sell their work at prices lower than those charged at galleries, which traditionally tack on commission charges, Frank said.

"There's no upscale charge, no commission (customers) have to pay," she said.

This year's Arts Alive comes after the closing of two downtown Florence galleries earlier this year. Moody said she was sad to hear about the closings.

"It's just a sign of the times, I guess," she said.

Frank hopes art in schools will renew the community's passion for purchasing art.

"I think it is a case of we have to educate people who live here that art is important to buy," she said. "It's nice to buy."

Stokes said he's looking forward to the art festival, his first since moving to the Shoals.

He spent two months working on "The Tavern," inspired by a Bohemian painting. He decided to make "Crow #1" during a slow day at work.

"I ran out of stuff to do, so I put (the metal scraps) together and made a bird," he said.

Jennifer Crossley can be reached at 740-5743 or jennifer.crossley@timesdaily.com.