CARON HIBBENS

Caron joined us last year for the first time.  Her enthusiasm for life and for what she does is contagious.  You will see it in her smile. She is dedicated to the art  of creating original vintage jewelry, and has made a commitment this year to become, in a variety of ways, even more involved in the art world.   For many years she has specialized in making watch band locket bracelets, but has been expanding her expertise with other vintage jewelry components.   She is always on the search for vintage watch parts, lockets, cameos, buttons, anything old, sparkly, and French.  

ROBIN ARMSTRONG SEEBER

​New this year to the Festival is Robin Armstong Seeber she hails from West Alexander, Pennsylvania.  where she creates one-of-a-kind art dolls, and also works as a licensed designer.  She has a devoted following across the United States, and in more than 8 countries world wide.   If you know Robin work , it will be a treat to meet her and see her seasonal work in person, and especially the unique artistry she has created just for the Festival.  She has been published in many popular doll magazines.  She lives on a small farm with her husband , horses, cats and maybe a duck or two.  She loves to create folk art dolls and she also has a passion for photography.  Robin is very excited to be joining us this year.

       JACK ROADS....SPECIAL GUEST                                          

"Jack has created paper mache figures for many years. He was an art instructor, but he has since retired. He was spending nearly all his time for many years after retirement collecting antiques and bits of odds and ends. Which, He cleverly created little vignettes in his imagination sometimes using found objects to create a back drop for the  figures he had created in the past.  His work has been collected by many all over the country. He was a master of paper mache and a mentor to many. Jack has been a participating artist in the American Folk Art Festival from its beginning. He will be visiting as a Guest this year..... Please stop by tell him Hello and have a little chat.

CHARLENE GEIGER

Charlene's work is one-of-a-kind.  She studied design at Louise Salinger's School of Design, but her talent for design has always been innate...in other words a part of her essence since birth.  She has a way with organic materials that compares to none other.  Her figures and other creations are ethereal ...other worldly.  The materials she uses are both vintage and new, but they blend together seamlessly, as if they were a treasure from times past.

SUZY CROOKS

We are happy to again welcome Suzy to the Festival.  She has had a long history of collecting antiques.  She has a special penchant for collecting holiday items particularly anything Halloween and Christmas.  She currently has a permanent vendor space at the Blue Door Antiques in Livermore, California.  We think you will be excited to see her eclectic collection of vintage pieces.  She is passionate about collecting and animals.

CRYSTAL

Is a designer of the dark, her shop Gothic Rose Antiques specializes in Haunting Antique Decor, and Fine Gothic  Goods for the darkly inclined. 

You can shop on her website 24/7 where you will find antique fantasy furniture, rare books, primitives, folk art, Victorian clothing, costuming and Estate jewelry.  She also carries top hats, masks, dark art, oddities, curiosities, and much more.  In addition she creates Wicked Wares by Crystal and she incorporates as many antique and vintage materials into each original piece as possible. She feels it adds to the "soul" of each creation and helps to preserve the past.

SUSAN ARNOT

Susan steps into a bygone era when she creates her vintage Victorian inspired Folk Art.  Her creations are known as After Midnight Folk Art.  She was motivated to create her own work because of her love of vintage holiday pieces.  Her creations are sought after because they are individually created with  many vintage materials, to name a few; old sheet music, glass beads, crepe paper, vintage fabric and trim, and assorted other finds.  The vintage and otherwise  doll heads that are an important part of her work are imported from Germany.  She has a studio in Sacramento California and when she combines vintage materials with sometimes new findings, and materials... the results are magical.

Kat Anderson, Robin Armstrong Seeber, Susan Arnot, Susan Bartolucci, Crystal (Gothic Rose), Lisa Christophe,

Suzy Crooks, Allen W. Cunningham, Nada Ferris, Charlene Geiger, Marcia Harmon, Caron Hibbens, Deni Kendig, Cheryl Kuhn, Thomas Kurth, Leeann Kress, Vickie La Moe, Leslie Mccarthy, Nicol Sayre, Connie Govea Stuart, Melissa D. Tereck,  Connie Tognoli, Katherine Webber, Valerie Weberpal, Lurena Williamson, 

Jack Roads (special guest)

VENDORS

Alexis Baking Company/Alexis Handelman, Tarot Reader/Marcia McCord, Lisa and Todd Simpson/Three Sisters Barrel Works, Mary Stornetta/Anette's Chocolates Napa Valley...The Oldest Chocolatier in Napa,

ARTISTS AND DEALERS FOR FESTIVAL 2017

We are pleased to welcome Caramia back to the Festival...she has had a very busy year keeping up with her own business, as owner designer at Hotcakes Design and Favor.  She Has also been assisting her husband David with his new restaurant Pompette in Berkeley California.

Talk about fun, Caramia herself is the definition of fun, and so also are her jewelry pieces.  Her jewelry line of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pins and you name it (she'll make it) are reminiscent of Bakelite jewelry in the past, both in design and graphics.  Everything old becomes new again and Caramia has put her own fresh chic, clever and creative spin on her pieces that makes them timely and relevant.

​​ OUR 2017 HalloVine WINE LABEL ARTIST                                                   

NICOL SAYRE

We are pleased to announce that Nicol Sayre is our art design label artist this year.  She has been a participant in the American Folk Art Festival since it's beginning.  Her dolls are reminiscent of antique dolls.  Each figure is a one-of-a-kind creation made  by hand , clothed in vintage fabrics and completed with either handmade  or found collectible accessories.  This attention to detail gives each doll their personality.  Her sewing skills are extraordinary, and she is always searching for the perfect find to  use in her next creation.  Nicol  sometimes travels to Europe, and afar to find the perfect vintage finds she needs.  The favorite time period from which Nicol  draws  her inspiration is the mid-1800's.  Please  meet Nicol and her ladies.  If you purchase a bottle of HalloVine wine, with its collectible label, Nicol will be on hand to sign your bottle.

MARCIA HARMON

Marcia has collected stuff since she was a child.  The last 15 years she  has been  designing UBU jewelry and networking within the Northern California Bead Society, which has vastly expanded her knowledge and creative use of found objects. She is the owner of  Cottage Jewel  in Danville where there is an offering  of every form of EMBELLISHMENT for you or your home......plus monthly Lectures, Appraisal Clinics, altered-art Workshops, Trunk Shows and More. When she is not hosting parties or participating in local shows, she will  also provide Estate Liquidation services.  She will be bringing to the Festival numerous one-of-a-kind treasures including antique, vintage, hand-made artful novelties and earthly finds.

ALLEN W CUNNINGHAM

Allen was interested in handiwork from a very early age.  He began drawing and experimented with crafting doll-like figures with odds and ends found around the house.  As he grew older, he began collecting antique dolls, toys, and children's books.  Allen's work consists of hand sculpted dolls in paperclay.  He dresses the dolls in a variety of new and antique fabrics, and trims.  All accessories seen with the dolls are also handmade.  His characters are always engaged in action either with each other or the viewer.  You're sure to have a smile when you see his work.

CARAMIA VISICK

NADA FERRIS

We are excited to have Nada join us this year at the Festival, as she is both an artist and an antique dealer.  She has amazing old world rug hooking skills, which is something new for the Festival.  With the recent revival of handcrafted art, Nada's skills are in great demand.  This will be Nada's first visit to the Festival and we could not be more proud to welcome her to the American Folk Art Festival..........because she is the very essence of American Folk Art.  She lives in Fairview California, and besides her rug hooking and antiquing skills is also a former nurse practitioner.  She studied at UCSF.  Perhaps, she learning her hooking skills from the mid-west as she is formally from Ann Arbor Michigan

CHERYL KUHN

Yaaaaaayyyy.. Cheryl is coming to the Festival.  She completes the trifecta of close friends coming from the mid-west this year.   We are so thrilled to have her here .  Cheryl is a master of vintage assemblage/collage.  We are so excited to have you see her work using ephemera and vintage finds.  She calls her body of work Small Stories Studios.  Each piece tells a story from the past with her clever use of textures and found objects.  The beauty of her pieces are that you are able to take her clues and interpret your own story from a color palette of vintage looks.  You will be able to see the magical mysteries of perhaps your own experience and remember or of one  yet to remember.  Not to be compared with any one style in particular....it is truly her own.....one-of-a-kind inspirations.

VALERIE WEBERPAL 

Valerie is a self-taught folk artist.  She is most well-known for her folk art doll and critters...but recently she has taken on painting seriously. She says her painting style has changed immensely as she continues to grow.  She is continually evolving as she decipher's what it is she feels as a painter.  She states that she has always had a simplistic/idealistic/innocent view of the world.  She further acknowledges that painting allows her to explore another side of herself that which is softer, harder, sarcastic, ironic as she struggles to find her place in the world of paint.  Please welcome Valerie again to the Festival, she  is also a member of the mid-west trifecta.  Bonus, Valerie is also a gifted garment seamstress and accessory fabricator.

M. D. Tereck

Melissa  has dedicated her life to creating art.  She  had  an early career as a clothing designer, but her true love is the art of  paper mache. She takes pride that her hand made work is created in the USA in her home studio.  She is inspired by vintage paper mache art.  Her work is  in many collections.  She has been working on paper mache  houses the likes of which would be suitable homes for fairies and gnomes.  These little abodes have gained the attention of many collectors, and are something truly unique.  She is also proud to add workshop instructor to her resume, as she recently held her first workshop on creating these little houses that have been her brain child.

LISA CHRISTOPHE

Lisa is a wife, mother and talented  designer of vintage fabric handbags.  She has loved textiles ever since she can remember.  Her mother taught her how to sew when she was 11 years old.  She travels to the east coast every year to attend the biggest flea markets in the world finding vintage embellishments to use in her designs.  She uses antique baubles and vintage jewelry to accessorize her bags.  Each bag is one-of-a-kind. She loves the thrill of the hunt for antique jewelry and fabric at the flea market.   She is passionate about her work and loves every moment of the creative process. More of her work  can be seen on Pinterest and she has a shop on Etsy.  

KAT ANDERSON

This will be Kat's first visit to the American Folk Art Festival.  She will be coming to us from the state of Washington.  She started creating at a young age. Her Grandmother's were inspirational in helping her explore a variety of art materials.  It seems that she has found her true passion making one-of-a-kind art doll figures in both polymer and air dry clay.  She  enjoys creating handmade art....especially the art of Halloween.  Her journey of learning many skills including sewing has helped perfect the personalities of her figures.

​​

THOMAS KURTH

Thomas prefers the notion that, as life, a home is in a beautiful state of ebb and flow.  In today's disposable culture, he is looking for quality and longevity.  Finding inspiration in the broken  ...here are some words that describe what he sees, oddities, familiar objects, unconventional, curious, rare, organic, erratic, primal, and powerful.

LeeAnn KRESS

LeeAnn's passion is creating one-of-a-kind sculptures with a bit of whimsy.  She is especially fond of Halloween and Faerie art, but she also does a wide array of other subjects.  Her Grandmother was a very big influence and inspiration for her creativity.  Having tried most all the common mediums used for sculpting...she has now found Creative Paper Clay to be her material of choice.  She is currently continuing to experiment and discover who she is as an artist and her style..and she hopes that people who collect her art will treasure it.  LeeAnn is also one of the several licensed artists that were chosen to participate in the Festival this year.  Because of the nature of the Festival, LeeAnn will be bringing pieces that you might not see from her anywhere else.  We invite you to enjoy her work, and also look for her article in the August publication of Art Doll Quarterly Magazine.

 VICKIE LaMOE

Vickie is always on the search for antiques everywhere she goes.  She has a house in California and one in the mid-west as well.  So, her antique  hunting can be anywhere in between these locations and may even extend farther east.  She  has quite a collection of items  in storage, which is located  near her home town of Durham CA.  She  especially loves to collect primitive Americana, and has an extensive private personal collection of Halloween collectibles from  a variety of Halloween artists.  If Vickie doesn't have what you are looking for....she may know where she can find it.

CONNIE GOVEA STUART

Connie is a multi-media artist in every sense of the word.  She has experimented with a variety of materials and techniques over the years she has been an art-maker.  However, her favorite art activity to do is mix fabric and paper to create unexpected combinations.  She is a self-taught artist and finds inspiration in a variety of things; such as nature, fabrics, old metal, anything vintage, buttons, and many other pursuits that inspire her creativity.  Unlike some artists, Connie has not been creating since childhood, but what she has done in the time she has discovered playful creativity is amazing. She is a published author, as well as participating in numerous publications, and she is a sought out workshop instructor.  Please welcome Connie to our Festival Family in one of her favorite locations in the world, the Napa Valley.

CONNIE TOGNOLI

Those in the know...know about Connie Tognoli....she is a well-respected artist in the doll world as a dollmaker, innovator, and pattern maker.  She has had  a long career, and continues to have the ability to  make people extremely happy with her creative skills.  Our first meeting was many years ago at a Folk Art Show in Southern California.  At the time,  she was very involved in creating handmade felted wool characters.  Since that time she has continued to blossom in all areas of handmade and originally designed dolls, bunnies, bears and other animals.  These creations have unique costuming and accessories.  She is also skilled in doll repair. We are very excited to have Connie be a part of the Festival this year.

SUSAN BARTOLUCCI

Susan creates one-of-a-kind folk art....always with a pun!  For her the journey of creating art is as important as the resulting art.  She is almost always on a new artistic trip somewhere, most often without any preconceived notion of where.   To forget any artistic techniques and to experiment is her freedom in creation.  Her art may take the form of figurative sculpture, ornamentation, collage, assemblage, or torched tin....... using a variety of materials such as; found objects, fabric, clay, papier mache, paper, wire, tin, canvas, paint, etc.  Nothing is held sacred.  Anything can become an art object, or art material.  Inspiration is drawn from surrounding raw materials, which she tries to look beyond their original intent and form.  The art of Halloween is a particular passion. 

​LESLIE McCARTHY 

​​With all creative people there has to be someone who finds the unusual and hard to find pieces to enhance their wonderful projects.  Leslie spent 24 years in France scouring small village flea markets and clearing houses.  Most of the items she sells are from France and she takes great pleasure in passing on these little treasures from the past....that become Americanized treasures.   Her business is appropriately called Deja Vu.  She lives in Arcata , California and sells predominantly at local flea markets and the occasional show in Northern California.

​DENI KENDIG

Deni has been creating art for a very long time.  She began as soon as she could hold onto her crayons.  She drew her first animal at age 3....a perfect blue rabbit. Animals and nature have inspired her work ever since. She creates an anthropomorphic world of animals that come to life with charm and personality when she adorns them clothes and accessories.  Mouse taxidermy was the perfect evolution of her art.  Her "mouses", as they like to be referred to, can be anything they dream to be.

As a self-taught illustrator, she brings animals to life on paper and ceramic as well.  She makes tiny miniature paintings, and drawings ...some that are no bigger than an inch.  She loves the details of life and nature.  She has always loved the tiniest details of the world and that is where her art lives.

KATHERINE WEBBER

Katherine's Halloween art is inspired by many family influences and childhood memories. Mostly by her very imaginative and colorful Danish Grandmother who came from a family of talented musicians and painters. She made every holiday celebration special but Halloween was our favorite! She would transform their home with spooky life size Halloween characters and a holiday trinket at the table where we sat. Katherine's Irish Great Grandmother was a well respected medium. Some of her visual inspirations come from this connection with the beyond bringing a surrealist twist to her quirky and scary creations.  Besides the American Folk Art Festival; Katherine has participated in the  Monsterpalooza and ScareLA in Los Angeles; and Ghoultide Gathering in the Detroit area.  She is a Washington native residing near Seattle.
She is honored to have been part of the American Folk Art Festival since its creative inception by Sue Bartolucci.

LURENA SHEARY-WILLIAMSON

This will be Lurena's first trip to the Festival, although she has long felt the pull of the west having originally come from San Jose California.  She has been an artist for a long time ...being influenced by the vintage wonders in her Grandmother's closet.  Lurena has a degree in the arts, however she is  a self-taught  in the art of the doll figure.  When creating she has no formal beginning, but is inspired by the materials that happen to surround her.  A formal pattern is never drawn/used, but only imagined in her mind. Everything inspires her from books to people and everything else in between.  There is a passion for detail in her work, and it must strike in her admirers a sense of humor.

ARTIST & ANTIQUE DEALER PROFILES