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MayFest  Fine Arts & Master Crafts Faire
Set For May 17th  and 18th

Historic Greeneville, TN - Anything worth doing once is worth doing … 5 times. Put another way, if something works, keep doing it. JamesBen: Studio & Gallery Art Center is taking this truth to heart with its annual celebration of the arrival of spring. Scheduled for May 17th and 18th is the gallery’s MayFest Fine Arts and Master Crafts Faire. This is the weekend when the art moves out into the fresh air to be demonstrated and sold by some of the gallery’s best artists, fine crafts people and special guests. Hours for the Faire are Saturday, May 17th from 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday May 18th from noon to 5 PM. The MayFest Fine Arts and Master Crafts Faire will be set up in the parking area between James-Ben Gallery and the General Morgan Inn. The Gallery is located at stoplight #3, at the corner of Main and Church Streets in Greeneville’s downtown historic district.

Visitors to the Fine Arts and Master Crafts Faire can expect to be intrigued and delighted by the eclectic variety of art to be demonstrated, displayed, and performed - and by interacting with the eight folks participating. The creative materials involved include wood in several forms, both watercolor and oil paint, semi-precious stones with copper, silver and gold, engraved glass, and fine chocolate. Wanda Rahm’s work, featuring the art of pyrography. Includes lidded boxes and unusual Christmas ornaments. Her pieces are decorated on every surface and very complex in their detail. One of the newest artists in the gallery is “Dusty” Anderson who creates framed, engraved glass images. Perfect for the hunter or sportsman in your family are her wildlife images including bears, deers, turkeys, and wolves. She also specializes in custom portraits from photographs. Dust’s mom, special guest Barbara Sweet, will be presenting her watercolors and her woodcarvings. Appalachian Secrets, the inspiration of Claude Harden, will have a richly designed and varied array of semi-precious stones with metal findings primarily in  necklaces and earring forms. Bill Waide’s American primitive landscapes in oil on canvas are both evocative and pastoral. This is Bill’s first Faire and he has been painting with great focus and dedication to prepare for this event.

Foods and live music for the Fine Arts and Master Crafts Faire call on the talents of several folks. Just –A-Poppin’ Kettle Corn will fill their annual space at the Faire as the best kettle corn available (JamesBen’s completely "unbiased"  opinion). Local recording artist Dane Hinkle provide the musical entertainment.  Dane Hinkle and Friends will sing and perform a fine mix of his compositions and classics, accompanied on acoustic and electric guitar and his amazing harmonica. CD’s from his ‘Mudsill Music’ are always on hand for sale at the gallery. Inside the gallery, visitors to the Faire can meet East Tennessee’s chocolatier, Blue Ridge Chocolates’ Jane Wilson. Jane will be offering her east -Tennessee- made  tasting disks, truffles, bear paws, caramel pecans, biscotti in 3 flavors and the children’s favorite – chocolate encrusted pretzel sticks in dark, milk and white chocolate versions.

In addition to the Faire,  of special interest to our collectors will be Ellen McGowan Genre Sculptures:  “everyday people doing everyday things”. Ellen is our MayFest Featured Artist from Memphis whose works are included in the collections of former governor Ned Ray McWherter, long-time lieutenant-governor John Wilder, plus entertainers who vary from Tom T. Hall to Bette Midler and golfer Lee Trevino. Her larger works now grace the facilities of such museums as those of Christian Brothers University in Memphis, the West Tennessee Regional Art Center, and the Alex Haley Museum in Henning, as well as more personal and emotional sites such as the Memorial Garden at the Lewis County Hospital in Hohenwald, Agape Family Services in Memphis, and the Perry County Time Capsule at the Bicentennial Capital Mall in Nashville.

The fourth annual MayFest Fine Arts and Master Crafts Faire at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery is open to the public from 10 AM to 5 PM on Saturday, May 17th and from noon to 5 PM on Sunday, May18th. For further information about the faire, the artists featured, or James-Ben: Studio and Gallery, contact James-Ben Stockton or Daniel Luther at (423) 787-0195.