For better or worse, one thing that defines me is my love of antiques and collectibles. For forty years I’ve spent time nearly every week looking for and discovering relics of design and creativity that help me in my understanding and appreciation of our world. I have favorite places and events that I frequent consistently that help to fuel my passion. At the top of the list is the 20th Century Cincinnati show and sale that arrives at the Sharonville convention center on February 24th and 25th this year.

Top five reasons why the 20th Century Cincinnati is the coup de grâce for collectors.

1. The show is visually stimulating and has a wide variety of items from the Modernism era including artwork, furniture, accessories, lighting, jewelry, clothing, glassware and pottery.
2. There are unique and one-of-a-kind items that I covet and am able add to my collection.
3. All the dealers are knowledgeable professionals so the amount of quality merchandise is always overwhelming with much of it reasonably priced.
4. This loose knit, offbeat collection of buyers and sellers are the coolest people on the planet. You have to be there to experience the vibe of the room and to listen to the shared excitement about this era to understand the dynamic.
5. The show acts as a time machine that takes me back to the era I was born into. The 60’s were a time of rebellion and exploration for our culture. The items produced in that era define the mindset of that time

Details about the show

There are 70 regional and national dealers at the show and they display many 20th century’s signature designers and artists. The term mid-century is used as a catch phrase for a variety of styles. It can encompass Art Deco, Contemporary, Machine Age, Modern and Pop Art era objects, which will be well represented at the show.

Every year the show features an in-depth display of a product or artist from the era. This year’s feature is from the Blenko Glass Company. The company will present the exhibit “American Handcraft in the Modern Age.” The display will include historical artifacts, a display of vintage works, and contemporary creations for sale. Although the company had been creating hand blown glass since 1893, it is the mid-century period examples that have become a staple in the homes of vintage modern collectors.

For the serious collector

An exclusive two-hour Java Preview will kickoff 20th Century Cincinnati activities at 9 a.m. Saturday. Advance tickets are $25 and may be acquired online, by phone, or mail.  Preview tickets will also be available at the door Saturday morning for $30. The tickets include early shopping 9 -11 a.m., complimentary coffee/juice bar, and a full-weekend pass.

Show hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Adult admission is $8. Passes are good for both days. The Sharonville Convention Center is located at 11355 Chester Road just off I-75 at the Sharon Road exit (exit #15).

Finally, for more information, visit 

www.20thcenturycincinnati.com or call 513-738-7256

Every year around this time I am reminded that one of my favorite places to be happy is the 20th Century Cincinnati Show. It has become the largest Modernism show in the Midwest with more than 70 dealers from a dozen states. The show covers every inch of the 20,000 square feet in the Sharonville Convention Center. This year’s show is on February 25 and 26.

I’ve attended hundreds of antique and collectible shows across the country. Some shows have a personality and a presence about them. The best shows feel like living entities because they are packed with artful creations from some of the most creative minds on the planet. This 20th Century show stands out because of the quality and volume of merchandise. The vast array of products is complemented by the knowledge of the elite group of dealers at the show who know their wares. Here is a list of the participating dealers: http://20thcenturycincinnati.com/dealers/

A rebellion of culture and design

The 50s and 60s were a renaissance period for architecture and design. The turmoil and uncertainty of the time forged a culture of individuals who challenged traditional thinking. The art and design community of the time questioned how we lived and the products we possessed and then inspired one another to depart from tradition and take a radical turn. The inventiveness of that time still inspires and may be more appreciated today than in the time it was birthed.

By the early 60s, modern art covered the walls in most homes. There was a new manufacturing approach in furniture and accessories of the period too, with straight-line designs and new age materials brought on by space age technology. Music and literature took a radical turn as well with looser structure and free form expression. Soft and gentle became loud and hard. A new era of style and design was born and it still thrives today among enthusiasts who embrace the passion and inventiveness of a time that is now described as the Modernism era.

The 20th Century Cincinnati show features a wide range of Modern products which also broadly encompasses the Arts and Crafts, Mid-Century, Art Deco and Post Modern periods among others.

Experienced and novice collectors who attend find products that meet their fancy from the ultimately rare and unusual, to the affordable, mass produced items from their childhood. Show attendees are consistently impressed by the broad selection of vintage furniture, lighting, artwork and pottery according to show director Bruce Metzger.

“This show specializes in furniture and accessories that are ready to go from the floor of the convention center directly into your home,” Metzger says.

While the dealers at the show remain consistent from year to year, Metzger was pleased to announce that one of the areas largest dealers in Mid Century products, Flower Child, (with stores in Columbus and Cleveland) will be displaying for the first time at this year’s show.

Another stand out category of merchandise will be a large representation of vintage clothing and jewelry from Kimberly Klosterman, The Gilded Lily, Somewhere in Time, Bel-Air Jewelry and other dealers who specialize in fashion and accessories from the era.

Every year the show offers a special exhibit that takes a deeper look at products and design from the Modernism era. This year’s exhibit features some architectural details of six iconic “drafted and crafted” Mid Century Modern homes in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati’s non-profit modern design forum cf3 is presenting the exhibit which will feature representations of hand-drawn blueprints, plans and drawings of the homes. The digitized original drawings invite the viewer to consider similarities in the design process irrespective of an architect’s means of documentation and expression. The drawings will be supplemented by both period and contemporary photographs, as well as other related ephemera.

Weekend activities begin with a two-hour Java Preview beginning at 9:00 a.m. Saturday. Preview tickets admit patrons to the exclusive shopping period (complete with a complimentary coffee, tea and juice bar) and include a full-weekend pass. Preview ticket ordering information is on the website: http://20thcenturycincinnati.com/java-preview/
Regular show hours on Saturday and Sunday are from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The $8 adult admission is good for both days.
The Sharonville Convention Center is located at 11355 Chester Road just off I-75 at the Sharon Road exit (exit #15). Parking is free and all areas of the facility are wheelchair accessible.

The Positive 365 book of quotes helped me understand fully how we are all tethered together by a force greater than ourselves. Strangers told me stories about how the book made a difference in their lives or changed a relationship or uplifted someone they loved who needed to hear an encouraging word. I realized these people who read the book were no longer strangers. In fact I realized that there really aren’t any strangers. There are only people I don’t know well enough. Abe Lincoln’s quote, “I don’t like that fellow, I must get to know him better” resonates with me because of the positive personal reactions from people I didn’t know as they commented about the book.

I’m very excited to announce there is a new and improved version of the Positive 365. It’s called the Positive 366 – The Leap Year edition. This new book of 366 quotes is the result of a chance meeting with a friend of mine’s autistic son. As I handed him the book when it was published in 2012, he immediately told me the book was wrong. He read the cover and said, “There isn’t a quote for everyday because there are 366 days this year.” (2012 was a leap year.) We had a laugh about his perspective, but the thought stuck with me.

As I collected and organized these quotes for publication I was struck by what a difference they made in my thinking every time I read them. I laughed out loud at some and felt heart felt conviction in others. There is great collected wisdom in these condensed blurbs of reflective thought by some of humanity’s greatest minds.

I decided to whittle down the list to my absolute favorite quotes. The condensing of the quotes that resonated with me at my core taught me something about my mind and my attitude. I’ll let you jump to your own conclusions on what I learned from compiling this new group of quotes. Here are the quotes at the top of my list:

7) “If it can be solved, there is no need to worry, and if it can’t be solved, worry is of no use.” Dalai Lama

6) “Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.” William Feather

5) “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek.” Joseph Campbell

4) “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.” Teilhard de Chardin

3) “The melody of our authentic self is within all of us… if we will be still enough to hear our song and brave enough to dance our dance.” Sam Wilder

2) “I’ve become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can’t see — the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.” Jimmy Carter

1) “When we want to make another person happy we want to give them something. But the most precious thing you can give him or her is not something you buy from the market. It is your true presence.” Thich Nhat Hanh

The all-new Positive 366 Leap year Book of Quotes is available on Amazon. These positive quotes delivered a positive thought to me in a meaningful way. My hope it is that reading this book is something you can’t not do! I know it’s a leap you won’t regret-

Here’s the link to the book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Positive-366-Sam-Wilder/dp/0692618872/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459973503&sr=8-1&keywords=positive+366

Hostetler was an attractive old soul, a bearded, feisty, bandanna-wearing, eighty-two-year-old Renaissance man who laughs easily at himself. His rugged hands show the wear from thousands of gouges in wood over fifty years working as a sculptor. He was a modern-day Don Quixote—but instead of seeing a windmill as a dragon, he looked at a tree and saw the female form that lied within. He was one of America’s greatest living sculptors before his passing in late 2015.

The scope of his work includes 600 sculptures that stand in museums, private collections and galleries around the world, in front of the Trump Tower in New York and the Kennedy Library in Boston. His  riveting story, born from a tumultuous generation that created a man with ardor in his work. Hostetler embodied a well-lived journey.

A woman lovely as a tree
It seems odd at first that women are the subject matter of every one of his sculptures. But as you listened to Hostetler, you became entangled in his fascination with the female form. “Women remain child-like with their voices and that softness… Women are the warmth, they are the ideal form, exotic yet pure, compositionally variable, yet identical every time. Life itself comes from woman.” Hostetler praised. “The rooster can strut around the barnyard, but it’s the hen that lays the egg.” He didn’t apologize for his obsession. “It has led me from the contemporary woman as mother, wife, nurturer, to vamp, seductress and queen,” Hostetler said.

He spent a lifetime studying women’s role in society. “This art form for me is constant discovery. This idea of women . . . I’m (always) searching to find answers. Now I’m back 4,000 years in the history of women. My focus is Near East with Minoan, Cretin and Cycladic imagery. I’m still looking,” said Hostetler. “It’s like Giacometti said, I’ll leave without the answer and that’s the way it should be, because it’s part of the evolutionary process.” But as you listened to him you would wonder if he actually did have his answer.

Small town momma’s boy
His humble beginnings were in the town of Beach City, Ohio, which offered neither a beach nor a city. He remembered his father as a brooding unhappy man who was raised Amish but left the sect because he considered the Amish “cowards” because they wouldn’t fight in World War I. His mother was nurturing, warm and protective. Hostetler was a self proclaimed momma’s boy, enamored with women early on.

He joined the Army at seventeen during World War II and tested so high on entrance exams that he was placed in a special unit to become an army engineer. His time studying for the army at Ohio University led him to what would become the loves of his life, woman and art. Hostetler’s military career was cut short by a training exercise that left shrapnel in his leg. His Army hospital bunkmate was a watercolor artist and with the offer of free art supplies from the Red Cross, Hostetler began drawing and discovered what would become his lifelong passion.

During his yearlong recovery in 1946 he was earning $20 each week from the military (known affectionately by veterans as the 52-20 club). He studied art history and learned how to live an artist’s lifestyle. “You could drink a lot of beer for $20 a week back then,” Hostetler chuckled. He audited classes at Cleveland University and was tutored casually by Albert Hise, an art historian and director of the Massillon (Ohio) Museum. “I fell in love with art history and Shakespeare that summer” said Hostetler.

His first immersion into the application of art was at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., where he met his mentor in Professor Karl Martz. In the first class, Martz masterfully turned three lumps of clay into beautiful vessels of varying shapes within minutes. Hostetler exclaimed, “You could make hundreds of them a day.” To which Martz softly replied “But who would want to?” With that statement Hostetler began to understand the nature of the true artist. Karl Martz’ soft and gentle demeanor had a lasting impact on the person that Hostetler has become. Hostetler also learned a great deal from the respected colony of artists near the university, known as the Brown County School.

Hostetler made a living in pottery in the late forties and early fifties with a large pottery operation in Athens, Ohio and a sales office at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. He believes his days as a potter were great training for his future as a sculpture because “pottery is about contour and potters also see silhouettes in shapes.”

Rekindling a vision
His fond memories of a quaint campus filled with beautiful women while studying to be an Army Engineer were like a siren call to Hostetler. He returned to Athens to obtain a masters degree in fine arts at Ohio University. He taught art there for more than thirty-five years and was known as a patient man who taught students to celebrate life with their art. His students include David True, Harvey Breverman and Jim Dine. Dine collaborated with Hostetler in his shop in Athens and in studios in New York City. Hostetler spent over a decade with Dine in New York City but left because he felt he was loosing touch with himself as an artist and as a person. Hostetler said, “I started not to know who the hell I was. It was a slippery slope. My agent at the time said, if you cross the Hudson River your history… and she was right. They don’t give out the prizes here in the woods (in Athens), but this is what I need,” Hostetler reflected. One of his students, Estrellita Karsh, describes Hostetler as “a divine human… funny, witty and a very good friend. David is the kind of man phonies copy.”

Hostetler felt “Most (artists) take a more time sensitive approach to producing their art in ways that doesn’t take months. “Time in America seems to be critical in our lifestyle at the moment. It isn’t for me. There is no wrist watch. Time on my wrist, I gave up years ago.” He is one of a handful of wood sculptors that still uses the old school approach of carving by hand with gouges. “The removal of the wood is a very mantra-esque act. I get into a rhythm just like playing the drums,” Hostetler said as he counted 4/4 time while taping away on his latest form. He was an avid jazz drummer but claims he doesn’t have the innate talent to achieve the desired sound on the drums. He was bewildered by his shortcomings as a musician juxtaposed to the ease in which he has created his sculptures and paintings. “I feel my limits in music but I don’t feel them in art,” Hostetler said.

The wondering Hostetler finds himself at home
“They say the teenage years are the toughest, but for me it was midlife. I tried to travel to find myself in the seventies but all I found was that wherever I traveled, I was still me, and my monkeys were still with me,” Hostetler states. He called that period of time his “butterfly years.” “I had fifteen years where I discarded my persona, hopped on a motorcycle and I was questing. I was moving from place to place and woman to woman. What I really discovered was that everything I wanted was here (at his studio). I am happiest here in my sandbox because I built it that way. I built my own Disney World,” Hostetler said. “Art is a mirror image of a person’s life discovery. My biggest discovery (then) was to activate my women,” Hostetler said. Hostetler accomplished some of his most popular work in this era including the Walking Woman and Dancing Lady series. These sculptures were different than his previous work because his “women” showed motion.

Hostetler gave freely to his life to his art, sacrificing relationships in that process. One of his girlfriends burst into his studio in the early 80’s and shouted, “You like your art better than me.” Hostetler could do nothing but agree with her. Hostetler has had many relationships with a wide variety of woman, many of whom who are immortalized in his work. He feels that it is difficult to “find your flower” and stay with the same person for 50 or 60 years. Hostetler believed “People don’t evolve or they evolve in different ways.” In 1983 Hostetler found his flower in Susan Crehan. The only prenuptial he demanded was that his art would always come first. She agreed and they married in 1986. He credited her with establishing the true value of his art to collectors. For the first time in his life, Hostetler heard bells. “I was vapors when I met her,” Hostetler confessed. After more than 20 years together their relationship inspired one of Hostetler’s greatest works in the 13-foot sculpture he named The Duo.

Nature’s culling
Hostetler believed that evolution has hardwired humans for destruction because we are a patriarchal society. “Religion is patriarchal not matriarchal,” according to Hostetler. He felt our society would be better served by being matriarchal. “I studied Judaism for almost ten years. When it came time to make that leap of faith to believe in that little man in the sky, I couldn’t do it… maybe if it was a little woman in the sky I could,” Hostetler professed. When pressed, he describes himself as a pantheist. His love of nature is undeniable.

Hostetler’s most prized possession was a gigantic pre-civil war oak tree on his farm. “I am enamored with wood. It’s a living material. Its own existence is recorded in its calendar of rings. Whenever I need a little more spiritual attitude, I go back and look at our roots which are after all – nature – from whence we came. Art is, for the most part, spiritual. ” Hostetler said. “(For) a worthwhile artist, their work is an autobiographical sketch of their life. It’s like the psychologist that is trying to discover who they are.” Hostetler hypothesizes. “Maybe (my art) is a search for the strength of women in all of us?” Hostetler added after a lengthy pause.

David Hostetler inspired because he was a man who went searching for who he was and found himself in his art. “I’ve been so blessed, but everybody is in a way.” He confided, “If you follow your bliss – It’s very hard to lose. Because you’ve got your passion and nobody can take it that from you – and that’s the gift.”

Why she gave this to me and not her other five children remains unclear. Perhaps she saw my disillusionment with the rat-a-tat, airless echo of school, the Catholic Church, the Sunday roast dinners and our predictable life. I had been punished a number of times for staring out the school window day-dreaming about who knows what, maybe stink bugs. Then came the thwack of the ruler, held by a tight-fisted, chalky nun who sent me off to kneel on the concrete hallway floor for two hours. I would later go home and draw pictures of nuns being kidnapped, held in dark closets, being starved, begging for mercy. I hid the stories under my bed, accompanying the other stacks, all concerning some level of inequality.
During this time, music and freedom called my mother to another place, a more hopeful existence where she wouldn’t be a “wife.” She was a hippy to my father’s buttoned-up businessman. My mother did not have many heroes, as they were fleeting and then dead: Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedys. But there was something about Einstein that settled into her very core, then mine.

A new life began and I took Albert along as a companion

In 1969, she had had enough. She confided in me: “We are leaving. Tell no one; your sisters won’t understand. Your father will return to an empty house, to complement his empty existence.”

Then: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Don’t forget that. Ever.”

Thus began my own obsession with Einstein. I tucked these quotes into my grandmother’s jewelry box, which she had given me just prior to her death.

Legions of people remain enamored by this brilliant man, not just for what he discovered, accomplished and how he radically changed the world, but because of his childlike innocence, his unlimited curiosity, great humility, a legacy of words that continue to endure. When you ask a complete stranger who defines genius, they might reply, “Oh, Einstein.”

And he was a rascal, with wild eyes, the mop of hair, his crumpled clothes. This made him real for the rest of us. I began to collect quotes and read about him in libraries. His humor brought me great comfort. He wasn’t some impervious man one couldn’t access. He didn’t believe in separating himself from others, and in fact loved sharing his ideas, while helping others expand on their own. He was approachable, both alive and dead.

Born with a kind of eternal intelligence, his curiosity about all things began to emerge at age four. While examining his father’s pocket compass, Einstein was baffled. What was causing the needle to move? The empty space made no sense to him. He began to build models and mechanical devices for fun. He wanted answers. Age 10, he met Max Talmey, a poor, Jewish medical student from Poland, who introduced him to science, math, philosophy, Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and Euclid’s Elements, which Einstein dubbed “the holy little geometry book.”

He was brilliant in his own way

As a boy, his father knew little Albert was gifted, and perhaps because the elder Einstein (an engineer) had failed at so many businesses, he insisted his son stay in school. He enrolled him in a school in Munich to pursue engineering, but Albert was frustrated with the educational system. He clashed repeatedly with the authorities, resented their teaching style and wrote about how schools were essentially killing the creative spirit and curiosity of its students. He was 15.

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” When I read this in junior high school, I could finally relax. The simple statement brought along a universe of vindication because I simply could not understand the entire educational process of rote learning. It was too boxed in, too impersonal. I realized I would have to find my own way intellectually alongside the traditional, through books and lectures by Rollo May, Erich Fromm, B.F. Skinner, Timothy Leary and Marshall McLuhan.

I was no genius, simply curious and bored with school. Given the number of times my gypsy mother moved us, staying on track in class made me weary. Another school, another teacher, another set of young people I would have to navigate somehow.

Why has Einstein resonated so deeply with me and so many others? Among the world’s most brilliant minds, he continues to inspire. What of da Vinci, Tesla, Newton, Hawking, Aristotle, Edison, Cervantes? The list goes on. They too share not just powerful minds, but an endless pursuit through curiosity and instinct. They knew knowledge was important, had to be learned, but could only get them so far. The rest is mystery.

Einstein embodies the mystery. So many of his ideas, beyond his incredible discoveries in the world itself, which ultimately turned the world on its head, contain room, empty space, air to breathe. His equation, E = mc2, may be the most famous equation in physics, eventually setting the stage for the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear power plants. But had he known where this was going, he said, he should have become a watchmaker.

To this day, his theories inspire advances in science, astronomy and physics, as well as from philosophers. I keep a tip sheet of quotes tacked up near my computer and read one every day. It really doesn’t matter which one, as they all carry great meaning. With each read I come away with yet another interpretation.

Einstein would go on to fail countless exams when applying to higher learning institutions. Yet, he continued exploring, reading and taking great interest in other’s concepts and ideas. He did eventually get accepted into the Polytechnic in Zurich. He wanted more knowledge and continued developing his own theories and expanding others.

His instincts propelled him yet further

He never lost his ability to stay curious, intuitive and of course, humorous. Despite his apparent genius, upon graduation he could not get a job and landed at the patent office, only to be overlooked for a promotion because he had not managed to grasp machine technology. But it was there that the 26-year-old developed further radical notions in his spare time by analyzing various patents. And he never stopped writing about his findings.

Finally, with some recognition, he left the patent office, and by 1908 was considered as one of the world’s leading scientists. He went on to become a professor in Prague and Berlin, and ultimately became famous a few years later when his theory of relativity at last made a permanent impression on the world. Ten years later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

For many years after, he traveled the globe, lecturing. “Of all the people I have met, I like the Japanese the most, as they are modest, intelligent, considerate, and have a feel for art,” he wrote to one of his sons. This is the statement that captures the man himself. He maintained his own humility until the day he died. He was a genius, but also a gentleman, a humorist, altruist, artist and a great believer in love. “How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”

The entire universe was Einstein’s canvas, and he made this world relatable to all of us. I’ve been to my fair share of enlightenment lectures, often given by physicists turned “gurus,” and there they sit, spouting what I had already learned by Einstein’s words:

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

And of course, perhaps the most famous, his definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Meanwhile, back in New Jersey

Of all the great brains, his would be the one cut into 240 pieces, kept in jars, cardboard boxes, often hidden, studied under microscopes. Bits of his grey matter still remain at Princeton University. All those years of cutting, probing and analyzing amounted to little new knowledge of the human mind.

The contradiction rattles the very jars into a pulpy mess, if only because it contradicts what Einstein tried to impress. Stay curious and questioning; love the mystery. Conventional knowledge, though essential, is finite. Imagination is not. This is what Einstein embraced. Perhaps the lore of his brain in a jar helps prolong the iconic myth. In his words: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and strand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

Recently, while driving my own eight-year-old girls to school, I said, “Remember, imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Through the rear view mirror, I watched them both roll their eyes in that “Please mom, just drive,” kind of way, as they said in unison, “OK, Einstein.”

As I ascended the brow of the hill from the hayfield parking lot, I suspected I was in for a weird walk in the woods. I soon realized it would be wonderful, too. The winding gravel path was lined with white canopies shading artisans, perched for as far as I could see. The Berea Craft Festival made good on its promise of offering the Midwest’s best artists, craftsman and entertainment.

A history of delivering unique one-of-a-kind art that’s made in the shade

The Berea Craft Festival has a name that betrays the depth of the event. It certainly has an element of crafts, and it is festive, but it offers much more artistic depth than events of this ilk. It has been at the heart of Kentucky’s art community for more than 30 years because of the caliber of the artists and its unorthodox location in the middle of the woods in Central Kentucky. The festival celebrates its 32nd year on July 12-14.

Now she’s basket crazy

The first booth I visited, Jasper Basket Works, set the tone for me. Owner and basket weaver Vicki Keaton answered what I thought was a simple question, “How did you get into basket weaving?” The next five minutes contained her incredible history of unexpectedly losing her job as a nurse and sinking into a state of uncontrollable depression. When hope was all but lost for her in the institution she checked herself into she was told by the staff that she must at least try basket weaving as a therapy if she ever hoped to leave the facility. It changed her life and slowly brought her out of her years of complete hopelessness.
“You’ve heard of crazy people weaving baskets? You’re looking at one,” Keaton says with a hearty laugh. She spent years teaching herself how to perfect her craft. She visited Longaberger Basket Company to get the inside scoop from some of the country’s top basket weavers. Her story reminded me of the passion we all need to be great at what we do. Her baskets are as extraordinary as her story.

The variety of crafts and the deep passion for art is evident throughout the show as you engage in conversation with the craftsmen surrounded by their handiwork. There are excellent examples of glass, ceramics/pottery, textiles, metal craft, furniture, paper goods, jewelry, photography, mixed media and paintings. All are one-of-a-kind originals. Most are some of the finest examples in their respected genre.

Caroline Zama from Star Bird Pottery had a whimsical collection of ceramic pots, plates, boxes and birdhouse that brought a smile with each design. “Life is too serious, so I make my work fun. I make my pottery the way my life is: wonky. I don’t like symmetry.”  Zama declared with a wryly. Her pottery takes you away to a land of talking teapots and Cheshire cats.

Demonstrators that draw a crowd

There are live demonstrations of silversmith metal work, pottery being turned on a wheel, tree-to-table basket making, wood carving, vegetable dying, painting and more. There is also a nice assortment of regional musicians playing acoustic music all day. The food stands offer an assortment of homemade vittles as you stroll through the more than 125 exhibitors nestled among the trees, all offering a chance to find the piece of original art that speaks to your unique taste.

The Berea Craft Festival is one of the area’s most eclectic gatherings of artists who invest themselves in their work.  It lives up to its quirky promise to tickle the muse and arouse the spirits of the trees and the wind.

The 32nd annual Berea Craft Festival will be held July 12-14 at Historic Indian Fort Theater, near Berea, Ky. For further detail, call Berea Welcome Center at (800) 598-5263 or visit www.bereacraftfestival.com