Creative artists show their talents at Grant County Fair
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 11 months AGO
Attendees at the Grant County Fair Wednesday look over paintings and drawings in the Arts & Crafts Building. There were categories for all ages and media.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The paintings at the Grant County Fair were varied: acrylics, oils, and watercolors. The most important requirement was that the artist had to like it enough to share it with the whole county.
From left: Royalanne Hector, 12-year-old Jillian Hector, Braydon Hector and 9-year-old Lila Hector check out photographs in the Arts & Crafts Building at the Grant Count Fair Wednesday.
The upcycle category at the Grant County Fair’s Arts & Crafts Building was for art pieces made from ordinary things.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | August 16, 2024 1:20 AM
MOSES LAKE — At the Grant County Fair, almost anything can be art.
“We have things from Legos where they have, they build them from a kit, or they build from their own design, so free build. "We've got different photography for youth, juniors, adults, seniors,” said Arts and Crafts Superintendent Lanita Pomeroy. “We have things where you use ordinary items, and you then create them into an art project.”
That’s called upcycle, Pomeroy said, and it can encompass the oddest of sources.
“An example would be you take a CD, and you make a drawing on it, and that's your upcycle,” she said. “Another one did a deck of cards and created it into something else. We have kids that get stuff from the dollar store and they make projects. Others, they make pottery, jewelry, greeting cards.”
The more conventional arts were on display as well. Photography, painting and drawing in various media all had their place on the walls and pegboard displays.
“(I especially like) the goats,” said Royalanne Hector, who was touring the exhibits with her family, pointing to a photo high on the wall. “I think it’s the whiteness of his teeth.”
Hector is a photographer herself, she said, although she didn’t have anything entered this year.
An awful lot of other folks did, though.
“I think we had something like 1,700 preregistered entries,” Pomeroy said. “Not all of them came in, but then we had more that came in on Saturday that weren't preregistered.”
Pomeroy has entered some photography herself in the past, she said. Her daughters went in for drawing and painting, and her grandchildren did Legos.
“I love to see the adults do things,” she said, “But what inspires me most is the kids who want to try to do things, and if they do it from year to year you’ll see how they were in early elementary and as they grow up, how they improve, the creativity, the things they come up with.”
The paintings at the Grant County Fair were varied: acrylics, oils, and watercolors. The most important requirement was that the artist had to like it enough to share it with the whole county.
From left: Royalanne Hector, 12-year-old Jillian Hector, Braydon Hector and 9-year-old Lila Hector check out photographs in the Arts & Crafts Building at the Grant Count Fair Wednesday.
The upcycle category at the Grant County Fair’s Arts & Crafts Building was for art pieces made from ordinary things.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Growing fast
Gray Girl Farms nursery springs up near Royal City
ROYAL CITY — It’s one thing to grow and sell flowers. Owning a complete nursery is something else altogether, especially when you have only months to build it. “The learning curve has been really steep,” said Kylie Gray-Eilers. “I just always tell myself that every day is a new day.” Gray-Eilers isn’t a stranger to raising plants; her Gray Girl Farms has sold dahlias for almost eight years, and she holds a Dahlia Days festival every year in October. The dahlia operation was beginning to reach the point where she needed either to scale it back or grow, she said. So when she learned that Robin Prchal, owner of Emerald Desert Nursery in Quincy, was fixing to retire, Gray-Eilers decided it was time to expand.
Looking good
Institute of Beauty Professionals trains barbers, nail techs and more
MOSES LAKE — It takes a lot of training to make people look their best. “(A license to do) nails is 600 hours (of instruction),” said Institute of Beauty Professionals owner and instructor Nicholas Harle. “Cosmetology is 1,640 hours, barbering is 1,000, hair design is 1,440 and aesthetics is 750.” IBP takes its own private students and also serves the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center’s cosmetology program, Harle said. Those students spend 2 1/2 hours a day at IBP and earn credits in lab science, technical science, first aid and fine arts, he said. There were 61 CBTECH students at IBP last year, he said, and there are about 25 full-time students.
BASIN EVENTS: July 24-Aug. 1
COLUMBIA BASIN — It’s hot and smoky outside? This is the Columbia Basin. We’re used to this. Here are some chances to get out and have some fun no matter what the sky looks like. July 25 Christmas in July at the Market Who says you have to wait until December for holiday cheer? Stroll through decorated vendor booths, shop amazing local makers and growers, enjoy holiday-themed fun, festive music, sweet treats, and surprises for the whole family. Wear your favorite Christmas shirt, Santa hat, or holiday outfit. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at Moses Lake Farmers Market, McCosh Park, 401 W. Fourth Avenue. Info: www.farmersmarketml.com.