2026 Art in the Wilds
Saturday June 27 10-5 and Sunday June 28 10-4
2026 Exhibiting Artists
|
Elie Abdelahad
Jody Aiello Colette Anderson Anthony Arkus Lisa Arkus Jane Axman Pam Bartl Larry Downey Denise Drummond Gerina Faison |
Sara Frank
Heather Gillespie Amy Hahn James Hoggard Rocky Holland Victor/Megan Huston-Field Dawn Johnson Heather Johnston Dae Hong Kim Gregg Kristophel |
Kalpana Lehman
Rick Malmstrom Angela Miller Deborah Moyer Jennifer Nicholson Jack Northrop Jack Paluh Ellen Paquette Michael Paul Debbie Penley |
Craig Peterson
Mauricio Riano Krysta Robinson Annie Simcoe Rachel Stine Kaylee Taylor Robert Vrboncic Jim Wright Francine Zajac |
SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTISTS'S PHOTOS...
Breakfast
A buffet breakfast with sausage, eggs, home fries, donuts, juice and coffee will be served at the Elks Club from 8 AM to 11 Am both days.
Sit down or take-out available. The Elks is located across the street from the show on Chestnut Street.
Hospitality Tent
Our tent will be hosting our usually friendly faces along with some extra features for our visitors to enjoy. There will be plenty of information to pick up about our local restaurants, points of interest, trails and more! Volunteers are available to answer questions.
First Aid is available in the UPMC tent
T-Shirts
Look for our dedicated t-shirt tent on your way around Evergreen Park. They come in a range of sizes and each year we choose a different color. 2024 features an ochre color with our Art in the Wilds logo. Profits support the show.
Contributions
As a 501(c)3 organization, we accept financial contributions. If you would like to become a sponsor for next year's show check out the 'support us' page: https://www.artinthewilds.org/support-us.html
A buffet breakfast with sausage, eggs, home fries, donuts, juice and coffee will be served at the Elks Club from 8 AM to 11 Am both days.
Sit down or take-out available. The Elks is located across the street from the show on Chestnut Street.
Hospitality Tent
Our tent will be hosting our usually friendly faces along with some extra features for our visitors to enjoy. There will be plenty of information to pick up about our local restaurants, points of interest, trails and more! Volunteers are available to answer questions.
First Aid is available in the UPMC tent
T-Shirts
Look for our dedicated t-shirt tent on your way around Evergreen Park. They come in a range of sizes and each year we choose a different color. 2024 features an ochre color with our Art in the Wilds logo. Profits support the show.
Contributions
As a 501(c)3 organization, we accept financial contributions. If you would like to become a sponsor for next year's show check out the 'support us' page: https://www.artinthewilds.org/support-us.html
Note: No dogs are permitted in the park, ref. Borough DOg Control Legislation 78-2. Exception for Certified Service Dogs.
2026 ARTIST SHOWCASE
|
|
Heather Gillespie Cyclone, PA I make functional ceramic work meant to be used every day. My focus is on simple, balanced forms that feel good in the hand and hold up to regular use. I work primarily with wheel-thrown stoneware, paying close attention to proportion, weight, and consistency across pieces. Surface and color develop through layered glazes, with variation coming from the firing rather than heavy decoration. I’m interested in quiet, utilitarian objects and how they become part of daily routines over time. My goal is to make work that feels familiar, durable, and well considered. |
|
|
Victor & Megan Huston-Field
Bedford, PA Working together as a team for over 17 years, Victor Field and Megan Huston, we have combined our two art forms to create Ataraxia Designs. We hand-draw the artwork and hand-carve it on clay to combine it with our own poetry. We have many different collections combining our art and poetry, including an ancient tree collection, a wildflower collection, and full poems hand-pressed into clay with hand-carved artwork to go with the poems. Each tile is either finished with found wood or a solid oak craftsman style frame. Each tile is original, handmade, hand-glazed by us. |
|
|
Krysta Robinson Kane, PA I have loved creating ever since I was a little girl. The messier the medium, the more I gravitate towards it (specifically clay and glass). Making art is something that has always been very healing to me, and I started my business to be able to bring that to others. I hand-make and glaze functional and decorative ceramic pieces. I use many techniques to create my work, including wheel throwing stoneware and hand-building earthenware. I began with orders from friends and family and progressed to selling not just in the US, but all over the world. I not only create custom color options for people based on their spaces, I make custom shapes and sizes as well. I love creating the perfect piece for someone. |
|
|
Francine Zajac Washington, PA My work has always reflected my passions and interests. My studio is my happy place, even after 40 years as a potter. My pottery is wheel-thrown and altered using carving, texturing, and slip trailing. I use a wood ash glaze on the surfaces of my work. Designs from art nouveau period inspire my ornamentation. |
|
|
Pam Bartl
Chambersburg, PA Yarn has color, texture and when woven into cloth, movement. My passion is to create comfortable and practical clothing for women, men and children that excites and delights. I am still being surprised, after forty or so years of creating cloth, with new color combinations and new shapes. Cotton yarns are wound on the back of one of my fifty inch wide looms in a length of forty five yards, five hundred threads across. Then after the loom is threaded, it takes ten throws of the shuttle carrying the fill yarn for each in h of fabric, a total of three hundred and sixty times for each yard. Each piece is woven individually. The yardage, when complete, is cut off, washed, dried, pressed and cut into the initially imagined piece. |
|
|
Debbie Penley Sugar Grove, PA I am a multimedia artist with a recent concentration in fiber art. With a focus on nature and wildlife animals, my work ranges from the realistic and lifelike to the abstract and whimsical. I enjoy the tactile qualities of my work, and am often amazed at the almost magical transformation of the raw materials from a fluid state into something more enduring and solid. I often imbue a spirit of play and joy into my pieces with the intention of inviting the audience along on the journey with me. |
|
|
Rachel Stine
Oil City, PA Having loved the fiber arts since childhood, I consider myself a fiber/textile artist at heart. I blend the mediums of printmaking and textiles, combining my passion for fiber arts and surface pattern design. Block printing has given me a medium where I can design at every stage of the process, starting with sourcing my materials and designing what will be printed on the fabric. The physical, tactile nature of block printing gives me control over color, spacing, and the quality of prints. Nature serves as a major source of inspiration for my prints, which are hand-drawn, hand-carved from linoleum, and printed on canvas. The process of designing and crafting functional zip pouches and bags from these fabrics to create art for everyday life is an essential part of my process. |
|
|
Amy Hahn
Cambridge Springs, PA Art speaks to us because it’s about us. It’s about our collective and individual journeys in this wondrous universe. I want my art to tell a story. When you perceive an image, you become one of its many storytellers. The viewer brings their own unique experiences to the artwork. I try to bring together reality, imagination, medium, and technique to produce something that will make the person feel like they are a part of the story. I create award-winning, one-of-a-kind, hand-cut stained glass mosaics. Using my background in painting, I use the same philosophy and approach to my mosaics. Each brushstroke is done with glass instead of paint. |
|
|
Kalpana Lehman
Carlisle, PA I always had an interest in the arts throughout my high school years. My palette for the arts expanded to designing and creating jewelry in the vast and exciting realm of lampworking. This medium allows me to create amazing pendants, earrings, and bracelets. Each piece of fine jewelry starts in its rawest state: from long glass rods from Murano, Italy. I then transform the glass rods into a lively, molten canvas of spectacular colors and textures as I create, sculpt, and skillfully form each pendant and each set of earrings. Lastly, I embellish my jewelry creation with precious metal clay silver findings and with a hand-made sterling silver Viking-knit chain. |
|
|
Colette Anderson Kane, PA Celebrate our past with me by revisiting your childhood dinner table. We're reminded of the family, aromas, and flavors of our past. My goal is achieved when memories bring a smile or that light bulb moment when they realize my pieces were once silverware. |
|
|
Gerina Faison
Liverpool, NY Each item I design I consider a work of wearable art for the buyer. I make one-of-a-kind designs, therefore, no two items are ever alike giving the buyer the satisfaction of knowing their item is unique. I get my inspiration from a beautiful sunset, raindrops on a windowsill, or a wave kissing the sand on the beach. Designing jewelry has become my passion, and I truly love seeing someone enjoy wearing my items, as much as I love making them. |
|
|
Sara Frank
Ridgway, PA I'm a metalsmith. I make jewelry designed to be worn every day, primarily using sterling silver. I offer a cohesive variety of earrings, rings, necklaces, bracelets, bolos, and other accessory items. Most of my pieces fall within one or more of three descriptors - bezel set stones, hand-stamped/textured silver, or handmade chain. Each piece starts as sterling silver sheet and wire. I select the right gauge of materials for the piece I'm making, then it’s off to sawing, hammering, stamping, soldering, patina, polishing, and setting, until I’m happy with the final product. I like to picture who would wear the pieces I’m creating and how they would style them. What else would they wear it with? How would my jewelry function in the daily life of its owner? This thought process helps guide me to something that not only I would wear, but someone else would too. |
|
|
Rick Malmstrom
Pittsburgh, PA My sterling silver jewelry is designed and built with an emphasis on simplicity, structural integrity, and surface control. Each piece is developed from initial (very rough!) sketches and then refined through traditional shaping and fabrication processes. Surface treatment then plays a critical role in my work. Techniques such as hammering, filing, reticulation, and polishing are used to create contrast, durability, and visual depth while maintaining wearability. I prioritize clean construction and thoughtful joins, ensuring each piece functions as a sculptural and wearable form. As an artist who is largely self-taught, my work is informed by problem-solving and experimentation. In this way, I aim to produce jewelry that is intentionally designed, technically sound, and built to endure regular use. |
|
|
Deborah Moyer
Warren, PA I am a jewelry metalsmith based in northwestern PA. I utilize traditional jewelry metalsmithing techniques to produce rich textures and a sense of movement in metal. Doing every step of the process by hand gives me a sense of connection with the places and the people that have practiced this art and handed down their techniques through time. I love the versatility and the beauty of metals and work mainly with silver, copper, red and yellow brass, and bronze, often incorporating gemstones, transforming it into pieces of jewelry. I hope that whoever wears my jewelry will feel this connection as well and enjoy my hand fabricated pieces. |
|
|
John Paul
Loganton, PA I’ve been a rock collector my whole life, but I was an adult the first time I saw bismuth. “Natural crystal” the label said, but there was nothing natural about it. Rainbow metal crystals with complex pyramid-shaped staircases and ornate rhombohedral corners right out of an M. C. Escher painting. Anyone who says right angles don’t exist in nature hasn’t gazed upon the magical art Mother Nature creates every time she forges a bismuth crystal and paints it with the air. |
|
|
Mauricio Riano
Philadelphia, PA All the work from Selah Jewelry Design is handcrafted and designed by myself, Mauricio Riaño. My jewelry is a fusion of an artistic vision from North and South America. Inspired by my roots, I use ancient Colombian techniques such as filigree, and wire wrapping to give each piece I make has an unmistakable artisanal quality, unique and one of a kind. |
|
|
Kaylee Taylor Olean, NY I am a mixed metal art jewelry designer and creator with the center of my practice and passion embodying creative discovery. Without having any formal training in the art of metalsmithing, I learned my craft through actively working with various natural materials such as wood, antler, and bone, which evolved into creating pieces with copper wire and brass. As my skill progressed while working in my home studio, I always maintained the attitude that art is play, and that artists should never lose the childlike wonder in our creative process. My earlier works were featured in the television series The Outsiders, and I have had my work featured in local galleries in the tri-county area, as well as participated in a large number of art shows both in New York and Pennsylvania beginning in 2016. As a member of my local arts council, and also a parent, it is important to me to inspire not only aspiring young artists to never give up creating art, but also rekindle the desire to use art as play in adults who are inspired by my work. |
|
|
Elie Abdelahad
Easton, PA New York City is where I found my passion and unveiled my ability of creating and making pieces of art with my hands. I like experimenting with many different colors and leathers. My original, innovative designs are created and hand-cut, then made into patterns. I use chemical-free naked cowhide and embossed leathers. Artisan bags consist of bold colors, concepts, and functionality. |
|
|
Dawn Johnson
Monroeville, PA My creative process is about expressing my soul, my emotions, and my interaction with the world around me. My paintings are created intuitively, responding to the work as it develops. What emerges is highly personal, yet recognizable to others. My works are spontaneous, impassioned, vibrant paintings that reach out and hug your soul. Much of my inspiration comes from nature and my life experiences. Using an innate sense of color and design, I create paintings to impart color, life and joy to the surrounding space they occupy. When you engage with my art, it is my hope that you will be overcome with feelings of joy and well-being, be reminded that beauty and joy can be found everywhere no matter the circumstance. |
|
|
Jennifer Nicholson
Canton, PA Self-taught through exploration and experimentation, I discovered my niche using pyrography and painting on wood—a surface that brings texture and life to my one-of-a-kind pieces. Nature is my greatest inspiration—forest walks, woodland creatures, and my imagination shape the colors and stories in my work. I often invert the colors in my palette from what we see as normal which invites the viewer to see things differently than what meets the eye of everyday life. I live in a log cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania with my husband, our two dogs, and a cat. My studio looks out over a small pond on our property, and spending the day painting there has become a peaceful, joyful rhythm—an opportunity to slow down, immerse myself in the natural world, and bring that feeling to each piece I create. I find creating art to be meditative and my time spent in nature resets me and brings clarity to my ideas. The calmness that I feel when in nature translates into my dreamy landscapes. |
|
|
Annie Simcoe
Deep Creek Lake, MD I began making paper in 2003 while studying Geology at West Virginia University. For several years I worked as both geologist and artist collecting inspiration and paper-making materials from the Appalachian landscape of northern West Virginia and Maryland. My process is very labor intensive. Plant fibers are boiled for 2-8 hours before paper can be made. The papers take up to 24 hours to dry. Each color is a separate batch so it takes 2-3 weeks to make all of the colors of paper. All of this happens before I begin a piece of art. But even if it were an option, I wouldn’t purchase papers for my art. My fibers came from my garden, were foraged, or gifted by neighbors. This makes each sheet of paper and each work of art unique, and little part of me. There is magic in taking something mundane, cornhusks, fabric dyes, thread, and turning them into something much more. Once my papers are dry the real creative process beings. I create images by layering my papers and “drawing” on them with needle and thread. This involves collaging and sewing the papers together. I do all of my sewing using free motion quilting techniques. I often refer to the finished product as a “quilted collage”. |
|
|
Lisa Arkus Galeton, PA Acrylics mediums applied to canvas, papers are added as accents. As a self-taught artist I use my own techniques to create my art, includes using booth brushes and my fingers to apply my paints, use found objects to create textures on paints |
|
|
Denise Drummond
Bradford, PA My artwork is an attempt to capture and hold the love I have for nature and wild places, especially our national parks and wilderness areas. I am captured and drawn in by every twig on the branches of trees. Most of my paintings show all of that detail.. from the leaves on the trees to the ferns on the forest floor. In recent years I have been enjoying depicting wildlife and landscape scenes on the surface of white birch bark, as well as shore birds on Palmetto Palm bark, incorporating the texture and the markings of the bark into the composition of the piece. Throughout the whole process, from gathering the bark to completing the art piece, I am able to immerse myself in and celebrate my love for nature! |
|
|
Dae Hong Kim
Lebanon, PA During a bicycle ride across the US, I rediscovered my love of drawing while experiencing nature daily at pedaling speed. When I returned from the trip, I continued that experience as a value of movement and nature into the way I approached the process and result. In some ways, I suppose the aim is a compression of time and places. I'm inspired by propositional perspectives of being, tuning into the particularities of nature narratives and remarkable lives. Through landscapes and focused subjects, I invite viewers into a walking pace inquiry in the midst of a long journey. My hope is to reflect and inspire musicality found in the familiar from generalities to the specifics of one's present, driven by movements of calligraphic lines, textures, and shapes, music, and language. The artistic outcome is a tonal aspect, a sound to the imagery as a resonance of timelessness. |
|
|
Jack Paluh
Waterford, PA My work with oil paints reflects my lifelong connection to our natural world. I find inspiration in quiet moments outdoors, from the movement of wildlife to the changes of light, color, and the seasons. Every scene offers something new, which continues to inspire my art. I work primarily in oils on canvas, often painting outdoors to capture natural lighting, atmosphere, and mood. These field studies become the foundation for larger studio paintings. My goal is to draw viewers into each scene. After more than forty-five years as a nature and wildlife artist, I remain deeply inspired by the beauty found in both ordinary and extraordinary moments in nature. |
|
|
Ellen Paquette
Warren, PA I combine my love for animals and fascination with Renaissance art by painting detailed portraits of creatures inspired by 15th and 16th century portraiture and illuminated manuscripts. My goal is to highlight the natural dignity and intelligence of wild creatures, primarily endangered and threatened species. The imagery in my work is fueled by some of my favorite topics -- wildlife, art history, folklore, the natural world, textiles, historic costume, trompe l'oeil techniques, and subtle visual humor. I aim to create portraits that convey not only the unique personalities of the subjects, but also plant visual seedlings that empower the viewer to build their own entertaining biographies for these creatures. |
|
|
Craig Peterson
Blairsville, PA As a lover of the outdoors my artwork focuses on mountain landscapes, wildlife and birds. I create my work using coffee, watercolor and ink. The coffee creates unique and fun backgrounds and stains in my pieces which customers seem to love. |
|
|
Heather Johnston
Pittsburgh, PA Nature evokes a sense of comfort and nostalgia, inspired by myth, folklore, legend, and literature; flora and fauna act as a vessel for the desired imagery. Memories of being raised in the wild woods morph with an escapist imagination, combined they bring a fairytale to life, a remembrance of playing make-believe in the forest. With an abundance of concepts, the refinement process becomes intense. Flora and fauna serve as ideal vessels to convey meaning—certain species of plants or animals clearly communicate tone. The subject matter carries the story, color sets the mood, and each element—texture, shape, composition—is explored through many rounds of sketches and research before arriving at a final draft. |
|
|
Jane Axman
Johnstown, PA I’ve backpacked thousands of miles to some of the most remote areas in the country in order to document the wildlife and natural beauty that still remains in our great country. I have also captured unique images right from home. These are often fleeting moments with common natural subjects that many people can relate to such as the brilliant male cardinal taking off from the snow just outside of my bedroom. I use high resolution full frame sensor digital SLR cameras with a wide range of lenses from 18 mm landscapes to 500 mm intimate wildlife portraits. I always shoot totally manually in order to maintain complete artistic control of my images. |
|
|
Larry Downey
Waterford, PA My art is a representation of how I see beauty in the natural world. Devoid of distractions, the entire content of each piece is intended to evoke a specific feeling, often in the realm of idealism. |
|
|
James Hoggard
Fredonia, NY I love taking photographs of our local wild places. There are several places I frequent on a regular basis in order to enjoy watching the seasons’ progression fulfilled in the growth, maturation, and death of the native foliage. It is always my goal to capture some of the more photogenic times with my large-format view camera or medium-format Mamiya. The process of the using a one of these film cameras is, in itself, a pleasurable experience. So that coupled with the experience of being outside in places I enjoy makes for good day. If luck is with me and I have kept an eye on the weather forecast, I can be fortunate enough to capture when a certain wildflower will be covered with rain drops or a pasture scene will have the perfect fog. |
|
|
Angela Miller
Harmony, PA I love to bring the beauty of nature to everyone out there with my photos. |
|
|
Rocky Holland Kane, PA I capture nature and scenic photography from Alaska to Maine. My primary location is in the Pennsylvania Wilds. My equipment includes digital mirrorless cameras, tripods, and typical outdoor gear, which I use to showcase the Nature around us - from bugs to bears and beyond. |
|
|
Jody Aiello Clarendon, PA As a metal artist, I draw inspiration from my love of fishing, cycling, and nature. Some of my earliest memories are of riding my bicycle to my favorite stream to fish, experiencing a sense of independence and tranquility in the process. That same connection to nature and movement now fuels my work. By repurposing old bicycle parts, saws, chains, wrenches, etc, I create intricate fish sculptures of all sizes. My work blends precision craftsmanship with an appreciation for organic form, transforming industrial materials into refined, lifelike pieces. Each sculpture is a balance of strength and fluidity, designed to capture the movement and essence of the fish while showcasing the raw beauty of the repurposed metal. |
|
|
Anthony Arkus Galeton, PA I am a blacksmith artist making hand forged architectural elements, furniture and sculpture. I strive to create work that invites the viewer's touch with a tactile, appealing surface. I fashion organic, botanical forms using abstract, contemporary aesthetics to achieve my goal of creating well-proportioned and timeless functional art. As a blacksmith I heat mild steel to 2500 degrees F in a gas or coal forge. Once the material is heated to a plastic state, I am able to form hand forged components that are joined with rivets, tenons, dovetails or collars. I work to push this traditional approach to new boundaries, making new methods, built on the old to create furniture and architectural elements for a contemporary collector. My goal is to create work that is not only functional but is beautiful high quality that pushes the viewer's beliefs in what steel can do. |
|
|
Gregg & Jake Kristophel
Harmony, PA I handcraft a wide range of treenware using sustainably harvested local hardwoods, primarily cherry. Each piece is shaped and finished by hand with traditional tools and small electric equipment—never CNC machines—so no two are exactly alike. We finish our utensils with a blend of coconut oil and beeswax, ensuring a food-safe, natural protective coating. Wood’s inherent antibacterial properties make our treenware a safe and durable alternative to plastic, combining function with the natural beauty and warmth of wood. I've been working with my hands for many years and enjoy a simple, somewhat self-sufficient life. It keeps me close to nature when creating utensils from a natural, renewable resource, as well as a humble satisfaction knowing that my customers are pleased with their beauty and functionality. |
|
|
Jack Northrop
Kane, PA I've been turning wood for many years. It all started with a bedroom set I built 30 years ago. I wanted to turn the bedposts. That experience got me hooked. Over the years I developed my skills and artistry in turning by making unique gifts for family and friends. My daughter suggested I consider selling my work. Since retiring and moving to Kane in 1999, I've enjoyed success in selling my creations. I am known for my bowls, platters and vessels from local wood like black cherry, walnut, maple, butternut, locust, sumac and others. |
|
|
Robert Vboncic
Marienville, PA Future Antiquities LLC creates beautiful artwork out of wood by employing the same hand-crafted techniques as early artisans. Robert Vrboncic, the Artist designs the products for discerning customers appreciate unique designs and quality products. I specialize in 3-D cutting boards, exotic wood jewelry boxes, and sculptors. We utilize the woods natural grain to create unique one-of-a kind product. |
|
|
Jim Wright
Homer City, PA I inlay stone, shell, and metal within natural voids in wood using the voids and natural inlay materials as design elements. My goal is to highlight the wood’s natural imperfections. As a self-taught artist, I developed my inlay process through extensive experimentation and practice. Additional characteristics of my style include the use of organic shapes and clear finishes. I create both functional and purely artistic pieces, including serving boards, tables, wall art, and standing art. Insect holes, bark inclusions, knots, and other voids contribute complexity and individuality to wood. To me, wood is like a painter’s canvas started by nature. The colors, grain, and figure are already there, as are the arrays of natural voids. I find patterns among them and create patterns within them, using the inlay materials like paints. |
