Alva Review-Courier -

The 52nd Nescatunga Arts Festival is set for June 2-4 in Alva on the campus of Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Booth space will be inside Percefull Fieldhouse as well as in the Health and Sports Science Education small gym and just north of Percefull Fieldhouse on the outside lawn.

The first half of the 46 artists and crafters planning to attend as of May 23 were highlighted in a previous article with the remaining entries below.

The festival will kick off Friday, June 2, from 6-10 p.m. Artists and crafters will open for sale, and live entertainment will take place outside just on the south side of Percefull Fieldhouse, weather permitting. The entertainment will move indoors Friday night if it's raining.

A full day of festival fun will take place Saturday, June 3, starting with the opening ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Artist and craft booths will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and live entertainment will take place inside during this time as well. There will be a small break Saturday from 4-6 p.m. to move the live entertainment outside on the intramural lawn until 10 p.m., weather permitting. It will move inside Percefull Fieldhouse Saturday evening if it's raining. The last day of the festival is Sunday, June 4, from noon-3 p.m. with arts and crafts booths and live entertainment inside Percefull Fieldhouse. (Visit http://www.nescatunga.org/blog to see the list of 24 entertainment acts and their bios and additional info about the remaining artists, family fun activities and more.)

Additional articles will provide information on the six authors who will have books or coloring books available for purchase, as well as those entered into the Sugar Show.

The additional artists and crafters attending include:

James McCaslin, Yukon

Entered in crafts and will be bringing wooden toy cars, trains, piggy banks, little children's chairs and birdhouses.

John McGinnis, Alva

Entered in sculpture and works with copper, embossing and tooling. Originally from Philadelphia, he moved to Alva with his wife Tamre in 2006. He began losing his sight around 2019 and officially retired in 2021. He is now legally blind. As a retired veteran, he worked with the VA Vision Center in Wichita to attend the blind Rehabilitation Center in Waco, Texas for a five-week course in 2022. Having never had a hobby, he became interested in the copper tooling course they taught there making several pieces while there and now doing the relaxing work at home.

Jennifer McMillan, Norman

Entered in craft food and will be bringing freeze-dried candy.

Bonnie Merkerison/Brooklyn's Breath Life Scents, Woodward

Entered in crafts and will be bringing tumblers, freshies, bath bombs and body care items.

Amanda Metcalf, Enid

Entered in all three categories of the festival – fine arts, crafts and the Sugar Show. In fine arts she will display oil & acrylics, graphics/pen & ink/pencil and photography. In crafts she will have paintings on wood and glass frames. In the Sugar Show, she will be entered in the Aspiring Sugar Art division with cupcakes.

Dianna Morgan, Alva

Entered in the fine arts category of graphics/pen & ink/pencil as well as crafts with ceramics/glass, decorative items and home goods/accessories. She plans to have terra aesthetics, garden ceramics, native plants and stained glass.

Lauri Paine, Pryor

Entered in Craft Foods and is bringing homemade fudge.

Cindy Payton, Waynoka

Entered in the craft categories of decorative items, repurposed, home goods/accessories, other and will be bringing repurposed vintage frames made into magnet boards of all sizes using quality products and fine furniture finishes.

Tiffany Poulson, Vici

Entered in Craft Food and is bringing freeze-dried candy.

Elliott and Isabella Ridgway, Tulsa

Elliott grew up in Alva and is entered in mixed media with his video game creations. His booth will be set up to allow people to play the games. He also will be selling a recently published book titled "Randall Turner's Infinite Summer Vacation," a young-adult science fiction novel. Isabella is entered in the fine arts categories of fiber arts and also will have soft toy crafts and decorative items bringing crocheted and knitted items for sale.

Mary Riegel, Alva

Entered in the craft categories of decorative items and home goods/accessories. She will be bringing crocheted and sewn items for the home including quilts, hot pads, scrubbies, reusable water balloons and more.

Kristy San Soucie, Hardtner, Kansas

Entered in both fine arts with watercolors and pastels. She also will have jewelry in the homemade crafts area and coloring books as an author. She will have portraits of people and animals, landscapes, handmade necklaces and earrings including faux leather earrings and lamp work bead pendants.

Faith Sears/Davis, Lawton

Entered in the fine arts categories of oil & acrylics, watercolor and mixed media. She enjoys exploring human emotion and experience through the human figure and environment. She often employs expressive lines, abstract and surrealistic settings, and postmodern techniques such as collage and recycling of past images or styles. She enjoys working wet-on-wet in watercolor and alla prima in oil painting, layering paint on already previous layers of wet paint. She also glazes acrylic over black-and-white images and paints thick layers of acrylic over thin layers.

Darlene Shank, Buhler, Kansas

Entered in crafts and bringing fabric craft dolls, butt potts and solar lights.

Savannah Smith, Waynoka

Entered in the Craft Food category and will be bringing homemade decorated sugar cookies, a variety of drop cookies including chocolate chip, M&M, brownie, oatmeal raisin, etc., and Paint Your Own cookies. She also has entered the Sugar Show as a professional in the cookies division.

Tony Trammel, Moore

Entered in the fine arts category of oils & acrylics. He will have science fiction and fantasy original artwork and acrylics on canvas.

Vanessa Velasco Escobar/The Alpaca Store, Oklahoma City

Entered in the craft area of clothing, soft toys and other items.

Kellie Walker, Drummond

Entered in the fine arts area of oil & acrylics and fiber arts as well as the craft area of home goods/accessories and will be bringing handmade rope bowls and more.

Student Entries in Fine Arts and Crafts

Two students are entered in the fine art category and two are entered in crafts.

Fine Arts student entries include Mariah Thompson of Alva and students from South Barber Public Schools in Kiowa, Kansas, where San Soucie is their teacher.

Thompson is entered in the fine arts categories of oil & acrylics, pastels and graphics/pen & ink/pencil. Her artwork is abstract with emotion indicating that it holds a deep meaning to each. She likes to put her feelings into her work. She will have several paintings, pastels, charcoal and pencil drawings.

James McCaslin, Yukon

The South Barber students plan to display fine arts items in the categories of oil & acrylics, watercolor, pastels, mixed media, printmaking and sculpture. The artwork will include paintings, drawings, paper mache and sculpture.

The two students who entered in crafts are Ezriah Call of Wichita, Kansas, and Chloe Lehr of Alva.

Call is entered in decorative items, jewelry and home goods/accessories and will be bringing wood, acrylic and resin jewelry, custom home décor and drinkware, handmade signs and custom slate coasters.

Lehr is entered in crafts and will be bringing painted door and wall signs, textured art, ornaments, felt coasters and more. She also is entered as a student in the Sugar Show with an edible cake and cupcakes.