LaFAYETTE, Ga. — Mae Gray has made pottery for more than 60 years. On Saturday she plans to share her talent with others.
“I hope the kids get a taste of what we all do. We want to have hands-on activities with the children,” she said.
Mrs. Gray will be among 15 artists from the Northwest Georgia Arts Guild and North Georgia community participating in an ARTrageousANTICS Festival.
The event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at The Foothills Gallery, 309 Main St. in LaFayette.
Karen Sperry, who applied for the Grassroots Arts Program grant to put on the festival, said the event is for family fun and learning.
“It’s not a show-and-sell event,” Mrs. Sperry said. “It’s a demonstration, an interaction for children of all ages.”
The Grassroots Arts program receives its funding through the Georgia Council for the Arts.
Local artists expected at the festival include painters, woodworkers, dancers and musicians who will interact with the public in their own way, she said.
Mrs. Gray said she looks forward to sharing her pottery with others.
“You take a ball of clay and just pinch it until it becomes a bowl or a pot,” she said. “A lot of times it can look like Indian art.”
Doris Maples, a 61-year-old self-taught watercolor painter, said the festival will be set up to encourage children to go from tent to tent, making crafts that they can take home with them.
“We especially want the young people to get involved,” she said.
The Foothills Gallery has an entire room dedicated to students in kindergarten through 12th grade who want to display their artwork.
“Art is a good outlet, and it helps children to do better in other studies,” said Ms. Maples, a kindergarten teacher paraprofessional for 28 years.
She said she started painting in her early 30s but quit after a few years because she got too busy. After not painting for 25 years, she took it up again in her 50s. Since then she’s been able to benefit from several Internet offers that allow students to teach themselves art.
“Take the time,” she advises fellow artists.
“Don’t completely give up. I keep thinking I would be so much further along if I had not given up. I’d like to see where I could have been.”
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
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