Learning to sew at eight years old by her Grandma, Annie Bisone has always had a passion for sewing and fashion, “All through high school and college, I made all my own clothes and shoes,” said Bisone. Her brand Lala Workshop, stemmed from wanting to create clothing she wasn’t seeing anywhere else. Not only are Bisone’s pieces fashionably unique, but also sustainable, “I reclaim fabric from what’s leftover post production from design houses that’s high quality. And then with the limited quantities I have I build and construct a fabric,” said Bisone. For over 10 years, Bisone also worked on a gender neutral children’s clothing line, “I kind of had a short little window of time, where I was patterning up for a wider audience because my son was getting older so I didn’t just want to keep making children’s clothes,” said Bisone.

Starting his career in art by making jewelry over 35 years ago, Robert Farrell has switched his mediums several times including making tableware. His new artistic passion: making 3-D sculptures of barns and other buildings. Farrell draws his inspiration from his travels to art shows around the country, “I started to see this imagery out in the landscape of the countryside. And I started to realize that when I saw these structures, and they were falling down, it kind of made me sad and when they were in good shape, I was glad. And I started to develop this connection with these buildings. I think it’s because they’re so familiar, that they’re comforting in some way,” said Farrell. Farrell makes his sculptures out of silver, the material he began his career with while making jewelry. His favorite part about the show, “It’s a receptive audience. They’re smart about art, they understand what they’re looking at,” said Farrell. One of his new works, a set of miniature 3-D sculptures was inspired by his house, “I live in an old house that my great grandfather built. And it’s never changed hands so nobody ever cleaned it out. When you go up in the attic there’s a lot of old furniture and there’s old toys, and everything’s just sort of stacked on top of each other and sort of random. And this series came out of that attic feeling,” said Farrell.

During the pandemic, Tanya Kirouac was forced to switch mediums in her art. Before COVID-19 hit, Kirouac was using a technique involving hot waxes in a controlled studio setting. She moved out of her studio and created her workspace at home, “I had to move into the house because of COVID and I have cats living with me. It was really hot in my house and there was no ventilation. So I just thought, okay, let’s try to transform into a new medium since I could no longer do the hot waxes,” said Kirouac. Kirouac now makes two-dimensional paintings made of oil paint, cold wax and gels, “The process that I use involves using a palette knife to layer on the paint wet on wet and then I carve back away into it to remove some areas to expose underlying colors.” While driving across the country, Kiroauc finds inspiration in landscapes around her as well as what mood she’s feeling. While never taking a photo of her scenery, Kiroauc draws sketches to later paint.

People talk outside a booth at the St. Louis Art Fair on September 11th.

Families gather outside the activity tents at the St. Louis Art Fair on September 11th.