Barbara Lawlor, Coal Creek Canyon.  On Friday and Saturday, June 9 and 10, 2017, the Coal Creek Canyon Improvement Association hosted the third annual Mountain Artisans Guild spring arts and crafts show. The meeting hall was packed with artists and their work and volunteers serving food and calling out door prizes.

Summer is when local artists sell their work, the art they create during the rest of the year. Although they love to make the sales, sometimes the fairs, festivals and shows are more about exhibiting what they create in their studios and homes, seldom with an audience. The festivals are also about the camaraderie with other artists, discussing technique and styles and maybe just a little booth gossip.

The Mountain Artisans Guild Spring Show featured many fabric items, including handmade aprons that are gorgeous as well as practical, ceramic fairy houses, garden decorations, watercolors and oil paintings, and even hand painted mailboxes that would make any homeowner proud to display.

The MAG also hosts a Holiday Arts and Crafts Sale in November. It's never too early to think of holiday gifts, especially those special gifts created by mountain artists.

(Originally published in the June 22, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)