Hundreds of community members watched live music, enjoyed food and supported dozens of artisan vendors at the annual Homewood Art & Garden Fair on June 5 and 6.
The village of Homewood organized the fest with sponsorship from UChicago Medicine.
The event drew more than 20 food and drink vendors and more than 80 other vendors, including artisans selling T-shirts, paintings, home and yard decorations, bookmarks, live plants, local honey, stickers, jewelry and woodwork.
The food vendors included but weren’t limited to Cousins Maine Lobster, Crumbl Cookies, Juancho’s Tacos, OMG Pastries and TJ’s Kettle Corn. Ronak Patel, owner of Family Wine and Liquors in Homewood, and Twisted Q served drinks.
Big Weekend, Not My Dad, Southside Soul Kings, Southtown Soul & Groove and 28 Days were the musical performers.
When 28 Days performed “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey, lead singer Paul Shmoun hopped off the stage and joined the crowd. With a microphone in his hand, Shmoun sang along with community members who were dancing and singing.
Some artisans said that when they were setting up their booths on Friday afternoon, it was raining, but their worries soon evaporated. Homewood avoided rainfall during festival hours, from 4 until 9 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Saturday.
The Governors State University (GSU) Art Forum sold artwork of all kinds, from paintings to glass-ceramics. The GSU Art Forum is a student-led organization that allows students to network, collaborate and socialize with other artists at GSU.
“Our art is influenced by each other. I’ll ha
ve some aspects of my friends’ art that I really like, and I’ll find a way to incorporate it,” GSU Art Forum member Anna McDonnell said.
GSU Art Forum member Angelina Antolin, who goes by Mona, displayed a drawing with flowers, butterflies, a uterus and a butterfly covering a woman’s face. Parts of the piece were in color, while others were black-and-white.
“Women are not incubators” was written across the top of the piece. Antolin said it was inspired by Adriana Smith, a legally dead woman in Georgia who was placed on life support so she could give birth. Smith’s family had to do this because of the state’s anti-abortion laws, according to CBS News.
“When people die in Hispanic culture, it’s believed that the monarch butterfly carries their soul back to where they’re born or where their home is,” Antolin said, explaining why butterflies were in the piece.
Flossmoor artist Ernest Posey drew caricatures of attendees.
Marc Alan Fishman and Matt Wright, co-owners of Unshaven Comics, a Homewood-based comic publisher, sold comic books, graphic novels, 4” x 6” prints and original artwork depicting characters from comics, movies and television.
Unshaven Comics also sold prints of Homewood paint studio Bottle & Bottega co-owner Greg Loudon’s “Welcome to Flossmoor” and “Welcome to Homewood” illustrations.
“Since (Wright) also teaches painting over at Bottles & Bodega, Greg lent us his prints,” Fishman said. “This apparently is a joint venture this year.”
Olympia Fields resident Megan Rork operated the Poppette booth, selling handmade coats, dresses, sweatshirts and other clothing for children under 9, including babies.
The 1960s counter-culture movement inspires Poppette’s design choices, 42-year-old Rork said, adding that she “fell right into that aesthetic” after watching the television program Bewitched as a kid.
Rork said she founded Poppette after her daughter was born five years ago, and she became a stay-at-home mother.
“This is my first in-person vending experience. I usually just sell online,” Rork said, adding that customers can see and touch a clothing item before purchasing it at the fest.
Hannah Stroh, co-owner of S&P Apiaries, a family-owned beekeeping business in Frankfort, sold containers of Will County wildflower honey, Florida orange blossom honey and Michigan buckwheat honey.
“We take our bees other places too, mainly down to Florida over the winters,” Stroh said, describing the source of the non-local specialty honeys. “They don’t fly at night. So, we load up the semi with the hive boxes at night. And we don’t stop driving until we reach where we’re supposed to be.”
“Fall Fest, we do more of a kid corner. And here, it’s more dedicated to artisans because it’s Art & Garden,” village events manager Marla Youngblood said. “It’s a good time.”
