Two Drury-affiliated artists passionately display their craft

On Saturday, Springfield Regional Arts Council’s ArtsFest kicked off on Walnut Street, with thousands of locals and visitors in active attendance. Over 100 artists will return to their stations Sunday May 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to once again sell their handmade and expertly crafted pieces.

The first day of ArtsFest seemed a roaring success. The streets appeared comfortably full with many eventgoers in warm weather attire, enjoying the tease of summertime, toting around purchased items and colorful 32-ounce containers of specialty iced lemonade.

If you didn’t yet get the chance to attend, the second day of SRAC’s ArtsFest is open to all and is open until 5 p.m.

Some of the featured artists include two Drury employees: Sarah Jones, a live painter of figurative and abstract art, and Abby McGrath of Statement Handmade, who sells a variety of colorful earrings and magnets made from clay.

Be on the lookout for the two Drury-affiliated artists, whose works of art stand out in vibrant color.

Sarah Jones: Live Painter 

Drury University’s Director of Publications and Creative Services typically works with digital media creation while on the clock, but a unique benefit of her position has opened the door to an entirely different world of tactile creation. 

Sarah Jones resourcefully crafts her path as an artist, unveiling a process that seems “like it was just meant to happen.”

As a Drury University employee since 2004, Jones has been entitled to full tuition remission, which she has used to take advantage of classes like painting, sculpture and printmaking. She received her Masters in Art from Drury in 2016, after starting to take classes for fun in 2008.

“It’s been great, it’s really awesome to meet students, especially when I’ve been taking classes, and I get to have Drury students as my classmates, it really makes me feel what I’m doing here is important,” Jones says. 

Her creative journey has included various lessons from Drury and SRAC, which she has applied from the time she first started painting, to now making an intricate live painting each day at ArtsFest. Jones references a regular portrait stock photo and paints it in neon colors. For the second day of ArtsFest, she will be doing the same, with a different photo.

The Drury alumna and administrator likes to focus on painting, the medium most convenient for her. In her years of painting experience, Jones has experimented with quite the range of different expressive styles, now focusing on a figurative style. In the past, she has done pieces of surrealism, still life, and the abstract.

Jones’ abstract collections have been displayed in various Springfield galleries, such as the airport gallery, the RDI Building, and ideaXfactory. Her collection “Chroma Collisions” certainly got its moment in the spotlight in 2017, with multiple Springfield journalists reporting on it and investigating Jones’ creative process. 

Now, her figurative styles, notably including portraits and figures, each with a unique element, are coming to the forefront of what Jones likes to create and display. These are slightly “riskier” when it comes to earning income, subject to interpretations rather than simply a viewer’s visual preference. 

One of these figurative series includes two pieces in which Jones painted two self-portraits dressed as her parents in their wedding attire. 

Jones explains,  “In 2015, I was looking at a picture of my parents’ wedding photo, and I was looking at my dad’s hand in the picture and it reminded me of this memory…of looking at my hands and seeing a combination of my mom’s hands and my dad’s hands…their hands are special to me.”

The story behind the art is what makes it what it truly is, and Jones says that figurative art pieces are usually great conversation starters, especially at events such as ArtsFest.

This is Jones’ third year as a participant in ArtsFest, her first year was 2017. She started partaking in ArtsFest after being involved in community events. Jones reflects, “Volunteering…really made me want to do ArtsFest, because it was so interesting to have conversations with people.”

Besides this weekend’s annual event, Jones has participated in other SRAC programs, such as their Corporate Art Program. This “promotes the use of local and regional art in area businesses,” says SRAC on their website, by connecting creators with local businesses that may need a fresh work of art in their space. 

“I think it’s an awesome program because local places get to use local artists, which is a lot nicer than just a painting from a store,” Jones says.

Collaboration and resourcefulness are at the heart of Jones’ creative journey. She shares about a project in which she and two other artists laid out twelve canvases and created them as a single piece. Jones contributed by painting over various stencils on top. 

“We haven’t displayed them anywhere yet, we’re still working on how we want to do that,” Jones says about this collection, but we…want to see if people will realize, ‘oh, these are puzzle pieces.’’

Some of the most distinctive materials in Jones’ kit include secondhand paints, which she orders online from shops like eBay, from people looking to get rid of their paints. “It’s kind of fun to see what I get when I do that,” says Jones.

A special kind of creativity can blossom from the spirit of collaboration, and in a way, taking on the duty to finish a tube of paint from another artist who can’t, embodies that spirit. She shares canvases, and shares her student identity with classmates at Drury.

Drury has not only complemented Jones’ career, it’s played such a “role in taking the art classes, which I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise, I probably would have not done any more art,” Jones affirms.

“I hadn’t really put too much thought to specifically how Drury has been such a part of my life as an artist, but the more I think about it now, [I think,] ‘it’s like maybe the best part.”

Sarah can be found at ArtsFest on Sun May 7, making her second live painting of the weekend on the corner of John Q. Hammons Parkway and the Historic Walnut Street.

Abby McGrath: Creator of Statement Handmade

While still attentive to her 9-5 work, there’s no doubt that during any downtime, Abby McGrath is thinking about new ideas to form for her unapologetic clay art business, Statement Handmade.

If your seasonal allergies became too awful to bear this spring, you may have visited Drury’s Panther Clinic, where McGrath has worked this past year.

And while the great outdoors were producing allergens, encouraging new appointments to Drury’s on-campus health clinic, the trees were also inspiring McGrath by reflecting her brand’s colors. 

The joyful character, dressed in her usual olive green and orange-brown tones, explained last month at C Street Art, “I started a business because I love these two colors, and now I just have undeniable access to them.” 

While these two colors started the brand, her brand has since evolved to create literal basketfuls of hues. 

A strong advocate of the LGBTQ+ community and intern at the GLO Center of Springfield, this part of McGrath’s identity has inspired many of the pieces she makes, which include various Pride designs that she is selling at ArtsFest. This particular collection emphasizes the many “Statements” of her company.

These brand statements appear at every event McGrath partakes in, including ArtsFest. They sit boldly, front and center, next to two baskets totaling about 500 pairs of earrings and a display of clay magnets. This year, she is also selling stickers and small printed items. 

Explaining how her craft came to be three years ago, the Missouri State graduating senior explains, “It started out as a quarantine activity…I got my package for the first time, the day we got sent home for quarantine at Missouri State. I remember I sat down to open it and I made a pair.”

She didn’t start selling her work until late 2021. The first time she participated in ArtsFest, she ran out of items on the first day, she says, so now for her second appearance, she has made double the pieces.

In the spirit of her own beginnings, McGrath has begun to develop a new product of her own: a package for aspiring clay artists. It will include a roller, toothpicks, two or three types of clay (depending on the price), as well as studs, hooks, jump rings, pliers…everything needed except for a baking sheet. 

McGrath not only works to make her resources readily accessible but also shares insight with young artists looking to sell their own art.

At C Street Art, McGrath took a few moments to kindly speak with an artist asking for advice on how to grow their business to more parts of Springfield. She tells them to contact stores in Springfield, saying, “Many will make something work for you… they’re not going to turn you away.”

According to the Statement Handmade website, McGrath’s pieces are sold at The Local Bevy,

Hickory Lane Plants, and Groovy Gardens Glassworks.

Since she has such a wide audience, McGrath works hard to make a vast assortment of jewelry in different designs, colors, sizes and styles. Some of Statement Handmade’s best sellers are strawberries, clouds and daisies, but in her baskets, you can also find shapes of lava lamps, fun foods like pomegranate and pasta, and zodiac symbols.

Her favorite things to make are normally the things that she wants to wear.

“I can wear whatever I want and make earrings to match,” McGrath laughs.

She will be, of course, wearing her handmade earrings for her own November wedding–a ceremony themed with her two favorite colors–her bridesmaids will too be wearing Statement Handmade pieces.

Abby McGrath of Statement Handmade will be at Booth 94A on Sun May 7 on Walnut Street.

Article and all photos by Gisele Ortega