Thursday, March 28, 2024
 
Click HERE to sign up to receive Eye On Sun Valley's Daily News Email
 
Hula Hoops, Bugs and Big Pins-It’s the Ketchum Arts Festival
Loading
   
Saturday, July 10, 2021
 

STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Haley Willard couldn’t help but giggle as she moved her hips from side to side, her arms out in the air catching rays from the afternoon sun.

“I used to be able to work the hula hoop all the way down my body, then up again,” she said “This brings back memories.”

The booth providing the workout at the Ketchum Arts Festival is Melissa Boley’s Sun Valley Hoops--Holistic Hooping and Hollerin’ where hula hoops are works of art.  It’s back after a five-year absence.

Boley, a certified hula hoop instructor, is there to provide a running commentary on the physics involved—the bigger hoops give you more rotation time, making it easier to hula hoop. And she can provide the motivation—all it takes is 10 minutes of hula hooping a day over a month or so to lose an inch off your waist.

But the biggest attraction is the fun.

“I feel like a kid again,” said Willard.

Willard was one of hundreds of people stepping out of cars sporting license plates from places like Iowa and Florida to attend the first day of the three-day Ketchum Arts Festival at Festival Meadows on Sun Valley Road. The festival continues from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

“I think this is the busiest Friday I’ve ever seen at the Ketchum Arts Festival,” said jeweler and co-organizer Lisa Horton.

Among the artists is Ronald Fehr, who has scads of exotic butterflies and other bugs hanging in frames on the walls of his tent. Fehr’s father collected and framed bugs and when Fehr wanted to wash his hands of his detested mechanics job, he decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps.

“Now I take my boys camping, just like my father took me. And we put up a big white sheet and shine bright lights and it traps them,” he said.

That said some of Fehr’s favorite bugs come not from the woods of Idaho and Utah but from Peru, Brazil and overseas.

“When you see insects in nature, they don’t hold still long enough for you to examine them. But when I spread their wings out and mount them behind glass, people are blown away examining the detail,” he said.

Hannah Spencer, who lives in North Fork near Salmon, trotted out her hand painted wood carvings that depict everything from the iconic Sun Valley barn to Dog Days of Summer—a dog in the bow of a raft. A few sport proverbs, such as the Serbian saying: “Be humble, for you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.”

“I’m a fly-fishing gal, and I’ve found that people like the ones with rivers and camping. They like to have a memory. And my art gives them that memory.”

Many of the artists are veterans of the Ketchum Arts Festival. Deanna Schrell, for instance, has been showing her landscapes at the festival too many years to count.

“I love doing it because I like people buying my paintings. My clients become fans and come back to get more. And selling paintings gives me room to make more,” she said.

Marty Lyon, in contrast, is among the first-timers at the festival. And he beamed when  he sold his first painting--a pastel of Maui to a women whose daughter had been engaged on the road to Hana. Told that she planned to give the painting to her daughter at her engagement party that night, Lyon was so touched he gave her another painting aptly titled “The Road to Hana”

“It’s amazing,” he said. “People have been coming by and they all say, ‘I had no idea you do art.’ ”

~  Today's Topics ~


Lou Whittaker Leaves Behind a Legacy of Mountaineering and Storytelling

Free Range Poetry Society to Hold Second Gathering Tonight

Easter Bunny to Begin Hopping Friday
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
Website problems? Contact:
Michael Hobbs
General Manager /Webmaster
Mike@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
Got a story? Contact:
Karen Bossick
Editor in Chief
(208) 578-2111
Karen@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
 
Advertising /Marketing /Public Relations
Leisa Hollister
Chief Marketing Officer
(208) 450-9993
leisahollister@gmail.com
 
Brandi Huizar
Account Executive
(208) 329-2050
brandi@eyeonsunvalley.com
 
 
ABOUT US
EyeOnSunValley.com is the largest online daily news media service in The Wood River Valley, publishing 7 days a week. Our website publication features current news articles, feature stories, local sports articles and video content articles. The Eye On Sun Valley Show is a weekly primetime television show focusing on highlighted news stories of the week airing Monday-Sunday, COX Channel 13. See our interactive Kiosks around town throughout the Wood River Valley!
 
info@eyeonsunvalley.com      Press Releases only
 
P: 208.720.8212
P.O. Box 1453 Ketchum, ID  83340
LOGIN

© Copyright 2023 Eye on Sun Valley