STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Lee Drake originally celebrated cracks in his jewelry as representative of the opportunities that grow out of traumas we initially think are bad.

Then the COVID pandemic hit and the Hailey jeweler began filling in the cracks.

Drake’s Chasm Collection are among several amazing displays by jewelry artists at the Ketchum Arts Festival, which continues today and Sunday at Sun Valley’s Festival Meadows.

More than a hundred artists from throughout southern Idaho have staked out their booths, selling a  variety of art ranging from Marjolaine Renfro’s wind chimes to whimsical birdhouses.

Gail Leach, who divides her time between Seattle and Elkhorn, has created a variety of whimsical dolls made out of Valentine candy boxes, buttons, bird baths and other items.

“Everything is recycled. I never know what I’m going to end up with when I start,” said Leach, who was inspired as a child by Craft books to create things. “I buy things in the thrift stores and work away. I’ve had no formal training.”

Jeff Leady of Boise has a variety of cartoonish art works designed to make you laugh.

When the pandemic hit, he drew several women with crazy frizzy hair outside a beauty salon trying to  rap their way inside. As the pandemic eased, he drew the same women trying to hop in the first salon chair that became available.

Most of his art work involves dogs and cats. One piece features a cat all tied up in yarn with the caption, “Don’t ask.” A piece depicting a dog in a hot dog bun begs, “Hold the onions.”

“I see life through a prism of hope. If I didn’t I don’t know where I’d be,” he said.

Meanwhile Bellevue photo artist Anne Jeffery is doing a robust of selling raffle tickets for her art with the money going toward the renovation of Hailey’s historic Liberty Theatre.

The Ketchum Arts Festival continues today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It concludes on Sunday, July 10, running 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.