Up-and-comers at this year’s Columbus Arts Festival

Emerging Inspiration: Spotlighting three of this year's Columbus Arts Festival Emerging Artists

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An unsettling school assignment. An idle creative outlet. A cousin’s forgotten set of art supplies.

For a lot of people, these items might not merit a second thought. But for Ashley Snyder, Jackie Ayres and Sydney Denlinger, they were the beginnings of now-burgeoning careers in the arts.

The three are among 10 central Ohio artists participating in the Columbus Arts Festival’s Emerging Artist program this year. The program, which has been part of the festival since 2011, offers spots in the festival’s highly selective artist line-up for individuals who have limited or no experience displaying their work in a festival setting.

This year’s other Emerging Artist participants are Yani Sheng of Dublin, Kendall Kirchner of Worthington, Juliet Thibault of Marysville, and Toni Cross, Kaylyn Gouhin, Dimonde Hale and Andrea Kaiser of Columbus.

Jackie Ayres

Westerville resident Ayres used her fashion design degree from the Columbus College of Art & Design to work in corporate design for 17 years, but she eventually found herself looking for a way to do creative work with her hands.

“I was sitting at a computer all day and I really wanted to do something (physical),” Ayres says. “So I loved the idea of coming back to something tactile.”

Now, through her company, Dyetology, she makes hand-dyed apparel – mainly for women, and made with all-natural fibers such as cotton, rayon, linen and silk. Not only are natural fibers more comfortable to wear, she says, the colors produced when they’re dyed are amazing and vibrant.

“I want pieces that ladies are going to keep and wear for a long time,” says Ayres.

Ayres started Dyetology “unintentionally” five years ago, she says, but it’s become a serious business for her in the last three. And it’s long been an area of interest for her; five of the seven outfits she designed for her senior collection at CCAD were hand-dyed.

(Socks are) the largest clothing need in a homeless shelter,” Ayres says. “I’m hoping, one sock at a time, we can make a difference.

Her color palettes are inspired by nature, as well as found on Pinterest. She has countless screenshots on her phone from photos, social media posts and other sources of colors she likes.

She also works with homeless shelters, primarily Faith Mission, donating socks. For every pair of socks sold, Dyetology will donate another pair.

“(Socks are) the largest clothing need in a homeless shelter,” Ayres says. “I’m hoping, one sock at a time, we can make a difference.”

Ayres’ work can be found at Melt Hot Yoga & Fitness in Westerville, as well as at www.dyetology.com.

Ashley Snyder

If it’s unusual to find an artist who can create photography, painting, mixed media and digital media, it’s decidedly rare to find one who combines all three.

Snyder – of Sugar Grove, a village in Fairfield County – found herself inspired to combine multiple forms of artistic expression when a college class project took an unexpectedly dark turn. She was sick, stressed out, sleep-deprived, and dealing with personal tragedies and animosity with people in her life.

Initially, she couldn’t figure out how to incorporate these concepts into her assignment, eventually realizing one medium just wouldn’t cut it.

“I decided to mix my drawings with my photography and paint, and it turned out great,” Snyder says.

The positive reaction to her creation only inspired Snyder more, giving her the confidence she needed to immerse herself further into her art, becoming the flashpoint for her artistic career.

My process is very improvisational. ... I start with letting my imagination flow, and I follow it. I don’t know how I will get to my complete or what my complete will be.

She’ll create each piece of art separately, then combine the images of them digitally, often looking for the perfect material for each image – for example, a length of industrial chain that will become a brain. But she never knows what a piece will look like when she starts it.

“My process is very improvisational,” Snyder says. “I start with letting my imagination flow, and I follow it. I don’t know how I will get to my complete or what my complete will be.”

All of Snyder’s work reflects her psyche, she says – the good and the bad around her and within her.

She has been making art professionally since 2016. Some of her work can be found at www.galaxypalettestudio.com.

Sydney Denlinger

Others had encouraged Grove City resident Denlinger to study art when she was younger, but she instead went to film school at Wright State University and eventually got a job as an information technologist.

After she was laid off, with a lot of time on her hands, she picked up a paintbrush that her cousin, an art major, had left at her house, along with some other supplies.

“Lo and behold, I was really good at it,” Denlinger says.

Initially producing paintings for her own amusement, she soon had visitors offering to buy the work off her walls, and decided to pursue art full-time.

Her subject of choice: fan art based on video games, made primarily with acrylic paints. It’s proved spectacularly popular.

“I would remember scenes from games that I would play, and it just spiraled from there,” Denlinger says. “That’s all people want. I can’t keep up with it.”

Some of her pieces are direct tributes to specific scenes from games – a 16-bit style portrait of Fox McCloud from 1993’s Star Fox for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, for instance. Others riff on more familiar scenes, such as a picture of Santa Claus and his sleigh reimagined as Super Mario Bros. villain, Bowser, being pulled by members of his Koopa Troop. She even put together a 20-canvas set of works based on classic arcade game Galaga, using color-changing automotive paints, as a commissioned project.

“I do everything from Atari and (classic) arcade games to … a big Fallout piece,” Denlinger says.

Denlinger streams her painting process almost every day on Twitch, allowing fans to watch her paint and even comment on her work in real time. Her channel can be found at www.twitch.tv/mete0ryt.

Garth Bishop is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.