More than 100 artists to participate in 18th annual Funky Ferndale Art Fair

FERNDALE — Downtown Ferndale will be filled with local artists this month when the 18th annual Funky Ferndale Art Fair rolls into town.

The Funky Ferndale Art Fair will take place Sept. 23-25 on West Nine Mile Road, as well as portions of Troy and Allen streets. The fair will be open from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23; 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25.

The event will feature more than 100 juried artists who will be selling jewelry and paintings to sculptures and mixed media. Event producer Mark Loeb is excited and happy with the lineup.

“It’s been even more of a challenge than usual with the selection because there’s so many more artists every year that hear about the show and just really feel that it’s a good fit for their artwork,” he said. “But we’re pretty much set on the size, about 100-110 artists is about as far as we want to grow, because we want to keep it strong, too.”

Shannon Burnett, of Pleasant Ridge, will be participating in her second Funky Ferndale Art Fair, where she mainly will be selling acrylic paintings and photography.

Burnett also will be selling mixed media, a type of art she started to dabble in during the pandemic. Burnett’s mixed media artwork consists of acrylic paint, salvaged wood and salvaged metals from around the area made into paintings and house signs.

“I would go on just tons and tons of walks because, like, that was all you could do,” she said. “I would find metals all around Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge and Royal Oak, and I started collecting salvaged wood. And actually, most of my paintings are on salvaged wood. So that all started basically as just something to entertain myself during the pandemic, and I ended up opening up an Etsy store, and all of those just sold like crazy. So I am gonna have a few of the paintings and the salvaged wood and salvaged hardware signs at the show, as well.”

While she’s been making art for 20 years, Burnett only has been participating in art fairs like this for two years. What she’s loved about taking part in these events has been getting to meet customers and get their impressions of her art.

“My art is a little bit dark, and it’s fun to watch people kind of get your art and want to buy it because it reaches a piece of them,” she said. “Personality-wise, I’m pretty upbeat and cheerful and everything, but my heart is very dark. And it’s just, I like having the conversations with people about how the pieces kind of hit them and how it makes them feel and how it relates to them.”

Burnett said she’s excited to be participating again this year as she’s an introvert and doing the fair pulls her out of her shell.

“To interact is a little bit hard for me, but it’s super rewarding and it was just talking to the people about my artwork and how it relates to them, that’s what I’m most looking forward to,” she said.

The fair also will have an authors’ tent with 30 local authors for people to meet.

Loeb said there will be a variety of authors covering genres including children’s books, romance, mysteries and nonfiction. The first year had eight authors, he said, because they wanted to make sure it was going to work before the fair possibly overdid it with more authors.

“That was the main thing that we were hearing from people, was they wanted more variety,” he said.

At the same time as the Funky Ferndale Art Fair, the DIY Street Fair will be held on East Nine Mile Road. For more information on both events, visit www.funkyferndaleartfair.com and www.ferndalediy.com.