CLEVELAND — Artists from across the country gathered in Northeast Ohio this weekend for the Cain Park Arts Festival.
The annual event was held in person this year after being held virtually last year due to the pandemic.
Despite the rain, many people came out to enjoy the weekend festival.
Kendra Wood was one of the artists featured during the event.
Wood brought a bit of whimsy to the festival with her hand-crafted figurines that she calls ‘rebots’.
“The rebot name comes from recycled, robot, repurposed, kind of up-cycle,” Wood explained. “That’s how I came up with the name.”
Her art pieces are all made out of vintage household items that she finds at different thrift stores and flea markets across Northeast Ohio.
Many of the items that make up the rebots are more than 100 years old.
Wood said she enjoys giving new life to items that might have otherwise been forgotten.
“I love to repurpose the tins because this way they are not going to end up in a landfill,” she said. “Nobody could possibly throw out something that looks this cute.”
Wood spends hours finding the material to make each rebot and assembling them to create a unique robot-like sculpture.
“Each rebot is my favorite until I make a new one,” she said. “I give them a name and sometimes I think long and hard about the names I do give them.”
Wood said she enjoys seeing people react to her work at events like the Cain Park Arts Festival.
“When people walk in, sometimes I feel more like a museum than a shop or a pop-up shop,” she said. “People walk through and say, ‘I remember this from my childhood or ‘my grandma had this, or my mom had this.’”
You can find these rebots online at kendrawoodart.com
