CINCINNATI, Ohio — On Saturday, Cincinnati’s 54th annual Summerfair welcomed hundreds to Coney Island to check out the work from national artists.
Jess Sheldon was one of those artists.
She’s the owner of Cityscape Tiles, a business she started eight years ago. It was inspired by her interest in photography.
“I started documenting things, especially as our city started to change, that are being torn down or renovated and the rest is kind of history,” Sheldon said.
From there, she branched out and started capturing photos from other places.
“Instead of photographing weddings and corporate events that I would much rather photograph the places that were more meaningful for people that kind of brought back the memories and nostalgia,” she said.
Sheldon has captured photos from over 60 different cities across the nation. And to share those memories, she thought what better way than to display them on tiles.
“I happened to find ceramic tiles in the old buildings in Over-The-Rhine in Cincinnati, held on to them for about a year,” she said. “I thought they would be great to be repurposed into something. I just didn’t didn’t know what and then the experimentation began.”
Sheldon is one of 273 artists from across the country to take part in the Summerfair. Photography, 3D art and jewelry are just some of the art you can find there.
“It’s going to beautify your area,” said Summerfair Managing Director Jayne Utter. “It makes you feel good. You can wear the jewelry, you can wear the fashions that are here.”
Utter said the Summerfair not only showcases the work from these artists, but all of the proceeds go towards helping the arts community and aspiring arts. On average, every year they donate about $80,000.
“The students that are in high school are doing the murals,” she said. “Then we see them as a working artist, then we see them as a professional artist, and it’s just great to watch these successful people come from not just from us, but we give them an outlet.”
This is Sheldon’s fourth year participating in the fair. And she said it feels great to feel the energy and hear stories from other people.
“I’ve looked up several times this morning and yesterday and heard people reminiscing, saying: ‘Oh my gosh I use to go here with my grandmother or I got married here, or I traveled here for my honeymoon’ and It’s really funny to hear people kind of stitch their own stories together and share them with me,” she said.
Summerfair will continue until Sunday evening.
