Sep 28, 2018 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 5 min read

A Starbucks cup, a climb on a fence, peanut butter and jelly: Every artist has a story, often involving the seemingly mundane figuring prominently in sources for inspiration.

Consider the plain white reusable cups sold by America’s most visible coffee purveyor. In 2014, Brita Thompson decorated one and submitted it as part of a nationwide Starbucks contest to feature the work of a select few artists on the otherwise nondescript containers.

“They picked mine, which was very, very surprising,” the 2012 Mt. Lebanon High School graduate recalled. “It actually was sold online first, but it was so popular online, they brought it to the stores next year. It was a pretty cool to see when I would walk in.”

It was pretty cool for Thompson to see the volume of customers who walked into the booth she had set up during the Mt. Lebanon Artists’ Market on Sept. 22-23. The array of 300-plus stickers featuring her distinctive drawings served as a prime showcase for what she offers through her company, Zenspire Designs, which she formed in the wake of the Starbucks success.

“It’s just been like a very fast-rolling ball for the last four years,” she said.

The artists’ market marked its fifth year with nearly 70 displays in a variety of media, giving visitors the opportunity to marvel at the talent on hand and to chat with the friendly folks who produce such splendid work.

One of the better-known participants was Linda Barnicott, the Bethel Park resident whose pastels, especially those depicting Pittsburgh scenes, have become artistic fixtures throughout the region.

An especially popular piece, and one of her earlier pastel efforts, is from the vantage point of the top of the Duquesne Incline. The image features Point State Park and, for those of you who remember, Three Rivers Stadium.

To launch the project, Barnicott went to Mt. Washington to take some photographs. About the time she arrived, so did some precipitation. Plus she found a gate in the way of what she wanted to shoot.

“So I had to climb onto the gate and put my arms around it and hold the camera,” she said. “And this nice man walks over with an umbrella and hangs it over me so that I could take some pictures while it was raining.”

Speaking of photos, the spectacular images captured by Katie Koenig … oh, wait! Those are paintings.

The Brentwood artist’s objective is to make her acrylic works appear to be as realistic as possible, and according to the reactions of visitors to her artists’ market booth, she succeeds.

“I’ve always admired realist artists, and I thought, that is so cool and I want to do that,” Koenig said. “So I’ve really spent the last five years focusing on it and trying to hone my skills.”

Her specialty, as a sign in the booth indicated, is “mouth-watering paintings.”

“I kind of fell into food as my subject through a painting-a-day challenge, when one day the challenge was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” she explained. “And as I started to do things like that, I saw how people reacted to them and had a lot of fun, and it really brought out memories for a lot of viewers. So I took it and ran with it.”

For 2017 Mt. Lebanon High School graduate Sarah Schuck, her artistic aspirations evolved from something completely different: getting made up and participating in Pittsburgh’s Zombie Fest.

“I just loved how it felt to scare people,” she recalled. “It was like an adrenaline rush. And then the art form really developed.”

She decided to enroll in Tom Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects Program at the Douglas Education Center in Monessen, which has presented demonstrations at the artists’ market the past few years. This time around, her mother, Sharon Reese, served as a horror-movie model for what Shuck has learned.

“It is a whole new world of transforming yourself into something different,” she said.

She credits Jennifer Rodriguez, her high school teacher who chairs Mt. Lebanon School District’s fine arts department for secondary students, with helping to hone her skills. And in fact, the teacher and her advanced placement art students were set up at the artists’ market right next to the Savini display.

“It’s a really great, relevant opportunity for emerging artists to participate in a high-quality show and understand the ins and outs of what it’s like to be a working artist,” Rodriguez explained. “This weekend exposure is really informative toward their career paths. They get to meet people, talk to the community, engage others in their processes, and for some, it means they’re also selling prints of their artwork.”

The students are working on portfolios they will present during the annual Mt. Lebanon High School Art Show, scheduled for April 5.

”We have some surprise installation work on the horizon and plan to bring in some multimedia experiences, which could include music,” Rodriguez said.So mark you calendar accordingly, and in the meantime, here’s an example of the best being saved for last: Mt. Lebanon resident Aileen Lampman.

“I’ve been making jewelry since I was 13 years old,” she said, and since then, her skills have advanced to the point where her mainly botanical-themed metal pieces earned her the artists’ market “best of show” award. Her technique:

“I use flat sheet and round wire, and everything is hammered by hand. Everything is hammer-textured. A lot of times I’ll put a patina on and then go back and remove it to get that soft, darkened finish on some of the pieces.”

Another artist who works with metal – in this case, steel instead of sterling silver and gold-filled objects – is her father, George Lampman.

And that goes to show that some sources of inspiration are anything but mundane.