Photos by L.G. Patterson

Since 1959, Art in the Park has been a showcase of our city’s finest art. It makes sense that the oldest and biggest art festival in mid-Missouri would be held in Columbia, a midwestern hub for creativity and artistic expression. Countless artists call Columbia home, whether they be painters, sculptors or potters, or work with fibers, glass or wood. No matter the medium, Columbia is known for its vibrant artistic landscape. Meet the heart behind the art: four of Columbia’s artists in their natural habitats — their studios.

Randy Mayes

When Randy Mayes describes himself as “real simple,” he’s referring to his methods and tools of creating, not his eccentric collection of woodworks and paintings. A majority of his work is colorful and playful, whether it be the hand-carved wood decoys and sculptures he crafts or the hundreds of stones he paints.

The path from an idea to the bird carvings and statues you may see at Mayes’ Art in the Park booth in June starts with a sketch. Mayes draws all of his own patterns, gathering inspiration from nature. After the sketch, he gets to carving. His main subjects are birds: sandpipers, loons, ducks and whatever else strikes his inspiration that day.

For carving, Mayes says he’ll use any wood, but prefers basswood or anything with a tight grain. He’ll also carve sculptures of birds out of driftwood he plucks out of nearby ponds and lakes. Once his patterns are sketched, Mayes goes to his workshop.

Mayes’ workshop sits in a concrete bunker in his basement. Stepping into it, you may notice the walls are covered in photographs, ribbons and sketches, and a layer of sawdust and woodchips covers every surface. He says he has 15 to 20 projects in his mind at all times, so the tabletops are full of works in different stages of production. Like most artists, Mayes thrives in what he calls “controlled chaos.” This workshop is Mayes’ sanctuary and a tribute to his old school methods.

“People will ask if I studied art,” Mayes jokes. “And I tell them, ‘yeah, in my workshop.’”

There are only a couple of power tools in Mayes’ workshop, fewer than you might expect from a woodworker. He uses a power saw for larger cuts, but prefers to shape the majority of his projects by hand. Carving by hand takes much longer than relying on power tools, but Mayes says he’s not in the business of rushing his creations. It’s not about how fast the art is finished and painted; it’s always been about taking the time to craft something carefully.

“You can power tool them all you want,” Mayes says. “It’s quicker, but you’ll never get the satisfaction of doing it by hand. I get so much out of it when I get to be hands-on.”

With each intentional cut of the wood, Mayes transforms pieces of wood into renditions of birds. Many of his pieces are rooted in realism, but he likes to put character into the birds. His pieces are all unique, but often have similar fantastical features like smiles, quirky poses and the same distinct eyes made of marbles.

Once the piece is carved, sanded and ready for color, Mayes takes it upstairs. When he paints, Mayes sticks with simple acrylics. Despite having several cups full of brushes in his upstairs painting room, he has a mere five favorites he uses. For a palette, he uses the same paper plate until it runs out of space for paint or it begins to fall apart. In this painting studio, with his five brushes and trusty plate, Mayes moves quickly to bring color to the wood carvings and the stones he paints colorful scenes and characters upon.

His painting technique is quick and may appear unfocused, but each colorful stroke is aimed and intentional, just like his carving. Mayes can add dimension and depth with a few masterful swishes of his paintbrush to the bird carvings. Although his tools are simple, the final products are whimsical, bright and playful.

Some finished products are kept around the home, some are gifted and some will be displayed at Art in the Park. Since Mayes was born and raised in Columbia, Art in the Park is his favorite place not only to showcase his work, but to admire the work of other artists.

“I love to see everyone else’s art,” he says. “When I invite people to Art in the Park, it’s not to see me, but to see how other artists view the world.”

While Mayes likes to see how other artists view the world, surveyors of his work will get a glimpse of his perceptions of nature. Mayes uses bright colors to capture the wonder and beauty of the world around us. He says he primarily gathers inspiration from spots in mid-Missouri, namely Eagle Bluffs and other conservation areas across the state where he can see the birds.

Mayes says he can find inspiration anywhere, but his favorite source is pinned to the wall just above the desk in his woodshop: a black-and-white photo of his grandfather, around six or seven years old, seated at a desk in the midst of the Depression Era.

Like everything else in the workshop, the photo is coated in a thin layer of sawdust. Mayes’ grandfather Leroy was a carpenter, who raised Mayes’ father to take an interest in woodworking. While Leroy Mayes was a practical carpenter, Randy Mayes developed a more artistic style under the guidance of his father.

“When he was a teenager, he was always going to his dad’s trailer to carve,” Connie Mayes, Mayes’ wife, says. She and Mayes met at 18 years old. Connie fondly recalls how Mayes’ love for woodworking started young, as a bond with his father and late grandfather, and has turned into a lifelong passion.

After 35 years in the Columbia Art League, countless ribbons and awards, regularly being juried for Art in the Park and even an invitation to the White House for his artistry in 2002, some might assume Mayes would be flashy with his accomplishments.

But when he’s asked about his success in the art world, Mayes shrugs and says, “I’m a lucky man.” While Mayes is proud of his achievements, the art has never been for recognition. Larger pieces can take months at a time and even smaller figures consume endless hours of carving. But when Mayes sits in his workshop, under that prized photo of his grandfather and gets to work on a new piece, that is where he’s happiest.

“This is what I do,” Mayes explains. “This is what I love.” When you buy a piece from Mayes, you’ll have it for a lifetime — he guarantees free, lifelong repairs on all of his work.

Katie Barnes

Artistry runs in Katie Barnes’ genes. Her father is a woodworker, her mother is a fine art quilter and her brother composes music, so she inherited a creative mind and a knack for making. As a child, she started telling people she wanted to be a potter after watching a guest on “Sesame Street” throw and shape clay on the wheel.

But Barnes didn’t have the chance to pursue this dream until later in life; she never took a pottery class and still hasn’t. Barnes is entirely self-taught, with her ceramics practice starting in 1998 while she pursued an undergraduate degree in fisheries and wildlife sciences and a master’s in photojournalism at the University of Missouri.

At her first Art in the Park in Columbia, she displayed her photography. While Barnes pursued photography as her career, ceramics was more of a hobby. When she did explore ceramics, she focused on making practical pieces like bowls and vases at a nearby studio.

She found her real passion in 2020. Quarantine restrictions shut down the studio, leaving Barnes with a bag of clay, a few tools and spare time. She began shaping tiny homes out of the clay and inspiration sparked.

Through what she calls “the magic of mini,” Barnes creates a world of her own. In her studio you will find a village of countless tiny houses, all handcrafted with care. From matching sets and whimsical mushrooms to match strikers and magnets, Barnes creates each piece by hand — never with a mold — and handstamps each window and door to make each house uniquely precious.

“At first I thought only people who threw on the wheel were real artists,” Barnes says. “But my pure passion is working with my hands and making things like this.”

For each house she crafts, Barnes shapes the clay by hand, not following any stencil or set method. She underglazes the dried project and uses colorful mason stains to add pops of color and patterns, giving each work its own personality. From start to finish, her ceramic works are as unique as fingerprints. Though Barnes also makes planters, vases, pencil holders and match strikers, her decorative houses are the most popular among customers.

For a while, Barnes was uncertain what purpose the tiny homes could provide on their own. She’s a practical person, one to seek purpose in everything she uses or creates.

“I was having a hard time at first with the idea that I was making trinkets without a specific purpose,” Barnes admits. “But people will tell me, ‘I set (the tiny homes) on my windowsill and they just make me happy.’ So, I think that’s the purpose. People reflect on the happiness it brings them.”

The themes of coziness and joy are evident in Barnes’ work. She believes the theme of home stemmed from beginning these creations during quarantine, a time when home meant everything. Barnes’ home studio is bright and filled with personality, from personal art on the walls to gifts and posters of her favorite musicians. With her husband also being an artist, Barnes’ home is colorful and comforting, a feeling that is clearly conveyed in her work.

Creating these houses spurred on a fascination with the concept of “home,” along with an interest in architecture. Barnes draws inspiration from the beautiful historical neighborhoods of Columbia, but also from unique homes and structures in cities she travels to. She jokes that her husband will often have to slow down while driving just so she can snap photos of the houses that invoke inspiration for her pieces.

Inspiration might come quickly to Barnes this way, considering how much she travels. Barnes dives into art shows across the country, but likes to stay close to home by participating in art shows in Lawrence, Kansas City and St. Louis. Her work is on display at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City and the Columbia Art League, and was featured at Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis. She draws ideas from the unique architecture of cities across the country, but says Columbia is her favorite place to get ideas and Art in the Park is her favorite show.

“Art in the Park is an anomaly,” Barnes says. “The amount of people who show up to buy and support local art is massive.” She also says she recalls hardly being able to eat because so many eager Columbians were lining up at her booth to buy.

With tiny sculptures, large planters, matching village sets and everything in between, Snow Pond Ceramics replicates that warm, cozy feeling of home with each piece sold.

When Barnes was asked how many houses she’s crafted by now, she assumes it must be upward of 5,000 — perhaps close to 10,000. After crafting this many homes, Barnes still hasn’t burnt out. She loves each part of the process, but her favorite step is what she does with the leftover clay.

Barnes’s practicality leads her to try and use every last bit of clay after a project. With the scraps, she crafts even tinier houses to fire and glaze, with “take me” stamped on the back. She hides these tiny sculptures when she travels — on windowsills, tucked in the divots between brick walls, beneath stop signs and on seats in theaters — hoping her art happens upon an unsuspecting passerby. She scattered nearly 150 of these around downtown Columbia during True/False Film Fest. Wherever those tiny sculptures wound up, she hopes they give their new owners a warm sense of home.

Katie Barnes’ tiny homes are available at her online shop, snowpondceramics.com.

Michelle Marcum

You may have seen Michelle Marcum’s illustrations before. If her distinct, colorful and whimsical style evokes a sense of deja vu, it could be because you’ve dined at Irene’s, where her design of the iconic bone coyote is printed on the side of the building. Her art has been on display at Cafe Berlin, on the walls of the Dandy Lion Cafe in Ashland and inside Parkade. She’s also designed merchandise for the Columbia Art League since 2013.

Marcum has loved illustrating and designing since she was young and studied art at Stephens College. Throughout college, she worked at Subway and says she remembers thinking, “I want to be an artist, not a sandwich artist.” Then she joined the graphic design team at Subway and started her career.

Marcum is still a full-time graphic designer in the corporate world. When she isn’t working, she’s honing her style in her garage studio that is just as colorful and eccentric as her work. She mainly focuses on designs she places on stickers, enamel pins and T-shirts, which are her bestsellers.

When Marcum started selling prints of her designs online and doing pop-ups at Biscuits, Beats and Brews, she says she did decently. But her work truly took off at Earth Day in 2020, where her illustrations of a nymph-like tree creature sold rapidly. Since then, Marcum has been involved in the Columbia Art League and often raises money with her designs for nonprofits such as The Center Project.

She does about two art shows each month to sell her merchandise. But for Art in the Park, Marcum picks up a brush and paints. This is the only event where Marcum creates paintings. She does not make prints of these paintings — they’re all one of a kind and only available once.

For her Art in the Park paintings, Marcum follows a theme each year. This year marks her fourth Art in the Park installation, and she has titled her collection “In My Jurassic Era.” She will showcase paintings of fossils that still keep her woodland, fantastical style intact. One painting in particular shows the fossil of a winged archaeopteryx, surrounded by playful red mushrooms.

She says the idea came to her while working at True/False Film Fest and exploring the themes of time. And while her Art in the Park theme changes each year, it’s easy to spot which works are Marcum’s. She keeps her fantasy style consistent with each bright design or illustration she showcases.

On her eccentric, playful style, Marcum says, “I just kind of think of myself as a fairy.” Marcum describes her house as her “fairy kingdom housing strange, whimsical oddities.” In her studio, you’ll find her latest ventures spread out in an organized chaos.

Currently, Marcum is working on illustrating a set of tarot cards and a Field Guide to Missouri Fairies, which she designs alongside her partner, who is a biologist. Marcum is constantly thinking of new projects, saying one idea leads to another before they meld into her creations.

There are many notable sources of inspiration in her studio, including an impressive DVD and VHS collection from her parents, but a statue of a rabbit near her easel catches attention easily. This rabbit was sculpted by Marcum’s mother, a preschool teacher who also creates art. “My love for creepy-cute things like (this rabbit) comes from my mom,” Marcum says of the rabbit, which has deep-set eyes and a peculiar smile that fits the description of “creepy-cute.”

Across Marcum’s work, you will find “creepy-cute” designs of woodland creatures, aliens, dragons, unicorns and more. Her designs feel like a fantasy story come to life with her vibrant use of colors and playful poses.

“I try to make things memorable,” Marcum says. “That’s the secret. You can have the best piece in the world, but it’s nothing if people don’t remember it. (Art) needs to be memorable.”

Marcum can be found at three booths at Art in the Park this year — the merchandise booth and two for her art — where she will carry shirts, stickers, mystery boxes and paintings. If you’ve ever wanted to dive into a world of fantasy, Marcum’s bold, whimsical illustrations are for you. While Marcum only does pop-ups and her paintings are only available for a short time at Art in the Park, her website artchicamarcum.com carries everything from blankets and tarot cards to pins and hats.

Yukari Kashihara

Yukari Kashihara’s art journey began growing up in Osaka, Japan. She’s been drawing and sketching since she was a child, but it was her father who inspired a love of ceramics. She would accompany her father to galleries and shops to study the beauty of pottery and how art can be an outlet for emotions. For Kashihara, her art is an outlet for joy.

Kashihara left Japan for mid-Missouri when she studied for her master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Missouri. She started out as a printmaker, but dove into studying three-dimensional mediums like ceramics.

“People don’t realize how much there is to learn about ceramics as a medium,” Kashihara says. “The more you learn, the more opportunity there is to be inspired.”

After graduating, Kashihara and her husband settled in Rocheport to open a studio out of their home. Kashihara says she loves the tight-knit community in a small town like Rocheport and gathers a lot of inspiration from the nearby Katy Trail and other beautiful sights of nature in the town. She acknowledges how difficult it is for aspiring studio artists to find their distinct style, saying that her bright, playful interpretations of nature took time to forge. Kashihara’s art has shifted from practical pots and bowls to teapots and decorative pieces.

“Art is a part of life,” Kashihara says. “As you grow, your art will grow. As your life changes, your art will change, too.”

Her shop is set up in the foyer of her home, which is just as bright and charming as her work. Large windows cast plenty of light on organized shelves of her ceramics, prints and photographs for sale. Almost all of her pieces are inspired by nature: elephant tea-pots glazed with reeds and flowers, mugs with ceramic birds perched on the handles and trinket trays adorned with handpainted plants and landscapes. She says she draws ideas from what gives her joy and the majority of that joy comes from traveling. She’s backpacked across countries and continents, and hiked in some of the most beautiful destinations in the United States, but ideas come to her in Rocheport just the same.

Each piece is made of porcelain and wheel-thrown before they are intricately designed with underglaze and high-fired. She wants to express themes of peace and harmony in her work; Kashihara says each piece is like a visual diary. The pieces are quite time-consuming. On average, one of Kashihara’s ceramic works takes between four and six weeks. However, Kashihara says there’s no place in the world she’d rather be than in her studio, working away at a new piece.

As a full-time studio artist, Kashihara has the freedom to hone her craft and stick to her style. She taught for a while, but considers herself to be better at creating than teaching. “My philosophy is: if I don’t enjoy it, I’m not going to do it,” she says. “(The art) must make you happy.”

After over 20 years of creating and selling beautiful porcelain pieces, Kashihara has been juried for almost every year of Art in the Park and received widespread recognition. Above the counter in her shop, colorful ribbons — Awards of Excellence, Mayor’s Choice, Best of Show and more — are on display. Kashihara says she feels blessed to pursue her passion this way, but it took copious effort and practice to get here. She’s still constantly improving, seeking out new inspiration and ways to artistically express and share the joy she feels when she’s creating.

Visitors can shop Kashihara’s collection at Shirahaze Gallery, located at 200 Second Street in Rocheport and open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Browse her portfolio at shirahaze.com.