Art on the Lawn – Yellow Springs, Ohio’s popular August festival of art, music and food – is in its thirty-third year. This year more than 100 artists from all over Ohio and beyond will gather under the shade trees at Mills Lawn School in the heart of Yellow Springs to show and sell their artwork. The event will be held Saturday, August 13, 2016, from 10 AM to 5 PM; it is free and open to the public.

New and returning artists will present paintings, drawings, ceramics, fiber art, garden art, glass, jewelry, paper crafts, photography, candles, leather and more. Food vendors and live music will complement the outstanding artwork. The event is sponsored by Village Artisans, a multi-media artist cooperative in Yellow Springs.

The featured artist at this year’s event is Michelle Litell, a homemaker and self-taught bookbinder from the small town of Marion, Ohio. Litell won “Best of Show” with her hand-made journals at last year’s Art on the Lawn. Litell entered her craft around 2007 while homeschooling her sons in her rural community. “They needed blank books for a project and I had difficulty finding them where we live,” Litell said, “so I decided to create something. My first books were simple, stitched pamphlets but they worked well for what the boys needed and they hooked my heart as well.”

Also a musician, Litell said she has “always loved putting down her thoughts in many forms, such as poetry, song lyrics, drawings and so forth. “So creating my own books seemed like a natural fit.”  Litell dove into the craft by researching binding techniques and trying several different methods and materials “until I found techniques that I adapted and loved using.” She has a few favorite stitches and binding methods that she considers her specialties.

“It took me several years of testing materials and honing my skills before I began to show and sell my work. I love to use papers with color and texture.” Many of the papers and materials she uses are handmade and renewable. “I also use vintage materials such as records, sewing patterns, maps, and photos. Combining vintage with new materials brings life and personality to my pieces, which are all unique.”

 A few years after she’d started binding, Litell was given some leather and began teaching herself to dye, stamp, sew, and burn covers from it. “I developed my own dyeing technique and I prefer to use leather that has holes, scars, and other marks. I find beauty in what others see as imperfections and I try to place those marks in interesting places on the covers. We all have scars and marks in our lives and we need to see the beauty in that. They are all a part of our story, a part of who we are.”

Litell views her bookbinding as “only part of the art. I make places for other people to finish the project. They write their own stories, with thoughts and heart that no one else can produce. I think others need to know what we carry inside – who we are and what we think. Journaling, whether in words or pictures, gives us a place to do this, to leave pieces of ourselves. I love that I get to participate in a small way in the stories of so many people.”

The beautiful hand-made work of Michelle Litell, and over 100 other artists, can be seen at the August 13^th Art on the Lawn in Yellow Springs. For more information on the show or on Village Artisans, please visit the gallery at 100 Corry Street in Yellow Springs, call 937-767-1209, email villageartisans.email@yahoo.com, or go to the web site: www.villageartisans.blogspot.com .  Summer gallery hours are Monday – Thursday 11 AM – 6 PM; *Friday and Saturday 11 AM – 7 PM; and Sunday Noon – 6 PM; *open later for receptions.