- April 20, 2024
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Suzanne Ayala lets her medium dictate her art.
As a glass artist since the late 1970s, she pays close attention to her torch. She's only gotten burned once, and she's never going to make that mistake again. When she's ready to begin, she takes a bar of borosilicate glass and cuts off the portion she needs to work. For about the next 20 minutes, she works it back and forth until it is red and glowing.
"I don't feel like fighting anything with the glass," Ayala said. "I let things go and let it fall whatever way it wants to. I really like that a lot."
Ayala, of Daytona Beach, is one of 70 artists who will be showcasing their works at the 4th-annual Holly Hill Arts Festival in Holly Hill City Hall's front lawn on Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27. The festival features local, regional and national artists and it is the brainchild of Ormond Beach residents Pat Abernathy and Dr. Pam Fieldus.
The idea for an art festival came to Abernathy while she was at a classic car show in Holly Hill and she heard a children's orchestra playing the Star-Spangled Banner. Upon her discovery that the children in the orchestra lacked funds for instruments, she decided to find a way to help.
Abernathy spoke to Fieldus and they decided to use their combined decades of experience volunteering for the Halifax Art Festival in Daytona Beach to help children in Holly Hill. This resulting in the creation of Helping Hands thru Arts, an organization that supports fundraising through arts for local needs, in January 2019.
Aside from the juried artists, this year's festival will also have crafters and a student art exhibit, featuring art from students at the Holly Hill School, UBIC Academy and the Rossmeyer Family Holly Hill Boys and Girls Club.
There will also be lots of festival food, including barbecue from Fraze's Scratch Cookin'.
"It's a wonderful family-friendly event," Abernathy said. "You can bring the kids because we've got the student art. Dad is going to be happy because we have the barbecue. Mom is going to be happy because she can shop jewelry and art and whatever — there's something for everybody."
This will be Ayala's second year participating in the festival. She had a wonderful time last year and sold some of her pieces. Feedback from festival goers was good too, she said.
"Especially since I'm making the tall pieces now," Ayala said. "... And they're beautiful. They look so elegant."
Ayala uses rocks, such as coquina or volcanic rocks, as her base. Her glass art usually depicts blades of grass or weeds with animals such as fish, turtles and birds. All of her pieces are unique, since she doesn't begin working with a specific idea in mind.
"To me, I like everything to be different," she said. "I don't want any of them looking the same way."
Last year's festival was held at Sunrise Park, but that is currently undergoing the construction of a new seawall, so it was moved to Holly Hill City Hall, where it was held in 2019. Abernathy said she actually prefers city hall's lawn, as it makes setting up the student art exhibit a little easier.
"My business partner and I, we really believe in children's art," Abernathy said. "We really believe that's a strong foundation."
Abernathy said the leadership of the city of Holly Hill are also supportive of the festival.
"There just isn't a better place in the city, in the area, to have an event because they are so helpful," she said. "They're problem-solvers. They are partners."
