Sherry Chandler

My husband, T. R. Williams, will be exhibiting this Saturday and Sunday at the Keeneland Arts Fair in Lexington. Held on the picturesque grounds of the Keeneland Race Course, this juried art fair will feature over 90 of the region’s best artists and craftspeople. Shoppers can expect to see the highest quality handcrafted ceramics, painting, metal works, glass works, fiber works, photography, fine jewelry, woodcraft and more. Concessions also will be sold onsite for those who need a break from their holiday shopping.

Williams is still the third most common name in the United States but my husband is an artisan of uncommon skill. He has been a juried exhibitor with the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen since 1981. He was in the first class of exhibitors to be juried into the Kentucky Craft Marketing program when it started back in the 80s. Parenting duties made it impossible for him to produce wholesale quantities of goods, so he had to drop out but he juried in again last year. This year he was chosen to be a showcased artist at Southern Artistry. His work is known throughout the country and in 1993, he contributed a tiny wood spoon to the White House Christmas tree. That was in those awful prosperous Clinton years, theme was “The Year of the American Craft” and the tree featured hand-crafted ornaments from all states, territories, and possessions (who says we’re not an empire?).

We were sent a souvenir photo, which I share here in the spirit of the season.

T. R. makes gorgeous turned ornaments now, of which I regret to say there is only one sample on his web page at the moment. This web is a work in very slow progress. You can also see a few here on our considerably less over-decorated avacado plant that stands us in stead of a pine. You can see also a representative sampling of his distinctive spoons here.

The other artisans at the Keeneland Fair will be just as skilled. If you want to find some beautiful distinctive gifts and are tired of the hurly-burly of the malls, why not give Keeneland a shot.

Hours are 10:00 AM - 6:00 5:00 PM Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM.