Q&A with Wendy Bale, 2026 JFM Poster Artist
Earlier this month, we unveiled the 2026 Jamestown Farmers Market summer season poster, featuring the work of Chautauqua County artist Wendy Bale! We caught up with Wendy for a Q&A about her artistic process and the creation of this poster.
Visit Wendy’s website and give her a follow on Facebook and Instagram to see more of her work!
JFM: Tell us more about your artistic background, and where you like to draw your inspiration!
WB: I am a nature artist living down the road from the Audubon Community Nature Center. I am inspired by the flora and fauna around our rural neighborhood. I am currently concentrating on paper sculpture and ceramics, but I also paint and draw local birds, plants, insects, and other critters.
Prior to doing art full time, I was a creative director for a fashion catalog in Madison, Wisconsin, and moved to this area when I was transferred to Blair in Warren, PA, in 2014. I rekindled my personal art career after being influenced by the generous art community in Chautauqua County.
JFM: What is the process of creating paper cuts? What extra steps are involved in creating something like this poster?
WB: My paper artworks are typically sculptural. I use layers and dimensional elements to depict my subjects against a background or landscape. My work has recently been shown locally with a small group of regional artists celebrating our National Parks. This show has been exhibited at Crary Art Gallery in Warren, PA, and The Barker Library in Fredonia, and is slated to be shown at Tri-County Arts Council in Olean next year.
When asked to design the poster for the Jamestown Farmers Market, I drew upon my graphic design background to come up with colorful artwork featuring the people I’ve grown to know over my years attending this market.
The resulting poster focuses on the community aspect of the market. I am a frequent shopper, along with my white poodle, Martini, and enjoy watching the people—both vendors and the public—interacting on Saturday mornings. Farmers giving helpful advice about gardens, bakers satisfying a sweet tooth, and friends meeting and gathering for coffee and the week’s fresh goodies inspired me to create a series of 25 characters representing not only the event itself, but also the behind-the-scenes work that goes into putting on this community event.
JFM: How did you create the individual “characters” that are on this year’s poster?
WB: I spent many hours sketching characters, thinking about the little stories each one could tell. About half of those rough sketches were turned into tidier drawings and eventually used to make the 2.25 x 2.25” paper cuts. Each drawing was transferred to black paper, then cut out with tiny scissors and a craft knife. I am a member of the Guild of American Papercutters and have been inspired by the incredible cutting skills of these artists, many of whom have been paper cutting for decades. Papercutting is a broad term for many styles and art forms. From traditional folk art to contemporary paper sculpture, I combine these techniques to create my own style depending on the project at hand. I also made an adaptation of the artwork as a framed wall piece. The characters are mounted in layers to accentuate the three-dimensional aspect of the papercuts.
JFM: What are you looking forward to this season, as a visitor to the JFM?
WB: I’m excited about the new location this year and look forward to meeting old and new friends, having a cuppa coffee, and watching the community come out and take advantage of the hard work our local vendors put into making this market something we are so lucky to have.