An art lover picks out a handmade card to purchase at the Art Market, which was held in Evolve over the weekend. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Oil paintings of cupcakes, handmade cards and glazed pottery pumpkins caught the eyes of many who visited Evolve over the weekend.

This was the second year that the pop-up show, the Art Market, had been held in the space by a group of Shepherd University alumni. Previous to this, the market was led by Shepherd University art professor Sonya Evanisko, to enable her class on art market sales to get some real world experience. The event drew a following of art enthusiasts, many of whom have come to treat the Art Market as an unmissable shopping opportunity every holiday season.

“This has become a staple in the community. There are people who make a point of coming back to this every year,” said Sadie Valzetta, at her booth in the market. “We have been able to foster a relationship with a number of art collectors through this event.”

Over the past two years, the art market class has not been held. This fact, and the consequent lack of a market being held for that class, inspired Valzetta and four other Shepherd University Department of Contemporary Art & Theater alumni who had taken the class to organize and host the Art Market, independent of the university.

“Art Market was an incredible experience for us. It taught us how we could use our artistic abilities to support us,” Valzetta said.

Charles Town resident Charlotte Puttock, left, answers a question about her art at the Art Market, which was held in Evolve over the weekend. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

She, herself, took those lessons with her and applied them to her life after graduation. Today, she fully supports herself through the sale of her paintings and collages at markets like this one, as well as more highbrow events like art exhibitions.

“The Art Market has built a reputation for itself, and we work hard to maintain its good reputation,” Valzetta said, mentioning the artists hold each other accountable to maintain the quality of their work. “It is a market that people expect to get good art from, for an affordable price.”

In spite of her lack of involvement with this year’s Art Market, Evanisko could be found visiting it every day, to see her students’ continued success and offer advice to the one newcomer to the group, Norah Snyder, who also studied art at Shepherd but was unable to take the class before its discontinuation.

“I just sold one painting here, for the first time — I’ve never sold a painting before,” Snyder said, noting this was especially exciting for her, as she has been selling her art at events similar to this one for the past year. “I’ve been doing markets like this since last December. I’m mostly doing them, right now, to learn and to use them as a growing opportunity.”

She anticipates creating art in one way or another for the rest of her life, though her goal is to support herself with a different medium than with her current preferred mediums of painting and pottery.

“The dream is to be a tattoo artist full-time and to do my fine art projects part time,” Snyder said, “Selling that work at art markets like this.”