Flagler artists shine at Flagler Creates Craft Fair

By Tiffanie Reynolds | gargoyle@flagler.edu

When junior Elizabeth Pape started at Flagler, she found art was much more than just her hobby. Pape is beginning to make a career out of her artistic talent by working with the local consignment shop,The Closet, where she sells her original line of vintage clothing and accessories called Tiny Dancer.

In her freshman year, Pape started selling her handmade jewelry in the store. Through their steady sales, The Closet allowed her to bring in some of her outfits, which all sold in two weeks. From this small success, she has now developed a website, Tinydancerclothing.com, which, on top of sales from The Closet, has established her as an independent designer.

Her passion for fashion design began as a sewing hobby back in high school. Her mother bought her a sewing machine, something that she never asked for, and Pape began making clothes for herself, never satisfied with what she saw at the mall.

“I would see things in the stores and it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I would always want to change something about it,” Pape said.

Putting her own eclectic and artistic spin on vintage clothing, one of her biggest influences is the style of the fifties. Many of her designs are based on the high-waisted shape of the dresses and skirts, explaining that the style highlights the thinnest part of the body. The floral patterns of the sixties and seventies play a huge theme in her clothing as well.

Her hope is to establish Tiny Dancer as an online store as well as open a local store sometime in the future. Branching out, she is participating in the Trunk Sale, an annual event that displays the work of different local designers, as well as the first annual Flagler Creates Craft fair on November 20th.

Flagler Creates gives students and alumni the opportunity to show their art to the campus and downtown St. Augustine. It will feature works of art from paintings and photographs to jewelry and clothing, offering new artists a chance to display their work for the first time.

Brianna Angelakis, a sophomore English major with an Illustration minor, is will also have artwork featured in the fair. Her work has been displayed in numerous galleries, including the local gallery Sister to Sister, in a past Art Walk event. While she experiments with different artistic styles, she always falls back on her bright colored pencils and acrylics in her free time. Her drawings feature smiling fairies and mermaids in vivid blues, reds and yellows. She bases her style on the cartoons she grew up with as a kid, such as the Disney Princesses and especially Sailor Moon.

“I have to say that Sailor Moon is what started getting me into art. I would give eighty percent of the credit to Sailor Moon,” said Angelakis.

Although her focus is on art, her biggest dream is to become an author and illustrator of children’s books.

Both Pape and Angelakis strive to follow their dream, putting their craft before anything else. Juggling with schoolwork, Pape often stays up late to complete her designs, hoping to make other women happy wearing them. Angelakis follows her inspiration, focusing on her art through school while never forgetting her true style in her free time.

With forty other artists, both girls will be featured in Flagler Creates this Saturday.