TAMPA — Howard Alan Events will present the 35th annual Hyde Park Village Art Fair on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 25-26, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 1622 Snow Ave. in Tampa.

Temperatures are starting to cool down even in tropical Florida, which means the festival season has officially arrived. The annual festival will welcome nearly 100 fine artists from around the nation to trendy Hyde Park Village. Those artists will bring thousands of handmade works of exquisite art to display and sell. Residents and visitors are invited to stroll the scenic art walk along Snow Avenue featuring “pop-up” booths filled with life-size sculptures, spectacular paintings, hand-made jewelry, photography, ceramics and more during the free event.

The Hyde Park Village Art Fair is a fully juried showcase of artwork handmade in the United States. Artists have been selected by an independent panel of expert judges from hundreds of applicants. National art festival producer Howard Alan Events utilizes a careful vetting process which ensures a wide array of mediums and price ranges will be offered during the fair.

Among the artists tapped to take part in this year’s festival is Merideth Carballal, a St. Petersburg-based artist.

Carballal works with mixed media that she then sculpts with palette knives before finishing with acrylic. Her works — which are collected around the country — reflect a lifetime of fascination with urban decay: peeling paint, rust and distressed surfaces. Before becoming a professional artist, Carballal experimented with urban decay photography while living in New York City. When she located to suburban Florida in 2014, Carballal found her new area lacked the “distressed surface content” so abundant in the city. This spurred her imagination to create her own distressed surfaces. In 2019, Carballal retired from her professional career to become a full-time artist.

Visiting artist Andrea Chipser paints mesmerizing and vibrant acrylic works that reflect the dynamic beauty of the Florida coastal paradise.

Chipser grew up in the fields, forests and rolling hills of Montgomery County, Alabama. This instilled an innate love in her for the beauty of the natural world. As an artist she found working with fluid mediums, including acrylic pours and resin, perfectly capture the ever-changing aspects of organic life. She now lives in Destin, with her husband and children.

St. Petersburg jewelry artist Dori Kazdin had an early career as a research immunologist and later a pediatrician. Retirement allowed Kazdin time to explore her artistry, and experience the childlike wonder she feels every time she creates a new piece of wearable art. Each jewelry piece links semi-precious beads with 14K gold-filled wire and chain.

Clearwater artist Patricia Kluwe Derderian has always loved walking and seeing things from a different angle. While studying architecture, she became fascinated by how buildings and cities shape the way we move, interact and feel. Through Derderian’s paintings, she explores the memories tied to the places and the people who were part of the moments. Her works have been exhibited throughout the greater Tampa area, including the Carrolwood Cultural Center, Epicurean Hotel, Hotel Don Cesar, Brenda McMahon Art Gallery, Mirella Cimato Gallery and others.

Also taking part in the festival is Clearwater resident Charles P. Bahringer. An award-winning contemporary metals artisan, Bahringer began as an architecture major at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A few fine art jewelry classes caused him to alter his course.

“I went to college with the idea that I would become an architect but I wanted to take some jewelry making classes so I could make my own wedding rings if I ever got married someday,” Bahringer said. “I took a few classes and fell in love with it so I eventually changed over to metalsmithing and jewelry design.”

After college, Bahringer owned and operated his own custom fine jewelry store for 13 years before being introduced to contemporary metals by winning multiple international alternative metal jewelry competitions. Since then, he has crafted in titanium, stainless steel and other contemporary/alternative metals along with silver and gold.

Throughout his career, Bahringer has designed and developed products for companies such as Tiffany & Co., Harry Winston, Marc Ecko, Calvin Klein, Dockers, and the NFL. He also designed the World Series of Poker winner bracelet.

Charles P. Bahringer Jewelry collections are groups of work that are constantly changing.

“I am always looking forward, my designs are constantly evolving,” Bahringer said.