BrrrZaar brings veteran makers, new favorites to River Park Square

Terrain’s winter market BrrrZaar can help you accomplish a few things.

For one, it can help cross every person off your holiday shopping list. BrrrZaar brings more than 80 makers specializing in everything from jewelry, clothing and leather goods to home decor, art, skin care and ceramics to River Park Square.

Two, it can help you save money on those gifts while still shopping local, as most items are priced at $100 or less.

Finally, it can introduce you to new favorite artists, some newer to BrrrZaar and others, veterans of the winter market.

Visual artist James Frye is newer to BrrrZaar but is hard to miss. Frye’s work is as colorful as it gets, with pieces that feature neon hues to create images that feel psychedelic, whether the subject is a person, a cat or something more abstract.

Frye, who is on the autism spectrum, has chromesthesia, a type of synesthesia that involves hearing color. Frye said he always listens to music when creating, taking inspiration from synthesized music, hard rock and artists like Tiny Tim and the Beatles.

“James has been going to record stores and collecting vinyl since he was in a baby carrier,” said Frye’s mother, Wendy. “His dad’s a huge collector, so he’s been exposed to that, digging for vinyl and all the different kinds of genres of music since he was a baby.”

Frye’s parents didn’t know he had synesthesia until one day when they decided to ask Frye how he came up with the colors he uses in his pieces.

“He looked at us and said ‘Well, I hear them.’ Like ‘Don’t you? Doesn’t everybody?’ ” Wendy said.

Wendy initially thought her son had just made a bit of an odd comment until he participated in an art show organized by Art of Autism. Wendy told the curator what Frye said, and the curator said “Oh, that’s synesthesia.”

Wendy looked into synesthesia and began to understand how his mind works. Frye loved art classes in school, starting with ceramics and eventually moving into watercolor courses, where Wendy said Frye could immediately tell it was the right direction for him to take his talents.

He now produces a piece nearly every week, and his work has been featured at 4000 Holes.

At BrrrZaar, Frye will have a variety of products for sale, including prints, greeting cards and keychains, all featuring his signature vibrant artwork. He will be set up in the Kress Gallery.

“We hit a whole bunch of different price points, especially that gift price point,” Wendy said. “It’s going to look like a color explosion at our booth.”

Wendy said young children are often excited to visit Frye’s booth because of the bright colors and fun images of cats, which she and Frye are hoping to turn into a children’s book.

Along with a children’s book, Frye has another goal.

“There’s an experiment that I want to do when I’m daydreaming,” he said. “It’s experimental animation.”

Wendy is happy Frye is able to participate in events like BrrrZaar, because it shows how vibrant the arts community in Spokane is. There are a lot of artists who focus on Native culture, others on wildlife and landscapes. Frye’s work, with its colorful, psychedelic inspirations, provides a different perspective.

“Everybody I’ve ever met, especially at the Bazaar events (in summer), because they’re so well populated, is so excited to see it and engage,” Wendy said. “I, because I’m the one talking, have a lot of really great interactions with people. It’s really fun to get to know people and have them get to know James and his art.”

Sarita Morgan, the maker behind Sarita Star Leatherworks, has been a staple of BrrrZaar, participating in, she thinks, almost every one.

Morgan found leatherwork at a time when she needed it most. As a stay-at-home mother, Morgan made baby slings and hats as a hobby.

After going through a divorce, and with no college degree, Morgan was worried about her future. One day, she picked up an old leather jacket to make a pair of baby shoes for her daughter. She then made a satchel her son could hold rocks in. All of his friends wanted one, so Morgan made more.

Morgan said she cannot leave things plain, so she cut out the shape of a feather to decorate the satchels.

“Oh my gosh, this would be the coolest earring,” she remembers thinking.

Morgan kept playing with leather, making feather and fringe earrings, and soon after heard about Bazaar, the summer version of BrrrZaar. She knew how large the event gets and was nervous about participating, but ended up selling $1,000 worth of jewelry.

“For whatever reason, when I started messing with leather, it was like ‘This is my thing,’ ” she said. “I never really felt that, even with all the other things I had spent time making … This is my metaphor for that time in my life, my feathers were like my wings to freedom. I can still fly even through this terrible thing that I went through, getting divorced and losing the idea of your life that you were going to have.”

She began working at Fringe & Fray and making jewelry. She eventually borrowed an industrial sewing machine and learned how to make leather bags. Over the years, her product range has grown to include leather wallets, Dopp kits, fringe bags, belts and framed collage art pieces.

Seven years ago, Morgan began creating full time, and markets like BrrrZaar have become a common part of her business. Setting up and breaking down can be tiring, but what happens in the middle makes it all worth it.

“I love having an adventure when I go out of town, and I also love meeting new people and making connections with people,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of heartfelt conversations with people who did or didn’t even buy things from me, or we’re both crying in my booth. I love that part, and I cannot recreate that online in any way, shape or form.”

Participating in markets like BrrrZaar also helps Morgan, who will have a booth near J. Jill, handle feelings of inadequacy or feeling invisible. She was very shy when she was young, but she cannot be invisible when talking to customers.

“I have to step into my own self and accept my shiningness in that moment,” she said.

BrrrZaar is important for Morgan as a maker, but it’s also important to her as someone who wants to see local creatives thrive. By supporting local artists, customers help keep small businesses afloat. Also, things are a little less boring.

“It’s so important to have items that are unique and different,” Morgan said. “They didn’t come from Amazon or Target; they actually have heart and soul. All of us are putting our heart and soul into what we’re making.”

BrrrZaar features family-friendly activities and a full day of live music: Megan Vermillion (10 a.m.), Amanda Howard-Phillips (11 a.m.), Rosie CQ (noon), Bob Riggs (1 p.m.), Jerry Lee Raines (2 p.m.), Jared Hall and Brent Edstrom (3 p.m.), Erin Parkes (4 p.m.), Jason Garrett Evans and Ruth Engeda (5 p.m.), Tonya Ballman (6 p.m.) and Caleb Brown and Lauren McKinley (7 p.m.).