ARTIST STORY

We are thrilled to announce Jonah Ballard as the Featured Artist for the Ann Arbor State Street District Art Fair.

A self-taught acrylic painter known for his signature pink palette and dreamlike compositions, Jonah creates artwork that explores transformation, imagination, and personal interpretation. Raised in Arizona, he began painting as a teenager while helping with his family’s hand-painted décor business, The Painted Ladies, where he continues to create today.

Inspired by desert landscapes, vivid dreams, and the belief that imagination shapes reality, Jonah’s work invites viewers to discover their own meaning within each piece. Now traveling full-time with his family, he shares his distinctive artistic vision with audiences across the country.

As the Featured Artist, Jonah's artwork will be showcased on the official State Street District Art Fair commemorative poster. Visitors can meet Jonah and experience his work firsthand at his booth during the fair, taking place July 16-18, 2026. To learn more about Jonah and his artwork, visit thepaintedladies.org.

ARTIST STORY

Erin Hanafin Sweeney is a painter and mixed-media artist from Geneseo, New York. She explores joy, nostalgia, and the absurd through animals, objects, and a bold use of color. Working in acrylic paint and collage, she has developed a style that balances the wild with the restrained. Erin lives with her husband and three young boys, who are a daily source of inspiration.

This year’s design is an original piece made by Sweeney specifically for the poster and features her highly sought after geese wearing Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair merch. This whimsical and fun artwork displays three geese shopping the fair proudly wearing their Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair gear.  Be sure to check out the Ann Arbor Summer Art fair merchandise booths where you can purchase this poster, a shirt featuring this poster and several other shirts, totes, and hat designs featuring variations on this art!

ARTIST STORY

America on a First Name Basis

My paintings come from a love of the back roads and small towns of America. I grew up on the road — constantly moving, state to state, town to town — and that restless childhood became the lens through which I see everything. Those long hours staring out a car window at passing storefronts, lit diners, and weathered signs became the vocabulary of my work.

My current series focuses on businesses and restaurants that carry a first name — often the name of the owner. These are the cornerstones of community life. They give a town its identity and its soul. Many are in decline, quietly disappearing as independent owners are replaced by brands with no story. I want to paint them before they’re gone.

“These places are the backbone of another era. I want to document every line, every brick, every weathered sign.”

I prefer twilight and nighttime for my work — hours when familiar places become something more, half-lit and full of quiet mystery. The photorealistic finish is achieved through many hours of careful attention: studying light on-site, photographing from multiple angles, then returning to the studio to compose on oil on wood panel. I work small and intimate, because I want viewers to lean in, to discover the painting rather than simply see it.

This year’s poster is called “The Original” — a title with a double meaning that felt exactly right. The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original, is one of the oldest juried art fairs in the country — and the only one dedicated exclusively to original, one-of-a-kind works of art. No prints, no reproductions. Just art made by hand, made to last, made once. And Zingerman’s Delicatessen, opened in 1982 in a building that has stood on Detroit Street since 1902, is Ann Arbor’s original deli. Two OGs. One painting.

I chose Zingerman’s because it embodies everything my work is about: a place with a name, a history, and genuine character. The old brick building, the cobblestone street, the worn charm of a place that has been a gathering spot for generations — it’s exactly the kind of subject I travel the country searching for. If you love Ann Arbor, you know Zingerman’s.

“The brick streets, the old brick building. It has the kind of character that only comes from age, from use, from meaning something to the people who know it.”

Matthew Cornell

2026 Featured Artist
Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, The Original