Owner/Director

Greetings and thank you for exploring our site! I am Amber Hoes, Director of the Wimberley Valley Art Bazaar! I am delighted to take on this position to bring artists together in a Hill Country setting.

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I am a southwest Michigan native who relocated to Austin in the winter of 2019. I traveled to central Texas for the first time that summer and met some people who helped me find a place here. I was live painting to music up in Michigan and wanted to bring it to Austin, as I didn't see any live painters at any shows I had gone to in the city. What an opportunity! I got started as soon as I moved here in south Austin doing events monthly. 

I learned from a girlfriend here about a thing called a "Community Canvas", and I was so curious to learn what it was. There is a canvas, paints, brushes and towels (to clean up with) made available, and anyone passing by is welcome to add to the canvas. I started doing the community canvas events for a local friend in 2021. I relocated to Driftwood in 2023. I discovered the art bazaar and decided to get involved in late 2024! 

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I started out creating things in many mediums as a young child. I enjoyed drawing, painting, making wreaths and dream catchers out of wild foraged plant materials, crocheting, knitting, cooking, making clothes for my dolls, and then myself! I began focusing on oils in 2017. My favorite medium is oil with Liquin, and painting on a stretched canvas. Some projects early on in my career as an oil painter took me many months, even years to complete, and some still take quite a while. I have learned how to work faster over the years and have tried many techniques to achieve different effects. I love the thickness and richness of the oil pigments. I recently started doing landscape paintings and am looking to create many more in the future! I have posted many of my pieces through Instagram where you can find me as @rabidpeachart

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Before moving here I spent some time in the military and received my Bachelor of Science degree from Western Michigan University the spring of 2019. I sustained some injuries during my time in the Navy, and experience challenges daily because of them. Painting is my passion. It has given me something meaningful to focus on in this life. I feel blessed to be able to do what I love whenever I want. I am definitely living the dream! I am very grateful to have found this community, too. I hope to make future bazaar events flourish with, my managing partner, Alicia!

Managing Partner

Hello Everyone! My name is Alicia R. Paparo. I have been a resident of the Texas Hill Country since 1996. I am based in Wimberley, Texas.

I am a self-taught photographer and artist.

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I got my first film camera around nine years old. I spent so many evenings photographing sunsets. Almost ten years later, in September of 2011 my aunt came for a visit and we decided to go play bingo at the local VFW. The largest prize there is $500, on the last play of the night. The chances of getting bingo were 52 numbers that night and the very last two number were exactly the numbers I needed. I won the $500 and new exactly how I was going to spend it. I bought myself a Nikon Coolpix P500 digital camera. From there I began to learn digital photography. I soon realized that photography was a passion of mine. In 2016 I upgraded to a DLSR. There is a lot more to say on the subject but I will stop here. Meet me in person and we can talk about it.

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Art started for me when I was a small child. I was always drawing and coloring pictures for people. 2020 Is when things really started to take off for me. I'd been practicing Pyrography (art of burning designs in wood etc.) for a while. A fun art form that seemed to come naturally. I had a few big orders for Christmas 2020. That seemed to launch me in to a whole new chapter of creating. I've started burning designs on felt hats. I've also started painting recycled saw blades as well as doing so much more.

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In 2024 I discovered Wimberley Valley Art Bazaar and felt strongly that this was exactly what I was looking for. A new place to reach more customers and meet new people. That feeling turned out to be accurate. It was a group of welcoming people and I fit in with them.

Now I am a managing partner hoping to help bring in other artists who are also looking for the same welcoming environment.