Every December, Pittsburgh embraces the festive holiday season with Handmade Arcade’s Holiday Market, where attendees shop from more than 290+ makers selling handcrafted clothing, accessories, art, home decor, jewelry, body products, and more unique items you won’t find anywhere else.
The Holiday Market will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh from December 5 to 6. Each year, as a sponsor of the Holiday Market, QBurgh donates its booth to an up-and-coming local LGBTQ artist. This year, QBurgh is featuring Noah Griggs and their Stet Studio artwork.
Griggs has always been creating art. They said, “In college, I started working with watercolors because it was easy to pick up and put down between classes.”
Griggs, who is from Central Pennsylvania (jokingly refers to the middle of the state as “Pennsyltucky”), moved to Pittsburgh for graduate school. They said, “In 2018, I started at Chatham for Education but switched over to the University of Pittsburgh to get a degree in Library Science.”
Griggs finished their education at the height of the pandemic and, unable to find a position in their field, began selling work on Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade or vintage items and craft supplies.
Soon, they opened Stet Studio, a website where Griggs writes, paints, and creates zines. The artist makes beautiful watercolor paintings of houses, prints handmade cards, bookmarks, stickers, and maintains a blog highlighting LGBTQ+ champions such as Rita Hester, Gilbert Baker, Holly Woodlawn, and others.
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On the website page titled “Second Story House Portraits,” Griggs paints custom portraits of area homes. They said, “When I first moved to Pittsburgh, my girlfriend would travel around to different neighborhoods and walk around to get to know the city. I started photographing houses; the architecture is so different. That’s when I began painting them.”
Although they live in Wilkinsburg, they are fascinated by the art and architecture of Allentown.
In addition to the watercolors, Stet Studio sells a delightful array of stickers, postcards, and bookmarks. Among the bestselling items is a sticker that reads: “I might be a transparent, but I’m not invisible.” They said, “It’s popular with parents who want to support their trans children.”
The artist, who identifies as trans, is creating their own Tarot deck and a corresponding guidebook. Each card would feature a prominent figure in LGBTQ+ history. They said, “For example, the eight of Pentacles is the card that is about perseverance and craftsmanship. Gilbert Baker was selected to represent the card due to his role in creating the first rainbow flag. The guidebook would share details about his story.”
They said, “I was talking to a friend about the Tarot. We discussed the Tarot deck as a storytelling device. The cards tell a story in art.”
They added, “I want to share sad and hilarious stories in LGBTQ+ history. For example, in the 90s, Mattel was trying to figure out how to make Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, more popular. They sent out people to capture the essence of the period. Well, they must have gone to a gay rave, because they created Earring Magic Ken. He’s got a vest, a gold chain, and an earring [he appears to be very gay-presenting]. They [Mattel] had to pull him from stores, but he ended up being their bestselling Ken doll.”
Armed with a degree in Library Science, Griggs loves providing resources and sharing knowledge. They said, “I want my art to make people feel seen.”
Griggs attended the Handmade Arcade when they first moved to Pittsburgh, but this will be their first year as a vendor at the event. They said, “I met a lot of people, built a community through places like the Handmade Arcade.”
Handmade Arcade, founded in 2004, built a grassroots community of makers who create quirky, irreverent, and unique handcrafted products that, in 2014, were named as one of BuzzFeed’s “25 Indie Craft Fairs Every Creative Person Needs to Visit.”
Griggs and their girlfriend are planning to stay in Pittsburgh. “I am the oldest sibling, and both of my brothers have moved here.” They added, “I love Pittsburgh because it’s so weird. It’s a city that doesn’t mean to be a city, and, of course, it’s so friendly.”