LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – While the weather was gray and gloomy, artists from all over the state and across the country lit up Lake County with their colorful artwork and designs at the 47th Annual Mount Dora Arts Festival.

Artists like Jenifer and Kenneth Kudulis traveled from Chattanooga, Tennessee to take part in the arts festival in Lake County.

“We do travel all over the country for shows,” Jenifer said. “We travel 10 months out of the year.”

The couple began their art business, Kudu-law, in 2007. Their art is filled with colorful creatures designed by Kenneth.

The creatures are actually based on real people, even the cupcaketapuss – a cupcake monster with octopus-like tentacles – Kenneth would see on the New York subway on his commute from Queens to New Jersey.

“In order to keep himself sane, he would start sketching his morning commuters, and this is what came out,” Jenifer said.

She would then create a back story for each one of them.

Over their 15 years in business, the couple established a reliable customer base. Still, the majority of their business stems from art shows and festivals.

So, when the global pandemic hit, their business took a huge hit.

“COVID was hard,” Jenifer said. “COVID was hard on everyone, but we make 90% of our income based on in-person art festivals. We do have an online shop and luckily we did have that.”

The couple was able to stay afloat due to their established customer base.

“We were able to reach out to our customer base and say ‘we hope to make it through this’ and a lot of our artisan friends were unable to unfortunately,” she said.

With new coronavirus positive cases declining, the couple will be able to attend more and more art shows.

“We’re here, we’re back in person. It is thrilling. It’s sort of like seeing a long lost best friend.”

The art festival ran from Saturday, February 5 to February 6.