At a Covington craft market, Walsh watched strangers stop in their tracks for a print of monsters swarming the Roebling Bridge and realized she’d found her niche.
Her piece, “Meanwhile in Covington,” which features comic book-style monsters attacking the Roebling Bridge, was the eye-catching work in question. After that, she said she recognized her artistic style.
Walsh’s art style portrays monsters attacking notable landmarks across Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Her art can be found under her brand, “PopWater Studio.”
“I had been searching for which style I wanted to really work in,” Walsh said. “I had made that one [Meanwhile in Covington] thinking people were just going to kind of ignore it. It was just a weird thing in my head that I had to get out. I found my people that way.”
The Union resident is a brand manager by day, which she describes as “creative adjacent.” Walsh is not formally trained in art and picked it up as something to do in her free time in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walsh said the weirder and more niche the local landmark is, the better.
“In Loveland, there’s a low bridge that has a caution sign on it, and there are constantly trucks hitting it,” Walsh said. “This is maybe the most obscure, but there’s a camera trained on that bridge where people can just watch anybody hit that bridge. It’s kind of like an inside joke up there.”
Walsh is picturing a piece that will be ready for the Loveland Frogman Festival, which celebrates the legend of the Loveland Frogman. She plans to incorporate the bridge lore with the Frogman legend.
Melissa Silberstang, one of the organizers of “Cryptid Block Party,” which takes place in Covington every fall, met Walsh when she was a vendor at the block party. Cryptid Block Party celebrates local artists who twist the familiar into something magical, kind of like Walsh’s work.
“She told us after that [market] that’s when she decided to stick to cryptid art, because she loved it so much and it did so well,” Silberstang said. “Also, just people want it.”
Silberstang said the area is very artistic, specifically pointing to Covington and Newport, and that it supports small businesses through local markets. She said no one needs to go to a big box store this holiday season.
“All the coolest artists in the world are right here, all over northern Kentucky; there’s something for everyone,” she said.
Walsh was recently awarded the ADC Fine Art (located in Cincinnati) Pop Artist of the Year. The organization hosts an exhibition gala every year, during which it accepts work from around the world.
Of the 1000s who applied, Walsh made the list and won one of the 100 awards given out during the night, for her piece “Meanwhile in Cincinnati,” which features Music Hall and a tentacle monster.
“That was like the first taste of the art world, really, outside of the little bubble that I built with my vendor buddies,” Walsh said.
Walsh said her next goal as an artist is to do public art, such as murals.
Anyone looking to get in contact with Walsh can do so via her website or Instagram. You can also find the Walsh setup at the Crafty Supermarket, which takes place on Nov. 29, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Music Hall Ballroom in downtown Cincinnati, the Mainstrasse Village Christkindlmarkt, Dec. 6 and 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the George Steinford Park/Sixth Street Promenade in Covington, and Shop in the Shire at Fabled Brew Works in Erlanger on Dec. 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.