YNST Magazine

06/21/2026

Last week in West Virginia, more Appa-fashion hit the runway for the 2nd annual Wheeling Fashion Week! 🧵🪡

A patchwork denim dress sewn entirely by hand by a 12-year-old, a corset made from thrifted jeans and a jacket embroidered with childhood video game characters.

The looks that walked the runway at Wheeling Fashion Week this year weren’t created in fashion hubs or luxury studios. They were threaded together in bedrooms and small workspaces across the region.

We talked to some of the designers and creatives behind the events success, that you can check out on our website now!

https://ynstmagazine.com/look/a-different-flavor-of-fashion-wheeling-fashion-week-returns-for-second-year/

✍️: Olivia Haught
📸: Daegan Lusk & Ali Bonomo

06/12/2026

Last Friday in Knoxville we celebrated the opening of “Coat of Many Colors” — the gallery show we curated for Dogwood Arts all about LGBTQ+ identity in Appalachia. ❤️💎🫶🌈

We were floored by the warm reception the gallery patrons, artists & city as a whole showed to the YNST crew. The show will be on display until July 24 at Dogwood Gallery so don’t miss your chance to see it!

Happy Pride! Peace, love & Dolly Parton 🙏

📸: Jared Worsham

06/11/2026

SOLIDARITY is a year-long community art project spearheaded by artist Sassa Wilkes that honors the West Virginia Mine Wars and the leaders who shaped them. Designed to be painted by hundreds of hands, the 100+ foot mural invites people of all ages and skill levels to become part of the story itself by creating individual panels

Part history lesson, part act of collective creation, SOLIDARITY reclaims Appalachian identity through shared memory and labor. More than 1,000 West Virginians are expected to contribute to the project, transforming portraiture into a living record of the community.

We're sharing this story because it reminds us that art doesn't just reflect a place. Sometimes it helps build one. Visit https://iamsassa.com/solidarity to learn more.

06/02/2026

Step into wonder woven into the natural world. 🐇

Based in Georgia, Kristin Roberts’s work is rooted in a deep love for biodiversity, storytelling and the quiet beauty of animals. Inspired by films, music, short stories and time spent outdoors, Kristin creates images that feel both tender and alive.

Each piece invites viewers a little closer to the creatures, textures and small details that so often go unnoticed.

See more, only in YNST Issue 11 🐴

05/26/2026

Some stories demand more than a camera crew.

For Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon, adapting Ron Rash’s haunting short story "The Ascent" meant trekking deep into the snowy Cranberry Wilderness in search of a real airplane crash site hidden beneath the red spruce. Snowmobiles, snowshoes, subzero temperatures and a whole lot of determination carried the crew through failed routes, brutal conditions and long days in the backcountry.

What emerged is a film rooted in Appalachia’s landscape and in its spirit: collaborative, resourceful and deeply human.

From local guides and filmmakers to neighbors opening their homes, The Ascent became what Elaine calls “a real team effort”—a reminder that in West Virginia, people still show up for each other and for art.

Read the full feature in Issue 11 and see more of Justin Harris's behind the scenes photography.

✍️: Amanda Larch Hinchman

05/20/2026

Amber Purdy’s work begins with what’s been left behind. Based in Knoxville, TN, she draws from decades of design experience to create collage and mixed media pieces built from vintage books, photographs and fragments of ephemera.

Everything comes together by hand. Cut, layered and reimagined, these materials carry traces of past lives, forming images that feel both familiar and slightly out of reach.

Find more of Amber’s work in Issue 11 of YNST! 🌀

05/19/2026

So grateful to The Real WV for spotlighting us!

By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV WHEELING, WV – “It no longer feels like you have to leave to do cool sh*t,” says Adam Payne of Wheeling. “You can stay in West

05/15/2026

Annesley Bug blends illustration with traditional quilting, creating vibrant, whole-cloth works that center joy, comfort and care.

In contrast to minimalism, these pieces embrace fullness. Pattern, color and texture come together in ways that feel both playful and intentional.

As a disabled, q***r artist, Annesley lets their body set the pace. Slowness becomes part of the work, shaping each piece with attention and care.

See more of Annesley’s pieces featured in YNST Issue 11 🧵

05/14/2026

Clover-Lynn didn’t set out to reinvent Appalachian music. In fact, she was trying to distance herself from it.

Growing up in rural Virginia, bluegrass and old-time music felt tied to a version of home she wasn’t sure she belonged in. It wasn’t until she left that she realized how deeply it was already part of her and how much it hurt to hear it reduced to a joke. So she came back to it, on her own terms.

Hillbilly Gothic is what she built from that return — a sound rooted in Appalachian tradition, pulled into darker keys, shaped by metal and rock influences and grounded in her experience as a trans woman. It doesn’t reject where she’s from. It expands it.

Because the story of Appalachia has never been just one thing. It’s joy and sorrow. Tradition and reinvention. Belonging and becoming.

And sometimes, it sounds like a banjo tuned just a little darker.

Read more about how Clover-Lynn built Hillbilly Gothic in Issue 11. 🖤

05/13/2026

On a small farm in southwest Virginia, just a stone’s throw from Kentucky, Issue 11 cover artist JJ Cromer creates intricate works on paper using ink, colored pencil and collage.

Animals, symbols and stories weave through each composition, building scenes that feel deeply rooted in place while drifting into something dreamlike and surreal.

Created in the rhythm of rural life, JJ’s work invites viewers into a universe where the everyday becomes a little more mythic.

See more of JJ’s work only when you grab a copy of Issue 11!