Downtown festival brings art diversity
The recession had hit, business was bad, and Marvin Obasogie Aimiuwu decided it was time for a change.
The Nigerian-born artist shifted his focus from more traditional African painting and sculpture to experiment with Batikinspired textiles designed with wax and dyes. At the Bayou City Art Festival on Saturday, he hung his booth with bright swaths of colored, textured linen, the result of years of study and practice.
“One of the most common things I hear is that my work is so different,” said Aimiuwu, who now lives in California. “It really is experimental, and every day is a learning process for me.”
Aimiuwu was one of many artists offering pieces with international flair at the two-day festival, organized by Houston’s Art Colony Association. Bridget Anderson, the association’s executive director, said the event has evolved in recent years to attract an increasing number of artists from other states and countries.
“It has become very diverse and well-known,” she said.
The festival started on Westheimer Road in the 1970s and now involves one event downtown in the fall and one at Memorial Park in the spring. Of the 300 artists in attendance Saturday, Anderson estimated that half come from out of state and a fifth live or work abroad.
Aimiuwu, who lives near San Bernadino, Calif., first attended the festival last spring with similar pieces that attracted a lot of interest.
“People love abstract, people love color,” he said. “I thought it was a very good chance to showcase my work.”
For Miro Kenarov, a printmaker who lives in Sante Fe, the festival was an opportunity to display color-splashed images of nature and buildings that reflect techniques he learned in Bulgaria, where he was born. He said the event is one of the largest he attends each year.
“I have many good customers here,” he said.
In another booth, Heather Hughley admired a painting of a city by Nha Vuu, an artist based in Fort Collins, Co., who learned much of her technique in Taiwan. Hughly first discovered Vuu four years ago at the festival and bought a painting that reminded her of Seattle, where the artist lived for 20 years.
“You could just sit and peacefully look at it,” said Hughley, who works as a financial analyst for ConocoPhillips.
Alongside the out-ofstate vendors, Texas artists sold artwork of all kinds in the booths that lined Bagby, McKinney and Walker streets. Tom Thomas, an leather artisan from Belton, hung his booth with bags and belts that he and his son crafted together.
He recalled his first Bayou City festival, where he found himself right next to a Dumpster on Westheimer. He pointed to the crowded downtown space as an indication of how much the festival had changed since then.
“It has always been a large show, but I’ve seen it grow in quality,” he said. “Some of the artists get better and better every year.”
About 15,000 people are expected to attend the weekend festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at 901 Bagby. Tickets are $17 for adults and $5 for children ages 6 to 12.
Marion Webb, a resident of northwest Houston who had never attended the festival before, arrived early with a friend Saturday and admired clay pottery by an artist from Sante Fe. She said the diversity of the artwork impressed her.
“There seems to be something for everyone,” she said.