Creativity abounds at Bayou City art fest
Creativity was around every corner this weekend at Memorial Park during the the Art Colony Association’s spring Bayou City Art Festival. Thousands of visitors strolled through the park as they stared in awe at unique works from hundreds of artists.
Piano covers of popular hits performed by “The Traveling Pianist” Adam Lozoya greeted attendees as they entered the festival and went from booth to booth intrigued by art from 19 different mediums and countless different meanings.
“My path, it seems, is one of telling stories of my journey, the speed bumps, the ditches, the hilltops and briar patches through these images,” festival artist Lynden Saint Victor said on his website.
Saint Victor sold many of his works of art for the open-ended price of “pay what you can.” Saint Victor donates money from these sales to Underdog Rescue, a dog rescue and rehabilitation organization.
“Anything helps,” Saint Victor said.
A piece showing iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader riding two blocks of ice attached to his feet while being towed by an
car in the Place de la Concorde in Paris caught the eye of many festival attendants. The artist, Dania Olivares, is a self-taught mixed media artist. She said the work was inspired by one of her favorite people.
“This is a take on some of his favorite fiction characters,” Olivares said in her description of the piece.
In 2011, Olivares had heard about a local art festival, and after eight years of being an economist, she decided to go after her childhood dream of being an artist, the Art Colony Association said.
She used the last $40 in her savings account to pay the entry fee and buy canvases and used recycled materials in her paintings because of her lack of supplies. Olivares was able to launch her art career from the money she had made at the event, and in 2016, she became the featured artist for the Bayou City Art Festival Downtown.
“The Bayou City Art Festival is excited to be working with an artist with such a varied and unique style,” the Art Colony Association said about Olivares.
Over the past 47 years, the Art Colony Association said it has raised $3.6 million in support of local nonprofit organizations.
Many attendees stared in awe at the unique art across the festival, such as the work from Lashbrook Studio Swatch Paintings. These paintings were made from individually cut paper paint swatches to create pixelated images of things like people, landscapes and famous works of art.
Up close, the viewer sees many colorful squares, but through a cell phone, they see a clear image. A crowd of visitors excitedly held their phones up to Lashbrook’s work to decipher the paintings.
“The festival is one of the top outdoor fine arts festivals in the nation,” the Art Colony Association said on its website.
Some festival artists not only dedicated time to their work but risked their lives for it. Landscape photographer David Mayhew specializes in the shooting the beauty of the sky, and his dedication to capturing the “full array of Mother Nature’s moods” often leads him through severe Midwest weather to get the perfect shot.
Mayhew has been through many unique storms and once had all of his passenger windows broken by 96-mph winds. Mayhew travels up to a thousand miles a day for his art, going anywhere from Texas to Canada.
“It’s one fleeting moment in time,” Mayhew said. “Nobody can duplicate whatever I capture.”