Last month we were presented with an opportunity to paint a mural at the Art City Festival in Austin, TX. We had a great view of the lake and handled the painting like you know we should, as evidenced by the above painting.
Art City unlike most arts and crafts festivals is a fine arts festival that is put together by the great folk over at the Art Alliance Austin. The festival is filled with great art, music, food, and family friendly interactive art sessions. The festival took place on the closed streets of Cesar Chavez lining up to the 1st Street bridge. The 2 day street festival showcased artisans from all over the country as they vended and showed their artworks.
We enjoyed this particular work by artist Adam Homan, who incorporated lights in his metal sculptures. The lights and metal combination immediately made the viewer think of robots, however, some of his other works were of mystical fantasy creatures such as dragons and such. Cool stuff.
These oversized melted looking toy army men were the bees knees.
Austin hip hop duo Riders Against the Storm gave a blazing performance. This group were so hype that i burnt calories just watching them as they danced, rapped, and interacted with the Art City crowd. This duo is so talented and uplifting, they blow my mind every time I see and hear them perform.
We were asked to start up this bus painting. Festival goers were asked to contribute to the mural on the side of the bus; by the end of the weekend the bus was a huge explosion of colorful and whimsical ideas and expressions.
The art of R. Michael Wommack stood out the most from the many great artisans showing at the festival. Most of his pieces were done with pastel on paper, and the colors used screamed off of the paper even when seeing his work from a long distance. His art was themed around a surreal suburbia where the glow of swimming pools are connected and interweaving. Wommack’s use of contrasting colors along with his use of slighty turned birds eye perspectives gave the work a patterned uniformity. Real cool stuff.
We dug this guys art but lost his business card somehwere, so sorry for the lack of info. Seems the heavy glossing over of pieces is whats hot in the streets nowadays. I have to admit they look cool, and humans are generally attracted to shiny things so I can see why. These pieces were heavily layered and colorful, thats why I was attracted to them.
These amazing characters were created by artist Anthony Pack. Anthony creates these little guys with found objects that he finds and collects from pretty much everywhere. Anthony’s booth even got the treatment, with sculptured signage and sections invited you into his cool world.
We were lucky enough to catch a set by Houston band, The Tontons. I’d heard a lot about this group, mainly through the AustinSurreal blog of music man Matt Sonzala. The band which was a sort of rock/soul fusion for lack of better explanation was awesome. The lead singers whistful command of the performance along with a band that was having genuine fun rocking out on a beautiful Austin afternoon helped to usher in the new fans from around the stage.
Here’s a photo of our friend DJ Chorizo Funk alongside Riders Agains the Storm. Good times.
