words by Michael Lagocki
photography by Kelsey Paine (unless noted)
It’s a pretty safe bet that you’re always going to see something amazing at the Deep Ellum Arts Festival. DE knows art & music and this is the event that brings EVERYONE out. ArtLoveMagic was once again proud to contribute a unique area of the festival packed with live artists and performers. 100% local talent (like Lawrence Alexander, pictured above).
Our live acoustic stage hosted a lineup of more than a dozen talented musicians from all over DFW. Many of them were veterans to the artlovemagic scene, but a few were new faces to our collective that we were proud to feature as well, like acclaimed songwriter Daniel Katsuk.
We rotated the artist platforms a total of 6 times to give the maximum number of artists opportunity to show their work – and so that the crowd could see a wide reflection of Dallas arts. We were even blessed by having the Davies Brothers in our section throughout the festival! Becky Taylor gave folks a behind the scene look at how she makes jewelry (above).
Local cartoonist Samax Amen painted live and talked to fans of his magazine and blog- www.ghettomanga.com. Samax has the gift of gab and loves to get into conversations with aspiring artists about how to approach both the business and creative side of a freelance career.
We were particularly proud of our musicians, who each took their sets seriously and brought a little something extra. Like this moment during the song “Dear Father” where Goat and Jackrabbit bowed down while Elle sang solo. Both jumped up on the exact beat and came back into the song. It was timed perfectly and gave the crowd a moment to cheer.
Speaking of… this was the three’s last performance together in Dallas. The popular trio has performed together over 100 times, but with Elle relocating in the next few weeks, this set served as a finale. We’re proud to have worked with them so many times, and we wish Elle unprecedented success wherever she goes.
ArtLoveMagic founders Michael Lagocki and David Rodriguez both got into the mix and painted live as well. Above Michael works on a collab piece with his ghostwerks brethren. Ghostwerks is an independent comic publisher that Michael and four others formed prior to artlovemagic.
Dallas photographer Jen Shu set up a photobooth on Sunday where festival attendees (like this little guy) could get their portrait snapped. If you were among the hundreds that did, you can swing by her site here to see your images or order a print.
Kids need art! As more and more school art programs are shrinking and disappearing, we think it’s even more important for us to provide interactive art experiences that audiences of all ages can participate in. All festival long we had a section devoted to audience made art.
And as we were cleaning up this section, we found some future artisan had left us this awesome piece.
Photo by Deb Driscoll
We just dig watching Sarah Zamora paint. She always sets up gorgeous displays of her work and always creates large colorful paintings live on scene.
Graffiti painter Joe Skilz knows how to recycle his empty spray paint cans… make them into another piece of art.
When night fell on Saturday, guitarist Matt Barron took our stage and absolutely shredded a performance that had a huge crowd going crazy. It was wonderful to see him get such a well deserved response.Photo by Michael Lagocki.
Sculpture was part of the act to. Luis Torres brought out the heavy metal and even did some live welding for fans.
A diversity of artforms is the key to making stuff like this REALLY work. Charles Harrison does his body painting with an airbrush gun. And works with photographer Travis Lilley so that as soon as his models are complete, they go right into a professional photo shoot with a model photographer.
Sarah Gillmore romanced our audience with her beautiful songwriting. She was the only musician in our lineup who actually played two sets for us, playing both the opening and closing days of the festival.
Of course everything you’re seeing in these shots was only one small section of the event. Outside of ArtLoveMagic alley there will hundreds of other artists, musicians, attractions, and street foods to enjoy.
To find out more about The Deep Ellum Arts Festival and other festivals thrown by MEI, visit their website here.
The open mic continues to surprise. Each month new performers sign up to share their work with the crowd. Local songwriting, poetry, and gorgeous vocals are always in the mix.
Every single Art & Coffee has a total unique line-up of local artists. Each show has a lead producer who picks a team of diverse artists. We try to strike a balance of many different visual forms so that each time you attend the show, you’re likely to see something you haven’t before.
Even artlovemagic co-founder Michael Lagocki got in on the mix this month, doing a live charcoal drawing.
Because artlovemagic works with such a wide pool of artists, we have the privilege of creating a lot of connections between cool people. If you attend a few Art & Coffees, you’re going to meet a LOT of people who impact the local art scene.
Art & Coffee is every first Friday at It’s A Grind in Deep Ellum from 7:30-10:30pm. The next one is August 5th, 2011 and features the special theme: COMMUNITY.
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