Magnolia Avenue transformed into a bohemian marketplace Saturday, when roughly 800 artists from all walks of life and skillsets came together for ArtsGoggle, an annual arts festival.
For 12 years the event has allowed artists to display and sell their creations, with arts styles ranging from paintings and illustrations to clothing and leather art. The show spanned 18 blocks from 8th Avenue to St. Louis Avenue, with food trucks and live music.
Leaning over his large canvas, vendor Taylor King examined his work with deep concentration. Brush in hand, he made a red swipe down the center of his canvas. His subject was a woman singing into a microphone.
“I have an intuition towards creating,” King said. “I’ve discovered it through my mistakes.”
In 2011, after serving as a lance corporal in the Marines straight out of high school, King said he realized he had made a mistake not pursuing his true passion– painting. Now King is a full-time art student at Tarrant County College and has sold his paintings at ArtsGoggle for four years.
Instead of simply showing off his finished pieces, King said he wants to show the public how he works, with nearly every stage of the process performed live. The painting he worked on at the festival is a piece he’s been working on for days.
“It’s in the doing – the journey is in the fun,” he said.
Though trade was slow today, King held out hope to make more by the end of the night.
“Usually paintings sell nearer the end of the event,” he said.
High school student Aaron Hutts’s booth featured drawings and illustrations, mostly in India ink. He described his style as “queer esthetic.”
“A lot of these are inspired by life in general,” she said, gesturing to a green painting of a skull.
Hutt’s friend Monica Stiffler was helping him run the stall. Stiffler said Hutt’s authenticity makes his art meaningful.
“The cool part is every time he makes art he sits down and puts everything he’s feeling onto paper,” she said.
Many Horned Frogs attended ArtsGoggle with TCU purple in every direction. Bill Cureton and ’08 alumnus Jeremy VanWinkle were among them and came in their football jerseys. They planned to attend the homecoming game later that day.
“They’ve been very informative,” Cureton said, referring to the artists he had met, “telling us how they make their stuff.”
One their purchases was a TCU-themed pumpkin.
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