125 local and regional artists were featured at the second annual Turtle Creek Arts Festival at Reverchon Park on Nov. 11.
“We strive to offer attendees the best of the best while supporting participating artists and creating an environment to nurture, appreciate, and showcase their skills and work,” director and founder of the Turtle Creek Arts Festival Randall Fox said.
Fox established The Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces (AFFPS), LLC in 2005 to support the arts community by operating events and festivals in Atlanta. Since then he has also expanded to Dallas to continue his mission to support local art communities.
A group of SMU students looked for art to buy at this festival. SMU Sophomore Taylor Ohlhauser did not have a lot of schoolwork this weekend and wanted to buy something new for her dorm.
“I have been to some art festivals in my hometown before,” Ohlhauser said. “The Turtle Creek Arts Festival sounded really interesting and I thought that it would be a cool thing to do on Sunday.”
Organizers say the Turtle Creek Arts Festival returned to Reverchon Park for the second year in order to provide the local Dallas community with a fun and art-filled weekend as well as provide local and regional artists a place for people to discover their work.
61-year-old David Masterson was one of the featured artists at the Turtle Creek Arts Festival. He has been creating art in all different types of media his whole life and he paints on anything he can get his hands on.
“Some of the things I paint are vans, buildings and dogs,” Masterson said.
Masterson won best of show for his artwork at the last Turtle Creek Arts Festival this past April. He will be back in the spring of 2019 because of this accomplishment.
“I like to do this to see people’s expressions and smiles,” Masterson said. “I don’t care if they’re buying my work.”
Many of the featured artists were native Texans wanting to promote their art in one of the biggest cities in Texas. A lot of the artists have travelled all over the world to create unique pieces of art or take pictures of unique places.
“My work is not as much about capturing a realistic image as it is about echoing the sensations nature evokes,” featured artist Rob Lantz said.
Lantz is a photographer who has travelled all around the world venturing to the extremes in order to find inspiration for his work. Currently, he is practicing his art outside of Boulder, Colorado.
Festival goers walked around the outdoor festival bundled up in jackets and scarves on this chilly Sunday afternoon. Dogs were barking, live music was playing and the tree leaves were rustling in the background while people were smiling and looking at all the different types of art.
“The wonderful thing about art and community events are that they bring all types of different people together over shared interests,” Fox said. “We always see a diverse collection of festival goers and are beyond appreciative for the support from the community, patrons, and participating artists and vendors.”
The next Turtle Creek Arts Festival is set to take place in the Spring of 2019 on April 13 and 14, the following festival on Nov. 9 and 10.
