9 minute read
Moab Arts Festival returns
Artwork, live music, theater and magic at beautiful Swanny Park on Memorial Day Weekend
Written by Sharon Sullivan | Photos by Murice D. Miller
WHEN, NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO, A GROUP OF LOCAL ARTISTS BEGAN DISCUSSING THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ARTS FESTIVAL IN MOAB, ART APPRECIATOR AND LOCAL PUBLISHER THERESA KING BEGAN ATTENDING THE MEETINGS TO LEND HER SUPPORT. THE ARTISTS – WHO PREFERRED CREATING ART TO SPENDING TIME ORGANIZING – EVENTUALLY ABANDONED THE IDEA. KING, HOWEVER, ALTHOUGH NOT BEING AN ARTIST HERSELF, DECIDED TO TAKE ON THE ENDEAVOR OF WHAT WOULD BECOME AN ANNUAL GATHERING OF ARTISTS, MUSICIANS, AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS FOR A FUN-FILLED ARTS WEEKEND IN THE PARK.
The Moab Arts Festival has taken place each spring for 28 years – except when the event was canceled one year due to weather, and postponed in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. The outdoor arts festival returns this year to Swanny City Park on Memorial Day weekend. Regional artists will be selling their works, with various performing arts events and children’s activities happening throughout the weekend at this free-to-attend festival. “It’s a big, family fun event with all kinds of artists from the Four Corners area,” King says. “It’s just a great community event. It’s a labor of love. We love art.”
Some of the art vendors return year after year – like metalworker Kevin Sybrowski from Salt Lake City. Sybrowski makes yard art and sculptures out of metal and repurposed items. He fashions aspen trees, mountains, and desert scenes out of metal that he mounts onto old barn wood. He also creates three-dimensional hearts that hang from tree branches or attach to poles for whimsical garden art.
One of his most popular items is what he calls the “fire ball” – a patio or backyard metal fire pit that runs on gas or propane, although a little wood can be added for fragrance. “Nowadays with so many fire restrictions, fire balls come in handy,” he says. “It’s a controlled burn. When not using it for fire it’s a sculpture for your yard – versus a burn pit in your yard.”
Another returning festival artist this year is Janet LeRoy, of Hotchkiss, Colorado. “I paint on feathers; I use feathers for my canvas,” a technique she’s honed over three decades, she says. Her canvases range from a single feather depicting an animal, to multiple feathers
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sybrowski arranged together in the shape of a fan – that she paints with Western scenes. The individual “spirit feathers” come with a card explaining the animal’s totem. Both the single feathers and the multiple feather arrangements come matted and framed. LeRoy also sells small prints and notecards of her work.
Also, popular, says LeRoy, are her smudge fans – colorful feathers that are attached to the skeleton of a dead cholla cactus – which she says makes a great handle after it’s been smoothed and polished.
PERFORMING ARTS
In addition to visual and functional artwork to browse or purchase, festivalgoers can enjoy the performing arts, too. Stages are set up in the park where local musical groups will perform both days; and where Moab magician Rick Boretti will entertain audiences with his sleights of hand. Plus, the Grassroots Shakespeare Company will perform Romeo and Juliet and Cymbeline.
Also, the popular drumming ensemble Moab Taiko Dan will perform on Saturday at noon.
Taiko Dan is a Japanese art form used traditionally in religious ceremonies and performed typically by a monastic man, says Michele Blackburn, who joined the Moab drumming group 22 years ago.
While the Japanese art form began with a single drummer, Taiko ensembles began playing approximately 50-60 years ago, Blackburn says. “The Moab group is an anomaly,” she says. “In Moab, we’re (currently) mostly women – although we’re open to men.” A young man to whom Blackburn taught the drumming technique when he was in the fourth grade, may be joining the group, she says.
During the Moab Arts Festival seven drummers will perform on small, medium and large drums using various-sized oak sticks to create a sound that Blackburn describes as both “moving” and “powerful.” Members also use their voices to create sounds from deep within their bellies, she says.
The group has performed for the arts festival for more than two decades. In fact, it was at a past festival where Karen Feary first saw and heard the group perform – prompting the Moab resident to take lessons. She describes the energy between the drummers as “magical” and has been a Moab Taiko Dan member for about 10 years.
The ensemble has a repertoire of songs, some of which were taught by master instructors in California or Japan, Feary says. Locals have written songs, too, like the late Margaret Hopkin, a former Grand County School District Superintendent and longtime Taiko drummer who wrote the piece called River Song, says Feary.
The May 28 performance will be one of the group’s first major public performances since the pandemic shut things down two years ago. “We’re excited to be back this year,” Blackburn says. “We want it to be a powerful performance.”
CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES
Until her retirement this year, Susan Baffico organized children’s activities in one area of the park. Children congregate at the kids tent for face painting, blowing bubbles, hula hoop twirling, and tie-dying fun. Plus, as in the past, Canyonlands Rodeo will offer free pony rides on Saturday. This year, artist Chrissy Kinslow is expanding the kids area to also include a children’s art show competition, talent show, and poetry slam. The theme for the art show and poetry slam is “Kindness Counts.”
Additionally, to help promote art appreciation, Kinslow will continue a festival program that gives kids $5 to buy artwork at the kids tent. “We wanted them to have the experience of purchasing art,” Baffico explains. “We’d ask the kids why they chose the piece; what they saw in it. We’d talk about why they liked that artwork.” Children are also allowed to operate their own art booth.
–Kevin Sybrowski, artist
Kinslow, who used to teach art in kindergarten through 12th grades, is also creating an 8-by-8-foot, paint-by-number mural for the festival. Community members will be invited to come paint the mural which will later be sold via silent auction to display somewhere in Moab, she says. Proceeds from the sale go back into the arts festival, which is a 501(c) nonprofit organization.
Kinslow also operates her own booth – “The Artist CNK” – where she’ll be selling her miniature re-creations of famous masterpiece works – with a Moab twist. For example, Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry, Starry Night is the inspiration for Kinslow’s Starry, Starry, Moab re-creation. Kinslow can transfer prints of her work onto clothing.
With so much going on at the park, festivalgoers may want to consider staying for lunch or dinner – there will be delicious food for sale such as Yia Yia’s Concession – a Cortez business that prepares authentic Greek cuisine like gyros, baklava, Mediterranean pitas, and stuffed grape leaves.
Wood-fired pizza from Sweetwater Gypsies, of Dolores, Colorado will be another option this year. Plus, the festival will host a wine and beer garden.
Find applications to enter the kids’ art show by emailing: moabarts4kids@gmail.com, or, for more information about the festival visit: moabartsfestival.org. The festival takes place Saturday, May 28 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 29, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“Swanny City Park is a beautiful location,” says Baffico. “It’s such a well-used, a well-loved park. It’s green, cool, feels just right. It’s a happy place to be.” n
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