Creativity, personality on display at 2023 Stillwater Arts Festival News

Emi Norton Staff Reporter

Appreciate regional artists and their work with two days of live music, food trucks and a chance to create your own masterpieces.

The Prairie Arts Center is hosting the annual Stillwater Arts Festival, which brings nearly 50 national and regional artists to showcase their talents. The festival will be at the Prairie Arts Center in Stillwater on Friday from noon to 8 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Prairie Arts staff and its community have taken great measures to make sure the artists are warmly welcomed with an environment where they can feel comfortable. The festival has been a juried event for more than 40 years and will offer awards totaling $3,000 this year.

Festival attendee Regina Bowling from Edmond has been creating art for as long as she can remember. She attended the arts festival in Edmond last year and said how excited she is to return to the Stillwater Arts Festival.

“Meeting people, talking about the paintings, talking to students about techniques, the energy was terribly exciting and fun,” Bowling said. “It was quite successful and encouraging. I’ve always loved Stillwater and was thrilled to be accepted to have a booth for this festival.”

Besides viewing and purchasing artwork from the featured artists that will be attending the arts festival, you can expect to experience local and traveling bands playing live music while indulging in the plentitude of food trucks.

Bowling expressed her enthusiasm to be part of the energy.

“First, the energy is fantastic,” Bowling said. “Being outdoors, enjoying the results of multiple artists’ creative work in art, music and foods with other like-minded people is simply fun.”

Attendees will also have the option to create familyfriendly crafts. Examples include tote printmaking, raku firing, henna tattoos, paper marbling as well as other activities that are to be determined.

Opportunities for aspiring and seasonal artists to get inspired and creative is one of Stillwater Arts Festival’s main goals this year.

Newcoming festival attendee Kayann Ausherman of Kansas took her creativity and inspirations and brought them to life when she established herself in her own business, Victory Road. Through her life experiences, she developed her own style of art in which she hopes to connect with her audience on an emotional level.

“Rather than focus on realistic replication of subject matter, I prefer a more whimsical, and intriguing representation,” Ausherman said. “I feel the creative process is about experimentation and exploration of new ways to express the familiar, hopefully evoking an emotional connection.”

Ausherman expresses her talents through sustainability and taking advantage of reusable materials.

“I often use repurposed and unusual materials in her artwork like wrappers, envelopes, postage stamps and ‘found papers.’” Ausherman said.

Ausherman’s drive to help create a personal connection between the art and an audience is the same drive the “I Made Art” exhibit, which showcases artwork from students from Stillwater elementary schools, is working to create. Conceptual artist On Kawara’s decade-long postcard series, “I GOT UP,” inspires the students. You can view

Stillwater’s grade school students’ artwork and appreciate each of their personal relationships with art making. You can support small businesses and connect with artists from far and wide, even having the chance to share personal input, which is appreciated at the Stillwater Arts

Festival.

“By attending the festival, people are showing support for the arts monetarily of course, but also with their presence and their interest,” Ausherman said. “Not only that, it is a great way to feel the pulse of the art being created, add your own input and ideas, and train the next generation to appreciate art which is a vital part of what makes us human.” For more information visit the Prairie Arts Center website. news.ed@ocolly.com