Huffhines Art Trails Festival Announces Featured Artist Annual festival to be held Oct. 27-28

Oct. 20, 2012 - PRLog -- RICHARDSON, TEXAS (October 18, 2012)…The featured artist for the 36th annual Huffhines Art Trails Festival is a mixed media artist LeRoy Garcia (http://www.huffhinesarttrails.com/featured.html), according to Suzanne Etman, festival director and community events manager for the City of Richardson. He is among more than 150 artisans and craftsmen (http://www.huffhinesarttrails.com/exhib_list.html) who will be showing their work. The free, family-friendly event will be held Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 27 and 28, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in Huffhines Park, rain or shine.

Born and raised in Dallas, Garcia is a retired secondary art teacher and lives in San Antonio. Defining his work as "mixed media," he works in both wood and clay and uses found objects in most of his work.

The oldest of nine children, Garcia learned to make the most of what he had. Much of his art reflects this beginning – made by recycling things others might throw away. Desperate for additional storage in his art classroom one year, Garcia made display and storage units from a fence torn down by his neighbor. He utilized that same fencing later in constructing his first signature pieces. Today he uses new cedar he distresses to resemble the old fencing, but reclaimed tin from his father's barn goes into creating his individually unique and colorful wooden suns.

Garcia throws and hand builds a variety of clay objects in addition to his work with found objects. His work has been selected for the Student Show at the Southwest School of Arts and Crafts and several San Antonio Potters Guild Exhibits. His love of Native American culture is seen in much of his work. For the last several years, he has shown his work in local galleries and at many juried arts and craft fairs across Texas. His work can be found in collections across North America.

“With today’s interest in ‘living greener’ and creating sustainable communities for future generations, LeRoy Garcia demonstrates that repurposed art is relevant for our time,” notes Suzanne Etman. “We are very happy to have him as this year’s featured artist.”

Huffhines Park, located at 1500 Apollo Road in Richardson near Fire Station #4, encompasses nearly 55 acres of breathtaking hiking/biking trails, two lakes, picnic and playground equipment and more. Admission and parking for the festival are free.

The Huffhines Art Trails Festival (http://www.huffhinesarttrails.com/index.html) features a wide variety of visual and performing arts, food and drinks, and children’s activities, including a built-in playground, hay bale maze and scavenger hunt called the “Huffhines Hunt,” which winds its way through the park’s beautiful trails.

The Front Porch Stage will feature live music, and artwork, a wide variety of festival foods, wine and beer will be available for purchase. The festival will also be one of WFAA-TV Channel 8’s Family First “Day in the Community” events, with meteorologist Colleen Coyle and senior reporter Monika Diaz in attendance.

The Huffhines Art Trails Festival was created by the City of Richardson to provide local artists and craftsmen a venue to promote and sell their work. Today it is one of the premiere arts and crafts shows in North Texas. For more information, visit www.huffhinesarttrails.com or call 972-744-4580.

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Media Contacts:
Jo Trizila
TrizCom Inc.
Jo@TrizCom.com
Office: 972-247-1369
Mobile: 214-232-0078
Or
Suzanne Etman
Festival Director
Huffhines Art Trails
suzanne.etman@cor.gov
972-744-4584