For more than four decades, Denver-based artist Lonnie Hanzon has been creating captivating Christmas displays around the country. Over that time, he built quite the collection of holiday decorations from his different designs. It wouldn’t be until 2019, however, when Hanzon’s massive collection would come together into one cohesive experience, Camp Christmas.

Camp Christmas is an immersive artistic world crafted by Hanzon in partnership with Denver Center for the Performing Arts Off-Center. The experience began after Hanzon’s producer, Charlie Miller, suggested they find a way to build something out of his massive holiday collection. As Hanzon recalls, Miller’s team realized the theme of “camp” was the thread that tied the disparate pieces of the collection together. Thus, Camp Christmas was born.

Now in its fifth year, Hanzon and his team have brought the camp to the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Annette Strauss Square through December 29. The camp is 20,000 square feet of holiday cheer, centered around a variety of themed tents full of creative, quirky Christmas installations.

It all begins with a reminder to leave your emotional baggage behind before heading to camp. Hanzon says the holidays can feel like a “cosmic deadline” of sorts considering all the obligations and planning surrounding them. That’s why he designed some helpful reminders to help “re-envision our relationship” with the season. That includes a creative baggage check area at the front and a giant spray bottle of “guilt repellant” inside.

Upon entering the camp, attendees are encouraged to keep an eye out for the 20 Merry Badges, a play on merit badges, scattered throughout the camp as well as the 36 Pun Trees throughout, humorous Christmas trees based on puns that appeal to both adults and children alike. In addition, there are a number of Christmastime toasts spread around the camp, something that will appeal to the adults enjoying a Warm Apple Pie cocktail from the Base Camp Bar or a Fairy Fig Mule from the Fairy Bar.

Hanzon is also a frequent face around the camp as its director. His helpful signs can guide attendees through some of the installations or teach them about the inspirations behind the displays.

As attendees head through camp orientation, they’ll pass by Ornament Grove where they can see a decorative display of more traditional Christmas trees. A stand-up comedian snowman, voiced by Camp Christmas Producer Charlie Miller, delivers a set of silly Christmas jokes while making your way through the area.

In a nearby area, Santa Claus will make visits at select dates. Attendees that purchase a special ticket will have an opportunity to visit Santa’s Glampsite and have their kids tell him their Christmas lists.

Some of the biggest highlights of Camp Christmas come once you head inside one of the camp’s tents. With themes like fancy, beauty and grandma’s cabin, each tent amps up the immersion with a room full of surprises everywhere you look.

Each tent is poised for Instagram-worthy pictures, particularly the over-the-top areas like the pink and ritzy tents. When creating the pink tent, in particular, Hanzon says he wanted to make a space where “pink is not just a color, but a place.” He found inspiration in actress Jayne Mansfield’s “Pink Palace,” specifically her heavily shag-carpeted pink bathroom. The resulting room might as well have been pulled straight out of Barbie’s Dreamhouse, complete with a towering pink Christmas tree and luxurious details in each corner.

Hanzon explains that some of the pieces throughout each tent, like the reindeer pictured below, are actually pieces from the 1980s that he had to repurchase for Camp Christmas. Others, like the art deco mirror seen through the entranceway, were gifted back to Hanzon for the camp.

Beyond the immersive tents, attendees can admire the Dollhouse Village or visit the gift shop, among other attractions around the campgrounds. Considering the number of components that go into creating the camp, Hanzon says it takes 10 semi-trucks to deliver Camp Christmas to a new location and four-to-five days just to unload all of the decorations and pieces each year.

The end result of it all is a unique Christmas attraction that has a little something for everyone in Dallas. AT&T Performing Arts Center says Camp Christmas should take attendees 60-75 minutes to visit, if not longer. For more information about Camp Christmas, including ticket options and packages, visit the performing arts center’s Camp Christmas page here.

John Eric Munoz remembers the Polaroid camera his family had growing up. Munoz says his family used the camera “mostly for family photos on the go,” adding that the photos now provide a physical memory of him and his siblings growing up.

It wouldn’t be until around 2017 that Munoz began shooting instant film himself. His girlfriend, Lora O’Shaughnessy, had a collection of Polaroid cameras the two had never used. It stayed that way until Munoz “stumbled into PolaCon.”

PolaCon is an annual festival held by the Instant Film Society, a group founded by photographers Daniel Rodrigue and Justin Goode in 2012 dedicated to all things analog instant photography. The festivals have grown and expanded throughout the years, numbering three shows across the United States in North Texas, New York and the Bay Area, respectively. After the festivals kickstarted a passion for instant photography, Munoz and O’Shaughnessy now serve as board members of the Instant Film Society, helping plan the conventions each year.

This year’s Denton-based PolaCon 9 begins in full on September 27 and runs through September 29. The festival includes more than 20 sessions of demos, workshops, Q&As and other programming aimed at beginners and longtime photographers alike. It also includes the 13th Annual Polawalk at the State Fair of Texas on September 27, an opportunity for eager photographers to get their creativity flowing at the fair’s opening day thanks to a scavenger hunt asking them to capture different scenes and themes throughout the festivities.

In recent years, Polaroid cameras have seen a resurgence in popularity. Celebrities have embraced the medium, and so have younger generations, as many have found their way back to instant film or discovered it for the first time.

Munoz’s path to Polaroid photography echoes that of fellow board member Alexas Monroe. Monroe received her first Polaroid camera as a gift from her grandmother when she was 12. “It didn’t work. It still doesn’t work, so I was kind of like, ‘What is this thing? Why did my Grandma give me this? She just knows I like photos. I don’t know what this is.’” Monroe says. It wasn’t till she was 19 that she got her first functional Polaroid camera and discovered how much she enjoys instant photography. “I don’t know, after that, I just wanted to shoot Polaroid all the time.”

Monroe fell in love with PolaCon after first attending the event in 2021. The following year, she joined the Instant Film Society board. Now, she and the rest of the board plan each PolaCon as a group effort. “I think we have things that we focus on, but because there’s so much involved in the planning process, we all wind up doing aspects of every job,” Munoz says.

For this year, PolaCon 9 takes place primarily at three different Denton locales: Harvest House, Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios and Dan’s Silverleaf. All photographers are welcome, no matter their skill level or their preferred medium. Monroe highlights her all-ages Instant Film 101 workshop at Harvest House on September 27 and a Polaroid 101 workshop with Martin Souza on September 28 at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios as two starting points for beginners.

Other popular workshops cover topics like portraiture, emulsion lifts and cyanotypes. The latter is a unique technique that involves placing an object on a piece of paper coated in special chemicals and exposing it to UV light. The result is an impression of the object on the paper. “We try really hard to have something for everyone from a workshop standpoint,” Munoz says.

Beyond the workshops, simply bringing a group of photographers together often results in the sharing of techniques and perspectives between attendees throughout the event. “We have 20ish workshops, but you always wind up learning something outside of those as well, just through conversation or people deciding that they want to try something because they’re all in a room together and have similar interests,” Munoz says.

It’s the coming together of a community of passionate photographers that Munoz and Monroe emphasize as one of the best parts of PolaCon each year. Monroe says she hopes attendees leave the festival thinking, “That was the best day of my life,” a feeling she shared when attending the event.

“We get that type of feedback a lot,” Monroe says, explaining how the festivals help connect attendees who might not have found this community of instant film enthusiasts with one another. “I mean, I experienced it as well when I went to PolaCon, so I get it. I know they mean it when they say it.”

PolaCon 9 officially opens on September 27 and runs through September 29. “Day Zero” activities like a meet-and-greet kicked off the event on September 26. For a full schedule of events and times, along with how to purchase tickets, visit https://www.instantfilmsociety.org/.

These interviews were edited for clarity.

88.9 miles of twine and 791,788 knots make up Frisco’s newest public art installation. Designed by renowned artist Janet Echelman, “Butterfly Rest Stop” at the upcoming Kaleidoscope Park is a massive sculpture inspired by the annual migration of monarch butterflies through the North Texas area.

The sculpture, which is 165 feet in total length and 65 feet tall at its highest point, consists of a pair of flower forms that float in the breeze. Echelman took her inspiration for the design from the milkweed flower. Milkweed plants are the exclusive food source of monarch caterpillars, according to the National Wildlife Federation, and comprise some of the more than 3,000 plants Echelman notes will reside inside Kaleidoscope Park aimed at attracting pollinators.

“This artwork is inviting us to contemplate our interrelationship, our interdependence, with butterflies or pollinators and see the world through their eyes,” Echelman says. The artist is known for creating large-scale sculptural works in cities around the world. Upon learning about the butterfly migrations through the area in her research, she designed her piece to encourage pollinators to move through the park. “My goal is that the Kaleidoscope Park itself becomes a pollinator corridor,” Echelman says.

According to Echelman, the sculpture has been years in the making, with its inception dating to before the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, she says working on the joyful piece helped uplift her during the pandemic times.

She credits the support of the team of engineers at SOM and her studio team of architects and computer scientists with helping bring the ambitious piece to its completion. She explains that the sculpture consists of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fibers like those used in tethering the Mars Rover. The entire 3,423-pound piece shifts and is able to withstand winds upwards of 100 miles per hour. “Butterfly Rest Stop” even changes color and form based on the wind and the light.

The installation of “Butterfly Rest Stop” at Kaleidoscope Park recently took place earlier this summer. Final touches in the form of different lights to illuminate the sculpture at night are still to come. “It is gorgeous,” Kaleidoscope Park Executive Director Shawn Jackson says, calling the sculpture a “very photogenic piece.”

Jackson, who came to Kaleidoscope Park after serving as COO of The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, says it was a “natural partnership” to work with Echelman on “Butterfly Rest Stop.” “I think it’s just a great piece for Texas, really,” Jackson says.

Kaleidoscope Park is a city-owned park funded through a public-private partnership. Jackson explained that the park is looking at a soft launch opening in the late summer or early fall, followed by a grand opening the first weekend of October. “After October hits, after that weekend where we open everything and have the grand opening and the dedication of the park, (it) really will take life,” Jackson says of upcoming events and plans for Kaleidoscope Park.

That will include artistic events and performances at the park, including a performance by Plano Symphony Orchestra and local artist programs, among other engagements. “I would love to see some traveling art shows come through here,” Jackson says, pointing to her past experience working on Artscape at The Dallas Arboretum.

Right now, however, Frisco residents can already see beautiful art at the park from a distance thanks to “Butterfly Rest Stop.” Both Echelman and Jackson also describe how enjoyable it will be for parkgoers to sit down underneath the piece and look up at its changing form and colors. “The way I think about art is that it’s not complete without you, the viewer,” Echelman says, emphasizing the interconnectedness between her work, nature and the viewer that serves as the inspiration behind “Butterfly Rest Stop.”

For more information about Kaleidoscope Park, visit https://kaleidoscopepark.org/. For more information about Janet Echelman and her artistic work, visit  https://www.echelman.com/.

These interviews and this story have been edited for clarity.

At the end of every Peanuts cartoon special, there is a scene where Charlie Brown and Linus are together, reflecting on what just happened. The scene typically unfolds with them resting their arms on a wall next to each other, with Charlie Brown making a comment about another year having come and gone. It’s with that same feeling that I reflect back on another year of FAN EXPO Dallas having come and gone.

For those unfamiliar, the FAN EXPO Dallas is a three-day pop culture convention that draws over 60,000 fans each year to the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center. This year’s convention proved to be as fun, exciting, and crowded as years past. Some of the big highlights and trends from this year were:

Mandalorians everywhere. Fans are definitely still firmly behind all things Mandalorian, with many people dressed up as their favorite character from the hit Disney show. The Mando Mercs Costume Club area was a big hit with fans.

There were some unique surprises in the community area this year, such as the British Emporium located in Grapevine was a welcome surprise. They had an awesome Dr. Who diorama, complete with a Mini Cooper and a Dalek.

Jedi are still very popular. The force remains very strong with all things Star Wars. There were a number of custom lightsaber creation booths at the show as well as Jedi themselves who were ready for battle.

A very cool corner of this year’s festivities was a life-size replica of a Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper, which fans could sit in and get their full Starbuck on.

The Artists Alley was a real who’s who of talented creators. My favorite fanboy moment had to be seeing Dan Parent of Archie fame, sitting there sketching scene after scene of Archie drawings. One of my personal hobbies is drawing, and it is amazing to see someone quickly create a perfect sketch of a character, something that would take me hours to try to replicate if I even could. Next year, I already plan to purchase some original artwork.

Did I mention crowds? Yes, there were a lot of people, but that’s what makes it interesting. There were certainly plenty of amazing Cosplay costumes to marvel at. They ranged from simple Ash from Pokémon outfits, to elaborate Ghostbusters displays and even Batman himself.

So, as I sit here leaning on my wall with my arms folded, thinking about how another FAN EXPO Dallas has come and gone, I can’t help but get excited about what might be in store for next year.

On May 4 this year, DFW Airport welcomed a celebrity visitor from a galaxy far, far away. Travelers that day saw R2-D2, the iconic Star Wars droid, rolling past the terminals in honor of the annual celebration of the iconic movie franchise. Unlike the star of the screen best known for traversing through the deserts of Tatooine, this recreation of the recognizable robot has its roots right here in DFW, thanks to James Roman.

 

 

 

 

 

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Roman is a member of the DFW Astromech Builders Club, a group dedicated to building droids from the Star Wars franchise. Although he doesn’t have an official role with the group, he explained that the club’s builders “all step up and do what we need to do” when it comes to organizing. “I just show up and enjoy it and be active,” Roman said.

That included participating in the DFW Astromech Builders Club booth at FAN EXPO Dallas this year. The booth featured versions of a variety of Star Wars characters like BB-8, Chopper and a range of other different working astromechs and mouse droids.

Roman said the club is just one organization out of a worldwide group of individuals who set out to build their own Star Wars droid like he did. “I got into it because I love Star Wars, and I’ve always wanted to have an R2-D2,” Roman said, describing how he used his own background in software engineering and the skills he learned from his dad’s experience in electronics to help build his R2-D2.

Roman’s build began with around four months of around-the-clock 3D printing to make all of the required pieces. He received the model files from MrBaddeley Printed Droid, a well-known online resource for droid builders run by Michael Baddeley. Those resources and online communities, such as Astromech.net, help bring together the hobby’s builders.

“I would say that I spent the first year building the major portion of (R2-D2) to where I could bring it out and drive it around, and then I’ve been tinkering with it for the last three years just trying to improve it and make it more accurate as I go,” Roman said of his build, adding that he’s been able to improve his droid’s interactions with others as he’s developed a better understanding of its underlying systems.

Roman modeled his R2-D2 after the character’s appearance in “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope,” with the grit of the desert conditions visible on the character. “That’s always been R2-D2 for me,” Roman said, noting that detailing the droid to match the movie is part of the continued improvements he’s made over the years.

All that hard work has resulted in Roman’s R2-D2 grabbing attention from FAN EXPO attendees and DFW Airport travelers alike. He and other DFW Astromech Builders Club members have even participated in charitable and volunteer work with organizations like Make-A-Wish. “It’s not fun if it just sits in the living room, so I want to go out and volunteer with it,” Roman said. He explained that his R2-D2 is “a bit of a diva” when it comes to attracting attention at those appearances and events. “He steals the show when he’s walking around.”

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Watch talented artists create on the canvas and the stage when Live Art 2 Live Music returns to Tupps Brewery in McKinney from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on May 25. Organized by the Arts and Music Guild, the annual free family-friendly event invites attendees to watch visual artists at work throughout the brewery while enjoying live music on stage.

“This event is going to flourish because Tupps Brewery is in its new, expanded gorgeous location,” Arts and Music Guild Executive Director Annie Royer said, referring to the brewery’s recently opened East McKinney location.

According to Royer, Live Art 2 Live Music ’24 will make full use of the brewery’s new space. Live Art 2 Live Music will nearly double in size this year compared to its first event at Tupps Brewery in 2023, with two music sets and at least 25 artists scheduled to attend. “I want this to grow to where everybody knows they can come and paint or create…on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend at Tupps,” Royer said, later adding that the expanded four-hour format came as a result of last year’s attending artists requesting a longer event.

The event kicks off at 3:00 p.m. with the returning band Quantum Katz. Royer said the band will appeal to attendees who “love great American rock, jazz and bluegrass.” Quantum Katz, which features an ever-shifting lineup and musical style, will bring back three of its four highly accomplished members from their performance at last year’s Live Art 2 Live Music: Gerald Jones, George Anderson and Reggie Rueffer. Brad Davis, who Guitar World Magazine named one of the greatest Texas guitarists of all time, will join the band at this year’s event.

Following Quantum Katz, award-winning Latin guitarist Russ Hewitt will take the stage for the event’s 5:00 p.m. set. “He’s so highly recognized for his originality (and) his brilliance,” Royer said of Hewitt’s unique mix of Latin styles that’s earned him multiple Billboard Top 40 Smooth Jazz singles.

With the artists working throughout both music sets during the event, Royer said the value of a collaborative evening like Live Art 2 Live Music is in the “synergy” it creates between those involved. “(Musicians) have this built-in energy. They love to perform,” Royer said. “That just flies off the stage and sweeps through the artists. We feel it in the music, the atmosphere and the crowd. We’re already anticipating a great event.”

Live Art 2 Live Music ’24 runs from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Tupps Brewery on May 25. For more information, including a full list of attending artists, visit https://www.artsandmusicguild.org/la2lm.

The Arts and Music Guild is an official advertiser with the Collin-Denton Spotlighter. Advertising does not guarantee coverage, nor does it affect the content of any coverage on the Spotlighter. This interview has been edited for clarity.

The textbook underneath the glass case inside one of the ongoing exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) omits so much more than its title would suggest. H.W. Janson’s 1962 “History of Art” is an influential, foundational textbook, yet no female artists appear within its pages. Dallas-born Kaleta A. Doolin spotlights that ignored history in “Improved Janson: A Woman on Every Page.” A cutout in the shape of a vulva creates a continuous representation of a nude woman on each page, displaying to would-be readers how past art history textbooks focus on the female form rather than the contributions of female artists.

“He Said/She Said: Contemporary Women Artists Interject,” open through July 21, spotlights women who claim their rightful place in art history while challenging misconceived norms and confronting themes of sexism, racism and gender inequality. The exhibition is akin to a walkable edition of a revised art history textbook, one that proudly displays the impact and influence of female artists from the late 1900s and challenges the myths and preconceptions surrounding the genius of male contemporary artists.

“The exhibition was beautifully conceived by Katherine Brodbeck, the DMA’s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. During her tenure, Katherine has done a great deal to acquire work by women artists, and this exhibition, which debuts numerous new acquisitions from the last few years, is in many ways the fruit of her efforts as well as those of Vivian Li, Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art,” DMA Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Ade Omotosho said in an email interview. “As I installed the show, I was struck by the ways Katherine extended the premise of the exhibition to include an array of artists and aesthetic techniques. It’s a sharp approach to both rethinking and making demands on the art historical canon.”

Exhibition attendees find an encapsulation of that approach not only in Doolin’s reworking of “History of Art” prominently positioned at the beginning of the exhibition but also within Deborah Kass’ nearby “Making Men #3.” Omotosho described Kass’ painting as “in part a brilliant amalgam and reworking of the hallmarks of the styles of Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell and David Salle on a single canvas.”

The exhibition pairs Kass’ painting with its referential works. Kass’ piece appears beside Johns’ “Device,” while Motherwell’s “Elegy to the Spanish Republic 108” remains readily visible in the following room. “In a way, Kass’s work captures the energy of the imagination as it works to metabolize various influences,” Omotosho said. “It asks: Who are my influences? How can I transform such influences in my work? What aspects of others’ influence do I discard or absorb?”

Similarly, a multi-faceted look at Carolee Schneemann’s “Up to and Including Her Limits” as well as Sarah Charlesworth’s “Yellow Action Painting Photo #3” positioned aside Jackson Pollock’s “Cathedral” exemplifies the exhibition’s confrontation of male privilege and the mythos of what it calls the “lone male genius.”

Upon entering the broader exhibition space, Dallas Museum of Art attendees continue to see the non-linear nature of “He Said/She Said.” The exhibition contains four interconnected sections in a loop: “Women and Appropriation,” “Women and Surrealism” “Friendship and Collaborations” and “Black Female Subjectivity.” Each section includes a collection of captivating, thought-provoking works.

It’s easy to find yourself immediately drawn towards Barbara Kruger’s “Pledge, Will, Vow” when first entering that space. The bright red digital displays seem to beckon you to sit down and watch as the artist retypes the United States Pledge of Allegiance, legal estate documents and marriage vows to illustrate the inequities in our current socioeconomic and political systems. Likewise, Jenny Holzer’s LED display “I Am a Man” demands attention, with matter-of-fact statements on sex, life and death delivered through the sharp, bold medium.

The surrealistic works of artists like Olivia Erlanger pull attendees further through the exhibition. Erlanger’s “Pergusa” pairs the mystical majesty of a mermaid tail with the stark contrast of a washing machine. The exhibition explains how the artist found inspiration in the implications surrounding a laundromat for different races, genders and classes, with the mermaid tail evoking the wicked, seductive stereotypes of women perpetuated throughout Greek mythology.

Almost in contrast to the surreal is Calida Rawles’ depiction of North Texas artist Diedrick Brackens within “In His Image.” Rawles’ piece appears by Brackens’ “the warmth of other suns” in “Friendship and Collaboration,” a section that Omotosho notes shows “influence as a kind of exchange” and “acknowledges a reciprocity between artists.” The hyper-realistic painting shows Brackens floating in a pool, water rippling gently around him. Despite its almost photorealistic nature, it’s easy to feel what the exhibition calls “a dreamlike quality” to the piece when examining its exploration of the dichotomy between what we share in our public and private lives through the nuance within Brackens’ expression.

The exhibition recontinues a more rigorous critique of the standing of male artists in “Black Female Subjectivity.” In this section, the aforementioned “Elegy to the Spanish Republic 108” hangs aside Janiva Ellis’ “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Omotosho refers to the pairing as an example of how “the non-chronological organization of the exhibition allows for certain juxtapositions between artworks.” “Consider the way Ellis and Motherwell approach the picture plane; their works issue from different time periods and yet are linked by a kind of formal and psychic preoccupation with the void,” Omotosho said.  Additionally, the exhibition notes how Ellis’ piece serves as a critique of privileged creatives who seek out threats to spark their emotionally charged work.

That challenging of traditional narratives, even in a recent piece like Ellis’, speaks to the exhibition’s roots in the activism of the 1970s. Omotosho said the period offered a challenging of American Culture by “queer and feminist activities, writers and scholars whose work offered expansive and critical ways of understanding how race, gender and sexuality striate and shape the textures of everyday life.”

“Many of the artists in the exhibition came of age during this period, and one reward, I think, of the exhibition is the opportunity to consider how the legacies of this generation of artists have been taken up by their successors,” Omotosho said, referring to the five decades of work spanning the exhibition. “It also offers the opportunity to consider the continued relevance of liberation movements to our present moment, a moment as rife with inequities as any other. Artists are still finding ways to deepen and complicate our understandings of gender and race inequality in America.”

“He Said/She Said: Contemporary Women Artists Interject” runs through July 21 at the Dallas Museum of Art. For more information, visit https://www.dma.org/.

For ceramicist Gregory Story, the bi-annual Cottonwood Art Festival in Richardson was one of the first art shows he ever attended. “It’s always been special to me, not just because it was one of my first shows, but because that’s where I started to meet my art fair family,” Story said, adding that he would guess he first attended the festival back in 2007.

Growing up in a “really small Texas town” in Uvalde County, Story said being an artist “wasn’t a cool thing to aspire to, so I kind of kept it to myself.” After taking a survey of sculpture class while attending TCU for a psychology degree, however, he realized “this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Story would go on to get a degree in ceramics from the University of Texas at Arlington. After school, he eventually got a job at the Arlington Museum of Art working on special events. It gave Story the “freedom and the encouragement to put together a ceramic studio of my own, finally, and then it gave me the freedom to start doing art fairs.”

Now, about a decade and a half after he first attended the Cottonwood Art Festival, the festival has named Story the featured artist for its May 4-5 spring event. “It was quite a surprise and a great joy,” Story said.

Story plans to bring some of the most popular pieces he produces at the Chicago-based studio he operates, Modern Clay, to the festival. “It’s all decorative ceramics. Everything I do is hand-built, handmade (and) hand-glazed,” Story said. “The majority of the work I’ll be showing is wall sculpture, which I call the WallBalls.”

Story describes the WallBalls as “an alternative to having a painting in a space.” They range from four inches to up to around 10 inches in diameter and come in a vast variety of fun, unique and inventive designs. “I started doing them about, I don’t know 12 or 14 years ago…and they really took off just kind of immediately,” Story said, adding that he began creating them as a response to prospective collectors at fairs who were concerned that their pets would knock over ceramic pieces meant to stand on their own.

Story goes through an intensive process to make each WallBall. He estimates that each individual piece is the result of more than 25 different steps, with waiting times between each step for factors like drying or hardening. “It’s nonstop, all the steps at once or all day long, so I have no idea how many I make a day, or a year for that matter. I don’t want to know,” Story said, laughing.

Story said he sees WallBall sales split fairly evenly between those who buy one that can hold a space on its own and those who buy several to make a pattern or display with them. “One of the things that I try to focus on and like to think about is that I’m collaborating with my collector,” Story said, describing how he’s told collectors to think about the WallBalls as everything from grids to “planets in the universe” or “flowers on the vine” when arranging them. “I’m creating all these little components of a sculpture, and then they’re taking them home and finishing the piece by how they arrange it on their walls.”

In addition to the WallBalls, Story plans to bring new pieces from the “Ridiculous” line of Modern Clay’s inventive and functional ceramic pieces to the Cottonwood Art Festival. The line includes vibrant, artistically designed everyday items like vases and tissue boxes. “I call them ridiculous because you have to be at a certain stage in your life when you can buy a $300 tissue box cover, right?” Story said with a laugh, going on to explain that many collectors often keep them as purely decorative pieces because of how much they enjoy them as sculptures.

When he’s not at Modern Clay making popular pieces, Story often attends different festivals and fairs around the country. Story always looks forward to having the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and collectors alike at the Cottonwood Art Festival, singling out how much of a “shocking thrill” it will be to see all the signs and t-shirts showing him as the featured artist. “I’ve got so many friends in the DFW area, so it’s always like a big homecoming for me.” Story said of attending the festival.

The Spring Cottonwood Art Festival runs from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on May 4 and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on May 5. The festival will then return on October 5 and 6. For more information on the festival, visit https://cottonwoodartfestival.com/. For more information about Gregory Story, visit https://www.gregorystory.com/.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Empty Bowls McKinney looks to fill up the historic downtown area when it returns for another year of raising funds to fight hunger on April 25. The event will bring “about 1,300” handcrafted artistic bowls to the McKinney Performing Arts Center, according to Empty Bowls McKinney Co-Chair Molly Jones. With a $35 general admission ticket, attendees can pick their favorite bowl to bring out to N. Kentucky St. where 10 “food purveyors” will serve up different soups alongside live entertainment.

The fundraiser, organized annually through St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, will benefit three local charities that fight hunger this year: Community Lifeline Center, Community Garden Kitchen and McKinney Little Free Pantry. “Last year, we donated back $85,000,” Jones said, adding that the Empty Bowls McKinney team hopes “to equal or exceed that this year.”

Jones said that the donations will specifically go towards the purchase of food for each charity’s initiatives. “Our goal is to fight food insecurity, and it really brings everybody together,” Jones said of the event, describing how it involves collaboration between McKinney’s restaurateurs and its arts community as well as many others.

The event’s menu includes everything from chicken and dumpling soup from Rick’s Chophouse and chilled strawberry soup from Local Yocal BBQ & Grill to Guiness Beef Stew from The Pub McKinney and four diverse options from the fundraiser’s presenting sponsor Blount Foods.

Jones explained that the work on the bowls those different dining options will go in began all the way back around August or September. Local art studios like Glaze Ceramic Studio, Jump Into Art Studios, Make Expressions and SPARC contributed many of the bowls for this year’s event.

She noted that among the myriad bowls created for the event are 21 personally made by “professional nationally and internationally renowned artists that are all based out of McKinney” for auction and raffle. The auction also includes a celebrity bowl made by Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and Jump Into Art Studio’s master potter Tim Bednar. Empty Bowls McKinney will even auction off a live painting of the event created during the fundraiser by local artist and studio owner Kim Guthrie.

Jones said working on Empty Bowls McKinney has taught her the power of simply asking others for help, highlighting how eager the local community is to assist in the fundraiser when given the opportunity. “I think that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned in all this,” Jones said. She sees the community participation extend through the event itself, with attendees that “come and stay for hours” downtown at the fundraiser. “People really are craving that sort of fellowship that you get on (McKinney) Square,” Jones said.

Empty Bowls McKinney runs from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on April 25 at the McKinney Performing Arts Center. For more information about the fundraiser, including all of the participating groups and ticketing details, visit https://emptybowlsmckinney.com/.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Nestor Gomez immigrated to the United States from Guatemala in the mid-80s. “When I came to this country, I used to stutter. I wasn’t documented, and I didn’t know the language, so I didn’t have a voice,” Gomez said.

Even after getting his papers and grasping the language, Gomez felt he still didn’t have a voice. He was afraid of public speaking. In order to conquer his fear, he signed up for a storytelling event. He thought the event would be a one-time activity but “fell in love with it.”

Gomez is now a 79-time Moth Slam winner, an open mic storytelling competition, and a National Storytelling Association Grand Slam Winner. When he first started telling stories, however, he was concerned that people wouldn’t be able to relate to them or that they wouldn’t listen. He eventually realized that his stories of immigrating to the United States were rooted in universal themes, touching on common desires like wanting a house or to be with the people you love.

Gomez tells the story of how his parents came to the United States from Guatemala five years before he did. There was no internet at the time, and his house didn’t have a phone. “For many years, I couldn’t see my parents, and I compared that with the COVID experience and how we were separated from our families,” Gomez said. “We all experienced that.”

It’s a story he tells to help audiences relate and connect to the immigration experience. “Our experiences shine through our stories and build bridges across other people’s stories and experiences,” Gomez said.

Gomez is looking to build those connections between stories when he takes the stage as one of four featured storytellers in the 39th Annual Texas Storytelling Festival at the Denton Civic Center from March 7-10. During the festival, each featured teller will participate in several storytelling concerts during the weekend and host individual workshops. The festival will also include poetry and story slams, a lying contest, story swaps, youth storytelling opportunities and many more events with other accomplished storytellers. “It’s about 23 hours of storytelling, which is pretty amazing, and nine workshops,” Kim Lehman, the Texas Storytelling Festival marketing director and a participating storyteller, said of this year’s event.

Although the four featured storytellers at this year’s festival come from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds and experiences, they all share the same desire to form connections between themselves and the assembled audiences during their concerts.

“A connection with the teller is like this wonderful magic that happens,” Lehman said. “It’s like this sacred space that just happens when a storyteller starts telling, and everybody’s in it together.”

Gomez said he goes into events like the Texas Storytelling Festival with an idea of his strongest stories he would like to tell but often ends up changing his plans based on the audience, the other storytellers participating and what speaks to his heart at the time. It’s a common approach between each storyteller as they strive to tailor their tales to resonate with the audience in front of them.

“I heard someone say you come loaded for bear and then wait until you see the whites of their eyes,” featured storyteller Fran Stallings said.

Stallings is an “EarthTeller” with a Ph.D. in botany. As the oldest of five, Stallings called storytelling “a survival skill” that she developed as a child, telling bedtime stories and entertaining her younger siblings when babysitting.

Fellow featured storyteller Donald Davis can relate to having a large family. Davis’ dad was one of 13 children, and his mom was the oldest of nine. Growing up in the southern Appalachian Mountains, hearing stories from his relatives and retelling them at school became one of his favorite activities.

“That was just the beginning place, and it just grew from there because every time somebody asks you a question about a story, that’s sort of a doorway into another story,” Davis said.

Davis used storytelling in his 25-year career as a United Methodist Minister and became an award-winning teller and author of 18 books. Similar to Gomez and Stallings, he approaches an event like the Texas Storytelling Festival with an open mindset when it comes time to tell his stories. He considers everything from the age of those in the room to the news, weather and space around him before choosing what story to tell.

“Certainly, I enjoy the engagement with the audience,” featured storyteller Kathy H. Culmer said. Culmer is an author, educator and a Doctor of Ministry in Biblical Storytelling. She tells her stories from the heart and hopes they touch audiences and help foster a sense of understanding and connection.

Beyond having audiences connected with the stories told on stage, the festival and featured storytellers also aim to get attendees to consider what some of their own stories may be. At the different workshops throughout the festival, storytellers will help attendees find their own stories.

“What I’m gonna try to do is to show people that we all have stories to tell,” Gomez, who will host the “Tell Your Winning Story” workshop on March 8, said. Gomez said he often hears how his struggles coming to America and learning English help him have stories to tell when, in reality, they actually served as roadblocks in his journey to become a storyteller. He said that stories don’t have to be about massive, life-altering events or tales of thrilling heroics, but little things throughout our everyday lives that let “you find the common thread that is gonna make it special to another person.” “That’s why it’s a winning story because it’s something that you don’t think is a big deal, but you could create a big story out of.”

“We all have this whole lifetime of stories that we didn’t notice that we just tucked away somewhere without even realizing as the time went by,” Davis, who will host a masterclass called “Exploring the Attic of Forgotten Memories” on March 10, said. Davis will be helping attendees reach into their memories and “pull back those parts and pieces and then put them together into whole stories that make sense to other people as well as to us.”

Culmer and Stallings’ specialized workshops on biblical storytelling and “Stealth Eco-Telling” take place on March 8 and 9 respectively. Their workshops similarly focus on helping would-be storytellers learn they can reach others through their topics while still being widely relatable.

“My point is that there are things in the stories we already tell that are essential concepts to the environment, and you can learn to recognize those and learn how to maybe tweak them a little bit to make them more accessible to people,” Stallings said of her workshop.

Culmer described how there’s often a notion that “we consider things sacred to be off limits,” yet many stories about interactions with God are rooted in stories of people’s own lives and interactions. She hopes that attendees to her workshop will see how “you can have fun with those stories as much as you can with telling non-biblical stories.”

Festival organizers hope that the offerings at this year’s event will reach a diverse group of audiences. Lehman detailed how the festival will have American Sign Language interpreters at many of the concerts. There will also be a youth storytelling concert as well as a push to reach Toastmasters International members. Organizers also have emphasized providing more opportunities for local storytellers who have already picked up the craft through expanded story and poetry slams.

Texas Storytelling Festival Artistic Director Vivian Rutherford said she hopes the overall event will give attendees a nostalgic feeling of listening to stories in their childhood while developing an “affinity for storytelling” that keeps them coming back for more.

It all leads back to forging a connection between storytellers and listeners, some of whom will likely go on to tell tales of their own and continue to pass the craft to the next generation of tellers.

“Even after the stories when people come to you and say that they want to share their own stories, for me, that’s the best thing about it,” Gomez said of events like the Texas Storytelling Festival.

The 39th Annual Texas Storytelling Festival runs from March 7-10 at the Denton Civic Center. For more information, including a full schedule of concerts and workshops, visit https://tejasstorytelling.com/festival/.

These interviews have been edited for clarity.