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A Festival International tradition: Tattooed Walls

Posted at 8:15 AM, Apr 26, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-26 09:21:08-04

Festival season kicked off a couple of weeks ago at the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum. Tattooed walls is a tradition set in the early days of Festival International. It allows art lovers to experience the creative process as well as the finished product.

Jolie Johnson, the Development Director of the Hilliard Museum says, “Tattooed Walls began in the early 90s, led by Elemore Morgan, Jr., David Alpha and Francis Pavy. It started out  with him just playing around at Fletcher Hall. And students, from what I hear, the story is, students began cheering him on and egging him on to create more!”

“It’s about translucence, and opacity, and with two projectors, one projector projects into the opacity of the other so you get incredible complexity.” According to artist David Alpha.

Local artist Margo Baker says, “Festival is about family. My Acadiana family, my Louisiana family, my global family all coming together and celebrating diversity and our unique customs and traditions.”

Kody Chamberlain is the official visual artist for this year’s festival. “I’m not afraid to jump in and try something. I guess the challenge is that I want to make it big and entertaining for the audience. And so I’m trying not to get too zoomed in and not to do too much crazy detail on small figures. Just trying to make it big and entertaining for the crowd more than anything.”

According to Johnson, “What we really want to emphasize is it’s not the finished product of art in the end, it’s the process of creation and experimentation and having a little bit of fun.”