200+ of The Nation’s Finest Artists Selected to Exhibit at 2015 Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival

The largest arts festival in Texas has become one of the most selective festivals in the country attracting more than 1,345 applicants this year

FORT WORTH, Texas (March 11, 2015) – More than 200 of the nation’s finest artists are set to showcase their work at the 2015 MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival (MAIN ST.), taking place April 9-12. Located in the heart of Downtown Fort Worth, more than $4.6 million worth of art is expected to be sold during the four-day festival, which will celebrate its 30th year in 2015

MAIN ST.’s extensive jury selection process requires artists to submit an application and their bodies of work to an esteemed blind, seven-person jury panel. In 2015, less than 14 percent of artists who applied were accepted into MAIN ST., with 1,345 applications received and 215 artists selected to exhibit.

Each year, nearly $11,000 is granted to the artist award winners, including one “Best of Show” winner, one “Best Emerging Artist” winner, seven “Merit Award” winners, and 14 “Juror Award” winners for each category. Art medium categories include ceramics, jewelry, mixed-media, printmaking, digital, fiber, leather, painting, sculpture, drawing/pastels, glass, metalwork, photography and wood. All artist award winners are automatically invited back to the next year’s MAIN ST.

Award-winning artists from the 2014 festival that were selected to return for the 2015 MAIN ST. include:

  • Jeffrey Cannon (Austin, Texas) – Best of Show Award 2014/Drawing & Pastels – Booth 315: Using only his hands and very large palettes of soft pastels, Jeffrey Cannon creates original landscapes that explore how nature continues to enchant, excite and inspire his audience.
  • Pamela Summers (Fort Worth, Texas) – Merit Award 2014/Ceramics – Booth 303: Inspired by tribes in Africa, Pamela Summers creates wheel-thrown, handmade vessels and tiles that are painted and fired three times using a palette of up to 12 glazes.
  • Marvin Blackmore (Durango, Colorado) – Merit Award 2014/Ceramics – Booth 821: Known for creating intricate, hand-etched pottery, Marvin Blackmore uses a two-tone, black-on-black technique that adds a layer of colored clay slips.
  • Sally Linville (Lyons, Kansas) – Merit Award 2014/Sculpture – Booth 512: Inspired by her pet chickens, Sally Linville has created chicken ottomans through a thorough art process that includes hand-felting feathers and bronze-casting feet and beaks.
  • Richard Hall (Mesa, Arizona) – Merit Award 2014/Painting – Booth 519: Characterized by a lack of visible brush strokes, whimsical compositions and realistic textures, Richard Hall strives to tell stories with his paintings, often adding an unexpected object to create interest and give his art a sense of humor.
  • Amy Flynn (Raleigh, North Carolina) – Merit Award 2014/Sculpture – Booth 610: Amy Flynn constructs one-of-a-kind “fobots” by using junk material and found objects. Each creation has its own personality and is typically made using vintage items that someone else once treasured.
  • Michael Schwegmann (Champaign, Illinois) – Juror Award 2014/Ceramics – Booth 329: Michael Schwegmann creates ceramic representations of common objects through attentive details and surfaces. He prefers to create sculptures that resemble memories of an object and alters them to engage intellect and emotion in a surprising way.
  • Beau Tudzarov (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) – Juror Award 2014/Digital – Booth 720: Striving to constantly find something new and compelling, Beau Tudzarov creates complex, detailed and captivating digital work using a five-step process focusing on transparency and reflection.
  • R. Michael Wommack (Langhorne, Pennsylvania) – Juror Award 2014/Drawing & Pastels – Booth 603: R. Michael Wommack creates a series of pastel drawings based on dreams and memories of growing up in the suburbs.
  • Cary Henrie (Bountiful, Utah) – Juror Award 2014/Sculpture – Booth 422: Cary Henrie utilizes a new type of sculpture – Life Vessels – that has third world sustainability including harvested butterflies, plants, and other “live” materials.
  • Scott Amrhein (Sherwood, Wisconsin) – Juror Award 2014/Glass – Booth 528: Inspired by the peace and serenity of the natural environment, Scott Amrhein finds tranquility in crafting glass lumen bowls that combine natural and man-made materials.
  • Seung Lee (Cathedral City, California) – Juror Award 2014/Printmaking – Booth 308: Influenced by the two poles of the yin and the yang, Seung Lee is a Korean-American contemporary artist whose subjects and materials are discovered on the street such as wood scraps, dishes, tree roots, broken TVs, VCRs, and other found materials.
  • Megan Clark (Raleigh, North Carolina) – Juror Award 2014/Jewelry – Booth 328: Megan Clark’s hand-fabricated jewelry brings together natural patterns with architectural forms and structures, creating a balance between the organic and geometric worlds of design.
  • Carol Hearty (Beacon, New York) – Juror Award 2014/Leather – Booth 304: An award-winning handbag designer, Carol Hearty’s leather bags are simple, intuitively mathematical, two-dimensional constructs that zip into inspiringly unlikely bags.
  • Jeffrey Zachmann (Fergus Falls, Minnesota) – Juror Award 2014/Metalwork – Booth 501: Jeffrey Zachmann explores movement by manipulating stainless steel to form with various materials, and creating kinetic sculptures that include rolling balls, gravity powered devices and motorized lifts.
  • Thomas Diel (Fort Worth, Texas) – Juror Award 2014/Mixed Media – Booth 428: With a background in industrial design and an eye for craft and detail, Thomas Diel uses architectural structure to design his “industrial-chic” furniture and small furnishings.
  • Andrew Sovjani (Conway, Massachusetts) – Juror Award 2014/Photography – Booth 620: As a visual artist recognized for blurring the boundaries between photography, painting and printmaking, Andrew Sovjani uses black and white negatives to create photographs that are chemically altered in the darkroom.
  • Susan Clayton (Tallapoosa, Georgia) – Juror Award 2014/Sculpture – Booth 313: Susan Clayton creates one-of-a-kind, hand-built ceramic sculptures that capture the feeling of comfort and peace.
  • Paul Lambrecht (Lanesboro, Minnesota) – Juror Award 2014/Wood – Booth 604: For the past 32 years, Paul Lambrecht has been making sculptures using everyday objects and mixing them with items that wouldn’t normally coexist. Typically, he starts by finding pieces of wood and adding unique elements of paint or carvings to create depth.

MAIN ST. is annually produced by Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives, Inc., and is free to the public. The official hashtag for 2015 is #MainSt2015. Festival hours for 2015 are:

  • Thursday, April 9, 2015: 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
  • Friday, April 10, 2015: 10 a.m. – 11 p.m.
  • Saturday, April 11, 2015: 10 a.m. – 11 p.m.
  • Sunday, April 12, 2015: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

For additional event information, visit MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival online at:

ABOUT MAIN ST. FORT WORTH ARTS FESTIVAL

The MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival celebrates its 30th year in 2015 and is presented by Blue Moon Brewing Company®, which is distributed throughout the DFW Metroplex by Andrews Distributing Company. Official sponsors for 2015 are the Tarrant Regional Water District, Sundance Square, The University of Texas at Arlington, Tarrant County College and Wells Fargo. Media sponsors are the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T), and the Trinity Railway Express (TRE). Radio sponsors are 92.1 HANK FM (KTFW-FM) and 95.9 The Ranch (KFWR-FM). Supporting sponsors are the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau, XTO Energy, Frost Bank, and the Music Performance Trust Fund. Hotel sponsors are Omni Fort Worth Hotel, Park Central Hotel, The Ashton Hotel, the Worthington Renaissance Fort Worth Hotel, Courtyard Fort Worth Downtown / Blackstone, and the Hilton Fort Worth. For more information, visit www.MainStreetArtsFest.org.

ABOUT DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH INITIATIVES, INC.

Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives, Inc. is a 501(c)3 organization formed in 1988 to complement the work of Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. and the Public Improvement District by providing a funding pathway for charitable, educational and public-purpose activities, such as community festivals, residential development and park management. Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives, Inc. produces the annual MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival and the annual XTO Energy Parade of Lights. These events have an economic impact of more than $27 million annually and attract thousands of visitors to Downtown Fort Worth each year. For more information, visit www.DFWI.org.

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