Fest spotlight on Emerging Artist

Each year, the Three Rivers Art Festival transforms Columbia Street in downtown Covington into a maze of imagination.

Arts and fine crafts line the street under a sea of white tents. This year, more than 200 artists from 22 states will be exhibiting. The St. Tammany Art Association, local galleries and nontraditional art venues will also open their doors to welcome visitors in addition to the action in the street.

Attendance last year was estimated to be 55,000. This fact alone creates a buzz for the local economy. The Three Rivers Art Festival has been around for 13 years and each year brings new opportunities for growth.

In 2009, art enthusiasts will be introduced to a young man whose presence as an exhibitor in Three Rivers represents a graduation of sorts.

Austin Whiteside was a 15-year-old student last year when he received first place in the Student Competition at the festival. Encouraged by this recognition and the fact that he draws or paints every day in his desire to improve his craft, Whiteside had enough work to submit to the adult juried competition this year.

The judges were not sure what to do with this young talent. He was younger than any of the competitors and yet his work was accomplished enough to be accepted for exhibition in the adult category. And so, as it happened, opportunity met perfect timing in a proposal to create a new category: Emerging Artist.

Whiteside will be exhibiting his pastel and charcoal portraits in his own booth among art professionals who have years of expertise behind them. It will be a learning experience, and the first in a new tradition at the festival.

An avid soccer player, Whiteside balances art, sports and his studies as a junior at St. Paul's School in Covington.

In addition to Whiteside, St. Tammany is well represented along the festival route. Look for Bobbie Calandro, Bonita Waesche, Charles Leche and Diane Parks, Mandeville; Greg Arceneaux, Christina Diggs, Harriet Blum, Michael Eddy, Shirley Wilfred and Tami Curtis Ellis, Covington; Patricia Watkins, Sherry McNeese and Gina Castle, Slidell; Carol Hallock, Lacombe; Francis Demelo, Madisonville; Phillip Sage and Sherryl Lutz, Folsom; Jose Balli, Bush; and Jayne Demarcay, Abita Springs.

Artists are usually very active at this time of the year and during the Three Rivers weekend, galleries will showcase artists new to the area or well known but with new affiliations. Fort Isabel has added two well-known Louisiana artists to their group, Luz Maria Lopez and Barbara Tardo. Brunner Gallery hosts four photographers from north Louisiana: Dean Dablow, Frank Hamrick, Jennifer Robison and Lauren Quinn Ward. Also, look for two new galleries, both easily found and identified by numbers, Gallery 421 and Gallery 433.

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