11/09/2019

Luminaria is a HUGE evening art festival that takes over Hemisfair park in downtown San Antonio. The park is in the center of the city and is super family friendly. There’s food, a wonderful playground with splash pad and sand area, and even outdoor games like ping pong and checker tables. This festival showcases all forms of art: colors, drawings, paintings, sculpture, poetry, music, dance – just about anything.

I was especially excited to go to to the festival this year because I entered my artwork in the open gallery, where anyone could have their work displayed!

The festival doesn’t start until it gets dark and parking was scarce, so I had to find street parking. A short walk in the neighborhood to get to the park let us see how people started to decorate their houses for the holidays.

Entering the park was this welcoming banner: and excitement started to bubble up in my stomach!

The very first artwork encountered was this giant inflatable moon! I absolutely LOVE the moon and was SO delighted to enjoy this piece, especially since you could touch it and see all the colors change as you walked around it.

At the splash pads, an artist was playing his violin amped up to a slow, haunting melody, and a couple was dancing across, lost in the music.

These artists were dressed in these shaggy paper outfits, and the children enjoyed them! They even had a matching tent!

The playground was full of laughing children having fun! Honestly, this is truly the best play area in the entire city.

This wall had interactive shadows:

And the buildings are known to be lit up during this festival as well:

More interactive artwork in the buildings:

And then the gallery where my work was hung at:

It’s so surreal to see other people look at your art. I’d get a thrill when I would see people lean in for a closer look at it.

An interactive tent for a rest from the cold:

Black light sculpture with childhood objects:

Some really great EDM music was playing by DJ’s, and walking towards it was this pattern projected onto the walls:

You couldn’t help dancing to the music playing: a 90’s teenagers’ dream!

The crowds were massive here. And I came early!

This exhibit was about how social media overtakes our lives and how it affects perception in relationships, social settings, and ourselves. There were digital projections and paintings also. People in masks taking random photos from up above to add to the interaction, which was a little creepy, but it added to the whole experience.

This wall had a prism projection like a kaleidoscope that you could actually stand behind while someone turned the wheel. Your face would be projected onto the wall and you could see how the facets would change!

It was still pretty packed, so to escape the crowd and get some dinner, we decided to go to Dough Pizzeria Napoletana, which is located right in the park. The pizza was fantastic and we treated ourselves to some tiramisu, which is what you do when you’re celebrating art. 😉

It was now almost midnight, and the festival was finishing for the night. One more trip to the open gallery to pick up my artwork to take home.

The light shows for this festival were awesome:

While leaving, we watched the closing music band called The Holy Knights, who had orchestral instruments that played and their sound was unique and amazing.

There was so much I didn’t get to see, like the all female bands that performed earlier and the interactive art “twister” style game but I highly recommend this gathering of truly talented local artists in the San Antonio area.

Support local art!