Downtown Amarillo was brought to life Saturday night with music and murals as the 2022 Hoodoo Mural Festival brought in top muralists and musical artists to celebrate the emerging Amarillo art scene.

This year’s festival featured more mural and music artists than last year, as well as a showcase for local talent.

With the third iteration of the festival, which started on a much smaller scale in 2019, the Hoodoo Music Festival, founder Andrew Hall continued to grow his vision with more muralists and more music artists bringing music to the area that rarely comes to the Panhandle.

“We are just so happy that the community is buying into all this; we have artists out here taking their murals to the next level,” Hall said. “Events like this have not happened in this community previously; so, we are just excited to give the community these murals that are for them to enjoy.”

Hall said this expansion of the Amarillo art community is creating a new voice for the youth of Amarillo. He said his festival brings music to the community that many do not often get in the area.

“It is just amazing to see who is coming out to see artists of bands that they never thought would come to Amarillo; they are bringing albums to be signed by these artists,” Hall said. “We are trying to use this to do educational programs for prospective artists all over the panhandle. The kids see through these artists that, yes, they can be muralists.”

Hall spoke about how one of the featured artists in this year's show, Tristan Eaton, one of the top mural artists in the nation, came to be in this year’s festival, adding his art to the Amarillo cityscape. Eaton is primarily known for his toy designs and street murals but is also a graphic designer and illustrator. He has done work on posters for the Barack Obama campaign which featured a portrait of Obama with small illustrations juxtaposed with America’s past as prominent features.

“He is friends with Drew Merritt, who painted last year; so, a local guy that has become a famous muralist is bringing his famous friends here and they want to come here,” Hall said. “It is unbelievable that Amarillo, Texas has a Tristan Eaton mural that is being live painted by the artists at our festival.”

Hall said the value of the festival is to bring more people to the city to see what Amarillo all is about and stay longer to explore it. He says the economic and word-of-mouth impact can only be a positive for the city.

With this year’s festival featuring winners of the Art in the Park Festival, Hall said this is another way to feature local artists. Emma Mae Ames, who won the community division of that competition, had her self-portrait gracing the walls on the 500 section of Tyler Street along with other community murals.

“I was so stunned by how great it turned out; I am so blown away by what she did with that mural in less than a week of work,” Hall said. “She is going to be one of these people one day that is featured.”

Ames spoke about the honor of having her work displayed on the cityscape and what she learned from the process.

“I have learned so much doing my first mural, so it's pure to me since I always paint around my own house, “Ames said. These original small things that I had done enabled me to do this on a larger scale and I had so much to take in since this was all new to me.

Ames said working with Shawn Kennedy of Mural Spaces and interacting with other artists, including last year’s featured artist, was such an enlightening experience. She said that artists who worked close with her, such as Anna-Kay Reeves on the community wall, helped everyone come together as a group to create the best work they could.

“Shawn and the others gave me such great support not only with giving me supplies, they were there for me in so many ways,” Ames said. “I am hoping to stay in Amarillo and do something bigger for the city by networking with other artists. It is so surreal to have my art on display in the city where I live.”

Reeves, whose mural depicts a window to Amarillo’s past with Native Americans traversing the local landscape and coming upon a locket with Old Tascosa legend Frenchy McCormick’s picture front and center shares the wall beside Ames. Speaking about her experience at this year’s mural festival, Reeves reflected on her inspiration for her mural.

“I wanted to do some things that were relevant to our shared history in the area and also showcase some of the mistakes that were made with natural resources,” Reeves said. “I wanted to give a nod to the perseverance of women in the area as well with my depiction of Frenchy.”

Reeves said she worked on her mural for about two weeks for four hours a day during the week with full days on the weekends. She also said she might add a few fine details to the mural as she has time.

Excited that the people of the city get what he is trying to do in the community, Hall expressed his appreciation for the support that he has received.

“We raised dollars for this; people gave us money just to see the great art; the support just touches our heart,” Hall said. “The fact that everyone has bought in gives us a great path forward. We are not down we are going to keep painting murals, helping our kids and helping our town. Free public art changes things. We are going to keep adding to what we are doing for everyone.”