Artists come from all over to Kansas City for Brookside fair. Meet a few of them

One of Kansas City’s favorite spring traditions, the 39th Brookside Art Annual, has drawn thousands this weekend with art in every medium, from painting to textiles to sculptures and photos.

This nationally ranked outdoor art show transforms the Brookside shops into an open-air gallery featuring 183 booths and top artists from across the country. It continues Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Annelies Brock has attended the festival three or four times and keeps coming back because she loves the vibes and her sister lives in the area.

“We’ve bought art every year, so it’s worth coming back,” Brock said. “It’s a really fun time; they have food, beverages and art.”

While adults shop for art, there are activities available for children, including face painting, crafts, balloon animals, and martial arts demos, many of which are free.

Brookside restaurants like Brookside Barrio, Cosentino’s Market, Charlie Hooper’s, Everbowl and Topsy’s Popcorn/Baskin Robbins served everything from burgers to hand-scooped ice cream. Barrio’s fishbowl drinks were quite the hit in particular Saturday.

The Star attended the festival Saturday and spoke to several patrons and artists in attendance. These include Art Innovation Award winner Scott Hildebrandt, ceramicist Randy O’Brien, painter Jonah Ballard, painter Jie Zhou and photographer Kristin Schillaci, scattered through the festival.

Scott Hildebrandt (Booth 155)

Hildebrandt creates miniature vignettes using repurposed vintage items like radios, alarm clocks and TVs. He takes all of the mechanics out of them and proceeds to build a minute diorama scene inside. Many of his pieces also light up or have some sort of movement, created using his knowledge of electrical engineering.

Hildebrandt began his practice by trying to create a diorama as a unique Christmas gift 15 years ago, eventually gaining the title of “Mister Christmas.” Then he bought a radio.

“I was at a garage sale one time and I bought an old wooden radio that came with a donor radio exactly the same, so I restored the radio and I had this empty shell leftover and I thought I can do these same dioramas inside the radio and that’s what got me into repurposing all sorts of vessels.

This year is Hildebrandt’s fourth time at Brookside. What keeps him coming back?

“I’m in the same spot every year, people who come back every year know where I am,” Hildebrandt said. “I’ve come to know a lot of people here.”

Randy O’Brien (Booth 161)

O’Brien is a ceramics artist known for the unique textures on his art. All of his pieces are either wheel thrown or hand built. Each has six glazes, which are his own formulas, that he layers up over a month before firing where they shrink and crack, creating the effect seen on the work.

“There’s no paint’ everything’s been fired,” said O’Brien, at the show for the second year. “The color comes from various refractory ceramic colorance that stay matte at 2,000 degrees.”

Jonah Ballard (Booth 99)

Ballard is an oil and acrylic painter whose goal is to tap into the subconscious and creativity we all have. Recently Ballard has been using a signature color palette – pink and green with a touch of orange.

“The pink and the green,” Ballard said. “They strike a chord in you that makes you feel so good that full balance of yin yang it’s wonderful.”

Attending for his second year, Ballard says that this is the coolest show he has been to.

Jie Zhou (Booth 4)

Zhou is a painter who has been creating art since he was 9 years old in Suzhou, China. He came to the United States to study in New York. Later he moved to San Francisco where he began selling his art at a friend’s urging.

This year marks the California resident’s third time at the festival, and he loves it. He wishes he could have come sooner but it is so competitive that he is just glad he has experienced the festival.

Kristin Schillaci (Booth 179)

Schillaci is a documentary/American film photographer from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is also a first-time Brookside artist.

After 15 years, 275,000 miles and 44 states, she has come to KC to showcase a body of work titled “Just Passing Through.”

Her work is shot on medium format transparency film in a Bronica from the 1970s and focuses on capturing stills of classic American culture.