The Bazaar Offers Opportunities For Emerging Artists

It was a nice and sunny afternoon as the Texas A&M International University art society, The Artisans co-hosted their monthly Bazaar Art Movement and Festival on November 11th. Taking place every second Saturday of the month, the Bazaar is a free, family-oriented festival where local artists and vendors from all over Laredo come to sell and promote their hand-crafted artwork, jewelry, and novelties.

Since the Summer of 2013, the Artisans have been co-hosting the Bazaar with SiK One Promotions and this month introduced the public to an even more wider variety of artists and performers. Vendors and artists such as Half Dead Oak Jewelry, the artwork of Shelle Laurent, the Ghost (of the Dead Brothers art group,) and over a dozen other crafters were in attendance at the monthly event.  

The November festival also brought a talented roster of musicians and poets such as, Ms. Bee of the Laredo Border Slam, Empty Orchestra, Los Papis, Josh Blade, and Haydee Bacerra, among others.

Joe & Julie of Pixel Bit Beads were also at the monthly gathering selling their special brand of pixelated art. For readers who aren’t aware of their work, Joe describes his art as, “little plastic decorations for necklaces, earrings, and home decor. But it’s all based around pixelated artwork, mostly of video game characters, cartoon characters, Disney characters, and we also have all kinds of pop culture, comic book characters. We have all different kinds of things.”

Speaking of why Pixel Bit Beads continue to bring out their products to the Bazaar, Joe says, “we come every month because we love the atmosphere. It’s a really relaxed atmosphere, it’s just really cool. We get to meet so many new people and getting people to know our product, and getting to know their product as well.”

Gaining a loyal following in the Laredo art scene, Haydee Baccera has been a long time performer at the Bazaar as well as Cafe Dolce. “It’s the community, the musicians, and the artists. There is so much to like from them and that is why I keep going. I love it.” As a big supporter of the local art scene, Baccera invites the public to come out to the monthly event. “People should come out to get the community even bigger and also to see the art. There are a lot of artists that not a lot of people hear or see about. This is one of the greatest opportunities that we have,” says the singer.  

For those interested in knowing more about Haydee and her music, the singer-songwriter says, “I have a Facebook page. It’s my personal one but I am going to make a musical one soon. But you can find me with my name Haydee Baccera. That’s where you can all reach me and hear my music.”

Santos Polendo of SiK One ARTwork & Promotions has been organizing the Bazaar since the the TAMIU student organization Enactus give the art society full sponsorship. Polendo states, “we’ve been running for a little over a year and a half and it has become pretty successful.”

By having artists run the family-friendly festival, Polendo says it's what brought fans to come to their event every month saying that, "the musicians that come; bring their friends, their families, and things like that. I think that is what makes it really successful. It’s for the artists and it’s run by artists."

"I think that is what makes this a very successful event," says Polendo.

For the December Bazaar, coordinator Santos Polendo informs Laredoans that he is, "going to be dressing up as Santa Claus. So we will be having a chance for the kids to take photos with Santa Claus and have a couple of games here and there. Things like that. Then after that we will back in January and each month we will be having a different theme, so each month we will be having something new.”

With having a monthly theme, Polendo hopes to keep things fresh and have people coming back.

The next two Bazaar events are scheduled for December 13th and January 10th at the French Quarter on 1605 E Del Mar Boulevard.

(George Gonzalez can be reached jorge.gonzalez@dusty.tamiu.edu)