Gallery • 3 Photos

Stefanie Chavez

At the Stardust Festival, Pinchi (Michelle) Michi, arrives during the early morning of October 2 to promote her talent that is rather dear to her. “I lost my husband about two years ago and for a while, I wasn’t able to draw without having everything revolve around him,” Michi says. “My appreciation towards El Dia de los Muertos, after my husband’s death, inspired me to paint what I paint.”

Celebrating the City of Downey’s 60th Anniversary, The Downey Arts Coalition hosted their Arts Festival with a “cosmic” themed art exhibit on October 2.

Live music was also a part of the show with local musicians and performances by the Hikaro Taiko Japanese Drummers. Local artists came to the show and set up their various artworks hanging within and around their booths.

Born in East L.A., sketch artist Polaris Castillo came to the festival to show off his drawings. He likes to use an astronaut as the main character for his sketches and uses it as a theme to connect with people.

“We search for answers in life, and I like to use an astronaut as a metaphor for it, because it is genderless, anyone can relate,” Polaris said, “The astronaut is a representation of how far people are willing to go to search for answers.”

Free handing with ceramics, Jorge Del-Toro sculpted an abstract ceramic of Earth and space. Del-Toro’s piece took about a month to create and barely finished it the day before the show. His work was one of the main exhibits and explained his thought process when making the piece.

“I wanted my work to follow the theme of and use a spaceship since Downey has a history with space,” Del-Toro said. “Everything I build is by hand, I like organic forms when it comes to my work.”

The festival was led by the Vice President of The Downey Arts Coalition (D.A.C), Pat Gil and her partners, Eloisa Ball and Andrew Hernandez.

Pat started getting involved with the D.A.C. 6 years ago and continues to promote their various events. She is also searching for younger artists to promote their art and themselves at the shows.

“We do several events with the D.A.C., this is our first big one,” Gil said. “We want a consistent presence in the city and keep the arts alive; we’ve been wanting to have students more involved.”

The D.A.C.  plans to advertise in schools for events and hopefully find new artists. Further information can be found on The Downey Arts Coalition website, any artists are welcomed to join. The next show and theme is soon to be announced, but they are always looking for new people.