Artist Begins Double Decker Arts Festival with Basket Weaving Demonstrations

Mark Barnes weaves a basket on North Lamar Boulevard this Friday morning, April 22.

This Friday morning, the Double Decker Arts Festival, presented by Caterpillar, kicked off with art demonstrations at 10 a.m. in front of the Ole Miss Stage on North Lamar Boulevard.

At 10 a.m., two artists began demonstrations of basket weaving and water color. The basket weaving artist is Mark Barnes from Plymouth, North Carolina.

Barnes used to live in Oxford and has been at Double Decker since 1997.

“I’ve been doing Double Decker since 1997, and it has definitely grown a lot. I have been doing the art demonstration for Artists Guild for several years now,” said Barnes.

Mark Barnes took a course in the mountains of North Carolina to learn kudzu basketry. It was a week-long retreat where no technology or news sources were allowed, and all they focused on was the assignment at hand. Barnes has several of his baskets for sale this Double Decker weekend, all hand made with kudzu from his backyard.

The only tools he uses to create his baskets are pruners, plyers and his hands. Barne can finish each basket in a matter of hours.

Barnes said, “What I like about it so much is that kudzu is everywhere, so I can go out into the woods myself and get all the material I need. I only use pruners and plyers and can create just about anything I want,”

For more information of art demonstrations put on by the Artists Guild, visit http://oxfordartistsguild.blogspot.com/2016/04/2016-double-decker.html

Allie Kmec is a HottyToddy.com intern. She can be reached at arkmec7@gmail.com.

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