Local artists display their work at Art Walk

Approximately 17 local artists had an opportunity to share their work with the community during the first Concordia Art Walk Saturday at the Broadway Plaza.
The Concordia Art Walk is an arts and crafts festival where dozens of local artists showed off their creations, including paintings, ceramics, illustrations, resin art, jewelry, homemade candles and soaps, weather photography, woodworking, sculptures, and even cross-stitching.
Throughout the evening hundreds of people browsed the dozens of booths set up by vendors.
Also during the Art Walk there were free face paintings done by the Cloud County Community College volleyball team, cornhole games, and sidewalk competitions. Food vendors satisfied the hankering for barbecue.
The event was capped off by a silent auction, with the proceeds donated to the medical costs of Kathy Schmitz.
Schmitz suffers from trigeminal and occipital neuralgia.
Trigeminal neuralgia is a chronic pain condition that affects the trigeminal nerve, which carries sensation from the face to the brain. Any type of stimulation such as brushing teeth or eating food may trigger jolts of excruciating pain.
According to mayoclinic.com, the bouts of pain can last from a few seconds to several minutes, with a constant aching or burning feeling which may evolve into spasms.
Schmitz's son, Cody, organized the Art Walk event to support local arts awareness.
“Why not bring the arts to the community we love so much?” Schmitz said.
When asked about his favorite part of the event, Schmitz said: “The people — the artists. I cannot believe how many incredible artists signed up. When I started it, I thought there would be like four artists that came and just the turnout has been incredible. So many people and they've been so willing to donate pieces and help."
Shawn Hood was one of the local artists who shared her work, including an original art series called Water Horses, which she has been working on for 10 years. The artwork is a combination of watercolor and colored pencils.
“I was just kind of messing around with a shape of a painting and it just ended up being this,” Hood said, describing her Water Horses art. “Each one is kind of intuitive; they are what I considered 'born' because I don't have any preconceived idea of what they're going to be. Sometimes I'm just making marks on a page, and it ends up just morphing into this creature, and that's what I mean by being born.”
Jordan Brown is another local artist with compelling ceramics.
A Concordia native, Brown began making pots in high school after the loss of his father.
“I started making pots at a young age and just grew to love it," Brown said. "From there I just continued making pots and then decided to go to college for it. Got my bachelor's degree from Hays and then decided to get my master's.”
Brown has been creating his art for 14 years. Some of his work focuses on bringing animal and environmental awareness to spectators. He also gave live demonstrations of the pottery process, answering questions and describing what each tool was used for, and even revealing some of his insider tricks.
Schmitz deemed the first Concordia Art Walk a huge success and hopes to make it an annual event. Those interested in donating to Kathy Schmitz's medical funds can visit the official Facebook page for the Concordia Art Walk for more information.