Autumn & Art festival selects Wichitan as featured artist

For the first time in its six-year history, Autumn & Art at Bradley Fair has selected a Wichitan as its featured artist.

Oil painter Ernest Vincent Wood III’s “The Last Defense of Truth” is featured on commemorative posters for the 2015 event.

Wood, a Wichita State University graduate who has studied in Italy and exhibited in Ireland, painted his defender character as a Greek goddess.

“The darkness is deepening, and there’s an ominous sort of red sky – and yet, the lamp continues to shine, continues to give forth light,” said Wood, describing his painting. “I believe we kind of live in an age of skepticism and relativism, and this is sort of my last stand in a way. … We can’t just keep going in circles. At some point, we need to realize there is an ultimate truth.”

This year’s alfresco fine-art show along Bradley Fair Parkway will feature original works in 11 media, including jewelry, painting, glass, fiber, ceramics and photography. Thirty-four of the 101 artists selected are Kansans, and there will be 23 states represented in all. Wood and the other artists will be on hand to interact with visitors at their booths. Last year, the festival drew 18,000 attendees over its three days.

New activities for 2015 include a whiskey-sampling and cigar bar, olive oil tasting, splatter painting with hula-hoops and “Celestial Caravan,” an early-20th-century science-fiction photo booth created by artists Hallie Linnebur and Meghan Miller. The Wichita Center for the Arts will continue to offer art-themed family fun, and paddle boats have returned as well. Entertainment in the form of live music, dance, theater and art demonstrations will be presented throughout the weekend. Bradley Fair restaurants will be selling food, and there will be a cash bar.

At a recent unveiling of the festival’s featured artwork, Wood spoke to patrons. He related that one of his favorite stories is Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” and mentioned the bishop in the story, who has many garden plots. Most of them are for growing food, but one is a flower garden.

“He’s constantly being berated for wasting good food-growing space,” Wood said. “This is his reply – I love it. It’s been the words that define what I do and why I do it: He says, ‘The beautiful is as useful as the useful, more so, perhaps.’ I’m with the bishop. We need beauty, just like we need food, just like we need water, just like we need shelter, just like we need love. Beauty is necessary to life.”

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Autumn & Art festival selects Wichitan as featured artist."