Artists at Miami Loco This Year

The 5th Annual Miami Loco arts festival begins tonight! The festival is an all-inclusive arts experience aimed at all ages and tastes, and showcases live art, music, and poetry.

Acquaint yourself with a few of the local/formerly local artists who will be at this year’s Miami Loco:

Jules Dinehdeal, aka Cleopache
Poet

Dinehdeal is a poet based in Phoenix who blends organic, improvisational poetry with music. Backed up with guitar or drums, she often speaks of love, peace, unity, dreams, and being on the journey. Her sound has a bluesy, jazz flair.

“You might like it or you might not,” she says.

Dinehdeal has been involved with Miami Loco from the beginning. In addition to performing, she also lines up music and poetry acts for the festival.

“I do it for the love of it, and for the love of art and poetry,” she says. “Miami is a hotspot for artists, poets, and musicians. It all goes together.”

Born in San Carlos, Dinehdeal is both Apache and Navajo. She herself went public with her poetry back in ’93, and has participated in numerous poetry, music, and visual arts showcases ever since.

“Half of my life has been poetry in public,” she says.

You can check out a few of Dinehdeal’s live recordings here.

You can catch Dinehdeal during the organic poetry session on Sunday from 12 to 2 p.m.

Amy Schugar
Musician

Schugar is singer/songwriter and guitarist who spends a portion of her time in Globe. She walks the line between soul and rock n’ roll.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Schugar for our spring 2014 issue. You can read that story here.

Schugar is set to play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Park on Sullivan Street.

Chris Matthews
Musician

If you follow local music, surely you have heard Chris Mathews play. You could call Mathews’ music indie folk, though he doesn’t prefer any one genre. He does enjoy instruments, including the guitar, piano, and mandolin.

You can check out one of his latest videos here, or read our most recent story on him here.

Mathews is set to play at 8 p.m. tonight at Miami Art Works on Sullivan Street.

Liz Weibler
Artist

Originally hailing from Chicago, Weibler found herself in Miami during the winters of 2009 and 2010. Though her focus is painting these days, Weibler has studied everything from sculpture and ceramics to screen printing and fiber arts.

Her creative adventures have taken her to the School of Art Institute in Chicago, where she studied while she was still in high school, as well as the costume shop of the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, where she worked beginning in 2006.

You can read more about her, and see some of her work, here.

Catch Weibler, joined by Ken Boe, at the closing reception on Sunday at noon for the current show “Untitled Document” at the Jim Coates Gallery (Copper Mine Picture Cafe) on Sullivan Street.

Seth Payson, aka Mojépe Ravenwolf

Seth Payson, aka Mojepe Ravenwolf, uses anything from old records to natural wool to make art. He makes labyrinths from natural stone, knits, crochets, and is learning how to weave baskets. His media of choice, however, are pens, ink, and watercolor pencils, which he uses to makes sketchings and drawings.

Growing up in Globe, Payson has been surrounded by art throughout his life. He was influenced largely by his mother, who paints and designs costumes, as well as by local artists and family friends like Diana Tunis and Frank Balaam.

He spent his high school years at the New School for the Arts & Academics, where he coordinated two mural projects. He has worked on murals during the Mesa Arts Festival as well as the Phoenix Art Festival, where he was one of 80 artists to work on the longest community mural. His work has been displayed at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of the Visions Program for gifted high school artists, and the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.

Jenn Walker

Jenn Walker began writing for Globe Miami Times in 2012 and has been a contributor ever since. Her work has also appeared in Submerge Magazine, Sacramento Press, Sacramento News & Review and California Health Report. She currently teaches Honors English at High Desert Middle School and mentors Globe School District’s robotics team.