First Friday Art Trail at Caviel's Museum of African American History

Featuring Art from Elisdee, Jesse Murdoc Jamez, DogBot, Lukky Rodriguez and Live Music from Mojave Sol

Note: Paid Subscribers can listen to this article, and check out additional pictures and audio from Mojave Sol’s performance.

Of Art and Artists

Here at Focus LBK, we love it when people do things outside of their normal sphere of action. When they move outside their comfort zone. When they expand their mental, physical and spiritual palette.

The members of the Roots Historical Arts Council, led by Ms. Shirley Green, showed us how to do just that this past Friday, May 3rd. They hosted the Pialli Art Exhibit, which featured pieces from the LBK’s Indigenous community, including Elisdee, Jesse Murdoc Jamez, DogBot and Lukky Rodriguez.

As we understood it, Fernando Elisdee Perez was instrumental in helping bring this exhibit to fruition. He also had several mind-expanding pieces on display.

Lovely Wife is all ears as Artist Elisdee expounds on one of his pieces.

We don’t want to give it all away, but you can see there were quite a few conversation-starters. And make no mistake, that’s what art is supposed to do. Pique your curiosity. Take your mind and soul to places they have never been. Make you question things. Give you an appreciation of something new or different. Cause you to make a face as you consider new avenues.

Mrs. Elise Brown is deciding whether she digs it…or not.

We loved the fact that the crowd was diverse in every sense: ideologically, ethnically, and generationally. There were people of every creed, race, and age cohort perusing the art and enjoying one another’s company.

In fact, one of the youngest people in attendance was also an artist whose work just happened to be on display. Arcie Marquez has been painting for 4-5 years. She paints Chicano art because she’s “really into her culture” and has recently been immersing herself into her “ancestry and her roots, and where she came from”.

Arcie is from Lubbock, and attends the University of Texas at El Paso, where she is pursuing her Bachelor’s in Chicano Studies.

We really liked her piece “Juan Perez on Accordion”, especially since Mr. Perez himself was also in attendance!

Arcie Marquez beams next to her piece “Juan Perez on Accordian”.

Mr. Juan Perez is beside himself with pride.

Live Performance by Mojave Sol

One of the highlights of the evening was a live performance by local a group called Mojave Sol. Lead singer Steve Vasquez told me some people compare them to the San Antonio group “Los Lonely Boys”. I really dig the “Boys”, but Mojave Sol’s sound was much harder and more soulful to me. It “crosses that style from rock music into blues”, as Steve aptly described it.

He further specified that there’s “no screaming, no heavy metal stuff, there’s nothing ‘heavy heavy’…it’s all original music”. Steve’s songwriting revolves around real life personal and universal experiences. “Some of it’s positive, some of it’s about losing someone”.

Music is highly subjective, but I will say I enjoyed what I heard. In fact, I need to get out to some of their other shows so I can get a little deeper into their sound. Take a listen while you peep this out some dope pics of Mojave Sol in action: