Last Saturday, Oxford’s store Amelia and the Yoknapatawpha Arts council hosted the Motel Art Show at the Ole Miss Motel on University Avenue. This annual show was begun in 2007 and nicknamed The One Night Stand Art Show, and has been spread to other cities as a creative and unique way to showcase the work of artists.

The work is always stunning, and this year was no exception. The motel opened it’s vacant rooms to the show, and the artists made them their own, decorating the walls, floors, beds, and even bathrooms. The show featured paintings, drawings, 3D pieces, cards, stickers, prints, photography, calendars, and even pins. Students and adults alike came to peruse the work and talk to friends.

The artists featured in the show sent submissions online, and were hand-selected by Erin Austen Abbott, the owner of Amelia.  They come from all over Mississippi, as well as all over the South. This year, the artists included, Kathryn Hunter (Baton Rouge, LA), Amy Cameron Evans (Houston, TX), Jonathan Kent Adams (Oxford, MS), Shelby Keyser and Jake Rogers (Oxford and Corinth, MS),  Jason Cimon (Oxford, MS), Adrienne Brown-David and daughters (Water Valley, MS), Deja Samuel (Oxford, MS), Frances Berry (Memphis, TN), and Andi Bedsworth (Oxford, MS).

The show controlled the bottom level of the left side of the motel. Artists and viewers mingled and discussed the work displayed in different rooms. When walking past rooms, different colored lights and scents poured out. St. Leo’s provided food outside, with their own travel-sized brick oven in the parking lot. Unique features of the rooms included a static TV with a note posted on to it, a message written in lipstick on the mirror of a bathroom illuminated only by red christmas lights, a room in which the ever surface (including walls, floors, beds, nightstands, and so on) was covered with art, and a room featuring live music.

The show was a resounding success.