We ate pie and crawfish. We drank sparkling wine and beer. We ran 3.1 miles. We threw and caught beads and candy. We danced, we laughed, we ate some more pie. Oak Cliff Mardi Gras 2012 came and went this weekend.

Winnetka Heights won best float in the parade for their 70s disco theme. The judges — Roy Appleton of the Dallas Morning News, Joanna England of Oak Cliff People and I — scored a tie between the Winnetka Heights float and last year’s winner, Krewe La Rive Gauche. In the end, a coin toss decided it. There were many terrific floats, and it’s impressive that neighbors put in so much time and work on them.

Tank is not even 2 years old yet, but he already has personal style. His owner is a Edgar Salas of Winnetka Heights.

Kiera Cotten and Kael Alford watch the 2011 Oak Cliff Mardi Gras parade, along with thousands. Mardi Gras Oak Cliff 2012 takes place Feb. 16-17.

Pictures and happenings around the neighborhood, like the Real Estate Council fireside chat at Eno’s Pizza Tavern in Bishop Arts.

Oliver and Zsa Zsa like to play, crash and cuddle. Their people are neighborhood residents Rodney Walter and Allie Anderson.

Back when the Oak Cliff Bank Tower began beaming the building’s iconic, red- and green-lit NOEL, Cliffites knew the Christmas season had arrived.

The Dallas Museum of Art’s John Paul Gaultier exhibit, “The Sidewalk to the Catwalk” opens officially Sunday, Nov. 13.

A couple of Dallas artists spent two days creating an art installation outside the museum.

Julie McCullough Kim of Make and IndieGenius and Oak Cliff-based artist Marisa Dukowitz “lace bombed” trees outside the museum.

Photos courtesy of Julie McCullough Kim

Other trees they covered in this blue-and-white fabric.

Kim and Dukowitz also created a 7-foot topiary shaped like a dress form and another topiary shaped like hangers.

Kim said she got to see the Gaultier exhibit Wednesday, and she wants to see it two or three more times. “You can’t take it all in at one time,” she says. “It’s like no other exhibit I’ve ever seen.”

Dukowitz is the artist who created these amazing masks, which showed recently at the Ross Akard Gallery.

Stevens Park Estates resident Mark Hupert submitted these 64 photos he took of trick-or-treaters and pals on Halloween. I spent Halloween in Kessler Plaza, and we saw a lot of butterflies and Super Marios. Who did you see?

Pictures and happenings in the neighborhood.

The annual program that brings together students and artists, who create art from the surroundings at the La Reunion TX campus, is wrapping up.

Their work will be on display for family, friends and La Reunion TX supporters during a reception from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29. County commissioner Elba Garcia will speak at 2 p.m. Artist Jennifer Sereno and her students will follow with a brief performance piece. And then guests will be invited to tour the site and installations.
Art Chicas is in its fifth year, and La Reunion TX offered it to boys for the first time this year through Art Chicos. Six artists and 20 high school students participated, working every Saturday in October. During their lunch breaks, artists from the Dallas Art Dealers Association spoke to them about having careers in art.

Check out these photos by Allison V. Smith, taken at La Reunion TX.

La Reunion – Images by Allison V. Smith