First Friday Art Walk

Levi and I had a really enjoyable evening last night at the First Friday Art Walk.

We started at 5 PM with a light dinner and dessert at Perugino. (I used a Groupon to get a great deal, $15 in food and drinks for just $7.) After our delicious panini sandwich, baklava and brownie we headed over to the first stop on the Art Walk, Opus VII Gallery. Wow was it ever busy! We'll have to go back again so we can actually see and savor the artwork in their new exhibit by a local graphic designer, David Funk, and the artists who have worked for him over the past 30 years.

Next stop was the Jacobs Gallery at the Hult Center. The current exhibit is called "Surface and Silence" by Wesley Hurd and Rafael Perea de la Cabada. It was interesting but not particularly my style. I didn't quite "get" some of their abstract art. We met Wesley Hurd and he was a very nice guy.

Island by Wesley Hurd

by Rafael Perea de la Cabada

From there we went on to Karin Clarke Gallery to see work by LaVerne Krause (a deceased artist) from Oregon. Some of her work was very detailed and other pieces were more impressionistic. After following along on the tour we decided to break away and just go to the galleries on our own because they get pretty crowded during the tour stops.

a woodcut by LaVerne Krause - I loved the detail as well as the simplicity of the subject

painting by LaVerne Krause

Next up was the Oregon Arts Alliance. They had a fundraiser, the "2nd Annual 6x6 Benefit Show" going on at the time. There were probably 100 small works of art for sale at $30 each. Some were nice, others not so great. As we came to the end of the pieces to view I saw one that I really loved and it had not yet been claimed. I was so happy to be able to buy this beautiful tulip painting by Demetra Kalams.



We had to leave the piece hanging until 7:30 PM so we went on to our next venue and then came back to claim our painting. When we got back, the man-who-seemed-to-be-in-charge introduced me to the artist and then asked if he could get our picture together. Of course I asked him to take one on our camera as well.


We headed over to the New Zone Gallery and introduced ourselves to Tad's friend, Eagle Park Slim, who was there performing music. This is probably my least favorite gallery, it's not very classy and sometimes has some art that I find disgusting, but I do know a couple people who display their art there so it's nice to look at their work.

Slim - (sorry for the poor quality photo)

Forest Snow by Robin Marks-Fife
(Levi took a watercolor class from her
through HomeSource.)

We stopped by one other location, Olive Grand, but it was SO crowded for its small space that we could hardly view the art. I think we might stop by another time we are downtown so we can take in their exhibit, "The Magic of Ireland", photographs by Anne McRae. They also had live music, but the crowd was so noisy it was difficult to hear and enjoy the music.

Around 8 PM we were definitely ready to call it an evening. We had left the umbrella in the trunk of the car when we arrived downtown during a light rain. That light rain turned to a downpour and we ended up soaked before the evening was over. We both had a great time and think we will enjoy it even more on a nice warm, dry evening in the future.

Hope you have enjoyed a small sampling of the art.

Sharon