Art Walk July started off with a hodgepodge of arty things in the old bank (?) building. Everything was pretty mediocre (combo drawings of cartoon women with playboy centerfolds…what a brilliant idea…) but I happened to look at the name on a few “interesting” photos.
Can’t say I liked these photos (after all, they seem pretty easy to do in photoshop), but it was surprising to see they were done by the guy who wrote Whip It. The price had been marked down from $500 to $475.
The art walk has been getting less impressive every time. However, the number of amateur professional photographers (i.e. “I don’t currently work for anyone, but look at my nice DSLR”) and street musicians keeps growing.
In one gallery a “work” consisted of this:
The girl just slowly moved the rose up and down. When we went by later there was a boy in the bed doing the same thing. Home made viewmaster slides nearby showed photos of two girls embracing in bed… how revolutionary and outrageous. It was in this large gallery that I noticed there are a fair amount of young artists today that have a good skill set, but no idea what to do with them.
Like this piece by Edwin Bethea:
Shouldn’t this girl be the one getting shot?
The whole night we kept seeing these two people (sex undetermined) dressed as garbage pile Geishas. Their outfits were very elaborate recreations of original Geisha robes, but made completely out of discarded items. They were wearing Geisha masks and carrying (real) shamisens. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a decent picture of them…
In the same gallery there were pillows on the floor and hippy girls circling around with incense. I’m sure a laughable beat poet celebration was about to begin but we left before it could start.
I got the Pom-Mango smoothy at Lost Souls Cafe. It wasn’t very good, and the fire alarm in the building was going off at the time. Outside this band tried to compete with the alarm.
While we walked towards The Hive we were pulled into a building and told to go to the 10th floor because there was a “new gallery” there. It turned out to be someone’s studio – showing terribly mediocre work. I mean really bad stuff. However, down the hall I came upon an open window to a fire escape and became fascinated with the decayed building next door.
Infusion Gallery never seems to have anything good anymore. I snapped a photo of one laughable piece by Richard Herring… who may or may not be the British Comedian by the same name. I think if it was him this would make more sense…
The Hive was having a show called “Bee-Rotica” featuring “erotic art” often with a bee theme. Some of it was interesting, and some of it was just crap. You know how I feel about sexuality in art, if you make somebody naked for shock value your art is imediately downgraded. Many many things at the hive right now are doing just that. Like the giant photograph of the tattooed punk rock guy with an erection.
Still, the Hive did have works by its resident artists. Some of which are good, like Adam Scott Miller, a sort of poor man’s Alex Grey. Irony of ironies – a tool song was actually playing when I saw this painting:
does this guest book “font” look familiar to anyone else?
Way back in the dedicated Goth Room I found a very well painted piece by Ken Dougherty. I was glad to find after checking out his site that most of his work isn’t “goth” themed, but just weird (which is in vogue right now).
Another piece that was sort of flung on the wall with a bunch of other stuff but I thought was really good was this one by Mike Bilz.
Although you can’t tell from this image – the painting was only about 18 inches high, but the detail was amazing. Although easily dismissed for being “cartoony” the attention to detail with teeny tiny brush strokes was fantastic and unnatainable for someone with non-nimble fingers and little patience like myself.
The last piece I liked at the Hive was by the man who never dissapoints, Brendan Sharkey.
Back on the main drag the Regent Theater was still evolving. This time they had a live band next door, or they’d remodeled or something. There was a crowd of onlookers (to the right in the photo) and then a live projection of the band in the entrance to the theater (to the left in the photo). The band didn’t sound that great.
Next to the Regent in the parking lot was the same “arts and crafts” show. The band was replaced with a DJ. Michael Pucak was still doing live paintings:
We overheard that charcoal portrait artist (see last month’s art walk blog) telling someone his name is Robert Rodriguez. Good luck on your SEO with that name…
Down the street were two very vintage looking guys with a very vintage looking car. They were selling ice cream bars out of a cooler for $1 each.
We finished the night off with hot dogs from Weeneez. The hot dogs were okay, but nowhere near as good as The Stand. Outside Weeneez The People’s Party was playing in their own truck – apparently they do this a lot.
