What a weekend, with same sex marriage and our county courthouse upstaging Saturday’s May Festival of the Arts events.
Artists – you gotta love ‘em, despite their sometime insecure flakiness. On par with herding cats, I managed to get 35 of them to participate in the Artist Impression of the Mother exhibit at The Space over Mother’s Day weekend. I’m sure it was karmic payback for all the times I was late getting work in for a group show. It was an eclectic event with a mix of first time showers and seasoned pros. Gina Gallina brought her crochet crew and madness Saturday night and 11 year-old Chloe Kirk sold her first piece of art. Big hugs to co-conspirators Mr. Shrine and Janet Alexander and to Kathy and Russell Harrison, Quin Withey and John Stalling for stepping up when I was really in the weeds.
Just down the street, May Fest poster girl Barbara Kennedy hosted a show for Ethan Robison, the talented, semi-precocious, 12 year-old Renaissance kid (juggler, photographer, filmmaker, unicyclist, puppet-maker) and now origami master at her Spring St. studio and gallery.
And congratulations to Eureka Thyme featured artist Carol Dickie who is also hanging a major exhibit at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum.
Always the third Friday in May, the White Street Studio Walk is the much anticipated event and anchor of the May Festival of the Arts. It was started by a group of artists 24 years ago, who coincidentally all went to art school in Memphis, and who all ended up with homes and studios on White St. Zeek Taylor, Eleanor Lux, John Willer and Mary Springer have worked hard maintaining the Walk, giving local artists a huge one-night audience for their work.
White St. is a hopping little community hangout with the recent additions of Caitlin Cantele’s tattoo shop and Regalia clothing designer Mark Hughes’ beautiful new studio and location. If you missed Mark’s grand opening last Saturday you will get another chance to tour his space at the WSSW Friday. And drapery goddess Mary Tate has added fresh-cut peonies to the mix. But it’s Hanna Maufe’s season reopening of Oscar’s that has made the big difference. Oscar’s is a great place to just hang with an amazing cappuccino or eat breakfast and lunch. The food is fresh and very tasty.
Keels Creek Winery is hosting wood turners from around the state Saturday, and make sure you check out the featured artist’s during Saturday’s Gallery Walk in theIndependent Fun Guide, the official guide to everything happening in May.
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