There are a couple art walks that Lee-Anne and I typically do every year. I've posted about them before. They are events where local artists display their work in or outside their homes. There is one in our neighbourhood, the Central Art Walk, and one in the Frederick area. This weekend we attended the latter, but we also partook in the former a few weeks ago.
The one closer to us is the Central Art Walk and this year it only had six participating locations, a stark decline from when we started going to it. However, three places were hubs hosting multiple artists. My workplace, WALES, hosted three displays, there was the KW Art Co Op, and the person running the whole thing had eight people in and outside his house.
I actually helped host this year. WALES requires one of our employees to be present while the Art Walk is happening, and I took the closing shift on Sunday. Two of the artists had a shared display and they told me that they have been participating annually for... I want to say something like 15 years. One of them showed me the first brochure. Each participating location was represented by a letter in the order of the alphabet and it extended all the way to Q. By comparison, this year would only have gone to F.
But they were fairly unconcerned. They said that the person who usually runs it retired this year, so the guy hosting eight displays out of his house adopted responsibility. The transition left him with less time than usual and everything got underway last minute, resulting in an underwhelming turnout.
We still got some stuff. Here they are:
These were from a house that was new to the art walk. Most of their work waa paintings on canvas. The median price range was something like $700. It's tough because considering the skill, time, and resources that went into them, they were priced appropriately. Technically I could afford it, but it's just not something to buy on an impulse.
However, they also had these mushroom figures which were much cheaper. We chose a couple with gold caps, one with a kissy face and the other winking. Overall, a pair of flirty mushrooms. They're sitting by our succulents at the moment.
This was made by one of our WALES members and a participating artist stationed in our building. I bought two pieces from him last year. We don't have enough wall space to justify his work, but I got this one as a gift for my brother. His favourite flower is peonies, and these are at least pink like them.
I bought a painting from another artist displayed in the same room. I got something from her last year as well. I have it displayed at work though and didn't take a picture of it so can't show it here right now. The piece was titled "Where are you Linda?"
These were done by the photographers in the WALES building. If you're counting, and want to call me out for getting numbers wrong, I said we had three displays! Those were shared over four artists.
They were a married couple. Adrien did mostly animal photos while Jonathon did sky. The techniques for capturing their respective targets was pretty different. More earthly subjects need improvisation and quick decision making under unpredictable circumstances while celestial images require long-term planning and research.
We bought a magnet for Lee-Anne's sister-in-law, as she loves raccoons and her household hosted us for Thanksgiving this year. Jonathan donated two packs of cards to the WALES employees that oversaw the art walk. I got to choose the collections. I picked the solar eclipse because it happened while we were at work so it was a shared experience for most of us, and I just thought the aurora borealis looked neat.
I bought this book from the guy who organised the art walk this year. He's the one who hosted eight artists out of his house. I guess his name is D.H. McKee. He's a legitimate published author, he's got a page on Goodreads.
The following images are from the Frederick Art Walk, which happened this weekend and was much, much larger.
We got some Christmas ornaments.
I got this adorable little ankylosaur sculpture. His name is Sweet Potato. He has heart markings on his spikes and under his chin. The artist I bought him from was very excited with my pick. Maybe my favourite purchase this year.
And here are a couple of magnets. We got the axolotl from someone that we got a fox and dinosaur from last year, although we broke the latter.
The chickadee actually came from the Bestival, which is a separate event from the art walks. In the past, we've gotten a rainbow mushroom in the same style.
We also bought tea, a candle, and some homemade soap.
