Corvallis Arts Walk

Howdy hoooo~

Happy Friday everybody!
I must say, it's been such a great wrap-up to the week :)

Last night, Dash went off to a concert in Eugene so I took the kids on our first Corvallis Arts Walk!
For those not familiar, it's this nifty event held every third Thursday where art studios and galleries around town are especially open from 4pm-8pm, providing wine and treats, and giving folks an opportunity to meet some local artists and see what beautiful creations they are making.

I had seen signs about it around town before, but it wasn't until I got in touch with a member of the Gift Economy who turned out to be an artist I'd worked with in the past, that I decided to hit it up! :D
She told me to swing by some time to check out some prints she had featuring me and that the CAW might be a good opportunity to do it.

The weather was fiiiine (50+ degrees, I want to say??) so me and the kiddos headed out on a lovely and inspirational walk.

We hit up...

1) The Arts Center
The kids have taken classes here before and I work some Wednesday evenings in their basement level for the Life Drawing sessions held there. They had a really snazzy exhibit about the "afterlife of tress" and it was cool running into some artist acquaintances and getting to (re)introduce them to the kids and such. :)

Gotta love the space of this converted building~!

I let Ella take home this handmade felt skull. Yay for supporting local artists!

2) Jeff Hess Studio
We dropped by really quick to see his stellar exhibit on yogis. Really creative twist on the usual way certain poses are photographed ;)
Then we moved on to...

3) Brittney West Studio
This lovely lady is not only talented, but also very endearing and gets what the Gift Economy is all about :D
She was so generous to give me some prints of me from her 100-Days Art Series: Love, Yourself and I can't wait to get them framed or at least put up somewhere in the house! I was just thinking how barren the walls in our bedroom are...
Moving on, we then hit up...

4) Kaleidoscope
The local bead shop in town is such a feast for the eyes. Every kind of bead imaginable (glass, wooden, vintage, etc) and the organization set-up is very creative and friendly (like using old library card catalog drawers!).

Beads organized in rainbow order...hnnnghh...

Strands like this were everywhere. Purpllllle

The artist being represented there was a Ms. Jillian Jordan who has a great spiral theme with her metalwork and was such a sweetie to entertain the children by listening to them go on and on like they do...
I wanted to support her work so I got the kiddos some lovely and sturdy zipper pulls that she crafted. I hope they remember this awesome CAW whenever they zip up their jackets :)

We briefly hit up Pegasus, Azure Fine Art Gallery, and Art in the Valley, but by then it was after 7:30 and the kids were poooooped. I would say that all all in all they were pretty well behaved and I especially loved how, when Ella wanted to point something out to me in particular, she remembered to gesture using her whole palm rather than pointing with her finger crassly. Yay! And they were pretty moderate in their partaking of the snack tables at each studio. More or less ;)

After a long trek back home, the kids promptly passed out and I spent the rest of the evening on the phone with Kathy-neechan, thinking up more story ideas. :)))) Just loooove our creative process together!

A'ight!
Well, that's all for now.
If you're in town the third Thursday of the month, I highly recommend it!!! Especially as the weather gets better with the coming spring, what a lovely way to spend a Thursday evening. :)

Today, I decided to keep Ella home since she's coughing a bit much, so we took advantage of our time together to bake up some persimmon muffins for our new neighbors!

Topped with some of that leftover homemade frosting. :D

That's right, we've got a couple of dudes moving in next door and we wanted them to feel welcome (plus I wanted to use up these persimmons I've had since November (??) ) so yeah! Two birds, one stone. ;)

All righty!
Until next time, take care and Happy Corvallis Arts Walk!!