Past 2 First Fridays Artwalks

As the weather gets warmer hundreds more people from the city and beyond swarm to First Fridays, and in turn, my patience with the event dwindles. I don't hate the function all together and I usually manage to see at least one exhibit that I enjoy after squeezing by as many people as possible. So after several awkward run-ins with my previous high school art teachers, (who pretend not to see me) I'll fill you in on what I thought were the highlights of the past two months. 

    In April my favorite work was shown in 1708 gallery. It seemed to be some type of book art/print work exhibit. I responded most to a series of mixed media pieces that illustrated a mans struggle with dieting and food. There were illustrations of favorite guilty pleasure foods and little sculptures and quotes about body image. It was successful to me because the work was refreshingly funny but still got it's message across in a clear way. I believe this was also when Susanne Whittier's art was up in Quirk gallery. I remember being impressed with the quality and consistency of the work in her show. I appreciated her innovation and originality of each piece because it stood out from all of the all too common 'new' work I've seen lately. 

  This month (May) I was looking forward to seeing all of the student shows. I saw the Senior photography show first and it is really interesting to picture myself being in the same place in a few years. I paid a lot of attention to how everything was presented and some people seemed to pay attention to that more than others. When we are seniors I expect the quality of artwork to be very close to the level of recent professional work in the art world. So there was a mixture of work that looked professional and thought out and some that was not quite there. I noticed a lot of color and hardly any black and white printing. The black and white series I did see was not even film/darkroom created and that's quite disappointing. I hope by the time I am a senior I will stick with what I love to do and continue to make prints in the darkroom the dinosaur way. Overall I still enjoyed that exhibit and found several of the projects and concepts interesting and impressive. The other art that stood out to me was shown in the Quirk gallery. There was a series of drawings that were mostly black negative space that enclosed a very small detailed drawing of some type of little creature in each. It was drawing done in a masterful traditional way, with a more modern less traditional subject. I really appreciated the attention to detail that made the work engaging. Also, I've noticed that woodland creatures seem to be quite popular in the world of the arts over the past year or two.