Art Beat

It was a powerful, wildly successful show, with unprecedented sales and community support, yet Jim McVicker described his recent exhibit at the Cody-Pettit Gallery as a roller coaster of emotion. "The response to the show was completely amazing, but the whole week was a blur," he said. "Nothing felt real because Terry wasn’t there." Jim […]

It’s that awkward time of the month again when everyone is in transition, taking down their old shows and getting ready to put up the next one. I want to tell you about what’s new and exciting, but I won’t be able to see the shows myself until after this article goes to press. So, […]

One result of the popularity of Arts Alive!-type events is that every business in town wants to get in on the picture (if you’ll pardon the pun). I’m certainly an advocate for art in the county, but I question the value of this. Not every business is a good venue for art and the people […]

“My goal is to make my etchings colorful using only black and white.” I never knew Brenda Tuxford, the woman who said that about her art. I knew of her, but by the time I arrived she was already working primarily behind the scenes, so I didn’t get a chance to meet her before her […]

SoHum photographer Kim Sallaway is one of those people who carries a camera at all times — just in case. He always wants to be ready should some image present itself, some magic moment that cries out for capture. For the last couple of months he’s been sorting through thousands of images he’s collected over […]

My son has been exposed to art pretty much from the get-go. When he was one month old, I helped hang a gallery show at the Ink People with him in a sling and then stayed for the opening reception. He went to his first poetry reading at about four months. I drag him around […]

If you’re like me and you enjoy watching artists develop from the earliest stages of their careers, you’ll be interested in the exhibition at the First Street Gallery this month. The Young Alumni 2007 show features works by 17 recent graduates: paintings, photographs, prints and clay sculptures by artists with lots of energy and talent.Gallery […]

I had no idea how far sand sculpture had come until Carol Vander Meer contacted me about the Friends of the Dunes annual Sand Sculpture Festival. She suggested googling "sand sculpture" to see what kinds of things people are creating with this earthy medium. Warning: These are not the plastic bucket sandcastles you made when […]

Janie Walsh’s life work on sale this weekend Janie Walsh didn’t want me to wait for her. She said to head on back to the studio; she’d get there eventually. "Getting old’s not for sissies," she called out with a laugh from the hallway, plodding slowly outside with a walker she painted in bright colors. […]

Of all the art mediums, perhaps the most mysterious is glass. It’s not hard to understand putting paint on a canvas, weaving, even welding or casting molten metal. But just how does one carve glass? How do they put those little flowers inside a glass paperweight? How do you shape the intricate details of a […]

There is one thing that can be said about textile artists as opposed to painters: They are really in love with their medium. For painters, it’s usually more about the process of painting, the subject, color and light — the paint and brushes are just tools. But for textile artists, it’s all about the fiber: […]