For my professional practice I went on The First Friday Art Walk. I only made to five stops which was a good two and a half hours. The first stop we went to was The Karin Clarke Gallery. The first speaker was Margaret Coe. They featured twenty-two of her paintings. She called them “The City of light”, which were painted in Venice, Italy on a one week vacation. She painted them by eye and also did a lot in her studio. She had said that she took photographs to finish them and also remembered by memory.  She talked about how when she went there the clouds and sunsets at times were dark and how she felt the weather was changing for The City of Light. She mentioned that recently Venice has been completely flooded that people were walking around in their rain boots. Her paintings were absolutely beautiful and all of them were so different. This one was one of my favorites.

The second stop we made was the CD Game Exchange!? I didn’t notice the name change but it is now called Epic Seconds. They had their show upstairs. Matt Dey talks about his depute “Kick Out the Jams” where he talks about silk screening album art. I absolutely loved it they were very colorful and had a creative abstract design around the musician. I also love music so I was inspired and recognized a lot of different artists. I did not get a photograph in here there was so much to look at. I pulled this one off the web.

Oregon Art Supply was the third stop. They dedicated the month of November and December to Beverly Soasey’s art which is called “Collected Memories.” She would take old things over the years that friends and family have given her and make this amazing 3D art. She would go shopping at different flea markets and would be inspired by different objects and she has different these for her art. She made a piece on science with old test tubes. She would use old antiques, buttons, and she would sew designs in them without measuring her stitches. She made an art piece called men with hats that was over three feet long. She was also an illustrator and wrote books. She was very private about her art; she wanted you to interpret it. You can tell she put a lot of thought a dedication in to her art. The feeling that I got was that she passed on. It was an emotional speech. I did get a recording if you’re interested in hearing it.  It sounds like she touched a lot of people’s lives. The bookmark on the left is one of her illustrations that she created.

The next place that we went was Passion Flower Design. Dana Robinson makes handmade creative Jewelry. She gets her stones from mines and cuts to fit her jewelry and doesn’t use any dyes for coloring. This place had so many handmade items I was so amazed. I was so fascinated with her attention to detail and design. Her jewelry was absolutely beautiful but is way too expensive to buy.

The last place I went to was Out on the Limb Gallery. Ila Rose is a local human-nature connector and does native imagery paintings. They showed some of her older painting and how her thoughts have shifted and how much growth she has shown. She said she was stuck in a state of realism before and she decided to be more imaginative. She says  that humans are connected and destructive towards nature and tries to imply that in her art. She tries to be careful not to offend anyone with her native work it’s just really her experience on walking on this earth. She would like to learn more about tribal areas but she gets a lot of her inspiration from her spirituality. She has done murals in the Whitaker area and still learning how to tell stories through those.