Local Art Seen: Second Friday Art Crawl, Part One

Things didn't go as planned on last week's Second Friday Art Crawl. I saw a lot of interesting work but my camera ran out of juice when I was at the Superior's North End Arts Gallery, so I can't share here all that I saw.

Right after work that evening I slid over to the Red Mug on Hammond. Carla Hamilton is this month featured artist. Here work has color and movement. Her innovative use of materials producing some striking effects. Recommended: take a lunch hour to grab some soup or a wrap and for dessert enjoy Carla's paintings. Or take a break after hours and grab a sup at the new Spirit Room upstairs, and then tour the walls of the Red Mug.

One flight up from the Spirit Room is a new exhibition at the North End Arts Gallery featuring Judie Phillips & Friends & Friends. By friends I believe she means both her friends who are showing with her -- Karin Kraemer and Kathleen Pattison -- as well as her animal friends which appear in her work, chickens and sled dogs. I first enountered Phillips' work at a Phantom Galleries group exhibition in the New York Building on Tower Avenue a couple years ago.

Members of the Superior Council for the Arts and Phantom Galleries Superior were present at the opening, as well Wisconsin State Senator Janet Brewley with whom I had an enjoyable conversation. The show, titled Animals in Dynamic Color: Paintings and Ceramics, will be on display from April 10 thru June 13. Gallery hours are Thursday thru Saturday, noon till 6:00 p.m.

Meanwhile, that same evening in another part of the country, Dylan was kicking off a new leg of his Never Ending Tour. Here is a review of that Atlantic City show.

Chickens by Judie Phillips

Last month I joined a Pinterest with board featuring faces in ink, interesting art by others, my Giclee reproductions that are available for purchase, abstract art that I like, a section devoted to Dylan themed art and photos and a board with pins of my current and upcoming books. If you have a favorite board, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Detail from a Carla Hamilton piece

Angry fish vase by Karin Kraemer

And an Angry Rooster

This musher and his dogs reminded me of when I was an extra in Iron Will.

Several pieces by Kathleen Pattison.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.