Flock to Obelisk Home for some great art and support Habitat for Humanity at August’s First Friday Art Walk.
This month’s Art Walk will be 5 to 10 p.m. August. 5. First Friday Art Walk is a monthly effort in which galleries and businesses line up arts-related events across Downtown Springfield. The public is encouraged to walk downtown and pop into many in what organizers call a “self-guided tour.”
Obelisk Home, 214 West Phelps St., is launching its 16th annual Bird-home Auction, which benefits Habitat for Humanity. Local artists create and decorate birdhouses for the event, which are then auctioned off. Obelisk also invited regional artists to create artworks under the theme of “Coming Home.” The theme encouraged artists to create pieces that embody the visual and emotional aspects of “home.”
The Bird-home Auction will be in silent auction style. Bidding will begin during the “Coming Home” opening reception and will close at 10 p.m. on September’s First Friday Art Walk, Sept. 2. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.
Fresh Gallery, 401 North Boonville, is featuring two artists this month, sculptor Dr. Janet Jordan and painter Cory Naden. Mark Ellman will provide live music during the opening reception, from 6 to 9 p.m.
“As a child, I regularly carved turtles and elephants from new bars of Ivory Soap,” Jordan said. “I spent the majority of my childhood in an imaginary world, with art consuming my playtime. As an adult, exercising my creativity has been a gift that has proven valuable in all areas of my life. In emergency medicine, I practice the ‘art of medicine.’ Here my intuitive senses and genuine empathy are as valuable as my fund of knowledge. So, my path from physician to sculptor has not been as circuitous as it might seem.”
Naden, meanwhile, says he tries to convey his life so that onlookers can relate to it by drawing out moments of warmth, love, confusion or loss.
“We are all a bundle of emotions and memories dictating our day,” Naden said. “It’s hard to describe the color yellow or the need for a morning ride to school. Like many artists before me, I’m trying to capture those emotions in a moment.”
More art and live music will be featured at The Creamery Arts Center and Formed: An Artist Collective. The Springfield Regional Arts Council presents “Assemblage & Collage: Recycle Reuse” at The Creamery Arts Center, 411 North Sherman Ave. That show celebrates giving new life to second-hand and previously loved items and the opening reception includes a performance from musician Mark Barger, starting at 5 p.m.
Formed, 210 East Walnut, highlights the work of Phillip Cook, of Copper Colorists Legacy, and includes live music from Harley’s Muse.
“(Cook) has been blessed to be introduced to the unique medium of ‘Flame Painting’ though his family,” a press release said. “Phillip’s father-in-law is known as ‘The Father of Flame Painting.’ He was the first to use the technique Phillip uses to bring out the color and patterns in copper. This is a unique art form where the intricate patterns and colors are created on copper without the use of paints or chemicals. The flame from an oxyacetylene torch makes many colors by the number of times the heat is applied, how long it is applied and whatever is in the air that day. Each piece, therefore, is unique.”
Other locations open for Art Walk in August include
- BookMarx
- Brick City
- Carolla Arts Exhibition Center
- Hold Fast Brewing
- Hotel Vandivort
- J.L. Long Traders
- Monarch Art Factory
- Park Central Branch Library
- Ward YMCA
For more information visit the First Friday Art Walk website.
