Art Talk

This weekend will be an arts extravaganza with openings at Main Street galleries on Friday, May 30, and a music and arts festival on Saturday, May 31, in Pine Valley. So let’s get down to details so you can plan your course of action. My hope is that you will be able to attend both events and soak up local art and music.
At Yalo Studio and Gallery, an opening is planned for Bradley Gordon: Recent Works. A reception is scheduled from 6 to 8:30 p.m. for Gordon’s latest works featuring big animal paintings, wild and bright. The gallery is located at 303 North Main Street.
At Bozarts Gallery, (un)Still Life: Mari Foster and David Race, opens with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. at 403 Main Street. As mentioned in earlier columns, both Race and Foster are alliance members who are teaming up to exhibit their newest works. Foster is showing a variety of work exploring movement and light including some of her newest works called Seismographs. She sits in a vehicle holding a pen above a piece of paper or canvas and lets the work come out naturally as the car moves over various roads.  She is introducing some abstract pieces using this method done on canvas.
Race’s work is inspired by old photographs of children in movement. On the Spotlight wall in the mirror gallery, Ed Croom’s photographs of Water Valley landscapes will be on show. This opening will be a diverse showing of some talented local artists and a great way to start the weekend.
On Saturday, head over to 4490 Hwy. 32 for the Pine Valley Music and Arts Fest. John Forsyth of Outsider Arts and Out There Productions is cooking up a great big festival filled with arts, vendors and musicians to celebrate music, art and life.
This event will be held at the historic Pine Valley School in Turkey Creek Bottom. Expect lots of art with dozens of vendors showing their wares. Local artists Katrina Geenen, Pati D’Amico, Bill Warren and Deidre and Daniel Uncapher, John Steele Davis and more will be exhibiting paintings, stained glass, sculptures, collages and more.         There will be artists from Oxford as well such as Paula Shanks with her fiber art, Leslie Love with her paintings and mixed media work, and JMan will be showing his colorful folk art paintings. Expect unfamiliar faces as artists from different areas will be coming in too.
Edison Reaves will be traveling from Jackson with his photos and paintings. His woven paintings are both colorful and full of texture. Originally from Crossroads, Mississippi, he is living in Jackson and has a permit to do art in Jackson Square in New Orleans. How lucky we are that he will be making the trip up to share his work with us. There are just too many artists to list but there will be a bunch!
There will also be music by 10 different musicians/ bands including Cadillac Funk, Jared Spears, The Van Winkles, Greg Johnson and Shaundi Walls and others (see schedule below). The music gets underway at noon and continues until about 5 p.m.
D and D House of BBQ will offer food, Le Mojos will have the desserts  and the B.T.C. Old Fashioned Grocery will have fresh fruits available.
Children can make shaving cream art with the Art Truck, and Christina Coleman will be selling her hula hoops which are a big hit with kids and adults alike. So get out the sunscreen and pack up the family and head to Pine Valley for some artistic fun!