Flyer Guide: First Thursday – June 2010

Can you believe there have been 10 First Thursdays already? That’s right, for 10 months straight, Fayetteville residents have been flocking to the downtown square to see art after art after art.

The event started out as two galleries swapping a little foot traffic here and there. Now it’s turned into a full-on downtown art walk complete with live music, outdoor movies and a beer garden.

Month after month, we make these First Thursday Flyer Guides in hopes that we’ll pique your interest enough for you to drop by and be pleasantly surprised. And 41% of you still haven’t checked it out.

It’s cool, though. You’re busy. Maybe next month.

On the street

At least a dozen artists will be set up on East Avenue including Brandy Thomason, Stephen Ironside, and Lauren Embree. Want a full list? You got it.

Fayetteville Underground

Fayetteville Underground, located in the downstairs section of East Square Plaza, will feature works from all four members of the famous Kaminsky family along with large-scale charcoal works by Samuel Gray.

Hank Kaminsky – Jewelry and sculptural work
E-Street Gallery / Revolver Gallery

Hank Kaminsky has been making sculptures for 50 years and has many public sculptures, including the World Peace Prayer fountain on the Fayetteville Town Square, which was sculpted and cast in his own studio and foundry here in Fayetteville.

“I believe that art is the symbolic transformation of experience,” says Hank, “and that the sharing of these symbols acknowledges art’s significance in society.”

Jo Ann Kaminsky – Abstract oil paintings
Revolver Gallery

Jo Ann Kaminsky is an artist, therapist, art teacher, and owner of the Art Experience, a center for expressive arts, healing and growth here in Fayetteville. She has a private counseling/art therapy practice, where she sees people individually or in families or groups.

“These oil paintings present a personal process,” said Jo Anne, “which is a more free and timeless zone than what my puppets and other work entail.”

Jessie Kaminsky – Sculptural Installation
Circular Foyer

Jesse Kaminsky lives in Boston and works in computers at M.I.T. He is currently the artist in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts.

“The work that I’m making for the show in Fayetteville fits into a larger body of work that is about how to make shapes using very simple rules and processes,” said Jessie. “I’m interested in the way the natural world creates extremely complex shapes from the simplest building blocks. I have a feeling that the rules of construction are the key. The pieces I’m working on in this vein begins with a simple shape and an equally simple set of rules and then I follow it to its conclusion.”

Daniel Kaminsky – Film loops and collage
Circular Foyer

Daniel Kaminsky lives in San Francisco where he is studying film at City College. Known as a retro artist, his work involves 16mm film, view master film loops with sound and two-dimensional collage.

Also a writer and a guitarist, Daniel will join his mother (on drums) and his brother (playing sax) as they play music for the evening.

Samuel GrayLift my eyes to you – Charcoal
Vault Gallery

Samuel Gray is currently in the B.F.A program at the University of Arkansas and has additional representation in Little Rock at Boswell Mourot Fine Art Gallery. He has created all new work for his exhibition for the Fayetteville Underground.

“My exhibition will be focused on children living in a ministry-based orphanage that cares for AIDS orphans and abandoned children in Mozambique, Africa,” said Gray. “I will be living at the orphanage and helping to take care of these children during the summer and wanted to dedicate a body of work to them.”

The music

Wade Ogle (Photo: noir33.com)

There are a couple of live music options tonight. Fayetteville music vets Wade Ogle & The Mad Spirits will play a full-band acoustic in-store show at Sound Warehouse starting at around 6 p.m. Ogle released his second recent full-length album, “Lovers and Fighters” earlier this year and is set to hit the road later this month for a tour across the South.

Also at 6 p.m., Tiffany Christopher will perform on the front steps of the Town Center Plaza. Christopher recently opened for the Indigo Girls here in Fayetteville.

The movie

In celebration of Black Music Month, Waiting in the Wings: African Americans in Country Music is an expose into the lives of six of country music’s brightest up-and-coming stars told in their own words. While placing a spotlight on these new artists, the film also recognizes the little known contributions African Americans have made during the early years of the genre. Popular recording artists Ray Charles, Charlie Pride, Hank Williams Jr. and many others offer commentary throughout the presentation. The film will be shown in the loading dock of the Old Post Office on the square at dusk.

Yarn Bomb!

Fayetteville has its own knitting renegades and their covert yarn work was spotted all over the square this morning. Just in time for First Thursday, Fayetteville’s local Stitch n’ Bitch group, along with local yarn store Hand Held, “decided that our fair city needs some knitted graffiti of its own,” said Cassy Dominick. “Fayetteville, you’ve been yarn bombed.”

Yarnbombing got its start in Knitta, a group of anonymous knitters who began a knit graffiti movement in Houston a few years ago. Their mission: to make street art “a little more warm and fuzzy.”

The rest

In addition to all this, there will be art at Jammin’ Java, a student art show at Kathy P Thompson Studios, and a beer garden with proceeds benefitting the Fayetteville Animal Shelter.