Get Arty This Weekend with #ArtScene13

The snow can do what it wants, but spring is indeed here. We’ve got Mother’s Day, markets and some brand new galleries to check out, so let’s get artin’.

Here are 13 bits and bites to keep you arty this fine weekend. It’s another #ArtScene13!

1. Edmonton poet Stephen Berg wants you to know that he writes best in burgundy underwear.
2. Speaking of Edmonton poets, the Arts Council is seeking nomination’s for our sixth Poet Laureatte.
3. One of my favourite galleries, the Peter Roberston Gallery, has a new home on 124th street. Check it out and take in the bright, bold canvasses of Steve Driscoll’s ‘Actually, Everything is Just About the Same”.
4. So does one of my other favourite galleries. The Front Gallery is launching it’s new 124th street space with works from painter Blake Ward and sculptor Jeff Sylvester.
5. Before you leave 124th, check out these colourful explorations by Blu Smith at the Daffodil Gallery.
6. Why not make it a gallery day tomorrow, and visit the great spots of 118th Avenue too? The Nina’s Stollery Gallery is open from 1-3 PM.
7. Take your mom to The Carrot on Friday or Saturday and experience visual art and storytelling with Rebecca and Mary Ann Lippiat’s Mother Love.
8. The Bleeding Heart Art Space is showing fantastic poetry along with some of the best linocuts I’ve ever seen. A great Mother’s Day gift, perhaps?
9. A good friend of ours, Artist Marcie Rohr, is praying for Nepal in pictures. Join her, and get ready for the culination of her 40 day project on June 4. See the image below.
10. Want a great website for your art? I’m leading a workshop for that next week with space for 6.
11. Spend some quiet time with a pencil this weekend. Be like Le Corbusier.
     

    "I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies."

    Le Corbusier

12. Those aren’t just treehouses in Churchill Square–they are houses in the trees. So head downtown and look up.
13. Dead Venues premiers tonight at Metro Cinema as part of the Global Visions film festival. Take a walk with the ghosts haunting the YEGArts memory lane.

So much to do, so little time. Have fun, get arty, and don’t forget yo’ mamma.

Friday Finds: Edmonton Awesome Right Now

With all of the Dear Edmonton, submissions rolling in, I've got our fair city on my mind. I'm grateful, for instance, for my daughter's experience making sculpture with Lyndal Osborne at the AGA yesterday. Today, I join her class for the final day of Museum Week - where they get to experience the AGA through hands-on art making.

Our art gallery is certainly one bit of Edmonton Awesome to be grateful for, and if you haven't seen the Lyndal Osborne show Bowerbird: Life as Art yet, perhaps your Edmonton weekend starts there.

In this spirit of appreciation, perhaps the only antidote to the dragging doldrums of a long winter, I dug into what our city has to offer art enthusiasts, just this very weekend. And I didn't have to look far. Here are a few highlights if you're still making plans.

124th Street Gallery Openings

I love the 124th street galleries. They are concentrated in a little walkable area suited to a Saturday stroll. Some of my favourites are having openings this weekend. That generally means the artist is in attendance, and there are snacks. Can't get much better than that.

Peter Robertson Gallery

Double Blind, by Paul Bernhardt, is one of two shows opening this weekend at the Peter Robertson Gallery. The write-up begins by reflecting that,

"Our tenuous faith in science and technology's ability to solve society's most pressing crises, which tend to be ethical in nature, is interrogated in Berhardt's recent work.”

Check it out at http://www.probertsongallery.com/component/exhibition/

The Front Gallery

Another favourite spot of mine, The Front Gallery houses a great selection of artists. The show opening from Paddy Lamb looks to be no exception.

"Paddy's work explores the imprint of society on nature in a variety of locations, offering a personal narrative concerning human migration and attachment to the land. His recent work explores aspects of abandonment, neglect and disuse as part of the physical landscape.” (from the show invite)

Visit http://www.thefrontgallery.com

EPL Makerspace

The EPL Makerspace is just a miracle of democracy to me. At the downtown public library, there is now a room packed with computers and digital goodies for making all sorts of digital creations. Keyboards for making  music. A giant green-screen for photography and filming. All the professional software you could want. A 3D Printer. A book-making machine. The possibilities are huge. Oh, and it's all free to use. You only pay for the hard-costs on what you produce (the paper for a book, for instance). If you haven't dropped into the Makerspace yet, you really should.

According the to video above, the EPL Makerspace even has a banana-piano?

http://www.epl.ca/makerspace

Night of Artists

Not quite in Edmonton, Night of Artists takes place over the weekend at the St.Albert Enjoy Centre - a glass-walled sanctuary from the lengthy winter, made all the better when filled with local art.

With a couple of evening gala events, and plenty of time for afternoon strolls through the many represented artists on Saturday and Sunday, it may be worth a short trip out of town to check out this long-running event from Phil Alain and friend Lewis Lavoie.

From the NOA website,

"Night of Artists is designed as an opportunity for artists to showcase their artworks with other artists through a fun and exciting event that appeals to the masses. The idea behind the show is based on collaboration and team work. Thus the shows success for over 16 years has been a reflection of community coming together in support of the arts."

Get all the details at http://www.nightofartists.com

Here is the video trailer for the event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qTq_RVCaEU

(Thanks to artist Jennifer Noseworthy, who will be displaying work at Night of Artists, for pointing this out to us on Facebook!)

Edmonton's Neon Sign Museum

I plan on driving by this weekend to check out this new kid on the museum block in Edmonton. I love vintage signage – especially vintage neon signage – so I just cannot wait to see what is only the beginning of this unique outdoor museum project.

Thanks to Eli Ritz for point us towards this post full of (finally!) awesome photos of the Neon Sign Museum - http://spacing.ca/edmonton/2014/02/22/neon-sign-museum/

What is Your Edmonton Awesome?

What are you loving in Edmonton this week? Share your recommendations in the comments below.