It’s really no news that crafting has become a very hot thing in Phoenix. I guess we could blame it on the need for indoor activities during the summer months. Regardless, it seems like everyone is knitting, sewing, hot glue gunning and glittering everything in sight.If you happen to be…
Hey everybody! It’s the third Friday of the month.There’s just all kinds of things going on tonight in the local art world. You know you can visit any of the Roosevelt Row and Grand Avenue galleries to check out what you may have missed on First Friday. You can also…
For more than two months, I’ve been feeling like the wealthiest person in Phoenix, and it has nothing to do with money. On August 1, the deadline for creative types participating in “Wonderland: Art from New Times Best of Phoenix 2009” to submit their art, the original artworks arrived at…
Now, I know I just mentioned Lisa Sipe in a blog last week but this time it’s different, I swear.The encaustic (melted wax) artist is having her final solo show at Eye Lounge, opening this Friday, October 16th. She’s at the end of her three year term at the artist-run…
Attention all crafters: put down your hot glue gun, knitting needles or bedazzler and pay close attention.It’s finally happened…your favorite documentary is coming to DVD! “Handmade Nation: The Rise of D.I.Y., Art, Craft and Design” is a 65 minute documentary by artist/crafter/musician/filmmaker, Faythe Levine, about the nationwide rise in popularity…
Wow. 2010. Do you think we’re going to stop saying “two-thousand-ten” and start streamlining with “twenty-ten” like they do in movies that take place in the future?Well, regardless, here in two-thousand-nine, we gave a Best of Phoenix award to SeeSaw Designs. We called them the best letterpressers in town and…
What’s old really is new again. We’ve seen the resurgence of burlesque, bell-bottom jeans and the monsters of our childhood (via pop culture vehicles such as the HBO series True Blood and Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). Portland-based artist Brian Kappel capitalized on two recently revived trends…
Apparently, Arty Girl is all about education this week.Monday, I blogged about the encaustic workshop at Eye Lounge and today, I’m going to tell you about a couple of writing workshops for all you writers out there looking to improve your craft.First, we’ve got “Writing for the Stage” with playwright…
Hooray! It’s a new artist workshop! I love these things.And it’s an encaustic workshop…one of my all-time favorite media. Encaustic is a painting method that uses melted wax to cover a surface. Of course, wax is thick and malleable so this can border on sculpture from time to time. I’ve…
Do you like the pretty flowers? So do I. But I’ll get to that in a minute.Now, I don’t want to beat a dead horse. But I’m just going to mention (again) that the Best of Phoenix Wonderland art opening is tonight. What’s that? You’d like to know more, you…
I’m going to go ahead and focus on this Saturday event for today’s blog since I know you already have your calendar filled for Friday…riiiiight?If you don’t, mark it right now for our Best of Phoenix Wonderland art show, will ya?So now that you’ve got your Friday all figured out,…
Sometimes I wish I had been in the movies. I mean, I know I would have cracked under the pressure of celebrity and developed a disgusting crack habit. But when I overdosed, Harkins Valley Art Theare in Tempe would have given me the raddest tribute ever.This week, just like they…
Do me a favor and click this link to the Grand Avenue Festival website. I’ve been looking forward to this all day event for months (and I’ve been blogging about it along the way). Hooray! It’s finally here! Er, tomorrow, anyway.So after you’re done poking around and mentally selecting the…
If you pick up this week’s Best of Phoenix issue (trust us, you won’t be disappointed), you’ll notice something different this year as you read raptly through our awards for anything and everything notable in the Valley. This year, we asked artists and other creative types we know to come…
One of my favorite artists in town (if not, my absolute favorite) is trying to fill a painting class.Trust me, if you have any fleeting interest in learning the craft, Suzanne Falk is the lady to take lesson from. Falk is a self-taught painter who makes her entire living from…
Every woman I know has described herself as “crazy” at least once. And that includes me. Totally.Why do we insist on saying this? I can only speak for myself here – but I think I do it so I have license to misbehave, make mistakes or change my mind on…
Talk about some big shoes to fill.Back in April 2009, Heard Museum Director, Frank Goodyear announced plans for retirement for the end of this year after a decade of service. The man is responsible for the expansion of programming and the addition of two locations (one that will unfortunately close…
In my college days, my “style” was pretty pathetic. I was super poor and I biked to school so all my outfits went like this: ill-fitting jeans, Adidas (hey, it was the early 2000’s) and a black or gray wife-beater from the Men’s Hanes 3-pack I picked up at Target.Like…
Man, there has been some shady business all up on Roosevelt Row lately.Early Monday morning, the historic buildings (on 4th St., just south of Roosevelt) formerly known as House Studios burned.According to the news report by abc15.com,…
Remember in Season 3 of Project Runway when the contestants had just one day to sift through a recycling plant for materials and then create an outfit from trash?If you don’t, here’s an incredibly long (but somewhat hilarious) blow-by-blow account of the episode on TVgasm.com.Lucky for you, you have six…
My best friend came over a couple weeks ago wearing a metal rose, an I.D. bracelet, a broken Swatch watch, a chandelier crystal and a large, metal cross…at the same time.All of these broken bits were tangled, soldered, bent and twisted together in one odd and awkwardly gorgeous necklace.I completely…
We’ve got a monster problem in Scottsdale. These gigantic creatures are over seven feet tall. They look like humanoid aliens that sprout heavy coats of fluorescent-colored fur, break out in full-body rashes of beads, and shoulder elaborate headdresses of thrift-store bric-a-brac. It’s as if an atomic bomb hit your neighborhood…
