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…
Yep. Stolen. Right off the wall.I just heard the unbelievable news from Perihelion and Pravus gallery owner, Amy Young, that a skateboard deck art piece by Daniel Martin Diaz (pictured above) was stolen this past First Friday (September 4th).The work was a part of Pravus Gallery’s “DECK III” show that…
Home is a concept that, much like other intricacies of our human existence, seems totally bizarre if you take the time to really mull it over.Most people’s homes are complicated boxes that lock up and shut out the rest of the world. Not only do we store our possessions here,…
Expect a crowd tonight on Roosevelt Row.If Benjamin Leatherman’s blog from earlier today is any indication, tonight could get pretty dang nuts.But Arty Girl doesn’t want to talk about that First Friday, No, no…let’s talk about the other one…the one that should be a little more calm.I first mentioned the…
Beatrice Moore is feeling a little anxious. As the September 4 opening of her Kooky Krafts Shop draws near, she’s worried not that no one will show up to buy her chenille wreaths and wildly colorful piñatas, nor that her supply won’t meet the almost inevitable demand for her always…
Do you remember Mill Avenue back in the early 1990’s? The lively strip was riddled with couch-surfing urban hippies, runaway punk-rock teens and, lots of other destitute people who were actually homeless. I remember those days. I was an unruly teenager and Mill Avenue was our favorite place to loiter…
