A realty office. An art supply store. A vacated bar.
Among about 30 locations, these uncanny spots played host Friday to local art and the artists behind it for the 2ndFriday ArtWalk.
Spanning from Carrboro through Chapel Hill, the ArtWalk includes any and all willing businesses who put on a show of local art.
Weaver Street Realty in Carrboro showcased Jessica Kovach’s work in her first Triangle area show. The business tries to pull people who pursue art as a hobby more than a career.
“We try to find artists who aren’t as well known, or who have never had an art show but who consider themselves artists,” said Terri Turner, Realty’s business manager.
Kovach, who works at the Armadillo Grill next door, had been painting and making art for years while living in Wilmington. When Realty asked her to showcase her work, she eagerly agreed.
“This is getting my motivation up to do more work,” Kovach said. “I’d love to do more shows here.”
Her showcased collection, My Own Spin, features both realistic and abstract paintings. Her largest piece was her first painted with oils, while her favorite was a portrait of her boyfriend’s dog, painted in red and black — the only painting not for sale.
“I think he’d be pretty upset if I sold it,” she said with a laugh.
Down the street, art supply store Studio Supply dedicated their walls to local mixed-medium artist Maggi Grace. Her pieces use paints, flower petals and recycled odds and ends to illustrate her ideas.
Once a writer, Grace said her process is somewhat backwards from others.
“I see things and say, ‘this looks like…’, and then I create that vision,” she said.
One of her pieces, called “Open and Close”, began with an old key. She then brought together buttons and a locket, among other things, only to realize that all the parts opened and closed things.
“It grew on itself,” Grace said.
As did some of her other works — small bicycles made out of gears from an old car. When her transmission blew, Grace chose to collect the parts rather than pay to have it fixed.
Student artists also played a role in the ArtWalk. The Artery’s first show opening this school year, Work In Progress, debuted Friday to a healthy crowd in their new and surprisingly large space in the back of the Bank of America Building. The main room featured a continuous display of student work — each piece lent itself to the next, many blending from one to the other.
Molly Brewer, a senior English Literature and Studio Art double major, created one of the focal pieces of the room — a number of umbrellas hanging, casting shadows against a white wall.
As the featured artist in the grand opening showcase last month, Brewer had had drawings displayed in the front entrance. After a water leak, the drawings were ruined. She began the umbrella piece to cope with the loss of her works.
“It’s more of a comment on the space itself, which has many faults, but we love it anyway,” she said.
Apart from the rest of the space — and down a terrifyingly dark hallway — another project was displayed. Not seen from the entrance, David van Dokkum’s experiment with sound resonated through the show.
After blindly following manipulated sound, the hallways opened up into what von Dokkum called a cave. This mass of empty space was his inspiration.
“I had to fill it,” he said. “It was a chamber for me.”
The Artery’s new building is far from a traditional gallery. After discovering the vast size of the venue, the directors thought it would be a great experiment in collaboration.
“It’s a jumping off point for the artists, an intermingling of their work,” said Juliet Sperling, co-director. “We’re kind of turning the space into one collaborative place.”
The ArtWalk takes place every second Friday of the month. The next ArtWalk will be Nov. 12. For a list of featured artists and participating businesses, visit the 2ndFriday ArtWalk website .
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