I’ve talked before about First Friday being too confined with the 9:00 stopping time. It’s also true that it’s just too much to cram into one blog post, so I’ve sorted out some themes. Today I’ll mention some art that struck me and some other interesting sights onto which I stumbled. If you don’t see something you expected, you might want to check in tomorrow. I’m going to seriously try to stop killing myself with twenty-to-thirty-photograph-posts every night. Bloggaman has to sleep a bit every now and then.
Art always features prominently in my First Friday. It’s one night that I’m guaranteed to be found on the 100 Block for some of the openings and we’ve now got art running from Main Street (First Baptist, Pop Culture) all the way into the Old City ( 2 Many Pixels) and all points in between. We found some interesting work below the 100 Block and followed that up with some interesting art in the Emporium.
We enjoyed short movies by the creative end of the Shelton Group. It’s always a pleasure to hear creative people talking about their art. While the creative process may be difficult for some to articulate, even a small glimpse reveals a fascinating journey. I also found myself struck with a sculpture in the window at the Emporium and wish I’d gotten the artist’s name. I think the title indicated the idea of bridging the spaces between us. Finally, in the category of human art in the Emporium, I absolutely loved Donna Slinkard‘s “Crystal and Crimson” oil painting. The lace work on the crystal virtually leaped off the wall it was so beautiful. And at $275 very reasonably priced.
Then we found the non-human art. Generated by the animals at the Knoxville Zoo, some of it seemed fascinating. I think the lion has the most talent, but Urban Woman went for the zebra. I’d love to know more about the process. Is the color selection and design completely random? Can animals really understand they are making something. I have no idea, but we both found it fascinating.
Of course, I’m always struck by a vehicle or two (only figuratively, so far) and I found the two Fiats in one space pretty compelling. The motorcycles by the dumpsters outside 1 Market Square also caught my attention. Market Square itself filled with the first round of movie goers for that night’s feature, “Footloose.” The crowd swelled to several hundred by showtime. These will continue on successive Friday nights, and you can find the schedule here. Next up in this Knox County Public Library sponsored event is “Despicable Me.”
Finally for this post, I found a couple of very talented young buskers in Krutch Park. I tried to impress upon them that we need them to return often as we have a problem with non-talented buskers bashing our brains with their banal, well, lack of talent. I’m not sure the four dollars in their case convinced them.