After leaving Preservation Pub last Friday night I walked to Sapphire. Sapphire almost always has an interesting artist of one variety or another just inside the window to the left. It’s sort of like an artist-in-a-fish-bowl, making it a cool of its own. This particular First Friday David Teeters brought his glasswork and, as you can see, he is very talented. Some of his work is beautiful and some of it is more whimsical. If you like what you see, you can buy his glass work here.
He’s actually not been at it very long. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked five years in that field. It was only this past April that he decided to quit his job and make glass-making his full-time occupation. He formed Glassadazical and has been at it for several months. His best business, so far, has come from festivals, but he maintains an etsy presence at the link above. Visit it and consider making a purchase. He’s good and he’s all-in, so check him out.
Next I stopped in at the Art Market. They quietly do their good thing on Gay Street and probably don’t get enough mention. It’s a joint effort by the artists whose work is displayed. The people behind the counter ringing you up are artists who can show you their work. I find most of them to be very engaging and it’s one of my favorite places to buy a gift because there’s always something unique to be found among the great art.
One of the reasons to stop in on a First Friday is that almost without fail they will have some of the best music going. Typically it’s jazz and that was the case last week. I didn’t catch the name of the group, but excellent they definitely were. The featured artist was Dennis Sabo and you can see a sampling of his work above. His photography was displayed on aluminum plates – just like my friend Bill Foster’s over in Preservation Pub. I’m sensing this may be a “thing.”
I walked down to the emporium with the idea of looking at their exhibition, but didn’t really get a chance to look at much. I did look at some excellent photographs just inside the entrance. I believe the subject was Turkey – the country, not the bird. Unfortunately, the crowd made it difficult to see them very well because they looked really interesting.
What grabbed my attention when I got to the main floor was a little sign indicating the jazz jam I’d heard about but been unable to find was indeed in progress just down a short hallway. It’s pretty amazing how little the sound reached the main downstairs floor of the building. Just around a couple of corners they were blowing it out loud.
The group consisted of the core of jazz musicians you are likely to run into about town: Keith Brown on keyboards, Vance Thompson on trumpet, Taylor Coker on bass, Nolan Nevels on drums and Will Boyd on saxophone. It was a jam, so other players were invited to step up. A couple of bass players rotated through, as well as one keyboard player from the audience. While the substitute bass players varied in skill, the keyboard player worked the keyboards very well. I’d love to be able to step into something like that and play any of the above. Alas, I can only write about it.
Outside, the weather held and the 100 block – the prettiest block downtown – shimmered in the fading sunlight. The plants are beautiful all along the block and they are the work of Greg Blankenship who is also pictured here with his plants at the Market Square Farmers’ Market the next morning. He added a mannequin to the mix and caused quite a stir with people scrambling to have their photograph made with her.
