Artsplosure Raleigh Kicks off May 15th & 16th

Once again Raleigh NC gets ready to kick off the summer season with the annual Artsplosure festival. This year the event hits the downtown Raleigh streets in the area in and around Moore Square and City Market on May 15th and 16th from 11am to 7pm.

The event attracts upwards of 80,000 people throughout the weekend and features plenty of food, live music, and over 170 juried visual artists and crafters from all over the country will have their wares for sale. The event is held rain or shine and is free to the public.

Raleigh Artists to Open ‘Studio 600’ on Glenwood South

Artists Jason Craighead and David Green will open Studio 600, their new working studios, to the public during Raleigh’s First Friday Art Walk, November 6, starting at 7 p.m. Studio 600 is located at 600 Glenwood South between the 606 Lounge and Abbey Carpets.

After working out of a spare bedroom-turned-studio in his downtown Raleigh apartment for several years, Craighead was seriously looking for separate space when two things came together: His friend, mixed-media artist David Green, also needed a studio, and the warehouse space behind Abbey Carpets at 600 Glenwood South became available.

“Studio 600 – which is simply named for the address – will make us more accessible to the public,” said Craighead. “It also gives us a place to create work without having to live in it. And it gives us a great place to collaborate on some work. I want to do other things, besides painting.”

Craighead and Green have up-fitted the warehouse-turned-studios themselves, with a little help from friends — framing out, dry-walling and painting the interior, and installing lighting. When Studio 600 opens to the public on November 6, the interior will feature a small entrance gallery/foyer, additional display walls beyond and to the right of that area, dedicated working space for each artist, and ample storage units.

About the entrance area, Craighead noted that he and Green do not intend to use it just to display their own work. They will invite other artists to use the space for shows and art installations.

“If you’re going to participate in the community, why just hang your own work? Participate in the community,” he said. “Let somebody else have some fun.”

He noted, however, that “shows” are only for a day and a half. Studio 600 will be open to the public each First Friday and the following Saturday. After that, all but the front area is strictly for creating art work and open otherwise only by appointment.

“This is not a gallery,” he stressed. “It’s a working studio.”

Photo Op: Raleigh Wide Open

Thousands came out to celebrate art, music and food and a newly revitalized Fayetteville Street Mall at Saturday’s Raleigh Wide Open. Although the North Carolina State Fair was going on simultaneously on the other end of town, and rain drowned out events for a couple hours, for the most part it did not dampen— er, damper— the events which also coincided with the music of Cherry Bounce Festival.

If that wasn’t enough, Krispy Kreme also debuted its new downtown location and Wheel of Fortune drew a large crowd with local tryouts for the show. The day culminated in a fireworks display over the newly opened plaza (with some fantastic new art installations) that provides a newly opened clear view between the State Capitol and the Progress Energy Performing Arts Center on opposite ends. See more on Raleigh Wide Open by the News and Observer.

Clayton Visual Arts Exhibit Sept 1-30

Rusty Chains by David Kilian

Clayton Visual Arts’ annual Art Faire is currently exhibiting its annual juried art competition at The Clayton Center in downtown Clayton, North Carolina. The show features works across all mediums from a wide variety of area artists, and the pieces are quite impressive.

This author was honored to have been selected for an Honorable Mention with the above photograph, Rusty Chains, shot last September on a road trip up the California Coast following the scenic California State Route 1 from San Diego to San Francisco.

The exhibit runs From Sept 1 through the 30th. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9 am – 5 pm.

Barrel Monster Creator Nabbed

It’s a sad day for Raleigh street artists. A couple weeks ago, this awesome display of creative urban art appeared overnight in a road construction zone on Raleigh’s Hillsborough Street. And if it weren’t for this photo by uliveandyouburn, it might have remained unnoticed, as the next day it had been quietly removed and dismantled by the street crew and the police.

Instantly polarizing, most who see it agree on it’s awesome creativity and imagination, while others cry foul for the cost to the company of the construction barrels. The property issue aside, if this doesn’t bring a smile to your face, then your last name is obviously Scrooge. Unfortunately for its creator, or who police think is its creator– got charged with misdemeanor larceny, and charged with $360 in damage to Hamlett Associates Construction for destroying “three road blocking barrels by cutting and screwing them together to form a statue” according to The Smoking Gun. The internets are also taking notice.

Uliveandyouburn, we love your work and your imagination. Stay safe.