Fireworks on the Tapestry of the Sky
By Jim Christiansen
It is the fireworks month of July, starting with a bang of a holiday week with the return of the DoMo First Friday Market on July 5, extending the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Local artists, crafters, vendors, and music fill 10th Street.
Tenth Street will be missing the Chartreuse Muse. But you can still drop in at Picasso’s Gourmet Deli and Gallery, grab a coffee and a sandwich, and enjoy the beautiful art on the walls. Last month Picasso hosted the Graffiti Month-themed show for Stanislaus Arts Council, as the first of the extended into other community spaces displays.
The Arts Council is still determining if the new offices and gallery at 1315 J Street are ready to open before mid-August. The new show, “Trash to Treasures,” will partner with nine branches of the Stanislaus County Libraries. Thirty-four entries will be displayed at the Modesto Main Branch on the 15th, and the rest will be disbursed at Ceres, Denair. Newman, Oakdale, Patterson, Riverbank, Salida, and Turlock Libraries. The show features art created from discards, upcycled and recycled, repurposed materials, and transformed from humble origins into new visions of creative expression. Visit more than one library and register to win a prize in a sponsored drawing. Trash to Treasures opened in June and runs to July 19.
Next Stan Arts show in the 2024 cycle is “Abstract Impressions and Fantasy exhibition. The final locations and time frame are in next month’s Modesto View.
The third Thursday Art Walk is July 18. As noted last month, Art Walk is currently the main event in the art scene, with an expanded roster of artists, venues, and drink and dinner locations.
To recap June, art walk gatherings at Peer Recovery Art Project active with music and several artists on Tenth Street matched by MOSCE Credit Union on 14th and J, hosting the final project of Heartland grant recipient Vielka Solano “poetry and the Art of Healing” Her project inspired murals by students at Orville Wright, Mark Twain, Franklin, Robertson Road and Bret Harte elementary schools, five anthologies of student poetry and stories, and more. The Art Walk included a student drum circle led by Drum Love, as the MOSCE building itself is now a mural destination landmark, as “Infinite Horizons” by muralist Nick Abstract.
June art walk check-in started at Papachino’s and included entry forms to win a dinner gift card. Activity offerings included free art, painting a wooden car at Showcase Studios and Barber Shop, and Cricket’s Hope artists sharing space at Prospect Theater Project Art Lab. Try Dragonfly Art for Life on J Street for classes and new displays, or go up McHenry to Hidden Beauty. Classes for all ages are also on Scenic Drive at Modesto Art Academy www.moartacademy.org
Bill Harris is in the middle of his art and photography solo exhibition at the Kruse Lucas Imports offices and gallery on Tully Road across from MJC, near the art department and the Silos.
Look for local pop-up shows this summer. Our local breweries have done some recently, and many of the art walk venues display art beyond one night of Third Thursday. I will have my art out in Ripon at the Lucca Winery Red Tie Arts concert on July 13 with Ronstadt Revival. Opera Modesto had a table with me in June, with more artists to join us. www.RedTieArts.org for tickets.
