The Art Thing

So we went to the art thing last Friday night and it was super high energy and funtastic. There were lots of artists and fancy people and people who fancy themselves to be artists.

I meant to take more pictures, but A). every time I went to take, say, a crowd shot I felt like someone locked eyes with me and felt weird that I was taking their picture. B). I was busy trying to chase a baby and also have fun, which left little time or space for taking pictures. Be grateful I got what I got ;)

My favorite gallery was called Plug. They featured several works by an artist who used a lot of architectural style drawing and designs in his pieces, and I really like the flow of the work. They also had a DJ playing techno style dance music and Everleigh had to stop and do her bend-at-the-knees, swing her arms side to side dance. It was a real crowd pleaser, and when the song ended, Ev clapped for herself and everyone around her clapped too. People really like seeing toddlers dance, ya'll.

Another brand new gallery, called Bill Brady, was packed and noisy as all get out. They had some fun pieces and also some things that make non-artists cringe with comments like "is this art or something a kindergarten class made?" I'm no art critique, so don't trust my judgement, but some of the picks seemed questionable to me.

At the Dolphin, someone had brought their furry friend, a dog, and Ev had a blast chasing it around the gallery space and laughing uncontrollably. Normally, this would be frowned upon, but that night everyone was feeling pretty up for partying, so kids chasing a dog in the gallery seemed pretty normal. Surprisingly, there were several other young kids there too, and everyone was pretty excited to see this poor dog, who certainly got his fair share of huge, kisses, strokes, and fur-grabs. Then we headed outside to catch some heat from the bonfire (I held Ev to make sure she didn't do anything silly) and we wrote a song about the fire, which is probably the lamest song ever, but she liked it.

We ended the night by saying goodbye to Daddy, so he could continue to rub elbows with the art elite and shamelessly promote himself and we could get snuggly in bed. Ev and I took a bubble bath together, read some books, and drifted off to sleep with our hearts full of love heads full of beautiful images from the night.

Much More Gooder

Now that the cold/flu bug has left us, we are feeling (in the childhood words of my sister-in-law) "much more gooder". Last night, Scott cleaned the house top to bottom (don't you just love OCD husbands?), and I boiled our toothbrushes. No more colds, please!

Tonight in celebration of our newfound health, we are going out as a family to a big gallery opening down in the West Bottoms. Kansas City's art scene is really blossoming, and several prominant gallery owners nationwaide are taking notice. Tonight, we're planning to put on our "art scene finest", and head down to party (baby and all) with the biggest names in the Kansas City art scene. Apparently, there are some exhibits opening tonight, which feature New York artists, and should be pretty sweet.

I am so excited to be included in this art party, family-style. While we take Ev out to First Fridays whenever weither permits, we often miss the cool, more down-low art parties that go on because we are too busy changing diapers and finding binkies and watching Dora and going to be at 9. Not tonight, my friends. I'll bring my camera, and hopefully be able to give you all a taste of the bizarre world of the West Bottoms (a completely strange area of KC), Kansas City meets New York art scene, and all the colorful characters who grace these kinds of events.

Now...what to wear?

Everleigh's Night On the Town

If you read my blog, you know how much us Folk's love our First Friday's :) This month was no different, as we wandered out into the gorgeous fall evening to see some art and party in the Crossroads. This Friday's First Friday was a little less busy than some we've seen...and we loved having a little less crowd to navigate through. We met up with some good friends and their darling daughter, Mia, who Ev thinks is the bees knees. Here are some things we saw!

Scotti strolling Ev down 18th street

People enjoying the coffee and snacks at YJ's on 18th

The adorable little shop where we found Evie's piggy bank shirt

Robot Luv shirt from local designer. Everleigh kissed the piggy and we just knew it was meant for her :)

We met up with our friends Mike and Jen, and their daughter Mia

Ev was dying to escape the stroller and run around with Mia :)

A colorful piece I liked at the Blue Gallery

The cutest snow cone trailer in town

Yummy! The girls tried the Lemon Prickly Pear

HammerPress--home to the coolest band posters and cards 

Everleigh was amazed by this street performer

And she couldn't take her eyes off these paintings at the Leedy

Then we joined a street dance party and watched some hip hop dancers do their thing while Ev and Mia played with chalk and boogied past hula hoopers

Everleigh's first hula-hooping experience

By the time we got home, Everleigh and I were equally wiped out! It was a lovely night...one I'll miss when Winter swoops in.

Everleigh's First Art Lesson

Last week, Scott busted out the colored pencils and paper, and treated Everleigh to her first art lesson :)

She was really digging the blue, and didn't want to give it up. She would draw for awhile, then take it over to show me and give herself a round of applause.

We hung the two pieces up on the refrigerator, and the next day asked her, "where's Everleigh's art?" Wouldn't you know she was able to walk us over there and point. Genius I say, genius :)

The funniest part was her dead-serious stare as she worked. She was fully committed!

Here's a taste of her developing style (with a little help from Dad)

The Art Show. Part II

Hey guys! Scott's show went off great :) I tried to take some pictures of Everleigh, but she was SO EXCITED to be able to run laps around the wide open space and take in all the colors I literally could not get one shot that wasn't the top of her head or her blurry back as she ran from me.

Here are some fun shots of the night:

Also, as a additional awesome thing to add to the already perfect night: Scott found out he was formally accepted into the prestigious Kansas City Art Institute on a huge scholarship. He is so excited to step away from the public university system with its algebra and chemistry and into a school made for crazy artists like him :) Congrats to my loving husband. Our future looks that much brighter!

The Art Show.

As many of you know, my husband is a painter. He's actually currently a full time stay-at-home-dad/freelance artist/college student.

Well, tonight he has his first gallery show since before our little family expanded. I can tell he's really excited and anxious, but it's funny cause any time I ask a question, like "when do you want to get there tonight?" He's all like, "quit freaking out over this! It's NOT a big deal!" etc. Can we say "projection"?

Seriously though, I hope it's fun and gorgeous and that there's a really good turn out. I'm going as his personal secretary/salesman/business partner/wife since I'm usually the one convincing people they don't just want, no, they NEED to buy his art :)

If you're local, come out tonight and join us at the Monarch Gallery, 3829 Main Street, KCMO from 6-9PM.

The Curse of Creativity

Any of you who are creative, or have creative loved ones probably know what I'm talking about. There are good weeks and bad. Times when it feels like a blessing and times when it feels like a curse.

I guess I consider myself to be creative, primarily because I have a passion for music (writing, singing, playing, listening, watching, everything). Plus I've always felt sort of weird/different from other people, which I think tends to be an underlying theme for creative peeps everywhere.

Being weird only becomes cool when you hit about 16 and figure out that there are hair cuts and outfits that can help facilitate your weirdness into coolness, and other large groups of people who are also, quote "weird", and some of those people are people you think are amazing. I took my teenage weirdness and poured it into wearing adventurous clothing, writing music, and obsessing over all things "underground". I no longer have the time or the desire to spend hours researching new hipper, less-heard-of bands, or to hit up 6 thrift stores in a day looking for my next vintage find or old prom dress to cut up.

But I DO sometimes wish I had time to write more, to read more, to play more music, to PERFORM (have I mentioned that I pretty much adore performing?). Between work, school, and being a mommy, I really have negative time left to devote to this right now. My recent run- in with a new potential band-mate led to a "discussion" by my husband and I, in which he basically reminded me that I chose mommyhood as my permanent extracurricular for the next several years. That I might really not have 2 extra hours a week to do something new musically until Evie's older. That I should understand this and accept it and not be frustrated by it, because you can't always have it all. Don't get me wrong--I would trade all the music in the world for my beautiful, healthy baby girl any day of the week. I'm just struggling to find that balance still as an artist.

My husband, Scott, is a painter and also a musician, and it's an ongoing struggle for him to be super dad and still find the time needed to be a productive artist. Most days, it results in us high-fiving each other as we tag the other one in. He watches the baby while I work. I come home for lunch every day to feed her while he showers or tidies up the house. I go back to work. When I get home, I watch Ev and he leaves to go to his studio and paint, do homework, or work his part time night job. He spend his days with Everleigh, while I spend my nights with her. On weekends, I either have class (in which case he watches her) or I don't (in which case I watch her and he tries to play catch-up on his homework and paintings). While we do spend some happy, lazy evenings together as family, it seems like more often than not we're parenting relay style.

What's the solution? Some day I will finish my Play Therapy Certification and he will complete his degree. Life will be less complicated. But there will always be work and there will always be this energy that drives us to create. And babies only stay little for a split second.

For now, I guess I'll try to focus that energy into my most amazing creation to date.

PS: Just as I finished writing this, I received a text from Scott that made my eyes well up: "Ev and I are having a good afternoon so why don't you take some grown up time for yourself when you get off work? Luv!" Man, I'm lucky.

Art Baby

Little miss E has gotten a taste of what the city has to offer her and is now painfully bored at home. So papa and I decided to take her out for a little night on the town and went to First Fridays in the Crossroads. For those of you non-Kansas Citiers (City-ites? not sure), First Fridays is pretty amazing. It began several years back when some of the artists of the city bought some worse- for -wear property in the downtown and started making art and creating their own little pocket galleries in live/work spaces. The word got out that property was cheap down there, and some wealthy artists bought up big buildings and rented out studio space or lofts to the starving artists. This trend grew and grew until more and more galleries (including some super high-end ones) started opening all in this one little part of the city.

My husband and I actually rented and renovated our own little slice of the Crossroads pie several years back when the scene was just taking shape. In exchange for our promise to leave the space better than how we found it, we got cheap rent on a killer space which we used as a live/work/ gallery space for almost a year. It was a strange time and we made lots of art and music, saw a gang of free concerts at Grinders, ate way too many slices of pizza (we had no kitchen for awhile), and made friends with a whole bizarre subset of people. Our old space is still a gallery to this day. But that's a story for another time.

Now on the First Friday of every month, the Crossroads Art District comes alive as the galleries all do their big openings and the people come out to see what's up. There are street performers, live painting demonstrations, mimes, bands and musicians everywhere, and it generally rocks. If you're from New york or somewhere cool, I'm sure you see this kind of awesomeness daily. But it's pretty great for the Midwest.

This is now Everleigh's favorite thing to do :) This First Friday I wore a vintage dress that I LOVE (yay for normal clothes again!), and headed out into the night with my two little loves. Ev rode in the carrier and soaked in all the art action she could take before passing out. We saw incredible paintings by Hung Liu, caught the tail end of a "peace parade", watched a drum circle do their thang, and caught some really cool art and sculpture pieces by locals. Later, Everleigh woke up to see some street performers dancing with fire, which was pretty awesome. From her facial expression, I think it's safe to say her mind was completely blown. Then we took our little baby bird home and she slept like a mil. Win-win.

**Photo by KCPhotoBlog http://kcphotoblog.com