Like last week, my wife tells me that she wants to go to this Winterblast celebration in the SofA District over this past weekend, and I was all "huh? SofA District? We have a sofa district?" I couldn't figure out why there would be a need to have a whole district for sofas. That is, unless they could fly like that one in Hitchhiker's.
"The South of A Street District. It's like the artists' quarters."
"We have an artists' quarters?"
"Yeah, that's what they call it."
Just to make this clear, this was the 9th Annual Winterblast. The 9th one! And I was only just hearing about it. But, then, I don't always pay the best attention to things going on around me. But that's beside the point. The point is that we went to this Winterblast Celebration. A Celebration which included a sofa parade. At night. Because the whole celebration was at night, which made taking pictures more difficult than I would have liked, but I managed to get some that work.
This being an artist event, though, meant that there was a lot of cool artwork on display, and, yes, I took pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't do a great job of keeping track of what artists painted what stuff, so I'm going to show you some of my favorite pieces and, then, give you some links to the artists' sites.
Saltworkstudio
Serena Hazard (actually, the first one with the tree is from this artist)
I did get the information for this last piece I'm going to show you. It's by Michele Bottaro, and it was my favorite painting I saw at the event. Really cool... and not for sale! (Not that I could afford it if it was, but, still...)
An artist event with a parade? Wow. We have a lot of artsy events here, but they're all hipstery ones where you're supposed to just mull over the piece in silence and pretend like you understand it. No parades. And none of the artwork ever looks as cool as the pieces above. I especially like the one with the woman and the monkey in a bottle. It... speaks to me.
ReplyDeleteThe Couch parade looks like loads of fun.
ReplyDeletePretty groovy. Looks like a good time. Love the picture of the heart and the moon.
ReplyDeleteLooks like fun. Those big heads in the parade are really something!
ReplyDeleteWe have First Fridays around here, and there are street events involved, but not a parade. Although a couch on wheels sounds like the way to go.
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be busy having Santa Parades round here. Your SofA looks like fun. Glad you enjoyed it. Art is so subjective, what appeals to one is anathema to another.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should probably tell them winter isn't for over a month yet. Nice they let you take pictures, unlike stupid art museums.
ReplyDeleteLike the old saying goes, some of the coolest things are in your own neighborhood ... or something like that. Took the kids to an Ancient Life museum over the weekend with the most impressive display of dinosaur bones I've seen. Never been, and it was a fifteen minute drive north. Who knew? :)
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteI am SOOOOOOOOO glad that there were actual sofas in the SofA parade. Like you, I am imagining a sofa district made up of couches.
ReplyDeleteThat artwork was great. I like the Monkey In A Bottle, but I think that I agree with you that your favorite was mine also.
They say you've never been to a party until you've been to a sofa party.
ReplyDeleteWait, maybe 'they' don't say that, but they should. Well, and trade out party with parade.
Or something.
You are really getting serious about adding jugglers to these pictorial posts. That painting is pretty cool--I'd like to have that one. It looks like my son-in-law juggling.
ReplyDeleteI don't get out much, but I know there are many events of this nature happening in the L.A. area on a regular basis.
Lee
Wrote By Rote
WOW So very cool and love the pics of the artist work! My town has nothing like that! The biggest family oriented things we have is Bike Night in August and the Chili Cook Off in September. Non family oriented is the stripper clubs. This town does not lack in those. And of course our town has the nightlife- not what many think though. The only nightlife downtown here is the prostitutes.
ReplyDeleteOur town also only has 2 parades a Fall Apple Harvest parade and a tiny Christmas parade. They cut out parades many years ago when the KKK wanted a parade in town. They said the only way to stop that madness was to cut out all parades.
ABftS: But what does it say to you? That's the real question.
ReplyDeleteThis was definitely not a hipster event.
ADSL: Especially for the people on the couches!
JeffO: yeah, It turned out better than I thought it would.
JKIR,F!: They were pretty cool. As it turned out, I knew one of the people operating one of the arms.
Alex: During the summer, we have a Wednesday night thing downtown, but it's mostly for selling stuff.
Jo: There was a piano bench sleigh in the parade with a bunch of kids pulling it.
GP: No one had a problem with the pics, especially when I mentioned it was going to be online.
David: I want to see the dinosaur bones!
Michael: It was.
Briane: I like the monkey in a bottle, but I like the one below it better. I think those were the same artist.
Rusty: They say strange things.
Lee: Well, I have always thought juggling was pretty cool.
G_G: Fortunately, we don't have a lot of KKK support around here.
As far as I know, we don't have strip joints, either.
Good for you supporting local artists! When we lived in New York, we lived in SoHo - art gallery heaven. I do miss that sometimes.
ReplyDeleteTAS: I hope I'm able to, at some point, really support them. But, then, I need to sell more books to do that.
ReplyDeleteOr something.
The art, THE ART, is gorgeous! What a treat, and thank you so much for posting it and the links!
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing when I went to the State Fair this year, I photographed some amazing art and photography, but I neglected to keep track of the artists. I realized my mistake late but I was way too tired by then to retrace my steps!
Bah--nine. It's not even a tween yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm not usually a fan of abstract art, but I really like that third one. Plus the fifth one has a creepy vibe to it. I guess you won't be skipping it next year. It looks pretty cool.
RG: I grabbed cards and things as I went through, but I didn't keep them in order.
ReplyDeleteIt is some good art.
Jeanne: The 5th one is, possibly, my second favorite.
Thanks for coming to Winterblast! So glad you enjoyed your visit and thanks for the best Winterblast blog post, ever. Come back and visit SOFA again soon!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, I like the same picture you did. A close second is the purple one.
ReplyDeleteThe couch parade looks like a ton of fun. I wonder if they do anything like that where I live and I'm not aware of it.
Very cool! I'm still discovering events in our small town. The only one that's always on our calendar is the Yule Log hunt--typical small-town Colorado "let's put a really big log (with a red ribbon on it) somewhere in the woods and make everyone hunt for it" type of event. What does the kid who finds it get? To ride on the front of the log as the town drags it back to Town Hall. Oh, and they also get the first cup of homemade wassail. It's pretty ridiculous, like something the Griswolds might stumble upon if they made another Christmas Vacation movie.
ReplyDeleteWow that looks like fun. I LOVE events like that, but The Engineer is NOT a fan of art, or crowds, or festivals or parades or anything that involves people, really.
ReplyDelete"Ford, I feel like a couch." Love that movie.
That first piece of art is by far my favorite. Wish this was a mac so I could see it close up...maybe W8 can do that, but then I'd be afraid I wouldn't get it back to normal afterwards...
Tina @ Life is Good
peach: I will be sure to do that!
ReplyDeleteElsie: It's amazing, sometimes, the kinds of things that go on around us that we are unaware of.
Jessica: Or like the snake bashing thing in The Simpsons.
Tina: The pictures should enlargen if you click on them. Does that not work for you?
Have you read the book?
Bwahahahah! A sofa parade? Now that is just too cool. Whew! I really like that purple painting. It set my creativity racing. =)
ReplyDeleteCrystal: It is a cool one. I think it might be a tree.
ReplyDelete