Art Crawl: Monroe & West Monroe

Thursday, October 6, 5-9 pm, Downtown Gallery Crawl Is Cool!
 
The cool of autumn evenings—remember that? October 6 is the perfect time to be out and about for an evening’s visit with one’s neighbors and friends while enjoying wonderful art, good food, and live music in our lovely historic downtowns. Now may even be a great time to begin holiday shopping!
 
Produced by the Downtown Arts Alliance and presented by Louisiana Pain Care as well as other faithful sponsors, the Downtown Gallery Crawl spans the Ouachita River, with eight galleries in downtown Monroe and West Monroe. The RIVER Gallery and RUMO’S Gallery are on Antique Alley in West Monroe, while GARRET HOUSE, the PALACE, ARENDER studio + gallery, UPSTAIRS Gallery, SUGAR Gallery, and the BIG ROOM are in beautiful downtown Monroe.
 
More than sixty resident artists, along with guest artists from the area and beyond, enjoy sharing their talents with northeast Louisianians of all ages. The event takes place every first Thursday of even-numbered months (the next will be December 1). The event is always free--the only expense is incurred if you decide to buy some original art.  
 
The River Gallery, Louisiana’s oldest and largest art co-op, includes up to thirty artists of all kinds; guests are welcomed with good food and live music. This month the River features West Monroe artist Donna McGee. Her show is called Staying Connected. For McGee staying connected means something different than for many people.  For many it means social media, etc.  McGee’s connection is with the natural world.  She gets “connected” by watching birds or noticing how the sun lights pine tree trunks.  Being “plugged in” is seeing the moon setting in the foggy western sky while the sun is rising in the east.  It is a great blue heron stalking crawfish in the lake shallows and the glimpse of an owl winging between the trees. She says, “I paint my prayers.  Through my art I celebrate creation and am thankful for my place in the big scheme of things.” Donna is a professor of visual art at Grambling State University with over 25 years’ teaching experience.  She also teaches painting workshops and is an avid outdoors person.  Her work has been shown in numerous juried exhibitions. Examples are on her web page, www.donnafmcgee.com.
Rumo’s Gallery, also on Antique Alley, is hosting Cliff Tresnor, whose sculptures and paintings are admired all around the area. Tresnor is a professor of visual art at ULM, where he has influenced many young artists. The curator is Austin Bantel; owners of the gallery are Russell and Morgan Moore. Music, food and drink are always a part of the evening at this unique place.
The Garrett House on South Grand in Monroe will host a fundraiser for the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo at this Crawl. The show title is Go Local! A Fundraiser about Animals and for Animals by LOCAL Artists! All participating artists will donate a percentage of their proceeds to Monroe’s zoo.  These local artists have teamed up to create a beautiful show about all their furry, feathered, scaled and slimy little friends. Art will be for sale in a silent auction held from 5-8:30 pm. The zoo will also be on site to show off some of their animals. And Pint Size Printers will be on site so people can print their own animal shirts for a very reasonable price.  Yummy beignets will be provided by Caster and Chicory. Among the local artists will be Emery Thibodeaux, Melanie Douthit, Amber Foy, Michele Whitley Olinde, Lissy Sanders Compton, Vitus Shell, Emily Caldwell, Austin Bantel, Mashall Smith, Victoria Smith, Megan Smith, Aleta Eley, Enoch Doyle Jeter, and Leah Smith Reitzell.
Rick Sikes, curator of the Big Room Gallery on Art Alley in Monroe, presents artists Alyssa Guidry Posey with her variety of paintings and ceramics, Amy Ouchley with nature-inspired jewelry, Amanda Roe with her surrealistic paintings, David Dorr with his mini-bicycles made of copper, and more. As always, good food and drink will be available at the Big Room.
ARENDER studio + gallery is proud to present local favorite Gaeb Cardinale, whose abstract oil paintings are inspired by the color, texture and shapes of the Northeast Louisiana bottomlands as well as the Mississippi River delta.
On DeSiard Street, the Palace Gallery will host local artists in an always-interesting venue, a beautiful, historic building that’s a part of Old Monroe memories.
The artists of Sugar Gallery on Art Alley are opening their doors to two guest artists this month: Chris D. Cox builds lamps, tables, and cigar box guitars created from salvaged wood supported by an array of common and uncommon vintage-style accessories.  And young artist Peyton Ballew returns with his paintings of New Orleans architecture and local cityscapes. Sugar regulars include Leah Reitzell with her equine series, Melanie Douthit's Louisiana-themed pieces and smaller gift-size paintings, Scott Stone's decorative guitars and prints, nature photography by Burg Ransom and mixed media paintings by Stacy Medaries. Don't miss out on the sweetest gallery known as SUGAR!
Finally, on Art Alley, Upstairs gallery, co-curated by Anna Rowan and Emily Caldwell, is pleased to exhibit former DAA leader and gallery owner Joli Livaudais. Her show is called Human: Nature, a merger of two separate and ongoing bodies of artwork. Although one series points outward at the forces of nature and one inward at domestic life and relationships, they both include an acute awareness of a psychological need—to find and create patterns in a chaotic and complicated world. Livaudais’ photographic artworks use a variety of methods of image capture, materials, and printing methods including pinhole film cameras, the historical darkroom printing process of gum bichromate, aluminum foil, epoxy resin, and origami folding methods, as well as contemporary digital technology, to create the mood and layered surfaces of the finished pieces. The artist says, “These time-consuming processes create works that are organic, imperfect, and complex—qualities I find in the life experiences that inspire the work and are a critical part of the meditation of creating it.” Livaudais Gallery on South Grand was an integral part of the Downtown Arts Alliance while Livaudais worked on her MFA degree from LA Tech. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has been exhibited in solo and groups shows nationwide. She will give an artist’s talk at 7 pm.
Also on Art Alley will be We Are Gathered/the Sewcial Lounge making a special appearance with creative embroidery/quilting and activities for Crawlers.
A new addition to Art Alley will be a pop-up outdoor gallery next to the railroad tracks—check it out!
The artists of the Downtown Arts Alliance, as well as their appreciative public, sincerely thank the always-generous DAA sponsors, especially Presenting Sponsor Louisiana Pain Care, and including Bancorp South, Creed and Creed Law Firm, Fiesta Nutrition Center, Monroe-West Monroe Convention and Visitors Bureau, Northeast Louisiana Arts Council, Sir Speedy, the News-Star, KEDM Public Radio, DeltaStyle, Louisiana Division of the Arts, Restaurant Cotton, Rawls DeSigns, Cross Keys Bank, Lavalle Salomon Law Office, Warehouse Restaurant, Antique Alley Merchants’ Association, Choice Brands and Marsala Beverage.
 
Sponsorships are still available. For information on levels of support and benefits, see the organization’s website at www.downtowngallerycrawl.com and Facebook page (search Downtown Gallery Crawl).
 
The next Downtown Gallery Crawl will be Thursday, December 1, 2016.
 
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