My first First Friday Art Walk in Richmond: 10/5/2018

So... you'd think there would be a few videos of the First Friday Art Walk from Friday on YouTube.  But most of the videos are from 5 to 8 years ago.  WTF?  If you want to promote your art scene people, throw some vids on YouTube, not just Instagram.  And I couldn't make the few photos I took make the cyber jump from the new (old) phone to my laptop.  I have that problem sometimes.  So here's a video about the Richmond mural projects. 

Anyhow, I DID make it to First Friday two days ago.  I posted up on an empty storefront on Broad, next to a gallery that had people making little, crafty lantern things.  They had a crowd, and that slowed people down a bit for me to yell, "This stuff was made with Sharpies!"  I put my just-done Sumatran tiger drawing, my old Gwen Stefani drawing, and four smaller ones up, just masking taped up on the window of the empty store. 

My last First Friday scene was in Winston-Salem, NC, where the art scene is packed into three blocks, and people meander slowly around the blocked off street.  The Arts District here in Richmond is so big that people walk by at a "I'm late for a meeting at the office" pace.  Seriously, I needed some speed bumps.  Many didn't even glance at my stuff.  No prob, it ain't for everyone.  The people who did slow down and give it a good head turn, I'd say, "this was all made with Sharpies."  That stopped quite a few, they thought my stuff was just some more paintings as they strolled by.  Once they heard it was done with Sharpies, they looked close at the pics.

I wound up talking a bit to maybe 40 people, and had some serious conversations with about 6 or 7.  It was really cool, I met a handful of local, young artists, sold three small prints for $5 each, got three new Instagram peeps, and met a couple people who may want me to do a large drawing soon.  For being a complete unknown posting up on an empty storefront, that's a win.  I talked to a guy named Jay, an artist/rapper, another young rapper nakmed Chieftane, and "vandalismart" (Insta-tag, forgot his real name already).  I also met a young woman who was such a diehard Johnny Cash fan, that her dog is named Cash.  I gave her one of my Cash prints.  Just had to. 

The art scene here in RVA (that's Richmond's rapper name, like RUN-RVA or The Nortorious RVA), is freaking huge.  There are a ton of young artists of all kinds, many from  VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) which is one Pulse bus stop away from the Arts District.  Some are from other colleges, some high school up and comers, and then there are a ton of older artsy people as well.  Rather than one tightly packed scene like back in Winston-Salem, it's a huge mishmash of interconnecting scenes here.  It will take a while to really get to know what's going on, because there's so much.

So I met a few people, talked to a bunch, and got the ball rolling in this new city's art world.  Looking forward to seeing where things go next. 

What are "Creative Scenes?"

Here's a cool, and fairly new, part of the art and music scene here in Winston-Salem, NC.  The Art Park.  Officially it's called Artivity on the Green.  What was an abandoned lot a couple years back is now a cool looking little park, with murals by local artists on the back wall.  There was a high school aged band playing in the green loops in the back last Friday.  The red towers are meant to harken back to Winston's industrial days, and they spout steam at night, like the smokestacks back in the day. 

In the last post I wrote about how "Creative Scenes" are not only cool things for a city to have, but actually a key part of any town, city, or region's economy in today's world.  Some of you are probably asking:

What's a Creative Scene?

A Creative Scene is two or more people who are into some type of creative work, and who talk, bounce ideas around, compete, collaborate, and ultimately push each other to improve.  People in Creative Scenes usually progress faster than creative people working alone.

A Creative Scene can be two kids in 3rd grade who try to draw comic book characters.  It can be a garage band.  It can be the kids in a skatepark skateboarding and riding bikes.  It can be the artists in a local indie gallery.  It can be a couple of entrepreneurs working on a new idea in the garage or spare bedroom.  It can be a big city's orchestra.  It can be the local theater company.  It can be a world touring band like Metallica playing sold out shows in different countries. 

What every town or city needs to encourage these days is a "scene of Creative Scenes" that interact and mingle with each other.  This is where new ideas, from a local park clean-up campaign, to a new song, to a multi-billion dollar tech company, often start.  Some of these ideas turn into businesses, and even entire new industries.  Other scenes provide a "Creative Ecosystem" that attract talented people from the region, state, or even around the world.