March 2020 First Friday Art Walk in Ukiah
5-8p (unless otherwise noted)

ART WALK: emphasis on ART and WALK. Ukiah is a very walkable town.

Join artists and their hosts for an evening of art, music and refreshments as you stroll from one venue to the next; each showcasing local art and artistry. Held in Historic Downtown Ukiah on the first Friday of each month, the First Friday Art Walk is the perfect way to relax your body, mind and soul. This enjoyable evening begins at 5:00 p.m. and promises to delight your senses; all while enjoying the company of others.

Art Center Ukiah 201 S School Street Art Center Ukiah will host opening reception Friday March 6th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm for the newly developed “Artist in Residence” program. Michael James a local street artist will set up an open studio with mural canvases for the month of March. Community and local students will have the opportunity to see an artist develop new works, discuss his processes and thoughts. Additionally there will be an active participation aspect where visitors may help paint one of the large-scale works as part of his “Be My Assistant” undertaking. Michael James was born in Southampton, New York. He studied figurative painting art at Universidad Catolica De Chile School of Art in Santiago, Chile. He received his Bachelor of Science and MBA at California Coast University, and post graduate work in humanities and business at Harvard University/Harvard University Extension. His first exhibit was at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. Other exhibits include galleries in Riverhead, NY, Santiago and La Serena, Chile and numerous galleries in the United States. His commissioned murals are still on display at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in 29 Palms, California. He currently lives and works in Southern and Northern California. “Artist in Resident” Open Studio is made possible by support from Sherwood Valley Casino; Imagine This, Michael’s and Art Center Ukiah. Michael James has this to say about his art: “Why do people think artists are special? It’s just another job.” (Andy Warhol) Jeff Koons once said “The job of the artist is to make a gesture and really show people what their potential is. It’s not about the object, and it’s not about the image; it’s about the viewer. That’s where the art happens”, and that is what we hope to accomplish here for my residency; “The Artist is Working”. Artists’ residencies provide dedicated time and space for creative work. At the Arts Center Ukiah, I am looking for a community of local artists in which to work and be supported in the creation of my new art. This residency, the first of its kind in Ukiah, CA, will be unique as it will not only give the public at large the opportunity to see my process and share ideas, it will also allow them to “Be My Assistant” if they so choose to do so, because after all, art is hard work and I can use all the help I can get. I am a populist. I look for the beauty of others while embracing the diversity of our world, even if that means I have to lose some notion of control. I want to explore the aesthetic mood of this generation by placing my work in relationship with one another, allowing the tensions between the pieces to define the exhibition space, engaging with and displaying the process of production of the artwork as much as its final results. In an age of Instagram and Facebook, Snapchat and filtered selfies, where does the artist with brush, paint and canvas find their place? How does the newly minted artist compete in a world where studios are more factories filled with paid assistants and work is “digitally enhanced”? Thus, one of the works that we will be developed during the residency will have audience participation. A combination of style and stroke(s). A free and radical exploration that will depend on collaboration for its ultimate success or failure.

Enoteca Wine Bar 206 W Church Street will feature art by Chat Ko

Bona Marketplace 116 W Standley Street Bona will be hosting artist Marita McDonough with fun vibrant abstracts in a show she calls “The Sacred Display”. Marita is a much-loved local artist you must come and see her work.

Ukiah Library 105 N Main Street On Friday, March 6th, from 5:00 – 7:00 P.M., the Ukiah Library is hosting Art Walk Ukiah, Commonplace: Photographs by Chris Pugh. Visitors to the library will view images of our hometown through the lens of photographer, Chris Pugh. Guests will also enjoy the sounds of the musical trio, The Chinchillas, while they create decorated matchboxes and browse the Friends of the Library Book Sale.

This event is for all ages, free to the public, and sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library and the Mendocino County Library.

Mama’s Medicinal’s 328 N State Street Mama’s will be showcasing Paintings by Venus Wildbird and serving refreshments

Craft Distillers 110 W Clay St Visit the Museum to see the featured one of a kind art pieces

Corner Gallery 201 S State St The featured artists for the Corner Gallery for March are Adele Pruitt and her students. Her students include Polly Palecek, Irene Mc Farland, Elaine Richard, Kathleen Gordon-Burke, Ginger O’Shea, Kathlene Kephart, Jim Denham, Pat Elliott, Cheri Costello, Marilynn Mc Grew, Jeanette Carson, Gina Greco, Rebecca Bordedix, Lynn Gulyash, Tom Parkinson, and Gay Tow. A little more about Adelle. Adele has been teaching art longer than most of us have been alive and she’s been creating art even far longer as she approaches her 98th birthday without any sign of slowing down. Adele’s studio reveals her many commitments to the arts in her own abundant body of work, the work of her students, far too many frames to count, art supplies spilling out of shelves and boxes, paint stained easels, and art books piled on bookshelves. While it is impossible to categorize Adele Pruitt’s paintings, she uses a variety of media…oils, watercolor, egg tempera, encaustic and batik, and her works include landscapes, mostly of Mendocino County, a variety of portraits, and bold abstracts. Though her impressionistic landscapes are perhaps her most popular, her work has touched on a wide range including portraiture, abstracts, trompe l’oile, icons, and plein aire painting. After Adele received a Masters Degree in Art Education in 1961 from the University of the Pacific she spent many years in the public school systems in California before she started her own gallery and studio. There she incorporated painting, teaching and fine art restoration having learned art conservation under the tutelage of Bill Haney, founder of the Academy of Art Conservation and Science. As one of only a handful of freelance art restorers in the US, she has amassed a lifetime of expertise restoring, in some cases, a treasured family painting and in other cases, museum-quality works of art. Adele offers a variety of learning experiences. She teaches beginning to advanced oil painting during which she offers many styles of painting and color theory, a skill that few instructors currently can match, as she can teach everything from old masters to abstracts, portraits to icons, realistic color to arbitrary color. While most of her current painting students are local, Adele’s restoration students and restoration clients are from all over the country. Adele always has more on her “palette” than humanly possible to accomplish but she always does. Her deep appreciation and respect for her students, her response to her Muse who guides her in her own painting and her commitment to preserving works of art, both great and small, these qualities define a true artist who never stops learning and is always seeking to bring inner visions to life. Adele’s greatest work of art is perhaps herself as she embodies her many, many years of studying, teaching, experimenting, restoring, and producing fine art. She truly is one of Ukiah’s local treasures.

Polly Palecek has this to say about her art. My artist endeavors began about 70 years ago when my mother gave me a pencil and scratch pad to keep me quiet during church…now many years later art still engages me profoundly. Retirement gives me the time and peace of mind to pursue what I still love doing…now in the form of oil painting. Almost immediately upon retiring I was offered a free beginning painting class with Adele Pruitt…I‘m still painting with her ten years later! Painting allows me the creative outlet to show my appreciation for my environment and the people around me. I’ve learned and use the techniques of Impressionism, Old Masters, Mixed Media, Direct Painting and I am now attempting to flatten forms as in the style of Matisse or David Hockney. My work has been exhibited locally, including but not limited to, Grace Hudson Museum, Corner Gallery, Mendocino College Gallery, Healdsburg Art Gallery, and many local businesses. I love painting in class studios as I enjoy the camaraderie and influence of not only the instructor but also especially the other students. I enjoy seeing where my muse will take me next.

Rhyzl 118 S State Street will again host Danza Davis, a Northern California native.

They are currently showing Danza’s Kaleidoscope Series. Her unique collection is inspired by collaborative work with her father, combining images sacred geometry with subjects from nature. She has also provided the company with it’s one of a kind window mural.

Ukiah Valley Networking Agency 104 N School Street Painters often have a stash of failed experiments, work that doesn’t fit with their creative path, and things that are not good enough. Some paint over them, some destroy them, some simply stash them away for later decisions. In 2018 Janet Rosen was offered the opportunity to recycle such a cache of paintings done by a local artist who had died. Janet gessoed over most of these canvases and passed them along to artists who had lost studios and supplies in the 2017 Redwood Valley-Potter Valley fire. Some of the canvases were too heavily textured to be easily reused, so with the widower’s gracious permission Janet began to work directly on these pieces. So began a collaborative process, responding in the moment to the marks, colors, and textures. This has been a challenging project; it requires a vulnerable openness of spirit and a willingness to simply be present. In common with all Janet’s work, it is intended to allow each viewer to enter and wander, finding their own narrative. Dedicated to the work and memory of Holly Cratty, with a heartfelt thank you to Scott Cratty.
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Trillium Herb Company a new business in downtown Ukiah. On First Friday they will host Kirtan, Kirtan is meditative singing of sanskrit mantras, done in a call-and-response fashion. No experience necesary! We will follow the kirtan with Yoga Nidra, a meditation to fully relax the body and mind. Snacks and beverages will be provided.

W Real Estate 101 N State Street W Real Estate is excited to host Roxanne Harrison. Since she could walk, Roxanne Harrison has had a passion for art. While living in San Francisco, her mom enrolled her in multiple art classes, where she learned how to use different art mediums. By the time she was 10 years old, she had discovered that her favorite medium was acrylics and she loved to draw and paint animals. Roxanne and her mother would frequent ceramic shops on the weekend; her mother would allow her to pick out ceramic bisque pieces to paint with acrylics. Roxanne not only loved painting ceramics, but the time she was able to spend painting with her mother and learning about ceramics. Around the age of 11, Roxanne and her family moved to Ukiah, and she was happy that her mother quickly enrolled her in more art classes. While attending Ukiah High School her freshman year, she met her now husband, Darrel, on her first day of art class. Although she spent most of high school painting, she took a pottery class in her sophmore year that made her fall back in love with ceramics. When Roxanne had her first daughter, she wanted a unique way to take her new baby’s footprints. She discussed different ideas with her mother, and soon decided to put the footprints on a ceramic plate. Three kids later, she continues to take footprints and handprints of her children to place on ceramic pieces for birthdays and holidays. Her sister is the one who told her she should start this as a business and do ceramic pieces for others to enjoy. She created Plated Memories, a business where she can paint custom pieces for clients to enjoy just as she does. They are one of a kind pieces where they can be used to celebrate occasions and cherish the memories. She thanks her mom for investing in her talents at a very young age (without her, her art wouldn’t have developed to what it is now), as well as her husband for supporting and believing in her art.

If you have questions or want more information you can call Mo Mulheren at 707-391-3664, email at ukiahvalleynetworking@gmail.com or Check our Facebook page for updates.