The first Friday of each month provides a range of options for local artists and enthusiasts. Photographers, painters and collectors, among others, join the venues in town to show off their original or collected work.
This First Friday, Pictura Gallery showed the photographs of Steve McCurry, the photographer responsible for the well-known National Geographic photograph “Afghan Girl.”
David Moore, one of the owners of Pictura, said he organized this show with the intention of showing off a slightly journalistic photographer.
McCurry’s photographs, a collection of shots from Afghanistan called “In the Shadow of Mountains,” use what Moore describes as an understated composition to create visually interesting shots.
“It’s the use of the color,” Moore said. “It’s a simple palette: the colors are very critical to the construction of where we are.”
The color, combined with the simplicity of pose and character in each shot, make each photograph a timeless piece of art, Moore said.
By Hand Gallery displayed Indiana artist Luke Buck for this First Friday. Buck said drive-by scenes of southern Indiana and areas such as Brown County often provide the templates for his watercolor creations.
“All the scenes I paint are actual places,” Buck said. “I’ve actually had people buy paintings then go look for the place.”
Buck said he began painting after graduating in 1959, practicing commercial art most of the time. Fine arts slowly consumed the commercial side of his practice.
In 1984, Buck quit making commercial art to focus on the craft.
“I just love doing it: I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” Buck said.
The Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center opened three new exhibits: “GODDESS — Images of Healing & Compassion,” “Lynn & Lynne” and “Seeing Red: World Textiles.”
“Seeing Red” is a collection of red textiles from across the globes, arranged by the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation.
Collectors such as Joan Hart lent their collected red textiles, from clothing to carpets and beyond, to the John Waldron for this show.
Hart said her interest in textile collection comes from a place of academic interest as well as passion for the art behind clothing through time.
“I’m a trained art historian, and I’ve taught art history off and on,” Hart said. “ ... I was fascinated by the fact that textiles have so much cultural significance, because they were used. Unlike a painting hanging on the wall, these things were used.”
