Vaya con huevos, Joaquin...

This week at Frame of Reference has been slightly less colorful than usual. On Monday morning, Derek carefully wrapped Joaquin, our iconic reclaimed steel sculpture, for the journey to his new home in Calgary. Standing just over four feet tall, Joaquin was created by Billings sculptor Bill Drum and his son, Chris, from pieces of oil drums, a Nissan pickup hood, a Whirlpool washing machine and various other unidentifiable steel bits. He came to live at Frame of Reference last summer and spent most of his time in the front window of the gallery, basking in the late afternoon sun and causing whiplash as many a passerby turned for another look.

The gallery seems a little empty without Joaquin. Yes, I know that the whole point of owning a gallery is to sell art, but we do get a little bit attached to certain pieces. We'll miss him, but we know that Jim and JoAnne, Joaquin's new owners, will take excellent care of him! We hope another Bill Drum piece - perhaps a distant cousin to Joaquin - will enjoy the window seat in the near future. We can hardly wait...

Last Fridays!

For as long as I can remember, Bigfork has had an Art Walk tradition, or maybe that should be Tradition with a capital "T". We have two Art Walks each year, one in May on the Saturday before Mother's Day, and one in November on Decorating Day (the Saturday before Thanksgiving.) They're great events, and folks come from throughout Western Montana to stroll the streets, visit the galleries and meet their friends for a night on the town. The Holiday Art Walk in November is particularly successful because the Elves have spent the day hanging lights and garlands, so the evening celebration is a nice way to wrap up, culminating with the tree lighting ceremony in front of Bjorge's Gallery.

Even so, a few of us have kicked around the idea of doing monthly art walks all year long. Let's be honest here - a few of us have kicked the idea around for literally YEARS! It seems so silly that Bigfork - long known as an Art Destination - doesn't celebrate the Arts on a monthly basis, like Missoula does with First Fridays. I was managing a gallery in Missoula in the early '90s when First Fridays really took off, and it quickly became known as THE event of the month. First Fridays is a huge success in Missoula, and nearly the whole town turns out to spend the evening downtown.

John and Molly Morton from Sacred Dancing Gallery, Christine and I, Deliah, Signe and Jill from Persimmon Gallery decided last week that we need to take the bull by the proverbial horns and just start something in Bigfork. We originally envisioned a block party, but the ultimate goal is to get everyone in the Village to participate. We've decided on celebrating the Last Friday of every month, from 5 to 8 p.m. We're inviting everyone, and in addition to having the retail shop and galleries involved, we hope to get some of the restaurants to do drink or dining specials to dovetail with the event. Next week is the first Last Friday, so please join us! At this time, the participants we know are in for sure are Bjorge's Gallery, Sacred Dancing, Frame of Reference, Donna Shanahan Interiors and Persimmon Gallery. I'm going around town tomorrow with an informational flier and we're sending email blasts out this weekend, so I hope the list will grow significantly even for this first event. We'll keep you posted!

Spring Art Walk Recap

Spring Art Walk was this past Saturday; the weather held, the food rocked, and the traffic was great! Now that the event has come and gone, I can explain the Bacon and Eggs food theme. It all began with Christine's desire to make Bacon Bourbon Brownies; last year's Holiday Art Walk featured Chocolate Covered Bacon, and it was such a hit that Christine has been compiling bacon/chocolate recipes ever since! Anchored by that one item, we started casting about for additional bacon and egg recipes. For savory items, we served Bacon and Green Onion Corn Muffins, Spanish Deviled Eggs (with smoked paprika and sherry vinegar) and Gazpacho "Shooters" spiked with bacon-flavored vodka. (The bacon vodka is pretty lousy on its own, but tastes quite good in things like gazpacho, or maybe Bloody Marys.) Sweet items included the aforementioned brownies, Gold Cake (an Italian celebration cake made with twelve (!) egg yolks - see the recipe at http://www.nonnas-kitchen.blogspot.com/) and cinnamon meringue cookies. Everything was excellent, if I do say so myself...


Our philosophy for Art Walk is really pretty simple: in short, it's not about selling art. Instead, we look at Art Walk as one of the first big social events of the Spring, and we use it as an excuse to throw a good party! Yes, of course, we do rehang the gallery and we always showcase new paintings during the event, but our intent behind this is to have folks come out and enjoy Bigfork and all that it has to offer - sales are secondary to us. Incidentally, sales were excellent this time around, but that's merely a bonus to our way of thinking. With that in mind, we learned a few things this year. First of all, the organizers of this year's event decided that the hours should be from 1 to 7 p.m., rather than the usual 4 to 7, their reasoning being that people often came early because they didn't know the time. While others may have thought this to be a successful tactic, feedback from our guests showed that it actually diluted the event drastically. The almost universal feedback was that people would much prefer the Art Walk to be from 5 to 7 or 8 p.m., because it's a social event and a shorter window of time would mean seeing more of your friends from throughout the Valley. So next time, we'll push for shorter hours and more advertising.


The other thing we realized is that a small group of us believe having only two Art Walks each year is about ten Art Walks too few! To that end, a handful of us are going to start doing monthly events - sort of a Block Party theme. We're working to agree on a time and day each month, send out blast emails, and try and get something established in peoples' minds, like the very successful First Fridays in Missoula. My goal is for all of Bigfork to begin to participate, so that (for example) the third Thursday of every month becomes known as a rockin' evening in town, and folks plan that week around it. You know, come down and walk the town, have a few cocktails, meet friends for dinner in one of the many exceptional restaurants here, talk it up and invite more folks the next month. And hey, maybe buy a painting or a sculpture, too! We've decided that we're starting in June; I'll share details as soon as we pick a day.


Last thought - this was Roxie the Shop Dog's first Art Walk. Honestly, we were a little worried about her; wide open door, lots of people, lots of food, and generally a fair number of small children, of whom Roxie is still a little unsure. (A trainer tells us that kids are at eye level to dogs, which they find threatening; regular training is needed to overcome this.) It all adds up to sensory overload for a 5 month old puppy! Much to our delight, Roxie was fantastic - she charmed folks left and right, tried just twice to snack on somebody's treats, and only made a break for the door a couple of times. By about 5 p.m., she was pretty worn out (so were we, Roxie!) and fell asleep on the love seat in the gallery. All in all, a successful evening!

Spring Art Walk 2010: Bacon and Eggs?

Please join us this Saturday, May 8th, for the Spring Art Walk in Bigfork. The Taste of Bigfork in late April and the Spring Art Walk in May traditionally mark the beginning of the "season" here in Bigfork - this is the time of year when the golf course at Eagle Bend is lush and green, the flowers are in bloom in front of the Playhouse and the folks who summer in Bigfork start to arrive in greater numbers. The "second homers" here now are probably a little dismayed, as are most of us who live here, because Spring seems to be completely unwilling to make an appearance. Yesterday found temperatures in the mid 30s, and snow fell pretty much all day, though it never accumulated here in town. It's May - what's up? We're all a little stir crazy here in Bigfork - not enough sun and not enough time on the lake or in the yard. However, this weekend is supposed to be warm and dry, so you should plan on spending part of the afternoon on Electric Avenue, strolling through the shops and galleries, sampling goodies and chatting with your friends and neighbors.




For several years now we've hired a caterer to prepare the food for our Summer artist's receptions (thanks, Josh!) but we always prepare food ourselves for Art Walk. We generally try and work around some sort of theme; this year's is Bacon and Eggs! No, we won't be serving breakfast, but every single item, both savory and sweet, is going to feature either bacon or eggs or both. I'm not going to spoil the surprise by revealing any dishes just yet, so you'll have to stop in to find out exactly what we've got up our sleeves. We'll be open until 7 on Saturday, so make a point to visit us.


Of course, the point of Art Walk isn't to showcase the food, so we're rehanging the gallery and will feature several new paintings and prints for your viewing (and shopping) pleasure. It's still pretty drab outside, so come in for a bit of color! We look forward to seeing you!