First Thursday

Work by Susie Morgan on display at The Artist Within Work by Susie Morgan on display at The Artist Within Work by Marvin Grooves on display at Gallery 308 "Sky Basking." by Brian Gordy on display at Gordy Fine Art & Framing Co. Muncie Central High School artwork on display at Muncie Makes Lab PARK(ing) Day, being discussed at Muncie Makes Lab PARK(ing) Day, being discussed at Muncie Makes Lab PARK(ing) Day, being discussed at Muncie Makes Lab Work by Andrew Koeling on display at Rose Court Work by Debra Rolli on display at Rose Court Work by Andrew Koeling on display at Rose Court Work by Jan Wright on display at Rose Court Work by Jan Wright on display at Rose Court

111 Arts Gallery
111 E Main

Tattoo flash from Jamie Noggle, Brant Dailey, Nate Harmon, hand painted tattoo designs for your skin, discounted tattoo day all day arts walk day buy sell trade, we also encourage skateboard riding in traffic in public and private property ;)

The Artist Within
313 S Walnut
More Musings and Meanderings

The opening reception for artwork by members of the Muncie Artists Guild will be held on First Thursday with music by Greg Pyle, light refreshments, and an opportunity to meet the artists. Recently, artists in The Guild have become involved with art as philanthropy and are currently working on pet portraits that will go to the Wine and Art Auction that will benefit ARF and Gallery 308. In August, they presented 13 portraits, oils, watercolors, pastel, pencil drawing to a young father and his 5 children who lost their Mother 5 years ago. The family had no pictures of her, so this was a wonderful, heartwarming project!

Muncie Artists Guild is 62 years old and their early shows were in the Ball Stores' Blue Room and the Ball State Art Gallery.

Brother Animal Coffee Shop
113 W Jackson
Gallery Walk Reading Series

The Gallery Walk Reading Series will begin at 6:00 PM, featuring writers from the Ball State English Department.

Brian D. Morrison is an Assistant Professor of English at Ball State University. He has been an administrator of Slash Pine Press as well as a former assistant editor for Black Warrior Review at the University of Alabama. His work has been published at Verse Daily, Copper Nickel, Cave Wall, Story, and other journals, and he has also been granted two Pushcart nominations and an Academy of American Poets prize

Melissa Ann Hull has had work anthologized or published in Best New Poets, Mid-American Review, Copper Nickel, Barrow Street, and 32 Poems, amongst others.  She has won the Ed Ochester Award for Poetry and the Academy of American Poets Prize.  She is a former poetry editor of Black Warrior Review and holds an MFA from the University of Alabama. 

Cornerstone Center for The Arts
520 E Main
Oh My, What Beautiful Shoes You Have

This show is an exploration of some of the most fascinating fairy tales and stories from our childhoods and features the art of Gabbi Rose Cunningham.

With selections from tales both famous and obscure, the show features a series of paintings which depict Hans Christian Anderson’s tale The Red Shoes, as well as standalone paintings from such worlds as Alice in Wonderland, Coraline, Goblin Market, and other tales. The artist’s fascination with the worlds and characters created in such stories has combined with her unique, grunge like painting style to create a show which delves into the fear, wonder, imagination, and dreamlike nature of fairy tales themselves.

The opening reception will take place from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the Cornerstone Art Gallery on the second floor of Cornerstone Center for the Arts. The show will be on display throughout the month of November. For more information about the artist, gallery, or opening reception please visit Cornerstone’s website or call 765-281-9503, ext. 23.

Gallery 308
308 E Main
12th Annual Auction Preview Show

The Auction Preview Show is a sneak peak at the art for sale at the 12th Annual Wine Dinner and Art Auction hosted by Vera Mae’s Bistro on November 21.  The combination dinner and silent art auction is mounted every November as an opportunity for areas artists to show off their artistic talents and to raise funds for A.R. F. and Gallery 308.

Bidding will begin on the original artwork at the preview show and be on display through November 20 at the gallery. All auction items may be previewed online at http://www.gallery308.org.  Gallery 308 will be open special hours to preview the art auction items on Friday, November 8 & 15, 3:00 – 7:00pm; Saturday November 9 and 16, 12:30pm – 5:30pm. Admission is free. 

Gordy Fine Art & Framing Co.
224 E Main
On Water…

Brian Gordy understands water in a way few people do. Not only does he paint in water colors, but he often paints scenes of Indiana rivers, ponds and lakes. Originally, the artist visited the White River near his home in the Minnetrista neighborhood to check out the turtle populations there. Having heard stories of industrial pollution from decades ago, Gordy wondered how the turtles had survived, especially since they winter over in the deep mud bottom. That is also where any toxins would have also settled, he had learned. Fortunately for the turtles, the artist found no sign that these issues had affected their health or population. On that first day, Gordy made a few sketches, took some photos, and began a ten-year focus on the domed creatures in their natural habitat.

The artist will exhibit new paintings alongside a few favorites during the month of November at Gordy Fine Art & Framing, a gallery he owns with wife, Genny. “The common element of my recent series of paintings is the element of water,” Gordy explains. “Water is what I paint with – watercolors – and water is usually the subject I paint. What’s different about this new work is my experimentation with brilliant colors.” Not only has his palette expanded, but as the artist continues, “I’m combining the brighter colors to create neutrals that are “juiced up, more alive.”  The mixing of colors took place directly on the paintings, instead of in the tidy jars the artist typically creates for each new painting. The outcome has also changed.  “In these new pieces, turtles are becoming invisible in the strong reflections of the colorful water, which, of course, is really the colorful sky, being reflected by the river.”

The subject matter is the rivers’ view of it all.  The roots serve as mystery; beautiful, but a little unsettling. “You can’t really see what’s under there, and you wouldn’t want to reach in,” the artist notes. One composition, titled, “At the Foot of the Cottonwood,” focuses on the gnarly, protective roots of a riverside cotton wood tree. A single small boulder is nestled there, begging the question: Which came first, the rock, or the gaping undercut? 

The opening reception will be held Thursday, November 6, 2014 from 5 to 8 PM. The artist will speak briefly about his work and answer questions beginning at 6:15 PM. Light refreshments will be served, and the public is invited to attend. There will be art-related activities for both children and adults.

Heorot Pub & Draught House (21+)
219 S Walnut

Jordan Johnson is a Muncie local, also majoring in Animation at Ball State, and will have her artwork on display in the Heorot's gallery space. A series in watercolor and ink, the drawings presented are explorations of imagination through traditional medium.

Muncie Makes Lab
628 S Walnut
PARK(ing) Day

Landscape Architecture professors Joe Blalock and Simon Bussiere’s graduate Landscape Architecture design studio at Ball State's College of Architecture and Planning will be presenting the next chapter of the Tactical Urbanism Handbook. Along with the entire Department of Landscape Architecture at BSU, the studio temporarily transformed a stretch of Walnut Street in downtown Muncie on PARK(ing) day 2014 through a series of small parks that fit into on-street parking spaces - calling into question the changing role of personal transportation in the public realm. The graduate students are currently designing a series of "pop-up” urban solutions to bring communities together and improve conditions on the ground through clever examples of temporary landscape architecture.

Also on display will be a collection of art work by Muncie Central High School students; art teachers Margery Frank, Britt Husman, and Helen Zacek.

Rose Court
125 E Charles

Debra Rolli
Debra specializes in custom frames and matting. Her work puts the finishing touch on art.  She is the founder and owner of Creative Framing, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary serving the East Central Indiana community. She is a dedicated member and contributor to area non-profits including Women in Business Unlimited, First Choice for Women, and Commonway Church.

Jan Wright
Creativity has always been a big part of Jan's life. She started out as a traditional artist when she was young. For most of her adult years she has been a photographer, winning awards at State Fairs and other exhibits and shows. Many of Jan's photographs reflect her love of travel, including Europe and Britain. Two of her main interests have always been capturing architecture and the land/cityscape in unusual ways. Jan's favorite images give the viewer a different take on familiar scenes. The fiber and woven arts also fascinate her as well. Currently, she has been recycling fibers and fabrics into new creative pieces. This exhibit combines both traditional as well as creative pieces in these media.

Andrew Koeling
Andrew Koeling is a graduate of Ball State University. Although a scientist by education, Andrew turned his eye to creation in order to allow his mind to wander and play. Science is constrained in certain ways as it attempts to deconvolute the world into small, easy to digest chunks and makes steps to deconstruct the world around us to make difficult concepts more palatable... but Andrew felt it necessary to give himself another outlet in order to express a side of himself that he felt was being lost in the grind of the ever common 9-5. Science teaches us how to understand the world around us, but art allows us to experience it. Merely learning to know how something occurs doesn't give it meaning, and Andrew elects to try to give the beauty he sees around him greater purpose.

Most of Andrew's work is abstract, and uses a variety of mixed mediums that are atypical in two dimensional art. Using his knowledge of chemistry and biology, he attempts to use different materials than just canvas and acrylics, and instead examines the viscosity of fluids, the way certain polymers might interact with one another, and for ways to use his background to further his art. His inspirations range from the mundane to the monumental, from the biological world to that of the imagination.

Nearly all of his works have a poem that Andrew wrote in order to act as a point of inspiration to the piece, which can be read whenever his pieces are viewed in person (or by inquiry).

The Valhalla Room (21+)
215 S Walnut

Diane Berg is a student at Ball State University and is double majoring in both Animation and Psychology; A multimedia artist, Diane works with a variety of mediums to create thought-provoking drawings and photographs. She will have her artwork on display in Valhalla's gallery space.