First Friday Block Party rocks again

First Friday Block Party tomorrow y'all - and the artwork is rockin'. Featuring the paintings of artist Dan Kevil, who will be at the party for a little meeting and greeting, this is when coming to hang out in the DTR really gets to be fun.

Firecrackers - Bork

Caroline Jones

Set your clocks for 7pm - when either DJ Phil Anthony or Floyd will be spinning some tunes to set the mood. Mike Moskowitz, our favorite conveyor of dark, caffeinated drinks, will be at the helm and neighbors and friends will certainly be inbound for this fun, Downtown Renton event.

Liberty Cafe
926 S. Third Street
(425) 235 - 1400

Art at the Theater

Artist Michelle Waldele-Dick has a show hanging in the reception area of our local Carco Theater, and her oil paintings are a joy to view. Using a classical realist approach to her subjects of landscape and still life, Michelle paints what she knows and loves. Views of the Pacific Northwest, flowers native to the area around us and other subjects are on view through the end of March.

Michelle hails from the well known Gage Academy and presently teaches art to both youth and adults at Arts Umbrella in Bothell, WA. Personally, I am wishing she was teaching right next door at the community center.

There is no admission fee to see her show and mid-month, there will a an artist reception where refreshments will be served and you can meet the artist in person. Save your calendar for Friday, February 19th from 6pm - 8pm. I always liken these events as a great way to soak up a little culture and meet with your mate outside of the four walls you call home. Make it a date night.

For more information about the artist, please visit www.mwaldelefineart.com.

Carco Theatre

1717 SE Maple Valley Highway
425-430-6706
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

For more information about the Renton Municipal Arts Commission, visit ArtsCommission.rentonwa.gov.

Give me Art and give me LIberty

Get a sip of art and a slamming cup of brew when you meander over to Liberty Cafe for a look at the original artworks of Antonio U Lovett. The art show consists of charcoal pastel on paper and is bold and expressive. The first of two parties to honor the artist took place last Friday. But you can catch up with him again on the first Friday of Feb. when another party will be thrown with all the trimmings - wine, food and music. In the meantime, stop by and check it out.

Liberty Cafe
926 S. Third Street
(425) 235 - 1400

Geometric Art - Kim Sweet is featured at Liberty Cafe

Put a geometry teacher together with photography and a high regard for the craft of quilting and you get the artwork of Kim (kimiko) Sweet. Kim's work is up at Liberty Cafe this month, where the owners Mike and Johnny hang monthly shows of local artists. Kim Sweet grew up in Renton, lives in Renton and teaches Math in Renton. Couldn't get more local than that if you tried!

The photo essays are both organic and very structured. Kim looks for and reveals the fractal patterns in the world that surrounds us. The juxtapositions and layouts are precise and yet fluid. Like a quilt, carefully composed.

Come in and relax with the best cup of coffee in town and look at the artwork. Eggnog Breve and Spiced Cider is ready and waiting for you - yep, it's that seasonal drink time already.

Liberty Cafe
926 S. Third Street
(425) 235 - 1400

Art and Liberty

Kristi Hand, artist and painter, is intent on "not taking herself too seriously" and having fun with her art, hoping that the audience has the same experience and willing them to read into her work whatever they might. Liberty Cafe on South Third Street in our DTR is a great place to go and have a cup of good coffee and see what the local art talent is doing. This month is a time go check out the audacious and bold fun and color Kristi Hand brings to the table.

Kristi had a time living in Hawaii and this reflects in this work featured above. The frame is also a work of art - handmade by the artist herself, rows and rows of gilded skulls with ruby eyes.

This series of work is a recently revisited group of work that Kristi started years ago and has now been reworked showing her accumulation of technique and her access to way better paints than a starving artist in her youth could buy. This is just a corner of the painting entitled "Virgin, Aliens and Spaceship". Love the gold space ship erupting from the canvas.

A view of the virgin on the same canvas.

This is a portion of the other painting in this Relics series (of which there are 4, the last of which is not yet finished yet) that features a pig, "Ham, Karma and Vin de Rose". The paintings were put away in the endeavor to paint for others, thinking commercial, thinking paying the rent, and now have come out to liberate the painter.


There are watercolors that are also a part of the artist's oeuvre and represented at the cafe. Kristi has two different sides to her work - some are very soft and fluid and pretty. The others are gutsy and bold and a wee bit crazy - which is good, at least that is what The Picaroon thinks - the crazier the better.

Liberty Cafe
926 S. Third Street
(425) 235 - 1400

Renton Annual Art Show

Last night was the opening gathering for the Renton Annual Art Show that will be open free to the public for the next three days. I am going to just wet your appetite and show you a handful of goodies. Feel inspired to further explore the rest for yourself.
Art - we all need to heed the call and include it in our daily diet.

Little 17th and Roxbury by Terry Sargent Peart Winner of the Juror's Award

My Best Self by Jennifer Sain Winner Art Supplies 1

Yellow Sprinkle by Mike Ferguson

Night Glow by Julie Eggers Winner Lucille Culliton Award

Brit Petersen pictured here with her proud mother, Gloria beside her lovely colored pencil work that garnered her the Renton Municipal Arts Commission Award. Why, Brit is ON that council - how could this be? All entries were judged with only numbers assigned to them - Brit won this fine award fair and square. Congratulations, Brit! It's a beauty!

Renton Annual Art Show
July 24,25 and 26
Friday and Saturday 10 - 6, Sunday 12- 5
Renton Community Center
1715 Maple Valley Highway (next to Carco Theater)

DTR artscene

First Fridays at Liberty Cafe is more than just fresh conga music, great tunes spun out of the hands of DJ Phil Anthony plus food and marvelous cafe. It's about hanging a new art show for all to come see. Welcome to the zany world of Justine Carey.

I love that there is hanging artwork for sale - and I mean, the stuff that you can then hang on yourself - like these painted hats. Grab one, pay and go. Look hot. Be cool. Wear ART.

Perversely, this may indeed be one of my favorite pieces. So many women artists make "art dolls" - but, men? Dolls with man hair and exposed nipples? Hilarious.

Close up of a hat everyone ought to be wearin' in the DTR this week. Buy one, send me your photo in some fab Renton locale - and I will make you Picaroon famous. Wow - jump on that bandwagon folks.



Photo of the artist himself, Justine Carey. Don't have much to relate about the man himself- he is as zany and off kilter as his art, with some mad humor thrown in, like his art. Justine's work on display this month at the Liberty Cafe. Buy a good cup of joe and check it out.

Liberty Cafe 926 South Third Street
(425) 235 -1400

Still a chance to see some art

Dan Wend 's art is hanging in the atrium of the Carco Theater until March 28 and you are welcome to visit, Mon - Fr 9 -5 pm