Work of Sovereignty & Champagne and Chocolate Exhibitions/First Friday

     I managed to go to Tulsa's First Friday Art Crawl in the Tulsa Arts District of downtown Tulsa earlier this evening for March. I had missed January's and February's First Friday dates already due to exhaustion from other stuff I am handling in my personal life and I wanted to make sure to make it to this one. I managed to go and visit the 108 Contemporary gallery, the new location for Tulsa University's Henry Zarrow Center of Arts and Education on Archer Street around the corner from it's original location, the Living Arts gallery, as well as an art market that was held in the Tulsa Symphony building in the same area. I make sure and try to scope out what I can each time I come down there every month. I just want to talk about it not because I am reviewing it or making any judgements at all. I actively go to art exhibitions, like Philbrook Museum's Rembrandt to Monet exhibition just this last week, or anything else for that matter. I very often visit these same galleries for First Friday every month to see what's happening in the local art community. I just want to experience new things that I've never got to experience yet and I just want to share that experience, is all. I will make sure to credit the artists of the art pieces I am discussing here.

     The exhibitions I mainly want to discuss visiting is the Works of Soveriegnty at Tulsa University's new location and the Champagne and Chocolate at the Living Arts gallery because the works that I liked more than others are currently in those shows. The Works of Sovereignty exhibition, as explained in the gallery,  is to "examine the artistic and historical struggle for native sovereignty, re-examining the boundaries that have sought to limit this tribal authority, while also reinterpreting the very land itself." I am attaching the photo of quotation to this blog. I love seeing art from Native American artists and it is often by favorite to see in galleries. I have a real soft spot for native art and Native American culture, especially that of the Cherokee tribe, in that I had read up on the history of the Cherokee tribe and even took classes when I was a teenager and in college to learn the language. I love going to powwows if ever I have the chance to and some of my best photography, I think, came from a Keetoowah powwow in Talequah, Oklahoma for the national Cherokee Holiday many years ago. I digress. My favorite for sure of this show is Photograph of Native Woman by Ryan Redcorn of the Osage tribe here in Oklahoma. I really love the multiple floral drapery seen over this lady's shoulder and how it makes the image really beautiful with the combination of the blanket that she also has wrapped around her, and the contrasting of colors and patterns of all of it makes it all pop out. I think the photography is so nice and I think the lady looks so pretty with all that is happening, and it makes her look so dignified. The second piece that I really enjoyed are Running Shoes by Semurai Designs and Walela Knight, first of the Cherokee tribe and the latter of the Choctaw tribe. The third is Red Earth Sunset by Brittany Postoak of the Mvskoke tribe. I loved all the bead work in both of these works and how it is all so detailed in its patterns and the creativity of the idea of the running shoes. Plus the variation of the meaning of Seminole in it's language. My favorite piece of the Champagne and Chocolate exhibition is Lost City by Dean Wyatt. I think it's cool that Dean was able to create a very detailed but yet abstract representation of a city with simple techniques. I like how they detailed each section of the painting with color to illustrate and insinuate architectural structure or clouds in the sky, and I think the richness of color also makes it a strong piece. 

     This was my fun for the day today. I hope whoever reads this find the artwork nice and intersting, too, as I think it is. I have another event I am going to on Saturday night and I am hoping it will be very interesting and entertaining. That's all from me right now.