First Friday Art Trail in Lubbock

After arriving in Lubbock a little over 2 months ago, I finally started venturing forth and exploring the city, in particular its art scene.

Last night I attended the First Friday Art Trail for the very first time.

The starting point was the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA). That was great because that was one of the venues of the Dia de los Muertos Celebracion exhibit that took place on the day before Halloween.

So, I was able to go back and take some pix from the exhibits that were up that night.

These following pieces were created by the students J.T. Hutchinson Middle School and Lubbock High School.

Look very closely and you'll see a cut-out skull in this Alice In Wonderland themed poster.

Because it was a Dia de Los Meurtos (Day of the Dead) exhibit, most of the posters contained skulls. I selected my favorite posters.

I love the detail in this skull as well as the dynamic background.

There is something very beautiful and life-affirming in this skull mandala.

Here's a detail of a skull from one of the posters.

There was also a series of large playing cards. Some of them used animal skeletons in their designs. And all of them were prize-winners, which was obvious from the creativity and imagination present in these designs.

This winged dragon skeleton would look great on the cover of a fantasy novel or a 70s heavy metal album cover.

This card has the more traditional human skeleton.

And of course, skulls are the most common design element in any Dia de los Muertos event.

Another student project was the creation of Dia de los Meurtos skeleton figures. Traditionally, these skeleton art figures are portrayed performing everyday activities that the dead engaged in when they were still alive.

Here you see a flamenco dancer and a basketball player. And from the looks of his uniform, he looks as though he could have played for the Boston Celtics.

This skeleton shows a young woman primping in front of a mirror.

Even Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz received "skeleton treatment."

In another room was the Fresh Meat exhibit. Fresh Meat did not refer to anything you would find in a butcher shop. Rather, it was a showing of the works of artists who never exhibited before.

I've included some of my favorite pieces.

Mikey Muerto - Anna Cordova

Precious - B. C. Gilbert

Religion-on-the-Go #8 - Carlos Cuevas

Four Play: Wrestlers & Four Play: C.M.Y.K. - Gary Goldberg

Lil' Joe's Catfood - Joe Barrington

Lil' Joe's Frog Farm - Joe Barrington

title unreadable - Joe Barrington

I loved these giant fish and frog pieces. Very whimsical. They reminded me of the fish stories about the ones "that got away."

The highlight of the LHUCA gallery, to me at least, was an exhibit by James W. Johnson. What an amazingly talented artist! I was amazed over the diversity of his vast body of work.

A Trophied Artist

Alien In West Texas

(Could this be poking fun at the illegal alien situation, especially since Texas is right on the Mexican border?)

Angry Christ

Angry Christ (detail)

Contemplating the Blank Page

Mean Missy

(An ex-wife perhaps?)

title not available

(Sort of reminds me of Sponge Bob.)

Obsession

Dolly In Dali-Land

Erika In a Fog

(Johnson's photo-realism is amazing!)

Harmony

In God We Trust

Machka 2001

Pieta (front)

Pieta (back)

Pieta (detail)

Star Trek: Me and Spock

The writing in the lower left-hand corner says: "Spock used logic. I used vodka." (What could the artist have been trying to say with this piece?)

Taking the Bait

There was another exhibit at LHUCA, the McCarthy Project - a photo exhibit by Jane Lindsey that made a strong statement about family members of inmates on death row (some of whom have already been executed by letal injection).

After viewing the exhibits at LHUCA, I got on the trolley and rode to the next stop - the Avalance-Journal, which was the city's newspaper. The A-J held an exhibit in its lobby.

Though small, the exhibit nonetheless was interesting with displays of carved gourds, paintings, photographs, sculpture, and live musical performances.

It took longer waiting for the trolley to get to the next gallery than it did to view the entire exhibit at the A-J.

While waiting for the trolley, I found out from one of the regular First Friday Art Trail attendees that the trick is to get to LHUCA bright and early so that you could be there right when the doors open at 6:00 PM. That way you can get LHUCA out of the way first and still have plenty of time left to see the other galleries.

Getting on the trolley, I sat next to the young man that I saw at LHUCA. He was taking picture there, and he also had a Nikon.

We started talking. And pretty soon I was becoming friends with Sajib, a Bangladeshi architecture student at Texas Tech University.

The trolley dropped us off at the Art Studio and Gallery by Rania K. But we hardly paid any attention to the art work because we were so busy engaged in conversation.

It was already getting late. So we decided that rather than wait for a trolley to bring us back to LHUCA (where my car was parked), that we would walk back to LHUCA.

The only problem was that we were both new to Lubbock and definitely not familiar with the downtown area, especially in the dark. And it did not help that the FFAT map lacked many critical details.

So, at first we walked several blocks in the wrong direction.

But, except for the fact that I wore the wrong type of shoes for doing lots of walking, that was OK. The extra walking gave us more opportunity to get to know each other better.

We talked about our families and our impressions of Lubbock.

Sajib took my name down so that he could Facebook me. (And he did. We're now friends on Facebook.)

I drove him to his apartment.

And after dropping him off, I explored a new and different part of Lubbock as I found my way back home.