All along Frankfort Avenue shops were buzzing and the local patrons, as well as patrons coming from other areas, crowded Frankfort Avenue Friday night. Even though the Light up Louisville Festival was taking place just miles downtown it didn't put a damper on the spirits of the arts festivities or the crowds on Frankfort Ave.
The little restaurants are nice and cozy, smells mixing in the air filled the night with delicious aromas, and shops were hopping. The Galleries were full of people both looking and buying that special gift for their families and friends.
At Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center, home of approximately 200+ artist shops, I took the time to stop at Enchanted Arts Studio and create a square for the Community Gratitude quilt while my sister, Sandra Tomes, who is beginning to love the the gallery hops as I take her here and there, did some sewing of the quilt that night. The founder/ director of the studio is Amelia Robinson.
The three art exhibits that were at Mellwood for Fat Friday were Ashley Brossart's Orange Peeled Art Drops, which I reviewed earlier in the month, Andre Forman's paintings and the paintings of Diane Frederica Huff.
I met Ashley Brossart, for the first time after speaking online several times about the Orange Peeled Art Drops, while waiting to meet Andre and she is an energetic and talented young lady.
Andre Forman's paintings were really nice. In looking at the painting several times, I noticed that the large paintings takes you on a journey through an actual place and leads you into the other paintings. Andre's painting the Allegoria (featured) takes you on a life journey starting at the Bay and through the Islands, through stages and times of life. The guitar player is actually telling the tale. It is truly an amazing work of art. He explained the painting to me in a way that it made it come to life, as if it was telling a tale all it's own. The Allegoria actually made it through a storm and came through, enchanting and beautiful.
Frederica Diane Huff's photography shares a similar visionary beauty. It reflects the reality and the depth of the subject in a way that is in her own words describes, "what you see is behind the artist, where reality ends and illusion begins." A lot of her work surrounds her own children being dancers. Her daughters were dancers in the Stephen Foster Story, The Lyric Opera and in Las Vegas. She enjoys photographing them and Diane said she believes that in performing arts, "your experience colors what you see."
Diane's charcoal painting won Best Finished Work painting award in the fair, a first ever solid shading charcoal to be announced as a painting by the artist guild and judges.
To contact Diane: fredericadiane@hotmail.com
850-625-0315
Gallery Director, Kentucky Watercolor Society,
Mellwood Art Center, Suite 116
To find out contact information for Andre Forman contact Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center.
Mellwood Arts and Entertainment Center
1860 Mellwood Ave 40216
Louisville, KY 40206
502-895-3650
www.mellwoodartcenter.com
