Ajo Street Art Happening — Part 4

I wasn’t in Plaza Alley last night but I hear it was a great time! Art, artists, music, lights — wow.

Tonight will be lots of fun too! As part of the ongoing Community Arts Gathering, the Plaza will be hosting Mexican food vendors, a beer garden and art exhibits (in addition to the work going on in the alley).

Ballet Folkloric de Ajo will perform outdoors from 6 to 7, followed by Los Cenzontles Performing Ensemble from 7 to 9. This is open to everyone so we hope you can be there too!

Meanwhile here are some shots I took earlier today as I wandered through Plaza Alley. (Click on any photo for a slide show.)

Claire Bistline & Terry Gonzales

Taking shape

Jesse Ismael Reyna

Alice Glasser

New work

Nearly done – Mike (DaWolf) Baker

Hop David

I caught this image in a car windshield

New work

Mike (DaWolf) Baker & Dwayno of Neoglyphix

Tools of the trade

Work from the “heART”

AlasKat

New work

Jackie (Jacqueline) Andes

Jamie, from Neoglyphix

Ajo artist Victor Garcia

Closeup, Michael B. Schwartz

Closeup, Michael B. Schwartz

Michael B. Schwartz, one of the speakers at the Gathering

Colorful shapes

Jamie & Dwayno, with Neoglyphix, working in spray paint. Neoglyphix is an all-indigenous aerosal art group.

Ajo Street Art Project — It’s Happening!

Ajo’s first Community Arts Gathering starts this Friday evening with a potluck to welcome visiting artists and give them an opportunity to meet their Ajo counterparts. It’s gonna be great to see so many new faces.

One of the most visible and exciting parts of the Gathering will be the Street Art Happening. Mike (DaWolf) Baker kicked off the event earlier this month when he completed his latest mural right along Highway 85.

Since then he’s been over-seeing the preparations for both local and visiting artists who’ll be contributing their work to once-dingy walls that line the alley between the Plaza and the old warehouse.

I stopped by for a look this afternoon and found one artist from Alaska working on her mural. Several designs have already been added to the walls and more are on the way.

Artists will be painting here for the next week. They may be working at all hours, maybe even at night, so chances are good you’ll have a chance to see great art in the making!

Spy Drones Over Sonora. Mike (DaWolf) Baker

Ajo Street Art Project (ASAP)

First steps

Lots of donated paint

It’s about borders. Hop David.

AlasKat – an Alaskan artist comes to Ajo

Alley art

More colors

Looks like a tagger wants to join the party

Music makers. Mike (DaWolf) Baker

Tools of the trade

Energy in art. Michael B. Schwartz

Detail. Michael B. Schwartz

 

Redrawing Borders Exhibition Opens Next Week

Redrawing Borders — Art Activist, Humanitarian and Ecological Solutions opens at the Ajo Plaza Gallery on Tuesday March 18 in Ajo, Arizona. The reception is from 5:30 to 7:30. A discussion panel on the exhibit’s theme will take place at 6 pm.

Artists Appearing in the Exhibit

Carlos Encinas  ~  Giannina Coppiano Dwin  ~  Jewel Clearwater Fraser
Sonia Baez-Hernandez  ~  Diana Kahlo  ~  Rex Koningsor
Fabio Rodriguez  ~  Michael B. Schwartz  ~  George Strasburger
Karen Sucharski  ~  Marla von Ettenberg  ~  Morgana Wallace-Cooper

An exciting aspect of this exhibit is the Virtual Gallery Exchange — The Border Project. This traveling art exhibit, originally created in Ajo, will be installed in Sonoyta, Sonora, México for simultaneous exhibition with Redrawing  Borders at the Ajo Plaza Gallery.

Redrawaing Borders was made possible by the generous support of the Tri-National Symposium – Celebrating the Sonoran Desert, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC).