Main Avenue in Northport will be filled with music, art and fun this Thursday as the Kentuck Art Center hosts its November Art Night. The event will have live music, two new exhibitions, and feature two new artists, as well as resident artists from Northport and surrounding areas displaying their work.
The first set of artists featured this week are Sandra Rice and Martha Hopkins, who will openin The Main Avenue Gallery. Rice and Hopkins use their combined skills of pottery and mixed media paintings to create their art pieces.
Emily Leigh, the assistant director for Kentuck, said she’s sure people will like the exhibits.
“You want to just reach out and touch the pieces,” Leigh said. “And the 2D art is very minimalist and interesting.”
Rice and Hopkins started working together on metal sculptures and finally opened their gallery, “Shape and Color.” Rice is a self-taught artist who works with clay and constructed metal. She’s inspired by nature and the human form and uses a combination of clay and metal framework to create her pieces. Hopkins is a University of Alabama graduate who uses mixed media to create her work, which includes anything from half a tennis ball to paint.
Jessica Smith will display her collection titled “Catawampus” in the Clarke Gallery. Smith’s work features the crafting of teapots, and uses organic patterns in landscapes as inspiration. Each piece is decorative and fully functional, so it can be moved from the shelf to the table. Smith uses die-cut ceramic shapes to add detail to each of the teapots.
“They’re beautiful to look at, and they’re sort of like puzzles,” Leigh said. “I think it’s always good to have a mix of art. We like to try to provide a mix of art; it keeps it more interesting.”
A final exhibition by Kay Smith, one of Northport’s own potters and artist at the Kentuck Clay Place, will have a booth open and have some of her clay items for sale.
Lea Hanna Bertram, a senior majoring in public relations, is excited about attending her first art night.
“I have never had a chance to go to the Kentuck Art Festival, but I’ve always wanted to,” Bertram said. “Kentuck is, like many others around the country, a unique art collective. It displays the particular history and culture of the region it represents, and getting to interact with that is exciting.”
Music for Art Night will be provided by Doobie “Doghouse” Wilson, also known as UA professor Alan Lane, from the department of chemical and biological engineering. Lane is a singer-songwriter who draws his musical inspiration from the blues, and he is also a member of the Motown and classic rock cover band, PhD’Licious.
Art night will also have free cob oven pizza for attendees, and a volunteer appreciation party. The event is free and will be held on Thursday, Nov. 1 from 5 to 9 p.m.
