• Angela Davis Johnson's "No More Cotton Pickers"

Gallery 360 will host a reception from 6-10 p.m. tonight for Angela Davis Johnson and her exhibition of mixed media works "Kinfolk," described as a "visual narrative" that starts with the image above.

Gallery 360 is at 900 S. Rodney Parham. The show will remain on exhibit through June.

• Basket by Leon Niehues, one of 48 artists lined up for Saturday's Thea Arts Festival

This week's ArtNotes has the lineup for the Thea Arts Festival tomorrow in Argenta. Three blocks of Main Street will be closed off, from Broadway to Sixth, sit-down restaurants will serve food on the streets, artists will demonstrate their skills and each block will have its own musical entertainment. Artists will be under tents, so don't let a little rain hold you back.

• Vase by TAF artist Hannah May

The festival is organized by the Thea Foundation, which supports arts education in the schools as a way for children to achieve in all areas of academics and is the state office for the Arkansas A+ arts-infused model that has been adopted by several schools with great success.

• TAF artist Stephano's "Blue Bell in Paris"

Jason Gammel, known as North Little Rock's firefighter artist (though I'm not sure he's fighting fires anymore), has been giving paintings away through his Facebook page to people who perform good deeds.

His first giveaway was to the person who, within 2 hours of posting Feb. 17, bought and delivered cookies to a fire station and documented it with photographs posted to Gammel's Facebook page. In 7 minutes, a friend took him up on the deal, dashed to the store, took a picture of the cookies there on his cell phone and posted to Gammel's page, and then headed to a firestation, where he took a picture of himself and some bewildered firefighters. His prize: this 36-by-36 inch painting "Spring."

• "Spring" by Jason Gammel

On Wednesday, Gammel posted his second challenge: The first person to give the Pulaski County Humane Society $75 would receive his 48-by-60-inch piece "Ascending Circles." Thinks got a little tricky here, thanks to Facebook timing weirdness that swapped first posters, so Gammel had two winners. Both donated, posted their receipts on Gammel's Facebook page, and Gammel gave both paintings, posting, "I just left an ass chewing on Mark Zuckerberg's voice mail (actually two, one for the confusion his servers caused and another for not answering his phone when I call)."

Here's "Ascending Circles," which another one of Gammel's Facebook friends suggest he rename "avocados on a cutting board." What else are friends for?

• "Ascending Circles," aka "Avocados on a Cutting Board," by Jason Gammel

Gammel's last giveaway, last night, only required that persons guess the correct number of M&Ms he had in a jar. There were 105 guesses; and the winner received:

Gammel's having lots of fun and making room in his studio at the same time. If he decides to put up this one

I'm going to be all over it.

• Katchen's "Tell It Like It Is"

Carole Katchen, who's showing pastels at the Fine Arts Center of Hot Springs, 626 Central Ave., will give an art demonstration at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, "What to do When Your Pastel Painting is a Disaster," as part of the Arts Center's 3rd Fridays @ FAC event.

Katchen's talk will be followed at 7 p.m. by a musical performance by singer/songwriter Rena Wren with her husband, Rodgey Roach, on bass; Roach's brother Rodney on guitar, and special guest vocalist Michelle Brewer.

The pastel show at the Fine Arts Center features 30 works by members of the Arkansas Pastel Society and runs through January.

The 3rd Friday event is free, but the FAC suggests a donation of $2 to support programming. Call 501-624-0489 for more information.

Gallery 26 at 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. will be open after hours until 8 p.m. tonight for the Hillcrest neighborhood's monthly Shop 'n' Sip. This fact gives me the chance to run the names of all the artists who have work in the gallery's 18th "Annual Holiday Art Show" of paintings, drawings, pottery, photographs, glass, sculpture, ornaments, scarves and jewelry. See below, last name first. (P.S.: The Strause above ["The Real Thing"] may not be in the show; I stole it from her website as an example of her work.)

Adams, Cindy
Adams, Darrell
Bean, Robert
Bell, Lee Ann
Bingham, Sheila
Boyd, Brittany Jane
Bridges, John
Bryan, Ann
Bryant, Jennifer
Burnham, Ross
Cefalo, Stephen
Cox,V.L.
Crisp, Susan
Delavan, Jerry
Dixon, Randy
Dunaway, Nancy
Edgington, Amy
Fails, Connie
Fanning, Laura
Frost, Lynn
Glueck, Devin
Greenland, Jann
Harper, Diane
Hayes, James
Henderson, Josh
Henderson, Judy
Henry, Rita
Holt, Julie
Jones, Betty
Knowles, Shannon
Kordsmeier, Melissa
Krain, Ben
Kushmaul, John
Lacefield, Mindy
Lamar, Marlene
Lang, Erin
Lang, Walter
Laser, Amy
Leme, Alex
Linn, Amanda
Lorenzen, Erin
Luber, Elaine
McLeod, Matt
Miller, Patricia
O’Brien, David
Provost, Dale
Rackley, David
Reding, Holly
Sheung, Lam Tze
Simmons, Dominique
Singh, Amanda
Singh, Patricia
Slaughter, Susie
Smith, Jason
Steward, Babs
Strause, Kathy
Sulac
Sundell, Corri
Sykes, John
Taylor, Diana
Trusty, Rachel
Uptigrove, Amber
Uptigrove, Donna
Ward, Jessie
Wartinger, Leon
Wilcox, Janet Cecil
Wood, Emily

Boswell-Mourot Fine Art, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd., opens its "Holiday Show" Saturday night with a reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. There, you'll get to see new works by glitter king Jon Etienne Mourot, who adds sparkle to the reason for the season, and other merry things. A portion of proceeds from sales will go to CAR, the Center for Artistic Revolution.
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As if there weren't enough to do tonight, add M2 Gallery's Holiday Art Show to the itinerary. Dan Holland and Suzanne Koett are the featured artists, and Dan Thornhill, Charles Henry James and Jason Gammel will have work on display as well. Since I'm having a little problem stealing images from the gallery's Facebook page, I'm using the invitation (above) as a hint at what you'll see.

• Kevin Cole, "Blue Skies with Purple Dream"

Guided tours of galleries by people who know whereof they speak is a great way to get to know art and artists, like Kevin Cole. Cole, who uses neckties (and abstracted neckties) in his brilliantly-colored sculptures and prints because of their role in lynchings, has work in the Corcoran in Washington, D.C., the Tampa Museum in Tampa, Fla., the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans and a multitude of other institutions. He is also exhibiting in three galleries in Arkansas: including Hearne Fine Art, where his 25 year retrospective "Straight from the Soul" is up until Jan. 7; the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff, and the Leedell Moorehead-Graham Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Hearne, whose expertise is in African-American art, will give a tour of all three exhibits from 9:30-2:30 p.m. Nov. 28 and 30. The tours wrap up with lunch at RJs’ Diner (on the recommendation of the artist, a Pine Bluff native). The cost is $30 and includes lunch. Call 501-372-6822 to reserve. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas has a good entry on Cole.

• Quapaw artist Charles Banks Wilson's "Arkansea 1700"

Quapaw Tribal Chairman John Berrey said he looks forward to performing the cedar smoke ceremony tomorrow at a sculpture honoring Indian tribes in Riverfront Park and hopes to talk to the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department "about something the Quapaw tribe could contribute to that location."

The sculpture, "Native Knowledge" by Denny Haskew, was purchased for the park by the non-profit organization Sculpture at the River Market, which opens the annual Sculpture at the River Market show and sale tomorrow at the River Market pavilions. There will be a $100-a-ticket preview from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and a $20 event to follow; the exhibition is free Saturday and Sunday.

The smoke ceremony is set for 5 p.m. at the sculpture, which is on the plaza in front of the Junction Bridge. Berrey declined to be more specific about what the tribe, whose ancestors populated Arkansas and for whom the Quapaw Quarter is named, would like to talk to parks about.

I asked Berry about his feelings about the sculpture, which also stands in front of a California casino and depicts a man in a Plains Indian headdress, and which I've written about previously in Eye Candy (here and here). Berrey said the tribe wasn't interested in "getting involved in any controversy" and would be there "to celebrate our history and for people to be educated about the Quapaw tribe. We think it's a good thing."

Berrey was unconcerned that the Indian carved into the stone sculpture was not representative of Quapaw traditional dress, asking, "Whose to say a Plains Indian couldn't have given a Quapaw" a feather headdress? He called the riverside site "a significant geographical location" in the history of the Quapaw. (Learn more about the Quapaw here.)

The seventh annual Thea Paves the Way sidewalk chalk event at the Clinton Presidential Park kicks off tomorrow, Saturday, at 8:30 a.m. Students and teachers and families will be able to turn those blank concrete canvases into art and enjoy other events, like music, the Parkview Magnet High School mimes, concessions, caricatures by Democrat-Gazette cartoonist John Deering and free admission to the Clinton library. Teachers who register their students and compete together as a school group have a chance to win one of two $250 gift certificates for arts supplies from Dick Blick.

The event is hosted by the Thea Foundation, which promotes the arts as a path to success at school and life. Admission is free; the event wraps up at 1 p.m. If it looks iffy in the a.m., go to Thea's website at 8 a.m. to check to see if a rain date's been set.

• Photo by Ralph Armstrong, at Mosaic Templars

The arts calendar is full of events this weekend.

Tonight's 2nd Friday Art Night from 5-8 p.m. adds a new venue — the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, which is showing the photographs of Ralph Armstrong — along with regulars the Butler Center Galleries, the Courtyard at the Marriott, Gallery 221, Hearne Fine Art, the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Old State House Museum. Not only will there be art — two new exhibits include artwork from the Rosalie Santine Gould Rowher Collection at the Butler Center and the exhibit at Hearne just posted here — but many venues will have live music. Guitarist Steve Davison will be at the Butler Center Galleries, Arkopolis with Stephen Koch will be at the Historic Arkansas Museum, Ed Bowman and the Rock City Players will be at Mosaic Templars and the Morange Trio featuring Dave Williams II will be at the Old State House.

Check the calendar listings for more information and note that the Mosaic Templars event closes a half hour before other 2nd Friday venues.

• Photo by Jennifer Bryant, at Gallery 26

You'll also see on the Saturday calendar Gallery 26's new exhibit of recent works by Jennifer Bryant, V.L. Cox and David O'Brien. That show opens with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m. tomorrow night and continues through Oct. 27.

• Vessel by Joe Bruhin, whose studio will be open this weekend for the Off the Beaten Path art event.

Also previously posted, the Terry House Community Arts Gallery opens Linda Palmer's much anticipated "Arkansas Champion Trees: An Artist's Journey" on Sunday with a 3-5 p.m. reception.

Friday through Sunday the Off the Beaten Path studio tour will take art lovers to 24 tucked away in the Ozarks; see earlier post.

• Carole Katchen

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Hot Springs welcomes the public tonight from 5:30-7:30 p.m. to see the works of Carole Katchen on exhibit there.

The museum is in the former Ozark Bathhouse on Bathhouse Row, along Central Avenue.

The three-day Off the Beaten Path tour of 24 Ozark artists' studios in Mountain View, Calico Rock, Pineville and Fox starts tomorrow. Start your tour by going to the OBP website, where you'll see profiles of some of the participating artists, including fiber artists Shawn Hoefer and Jeanette Larson of Laffing Horse Farm and Crafts, polymer clay and jewelry artist Chere Taylor, well-known ceramicist Joe Bruhin, woodworker Paul Gillam and more. Since the tour takes you to the studios, you'll see lots of artists demonstrating how they do what they do.

A map is in the online book; not sure if it's downloadable. But there are sure to be maps in Mountain View, the jumping off point for the tour, or perhaps Fox, the closest town if you're coming from Central Arkansas. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Sunday. A great thing to do on a weekend that's is beginning to look like fall.