Artwalk like an Egyptian

I attended my first Friday Artwalk series this week, and I constantly had to dry my eyes.

Admittedly, as tropical storm Hanna was raging all over the event, the eye-drying was mainly due to the rain on my face. However, had it not been raining I may have had a glimmer or two of misty-eyed appreciation for the beauty and culture that I observed. Strangely ebough, it had little to do with the art.

Richmond is a very art-centric city - at least, that's what I had heard. I always noticed the tattooed messy-haired kids walking, biking, and moped-ing around this city, and I can only imagine that many of them were the minions of art that made the city tick so. But that was more of a shallow, closed-minded opinion than an observation or hypothesis. This week at the art walk, I got to see what Richmond's artsyness is really all about.

The people walking up and down Broad street - clad in galoshes and umbrellas - were not young hipsters in ripped jeans (per se) and they were not snobbish artists in funny hats and designer clothes looking woefully at "Richmond's tiny art". No no - these were appreciators, fans, and most importantly interested individuals. They were there for the art itself (and perhaps the drinking while walking thing, which I'm still not sure was part of the program). Some of them were surely artists themselves, but others were clearly just appreciators of the scene. That's what makes Richmond so great - it's people appreciate the art that is coming from their city.

I'll admit - I'm not too familiar with other cities (being a VA boy all my life), but I do feel that Richmonders' treatment of art and the creative scene is unusually alive, and i saw that out in full force (during full gale force winds) at the Art Walk. I only hope that the series continues into the fall - I'm a late joiner, and I want to get my art fill.