POP-UP KENOSHA

The other day I was invited to come out to Kenosha, Wisconsin to participate in a "pop-up gallery" event.  Kenosha is a city of about 100,000 people, right on the Illinois border along Lake Michigan.  Like many small to medium-size towns in the Midwest (and America) its downtown area has seen happier days.  In an effort to bring art to the residents, the Kenosha Art Association has been having pop-up events in several of the vacant storefronts downtown.

For my part, they exhibited oversized prints of every page from my Thoreau at Walden book.  It was pretty exciting to see them all up, lining one entire wall of the venue.

I really didn't know what to expect, but there was a nice crowd coming in throughout the night, everyone was friendly, and I sold a bunch of stuff!  The audience was truly interested, and willing to engage with the art and the artists, which was refreshing.

At the end of the evening I spoke to Francisco Loyola, the main force behind the pop-ups, about the amount of work he's done to bring these arts events to downtown Kenosha.  It hadn't been easy, with years of effort just beginning to bear fruit.  I was really impressed with how devoted these folks were to improving the quality of life in their town.  It was inspiring.

Chalk drawing on the sidewalk outside.

John P. and cool upholstered bicycles.

Thoreau at Walden

Dean Tawwater

Bess Yontz

Comics by Ryan Pagelow.

John Hambrock

Children's drawings

Mary Pat Andrea and friend.

All photos courtesy Francisco Loyola