springfield art walk

this last friday was springfield's famous artwalk that i've been wanting to go to forever! finally, it happened.
last week was nick's birthday, so we made it a priority to go in celebration of his 27 many years of life.
we kicked off the night by having dinner at valentine's, a restaurant we were randomly passing by, much to our delight. it was a really groovy place! i love spontaneous things that turn out well.

dark but cool.

then we joined up with erica & casey for a little walking, a little arting, and of course, some fire tricks!

behold, the wings of fire!! aka, flaming whips. who ever thought, 'hey! if i set this whip on fire and snap it around, people will love it, man!'

probably the same person who thought, 'hey! if i put some balls on the ends of some rope...'
it made a purty picture though.


the pyro people were also into djembes, and had a wide selection of them sitting around with which people could find their inner rhythm. nick was in his element entirely with this particular attraction. especially when the hippy dude with dreads joined in. i may look like i'm going to town, but i was just doing same beat over and over. i called it the bass line and pretended it was very important to the fancy things they had going on.

this picture was snapped about 2 seconds after we hear a booming voice shout out, 'no photography in my shop!!'
this is a prized possession. i feel wildly illegal even displaying here, but also a little triumphant at having something to show for our rebellion.
we didn't see the sign until later, of course.

we finally got down to the business of walking, and even found ourselves some art! there was one gallery with really amazing paintings that i would've taken pictures of, but was still feeling the jolt of being shouted at boomingly.

erica dared to take this picture, so i borrowed it from her. this gallery had political-type prints...

and a ping-pong table... (yes!!)

and a couch...
allow me to narrate the conversation that went in between the next two pictures:

scene: three friends sit down on comfy couch in the last gallery after a tiring artwalk draws to a close...
gallery owner: we're closing up, folks! thanks for stopping by.
kate: wait guys, one quick picture! very cool couch... must photograph...

kate: oh shoot, the flash went off, wait, one more!
erica: they need to close up!
kate: it'll take 20 seconds!
casey: we don't want to be rude.
nick: (uncertain glances at erica and casey who are bolting off the couch) uh.. (bolts off couch behind them)
kate: (takes picture, sans flash, capturing ethereal street light shadows over retro couch. sighs. trudges out after friends, smiling at gallery owner, imagining what kind of magic might have happened if friends had only waited 20 more seconds...)

we forgot our relational conflicts by going to the springfield brewing company to get sloshed.
just kidding, i didn't get sloshed. some people might have, but not i.

(notice those with beers...)


(notice my extremely sloshed expression, despite my lack of beer.)

beer, by the way, tastes nasty.