Art Ma-Hop!

Kalamazoo is awesome.

 

One of the reasons is because on the first Friday of every month, Kalamazoo hosts an Art Hop. In the winter months, local businesses host local artists inside and the community walks throughout shops, eating and drinking, while admiring artwork. In the summer months, the artists move to the outdoors under tents or outside of shops along the Kalamazoo Mall strip. They also take over Bronson Park and local shops are open too.

I haven't been able to go to Art Hop since December, with the exception of the Art Hop that I hosted in March. Needless to say, I was the MOST excited to attend the June Art Hop. On Friday, I biked to Jesse's (a 15 mile route) and did it in a little over 1/2 hour, so I was super pumped about that. I also had chugged a few cups of coffee before I took off, so that might have given me a boost ;) I wanted to time myself out of curiosity, but I started my stopwatch before I left and proceeded to knock things over in the garage while attempting to retrieve my bike...so I had to pick that stuff up and close the garage before I left and that was part of my time. I also made a couple of stops along the way to take some pictures and to adjust my seat. What I am trying to say is that the time on my stopwatch wasn't fully accurate so I estimated the 1/2 hour. And I digress...


Anyway...I biked over to Jesse's. Ta-Da!

I arrived to him putting some flowers in an Oberon bottle for me (he improvises on vases often) and we sat in the grass for a minute before I went to change my clothes.

 We grabbed some pizza slices from Martini's and after eating, we went to Dairy Queen for some soft serve twist cones...MMMmmm. Then, with full bellies, it was off to Art Hop!

We met up with friends and ran into many others along the way. I was blown away with all of the artists that were out on Friday. There were so many people and so many cool things to look at. At first we thought that we wouldn't be able to get Tanja mugs because his studio was closed, but we found him later on the strip! We were all very excited that we didn't miss him. Check out the cool mug that I got this time!

We found this fantastic illustrator, Katie Eberts, and I just had to purchase an owl card and some Michigan postcards to send to my friends. She is on Facebook and she is really awesome. Check it out!








We also saw an African drumming group. We participated by saying things like "Wash on" and "Soley" (I don't really know how to spell the words that we were saying, but that is what it sounded like!) We were the few and/or only ones participating, but it was so much fun! They were really great. I am such a sucker for drums...







After our art hop extravaganza, it was back to Jesse's house and it turned into game night. We made YOLO popcorn (the new "punk rock pancakes" for those of you that remember those days) and played SEQUENCE for a few hours with his roommates. If you haven't played SEQUENCE, you should. If you haven't tried popcorn and marshmallows dipped in peanut butter and whipped cream, you should do that too.

I must say that Art Ma-Hop was a pure success and I can't wait for July! Do you have anything like this in your community or are there any local events coming up that you would like to share? Let me know!