Artsy Night Out

We went out for our anniversary last night and I was so meaning to bring along the camera and take some artsy pictures of our artsy night out...but of course in the rush to get out of the house I forgot it! Rats! Well, I'm gonna fake it anyway and post some stolen artsy pictures to illustrate our night...

First off, we went out for a smashing dinner at LoTo across from Mears Park in Historic Lowertown.



We both had the Smoked salmon risotto with asparagus. Oh, lady, it was sooooo goood!!! I washed mine good and down with a couple of Flirtinis. Orange Vodka, Champagne and a splash of pineapple juice. Mmmmm. Flirty.



I almost ordered a Stumbletini but decided it was trying way too hard to be an amusingly- named alcoholic drink and I cannot encourage that sort of pretentiousness. Stumbletini, when will you ever learn?

After dinner we strolled over to Northern Warehouse to see our friend Todd who had his studio open for the annual St. Paul Art Crawl. The art crawl opens up a number of different artists studios in different co-ops throughout downtown St. Paul to share art with the city. Todd was showing a number of his black and white night prints from various city locals. He invited 3 other fellow photographers to show their work. I have always enjoyed a good photograph and wish i knew more about taking a really great picture myself. Maybe I should direct some energies toward that end?

On our tour through other studios in Todd's building.....

We saw this man, Michael Ziegahn from the St. Paul Guitar Studio, play Flamenco guitar while a fancy lady danced for our artistic viewing pleasure. Beautiful music and incredibly timed dancing.





We also dropped in on Michael Daly's studio where he had on display several of his eye-popping watercolor pieces.



We couldn't resist seeing what Sugar Bomb Studios was all about. This duo of hair/make-up artist and photographer has set out to beautify the world by photographing women like me and you as Pin-Up girls. I told him I could never pull off the whole pin-up thing but he and other artist types insisted that I could saying, I just had to learn to "Own It like Greta Garbo." Okaaaay...in the meantime hows about this?

Which Pin-Up Girl Are You?

You Are Bettie Page

Girl next door with a wild streak You're a famous beauty - with a unique look The people who like you are cultish about it

What Famous Pinup Are You?

Finally, both Steve and I agreed that our favorite artist of the evening was Richard Abraham His paintings were so beautiful and calming. One of my favorites is shown in the gallery at the link in his name above. It's "Summer Colors". Sadly, the pictures on the page don't do them justice. To see them up close is absolutely amazing! I loved the smell of his studio, too. Oil paints. Mmmmm.

After the Art Crawl ended, we spent a few more hours visiting with Todd and several of the artists who also live in his building.

There were so many funny and interesting conversations all night. Here's what the party mostly looked like:































We got a ride back to our car from the sock monkey. Nice guy. Anyway, it was a fun way to celebrate our anniversary and we really enjoyed seeing old friends. We were the last to leave, along with a classical music composer in a tweed jacket. Wild stuff. Fun party. It will take the rest of the weekend to rest up from it. Being Artsy takes a lot out of you.