Images from Side Effects at Eyeporium, B-Sides at Coalition Gallery, and Jenny Scobel at Firecat Projects

A fun time was had by all at various ART events this past weekend, and yes I was one of those people having fun, bopping around, etc.

Let's begin in no particular order, with the opening of Bruce Riley's Side Effects this past Saturday.

Eyeporium Gallery will feature the "dream-like" paintings of Riley through March 30.

I was honored to chat very briefly with Riley, and was curious about his style, since the show featured many oil paintings in addition to Riley's newer, brighter work which he is standing in front of here.

"For me, it's more like scribbling and doodling. There are no mistakes to make other than technical, no rules about what the image is. It's quick dry paint and I am able to see each section very quickly... If you can get lost with yourself than the work is successful," Bruce explained.

And, in my un-expert opinion, it seems like he got pretty lost! This show, like many of Eyeporium's shows, is a must-see...

Moving on, the night prior, I left a very long and draining week at work with a lighter spirit, eager to enjoy Friday night, which I am now recounting at 6:10AM on a Tuesday morning in hopes of wrapping up today's Pipeline in the next 60 minutes. Pat's Internet connection is down, so he is meeting me at Quizno's at lunch (which means I'll have to find the time to take a lunch!) to get my key and then to come over to "HQ" and do some copy editing. When I come home at 8PM I'll address Pat's edits. Yesterday while I was at work Phlash was here at HQ uploading his pics. And during the day I received stories from Eva, Dika, and a resident who wrote in! In a word "Busy" - and yes, I will slap the next person who tells me that "busy is good." Um, to a point....

Bucktowner and Pipeline reader and artist Christine Olson, pictured in front of a tree, with Coalition Gallery in the background, joined me at two of the art events on Friday, while Phlash was across town at A.D. (After Daley).

At B-Sides, I asked Christine to select her favorite pieces. Her top two favorite were a stained glass triptych by one of the following artists listed on this card (SORRY, no time to Google it and I apologize for not having scribbled artist down) and a striking piece by Brad Nugent titled "Vermilion Christ (Homage to Gaugin's Yellow Christ) 2009" which was posted near the entry to the exhibit, which Christine described as "not like a traditional art show."

Indeed, the selected artists were extremely diverse in form and style. The selection process by B-Side curators required two letters of recommendation and acceptance into CAC's Artist Incubator program.

I enjoyed the collages of Dimitri Pavlotsky, who, like Riley, is also experiencing a breakthrough after decades of working on oil painting, which can be a painstaking and slow creation process, since some painters constantly paint over a canvas to a point where a work is never complete, or feels complete.

Of the collage making process, Dimitri, flanked by two of his pieces, says that he likes it because "You don't take too much time. Somebody gave me the hint, they said you move things down, you put the next thought down, you go faster and faster and lay it [collage] out as you are completing it."

After B-Sides, we hopped in Christine's car and dashed over to to the final hour or so of Jenny Scobel's opening reception at Firecat Projects, 2124 N. Damen.

Tony Fitzpatrick, pictured in a snapshot by Christine, met Scobel, pictured in front of her portrait work, in Brooklyn 20 years ago. They remained friends, and Tony invited Scobel, a new transplant to Chicago, to show her work at his new gallery, which is innovative because Fitzpatrick does not take a commission (more on this in this New City story about Firecat Projects).

The room was packed with people and Tony seemed thankful, given the bitter cold evening. "I'm always scared that when I do these things that it'll be me and the artist standing in a room together staring at each other."

No chance of that, Tony.

We then bypassed A.D. (After Daley) since Phlash was covering that event, and left for Logan Square, where I was eager to meet up with friends I have not had an opportunity to see since NYE due to all this scurrying around the neighborhood nonsense. Christine, possessing children at home and such, bid goodbye after providing stellar curbside service!

Though out of the neighborhood, it seems worth mentioning that there was a really cool Beer draft glass at Dunlay's on the Square, which recently celebrated its six or seventh anniversary (anyone remember when it was Boulevard Cafe?!)

The desserts at Dunlay's are amazing. I ordered something in a skillet, like a warm apple crisp with ice cream on top of it (not pictured, I am not a food photographer!) which was devoured quickly with six or seven spoons and might be the source of my raging cold and runny nose, unless I picked that up at the cube farm, speaking of which, it's about that time...