What do you get when you cross a sports store and an art show? Well the short answer is, “A darn good time.”

Summary: On Friday, Feb. 3rd I joined a number of friends and co-workers for a great art show held at Sports Basement.

For those who’ve known me personally, you will know that I’ve worked at Sports Basement for about 7 years. I recently made my egress from there in June of 2011 to pursue my own goal of being a self-sustaining professional illustrator. This winter I decided to go back there to work a few days a week, you know to make ends meet, as well as to  give them a hand during one of the busiest times of year. It is a win win scenario for us both. As it turns out, this winter is a little different than most. One of the ways in which this is evident, is that Basementeers Rose Carlyle and Christine Wetzl managed to put together a long overdue show of art from the talented pool of SB employees.

Some Quick Background On The Store:

Sports Basement isn’t what you’d expect. Sure, it’s a sports store, you can find more yoga mats than you can shake a stick at, running shoes for miles (at incredible prices,) a backcountry section where you’ll find everything you need for hiking the PCT or Burning Man, but there’s much more than that going on here. There is a super strong spirit of iconoclasm, and not trend bucking, but rather trend setting. This store has a great drive towards being a center for super strong community. This means you’ll find couches all over the place, community meetings almost on a daily basis, and don’t be surprised when you see some lively shopping parties. So, that’s what keeps a guy like me working in a place like that for 7 years!

About the Show:

The show opened on Friday February 3rd, and will run through the end of the month. (So there’s still time to go an check it out if you’re in the area!) One of the things that I love about living in this town is it’s broad diversity, and this show definitely reflected that both in the work, and in the crowd who showed up.

There we lots of different art exhibited, there were different types of painting, assemblage, photography, as well as live music, and a poetry reading.

*Christine shot a really nice video of the event, it runs for about 1:20, and shows a nice glance around the room at all the art and a bunch of the people who showed up. Check it out here! You can also check out more of her work on her blog.

*Erik Jutras (Hermano Mustachio number one as seen above!) also has a brilliant collection of photographs online; on his PhotoBlog and in his Portfolio

One of the events within the event, was that when people signed into the show they received a ticket that they could use to cast a vote for their favorite artist and/or art work. After the show was over, votes were tabulated and I was given the honor of being voted the most popular artist at the show! What a great surprise! I have to say that over all the works were all really great from everybody, and it was nice to see that so many of my friends are actively involved in their own creative lives.

* for more about these images and this project, check out this blog post: “Ivy Comes Home With 2 Literary Awards”

If you see any pieces that strike your fancy please send an inquiry, most of these works are for sale. Prints are available of all of my images, just shoot me a quick email and we’ll get you one made to order. The Skateboard decks are available through my zazzle shop.

If you haven’t already, consider signing up for my eBulletin through the form at the right side of this page. It’s a quarterly review of illustration related events and projects, and a great way to stay in touch. Thank you for reading along, and as ever, please feel free to leave a comment, I do respond well to enthusiasm!

Cheers