Calumet galleries to hold First Friday art receptions Apr. 2

CALUMET -- First Friday, April 2, in Calumet will include several exhibit openings and art activities -- free and open to the public.

Copper Country Associated Artists offer creative art session

The Copper Country Associated Artists (CCAA) studio gallery will host a creative First Friday session on Artist Trading Cards.

CCAA members, from left, Ginny Douglas, Dolly Luoma and Fredi Taddeucci stir the creative mind to produce mini Trading Cards at the CCAA Studio/Gallery. (Photos courtesy Miriam Pickens)

You’re not going to find Artist Trading Cards packaged with bubble gum. Each one is completely unique. They have the same size and shape as baseball cards, but they are hand created pieces of art. The back is reserved for the details: title, date, name of artist and other information so they become a memory for yourself or a piece to trade with a friend or another artist you might meet or other friends or relations.

Join CCAA members, Ginny Douglas, Dolly Luoma, Fredi Taddeucci and Edith Wiard and together create these wonderful little works of your Art presented in a very small space. They are expressions of your own personality. They’re prettier than baseball cards and are wonderful objects to bring along when you travel. You can display them on a shelf, or store them in a binder…regardless…they’re fun to create and great to collect and trade.

The Copper Country Associated Artists invite you to create these cards using materials we love to share and to show and trade ones you may already have. Come join us anytime from 6:30 p.m. until about 8:30 p.m. on Friday, April 2, and express your creative self.

First Friday CCAA demonstrations are an opportunity to introduce visitors to a variety of arts and fine craft techniques by some of the area’s most talented practitioners.

The CCAA Gallery is located at 112 Fifth Street in Calumet. Winter Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. First Fridays, the Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. For more information about the CCAA call 906-337-1252 or visit our web site at ccaartists.org. More than 50 years supporting artists and the arts.

Vertin Gallery to host reception for Paul Osmak Exhibit

An opening reception for "What You See Is What You Get," an exhibit of works by Paul Osmak, will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, April 2, at the Vertin Gallery, 220 6th Street, Calumet. The exhibit will continue through April 28.

"Evening Concert," by Paul Osmak. Acrylic 1990-2010. (Photo courtesy Vertin Gallery)

Paul Osmak is an acrylic artist who depicts an array of local scenes, from downtown Calumet to a winter view of the Quincy mine hoist. His unique vision is immediately recognizable by his use of light, color and content. His works have become very collectable.

Osmak says this about himself: "I’m 80 years old. I’ve been painting (off and on -- now and then) since I was 21 years old.I paint more in the winter time than during the summer. I have had many different kinds of jobs: everything from lumberjack, barber, factory worker, underground copper mine worker, dish washer, to working in the engine room of Great Lakes freighters."

The reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Miskwabik Ed Gray Gallery all-media show to open April 2

First Friday at the Miskwabik Ed Gray Gallery will feature the opening of "Games from the Artists," an open, juried, all-media show on exhibit from April 2 to May 4, 2010.

The opening reception will be from 6:30 p.m.– 9 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

The Miskwabik Ed Gray Gallery is at 109 Fifth Street, Calumet. For more information call 337-5970.