First Friday to offer art, FiberRama sale, music Oct. 1

HANCOCK, CALUMET -- This First Friday, Oct. 1, offers art gallery receptions in both Calumet and Hancock and musical entertainment as well.

Community Arts Center in Hancock to host three First Friday events

A closing reception for Marquette artist Andy Gregg's Bike Art will be held from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Community Arts Center. Refreshments will be served.

Gregg makes functional eco-friendly furniture from salvaged bike parts. His chairs, tables, barstools, coat racks and mirrors are modern and stylish with an urban look. The artist, who has a fine arts degree in photography, was inspired by designers and architects such as Mies van der Rohe and Charles Eames. Click here to read our Sept. 5 article with some samples of Gregg's work.

Following the reception downstairs, Phyllis Fredendall, fiber artist and Finlandia University professor, will give a slide presentation and talk about rag rugs in Finland, their widespread use and their loving care from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. upstairs in the Community Arts Center's ballroom. A suggested donation of $5 at the door includes a special preview shopping at FiberRama, a sale of yarn, fabric and notions from 7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Proceeds from FiberRama will benefit the Community Arts Center. The sale will open to the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2.

The Community Arts Center is located at 126 Quincy Street in Hancock and is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Call 482-2333 for more information.

Ed Gray Gallery to host two-person show

For the month of October, the Ed Gray Gallery in Calumet will present a two-person exhibit featuring Linda Ferguson and Barry Bernstein. A reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1.

Ferguson says her series of paintings and drawings, "What Birds Fly Through," is meant to represent the atmosphere of a forest landscape.

Ferguson studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and acted as a gallery curator for fifteen years. She is currently pursuing an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Barry Bernstein’s pottery has been influenced by the work of Marv Zehnder, former NMU ceramic professor; Richard Devore, and Joseph Albers.

"My pots are wheel thrown vessels," Bernstein says. "I use the vessel form as my canvas and the firing process as my paint brush. It’s important for me to have intense color on top of wheel thrown pieces. Incidentally, it took me about 20 years before I felt that I had begun to get these things right."

Bernstein uses his surroundings to inspire his work. The slits in his pieces reflect his experience with the Dead River Falls; the square cut-outs in the pots represent the ore dock in Marquette.

The Ed Gray Gallery is located at at 109 Fifth St, Calumet.

Vertin Gallery to present David Niec exhibit

An opening reception for "Seasons in the Wild: Night and Day," an exhibit of paintings by David Niec, will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1, at the Vertin Gallery in Calumet. The exhibit will run through Nov. 3.

The Vertin Gallery is at 220 Sixth St. in Calumet. For more information call 906-337-2200.

Copper Country Associated Artists to offer Origami art

From 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. this Friday, the Copper Country Associated Artists (CCAA) in Calumet invite the public to join in making flying folded paper cranes and fishes floating as a mobile. It's the ancient art of Origami. For over 300 years, Japanese mothers have been teaching this wonderful art of paper folding. And your turn is now. Members of the CCAA will provide the materials and instruction needed to turn folded paper cranes and fishes into a small balanced mobile. The CCAA Studio/Gallery is at 112 Fifth Street, Calumet.

Music at Conglomerate Café

From Oren Tikkanen:

Libby Meyer, the Music Doctor, will bring her furious fiddling and her rag-tag band of Old Hippies, aka the Conglomeratz, to the Conglomerate Café on 5th Street in Calumet to celebrate the First Friday of the Autumn. Libby and the 'Ratz will be stirring up a fine stew of Irish and American fiddle tunes, folk-songs, Finnish and other European dance melodies, and who knows what. Take a break while art-gallery browsing, and stop in for some of Madame Babette's fine pastries, coffee, tea, or something stronger. Enjoy the music from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. this Friday, Oct 1.

The Conglomeratz are Hugh Ralinovsky, the hermit painter from Jacobsville, on mandolin; Doug Bacon, finalist in the competition for "longest senior citizen pony-tail," on guitar and 5-string banjo; Oren Tikkanen, the original Calumet Beatnik, on tenor banjo, spoons, and anything left over.