Merced Art Hop looks to expand this year
Click here to view original web page at www.mercedsunstar.com
The first Merced Art Hop of the year celebrated “Human Kindness” and self expression, while laying the groundwork for more events in 2016.
Downtown filled with hundreds of artists, musicians and hop-goers Saturday. The event garnered the “Human Kindness” theme from Dignity Health, this month’s Art Hop sponsor and the parent company of Mercy Medical Center.
The Merced Multicultural Arts Center displayed large, colorful paintings from local artists. Charles Benedict, 63, of Merced perused them early in the night.
“The arts are very important,” he said. “I consider them as important as any other academic aspect in life.”
Staring at a painting, he said – excusing what may sound cliché – is a window into the soul of the artist. Seeing the passion and compassion of an artist is the best part of Art Hop, he said.
The arts are very important. I consider them as important as any other academic aspect in life.
Children and adults in Bob Hart Square painted birdhouses and made tiny people out of wooden pegs. Others decorated hearts that would be given to patients at Merced’s hospital.
DJs spun recorded tracks while live musicians strummed guitars up and down Main Street. More than two dozen artists showed their work.
The night’s featured artists were the grandmother-grandson team of Darlene Adams, 67, and Jonathan Mondragon, 12, of Merced. The pair said they use art to bond as well as for self-expression.
Many of their pieces featured landscapes and wildlife. Jonathan also drew a handful of characters from comic books and animated movies.
“I’ve been doing this since high school,” Adams said. “When he was 3, he was drawing and narrating his pictures.”
Art Hop organizers also projected an art video on the side of the El Capitan Hotel and Pinocchio’s restaurant.
We opened up a new gallery downtown, so we’re right in the core.
Kevin Hammon, Art Hop co-creator, on the new Epekel Gallery
Kevin Hammon, who co-created Art Hop with Kimberly Zamora, said he has high hopes for the year’s quarterly offerings. It’s going into its eighth year in Merced.
The organizers opened the Epekel Gallery, the Art Hop’s own showroom, on Canal Street in October.
“We opened up a new gallery downtown, so we’re right in the core,” Hammon said.
Art Hop has become a mainstay of downtown Merced. It’s often described as a way to get people downtown who might not otherwise go.
As the hop continues to grow, Hammon said, he hopes to also expand its magazine.
“Right now, it’s been printed as kind of a brochure for the night of, but we hope to expand that,” he said.
The Epekel Gallery is expected to have an official grand opening in February.
Click here to view original web page at www.mercedsunstar.com
January 18, 2016