First Friday April

Par usual, you can find me this First Friday with my fellow artists vending around Garfield st.

If you haven't had a chance to see First Friday, or if you're just visiting Arizona for the first time, you really should swing by and see it for yourself.

When I first landed in Arizona and walked through my very first First Friday event in the middle of the unforgiving July Phoenix heat, I was blown away. I hail from Los Angeles, and have sought out art events whenever I could, but never in my life had I seen an event like First Friday.

I was warned before hand not to expect a big crowd because of the heat. Apparently no one cared too much about sweating out the walk because I must have seen thousands of people wandering the closed off streets.

The most amazing thing though, wasn't the crowd of onlookers, but rather the seemingly endless number of artists. Their work crowded galleries, sidewalks and lined the vendor booths on Garfield st. I couldn't fathom the idea that all these houses I'd been driving by every day actually housed hundreds and hundreds of artists, just waiting for First Friday to come out from behind their doors. If First Friday is any basis, than Phoenix must have more artists per capita than most of the cities I've been too.

See, for me, Phoenix is a bit of a surprise. I'm used to seeing tall buildings, old Victorian buildings, monster transit systems and generally a city that's bigger than life (LA, Chicago, China). Phoenix, though struck me as this small town. Everything about it was small. All the buildings are short and squat and unassuming, the landscape is long and flat save for a few mountains on the horizon that seem more like old rock memories of mountains to me than a real living thing. The idea that these little buildings could be the center for a music scene or popular gallery seemed ridiculous to me. Everyone kept telling me about this amazing art event that I had just had to see, and beyond reason, it was happening in Phoenix. Not LA or New York or Chicago or even Seatlle, but in this smallish unassuming town.

It's still strange to me, but I've got to hand it to these Phoneixians: they certainly make their small buildings seem large when you give them the opportunity.

It's also refreshing to see a community taking such a part in it's reinvention. I've seen art districts rise and fall, and most often, they fell because the community just didn't care enough. It still surprises me, because I just didn't expect it, but apparently Phoenix does.

First Friday is from around 6pm to around 11pm. There's a shuttle that picks you up at the Library. Go to http://www.rooseveltrow.org for more information.