Art walk expands every year

Bradley Laina, a guitarist and singer for Vaudeville Etiquette, performs Friday at Friendship Square in Moscow.

LATISHA JENSEN, Evergreen life editor

Hundreds of attendees, artists and musicians gathered to celebrate and appreciate art in all forms during the 2017 Moscow Artwalk, one of the town’s largest attractions that continues to grow each year.

Daniel Stewart, Moscow Farmers Market manager, organizes most community events by bringing vendors and supporting local business together.

“I love our community,” Stewart said. “I love working with … other local businesses, the vendors; it’s the most rewarding part for me. The people, that’s why I do my job.”

Artist Jim Robinson had a variety of work displayed in the Chamber of Commerce, including etch designs inspired from his own drawings and logos he designed on the sides of old car doors he finds at local wrecking yards. The oldest door is from the mid-1920s.

RACHEL SUN | The Daily Evergreen
Art walk attendee views Jim Robinson’s original logo designs.

A Moscow native, Robinson participated in the art walk for the second time this year. What started as a side job in 1976 turned into a passion when he added his creativity and began painting antique-style custom designs on the sides of cars, he said.

“A lot of what I do is old school hand lettering,” Robinson said. “There’s no computer design or nothing involved.”

The names on the doors are businesses from Moscow’s past, some of which he found in a 1954 phone book a friend gave him.

This is just one of the many projects Robinson is working on. His most recent pieces are large metal sculptures that are not yet ready for an art walk.

“I’ve had two people walk away from the doors and make a comment: ‘anybody could do this and just go the junk yard and get the doors,’” Robinson said. “So I fooled them.”

Joshua Nixon, patron and recent graduate of New Saint Andrews College, has attended the art walk for the past three years. This year he purchased art from spray paint artist Kaelyn McClaine who traveled from Tri-Cities to do live demonstrations at the event. McClaine designed a large landscape piece for Nixon in front of a mesmerized audience, he said.

RACHEL SUN | The Daily Evergreen
3-D chalk art representing the dedication of Palouse Specialty Physicians and Cancer Care Northwest.

“It’s probably not the last piece I’ll get. It’s nice to watch it being created, [and] you definitely can’t get that just buying it,” Nixon said. “There’s also personality to it.”

With a medium as simple as spray paint, a talented artist created a masterpiece he is proud to put up in his home to make it a nicer place to live, Nixon said.

“Moscow is important to me,” Nixon said. “I want to make sure that people who can make beautiful things … are able to do that.”

Nixon is a regular attendee of events throughout Moscow including the farmer’s market and festivals, and the art walk is one of his favorites, he said.

“I really enjoy going into businesses that I would go to every day but seeing local artists’ art up there on the walls,” Nixon said. “It’s really beautiful what people in our community are creating, and we don’t get to see that much of it, but during the art walk, we do.”