Last month, I bribed my 10-year-old son with candy to attend Art Walk Edmonds with me. He grumbled and complained about it, but at our first gallery stop, Aria Studio Gallery, he couldn’t stop asking questions. Painter Joan E. Archer did a demonstration using Yupo paper, and attendees enjoyed guessing what certain shapes and elements in the abstract painting could become. “I see a river!” “This could be a fire. “It is definitely set in the woods,” were some of the hypotheses. During this month’s Art Walk, she will also feature Yupo at 6:30 p.m. at 535 Main St., Edmonds. I hope to be there with my son in tow, no bribery needed this time!

Student artists from Holy Rosary featured at Bench And Board’s Skylight Gallery

Thursday, Feb. 16, 5-8 p.m 
Bench and Board Skylight Gallery
610 Main St., Edmonds

This February, Bench & Board’s Skylight Gallery has partnered with Art Walk Edmonds to feature the Artwork of local 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Come see Styrofoam prints by emerging artists from Holy Rosary School. Local artist Amber Pellegrini works with the students as an art teacher. Students from Brian Flanagan’s fifth-grade class, Caisey Carrol’s sixth-grade class, Gina Olsen’s seventh-grade class, and Kelly Stevens’ eighth-grade classes are on display. The students worked on an art project through their school art program and did monotype prints with markers. The prints are colorful, creative and feature so much love. Stop by the gallery during business hours or at the third Thursday Art Walk.

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Michelangelo’s “David”: Everything You Wanted to Know!

Tuesday, Feb. 28, 7-8:30 p.m.
Gallery at Graphite 
202a Main St., Edmonds

Artist, critic and educator Gary Faigin offers a lively look at one of world’s most famous and venerated artworks, Michelangelo’s David. Even for those who have seen the original in Florence, Faigin offers new insights and historical perspectives at this free event. Why, for instance, is it so large? Why is it carved out of marble, rather than cast in bronze, like earlier versions? And why, at a time when Florence had just established a fragile and threatened republic, was it thought worthy of civic support? Guests will revisit a fascinating and often misunderstood time, when artistic giants like Raphael and Leonardo were at the heights of their careers, and larger-than-life political characters like Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia strode the Italian stage.

Gary Faigin is an artist, educator, speaker and co-founder and artistic director of Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. His work has been exhibited widely with solo exhibitions in Seattle and Santa Fe, including retrospectives at Seattle’s Frye Art Museum and the Coos Museum of Art in Oregon. Faigin is the author of The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression, the standard reference work on the subject for artists of all types, especially the animation industry. He was art critic for NPR station KUOW and The Seattle Times, with over 150 reviews to his credit. He has led almost 50 art tours, both domestically and in Europe. Faigin also serves on the board of Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds. For more, check out his Instagram.

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“Fun Home” – A Ballyhoo Theatre Mainstage Production in partnership with The Black Box at Edmonds College

March 3-19
Black Box Theatre at Edmonds College
20310 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood

The winner of five 2015 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Fun Home is a musical adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori from Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir of the same name. When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires.

Jean Craciun, one of the producers of Fun Home, has striking similarities to Alison Bechdel, who wrote the original source material – the book Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. The “fun home” refers to the Bechdel Funeral Home, where Alison was raised, and where much of the piece is set. Alison, throughout the piece (and her childhood), discovers that she is a lesbian, and writes about how this impacted her family. This piece is Jean’s favorite musical, because, like Alison Bechdel, she is a lesbian who was raised in the family funeral home (Craciun Funeral Home in Cleveland, Ohio, just 200 miles away from where Alison Bechdel was raised). Jeannie and Alison both went to college in Ohio, both came out to their parents while at college, and both were the organizers of “Take Back The Night” protests at their respective colleges. She has been able to work with the cast to give them a deeper understanding of the time, place, and circumstances surrounding this amazing story!

“Fun Home” is rated PG-13 and may not be suitable for younger children. For more tickets and more information, click here.

— By Elizabeth Murray

Elizabeth Murray is a freelance writer thankful to call Edmonds home. When she’s not busy wrangling her two kids (and husband), you can find her playing ukulele and singing with The Band LeLe.