First Friday was in full bloom Feb. 4. All along Eye, 20th and 19th Streets, lay a patchwork of handmade didgeridoo, paintings and sketches, as local artists and musicians gathered to display and potentially sell their art.
Set up in between 19th and 20th street, the BC Art Club displayed a collection of past student art in attempt to raise funds for new display cabinets. “Last semester there was a bunch of student artwork hung up in the Fine Arts building, with the lockers in it, and someone came around with red paint and just destroyed all the student artwork,” said BC Art member Chris Ballard.
“So what we’re doing tonight is take some of the old student pieces that were left by students throughout the years, and we’re trying to sell them to raise money to make display cases so we can still display student art, but it will be a lot safer.”
Further down Eye Street, near Wall Street, an instrument from half around the world could be heard.
“It’s said to be the oldest instrument in the world,” said Matthew J. Peters as curious onlookers passed by in curiosity of his handmade didgeridoo. Originating from Australia, the aborigines, Peters said, “would take hollow termite logs, where the termites would bore up the tree and it would die, then they would go and knock on it, find the hollow ones, tip them over, and make a mouthpiece out of bees wax.”
Constructed from yucca stalk, Peter’s didgeridoos took him about 10 hours of work to complete.
“I have to go out and find them, bring them back, cut them, hollow them, sand them all, shape the inside, glue them back together, pour two coats of epoxy down the center, two coats of epoxy on the outside, make the mouth piece, shape that and cook that. So it’s a process,” said Peters.
In regards to selling his exotic aerophone, Peters said, “It’s hard in town, but people have been seeing me because I’ve been doing a couple of art shows, and I’ve been coming out to First Friday.”
Hope Henderson, 17, local artist and author of manga novels, which she hopes to publish, also commented on marketing art in Bakersfield.
“I’ve known people who lived here and they couldn’t sell a thing, and they moved to another city, like Los Angeles or anywhere besides Bakersfield or the city surrounding, and they started selling really fast,” said Henderson.
And though First Friday doesn’t necessarily promise sales, Henderson went on to say about her recurring appearances at First Friday, “I like to show people what I love.”
Other artists participating that night set up their art with only the intention to be seen.
“What my goal was tonight was to just come out here and show my art. I didn’t plan on selling any, just want to get it out there, that’s all,” said Kristal Burton as she stood in front of her self-described expressionist drawings.
As the night progressed, the street brought many onlookers, with some artists exchanging cash for crafts but always conversing with inquiring folks, detailing on what they do.”First Friday is good,” said Peters.