Gigantic Art Exhibit On Madison

There's something about being free and alive at night in Lakewood. From bars with their mixes of down to earth weirdos to the vibrant, friendly neighborhoods between main thoroughfares, people are open, friendly, and having fun. We create ourselves through one another. We generate culture within culture. There is so much diversity, and yet such connectedness - no wonder it’s such fertile ground for the arts.

Few establishments exemplify this fertility like Bela Dubby. Located at 13321 Madison, the small coffee, ale and art house has played host to the local art community for years, offering stand-up comics, avant-punk bands, local knitting and theater troupes, experimental musicians, and local poets, offering them a place to meet and perform on a regular basis; and offering their walls as a display space for local painters.

This month, my work, "Whyt(e) Face(z) Bait the Ha(y)ter(z),"* a nearly 500 square foot project, covers Bela Dubby's walls from top to bottom. Eleven-foot-tall murals frame massive centerpieces inspired by the interplay of rational and emotional forces within a single consciousness. Oils, acrylics, watercolors, mixed media, and more are applied to primed wood salvaged from discarded palettes and remnants from the dumpsters at construction sites. A girl scatters flower petals and assorted hand tools across a hilly meadow. Proud parents peer into their child's cradle. An apprehensive bunny stands at the precipice of water. 

I am a carpenter's apprentice by trade and have been nursing artistic impulses for six years now, and am very excited about the result. I feel that this is truly some of the best work I have ever done and I cannot emphasize enough how badly I want to share it with you, all of you, any of you who are willing to read. These paintings . . . I became part of them. Their eyes met my eyes and I became entranced before them on several occasions. We laughed together. We cried together. We unfolded one another and became naked. Please, please come and see what we have created. It is my absolute pride and joy and it really is all I have to offer the world.

The work will remain until the end of November. After that it's going to need a good home. So come in, have a cup of coffee or a beer, catch a casual rock show, and see the paintings.

Bela Dubby is open 10 a.m. - 11 p.m. Monday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 1 a.m. Fri-Sat, and is closed on Sunday.

*The name of the exhibit is not intended to communicate racist attitudes. Think of whiteness in terms of things that are whitewashed or made to appear immaculate and you’ll arrive at a more intended meaning.