Art battle

If you did not attend the red hot art festival this weekend, you missed out. You missed out on an all day rain storm, but you also missed out on great music by 30 bands, 100 artists from all over Minnesota (and beyond) and most of all, you missed out on Billy Vs Matt 12: the portrait art war.

I will be posting a bunch of pictures soon, but matt semke and myself spent the 14 hours at the festival painting people's portraits, having the crowd vote on their favorites, and then shooting the losing portrait with a super soaker filled with black ink.

We did 16 different portraits and Matt and myself tied 8 to 8. We were the only booth without a tent, and we got SOAKED as you can see by my wet coat in the photo below. The rain and wind did not stop us from creating art. Yet another chapter in Billy Vs Matt has closed, Round 13 is to be announced.

Return soon to see more photos.


photo by kris ericson

Jesse Valley Photography

My good friend has started a new photography studio in St. Louis Park, Minnesota! His name is Jesse Valley, and his studio is called Jesse Valley Photography. If you are living in West Minneapolis, St. Louis Park or other subburbs and you need photography done I personally recommend Jesse Valley. In fact, let him know I sent you.

His studio offers weddings, senior pictures, families, babies, & kids make sure to see his website linked above for examples and price information. I can personally guarantee his work, since I've known him since 2002 and I've lots of his photography, fine art, daba sculptures (which is another story altogether), and poetry. The guy is a perfectionist, has a great eye for photography, and is one of the nicest people I have ever met.

Jesse is married to Lisa Valley, who is a partner in the photography studio. I also got to know her in college at Winona State. She has good business skills, graphic design skills and a darn good eye for interior design. Together they have been doing some really impressive things. Just stop in to their St. Louis Park location to see their amazing studio. The place is incredibly professional, and extremely well laid out. From the logo, to the hanging scrolls and the referral program, the entire business seems to have been put together with great care and understanding of what a costumer might want. Needless to say I wish them the best of luck.

If you paid much attention to this blog last year, you know I was featuring Argente Photography a lot. Anyone reading this, who wants photography done on the east side of Minneapolis, Argente Photography is the place for you. I also know these two from college and art events in the cities. Chris and Cris also do great work. I seen to be surrounded by photographers lately. If you just simply want to browse some cool photos my good friend Kris (yes, a third kris- in just one blog post), is running a one photo per day blog and is currently on day #127.

Back to Jesse Valley and his photography studio. Recently, they had their grand opening in August. It was a great event. It further impressed me of their hard work to get a great space and impressive interior. I would like to invite everyone to check out Jesse Valley Photography. At Jesse Valley's grand opening he let people take their own portraits, and here is my favorite one of Kelsey and myself: