Chris Kent, a longtime friend of Caitlyn’s runs a pop up event at local breweries called Craft & Arts. We had been meaning to check it out for some time and yesterday was the day. The premise is pretty straightforward.
It’s like a wine and paint night except way cooler.
At Chapman Crafted, our group had a whole room to ourselves where Chris set up a plethora of art supplies that we would use for our work. The environment he creates is super welcoming. As a fan of beer and art, his energy for putting on his events is exciting, wacky, and incredibly infectious.
The price of admission includes a free beer that ends up being the focal point of the group for the first part of the night. He invites you to slow down, use your senses, and enjoy the craftsmanship of liquid wonder you hold in your hand.
After a short beer and art lesson,
We were off checking out all the stuff that he brought for us to play with. Honestly, I was a bit surprised at the amount of supplies that were available. Aside from typical paint, he had magazines, mod podge, tape, stencils, popsicle sticks, glue, and more.
Everyone starts with a 1′ x 2′ piece of plywood as their base but the sky’s the limit. Even though I already personally knew Chris, he was super helpful by using his experience to walk me through the process. I never felt like he was pushing his ideas onto me but I imagine that it would be different had I asked for input. He helped guide the two other ladies at the table and they seemed pretty pumped on his instruction and advice.
I tried to take my teacher hat off for the night but it’s nearly impossible to watch someone teach and not think about their teaching style and how it affects the learning.
Caitlyn went hard with the blues, greens and stencils while I spent the first fifteen minutes looking for a huge mouth in the stacks of magazines. Empty handed, I tore up an old textbook that had been highlighted. It’s funny because early on Chris mentioned that people often gravitate towards what they know and unconsciously, the book I chose was a mass communications textbook, much like the books I spent nights reading in my undergrad.
Eventually I ended up with some Basquiat-esque art that read “Speak Breathe Repeat” amongst a field of text and german line drawings. One of the workers was checking out my piece when she saw Caitlyn’s and immediately forgot about mine. We had a laugh and it was a not-so-gentle reminder why I prefer photography over paint.
All in all, it was a unique experience that I would do again and recommend to anyone for a double date/second date situation or homie hang out. You can check out more info at their Event Brite page where you can purchase tickets.
$35 for a beer, some knowledge and a good time? Sign me up.