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You are here: Home / Friends / Craft + Arts

Craft + Arts

May 10, 2019

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.

He had three sheets of instructions, samples and inspiration for us to draw from. I really like the vibe of his teaching materials. It’s obvious he spent time putting them together and whittling them down to their core.
Old friends Chris and Caitlyn catch up over a couple of beers.

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 self proclaimed “King of Boomerangs” showcasing his skills.

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.

So much fun stuff to work with.
Instruction was short and sweet.
I’m a sucker for stencils, so I had to try really hard to not use them for my piece.

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 really liked how Chris was able to find and make connections between everyone at the table. Through conversation, we all found out that we shared a deep appreciation for Mammoth Lakes.

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.

Caitlyn in a moment of thought as she lays out her palm tree on her canvas.
I think the stencil texture behind the trees is what gives her work that little extra x-factor that outshined everybody else.

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.

Moments before my first fan forgot all about me.
Close up of my work. I really enjoyed the little line drawings I ripped out of a german language book. All of them were terrible things like people coughing, being sick or otherwise tormented. The little bit you can see here is of a person being consoled while crying.

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.

I’m not saying that he has to, but this would make for great marketing material for Craft & Arts.

$35 for a beer, some knowledge and a good time? Sign me up.

Check out his Instagram for more photos of other nights.

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Filed Under: Friends Tagged With: art, beer, brewery, craft & arts, Orange

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