By Hand art gallery exhibit celebrates 35 years of Fourth Street Art Festival

Silk scarves are Linda Knudson’s specialty, but her interest in dyeing gives her a release that the scarves do not.

“It’s a zen to get the right color,” said Knudson, a self-described colorist and one of the By Hand Gallery owners.

“As far as art goes, there are different things that move you, the place inside you that makes you want to get up and do stuff. For me, it’s color.”

Knudson is one of 10 cooperative members that run the By Hand art gallery in downtown Bloomington.

On Aug. 5, the 10 members welcomed more than 40 students and local residents to the August Downtown Bloomington Gallery Walk.

The gallery’s theme for this month’s walk is a “Celebration of 35 years of the Fourth Street Art Festival.”  The exhibit will remain open through the end of the month.

Photography and paintings dotted the walls. Silk scarves, blown glass and thrown sculptures scattered the aisles and refreshments were available on a table.

The Gallery Walk showcased only local work from the Bloomington Community Arts Commission, including various works by each of the cooperative members.

Besides Knudson’s scarves and dyeing, the other nine cooperative members at By Hand each contributed different medium pieces to the Fountain Square Mall gallery.

“I do silk, we have three members who do clay, two jewelers and four fiber people,” Knudson said. “We all work in separate ways to make the gallery run.”

IU graduate Ashley Thomas said she visits galleries whenever she can.

“It’s more outside of IU, and it feels kind of nice to see what we have here,” Thomas said.

Thomas is a former studio art major at IU’s Henry Radford School of Fine Arts.

She said she was interested in the thrown clay pieces and cups and mugs By Hand displayed.

“I like the whole creation process of it,” Thomas said. “I think it’s fun and interesting to see.”

IU Associate Professor Rebecca Manring and Bloomington poet Tim Bagwell said they agree with Thomas in that the local artists handiwork is fun to see.

“My interest in art is more of an ignorant appreciation of what’s around me,” Manring said. “But it’s a nice Friday night.

“It’s a nice thing to get out and do, and it doesn’t cost much.”

Manring and Bagwell have been attending the Fourth Street Gallery walks for about
three years.

“It’s fun to see who’s out and what’s around,” Manring said. “Bloomington is just a nice
community.”