I cannot tell you how elated I am that Alley Cat Art Walk is coming back to El Cajon. It stopped the year before I began working here, and with our office being part of the Art Alley businesses, we are extremely happy to be part of this event that is promoting the many art galleries that are here on an everyday basis. It’s a tight knit group of businesses here in the alley and there is barely a day that we are not in the alley talking about anything and everything.
I cannot tell you how elated I am that Alley Cat Art Walk is coming back to El Cajon. It stopped the year before I began working here, and with our office being part of the Art Alley businesses, we are extremely happy to be part of this event that is promoting the many art galleries that are here on an everyday basis. It’s a tight knit group of businesses here in the alley and there is barely a day that we are not in the alley talking about anything and everything.
Remembering when I first started working, the first things that I noticed in roaming the alley were all the murals and paintings that line the alley. As an artist, it was heartening to see such a beautiful display of local talent prominently displayed so that the entire community could walk through and enjoy. I am always seeing and talking to people that are coming through the alley, many of them for the first time and the first thing they do is pull out their cell phones or cameras and begin taking photographs of all of these murals. They alone make this spot of El Cajon a very special place to be and see.
In my conversations with the local businesses, the discussion of bringing Alley Cat back has been a focus of the several artists that call this alley home. I am thankful that the City of El Cajon, the Downtown El Cajon Business Partners, and mostly, the owners of the businesses here in the alley that rallied together to make this signature event possible again. It is my hope that this event will return to downtown El Cajon on a regular basis. It has so much to offer, not only to the community of El Cajon, but its outlying communities as well. It has the probable chance of becoming, once again, a large art community event that benefits these local businesses and the community at whole.
There is going to be so much to see, as a majority of the businesses are hosting other local artists as well and the diverse amount of hand crafted art that will be on display at all of these places is sure to be a draw for many that love the arts. And that said there are some remarkable artists that call this alley their home whether they do the art themselves or display the art of other remarkable artists.
There is nothing like seeing the “Mona Lisa” in person at the Louvre museum in Paris, “The Last Supper” at the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel, “The Blue Boy” at the Huntington Library in San Morino. I love the art museums and have been fortunate in my travels to see all types of art and history in person and stand with awe as I look at these magnificent pieces of paintings, sculptures, and mixed media art from all ages throughout our history. Art is a universal part of our history in the world, like books, they stand the test of time and each one has a story of history to tell.
Although Alley Cat is designed to headline our local artists here in El Cajon and East County, I love the fact that they haven’t forgotten about our children. More than ever it is important that we expose our children to arts of all types, from the Masters’ to the new and upcoming artist. In this digital age, the art of creation with your hands is losing against the digital art era. This is not to downplay the wonderful art that is being created digitally as I am sure that much of it will go down in history just has art has progressed and changed over the lifespan of humankind. But I do believe that our children of today are lacking in the idea of creation by hand and mind. It is so much easier to work digitally, when you know how to use the digital tools and there is a lot of room for error that can be corrected quickly until you come up with a final piece. But there is nothing that compares in creating something using your hands, eyes and creative mind. It not only brings satisfaction and a greater value to a piece of art, it teaches us that wonderful things take time, patience, dedication, critical and creative thinking. These are lessons that will last a child a lifetime when exposed to them at an early age.
So bring your children. Talk to them about the art that they are seeing. Let them ask the artists how they created their art and then take them to the children’s booths to do some creations of their own. Our country seems hell-bent on destroying the arts in education, so it is up to us as parents, grandparents and mentors to pass along the craft of art to our future artists.
