Friday, October 2, 2009 was the kick off of the 19th Annual Jersey City Artists Studio Tour. The party started at Grace Van Vorst Church on Erie Street in Downtown Jersey City. The wine was flowing (Jersey Wine & Spirits), the band was playing, and the crowd was swelling. On the walls were images of assorted mediums, from photography to collage to painting.

On Saturday, despite the rain which was on and off until 3pm, I did the walkabout with a friend. Starting out at Grove Street, we visited about 20-25 different studios, in garages, in spacious condo’s and some were group shows in gallery spaces. The Morgan Industrial Center, featured street artists, but because of the rain, some of the art was inside (I expect today it’ll be outside in the sunshine). The 8th annual, Vital Voices Group Show at the Lex Leonard Gallery was one of the stops. I’m a big fan of John Crittenden‘s photography (ShowMeYourFaces.com), and Miguel Cardenas’s 3D animated multimedia displays. Also at this location was Vincent Minervini (vincentminervini.com)

Here are some of the artists we went to see: Andrew Blaize Bovasso (bovasso.blogspot.com), Jonathan Wolf, Marco Beria (marcoberia.com), Beth Achenbach (eye4onestudios.com), Arthur Bruso & Raymond E. Mingst (Curious Matter, curiousmatter.blogspot.com), Pamela Mijal (True Story – designing between the lines), Nancy S. Lucas-Miller, Lynda D’Amico (lyndadamico.com), Tatsuro Nishimura Photography (tatsuronishimura.com), Robert Kogge (neoimages.com), Robert Koch Sculpture (robertkochstudios.com), Philip Nickolas (philipnickolas.com), Jamie Patterson, Peter Delman (peterdelman.com), and Peg McCreary (pegmccreary.com).

It’s a wonderful experience when artists open their studio doors and it’s a good thing that it’s a two day event, because it would be impossible to see everything in one day. Today I’ll be out there for more.

Here’s a link to see the photos I snapped up yesterday.