Did you go to ArtHop Thursday night? See anything interesting? My Beehive colleague Felicia Matlosz and I divvied up a few locations that looked promising.

Felicia writes:

There's something warmly magical that happens when children let their artistic imaginations run free. If you caught the First Annual Kid Art Show at the Chris Sorensen Studio, you would know exactly what I'm talking about. The premise for the paintings was simple: Each child got an 18"x18" canvas and used only primary colors of red, yellow and blue, plus black and white. So there, on the Sorensen walls, were squares and squares of lovely, boldly colored abstract art from the creative minds of children: strokes and swirls that evoked motion and joy.

You could appreciate, for example, a painting by 10-year-old Mackenzie Bridgeman: A flock of fanciful blue birds, their beaks just the palest of yellows, in flight in a sky filled with black musical notes. Or you could walk over to see a mesmerizing piece by 12-year-old Naseem Akhavan. He created shades of blues and grays that billowed out in small swirls from the center. I enjoyed it for its proportion and balance and design from someone so young.

The show was a delightful surprise on a cold, rainy Fresno evening.

Donald writes:

I started at Gallery 25, which has a show by Sunhee Kim and an unjuried group show of digital photography titled "Snapshots 2007." I was underwhelmed by both.

The "Snapshots" show featured a variety of subjects and approaches, and it's interesting just in terms of sheer diversity of photographic viewpoints. But the presentation, meant to evoke a mural without photo frames or borders, ends up looking skimpy on the big Gallery 25 walls.

Kim's works are mostly minimalist and delicate in scope. Perhaps it was the display, the subject matter, the technique or the juxtaposition with the anemic "Snapshots" exhibit, but to me Kim's work lacked "oomph." I didn't connect.

Felicia writes:

The square motif at the Sorenesen Studio continued down the street at the Fig Tree Gallery. The show was called "Exhibit 12"x12" @ $120," the idea being "unique and affordable artwork for holiday gifts." They're on display through Dec. 16. I couldn't help but chuckle that Ken Owens titled one of his works, "$0.83 per square inch." By the way, it's a mixed media piece depicting a human face with nuts and bolts. In the upper righthand corner, there's a narrow gap, with lips and a finger on the other side of the crack. Some of the panels could stand alone, while others would be better kept in tact as a set. Bill Bruce, for example, had three untitled squares (acrylic on canvas) of abstract designs in deep, bold reds, blues and blacks that transfix the eye and work together seamlessly. The same could be said for a set of three by Paulina Swietliczko. Her work first came to my attention last year, when she was chosen for the "Contemporary-Contemporáneo" artist-in-residence program presented by the Fresno Art Museum in partnership with the Mexican Consulate of Fresno. Her style blends realism with a touch of surrealism. And, maybe it's because she's a native of Poland, but there seems to be a touch of the European about her work. Her oil paintings for last year's residence program were themed on people, water and summer. The three squares at Fig Tree are all untitled (using watercolor/oil/pastels). They have a more spontaneous feel, as opposed to the look and composition of her large paintings. These squares, awash with pale yellow backgrounds, depict mostly female figures in sparse scenes, whether they are sitting (on a beach?) or waiting for others. They make you wonder what these women are thinking or anticipating.

Donald writes:

There's a strong show titled "Paint Job: Explorations of Painting Strategies" this month at Corridor 2122 featuring the work of three painters: Melissa Delaney, Nick Potter and Edward Lund. The interesting this is that all three artists share something in common: They use projections in their paintings. In other words, they shine an image on a wall and actually "trace" around it. Lund told me that some people don't really consider this "art," although one look at these compelling canvases -- and the amount of technique and artistry that went into them -- completely belies that belief.

The three take very different approaches. Delaney has used a macro-lens approach as she gets down to a very small scale. In her work "Glister and Trickle (Fig)," oil and acrylic and panel, it's as if you're looking at an otherworldly creation -- something a tiny aphid might see, perhaps, if were nesting in this fig leaf. In "Vista (Eggplant)," we're looking from the bumpy surface of the vegetable into an infinite, looming blue abyss beyond. It struck me that there's a vivid, sci-fi-pulp-bookcover quality pop to the image, as if we've just landed on an extremely alien planet.

Lund's work touches on nostalgia -- especially the warm feelings that many people today have for our "older" wars such as World War I and World War II. Lund's projection technique is to spotight different objects such as old World War I fighting planes and gather them onto one canvas, where their flattened perspective and collagelike juxtaposition give a distinct sense of looking back on an event as if it's a nostalgic photo album.

Potter, who uses photographs as the basis of his work, has some arresting paintings in the show, particularly his "Memoria," based on an old photograph of his mother. It's punchy and immediate, as if you're there with her in some sort of dance club. (One of the bystanders is looking directly at the photographer/painter, which gives a challenging feel to the work.) You can almost hear the pounding beat of the music.