September Art Walk

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The monthly Art Walk is here again!  September is Small Business Month in Oakland, and at Rare Bird we’re toasting to independent businesses and local artists at the  Piedmont Avenue Art Walk!

September’s featured artists at Rare Bird draw their inspiration and materials from the natural world and far-flung cultures. Thomas Christopher Haag has painted murals across the U.S. and the world, including the captivating mural outside Rare Bird! Take a piece of this talented muralist’s work home, in the form of his paintings on wood and canvas.  Featured artist Brittany Barrett uses natural and upcycled materials to handcraft exquisite jewelry inspired by her world travels.

Browse Thomas and Brittany’s work all month long at Rare Bird, and mark your calendars for the Art Walk on Thursday, September 15 from 6-9pm, our monthly celebration of our featured artists. Admire, shop, laugh, sip wine and, as always, marinate in the sonic grooves of resident dj London Fog.

Be sure to check out our class page for artist workshops, and take note of our new Fall hours, 11am to 7pm, Tuesday through Sunday.

See you at the partay!

What: Piedmont Ave Art Walk

Featuring: Paintings by Thomas Haas and Native Drops jewelry  by Brittany Barrett

When: Thursday, September 15 from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Thomas Christopher Haas: Thomas Christopher Haag was born in Wichita, Kansas into a family as vast as the sea. He took chemistry and math classes for some reason at the University of Kansas and then dropped out and started hitchhiking. He has lived in Southern Mexico, Switzerland, India, Spain, the Pacific Northwest, the Great American Southwest, and now, Oakland, California. When he’s had to work, he’s been a commercial diver, propman, art director, low-volume smuggler, curator and gallery owner. He also once worked for eleven days in a dog food factory where they made kibbles’n bits, but he prefers to paint.

An avid muralist, both commissioned and not, he has painted buildings in Oaxaca, Barcelona, Venice, Albuquerque, Varinasi, Bangkok, Rangoon, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oakland, and many other places, under the names “detach”, “stove”, and “el pituitario”. He has exhibited with the likes of shepard fairey, chaz bojorquez, swoon, gaia, slinkachu, henry chalfant, mark jenkins, chris stain, and chip thomas. Using “reclaimed” housepaint taken from chemical disposal facilities, found wood, and discarded books, he constructs multi-layered, collaged paintings and assemblages which reference ancient cultures and spiritual traditions, but with just a hint of smart-ass. Homages to criminal saints, a bodhisattva telling a fart joke, events of divine banality and cosmic significance, stripped of pretense or stuffed with it. Either way, it’s all holy shit.

About Brittney Barrett: A Bay Area local, Brittany Barrett founded Native Drops in 2010. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and an insatiable passion for creativity, her business was inspired by the requests of friends and family to make them jewelry.  Brittany is inspired by the notion of adorning oneself with beautiful jewelry in order to cultivate a feeling of self love that can be shared with the world. A self-taught jewelry designer, Brittany has traveled around the world studying cultural art and design, learning and becoming inspired by how the world’s people use their natural resources to create beautiful wearable artwork. Brittany is dedicated to creating quality handmade jewelry using natural and sustainable materials whenever possible and can often be found perusing the bins at East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, and Scrap- A Source For the Resourceful, searching for interesting objects to use in her jewelry designs. Her favorite materials are reclaimed leather, vintage lace, found objects, upcycled fabric, and feathers from humane bird farms.