Grand Opening of The Gallery Off Broadway

The bright, shining highlight of Friday's Art Crawl was our girl Kathleen's smash of a grand opening. Everyone was dressed to the nines, the music was smokin' and the wide range of artwork was most impressive. The best part was witnessing the gallery finally take shape and seeing Kathleen's dream become reality.

I've written previously about watching Kathleen work with Keith to create her own creative space and I've been blessed enough to be a bystander as she started with Gallery 105 and moved on to finding her own space. Soon thereafter, she found a space off Broadway and through blood, sweat, tears and the support of friends and family began evolving the place into her creative space. I was often gobsmacked watching Kathleen's vision materialize. On every visit, I would walk away with a new level of excitement for her as each piece of the puzzle fell into place. Sure, there were setbacks and frustrations....but she always forged on; sometimes with a gentle shove from Keith or simply by pulling up her own ever-stylish bootstraps....or stiletto straps, as it were.

The Gallery Off Broadway is a brilliant art space now; characterized by quirky design and the artwork of several artists. From Dan's beautiful renderings of seemingly innocuous everyday objects to Tosha's terrific TYPOGRFX (see here: http://www.grfxcreative.com/GRFX_Creative/Home.html ), not to mention Molly's unique pieces and of course, Kathleen's beautiful art, the gallery is quite the unique setting.

The Gallery truly sparkled for their opening. Kathleen's cocktail-inspired art framed the sleek and stylish bar area where colorful martinis, including the Have Your Cake And Meet Us Too martini, were being poured and sipped. Delicious food from BBQ to crudite were served and dessert was the very cool "Starry Night" cake; inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night painting. The entertainment was some truly righteous blues being played by renowned blues musician Billy Beale. Mr. Beale's blues were red-hot and this smooth bluesman was, to quote Kathleen, "a work of art" himself. The most touching portion of the evening arrived when Kathleen cut the ribbon and spoke of her journey to this breathtaking moment. She became choked up during her speech and I could see that Keith; ever so proud of "his girl", was a tad ferklempt himself. The official opening came to a close and astoundingly, Kathleen and her most excellent crew reset the gallery for a Corkscrews and Canvas party immediately after.

The Grand Opening was grand in every way and then some. Kathleen watched her dream become reality while surrounded by friends who helped make it happen. One of those friends, Keith, could not have been prouder of Kathleen. The K-Man has toiled greatly to help steer these businesses into fruition and he and Kathleen weathered many a storm to make it happen. As for me, it was truly a joy to watch both of these hard-working people see their efforts pay off brilliantly and get some well-deserved praise. Our girl Kathleen's vision has indeed borne fruit but her journey's just begun.

I can't wait for the next chapter.....in the meantime, check out The Gallery Off Broadway's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Gallery-Off-Broadway/161021613944320