Tic Tac Hobo: Artist Talk

Archway Gallery presents Tic-Tac-Hobo, featuring prints and tapestries by Blaine Davis, on view from November 4 – 30, 2023. The artist will be available to visit with guests during the opening reception on Saturday, November 4, 2023, from 5 – 8 p.m., with an Artist Talk at 6:30 p.m.

For his first exhibition as a member of Archway Gallery, West U resident, printmaker, and weaver Blaine Davis takes the viewer on a tour through the decades of his creative life. The prints, linocuts, copper plate etchings, and tapestries that make up this exhibition include some of Davis’ early works, which are the first expressions of the ideas and images he has carried into his recent work.

Davis has always been drawn to the symbols, used by Hobos -- Depression-era, nomadic workers -- to convey information, directions, help, and warnings to fellow “Knights of the Road.” The title work consists of nine Hobo symbols arranged in a grid which reminded Davis of a game of tic-tac-toe. “I have used these symbols in my work for a long time, but this was the first instance where I included this much color, and I’m quite happy with the result,” says Davis. “I first used these symbols over 30 years ago. They were with me before all of the rest of the ideas and images in this show, and are still being used. I like the idea of my work with these symbols as a framing reference for the show.”

Info at archwaygallery.com