Artist studio tour to launch anniversary night, Sept 14

By Morgan M. Hurley | SDUN Assistant Editor

The very first Ray @ Night was held on 9/11, and as a result, initial attendance was slow, said longtime resident and business owner David Troyan.

“[But] a couple hours into the event … slowly but surely people started coming,” he said. “They said, ‘We really needed to get away from the [TV],’ and it just grew from there.”

Twelve years later and despite that unfortunate debut date, Ray @ Night is thriving and will see its 12th anniversary Saturday, Sept. 14.

Ray @ Night celebrates the diverse arts and culture district located on Ray Street – the short, one-way street that runs between University Avenue and North Park Way – every second Saturday of the month. Not only do the art-related merchants on Ray Street stay open and participate, there is also live entertainment, workshops and demonstrations, more than a dozen arts and crafts vendor booths, and food trucks also on hand.

Troyan said the success of Ray @ Night is largely responsible for the “revitalization and re-gentrification” of North Park. “It’s beautiful, it’s wonderful, and it’s still going strong,” he said.

A master photographer who runs David Troyan Photography out of his Ray Street apartment, Troyan’s family has owned three buildings that take up two-thirds of the block for over 40 years. A small parking lot sits in the middle of the three buildings, and over the last decade, Troyan has offered up the north and south walls that line the lot to artists as workspace for murals.

Currently there are three small independent murals on the south wall, and one large 3D mural – that integrates a replica of one of Troyan’s photographs – on the north wall. The larger mural was completed by students from the Art Institute of San Diego, and extends up to the second-floor apartments.

Troyan said while the murals add much to the existing art district, paying the artists was not possible; however, offering the space and getting the supplies donated from both Frazee Paint and Dunn Edwards was his way of “giving back to the community.” Additionally, during Ray @ Night Troyan divides his small parking lot into spaces for art vendors.

Sculptor Mary Buckman has owned a fine-art studio at 3821 Ray St. for almost seven years. She now shares the space with her husband Anthony Enyedy, who was a graphics designer for San Diego Home/Garden magazine for 17 years before swapping his computer mouse for a paintbrush.

“You get all walks of life and a lot of young people that are interested in art, and I think it’s nice that it attracts them,” Buckman said about the monthly event.

Buckman also teaches private and group sculpting classes in their studio, which doubles as a gallery and is filled with Buckman’s unique sculptures, those of her students, and dozens of Enyedy’s paintings.

A couple doors down at 3813 Ray St. is Glimpse, an interior-design store which has a small mixture of jewelry and artwork consignments, but focuses on “mindful products” that are either eco-friendly, hand-made or locally made for the home and garden.

“I’ve been here for four years and I’ve seen a dramatic increase in people coming to Ray @ Night … which is really wonderful,” said Glimpse owner Lynle Ellis.

California natives Mike Fish and Tee Taylor are the husband-and-wife team behind Oh My Dog Studio, a pet photography business located at 3824 Ray St.

Taylor said the couple “made a lifestyle decision” to move from Encinitas, Calif. to the “urban village” of North Park a few years ago, and since then have become active in the local community, in part donating studio time to local dog-rescue organizations. Taylor is currently chair of North Park For the Arts, which operates Ray @ Night, among other initiatives promoting art.

Taylor announced a new event for North Park For the Arts, which will launch in conjunction with the Ray @ Night anniversary Sept. 14, and then every six months thereafter, called “Inside the Artist Studio Tour.” It is an affordable, artful “walkabout,” she said, that includes meeting local artists, participating in workshops, and sampling various culinary treats that takes place in the hours leading up to Ray @ Night.

“We’re trying to create more synergy with the local restaurants and hospitality groups,” Taylor said.

During Ray @ Night, Taylor said they have had lots of impromptu groups arrive unannounced over the last few years, including a recycled-art parade, a flea circus, aerial acrobats, fire dancers and even flash mobs.

“We never know what’s going to happen,” she said, adding that they also like people to “expect the unexpected” when it comes to the food trucks and bands they sign up for the monthly event.

“We’re trying to reach out beyond just the visual arts. That’s our goal,” Taylor said.

North Park For the Arts is an all-volunteer organization that meets monthly at the North Park Main Street offices and Taylor said they are always looking for new vendors, entertainers and volunteers for Ray @ Night and their various other projects.

“What keeps me going on with the effort – in addition to just promoting the arts – is that I absolutely love seeing so many people outside away from their televisions, interacting with each other, trying different foods, looking at art, talking with each other [and] laughing, just in that interactive community environment,” she said. “I think that anything that brings that, really to me, is the end goal.”

Ray @ Night celebrates its 12th anniversary on Saturday, Sept. 14, on Ray Street in North Park from 6 – 9 p.m. Ray @ Night is free to the public.

The initial artist-studio tour is $15 per person, and will take place from 3:30 – 7 p.m. The tour starts at Claire de Lune, located at 2906 University Ave. For more information about either event and to purchase tickets, visit northparkarts.org or call 619-299-4278.