Islanders can celebrate the arrival of April by soaking up a slew of colorful artwork at the First Friday Gallery Cruise, 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 2.

VALISE installation aims to surprise its neighbors

Elizabeth Conner, VALISE member, and Jacob Galle, an artist who farms in a small town in Maine, will collaborate with several of VALISE’s neighbors in downtown Vashon to create an installation that begins in the VALISE Gallery and may spill into the street.

The precise results of this week-long effort will be a surprise to all, including the artists and the businesses loaning items from their inventories and sharing stories about what they do and create for a living.

Galle and Conner have communicated cross-country since January, trading ideas and images that may also appear in the gallery and streetscape.

Blue Heron welcomes tapestry artists

Thirteen regional tapestry artists, Tapestry Artists of Puget Sound (TAPS), will fill the Blue Heron Gallery in April with more than 30 new textile works.

Founded in 1990, the group shares techniques, philosophy and inspiration to express their artistic vision around weaving.

TAPS has exhibited throughout the Northwest during the past 20 years, including shows at the Tacoma Art Museum, Mercer Island Gallery, Frye Museum and Nordic Heritage Museum. They showed at the Blue Heron Gallery in 2003.

The opening reception on Friday will also include live music by horn player Richard Person and pianist Jim Hobson along with complimentary refreshments.

Two Wall has a tricky show

In a nod to April Fools’ Day, Two Wall’s new show, “Foolery,” will showcase art that tricks the eye in one way or another.

“Foolery” was organized and presented by guest curator Patti Bowman of Seattle.

The artworks include pieces by Kelly Lyles, April Richardson, Hester Mallonee, Lisa Jacoby, Ethan Bickel, Karlista Rickerson, Tijana Kojic, Dayton Knipher, Laura Thorne, Stephanie Dickie, Susan Brown and Patti Bowman.

Poetry Month kicks off at the Tea Shop

Kajira Wyn Berry, calligrapher, will display her beloved “Hiway Haiku” placards at the Tea Shop, to mark National Poetry Month.

It’s the first of three celebrations of haiku in April.

“Hiway Haiku Comes in From the Rain,” a weekend of workshops and performances, will take place April 24 and 25 at Blue Heron Art Center as part of Vashon Allied Arts “New Works” series. Local poet Ann Spiers is producing the event.

Kids’ art is on view, too

Colorful bird portraits by Jan Smith’s Chautauqua fourth-grade students will be on display in the hallway of Vashon Bookshop.

Working with artist Rose Belknap, the children made the art as an enhancement to their bird studies through Vashon Audubon Society’s fourth-grade birding program — an annual series of workshops that has taught Chautauqua students about the birds of Vashon and Maury Islands since 1990.

Notecard prints of the artwork will be for sale at the bookshop through the month of April; all proceeds from sales will benefit the birding program.

At the Monkey Tree Restaurant, Joleen McCauley’s kindergarten class will display their “action paintings” inspired by Jackson Pollock’s freestyle techniques. McCauley figured that “action painting” would fit well with the attention span and activity level of 5- and 6 year-olds. The artists moved their bodies to music as they “painted” with a variety of materials.