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Third Thursday ArtWalk offers Tacoma’s finest examples of painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, installations and mixed media among numerous other artistic expressions.

For those yet to experience the event it offers a non-threatening, come as you are, friendly introduction to a fascinating aspect of Tacoma’s culture. This self-guided tour allows you to move at your own pace and attend the galleries that interest you the most.

With only an hour to spare last night I hit three galleries â€" Two Vaults, Grand Impromptu Gallery and The Robert Daniel Gallery. I highly recommend catching their shows. Impressive.

Weekly Volcano art critic Alec Clayton will cover Two Vaults in next week’s rag. Clayton will concentrate on Chris Bliven’s CHROMA show, although the entire gallery offers exceptional eye candy and prizes for those with a fat wallet. James Kelsey, along with works by Steve Bernard, Marge McDonald and others as part of the citywide Metal-Urge event, snatched my attention right out of the door frame. My camera phone didn’t do Kelsey’s three open-frame yellow boxes piece justice. Luckily Two Vaults owner Paula Tutmarc-Johnson secured a photo of the magnificent piece, which I included in this post.

The Grand Impromptu Gallery’s Rock, Paper, Scissors show featured figurative sculpture by stone carver LeeAnn Seaburg Perry with Metal Urge guest artists Joni Joachims and Micki Lippe. Worthy. However, the work of co-op members Mirka Hokkanen and Peter Serko kept a reign on me.

Serko’s photography is my favorite Flickr journey. If he’d allowed his work to be pulled onto blogs it would find its way to Spew every time he posted. He has an eye for Tacoma. 

Mirka Hokkanen’s mixed media revolves around factory farming issues and humor. She takes an intaglio image then applies an encaustic layer. Amazing.

Last, the Robert Daniel Gallery, with its fancy cocktail, is featuring an amazing metal mobile-like piece that consumes an entire wall as part of the Metal-Urge event. Sorry, I didn’t catch the name of the artist. From what I understand, if you like what you see but don’t have the space for all of it, you can purchase sections. Check it out.

I’m a fan of Steve Naccarato’s photography, which lured me to the Robert Daniel on Fawcett Street. I caused a depression in the floor in front of Naccarato’s eastsound morning2 shot of a tiny island up toward the San Juans. Stunning.