Mark Your Calendar: Emily Nachison at Oakland's Cricket Engine Gallery

Tonight is our monthly babysitting swap with friends, and I'm excited to get out and do something adult. (Hey, maybe we'll even have dinner somewhere with white tablecloths -- woo hoo!)

Since we've missed the last couple of Oakland Art Murmur events -- and since I'll be away in Portland for work during next week's "First Friday" -- I'm itching to see some art.

Lucky for me, there's an opening tonight for Oakland fiber- and multimedia artist Emily Nachison at Cricket Engine, a gallery space housed in a turn-of-the-century former military infirmary near the Oakland Marina.

Says Nachison of her folklore-inspired work: "Through stitching, screenprinting, assemblage, and painting I explore the mapping of memory through a language of enlarged images and symbols based on storybook illustrations. The enlarged scale and bright colors within my work are an expression of the amplified nature of memory and fantasy, as well as the inescapable presence of the natural world."

The Cricket Engine show, which kicks off with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. this evening, will be up through March 9. The gallery is located at 499 Embarcadero Ave., Building 3, in Oakland.

See more of Nachison's vibrant, fantastical art right here.