Loving It.

Scenes From Saturday's For The Love of Kettle Event.

Turns out the thirst for affordable art is very real — especially when purchasing said art also comes in the form of an altruistic effort.

Just as was the case at last year's quite-crowded affair, folks once again stormed Deep Ellum's Kettle Art en masse on Saturday night for the gallery's annual For The Love of Kettle affair. This event, in case you need reminding, finds area artists donating small works to the gallery that are then turned around and sold for $50 apiece on a first-come, first-served basis. All funds raised on this night then go toward the annual upkeep of the space itself.

In turn, this year's event was a fast-paced one, with potential buyers starting to line up outside of Kettle Art as early as 5:30 p.m. — a full 90 minutes before the show's scheduled 7 p.m. start time. By the time doors opened, the line stretched all the way down Main Street and around the corner onto Pryor Street. And things only kept pace from there, with 77 of the show's 140 pieces selling in the first 20 minutes of doors opening and 102 of the pieces selling within the show's first hour.

It was like a good-natured Black Friday. Rightfully so, too. There were some cool pieces up for grabs, as the below photo set hopefully captures.

Miss this show? No worries. On Thursday night, you'll get a second chance of sorts as Kettle returns the favor to its contributing artists by hosting its also-annual For The Love of The Artists event, at which the gallery forfeits all expenses and gives all monies raised back to the artists themselves.