As many of us are gearing up for the holidays, so is the arts community— that means gift buying opportunities, and so, below you'll find info on various seasonal celebrations of self-gifting, normal-gifting, and other art gifts available for purchase tonight during the First Thursday art walk.

Self-gifting: it's an idea I generally embrace— evidence, my sweet new headphones— and by the looks of it, so does Elroy Artspace, opening its doors tonight for a group show, The Grinch’s Revenge — A Self-Gifting Event. Next to the work of three other local artists, Myah Bailey will be showing prints from her Ecotone and Collective_Nouns series. I'm particularly drawn to Bailey's Tilt_Shift photos which aren't in the show, which is a bummer, considering that the majority of the work I've seen from this exhibit is limited to a digital-design aesthetic of the Adobe Illustrator variety (which doesn't really do it for me). On the other hand, if you're comfortable breaching the self-gift concept, the prints in the show look like they'd make safe I-don't-know-you-that-well gifts for new family members, or ones that you only see once a year during the holiday season. (Elroy Artspace is located at 1720 NW Lovejoy and will open tonight from 5-9 pm.)

There's a new gallery in the Everett Station Lofts called Garbageman Astronaut (#106), and their inaugural show last month featuring the Rorschach-esque collage work of Jason Lee Starin (one of the space's curators) was more than impressive. While the details are scant, this month's Seasonal Sellout is described by the Garbageman blog as a presentation of "Craft and Art objects ranging from wood, metal, ceramics, glass, textiles collage and painting, created by artists and makers from all around. Everything is handmade, unique and completely giftable." If Seasonal Sellout is anything like last month's show, it'll well worth checking out.

Possibly the most exciting of this month's First Thursday openings is Upper Playground's Pioneers, a group show featuring nearly a dozen local artists. Pictured at the top of this post is a painting by Blaine Fontana, which'll be up in the show. A few of the noteworthy locals to be featured include painter Ashley Montague, tattoo artist Craig Brown, and illustrator/designer Guy Burwell. Pioneers marks a higher price point in the art-gift stratum, though nobody is twisting your arm. (Upper Playground is located at 23 NW 5th Ave. and will be open tonight from 6-9 pm.)

Lastly, as featured in this week's print issue, the Dill Pickle Club is taking over the Eyeful Gallery for the next month, starting tonight with an opening reception for their art show and temporary bookshop (located in the Everett Station Lofts, 625 NW Everett). Opens at 6 pm!

Alright Blogtown, I'm off to go check out tonight's First Thursday stuff.