On my way home last night, I stopped at 11th and East Pine Street to take this photo of a wheat-pasted booze poster when a lanky hipster yelled, “Free art show!” Which seemed like a strange thing to get exited about. Galleries don’t generally charge admission, so art shows are usually free. It’s the art that I can’t afford. But, as it turned out, this wasn’t a free art show. It was a free art show. And this guy was trying to wrangle folks over to take some free art. Here are a few.

A few of the pieces on display were simplistic, but other pieces were smart. Jen Graves, resident art critic, calls free art “very exciting.” One of them, Sharpie on Plexiglass, is above my desk now. The artist called it a buffalo. I call it a holy cow.

Pedestrians were sort of hustling past to get out of the rain, adopting pieces one by one. “Last time we put it up, we went over there for ten minutes,” said one of the guys pointing at Cal Anderson Park. “When we came back, every thing was gone.”

“Seattle Street Art group on Flickr,” said another guy, Flickr name starheadboy, “that’s how we know each other.” He made me promise to check it out when I got home. So when I walked in the door, two pieces under my arm, I told my housemates that I had to check out this Seattle Street Art group. “I started that Flickr group,” says my housemate Kimberly. Sure enough, she did. And now there are 861 members, meeting each other, standing in the rain, and giving away free art. How awesome.