Friday, August 25, 2006

The Art Crawl

Last night, I went on an "art crawl." This consisted of meeting up with a bunch of snooty art collectors at an old folk's home (actually, the tagline for the art crawl was "more artsy, less fartsy" so really, how snooty could they be?), boarding a trolley, loading up with food and beverages (we each received an airline sized bottle of wine to drink straight out of the bottle...nothing says refined snooty art collector quite like drinking wine out of the bottle and 40 open containers in a motor vehicle), and taking a 30 minute ride from the suburbs down into the jungle that is downtown, aka The Crossroads, aka The Arts District, fka blight.

It's been awhile since I've posted any pictures, so in keeping with the theme of posting pictures of the back of people's heads (seen here and here), how about a picture of us boarded up on the trolley and "rearing" to go:


Our destination? The Review studios, home of a wonderful art magazine publishing company and several large artist studios. Our tour was mostly hot and sweaty, in an old industrial warehouse (no air conditioning) that has served as a dairy and fire extinguisher manufacturing plant, but not at the same time. All of my energy was spent trying to cool off and refrain from passing out until I was safely back on the trolley. Once back on the trolley, we got air conditioning and a collector's review of what we had seen at The Review. I was surprised when the collector said that, of all the "up and coming artists" we had seen, this one was his favorite (click on the photo to enlarge and appreciate this work in all its glory), and the only one he would consider collecting. This piece sells for $6,000. No joke. I nearly used the "art" to wipe the sweat off my brow...yes, those are towels. I had a hard time relating to this woman's artwork although she was the most technical, the most intellectual and the most impressive of all the artists we visited. I guess I'm just missing the point (which she said had to do with texture and precision and texture and...that's all I remember).


My favorite was a small watercolor portrait of a black woman sitting in front of a window, painted by Lonnie Powell, a talented figure painter. I had seen his work before and knew he was more than just an "up and coming artist." Just out of curiosity, I asked how much he would sell it for. $2,500! *choke* Alrighty then. I guess I don't need it that badly.

Overall, it was an interesting evening, but really, the most memorable part of the evening was the extreme heat and compassion for the artists who have to work under such extreme conditions.

4 Comments:

At 4:16 PM, August 26, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i have nothing witty to say right now other than sounds great!

 
At 3:21 PM, August 27, 2006, Blogger Gwynne said...

Susie, the greatest part was drinking wine out of a bottle on an air conditioned trolley. :-)

Eric, I think I've seen that display at Linens, Parachutes and Things (and they weren't asking $6,000 for it either). ;-)

And I'll bet there's a market for photographs of the backs of heads if you're interested in pursuing it. ;-)

 
At 11:45 AM, August 28, 2006, Blogger Foo said...

...but not at the same time.

*snort*

Although I do feel a sort of resonance from Shelves With Towels—it's the wavy texture of the towelends juxtaposed with the smooth blonde wood. I think—I'd still have to giggle at it. It's just too much like makeshift shelving made from 2x6 planks, cinderblocks and piles of books to be taken very seriously.

 
At 12:37 PM, August 28, 2006, Blogger Gwynne said...

Foo, I'm glad you appreciated not only the juxtaposition of towels and blonde wood (I couldn't get past the makeshift towel rack image) but also the dairy and the fire extinguisher mfr...the mere thought of these two being in the same building gave me the skeevies about drinking milk. ;-)

 

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