11/19: Looking Around
We're back in Stonington, just in time for the "Buy Local" weekend, an event meant to encourage people to buy on the island rather than elsewhere. According to a Mid-Coast regional study, about half the money spent locally is returned to the local economy, as well as another 9% that is spent elsewhere in Maine. These are fairly promising statistics compared to the 14% that is returned to the local economy when you shop at a large, not locally-owned retail store.
Of course, we've just spent two weeks spending our money and looking at a lot of art elsewhere: New Hampshire, Kansas City and Cape Cod.
In New Hampshire, we looked at an art and craft cooperative. We've been into this one a few times, and were curious about how cooperatives work. As I looked through the shop, I felt that the craft got in the way of the art, as did the reproductions, note cards and other small gift items. It's really more of a gift shop. That's fine, of course, but not the best venue for an artist.
One of Claes Oldenburg's "Shuttlecocks"
In Kansas City, we looked at a number of galleries in the Crossroads Arts District, a formerly run-down area which is quickly becoming a hotspot of galleries, trendy coffee shops and modern design boutiques. At almost every gallery, we were greeted with a practiced indifference. The employees literally had to make an effort to not make eye contact with us. Maybe it was the weather, who knows? Was that the day we were dressed as homeless people? We saw a lot of very trendy, expensive art that could easily fit into the ads in the big art magazines, but might not be too easy to live with. At one gallery, I almost asked if they were showing creepy art for Halloween, but thought better of it.
The one guy who did talk with us was an artist with a small studio gallery. When we arrived he was wrapping up a large painting for a well-dressed woman (everyone in the city is better-dressed than us Stoningtonians). On the walls were colorful abstract paintings, well-priced. He loaded the painting into the buyer's car and came in to chat. He'd recently moved there from Los Angeles, and seemed to be enjoying it. On First Friday, he told us, he'd had maybe 1000 visitors. There were so many people, that they were organizing a "Second Saturday" so the traffic would be more manageable.
In the Bloch Building
Also in Kansas City, we spent a day at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, including the newly-opened Bloch Building. As we walked through the collections, I couldn't help pointing out to my niece how many Maine-influenced artists were represented there: Welliver, Wyeth, Wyeth, Hartley, Homer, Nevelson, and on and on.
The galleries we saw on Cape Cod favored paintings of fruit, plates of oysters, and of course, seascapes in gold frames. Maybe by then I was feeling a bit jaded... I mean, a bit more than I usually am, but not much jumped out at me... except maybe the naked woman riding a horse. (The painting of a naked woman riding a horse).
It's a good exercise though, to get out and get a little perspective. Inevitably, it makes me think more about what people might be feeling when they walk into our gallery, and how they'll see things while there, what they'll remember after they leave.
As usual, it's good to be home. The Buy Local weekend brought in a small handful of people, some ready to buy. Now we'll be getting ready for a post-Thanksgiving opening this Friday: New Work & Cheese.
isalos fine art
Post a Comment
Reader Comments