Process Schizophrenia

Economic conditions for artists have been bad for the past five years. Anybody who tells you otherwise is either disingenuous or remarkably lucky. The people with serious money are afraid to spend any unless they can get a significant return on their investment (hence the violent bidding at the top end of the auction market). Otherwise, they buy their art posters at Sam's Club or Lowe's, just like the rest of America.

I know I shouldn't let the marketplace get me down. I know I shouldn't let it determine what comes out of my studio, but I've been all over the map lately.

Here are two pics from the studio. The first with framed watercolors. The big blue and yellow was a studio work early in the year. The two flanking are plein air pieces created up on Sullivan's Monument during a Revolutionary War reenactment event. They're presently hanging at Community Arts of Elmira.

The second view (taken yesterday) demonstrates my schizophrenia.

2013 echo:Art Fair booth model

Here's the plan for my booth.

I like the fomecor pedestal.

echo.. echo... echo... Part 1

Here's my post from last year's echo:Art Fair.

The 2013 event will be the weekend of September 7 & 8. New artists, new galleries! I've been honored with a booth for the second year running. I'll be showing all new work. Hours are 10AM to 6PM both days. Saturday there's a $5 admission fee (cheap!), Sunday is FREE. Take a look at the echo:Art Fair web pages for full details.

So... on to the my review of last year's show:

-------------------------------------------

Whooo-wee !  What a weekend. The echo: Art Fair was an overwhelming success. Near perfect weather, first-rate art, personable artists and dealers, and an eager, friendly audience combined to make our three days in Buffalo a joy. Admittedly, I have limited experience in art fairs of this caliber, but I think it was well organized, promoted, and managed. The founders, Frits Abell and Dean Brownrout (and Dean’s enthusiastic wife, Jana Eisenberg) were on hand all weekend to meet, greet, put out small fires, and cheer on the participants. If it had been more successful, there might have too large a crowd for seeing art and having meaningful conversations.

Here’s a tour of the show: I think I’ll do it in alphabetical order so that no one gets peeved. Understand that I took these snapshots on Sunday morning before the doors opened, so the halls are vacant. 

We start with 464 Gallery, showing work by Max Collins, Marissa Lehner, Thomas Webb, Marcus Wise. Here the 464 guys are chatting with OGRE, more about him later.

At the head of my aisle were Monica Angle, and behind her, James Paulsen. 

This is the Charles Bank Gallery, showing works by Mauro Bonacina, Allen Grubesic, Kim Keever, Garrett Pruter, Kasper Sonne. Gallery owner, Adam Greenberger shared his expertise with attendees at the Collecting 101 seminar on Saturday morning. 

My apologies to the Benjaman Gallery. My camera decided to have some focusing issues at their booth. They were showing some very nice regional artworks by Robert Blair, Chris Liberti, Harriet Nash, John Santomieri, and Irene Zevon.

Jessica Bradley Art + Projects:
Sarah Cale, Kristan Horton, Jed Lind, Ben Reeves, and Derek Sullivan

I was quite taken by the abstraction and dense paint at the Cappuccilli Fine Art booth. Here the gallerists are chatting with the inimitable Nina Freudenheim. They were showing J.R. Hughto, Elena Peteva, Jim Ridlon, Susan Roth, and Carrie Will.

Daniel Faria Gallery, also from Toronto. Diane particularly liked the small sculpture on the shelf. Hand-created and painted rock crystals. Wish I had taken a close-up.

Diaz Contemporary had some nice minimalist work. It’s one of the Tecumseth Street Galleries from Toronto.

Here are works by Kathleen Sherin and Jackie Felix (Estate).

Original paintings by Dorothy Fitzgerald.

Timothy Frerichs’ complex collage.

Nina Freudenheim brought the work of some of her gallery artists: Kyle Butler, Gerald Mead, Alice O’Malley, John Pfahl, and Peter Stephens. Ms. Freudenheim was gracious to share some of her collecting and preservation advice at the Saturday morning seminar. Thanks, Nina!

The dense minimalist work and delicate detailed drawings of  Fontini Galanes and William Maggio.

Gigi Gatewood and Melora Griffis. (No offense to the artists, but Diane really liked their chairs.)

The fabulous paintings of Amy Greenan. Lots of red dots in this booth. (Just ask her for a house portrait!)

The soft and poetic photos of Mark McLoughlin, and the mineral stains of Jody Hansen.

Susan Hobbs, also from Toronto, was showing work by various artists.

Nice studies in depth-of-field and night mood by John Harrigan.

Jeremy Holmes and Josh Sperling, Ithaca-based artists, represented by Exhibit A from Corning (an echo exhibitor last year).

OK... This blog post has gotten to large for my brain to conform with blogspot. And, I'm not savvy enuf to figure it out, so on to echo part 2.

echo.. echo... echo.... part 2

Here continues my report on the echo: Art Fair, hosted last weekend by Frits Abell and Dean Brounrout. More of the same alphabetical tour:

Richard Huntington. A Buffalo favorite, and an old friend from my past. Back in the 70’s when I was but a young curator at the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, Richard spent a year as the artist-in-residence there. We had good times in our youths.

Indigo Art showed quite a potpourri from artists Jozef Bajus, Nancy Belfer, Ani Hoover, Bill Stewart.

Felice Koenig. Wow. This woman has good eyes and remarkable control. Look close.

Here’s Diane standing in one of Mark Lavatelli’s forests. 

Birch Libralato exhibited several artists from his Tecumseth Street gallery.

Dennis Maher and Gary Sczerbaniewicz from Buffalo.

Meibohm Fine Arts, a third-generation gallery in East Aurora, New York.

Esther Neisen displayed her psychological insect constructions. Creepy until you listen to her reasons for making them. Then, well, creepier.

Now we come to OGRE. I didn’t learn OGRE’s real name, and his art is not really my favorite genre, but… it’s well crafted and very popular. His booth sported a higher percentage of red dots than all the others. Keep up the good work, OGRE.

PDX Contemporary were our art fair neighbors all weekend, across the aisle from each other. Some of the regional artists took umbrage at the “out-of-town” nature of some participants. Yes, PDX is based in Portland, but they’re a Buffalo family that is large and goes way back. They showed some challenging work by Nick Blosser, Johannes Girardoni, and Masoa Yamamoto.

Jean-Michel Reed from Buffalo.

I like these paintings by Karen Sardisco from Rochester.

Georgia Scherman Projects offered a selection from gallery artists. Another of the Tecumseth Steet crowd.

Katherine Sehr goes home at night, sits down, and makes tiny marks on paper with pen and ink to create these reductive, poetic masterpieces.

Hey! Here I am. Finally! I feel very fortunate to have been offered a place in this prestigious art fair. No red dots for me. Not this year, but I enjoyed two days of elation. I watched our guests walk slowly down our aisle with their critical eyes carefully scanning the offerings. When they spied my booth, their faces widened into beaming grins, sometimes laughter. What a treat for me! Great conversations. I hope I offered inspiration for some. Thanks for allowing this Southern Tier boy into your Western NY show.

Here’s some challenging, in-your-face fine art photography by Shasti O’Leary Soudant from Buffalo. I saw at least one red dot on a self-portrait. Powerful stuff.

I’m not sure whose gallery this is, but it’s listed in the floor plan as “Tecumseth Street Galleries. If you know who, please let me know.

In conclusion, here are a couple of shots of the ends of the aisles and the SAMPLE Restaurant area. (Real good chicken and hummus wraps. We got hungry.) 

And a final out of focus shot of the sound board from the artist who created the driving beat of the event. There were moments when I couldn’t hear the sound of my own voice, but he did a great job without forcing me to listen to any classic rock (thank you very much).

So that’s it. Can they pull it together again next year? Where might it be? How about some more controversy?

Thanks again to Frits and Dean. What a great show.