December 10, 2005

Lorraine Filippone (front) listening to Scheppler's "sales pitch."	Writer Scheppler explains his "mouth spray" in front of Filippone's work. To Top
Mary Buchwald (2nd from right standing) in front of her work	Not enough chairs, or too many visitors? To Top
Pilot reporter Bill Schlichting (front) on the beat	Mark Listening to the artists talk about their work To Top
Scheppler found a victim for his "mouth spray"	Artists Pete Chasar (left) and Liz James (next to him) enjoy the limericks To Top
"3 Cellos from Crescent City" start off the evening of Abstract Art.	The hostess of the evening, Carol Salin, with an abstract of her own. To Top

2nd Saturday Brookings

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2nd Saturday Brookings Art Walk of 12 November 05
(as experienced by Horst)

The center of the November ArtWalk was Brian Scott: a last blast before the gallery will be closed in January for conversion into a 3-floor eating place (although there will still be a retrospective exhibit in December in memory of pastelist Jane Simmons, who passed away recently). Under the heading "Fine Art for every Budget" curator Kate Avril assembled an outstanding show of local artists from Gold Beach to Crescent City. Of special interest to me was the "usable ceramic" work of Linda Yuan of Crescent City and the prize winning art quilts of Ria Meszaros of Gold Beach.

In addition to the meticulously arranged art work on all three floors, there was the lively violin of Shirley Hyatt accompanied by Gil Kirk on the main floor, and the keyboard work of Bonnie Pitman in the Dungeon, interrupted by an ArtWalk first: a poetry reading by the Fine Artists Recital Testing Society (FARTS). Art-Walkers who expected serious poetry must have been disappointed. The rest laughed their heads off during the recital of limericks by Elmo Williams, Marge Woodfin, Lon Gadded, Brian Scott, Wayne Avril, Christina Olsen and Horst Wolf, who blasted each other as well as the mayor, the Chamber of Commerce, and other town dignitaries. Limericks from the audience were also read: Billie Sieg, Sandy Bonney and Nancy Tuttle, who was declared the overall winner, according to scientifically conducted applause meter measurements by former aerospace engineer H. Wolf.
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But the best was yet to come: Mark Twain appeared in person to give a short limerick critique, after which he spell-bound the standing-room-only audience with humor that ranged from witty to hilarious. Robert Scheppler's impersonation of Mark Twain is impressive, I hope he will grace future ArtWalks with his performances.

I had little time to visit the other venues, but I sneaked briefly over to Words and Pictures, where Sculptress Andrea Mastrangelo was part of the exhibit "Rainbow of Colors" put together by Pat Stewart featuring artists from the coast and inland, indeed a colorful mixture of painting, sculpture, glass art and metal art. This was Andrea's last show in Brookings. She will move to the Seattle area to build her own contemporary gallery.
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With only little time left I went over to COLOURS to shoot a few pictures and was introduced to a charming lady, whose name I forgot, but whose name I certainly will learn and remember in the future: The owner/manager of COLOURS. She finally made it from Colorado to Brookings, still "in a mess at home", but in firm control of the gallery as seen by the wonderful glass and pottery work, that has not been seen before under Dale Hendrix's management.

A 1-minute visit to the library, the Carl Rovainen Trio (I saw only a duo) and the Exhibit "Woman Artists of the Wild River Coast," a show well put together. No time was left to visit the South Coast Inn or the Manly Art Center. For a report on those, as well as different views of the event, you have to wait for the PILOT. I saw both Marge Woodfin and Bill Schlichting on the art beat.
All exhibits will be open until a few days before the next ArtWalk on Dec 10.