Memorial Day weekend finally happened … forget now the slowest-unfolding spring in memory, and bask in Steuben County’s summer glory! Today we’ll stroll through downtown Angola. Let’s start with Cahoots Coffee Café at 218 West Maumee and proceed east to Sutton’s Deli on the town square: what have these most-pleasant settings to do with the Angola/Lakes/Steuben area arts?
Cahoots presents a neat encapsulation of the symbiotic relationship between Angola-area arts and commerce. The loft above the café serves as studio space for Heidi Finley, an engaging and interesting fine art painter who also works with traditional crafts. The studio is not open to the public, but I did see three of her works hanging in the café below.
And what brought me to Cahoots’ Coffee Café? A morning Go Angola meeting there focused on the upcoming Enchanted Lakes Renaissance Faire & Marketplace, June 17, 18, 19 at Angola’s Buck Lake Ranch. This should be an extravaganza – over a year in the making, the first of what is projected to become an important annual happening. Maria Davis, who spearheads that planning, is well known as an excellent contemporary artist, who in 2007 exhibited at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts, and was elected to exhibit in the ARTROM (Rome, Italy) on-line Gallery Competition. More on Maria Davis and her work in a future column. The point for now is that Cahoots connects with both commerce and the regional arts, which find natural interplay here in this special region.
Now back to Heidi. It is often said that some artists view the world as if looking through a window at things happening ‘out there’, while others view the world as if looking into a mirror, at the world inside them. Heidi’s art looks inward.
Despite Heidi’s academic credentials and focus in fine art, she also loves and practices a decorative craft called “marbling.” This is something you have to see to fathom and appreciate. Samples of her actual “marbled” products [some quite inexpensive, just a couple dollars] can be seen in The Copper Tree Fine Art and Craft Gallery at 108 W Maumee, just one block from Cahoots. The process can be seen per Heidi’s excellent demonstration video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e6RM-KxR28. The demonstration takes 9 minutes 10 seconds to reach the spectacular finale, which you could never imagine otherwise. The best thing may be that anyone can learn to make these decorative artifacts, which she markets on www.MarbledGoods.etsy.com … but again, you really have to see the goods offline “in the flesh” to fathom their special appeal. Weather permitting, Heidi will be demonstrating at the Renaissance Faire; otherwise Heidi can be contacted at midwestartist@msn.com.
Back at Cahoots coffee is served daily by Naomi, yet another artist, who participated in her own right at April’s 4th annual New Moon Living History and Art Faire, where Heidi made the marbling video. This New Moon event was very worthwhile – more on that as well in a later column.
Now on to Sutton’s Deli at the northwest town square corner, another above-and-below arts-and-civic story. Most people are familiar with the downstairs deli, where you will find excellent regional scenic photographs by Hamilton photographer Brad Stevens … and where you might find, depending on the day, a meeting of the Angola Professional Business Women. Most patrons, however, are totally unaware of King Oberlin’s Studio 150 above. King describes Studio 150 as “a fine art studio, in the heart of downtown Angola whose members thrive on creating new and modern art.”
This is a really exciting summer kick-off here in Angola, and King brings some experience to this venue: “Living in Grand Rapids I was part of a fine art studio similar to Studio 150, and helped with some planning and promotion.” In this case, promotion is primarily via radio, Facebook, web site, flyers, posters, newspaper, and word of mouth. You can learn more about Studio 150 and the Saturday Battle at www.KingOberlinArt.com.
Now back to the downtown Angola streets: as you walked from Cahoots Coffee Café to Sutton’s Deli and around the square, how many places did you note which sell and/or exhibit regional art? I’m sure you missed one or more, so go take a closer look, and take some time to really see some of the art. So often we look at so much without really seeing anything, just a cursory glance as life slips by ... So do yourself a favor, go out and really see some Angola regional art. After all, it’s free … buying is a mere option!
Until the next post, know that the Angola area lakes region is an Art Region, and its towns are Art Towns!
Stephen Rowe currently serves as the Angola Regional Artists’ Guild publicity chairman, and also writes
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