Past and Future Intersect at Old Mill Gallery

Today let’s look beyond Angola, northeast toward Clear Lake, and take in Margaret Carlson’s truly wonderful Old Mill Shoppes and Art Gallery. Graciously situated on three countryside acres, this property encompasses four historic buildings moved from Ray, Indiana in the late last century: the Old Ray Post Office, now holding regional art; the old Milking Parlor, now holding antiques; and two old, large mills which serve as venues for special events such as next weekend’s July 30/31 Saturday/Sunday Old Mill Art Festival, an event I absolutely would not miss.

Margaret and her husband Ron bought the old McNaughton property in late 2009, which had stood vacant throughout the prior decade … and that poignant intersection of past and future is what conjures up the Old Mill’s special charm: yesteryear’s buildings with inlaid bricks from old school houses and firehouses … gone fallow many years … now resurrected as a vital nexus of regional art and even a destination for high school art student field trips!

Generally you can see a great variety of regional art at Old Mill 10-5 every Friday through Sunday. Take pottery for example: I saw work by (1) Steve Smith, a recently retired but very dynamic and active  Defiance College art professor [expect an August or September article on his new 4 Corners Studio, Gallery and Pottery at Lake James/Jimmerson Lake]; (2) Shirley Brauker’s piece [see photo] which won 2nd place at the Eiteljorg Indian Art Museum/Market in Indianapolis; (3) the remarkable Patty Griest’s pottery. Patty, in her eighties, is a Clear Lake resident who just began working with pottery in her seventies.

And this is precisely what makes it worth a trip to see the Old Mill’s art: diverse expressions at diverse price points by diverse but definitely accomplished local and regional artists of all sort: potters, painters, sculptors, glass blowers, photographers, and more.

If you happen to catch one of Margaret’s occasional Wine and Cheese nights, you are in for an especially accommodating, informal, and rewarding event, where the public can meet many of the exhibiting artists who are happy to discuss their work. All you have to do is introduce yourself, ask questions, and enjoy the music. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed such a night in June, graced by a perfect selection acoustic music at outdoor picnic tables, courtesy of regional favorite Jim Weber, accompanied by none other than Shirley Brauker [see photo, did not get one of Jim, but then everyone knows him].

So do consider the second annual Old Mill Shoppes Art and Craft Festival Saturday/Sunday July 30/31. This year will feature exhibiting artists from four states, food vendors, and music both days by Jim Weber and Friends. My wife and I would not consider missing it.

Even the countryside drive is pleasant: East on 120 through Fremont, left on North Ray Road past the Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve to the 3-way stop, right onto 750 N about two miles to Old Mill on the left. Or from the Clear Lake Marina, turn north onto 700 E then left onto 750 N at the cemetery, Old Mill just ahead on the right.

Other notes: The July 12 Angola Regional Artists’ Guild meeting highlight was a demo by Greg Summers of Fishmonger Art. Greg is a successful sculptor who uses recycled metals - I love his fish [see scores of wonderful fish on FishMongerArt.com], but my favorite work of his is the huge dragonfly on the front of the Fremont Public Library building. The meeting demo was incredibly dynamic and interesting: starting with a smooth flat sheet of steel, and working with just two hammers, a chisel, snips, an anvil with two holes and one slot bored out, and his fingers [to bend the sheet], Greg banged away on both sides for 20 minutes, stopping often to show intermediate results: an accretion of features, dimension, and texture resulting in a before-your-eyes evolution of a great-looking fish! Wish I had a video of Greg’s demo … and wish some of his work could be seen at Pokagon … how fitting that would be …

Guild meetings begin at 6:30PM on the second Tuesday of each month at Angola’s Carnegie Public Library. The first 30-60 minutes usually include a presentation, lecture, etc. open to the public, followed by a closed business meeting.

Stephen Rowe currently serves as the Angola Regional Artists’ Guild publicity chairman and writes two additional blogs:

     ArtMissionary.blogspot.com

     OriGraphics.blogspot.com

Stephen welcomes correspondence of all sort per StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com 

Alley Art Battle Participant Haley Church, and Summer Art Camps

Those with children (or grandchildren) in their lives, take special note of the Fremont Library Summer Art Camps the week of July 25. These look to be a genuinely fun and even exciting experiences presented by Jan McCauley, MFA [Master of Fine Arts], and customized to grades 1-4 in the morning and grades 5-8 in the afternoon. You may reach the library at 260.495.7157, and special thanks to the Fremont Parks and Recreation department for the primary financing.

I talked with Jan a bit recently, and was surprised to learn just how in-sync our views are with respect to children and artistic imagination, but I have no doubt whatsoever that Jan is way more fun. She writes  “Welcome to the Imaginarium, where we will contemplate and create the world from an entirely different perspective … Students will explore various ways in which to visually communicate the inner and outer world of perceptions from an altered point of view …. draw, paint, print, collage and journal their way thru this week of thought-provoking fun!”

Jan is known as an accomplished free-lance artist, designer, and art instructor, and after talking and corresponding with her, I believe these sessions will be creative and inspirational indeed. And what a bargain at $15 for the entire week, not to mention intellectual and creative enrichment that might, for some, persist throughout a lifetime.

Details: July 25-29; morning 10:00-11:30 grades 1-4; afternoon 1:00-3:00 grades 5-8. $15 for materials. Sign up deadline is July 15.

Now, another Alley Art Battle follow-up, Haley Church of Angola, just-graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University and “looking for an art teaching job any where I can find work.” Her “battle piece” was (ironically) a most-serene and graceful blue heron at rest in its natural habitat. The only piece representing nature, its tranquility and beauty were very welcome to my mind. Haley’s expressive lines and pallet verily reflected the essence of her subject, and I believe she has a bright future, whatever might happen (or not happen) in the short term. Photo by Miriam Oberlin, taken in the course of her performance as an Alley Art Battle participant.

The following words are Haley’s reflections on her Alley Art Battle work and beyond:

My favorite time to be out on a lake is when the weekend bustle ends and it returns to a serene place. When we slow down like this, we start to see the nature and beauty that the lakes offer. The blue heron is an elegant bird that you just might not notice if you're zooming by. Because of the time constraint, I only created one circle piece [the work was painted on a circular format], but I am in the process of creating two more circle pieces that can be presented in series with the blue heron, or else stand alone. All three will be lake themed, and have the same color scheme.

The creative process starts out with an idea, yet leaves freedom for change. It's a parallel with life; everything doesn't always turn out as we envision it, but with a little elbow grease, we come out stronger and more beautiful in the end. I do not know where I will get a job, or where my next steps will be, but I know that I will always call Angola home. Participating in the art battle was fun, and it was exciting to see how other locals are using their talents.

Update: Received word that Haley Church has accepted her first teaching job in Plymouth, IN where she will be teaching art at two local elementary schools. Best wishes to Haley Church in her first job and beyond.

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 writes two additional blogs:

     ArtMissionary.blogspot.com

     OriGraphics.blogspot.com

Stephen welcomes correspondence of all sort per StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

Phantom Galleries

A change of pace this week – just want to introduce an idea which intersects with Arts, Civic, and Business interests, and which is ideal for Angola and Steuben County at large: Phantom Galleries.

Visualize some vacant storefronts (not hard to do): gaping black sores in the downtown cityscape, declining values, public aversion, downward spiral … But wait! That window, what is that in there today? Is that … could it be … ? Yes! There are paintings supported by easels … and whoa! Focused lighting at twilight, must be a timer-switch. How very cool, utter simplicity at practically no cost. And spectators at that storefront over there … looks like they drove from Ft Wayne to see our now-famous Phantom Galleries! A pity though, the building cattycorner, used to be a Phantom Gallery, but now it’s a pizza parlor. And asking rents on the surrounding vacancies seem to be going up … yet there are more new businesses nonetheless, and more customers for everyone. Still, I hope we can always have at least some (if only temporary and shifting) Phantom Galleries downtown ...

This fantasy has morphed into clear reality throughout various cities and towns, and could easily become a defining characteristic of Angola and other Steuben towns. I ran across the notion in April while researching economic renewal and the arts, mentioned it to several people … and finally, Bingo - Diana Killian! Diana gets it, and has since launched a veritable crusade for the arts on West Maumee, where her Three Sisters business stands along with Cahoots, the Creative Arts Gallery, the Copper Tree Fine Art and Craft Gallery, and Sticks and Stones, amidst various other now-empty windows earnestly yearning to become Phantom Galleries. Her enthusiasm is awesome, and I wish her every success, as her success will be a win for all of us.

That said, let’s all remember that no one person owns the Phantom Gallery idea:  anyone who can find someone with an empty window and someone else with art to show can [and should!] have a Phantom Gallery. This is an idea that all of Steuben County can have ownership in, and its fruition might indeed distinguish our county as profoundly unique and creative, to the benefit of all.

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 writes two additional blogs:

     ArtMissionary.blogspot.com

     OriGraphics.blogspot.com

Stephen welcomes correspondence of all sort per StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

Alley Art Battle Participants: Chris VanGompel

Throughout the balance of the summer and into early fall, I will be posting some follow-ups on the June 4 Studio 150 Alley Art Battle and its participants: event observations, profile information as of the Battle event, and in some cases, change throughout the summer: new endeavors, directions, etc. These artists are very much real and alive, not simply expired footnotes to an old post, and a sense of this is important to our sense of regional community. Today’s first such post focuses on the event’s first-place artist, Angola’s Chris VanGompel, and on his Blue Men.

You have to smile looking at this, and marvel at how much expression Chris could project with so few and such simple lines and colors. Asked what inspired this unusual but compelling work, he said “I just wanted to show the world what it looks like to see a happy face in a sea of misery.” Honestly, it made me reflect back on the train stop at Chicago’s Union Station on a work day.

Chris’ background in cartooning shines here. He always did cartoons in school, but that ended with graduation. Not until 2005 did he resume, this time with a web-comic called Car Vs Motorcycle. It was very rough but a great learning experience, and in 2006 he started Hockey Zombie, which lasted several years, peaking at 5000 internet reads per day. Now he is working on a Mario Brothers web-comic, though it is currently on hold due to real-world work demands [Chris works as a CAD Engineer, and once designed a calibration rack for General Motors’ transmission gear division].

Wherein lies the “art” in a short, simple comic? This is my answer: Everyone appreciates that a picture is worth a thousand words. The beauty of a good comic is how it achieves that level of communication with just a few words and relatively few simple but artful lines. Really study a comic sometime, and be amazed at its subtlety: extremely different effects are rendered by changing just the smallest strokes; entirely different dynamics are suggested by very simple changes in the visual composition. Yes, a good picture can say a lot – and the art of the comic is in just how utterly simple the graphical and verbal content can be.

That said, Chris himself will tell you that his comics aren’t for everyone: “My humor style doesn't appeal to very many people.  Most people don't get it.” Well, I find no fault there, it simply means that Chris’ viewpoint is very idiosyncratic indeed; but his success with 5000 Hockey Zombie readers per day proves there is genuine art in Chris’ comic work, however idiosyncratic. And his win in the Alley Art Battle is confirmation. Congratulations to Angola artist Chris VanGompel!

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 writes two additional blogs:

     ArtMissionary.blogspot.com

     OriGraphics.blogspot.com

Stephen welcomes correspondence of all sort per StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

Transforming the Way You Experience Art

The last post noted a few artists connected in some way with Cahoots Coffee Café and Sutton’s Deli on the town square, and some of their endeavors. Today we will explore just a bit of the terrain in between and farther beyond, out toward Fremont and Clear Lake. And we will take a little deeper look at how to transform the experience of looking at art.

Let’s start with the Copper Tree Fine Art and Craft Gallery at 108 W Maumee, just a block down from Cahoots. This is a very eclectic, interesting, and welcoming place: my last look there encompassed many exhibitors working in various media, including photography, charcoal, water color, oil, fabric, metals, clay and wax. Really looking at this work, as opposed to the cursory glance as life slips by [CGALSB], will spark delight, wonder, and even awe: Who are the local and regional people creating these works? What moves them to do this? What else are they seeing that I am missing? How did they get started? Might I do this someday? More on these questions in posts to come; for now, just know that pausing to really look will transform your world.

This intriguing gallery was born of Ron Kauffman’s long-time dream, Ron being the visionary Art Missionary and catalyst behind the Angola Regional Artists’ Guild. Ultimately Ron hopes the gallery will operate as an artists’ cooperative. And profound thanks to Kent Alwood, who provides this great space alongside his computer business free of all charge.

Crossing to the other side of the street, we find Judy Houk’s Creative Arts Gallery, also opened this spring. Judy is an accomplished painter and private art teacher – indeed many of the works there are those of her students, though her current exhibit includes watercolors by Merv Russell of Toledo. Before coming to Angola in 2005, Judy founded the Black Swamp Art Guild in Williams County, Ohio, and was (and still is) a member of the Toledo Artists’ Club. Angola is fortunate to have such a talented and productive artist teaching her skills to so many local students.

Before leaving the Creative Arts Gallery, don’t forget: after the habitually superficial CGALSB, take that second, deeper real look at what is there. And if Judy is there, you will find she simply beams when talking about art, so begin to practice and develop your own art of AQ: asking questions: Who painted that, what inspired it, why does the finish, texture, etc in this work look so different from the finish, texture, etc in that work, how “mature” is this student’s work, what other media does she work in, what future exhibits/events is the gallery planning, etc.

Beyond these two galleries, just as a general practice wherever you go, never leave without AQ: asking questions. It is another sure mode, in addition to really looking, for transforming any experience and “getting more” out of life.

Now that your mind is opening up to new experience, check out Sandy Austin’s Sticks and Stones shop a block back at 208 W Maumee. Some call Sandy the Hippie Bead Lady, and there is some truth to that, but the whole truth is so much more. Along with the crafts (all with some appeal and some quite excellent), you can find some very good art; and the yet-bigger truth is that Sandy’s roots in and connections to regional art are very, very deep. Way beyond whatever you find in her own shop (interesting enough in its own right), orbit very many quite talented artists of all sort, many of whom (but by no means all) exhibit at her annual April New Moon Living History & Art Faire. The 2011 April event was a wonderful, two-day venue – and frankly it is a small miracle that so much excellent work could come together under such meager auspices, while reflecting so well on Steuben County. I am genuinely impressed, and if you are open-minded enough to see beyond clichéd expectations, you will DIT the genuine treasure that is really there in Sandy and her shop.

What does DIT mean? It is an acronym for discover in time. Some understanding, awareness, sensitivity, etc simply takes time to unfold. Do not doubt: the practice of really looking and asking questions will yield immediate rewards and transform daily experience; still, some of your most profound insights will materialize only over some period of sustained practice: discovery in time. So wherever you are in this regional artistic landscape: suspend judgment; try to really look; ask questions; and expect and allow for deeper discovery in time.

Yes, deeper discovery in time: that is where we are headed with these posts. There is still more in downtown Angola we haven’t yet considered, and so very much more beyond: more galleries, many more artists, and more to be shared and said about seeing art, creating art … and about your potential for artistic practice. Don’t scoff. Anyone can learn to practice some form of art, and we have already noted some of the transformative practices above.

For now though, just a few timely notes about what is happening now, this very mid-June weekend:

·         Enchanted Lakes Renaissance Faire & Marketplace, June 17, 18, 19 at Angola’s Buck Lake Ranch.

·         Satek Winery Art Show Saturday June 18, 10:00AM -5:00PM, close to Fremont.

·         Old Mill Art Gallery wine and cheese night, Friday June 18, 5-7PM, on Ray Clear Lake Road. These are frequent events, call 260-316-6554 or email margaretcarlson@hotmail for more info.

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 writes two additional blogs:

     ArtMissionary.blogspot.com

     OriGraphics.blogspot.com

Stephen welcomes correspondence of all sort per StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

Downtown Angola Early Summer Arts Stroll

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.

Most of her paintings do reflect much of the “real world” – you can, for instance, recognize llamas, one of her favorite themes these days. But important aspects of her representation are suggestive and evocative. Beyond the photographic “reality,” Heidi strives to capture the essence, spirit, and mystery of her subjects through the highly personal use of form, brush stroke, and color. In short, her art subordinates ‘verisimilitude’ to emotive expression, and indeed Heidi identifies herself as an abstract expressionist. Heidi has been drawing or painting since she was four years old, and today holds a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from Saint Francis College. This coming September 2011 she will speak to the Angola Regional Artists’ Guild on transforming realism into abstract art.

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 4^th 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.”

The emphasis is definitely on new and modern, and if you want to know what that means, be sure to catch his Saturday June 4 Battle of the Artists, where artists have an allotted time to spontaneously create their “battling” works in a live venue. The battle will occur inside the studio, with live regional acoustic music and a cash bar catered by Sutton’s Deli. Admission is $4 and entitles the ticket holder to vote for a favorite artist, with prize money distributed according to the number of tickets sold. Artistic quality is assured in that each participant must have submitted a portfolio of at least 10 prior works for review in order to participate. King hopes to see all ranges from the regional art community, and expects about 100 spectators.

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

ArtMissionary.blogspot.com

OriGraphics.blogspot.com

Our Practicing and Yet-To-Begin Artists (you included)

A couple notes of current interest and some reflections on artists: those practicing, those in hibernation, and the latent, yet-to-begin.

First, many thanks to Angola’s Carnegie Public Library for hosting the monthly 2^nd Tuesday Angola Regional Artists’ Guild 6:30PM meetings. Generally the first 30-60 minutes include a presentation, demonstration, workshop, etc. which is free and open to the public. More than 30 people attended May’s program featuring Indiana artist Joel Fremion, an accomplished and unique “fiber artist” who exhibits widely and has won many prizes. Joel stitches various fabric and leather scraps into a canvas, then applies paint, ink, colored markers, etc to elements of the collage, and in doing so creates a hybrid medium that looks much like oil painting, but is enhanced with unique visual properties due to the various underlying fabrics’ texture and volume. Joel’s combination of this unique medium with his mastery of portraiture, color, shading, perspective, etc. has produced some very compelling art.

Joel’s presentation was just one hour, but throughout all of May the Angola library is exhibiting the work of several other regional “fiber artists” as well. These exhibits include weaving, quilting, collage portraiture, knitting, stitching, embroidery, needle point, macramé, and photography printed on fabric, which can create some of the unique visual effects noted above. Overall the exhibited works are quite varied, attractive, and interesting.

Angola’s Carnegie Public Library warrants high commendation for its role in cultivating the arts. Beyond hosting Guild meetings and this particular exhibit, they offer various other exhibits throughout the year, artistic workshops, art-related books, and on October 1 a motor-coach trip to the gargantuan ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The ArtPrize event is uniquely popular and dynamic: part arts festival and part social experiment, the goal is for artists and the general public to collide, exchange ideas, and for each to leave the event changed. Last year’s event saw 1,713 artists in 192 downtown venues from 44 states and 21 countries. The venues span all sort of restaurants, galleries, courtyards, parks, etc. - most any space can become an ArtPrize venue. Prize money is rich, with $500,000 allocated to the top ten ($250,000 for first). This is a sure bet – for more detailed information, check www.ArtPrize.org, or at the Angola library ask for the current Pure Michigan publication and/or Dina Ferree.

On another front, Fremont’s Papa Joe Driver appears in a beautiful 4-page, color-photo Fort Wayne Monthly magazine May-issue feature. Joe crafts jewelry from polished rock and glass, and has found considerable regional success selling his artifacts through the Pokagon gift shop, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art gift shop, and through Satek’s Winery. His “Satek Glass” is inspired: Joe uses a rock tumbler to “age” shattered wine bottles over 10 days, simulating “sea glass” which is valued for properties created through erosion at sea over a much longer time. The full Fort Wayne Monthly article is very much worth reading – kudos to Papa Joe.

And kudos to all the other Angola/Lakes/Regional artists. Some have surprising commercial success, many are highly accomplished, and many others simply find deep gratification in their private artistic practice, which perhaps is actually the highest success.

To me though, just as intriguing are the overwhelming numbers of artists-gone-dormant and the yet more numerous latently yearning but presently unexpressive souls who, for many reasons, have never practiced art at all. Some are “too busy” and it really is a matter of priorities. Joel Fremion himself was once in this category, and related how for many years he had set aside earlier artistic interests.

But far more are those who “know” they lack talent because they just couldn’t “get it” when they were 10 years old; others “knew” they lacked talent at age 8! Yet any 60-year old knows there is much in life that couldn’t be learned once, yet could indeed be learned later, in the right way, at the right time. There is a now-classic book about this, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards, an art education researcher. Google it for more information, or examine it out at your library, or request it through interlibrary loan. Perhaps this is your time?

Until the next column, 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 writes two additional blogs:

     ArtMissionary.blogspot.com

     OriGraphics.blogspot.com

Stephen welcomes correspondence of all sort per StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com