If you follow me on Foursquare, you know that Second April Galerie is one of the places I visit the most. I visit there so often, they allow me to have UPS and FedEx delivered there, since there is always someone around for pick-up.
Second April is right around the corner from me in the Canton Arts District, and they have a nice, comfy coffee bar. There are always interesting folks hanging out, engaging in interesting conversation. And the artisitic environment is stunningly magical.
Oh yeah. And there’s Brennis and Todd.
Co-owners of Second April, B&T are two of the sweetest, funnest, most charming and hysterically funny guys I have ever met.
Truth be told, B&T gave me the opportunity to stretch my creative muscles so that I could eventually become a full time professional artist. They are my pals, my delivery guys, and my inspiration.
Brennis as a fortune teller for Halloween
The day before I left for Las Vegas, Brennis was rushed to the Emergency Room with chest pains. Several tests revealed that he had suffered a mild heart attack. He had open heart surgery soon after and he is now recovering at home from the ordeal. He is doing well, but it is a slow process.
The hardest part is that Brennis has no health insurance. As you can imagine, the bills are adding up. His friends are many, and they are doing what they can to raise funds for him. I agreed to post a ChipIn for him. You are welcome to donate if you would like.
Thanks to the “Brennis Bunch”, a group of friends who pitched in, Second April remained open every business day during the crisis. That’s the kind of comraderie we have here in the Canton Arts District. It is truly a supportive arts community on many levels.
Now you know why I love it here so much!
(Grab the code and put the widget on your own blog/website!)
Brewskie decided to come home for the day to the Canton, OH Arts District for our monthly First Friday arts festival. He heard that First Friday’s theme this month was “Gone to the Dogs”, so he felt the need to make his feline presence known.
Brew also heard that I will be doing pet portrait sketches as part of the festivities! We hope that you will come down if you are near Canton and enjoy all the fun! I will be set up at 4th St. NW and Court Ave. If it rains, I will move indoors to the Creative Ohio Gallery at 310 4th St. NW.
In case you didn’t know, Brewskie Butt, my spokescat and business partner is going on a virtual tour around the world to visit the friends he has made in various locations. Each day in May, he is going to visit a new city and/or geographical region around the globe. A drawing of him in a new place will appear here on this blog every day, and you will be able to bid on the drawing in an auction. When he returns home after his long trip, we plan to make a book featuring the best of the drawings.
Oh yes, and he plans to leave a clue every day as to where he will be going the next day on his blog, Just Meowin’. So make sure you check there and see if you can guess where he is going next!
Here’s the info about today’s drawing:
This auction is now closed.
5″ X7″ Prismacolor Pencil and Marker Drawing by artist BZTAT
Comes with an acid free mat ready for an 8″ X 10″ frame
Leave bids in increments of $5 below in the comments section.
Minimum Bid $40 USD
Shipping: $8 USA $18 International
BUY NOW OPTION:You can buy this piece now for $75 as long as no bids have been made in the comments below. Simply write BUY NOW in the comments and send a payment of $75 + shipping via PayPal to bztat at bztat.com.
Highest bid at 10:00 pm EST on Sunday 5/8/11 wins the piece.
Winning bidder: send payment of bid + shipping to Paypal using email address: bztat at bztat.com
Please allow 4 weeks for USA shipping (We need to get good scans of all the drawings for the book, and it may take some time).
I create it. I enjoy it when it is created by others in my own hometown. I seek it out in other cities to which I travel.
Why?
As an artist, I like to paint big. I also like to include other people in both the creative process and the appreciation of my artwork.
As an arts enthusiast, I believe that art should be placed where everyone can experience it.
Lets face it. Only a small segment of the world goes to museums and collection galleries. A work of art that is located in a public place has the opportunity to touch and impact many more people.
As an enthusiast for community development, I recognize that public art makes a city more interesting, bringing more people to an area, enhancing its economic potential.
I think that more businesses should consider commissioning artwork for public view as a way to demonstrate their commitment to the economic development of their communities. (It is an added bonus that a public artwork with your brand’s name listed as the sponsor is very solid marketing.)
My city, Canton, Ohio, has an amazing display of public art in the downtown area. There are several large scale mural installations, painted trash cans and flower pots, large sculptures, etc.
It is even more amazing when you consider the fact that Canton has been beset by considerable economic hardship and unemployment during the same time frame that the Canton Arts District has sprung up. The passion of the artists, the county arts council (ArtsinStark), and the Canton Development Project has made it all happen in a relatively short amount of time.
And it has helped to revive a blighted area.
I frequently have out of town guests to our city stop by my studio and marvel at all the creativity here. Friends that I meet from all over the world through social media are astounded when they see and read about what is happening in Canton.
One would assume that the people of Canton would be busting with pride.
Many people are, but the critics and naysayers are there, loudly voicing their dismay.
I don’t get it, to be quite honest.
There are those who come from an academic and cultural perspective, claiming that there is no coordination and no review process for determining how public art gets commissioned and placed around town. Basically, if a building owner, funding body and an artist agree, and their are no architectural safety concerns, the work goes up.
There are also the wannabe big city “street artists” who are rebels without a cause, “tagging” public places with their version of graffiti art, pretending that there is some big “establishment” squelching their self expression.
The general public is surprisingly quiet on the whole matter.
To those critics on both sides of the issue, I say, GET A GRIP.
To the academics — We are not New York City, for gosh sakes. It is not like we have to have masterpieces on every corner. (Although, to be honest, I think some of our public art pieces could hold their own in some of the cities around the world known as art centers.) And it is not like we have any works that test the sense of public decency. We do have quality work that is interesting to the people of Canton and out of town visitors.
To the wannabe street taggers — Grow up! Graffiti art is SO YESTERDAY. And no one is standing in your way of expressing yourself. Break the rules of art, but follow the law. If it isn’t your building and you don’t permission to express yourself on it, find a place where you do have permission.
Or else you can join the ranks of those who create prison art.
We need to have creative freedom, but we also have to have some degree of limits to maintain order. Every notable center of creative energy is going to have some tension between the two concepts.
But we could easily throw the baby out with the bathwater.
We could overreach and put too many regulations in place, which would put an end to this burgeoning, yet still fragile arts renaissance that is emerging in Canton.
We could allow a bunch of thugs to spoil it all for everyone by falling for their “bad boy” claims of creative restriction.
