BARTERING FOR ART IS POSTPONED
The idea of bartering for art has carried our hearts forward. No one knows when the clouds will part. For now we’ll wait, bunker down and box a cosmological compass. Let’s say that more directly and importantly: Barter Night Out, the Event, will return when the the time is right.
The original text remains below, a guide to how the Event will fulfill it’s promise, to enrich the connection between Valley artists and residents. Click POSTINGS - found in the site heading or the button below - to view the art, the single work that each artist has chosen to barter. ALSO, from time to time this site will be updated and improved.
HOW IT WORKS
The artists have chosen a single piece to barter, posted here. The Event begins with a Viewing, a gallery exhibition. There, alongside each piece of art will be bartering suggestions. The exchange begins when a potential barterer, given an artist’s contact information at the gallery desk, makes an offer. In response the artist is free to refuse or suggest a something different. For example, a landscape painter’s barter list might suggest a musical instrument, maybe an oboe or piano. A barterer might offer music lessons, or lessons in cooking, or cooking lessons in Spanish. A ceramicist might suggest computer lessons and agree to a cabin for a weekend. Bartering thrives on imaginative thinking: a cityscape is exchanged for a pair of Maytags, a sculpture for a riding mower, or a surreal scene in the woods for a rowboat.
Bartering terms will be completed by email or in person by May 14th, the day before the exchanges will take place, on May 15th, Barter Night Out. On that night, one by one the pieces of art will be held up, the artist and barter partner identified, the terms announced and gaveled down by the presenter.
Continue to…
Barter Committee
Amy Johnquest
A resident of the Pioneer Valley since 1992, Amy “BannerQueen” Johnquest is a mixed media artist currently residing in Holyoke with a storefront studio at 22 Cottage St., in Easthampton, MA. The moniker of “BannerQueen” stems from her interest in the advertising and art of traveling circuses and in particular, sideshow banners - which she has been exhibiting her own versions and creating commissions for the famous and not so famous since 1999. Presently her focus is on hand painting and altering photographs from the late 1800s, working directly on Victorian cabinet cards. The book, Altered Ancestors, featuring this artwork, was released last year. More about the artist may be found at www.bannerqueen.com
Frances Kidder
I am a painter of various subjects and themes, from local landscapes to a series on the Etruscan Wolf in Rome’s Capitoline Museum. I recently showed at The Oxbow Gallery a series on The Mill River Disaster of 1874, Last year I painted a mural at a health clinic in Burundi, East Africa. I use acrylics, oils, and sometimes collage elements. I have lived in Williamsburg on the Mill River for 45 years. You can see my work at franceskidder.com.
Clowns In The Wilderness
Nanette Vonnegut
I work in graphite on paper and also make monotypes, a form of printmaking. I also work with oil paint on canvas and wood panels. I have lived in Northampton, MA. for 37 years. My work can be seen at, nanettevonnegut.com
The Simmerer
Michael Tillyer
The founder and director of the Anchor House of Artists, Michael Tillyer has used the same loose terms for the construction of the space of freedom for marginalized artists living with mental illnesses to redefine themselves as he uses for his carved and assembled figures--the terms, 'whatever" and "works." Imagination is the key to how the world is shaped, and to him, to imagine an improved world is a key to having fun. He states, "selling art is a very, very good thing, but there are other more interesting things that art can do for us."
Brooke Schnabel
Brooke works in several mediums including, oils, acrylics, watercolors and etchings. His art includes illustrations for Disney’s Wildlife Fund, Orion magazine and a limited edition portfolio of poems by Charles Simic (ex US Poet Laureate). Brooke has led painting workshops and taught classes to all levels of artists for the last 20 years. He has exhibited his art up and down the east coast in numerous galleries. Brooke currently resides in Western Mass. You can see more of his work at www.brookeschnabel.com.
Edwin Lynch
His love for sculpture began at age twelve. From soap to stone to bronzes, his work has been inevitably narrative – has attempted in life and art have run in parallel. A SOHO exhibition of large, cast masks was my first. A need for community in New York City led me to organize independent filmmakers, and later, for the same reason, to join Samagundi Art Club. After curating an innovative “City Worker’s Art Show” I joined the board to oversee public relations. My current interest is in doing pieces that express, without abandoning beauty, the difficulty in living a meaningful life in these United States.
More at www.edwinlynch.com
Anya Klepacki
Anya Klepacki is a mixed media artist, born and raised in the Connecticut River Valley and educated in Boston. Their interests currently orbit around enacting alternatives through space-making for communities to fill and form within. They consider the balance between fantastical future dreaming and tactical system dismantling to be a crucial nut of their life. http://anyalepacki.party