There is an artistic group called Katalyst on facebook. A member, Chad Pratch, in an artist with quite the conceptual eye. He had a show in Kelowna Art Gallery involving chairs and when his installation came down, there were over a 1000 chairs and he had a brain wave ...
... an Art Chair Auction at the Volcanic Winery, West Kelowna, BC.
I’m taking down my show at the Kelowna Art Gallery where all my chairs are destined for the trash. The chairs come down Monday and are going to be stored at Lois Lane. So they will be very easy to access. Where you come is that you pick out a chair from the lot and revamp it into an art piece for an Art Auction. So whatever you can think of doing with the tattered chair (fixing the Chair or not and changing the chair into something else) SOME TIME THIS WEEK YOU NEED TO PICK A CHAIR OUT FROM THE LOT AT LOIS LANE! From there you have until December 16th to make an art piece for the art auction where you can sell the work. Whatever the chair goes for is what you get. So come pick out a chair and get to work!
The Auction will be a silent auction where people can place bids by the work. The event will be held at Volcanic Winery in West Kelowna on December 16th.
http://www.facebook.com/events/147774931997452/?context=create
This was sent to 15 artists, including me, and I thought it would be fun and something new to play with. I set out with so many ideas that I was driving myself crazy. Then I got the chair that my niece had picked out for me. It was traditionally shaped and badly marked up. Shifting focus from any prior ideas, I did not know the end from the beginning. Intuiting and painting along an impressionistic path, I finished by depicting a favorite symbol, the wild goose, as it is the celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit. All in all, a few evenings and it was done. Fun times.
The auction went alright considering the low attendance as there was little time to get the word out. Another auction has been set for February giving advertising and promotion time to be more effective.
It was fun to be in the company of artists and to enjoy the ideas all came up with. A few caused smiles, some laughs, some admiration because it was so, so well done. And, I don't remember who thought it, but an 'invisible chair' was set up with a $200 price. Someone bid on it! The joke was that it was going to be paid with an invisible credit card, or cheque with invisible ink from an invisible bank account. Hah! You had to be there. :)
