October 14, 2004

Weekend activities spotlight Yellow Springs as art town

"Waiting" by Jennifer Bristol, who is among the artists to open their studios to the public for the village's first artists studio tour.

By Diane Chiddister

Yellow Springs will enhance its reputation as an arts town this weekend with two days of activities that spotlight local artists, including a new event that organizers hope will draw visitors to the village.

On Friday evening, Oct. 15, several downtown galleries and restaurants will open their doors from 6 to 10 for the biannual Art Stroll.

Then arts lovers or anyone looking for an interesting and unusual activity can take part in the first Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour on Saturday, Oct. 16, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

“We will be trying hard to show everyone a good time,” said Justin Teilhet, a Clifton potter who will open his studio on Saturday. “Our biggest goal this year is to get people to spread the word that this is a fun thing.”

Other arts-minded towns, such as Portland, Ore., Boulder, Colo., and Asheville, N.C., have found tours of artists’ studios to be hugely successful, said Lisa Goldberg, who organized the studio tour.

“We’ve been told that within three years this event will play an important part in helping the local economy,” Goldberg said. “That’s something we’re all excited about.”

While it will undoubtedly take time for the Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour to gain a reputation, organizers have done their best to give the event a boost in its first go-round. They mailed more than 4,000 postcards to those on participating artists’ client lists, and sent out 45 press releases to media in Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati, Goldberg said.

And participating artists are trying hard to roll out the red carpet for their visitors.

Teilhet, who lives at 2444 State Road 343, hopes to please all of his visitors’ senses by offering live music, food and drink, along with his pottery. The band Sleeping Bird, which consists of a stand-up bass, violin, guitar and keyboard, will perform in his backyard. Teilhet also plans to fire up the grill and provide simple food for cooking.

Of course, he will display his classically shaped pots and decorative objects, and those who attend can watch Teilhet wrestle with the three-and-a-half-foot-tall vase he plans to throw that day. Visitors can also tour his backyard studio and his self-designed, handmade gas kiln.

For Teilhet, the studio tour is an opportunity to strengthen his customer base close to home. A member of Yellow Springs Pottery, he travels to about 20 arts shows a year, ranging from Miami to Minnesota, and Baltimore to Kansas City. While the shows enable Teilhet to make a living as a potter, he said, he’d be glad to cut out some traveling. He said he hopes that participants in the art tour have a good time and then spread the word.

Goldberg hopes to dazzle her Saturday guests as well. Visitors to her 4619 Meredith Road studio can enjoy a bluegrass band and refreshments, and can tour her kiln shed, which includes a standard electric kiln, a large soda reduction kiln and a raku kiln. Goldberg plans to display finished pieces of work, including her stoneware platters, vases and dishes, as well as pieces in “varying degrees of doneness,” she said, so that visitors may, if they wish, learn about the artistic process. She also plans to provide clay for those who want a hands-on experience.

“I might have little projects going so that people can try it out and play a bit,” she said.

Saturday’s event is an opportunity to both have a good time and to shed light on a process that many people see as mysterious, Goldberg said. It’s also the culmination of her longstanding dream to have such an event take place in Yellow Springs.

Visitors to sculptor Nancy Mellon’s 131 North Walnut Street backyard studio can partake of “autumnal foods” while they view a combination of finished work and work in progress, she said. Work on display will include classical sculptures, photographs and mixed-media dolls. Guests may also visit the mini-historical museum that she and her husband have assembled in the living room of their home, which is believed to have belonged to Wheeling Gaunt.

At 777 Xenia Avenue, apartment 3, painter Jennifer Bristol will exhibit a variety of her oil paintings and drawings. A teacher at the Dayton Art Institute and the Springfield Art Museum, Bristol will display her paints and different aspects of her artistic process, and will be happy to discuss her process with visitors. She will also raffle off her Macintosh computer.

“I’m happy with whatever happens,” Bristol said of the tour. “I’m happy for the exposure.”

Artist Studio Tour visitors may also interact with the artists and view original work at eight other studios.

They may view pottery influenced by ancient wood-fired traditions of the Far East at the 145 East Hyde Road studio of Naysan McIlhargey; the functional kitchenware and large sculptural flower containers created by potters Dave and Keiko Hergesheimer at 1210 Xenia Avenue; and the pottery of Jane Hockensmith-Reich and Jeff Reich at 131 West South College Street, who also use melted stained glass, basketry reeds and decorative alterations and piercing in their work.

The studio tour also includes 777 Dayton Street, the work space of Evelyn LaMers, who creates contemporary teapots and vases; Michael Jones, at 307 North Walnut Street, who makes “ceramics, drawings and environmental sculpture grounded in the poetic possibilities of abstraction and influenced by numerous trips to Japan,” according to tour literature; Lisa Wolters, at 3621 Brannum Lane, whose ceramic work ranges from small tiles to wall hangings; Corrinne Whitesell, at 785 Wright Street, who creates handwoven items ranging from handbags to rugs and blankets; and Anna Arbor, at the Union School House, suite 311, who makes three-dimensional paper sculptures from handmade paper, along with watercolors and acrylic paintings.

Tour maps will be available at Young’s Jersey Dairy, the Winds, Springs Motel and the Vernay parking lot.