June 14, 2007

Jackie Davenport, who operated the Village wastewater treatment plant for 28 years, retired last Wednesday after nearly 35 years with the Village.

By Lauren Heaton

As if one year of toilet talk wasn’t enough, the Yellow Springs Arts Council has fashioned another full-year exhibit at the ChamberPot Gallery with more potty art than ever to anchor the Yellow Springs Art Stroll evening on Friday, June 15.

Again in the public restrooms of the Train Station, the number two “loo with a view” art show opens with an outdoor reception in front of the building from 6–10 p.m. The event is one of the many art openings and events all over the village that evening.

In the most public of private spaces, 28 new and returning artists have submitted art for the ChamberPot Gallery, located next to the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce office. Artist Deb Housh painted her son on the toilet in a piece about potty training, and Margaret Tidings-Petrie created a Rubin’s vase with three chamber pots stacked on top of each other, while Corrine Bayraktaroglu painted a piece called “oh Poo.”

Other artists have submitted work that has nothing to do with sanitation at all. Roger Smith has an oil called “Evening in the Pine Forest,” Jason Morgan painted a lifelike portrait, and Christine Clinger included a painting of a single tree.

Several artists in this year’s loo with a view show created multimedia works, including photographs by Anna Arbor and Claire Bayraktaroglu, a quilt on canvas by Kate Birch, a paper collage by calligrapher Ann Bain and a collage of found objects such as a mirror piece, a newspaper clipping, a tree tag and other rejects that new artist Janeal Turnbull Ravndall collected on her daily walks through the village.

The concept of public art has become somewhat of a theme for this year’s Arts Council happenings, which will include a focus on graffiti art at the October art stroll. Arts Council member Bayraktaroglu likes art that is accessible to everyone, and graffiti art takes the elitist element out of art and allows for a truer reflection of contemporary society, she said. Graffiti is energetic and intense, and it’s always changing, she said, which adds spontaneity to an elaborate painting on a public wall, a quick stencil or a tag with the artist’s signature.

Graffiti has no more appropriate home than the walls of a public restroom, and the Chamber-Pot Gallery will embrace that tradition at Friday’s opening by encouraging visitors to create their own art on stickies to post on the bathroom walls. Bayraktaroglu hopes people feel free to draw or write anything, pure or contaminated, or a simple signature, such as “Spuggy was here,” she said. The public can also contribute commentary on the art on the walls for others to read.

Shrinking art to a smaller and more youthful scale, the Arts Council art ball machine will make its second appearance at the gallery opening. For $1 at the turn of a dial, the public can purchase tiny art in a plastic ball that drops out of a candy dispenser. Talitha Greene, Housh, Nancy Mellon and Bayraktaroglu created 250 mini pieces, such as handmade jewelry, canvas-mounted magnets or a colored cockroach with the trivia information: “Did you know that a roach can live for a week without its head?”

Bayraktaroglu got the idea for the art ball machine after reading about an artist who was selling art for $5 in cigarette boxes from a converted cigarette machine and another who was selling from a vending machine for 25 cents actual balls of trash collected in New York City.

“Now that’s funny,” she said. “So I thought, why can’t we do something like that? The concept is so much fun, and it’s original art for just a dollar.”

DJ Drewmas will spin a little hip-hop at the reception that will spill out onto the bike path under a tent in front of the Train Station. Refreshments will be served.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com