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2010 EASL Heist
First The Story. Then The Art, a Long List of Artists & an EASL Thank-you
Diane Walker Gladney shows off her Ray-Mel Cornelius rooster during the
Smuggler portion of the EASL Heist. Behind is Heist volunteer Richard Ray.
Ray-Mel Cornelius Odin 2 acrylic on canvas 10 x 8 inches
At best the 2010 EASL Heist was a mixed success. Holding it on the high-party weekend night before Halloween all but guaranteed a low turnout, even if the organizers tacitly approved wearing costumes. The usual EASL event mob scene did not obtain, although the event was plenty of fun, sold lots of art and probably raised a heap of money for area artists in emergency distress.
Someone said the committee insisted that "Artists don't go to Halloween parties," but I suspect The McKinney Avenue Contemporary would disagree, since they had just such a gathering that same night, and I've known many artists who really get into the spirit of All Hallowed E'en. At first I thought it rude of The MAC to throw a party on EASL night, but it was Halloween Eve, and many artists don't need much an excuse to dress up and party. I'm sure there were dozens of artist-related parties that night. Oh, and our first-ever World Series game in Arlington.
The Heist Committee Feels the Empty Space: Judy Hearst Smith,
Marty Ray, Susan Lecky, Anna Palmer Steve Benezue and John Galetta
Worse, EASL didn't draw as many buyers as it got donated artworks to sell. Even as many buyers — EASL called them Thieves and Smugglers again — as there were popular pieces of art, although which those were would be different for every buyer.
This was the third time the once-innovative organization has done the same event, called by the same name, lending a hand-me-down sensation for deja vu all over again. The first Art Heist was held in the deep, dark and dank sub- sub-basement at South Side on Lamar — well underneath where the trains used to drive through, in 2006. Mine were the only photographs of that event, which I wrote about then in EASL Heist: Art in the Dark.
View Northwest from the High Windows at Lofty Spaces
This year's Heist was held about a half a crow-fly mile east of South Side, in Lofty Spaces, a much nicer party and wedding facility in a heavy, truck freight neighborhood bounded on the south and west by the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific tracks, then the Trinity River levees and the Corinth Street Bridge. In an area that might be called The Lower Cedars.
Just north along Cockrell Avenue is a line of buildings reshaped to look like Iraq for the mostly fictional 2003 TV movie Saving Jessica Lynch, and not much since. Those buildings are rotting, tilting the neighborhood into a distinctly downward trend.
Still-packaged Art from the First Delivery
EASL alternates major fundraising events between Dallas and Fort Worth, so the second Heist was in our Sister City to the West. I did not attend, although I did donate a print. I figured one Heist was already enough, but I never fail to support EASL. Then, again two years later, comes this one, with a dwindling audience on an already widely popular and busy party night.
It's past time for EASL to show some of its old inventive and ingenious spirit and come up with something new, or go back to themed auction/exhibitions, which were great fun, if more challenging to organize and participate in. To accomplish that, it probably needs an influx of younger minds and bodies. There were a few young people helping this year, but mostly, I saw gray hair.
Exhibition Director Sherry Owens with Committee Members Anna Palmer and Marty Ray
The first, more expensive tier of the Heist disappeared a lot of art very quickly. The exact income and profit figures will not be known till toward mid-November. The facility, which usually costs $5,000 to rent the night, cost EASL $1,500, and there was food — although what there was ran out quickly and wasn't nearly as nutritious as advertised, drink, a smattering of tables and not nearly enough comfortable chairs — or much to do beyond the rapidly decelerating Heist and auction.
Unsold art donated by area artists was taken off the walls and Dutch Auctioned after Smugglers and Thieves took work. Prices starting at $150, dipped in $25 increments to $100, then if that sparked interest, sometimes back up well past the original bid. If it was still not sold at $100, the art was stacked against the wall to be returned to donating artists. It's a sad pity to have to return donated work because EASL could not attract enough buyers.
Lots of Volunteers
Artists who had predetermined they did not want their work involved in the sometimes demeaning post-Heist Auction, either took their own work off the wall before the Auction started, or volunteers did. There was a box to check on the sign-in sheet that stayed with the piece throughout the event.
There was some auctioneer patter about artists or their work, but obviously not much was known about most of the artists or their art. Plus, in the din of the crowd in that large, mostly empty space, it was difficult to hear or determine much of the muddle that was broadcast. It was no hushed auction at Christi's.
Busy at the Unpacking
Several times, the post-Heist Auctions resulted in bidding wars that jacked prices higher than $150, occasionally significantly higher. Sometimes, when two or more bidders adamantly wanted the same piece, prices rose precipitously, surprising many. I have been attending EASL benefits for decades, but I had never before lasted past the bitter end and seen the after-event auctions, although some of my work has. Those brief moments were occasionally exciting.
Many other pieces, however, were neither sold during the Heist proper nor at the Auction after. I know deep down how that feels, and I have several times had my photographs neither chosen nor auctioned, and subsequently returned. Which is why I did not donate one this time, even though I feel strongly about supporting this, our only local artist-centric art-auctioning organization. Instead, I bought a Thief ticket for $250, and took my seriously diminished chances in the second tier.
Unwrapping
As I explained on our Calendar page days before the event, after much-ballyhooed, yet truly mediocre, less than informative PR for the Heist was emailed out by a supposed PR professional, then replaced by a solid but too-tardy email blast just a few days before the event, "Heisting order was determined by a drawing. Ticket levels were $50 Witness — admits one to the party and they get to watch the heist and participate in the Auction afterward; $250 Thief — admits two to the party and nets one work of art during the Second Round) and $500 Smuggler (admits 2, heist of 1 piece and tickets are drawn in the First Round)."
"Held at Lofty Spaces (816 Montgomery), the event allowed guests to “heist” one work of art from the total donated by [179] local professional artists. Doors opened at 7 pm on Saturday, October 30 for a preview of the art, and the heist starts at 8. The party continues until 11 pm or all the art was heisted."
Study in Black & White: Sue Benner and Marianne Gargour
An additional, "special drawing was held for four Stolen Gems. These were pieces in four mediums donated by Susan kae Grant (photograph), Otis Jones (drawing), Sherry Owens (sculpture) and Marty Ray (ceramic). Stolen Gem raffle tickets were $25 each, and the winner needn't be present to win." Some of those generated some revenue, but I noticed that several of the bowls were mostly empty.
The most sought-after art disappeared quickly during the Smuggler portion of the Heist. Several choice pieces remained during the early Thief portion, and a few were still available during the Auction, but most of the popular work was gone quickly and expensively. Good for EASL, but not for the tempo or excitement of the evening.
Pumpkins and Masks - Table Top Decoration
Those first few quick minutes of hyper selecting activity was the most exciting to watch or — I assume — participate in. There were many big, smiling faces blurring across the police-taped exhibition area. And not a little hurry and sped-up indecision. Next time — if there is yet another Heist, I might need to save my pennies and pay the full $500 entry and take my chances in that glorified strata.
Or just donate another remotely saleable photograph and watch. Not that I did not still have several choices in my long, unwritten list, when my name was finally called, shortly before the endgame Dutch Auction began. It may well be worth it to just pay to get in, so I could participate in the Dutch Auction.
Directed by Sherry Owens, the exhibition of The Heist was created that day only.
Too tightly packed for easy viewing of individual work, but an amazing feat for 170+
pieces in less than one day. On top of the ladder is Lofty Spaces Owner Bruce Galinet.
Whose work I chose in those sudden moments was a surprise. I had so many to select from. I got a small piece by DARts Member Kathy Robinson Hays. Since the first time I saw one of her strange pieces, I've wanted one but never before thought I could afford it. This was my one best chance.
As usual with Kathy's work, I'm not sure what to think of it yet — her work is amazing but startling and alien. I know it will grow on me. My appreciation will accelerate — it always has — and once I get it up on my wall in a place where I will always see it close, I will charish it. It never had a chance crowded into that far edge of the left wall.
Kathy Robinson Hays' The Great Lakes is elucidated in The Art of the Heist section below, with many other short reviews of Heist art.
Shopping
Each time a Smuggler or Thief — but especially during the much nosier, more active Smuggler phase — picked a piece, a volunteer in the three-walls-of-art area would pantomime and finger-spell the number back to who kept track. Even then, he often had to spell it repeatedly. There was a lot of noise and excitement then.
Because so few actual Heist tickets were sold, however, a lot of good art was left on the walls after Smuggler and Thief Heists.
Raising the Flag
After Smugglers and Thieves got their pieces and the Heist ground to a slow stop, I helped pull work off the wall for auctioning, but I demurred from walking them up and down in front of the crowd. I didn't want to be in the position of foisting art I did not believe in on trusting buyers — some weird sort of art-crit objectivity thing, I guess.
Basically, I did what needed to be done wherever I was when it was needed. That was facilitated by the fact that, as the self-appointed semi-official photographer, I was always in somebody's way and where something needed doing. When it interfered with my photography, photoing came first, but helping was grand fun. I wore three diffferent embelleshments that night: a vivid glitzy pink spring-on bracelet marking me as a Thief, the small brown crest of a volunteer, and the ID badge of a donating artist, which somebody insisted I wear, even though I did not donate. Situations like that, I did as I was told, and loved gadflying about.
The Last Supper - Choosing Pieces during the Dutch Auction After
I've paid careful attention at art auctions over the years, and noticed that most volunteer auctioneers only push — explain, elucidate or educate — works by very well-known artists, then mostly ignore everybody else's, slipping into rote.
Would be a thrill to watch a good auctioneer — not necessarily a pro — mix pertinent and fascinating facts and back-stories about each artist into their patter, but that would take immense prep and a general knowledge of years of local art history. I might have the knowledge, but I'm scared lousy in front of a crowd. Most of what the auctioneer did say was rendered indecipherable in the noisy room.
David Hickman Mask on Back of Head
The other piece I got was a color vinyl print by sculptor Jerry Dodd, called "Bad Tie," illustrating both a bow- and a connected neck-tie. It's not as colorful as his sculpture, but it is reminiscent of its shape. I feel a little guilty for getting it on the low Dutch Auction bid, but by then the crowd had thinned significantly, and there were many good, unsold works leaning against the wall.
A bigger crowd might have made a better and more exciting night of it. But the future of EASL fundraisers and that of the quadrennial event is up to a much younger and hopefully more innovative crowd. I know several of the people involved into this one up to their eyeballs, including a few who have all but burnt out, and it's past time for young blood and new ideas.
EASL has the art and area artists' and collectors' attentions, now it's time to expand the franchise out among those who like art but aren't as snooty about it as we are. Time to reach out to the crowds of wannabe arts supporters like those who attended the Art Conspiracy auction bare weeks previous to EASL's. They may not have the art quality, but they have more than enough enthusiasm, and I've seen them whip buyers into a frenzy.
The Art of The Heist
Kathy Boortz Mad Tea-Party Hatter (detail) 2010
found wood, sculpted wood, clay and paint
The art of the 2010 Heist was, like any good representative community exhibition — brief though it was — remarkable. I keep wishing I had photographed David Hickman's stunning little red, winged macquette for a someday full-size piece. I can't believe I did not snap it during those few hours it was on view.
I photographed this very political piece by Kathy Boortz the week before. It looked kinda pathetic hung low and against the wall, crowded into that high density of paintings. Tea-partiers who won in recent elections may ban anything that makes fun of them, but this smallish piece does a great job of it.
Finished days before the Heist — with one foot still loose enough to be bumped off and get strutted back on by a volunteer, popular Dallas artist Kathy Boortz' Mad Tea-Party Hatter was a classic of her political genre. Not as searing as her mostly metal Tom Delay as a giant cockroach crawling low on the floor — or her series of banchee-like Condoleezza Rices, but gently fierce.
Sue Benner Display Study #2 textile collage 16 x 16 inches
I have a scarf by Sue Benner from decades ago, which I treasure, but this many-sewn fabric piece was high on my thieving list, and apparently on other's, also. I hoped against hope that it would be overlooked in the mass of paintings, sculpture, prints and other works crammed so closely on those enclosing three walls at the Heist, but somebody well before my name was drawn got it, and I envied them mightily.
Abstract in bright, blazing colors, some of which I recognize from other Sue Benner pieces from long ago, this appliqué looks like an experiment gone utterly right. A splash of fabrics sewn irrevocably together. Light figures on an un-uniform ground of mostly darker swatches — a contemporary architecture of soft, vivid colors against a city-scape of contrasting, darker ground and scrawled all over up and down with tight stiches of contrasting thread.
Leonardo da Vinci (Paul Hoehn) shows off Lost Birds by Junanne Peck
This delicious little print suffers from poor photography, both here and on the EASL site where I first saw it. Up close, it was gentle in fabric-like textures and framing, many more intermediate tones than the bold higher contrast blacks and whites seen here.
I did not like it all that much when I saw it on the site, but when I had it in my close view, I began actively appreciating its subtler tonalities and framing. A gentle grayscale image of birds abstracted in nature.
Michael Pavlovsky Nomad painted hydrostone 4 x 2.25 x 2 inches
Smallish, less than a small hand's worth.The last time I saw this, it was in Patricia Meadow's hand, but she chose for several buyers. I wish I could cite titles for these pieces, but since they were only fully labeled on the backs, the only ones I know are the ones I got. This looks like cast bronze, and had more heft to it than I at first assumed.
It could be a self-portrait, but maybe not. He has a goatee and a middle-sized nose, but in the YouTube video with him singing with Billy Hassell guitar, it doesn't look at all like him. Self-portraits, however, are the artists seen through the artist's inner eyes, so you never know.
A really nice, little, chunk of three-dimensionality. Hardly ostentatious or in-your-face, but in somebody's.
Dalton Maroney Clone acrylic on wood 12 x 13 x 2 inches
Never seen one of these before, but after staring at these negative-space boats carved neatly out of this orange and red block of wood, it gradually dawned on me whose this had to be. I've watched Maroney's work from various distances for three decades, and his work never fails to grab me by the retinas and haul my mind into its mysteries.
Raymond Rains Starburst fused glass and steel 21 x 19 inches
I know this one's title and artist right away, because it was written on it — though easier to see in the full-size original digital image. I last saw it at the inaugural show of the new Oak Cliff Cultural Center and maybe once before that. I recognized many of the donated works from previous showings, making of the Heist a nice end of season roundup.
Most artists don't make work specifically for this show, although Kathy Boortz did. This Rains piece shines — literally — when light is free to glow through it. I actively did not like it the first couple times I saw it, but now that it's too late, I've begun to like it.
Sherry Owens Little Green Meanie crepe myrtle, dye and wax 7.75 x 10 .75 x 6 inches
This may be one of the few Sherry Owens works I've ever seen that I did not instantly fall in love with. Might be the sickly green stain or abstract pile of wood appearance. I had got used to her negative-space-carved-out nests and abstract figurative work, and these seems more like a part of something else than a something of its own.
Might be the angle. It was parked tightly between two other, slightly larger work, and I didn't want to move it, so as careful as I was, I still managed to make it look worse than real. It went fast, and I didn't see who got it. Bet they had a big smile well past check-out.
Steven Benezue Tasse et Soucoupe ceramics, glaze, matte and frame 9 x 11 inches
Benezue specializes in extending ceramics into more dimensions than any ceramist I know. I knew whose it was soon as I saw it sticking out of a box in the storage room where we parked newly-delivered art the Wednesday before the Heist, but because of other events there, the art could not go up till the day of. Sometimes Benezue strains the off-beyond-the-obvious first three dimensions, and his goofy pots wore on me, but this piece shows restraint, simplicity and obvious extension from potters' usual realms of breadth, depth and height.
Subtle. Simple. Cross-generic.
Margaret Ratelle Still Standing spit bite etching 15.5 x 11.25 inches
I have a small painting by Ratelle from when she moved out of the Continental Gin building, but it has nothing on her long series of soft, subtle silouettes blurred on scratches and geometic shapes in her etchings or bold and black on vivid red smear backgrounds of her larger paintings.
It was gone, probably long gone when my name was called, but I was not at all surprised.
Chris Bergquist Fulmer laddering up to lower the flag —
Tom Sale and Judy Vetter Birds on Wire felt on vintage quilt 60 x 72 inches
Not sure why or how, but Judy Vetter's name was left off the artist's name card underneath this large, flag-like [See above], tattered and worn, traditional birdblock-design comforter.
I suspect the quilt was found whole, already trashed by time and the elements, then the wires of birds added, all conspiring to create a double apparent dimensions of birds — the black ones on the black wires added later and the interconnected jig-saw of red abstract birds on a white field and the whole of the frame, ground, jigsaw and contemporary silhouettess. Nice. And much bigger than I thought when I first saw it on EASL's site.
Cheryl McClure Fragments 7 mixed media collage 15 x 16 inches
I think I see people, pesants probably, with great, loose-fitted clothing, sitting on red hay bales, but I'm just letting my eyes tell me tales. Nice bit of figure-based abstraction that lets my mind wander, and an odd bit of contrasting color with its own interpaly of dimensionalities.
Bob Nunn Side Trip oil on canvas 16 x 13 inches
Maps of mountain villages, topographic and inter-dimensional and rivers run all through it. Platted fields of furrows and gardens, red and orange buttes to the sky. Fantasy cartography of faraway places. Bob Nunn's map paintings are always fascinating
Heather Gorham Scarlet Heart acrylic, wood and sticks 21 x 13 x 7 inches
Sharp study of negative space, inhabited by red branch deer horn extensions from the small, protruding painting at the bottom. When the guy who got this piece walked off with it, he carried no black ground.
David Schulze
A brush-stroke painting of here or not far west. High Texas plains or New Mexico, maybe. Extended home territory. A comfortable feeling of "around here somewhere." Impasto enough to be pure and painterly. Landscape details and a bit of sky revealed. Red dirt and rock, green plant, growth in the desert.
Carol Ivey Take a Cup oil on linen panel 6 x 8 inches
Another deceptively simple play on a teacup, this time with saucer and shadows of its own, and an extended, delicate ripple handle on the painterly white ground mix of earthly sky colors. Floating in daylight blue shadows. Lovely, elegant, daintily subtle and not much larger than this image of it.
Nice signature glyph befits the simplicity.
Dotty Zamora Flora wax emulsion 8.5 x 12.5 inches
Never quite sure what it is about some work that needs me photographing it, but I was drawn to this smallish piece, like so many others at this year's Heist that so desperately needed much more space around it than was possible in this compressed and short-term exhibition. The murky wax lines' inoncontiguous ground seems to unify this encaustic as well as any.
Maureen Brouillette Red Blazer acrylic, collage and water based crayon on canvas 16 x 16 inches
Postmodern cityscape with pigeon, walker and outdoor cafe. Or something like it. A landscape mixed with elements of texture and shape and color. A man on a walk, either bedeviled by a certain pigeon or a friend along for the ride. This small journey is one of the several crowning achievements of the elaborate benefit sale.
Marvelous harmony of scale and hues. Landscape shapes blending in seeming effortless placement and shape. A dynamic of relative scale in figurative abstraction. Marvelous and beautiful. One of my early favorites. Quickly gone.
Corky Stuckenbruck Domicile 3 wood and handmade paper 16 x 12 x 12 inches
This was high on my list till Anna snagged it. A house plant, if you will. A root ball in the colors of earth, generating limb yellow shoots up into dark green tendrils into its miniature sky. A plant that will eventually engulf its wood frame home. Simple. Beautiful. And growing.
An outgrowth (pun accepted) of Transformation, like Stuckenbrook's earlier piece shown here [c].
Kenda North Shop Window, Florence 2010 archival ink jet print 20 x 24 inches
Like many others in the Heist, I'd seen this large photograph somewhere before. This one at Craighead Green recently, in North's solo show in the front space. Didn't initially recognize it or her other pieces there as hers. My first thought had been, "Oh, some ringer from outside the area." Then slowly it dawned that the fabric textures and clear focus was something I knew well and liked, even in this strange retail context, instead of underwater.
I hoped nobody would notice, but of course they did. I was impressed with the posed unposed found composition. Found already posed in a store window, with ironic and other juxtapositions of the various elements. Label on the crotch, etc. All with that informal clarity North's work so often obtains.
Difficult to discern its original street reflections from the ones caused by Lofty Spaces
Jerry Dodd Ugly Tie Vinyl print 24 x 12 inches
Of course, I'd rather have one of Jerry Dodd's very colorful yet uber-simple sculptures than a vinyl drawing that reminds me a of them, but this was on offer, and I could not turn down the opportunity. It's a joke about bad ties. Maybe the artist has been accused of such. I don't know that he wears them, but I can see him in a bow tie, easy.
The color in that portion looks like photographs of his work. Sculpture on the right, against a pebbled ground out by some lake, and a painting or drawing on the left. The blue-outlined, necktie portion must be another sculpture piece. I've always liked ugly ties, have long wanted a Three Stooges one — or a commemorative plate. Be happy to wear either part of this one, maybe against a dark blue or red shirt.
I like that it's both a bowtie and a longish necktie, neither of which I'd agree were ugly.
The original news story
Susan kae Grant Flying Tiger archival pigment print editon A/P1 23 x 30.5 inches
image from the EASL site by the artistEASL Art Heist at Lofty Spaces, 816 Montgomery Street, Dallas, 7-10 Saturday, October 30, 2010. Emergency Artists' Support League's main fundraiser provides funds for emergency funding to North Texas area visual artists and arts professionals in medical and other emergencies. Art donated by nearly 180 of North Texas' best artists.
Donating artists include: Betty L. Alford, Barbara Armstrong, Dean Armstrong, Matt Bagley, Sharon Neel Bagley, Jeff Baker, Deborah Ballard, Rita Barnard, Alice M. Bateman, Carol Beesley, Steven Benezue, Sue Benner, Michael L. Benson, Daniel Birdsong, Ed Blackburn, Rebecca Boatman, Elizabeth K. Bogard, Kathy Boortz, Jim Bowman, Lynn Bowman, Maureen Brouillette, Fannie Brito, Maureen Brouillette, Carolyn Brown, Denise Brown, Nancy L. Brown, Enrique Fernandez Cervantes, Georgia James Clarke, Charles Coldewey, Nancy J. Cole, Robb Conover, Carol Cook, Ray-Mel Cornelius, Sheila Cunningham, Gabriel Dawe, Jerry Dodd, David Dreyer, Wanda Ward Dye, Ann Ekstrom, Bradford Ellis, Peggy Epner, Lisa Erich, Nancy Ferro, Jacque Forsher, Michael Francis, Sandra Freeman, Chris Bergquist Fulmer, Merry Furher, Marianne Gargour, David Gibson, Susan Giller, Heather Gorham, Linda Gossett, Susan kae Grant, Rick Griggs, Valery Guignon, Paul Rogers Harris, Tracy Harris, John Hartley, Robin Herndon, David Hickman, Deborah Hobbs, Rachel Hoehn, Jeannie Houston, Ann Hines, Kelli A. Holmes, Leticia Huerta, Val Hunnicutt, Carol Ivey, Marilyn Ivy, Marilyn Jolly, Otis Jones, Loli Kantor, Matt Kaplinsky, Norman Kary, J. Lynn Kelly, Liz Kerrigan, Lane Anne Kimzey, Noah Klue, Arthur R. Koch, Jeanne Koch, Tuba Öztekin Köymen, Leslie Lanzotti, Chris Lattanzio, Susan Lecky, Pamela Lindley, Jackie MacLelland, Darrell Madis, Joyce Martin, Dalton Maroney, Cheryl McClure, Laurie McClurg, Margo Miller, Mark Monroe, Jane Monsson, Sandra A. Moreno, Marsha Moser, Celia Munoz, Anne Neal, Paula Rayer Nemec, Melia Dawn Newman, Kenda North, Bob Nunn, Sherry Owens, Harmony Padgett, Cynthia Padilla, Anna Palmer, Chris Panatier, Pavilna Panova, Michael Pavlovsky, Junanne Peck, Mary L. Perlow, John Pomara, Steve Prachyl, Raymond Rains, Mark Monroe, Mark Smith, Marla Ziegler, Marsha Moser, Mary L. Perlow, Matt Bagley, Melia Dawn Newman, Melodee Martin Ramirez, Margaret Ratelle, Marty Ray, Richard Ray, Janet Reynolds, Ryder Richards, Sue Anne Rische, Esther Ritz, Kathy Robinson-Hays, Richard Ross, Kathy Runkel, Tom Sale, Joel Sampson, Albert Scherbarth, Bruce Schiefelbein, David Schulze, Rusty Scruby, Elisabeth Shalij, Art Shirer, Scott Shubin, Allison V. Smith, Brad Ford Smith, Mark Smith, Alison Starr, Brett Stokes, Terri Stone, Gregory Story, Kathleen Dello Stritto, Pat Souder, Corky Stuckenbruck, Mariu Suarez, Pam Summers, Carroll Swenson-Roberts, Beata Szechy, Elaine Taylor, Silvia Thornton, Cecilia Thurman, Michael Tichansky, Frank X Tolbert II, Erik Tosten, Cecil Touchon, Scott Trent , Alexander Troup, Ellen Frances Tuchman, Caris Turpen, Karl Umlauf, Roy Vance, Tom Vanderzyl, Dave Van Ness, Zoetina Veal, James Watral, Monty Ousley Weddell, Karen Weinman, Michael Westfried, Kate Wickham, Angilee Wilkerson, Kathy Windrow, Joan Winter, Trish Wise, Dahlia Woods, Donna Bales Works, Gordon Young, Judy Youngblood, Dotty Zamora, Sarah Zamora and Marla Ziegler.
Click bold names to see work by DallasArtsRevue Supporting Members.
Front-gate Greeter Alex Troup
Heisting order is determined by a drawing. Ticket levels are $50 Witness — admits one to the party and they get to watch the heist; $250 Thief — admits two to the party and nets one work of art during the Second Round) and $500 Smuggler (admits 2, heist of 1 piece and their tickets are drawn in the First Round).
The Art Heist, held at Lofty Spaces (816 Montgomery), allows guests to “heist” one work of art from the total donated by over 180 local professional artists. Doors open at 7 pm on Saturday, October 30 for a preview of the art, and the heist starts at 8. The party continues until 11 pm or all the art is heisted.
There will also be a special drawing for four Stolen Gems. These are special pieces in four distinct mediums donated by Susan Kae Grant (photograph), Otis Jones (drawing), Sherry Owens (sculpture) and Marty Ray (ceramics). Stolen Gem tickets are $25 each, and the winner need not be present to win.
Art Check-out Helper Anita Horton
Online ticket and Full EASL Heist participation information is available. Tickets can also be purchased directly from Art Heist Chairs and Committee Members: Marla Bane, Marty Ray, Anna Palmer, Patricia Meadows, Rini Baker, Melodee Martin Ramirez, Kim McCarty, Nancy Ferro, Edith Baker, Norman Kary, Kathy Windrow or Taylor McDaniel in Dallas or from Pam or Bill Campbell in Ft Worth.
EASL is a volunteer committee founded in 1992 that raises and distributes funds to artists in need. EASL funds provide emergency financial assistance to visual artists and art professionals during times of unforeseen medical or other emergencies.
Grants are available to visual artists residing in Dallas / Ft. Worth and the surrounding counties. To date, EASL has paid more than $300,000 in grants to artists, their doctors, dentists and others. EASL grants are distributed confidentially to maintain the artists’ anonymity and dignity. The EASL Fund is maintained and held for distribution by the Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc., Dallas, Texas.
Visit bold links to see work by DallasArtsRevue Supporting Members. Whenever possible, DallasArtsRevue lists every artists in any Dallas show. We don't just list the stars, although there's plenty of those donating to this EASL Heist.
Volunteers Egg Man and Dark Furry — Art Shirer and
Sherry Owens mix it up with parts of his costume.
Unlike some organizations that auction art by Dallas-Fort Worth area artists for nonprofit purposes, EASL is by, for and about the artists in this area. All the money they raise provides emergency funding for Dallas/Fort Worth area visual artists and art professionals in need.
More information about EASL is on their site at http://www.easl.us/ and there's more Heist art there, too.
Also unlike other groups that raise money by selling work by local artists, EASL's every-other-year Art Heist (rotating between Fort Worth and Dallas) specifically invites North Central Texas' most notable artists to participate actively. The auctioned art is not made on the premises the night before by anybody who shows up. These are some of the best art by some of the best artists in this area.
A list of the artists EASL has helped over the years would read like a Who's Who in Dallas Art, but our names and circumstances are kept strictly confidential, unless we breach the subject ourselves.
Marty and Richard Ray Smuggling Art by Chris Bergquist Fulmer:
Cow Speak mixed media on panel with found objects 12 x 12 inces
and the EASL Volunteer Thank-you from Marty Ray
THANK YOU everyone for helping to make the EASL Art Heist a big success. What a great Art Party Saturday night in Dallas at Lofty Spaces, what a great team of volunteers and wonderful cooperation from all.
With your volunteer time, talents and great help — here is what we all together made happen!
Wednesday: Art Delivery — our super volunteer delivery man (no names being used here) helped pick up work all day at galleries and delivered in evening, from FW several managed to get the art to Dallas; and a whole team were there to help move all into storage at Lofty Spaces. With so many helping, moving the art (all 170+ pieces) seemed like a breeze!
Saturday morning SET UP ! WOW, we did it — unpacked all the art, organized packing materials and installed over 170 artworks (beautifully), tagged all the work, organized artist info sheets, decorated tables and the patio — a job that seemed impossible to do in one day - but your team efforts made it happen. We were a buzzing little bee hive of activity — a village of art people working together — one of the best things about the Heist for sure.
Patron Check In, Ticket Sales, Mug Shots, and Heist Hosts - great job and huge thank you to all. Our great head cashier/accountant and her team — wonderful!!!!!!!
The Evening Heist and Auction teams — and Art Check Out - super, super job from all; have heard nothing but how fun it all was, the heisting process went off perfectly. The 3 at the Art check out tables had sound blasting in their ears all night and still did a great job — with little complaint!
Music, MC and Auctioneer — thank you to the volunteer who put together 4 hrs of music! Our primary MC and Auctioneer — watch out - after the grand performances at the Heist, you might both be in great demand and may start up a new career! Great job from all who kept the show rolling smoothly all evening.
Art Packing and Holding — excellent in every way, staffed thru the evening with great volunteers — all art carefully handled and stored as needed, making heisters happy and at ease.
Final Clean Up Crew — and in the end, so many stayed to pick up, pack up, and clean up from the day and evening activity. Dedicated friends even came to help after the Ranger game, just to be present to help clean up!
Thank you to every one for the job or many jobs you did. When the dust settles, with accounting paperwork, we will let you know the profit (after expenses). All will be deposited into the EASL Fund for emergency grants for DFW visual artists.
EASL Art Heist 2010 is over, but the memory of over 50 people pulling together to make it all happen will be a very long time and pleasant memory.
Marty,
Volunteer Coordinator23/38
