By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Kelsey Meyer had never exhibited her art before Saturday’s Art Walk in downtown Bowling Green.
“This is my first time entering any art show, ever,” Meyer said.
The people liked what they saw — Meyer won the event’s People’s Choice award for her digital floral art.
For the past 20 years, Carole Kauber has been exhibiting her abstracts landscapes, entering competitions and selling in galleries.
Juror Kelsey Ann Scharf liked what she saw and awarded Kauber Best of Show honors for the 27th Art Walk from the 30 or so artists exhibiting work.
She awarded second place to Robert Gullett, who also placed second in the People’s Choice balloting, for his highly detailed pen and ink drawings and third place to photographer Chris Burch.
Scharf said of the winners “not only were they making the work but they had something to say about it.”
They all had deep connections to their subjects and media.
For Kauber the connection came from living near Niagara Falls, and her love of the place and its architecture.
For Burch, it was the old barns around Bowling Green.
For Gullett, it was his devotion to drawing with pen and ink. Scharf said they talked for a while about different pens. Gullet’s love of folklore is also reflected in his drawings.
Scharf said after viewing the single examples of the artists’ work at the Wood County District Public Library, she headed out to see their displays in the downtown shops.
Scharf chatted with the artists without identifying herself as the judge, “just to keep it fresh,” she said. She even ended up buying a photograph from Burch.
Kauber said that she grew up in Buffalo, NY, and got her bachelor’s degree at the University of Buffalo, before coming to Bowling Green State University to get her master’s. She ended up staying in the area, teaching art at Otsego until her retirement 10 years ago.
The Bowling Green resident is inspired by the Abstract Expressionists’ approach to color. Kauber maintains her ties to realism. “Most of my abstractions are based on something concrete, but it’s abstracted enough that it’s not that obvious.”
The work on display in the library, for example, was based on the bridges and the movement of the rapids in the river.
Meyer also has “a color obsession.”
The 2008 Eastwood graduate, studied art history with a minor in photography at BGSU. It was after graduating in 2013 that she taught herself to paint and seriously began creating her own art. “I started taking pictures of flowers and then finding my own method of creating digital art out of the images.”
“Colors and florals influence mood,” Meyer said. “I’ve always been drawn to those motifs.”
Also, honored in the People’s Choice balloting was Maryjane Miller, for her abstract paintings, who placed third.
Tony Vetter, director of Downtown Bowling Green, said the response to the event was good. He noted how full restaurants were, and the number of people on Main Street.
People got to enjoy Art Walk in a different way, he said.
This year, each artist competing had one select work on display in the atrium of the library. About a dozen gnomes decorated by local individuals and groups were also displayed. People could vote on their favorite and buy raffle tickets to win the gnome of their choice.
The winning gnome was “Paint by Gnome-bers” by Kelli Kling.
The money raised by the gnome raffle as well as a quilt raffle benefit downtown beautification effort.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. art shows, activities and music were presented in downtown spots.
Deborah McEwen said this was her first time exhibiting her wares at Art Walk. She started to create ceramics as a stress reliever and has continued it now that she’s retired.
She said she was enjoying talking to those who stopped by about her work. “You get to talk to different people, and people have always been interesting to me.”
Wendy Jenkins was at her booth in the quilt display in the Four Corners Center. She’s participated in the quilt show at Art Walk for four years.
This year with the shorter hours — four instead of six — it meant a lot of time setting up and tearing down, for much less time showing and talking about quilting.
Vetter said, though he’d heard no negative comments and some positive, the hours will be one of the issues that will be discussed when the committee reviews this year’s event.
