PLAYBACK ST. LOUIS
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YOU ARE HERE Crossing the River by Rudy Zapf This is the third of four articles about living and working for the arts in the St. Louis area. This month’s focus is the arts community in Edwardsville. The bridges spanning the Mississippi River are not conduits. They are dividing lines separating us from them. We (meaning typical St. Louisans) cannot fathom why anyone would want to live over there in the wilds of Illinois. It is assumed that they have nothing comparable to the Fox, the Sheldon, Powell Hall, or, as ultimate proof of uncivilized existence, Starbucks or St. Louis Bread Co. Given the spiderweb of highways and exits scrawling into a Pythagorean knot, plus local views tainted with prejudice, even the thought of driving over there brings tremors of unease. “What if the car breaks down? What language do they speak? Will I be surrounded by torn dungarees, shotguns, and pitchforks while the opening notes of “Dueling Banjos” deliver unto me an acute awareness than I am now in their territory?” And yet… Over there in Edwardsville, there are about a hundred artists living and making art. Functional pieces, sculptural pieces, paintings, drawings, printmaking, and, yes, even public art. There are an estimated additional hundred in Alton and the surrounding area. These are merely the ones that are actually known to be producing; possibly there are hundreds more that are making art but have neither the confidence nor business acumen to get it into the public eye. That’s a large number of artists for a backwater. And then there’s ArtEAST. Last October, this major studio/exhibit tour showcased the work of 110 artists. EAST is an acronym for Edwardsville Alton Studio Tour, and it included 15 studios which were opened to the public as well as group exhibits in locations around both towns. (The next ArtEAST will occur in October 2003, though final dates are not set.) Susan Bostwick and Kathryn Nahorski are the organizing dynamos that manage to coordinate this major event. The scale of production is unbelievable. To compare planning ArtEAST with coordinating a single gallery exhibit, a person would have to imagine the difference between preparing Babette’s feast to fixing a sim-
ple dinner for a few friends. Bostwick and Nahorski corralled artists of Alton and Edwardsville into single or group shows, collected sponsors, found nontraditional exhibition venues, and contacted sources for media coverage. As Bostwick admits, it’s a year-round project. As soon as the event is over, she’s writing grant reports to send to sponsors and donors. She volunteers for this time-consuming job because she is keenly aware of the lack of exhibition opportunities for east-of-the river artists. Considering the strong number of artists that Alton/Edwardsville boasts, the want of private galleries is glaring. The gallery at SIU-E is reserved mostly for students, art professors, and alumni, which allows little time to show work by other local artists. There is the Towata Gallery in Alton, but at 20 miles north of Edwardsville, it’s no closer than St. Louis. Choices are narrow to nil for those who would like artistic autonomy. Artists and art lovers must drive elsewhere in order to see or show art. They come here much more than we go there. The gist is that ArtEAST is an essential event for Illinois artists. They receive exposure, commissions are contracted, and the public becomes cognizant of treasures to be found within their own neighborhoods. In addition to a thousand other responsibilities involved with organizing such a large event, Bostwick and Nahorski produce a comprehensive catalog of participants. Each artist may submit an artist’s vitae/statement and one photo of representative works. The size of the binder is ponderous, and poring through it makes one aware of the diversity of talent that can be found just across the river. Bostwick, besides being an organizer extraordinaire, is an artist of some fame in her own right. Her clay works have been shown in Ceramics Monthly, American Craft, and The 1st International Miniature Sculpture Exhibition (Taiwan, 2002). She shows work at Xen gallery in the West End and LillStreet Gallery in Chicago. Earthy fecundity heavily influences her drawings and ceramics, which is not out of character for an artist whose medium is earth itself. Tubers sending out fingery roots, squinting at viewers with blind eyes. Pears seducing with smooth young skin, while hoary potatoes sprout chin whiskers. All things that grow have their own personalities. Surface textures telling life stories. Bostwick is attuned to the tales they have to offer.
Besides Bostwick, all artists presenting works in last year’s ArtEAST are worth noting. A few of the names are Nahorski, William Harroff, and Shawntá Ray. Nahorski, the other half of the event’s engine, is also a board member of the Madison County Arts Council. She specializes in drawing and painting. Her textured pastel drawing of a river bend is universal. It is a river, any river; it is the curve of the Mississippi as it elbows past St. Louis; it is the Danube wending its way to Budapest. Harroff focuses on book/digital arts, and his input to the art world is decidedly techno-savvy. With sponsorship from the Lewis & Clark Library System, he hosted an international e-book collection. Ray (metal and fiber) displays a range of proficiency from ephemeral baskets to steel and glass furniture. Her baskets grow upward, reaching through dense underbrush toward the light, intensely alive with the complexity of nature. A welded table resembles a lattice of leafy twigs. The irony of strong baskets composed of wispy materials and welded steel forms appearing to be as insubstantial as moving shadows—only a sculptor with incredible knowledge of her raw materials could draw such unexpected results from them. It is an epiphany for the ignorant. The depth of emotions and intellect that dive into processes, transforming these basic ingredients into museumquality works of art, come from artists that have chosen to live in the west of Illinois. Their collective existence germinates abundant fields of creation. Who would have guessed?
Defined by the River Susan Bostwick and Kathryn Nahorski
