Local artists capture the art of expression

I nervously walk behind buildings, across parking lots, finally reaching the sidewalks of uptown Athens. My palms sweat and my heart thuds with each step. Why am I so nervous? I should NOT be this nervous. This is absurd. I continue toward my destination, scuffling through freshly fallen leaves as I contemplate what these next two hours will have in store for me.

By the time I return to reality, my feet are nearly at the doorstep. I softly tap on the glass double doors. I told them I would be here now. Is anyone even here?

A man in his early 20s, wearing a V-neck T-shirt and dark-wash, fitting jeans, notices me and rushes over to let me in.

        He opens the door, but walks away. I follow at a distance. Where on earth am I going? And then I realize, This is it.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

A rainbow of vivid colors surrounds me. I amble through the shop’s ceramic tiles, jewelry, T-shirts, magnets, ornaments, tote bags, baby clothing, mugs, stationery, prints. I feel like a squirrel in a Planters nut factory. And to think, all the artwork was created by artists with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Unbelievable.

As I continued past the artwork on display, I notice three men huddled over—one drawing, one coloring, one painting.

The man painting sits in silence. With much thought and precision, he dips his foot-long paintbrush into a plastic serving cup filled with robin’s egg blue paint. He pauses, pondering, while a drop of thick, acrylic paint slowly drips onto the paper-covered table. He doesn’t say a word. Concentrating, he hunches, gliding the brush along a beige, faux-leather handbag. His brushstrokes are long and swift.

        “Great. There you go,” says Christine Miles with a low, gentle voice. “Nice. Nice job, buddy.”

        Miles uses her pointer finger to direct the artist’s next stroke, around large violet circles with golden glitter on top. Another artist added these shapes in the days prior.

        “I like the way you’re going around these, Paul,” Miles says to the artist as she traces her finger around each circumference, once again guiding his brushstrokes.

        All of a sudden, with one giant swirling motion of the brush, he begins painting over one of the orbs.

        “Let’s not paint over the purple circles,” Miles immediately responds, explaining to Paul that another artists worked hard on those violet spheres.

        Paul continues around the shapes, every-so-often brushing over part of a circle.

        Paul, like many other artists who work at Passion Works Studio in Athens, Ohio, has a developmental disability.

The Beginnings

Passion Works Studio supports collaboration between artists without and with disabilities, whether they are mental or physical. Open since 1998, the studio has let the developmentally disabled express their emotions. It helps “inspire and liberate the human spirit” through their artwork, according to the Passion Works Web site.

        The studio started as a three-week residency with artist Patty Mitchell. During those three weeks, Mitchell worked with employees from Atco Inc., a life skills and work training center for developmentally disabled adults, to create an installation of 100 papier-mâché birds to display at the Kennedy Museum of American Art at Ohio University. The next year, the Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities granted Mitchell a four-month residency, during which she hosted workshops throughout Athens, said Joyce Frank, studio coordinator. The Kennedy Museum again displayed a compilation of the art produced at these workshops.

        From these two programs, the Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities decided to make these residencies year-round, using grant money to fund them; however, once people started buying the art, funding transitioned to product sales, which currently keeps the business thriving. The money from sales also allows Passion Works to hire locals as either visiting artists, who have disabilities, or resident artists such as Miles, Chris Biester and Wendy Minor Viny.

Brought Together Again

Miles has a bachelor’s degree in studio art and a master’s degree in special education. Before working as an artist-in-residence, she taught at a preschool for special needs students. A stint at Passion Works has provided her with the unique opportunity to work alongside some of her former preschoolers, who are now adults, including Jason Licht, a 33-year-old with a long braided ponytail, who uses a motorized wheelchair. When Miles taught Licht in preschool, he was wrapped in a full-body cast and used a skateboard to get around.

“Jason has always had lots to say. Oh, bless your heart, Jason,” Miles said, gently smiling at Licht. “Now he gets to give me all kinds of grief.”

Licht is known to break from the norm of happy and bright drawings and present the dark side of disabilities through his art.

“Why is the art here limited to happy stuff?” asked Licht. “Some of us have pretty debilitating conditions.”

He showed me one of his pieces titled Bad Hare Day, in which a hawk captures a hare mid-jump. Though Licht used bright colors, these are not the typical mixture of blues, greens, pinks and purples. He utilized chestnut brown for the sky, along with a combination of grays, browns and deep greens for the animals and grass. With this piece, Licht aims to display that happiness can be interrupted in a second.

“There is an opportunity for release anytime you have art tools in hand,” said Licht, who tends to draw eagles, hawks and anything intimidating. “We need a creative outlet because if we don’t have these things, we’ll explode.”

And for all you single ladies, Licht said he is available.

It’s a Business

Joyce Frank keeps the business running by ordering supplies, scheduling the artists and organizing projects, marketing and sales. Before receiving a full-time position with Passion Works, she started as a part-time coordinator of community art nights at Atco.

“I like the challenge of never knowing what’s going to happen,” said Frank. “There are always new things to do; there’s never a typical day.”

A Passion Works Vet

Biester—a man in his early 40s with a full, bushy beard and straggly long hair covered by a Montana trucker’s hat—started as a volunteer, and one year later became an artist-in-residence when a full-time position opened.

When he was growing up, his family friend was born with multiple disabilities, and because of this, he always had an interest in working with the disabled. A construction accident in 1993 caused him to spend two weeks on life support in an intensive care unit in Columbus, which contributes to his empathy.

Biester has been exposed to art and music his entire life, and therefore knows no different. He graduated from OU with a degree in art education, though he’s not sure of the year. Working at Passion Works was his first job “totally associated with art,” which adds to the uniqueness of the occupation and causes it to be the perfect fit for him.

“I’m always intrigued by what they can do through art,” said Biester, referring to the limitations the visiting artists overcome when completing each piece. “You live vicariously through your art.”

Each day, Biester enjoys seeing the artists and hearing about what he calls their “adventures.”

Biester emphasized the rareness of working in collaboration with other artists. Miles referred to this aspect as a “layering of talent,” in which multiple artists add their unique flair to each piece. For example, as I observed the artists, Miles pointed to portions of the work and was able to identify artists who participated in the creation. With each layer, the artists-in-residence add definition and shading to enhance the objects. They outline wolves, fish, flowers, birds, bats, houses and skyscrapers with black Sharpie or white paint markers, without changing the visiting artists’ images.

“Stuff happens regularly that’s amazing; everyday is amazing,” Biester said. “Each new accomplishment and victory makes it seem worthwhile.”

* * * * * 

Throughout my two hours at Passion Works nearly two weeks ago, I began to realize the effort each artist puts forth in his or her art. Walking out of the studio, my emotions transform, fascinated and happy to sad. I don’t want to leave. Man, I could sit and talk with these artists all day and just watch them work. I never thought about the precision, concentration and patience that goes into every piece. How do they not become frustrated? What goes through their minds? What does a completed piece mean to them? I somehow can’t even imagine what their responses would be. All I do know is that I want to return.

To be awestruck. Impressed. Humbled.

A Look Ahead

Over the last five weeks, I’ve led you to my favorite local treasures here in Athens: Donkey Coffee and Espresso, Athens Book Center, Casa Nueva, Athens Underground and Bagel Street Deli. I must say, I’m glad I had an excuse to visit each of these, and then promote them through my posts.

As a part of this project, we are required to have an interactive map. So for mine, I decided to mark the places I’ve been to in pink, the places I will be visiting shortly in purple and where I live in yellow.

View "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" in a larger map

As you can tell by the map, I haven’t really branched out from on- or near-campus attractions. After this week, I intend to change that. While my next few treasures are still within about a mile (walking distance) from my little corner on East Green, Read Hall, they’re a bit of a trek for me, though I’m sure I can manage.

So, without further ado, I would like to present my final few destinations.

Passion Works Studio 
Passion Works is an art shop and studio located on East State Street. The best and most unique part about this artwork remains that it is a place were creativity is born and collaboration is the key.

Beads & Things 
This shop not only carries beads from around the world, but also bags, sarongs and gemstones. Customers are even allowed to make their beaded art in the store, where they will receive free instruction by employees.

Village Bakery 
The Village Bakery offers a wide selection of baked goods and pastries made from locally grown produce. This café measures its success on its “social, environmental and financial impact in the local and global communities,” according to the menu.

Miller’s Chicken
Though I don’t know much about Miller’s Chicken yet, I’ll be updating you as soon as I do. I do know, however, that its menu items include fried chicken, seafood, fries, sandwiches and salads. I’m definitely anxious to try it.

An Athens-Themed Weekend

Every week, I show you to a different business in Athens and attempt to describe the feel of each place in two blog posts.  But with this week’s second post, I’m stepping slightly out of topic.  Only slightly.  Instead of another post on Athens Underground, I want to take you through my Athens-themed weekend with my parents.

Ohio University has quite a few weekends each year dedicated to the family visiting—Parents Weekend, Sibs Weekend, Moms Weekend and Dads Weekend. Not only do our families have an excuse to visit us and check out the town and our lives as students, but we also have the opportunity to bring money to local businesses in Athens.  But does it really bring money to the little shops, or does it just provide more business for Applebee’s or Bob Evans?

In my attempts to stick it to the “corporate” man, I took Mom and Dad to the little Athens wonders, which I’m in love with. During the 27 hours they were with me, we jumped from place to place, starting with the Athens Farmers Market, an outdoor market located on East State Street, where local producers and businesses sell fresh produce, fruit, breads, pastries, salsas, jellies, flavored coffee and so much more.

At the AFM, Mom and Dad bought me necessities to get me through the next four weeks—pumpkin spice coffee, pineapple hot salsa and Fuji apples. After roaming through the crowds for a bit and getting me a blueberry muffin for breakfast, we left to get any remaining food items from Kroger (OK, I didn’t completely stick it to the corporate man, but you get the point). 

From there, we hopped to Brennan’s for a soup-and-sandwich lunch and some chatting. Then to Donkey for some hot, non-fat vanilla chai drinking, some Pastimes board game playing and chatting (I had to take Dad to Donkey since he’s never been there).  Because of the hours of chatting, we were hungry again, so we left for Casa Nueva, where we ate our share of local veggies with a Mexican kick and did some more, you guessed it, chatting. Sorry, no habanero salsa this time.

We finished up the rest of yesterday by sitting in the lobby of my dorm playing 500 Rummy, and … chatting.

This morning after church, we traveled to the Village Bakery on East State Street to feed our appetite for healthy, local foods yet again. Sitting on high stools next to the window, we enjoyed our slices of quiche Lorraine and fresh, sweet apples and pears. Oh, and we did more chatting.

If you haven’t noticed, we do a lot of eating and chatting.

Although my throat is still a tad bit dry from all the chatting I did this weekend, I wouldn’t have traded that time for anything.

Addition of Social Media

For this post, I wanted to provide a transcription of an interview with the owner of the Athens Book Center; however, I apologize, that will not be happening because I cannot get a hold of him. So, instead, here’s a run-down of the new social media this used bookstore is utilizing to help business.

When speaking with Book Center employee Justin Kendrick, a fifth-year Ohio University student studying creative writing, he told me some of the new marketing plans they hope to use to spread the word of their existence.

In fact, I was speaking to one of my friends two nights ago, and I told her about my excursion to the Book Center, to which she replied, “I never knew that existed.” I was shocked. I had no idea that students had never heard of the Athens Book Center before.

Hopefully, that will change.

After doing some Googling, I discovered the Athens Book Center does have a Web site. (Justin didn’t know the store has a Web site, so either there is poor communication with the owner, or the Web site is simply, really new. I’m choosing to believe the latter.)

Regardless of whether or not the Web site is new, it contains a book directory, a book search and a link for purchasing books from the store. To purchase a book from the online catalog, you must submit your e-mail address and shipping and billing information.

After discovering the Web site, I also noticed on my google search that the Athens Book Center has a Facebook page. I immediately logged in on Facebook and became a fan. I think the bookstore is doing a great job with the social networking even if it doesn’t have a huge following (OK, a very small following). My friends and I make up five of the 54 fans, which to me, is both a happy and a sad thought. Happy because my friends and I love the place, and sad because there are only 54 fans.

But anyway, the Facebook statuses try to engage the viewer and communicate by asking questions and pushing for comments. It keeps fans updated on current happenings and promotions, such as the new smoothies, which according to employee Justin Kendrick, are 100 percent fruit. Hooray for health! I haven’t tried one yet, but I plan on it for the next time I’m there.

"But I'm Not Dead Yet..."

Yesterday afternoon, I waltzed excitedly through the glass doors.

I hadn’t visited the Athens Book Center, located at 74 East State St., in nearly five months, and frankly, I’d missed it.

Upon arriving, I glanced around. To my right, a café-type area with tiny tables and chairs stood awaiting an intelligent tush to rest on it. To my left, two regulars catch up while relaxing on two of the three plush, worn couches.  The couches looked so inviting, but I admit, I didn’t have time to sit down.

After walking through the sitting areas, I was taken aback by the vast number of books exploding from the shelves and emerging from stacks on the floor. 

I walked through hall aligned with books and straight to the rear of the shop, to my favorite section of the store.  In this back room rest the foreign language novels, which I love to pretend I can read. OK, so I can read French, but that’s not the point.  Across the room are other novelties and books that need to be handled with care, which are kept in glass shelves.

The entire time I was in the store, I was surrounded by the smell of ink printed on paper, and the scent of binding mixed with a tinge of brewed coffee.

Something I never noticed until writing this: mega-bookstores like Barnes & Noble or even the college bookstores on campus don’t have the “book” smell.  This is disheartening. But thankfully, we have at least one bookstore in Athens that actually smells like books.

Some say used bookstores are a “dying breed.” In fact, Athens Book Center employee Justin Kendrick, a fifth-year student studying creative writing, used this term when talking about the bookstore industry.  But one reason he decided to work at the store is because it’s “the only real bookstore in town.”

He described the atmosphere as “literate,” or one in which customers converse about books and their favorite authors.

“You meet people who care about writing,” Kendrick said.

Although, due to time constraints, I don’t read nearly as much as I want, I get a certain unexplainable thrill when picking up a book, no matter if it’s new or used.  And I don’t know if any of you have had this experience, but I get excited when I visit a unique bookstore such as the Athens Book Center.