The “Big Pig Gig” was a huge success in Cincinnati a couple of years ago. So was “HorseMania” in Lexington. A little closer to home, “Cow Mania” in Fleming County to celebrate June Dairy Day was fun and profitable.
Each of the art projects definitely served a purpose — to promote tourism, celebrate the community and raise some money in the process.
The idea is simple — challenge an artist to take an inanimate object and have their way with it.
The Ohio River Valley Art Guild has taken the idea and turned it into one more fun and creative project for its members, and a way for the group to raise money to support its many projects.
Members were encouraged to find a chair and use their own talents to paint it using a theme of their choice. An auction will be held Oct. 25 at the art guild building in Old Washington in conjunction with their Annual Fall Sale.
The “Chair-ity Auction” is open to the public. As an extra incentive for the community to go home from the auction with the chair of their choice, a raffle will take place. The winner of the raffle will get first pick of the painted chairs before the auction begins.
The painted chairs are more “fashion than function” and are intended to be a one-of-a-kind whimsical art piece for your home.
The artists, when first presented with their assignment, probably spent a few sleepless nights deciding on a theme for their chair.
A “Chaise the Blues Away” idea might have inspired an artist to decorate a chair in shades and unique patterns all in blue, or “Life is Like a Bowl of Chairies” might inspire a chair covered with painted cherries to sit at a kitchen desk.
A “Deck Chair” covered with playing cards might attract the attention of an avid bridge player or a rocking chair covered with beautiful birds could find its home in someone’s sunroom and bring a smile to the buyer’s face when sitting in the chair the artist called “Rockin’ Robin.”
For guild member Barb Clarke, the first step was to find the right chair to paint. Clarke, a relatively new member of the local group, has been painting for only a couple of years.
“This was my first attempt at painting furniture,” she said. “It was more difficult than I thought it was going to be.”
Clarke scoured several local used furniture stores before finding her chair sitting in the corner in the basement of Kachler’s Auction House in May’s Lick.
She spent some time just sitting and looking at her chair and talking with friends before she decided on the theme “Celebration Chair.”
“The word ‘celebrate’ intrigued me,” said Clarke.
She used lots of whimsical patterns to cover different areas of the chair and then painted the word “celebrate” in several different languages on the seat.
Clarke also involved her husband, Tom, who was in charge of the tedious job of sanding. She was in charge of sending him back to the garage to sand a little more until the chair was ready for the first coat of paint.
Since this was her first time painting furniture, she found it a little tricky, especially positioning the chair itself to paint.
Vicki Tichenor, another new member of the guild, found the process a little harder than expected, too.
“I would stand back and look at the chair and find a place or two I had missed,” she said.
Tichenor found she had to turn the chair in every direction possible, and even upside-down, to get into all the nooks and crannies.
Like Clarke, she wanted a unique chair for her first furniture painting project, something with good lines but different from a normal wooden chair.
As it turned out, she had to look no further than her own neighborhood.
On her way to work one day, she noticed a chair along the curb a neighbor had thrown out in the trash. Normally, a neighbor’s trash wouldn’t even get a second look, but something about this chair caught her eye.
“I stopped and knocked on my neighbor’s door to make sure she intended for the chair to be thrown away,” she said.
When the neighbor assured her she no longer had any use for the chair, Tichenor loaded her new-found treasure into her car and took it home.
The small vanity-type chair needed a little repair work but she still was determined this was the chair for her project. Before it was finished, however, it turned into the Tichenor-Tichenor-Brannen-Tierney chair.
Tichenor also sought out help from her husband, Jim, who made some of the initial repairs. The inspiration for her “America United — 9-11-01” chair came after sitting and looking at it for awhile.
“At first I couldn’t decide whether to paint the chair red, white or blue,” she said.
Red won out and Tichenor went to work.
Her idea included cutting a hole in the seat and inserting a vase of flowers. For help with that step she turned to Joseph Brannen, a former member of the Ohio River Valley Art Guild. He completed the tedious task of cutting the hole in the seat and also advised her to visit a local hardware store to replace a couple of missing plugs.
When it came time to upholster the seat, she turned to Jim Tierney who used his special upholstering tools to attach the foam and colorful fabric she had chosen.
She spent a lot of time finding the exact vase she wanted to fit into the custom hole in the chair, filled it with crystal beads and white lilies, the sign of peace.
Tichenor’s chair, on display in the window at Edward Jones Investments, was definitely more fun than work.
But it all started with the chair.
“When I found that chair on my way to work, it made my day,” said Tichenor.
The chairs are as different as the creative artists who painted them. Many of the chairs are already on display in the window of businesses in downtown Maysville.
By the time the actual auction takes place, the guild hopes to have at least 15 chairs ready and maybe even more.
The art guild is not only a wonderful creative outlet for local artists, they also sponsor many learning workshops for their members and wonderful events for the community throughout the year.
Each summer an art camp for kids is held at their facility and they have hosted several regional and state Kentucky Art Association competitions to showcase the works of talented high school students. Their recent guest lecture series also was very successful.
The money they raise at their “Chair-ity Auction” will ensure these programs continue.
Buy a raffle ticket. Bid on a chair.
Hopefully you’ll go home with a unique piece of art by one of the many talented artists in this area.
