Stories That Move
When we create videos for our clients, there's often an incredibly rich narrative that we can't include in the final cut. Being behind the scenes, we're fortunate to hear the depth and full context behind each story.
So in this podcast, we want to pull back the curtain and allow you to experience the extraordinary stories of extraordinary people we've been honored to connect with.
Go on an adventure with us.
Gain a new perspective.
Learn something new.
Be challenged.
Feel inspired.
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Stories That Move
Sea Grandon | Fostering Creativity in Small Towns
In this episode of Stories That Move, hosts Matt and Erica Deuel engage with Sea Grandon, a contemporary art advisor and director of Atelier, an art gallery in Warsaw. They explore the significance of art in shaping community culture, Sea’s journey from law to art, and the challenges and opportunities in making art accessible. Sea shares her insights on fostering creativity, the organic growth of her advisory business, and the vibrant community engagement surrounding her gallery. This conversation explores the transformative power of art within communities, focusing on the importance of immersive experiences, the empowerment of young artists, and the role of art in emotional processing and mental health.
Keywords
art, community, creativity, contemporary art, Warsaw, Sea Grandon, Atelier, art advisory, cultural impact, accessibility, art, community, creativity, mental health, young artists, immersive experiences, empowerment, accessibility, exhibitions, Warsaw
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Well, have you ever been in love? Have you ever had your heart broken? Have you, you know, struggled with your concept of God and a divine being? Have you thought about your mortality, your purpose in life, you know? Have you been beaten down by a failure? Then you know what you need to know. I mean, and people around us are all having different experiences, and sometimes they're having tremendous joys and sometimes they're having tremendous struggles, and we need to have grace with each other and with ourselves, and I think art is part of that.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of Stories that Move. I'm Mason Geiger and, as always, I'm here with my co-host, Matt Duhl.
Speaker 3:Today we're diving into a conversation about art culture and how creativity plays a role in shaping a community. Our guest today is C Grandin, a contemporary art advisor attorney and the director of Atelier, an art gallery right here in Warsaw. C has an incredible background in fine art market trends and transactions and she's helping to foster creativity and appreciation for the arts in our community and for today's interview, matt is going to be joined by a very special co-host his wife Erica.
Speaker 2:Erica and C have connected through their shared experience of running businesses downtown and their mutual passion for art and creativity, so it's only fitting that she joins the conversation.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a great discussion about the impact of art in smaller communities, the challenges and opportunities in making art more accessible, and what the future of creativity in Warsaw could look like. Whether you're an artist, a creative or just someone who appreciates the role of art in shaping culture, this episode is for you. So let's get started. Please welcome C Grandin to Stories that Move. Hey friends, welcome back to Stories that Move. I'm your host, matt Duhl, and with me today, special co-host, my wife Erica. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:Yeah really appreciate it. Mason is on the road traveling supporting our clients and I appreciate you filling in. And here we are in our brand-new beautiful set that the team has designed for us. So really excited about that and very excited about our guest C Grandin C. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me. I'm excited to have dual duels today. Quite a treat.
Speaker 3:I love it. Well, so good to have you, and I have been looking forward to this conversation for months. We had a moment where we had to reschedule, and I so appreciate your graciousness in doing that.
Speaker 1:No, I'm happy to be here. I'm very excited.
Speaker 3:Awesome, awesome. So C is a contemporary art advisor and attorney, which is just those two things alone. That's a very cool mix. Owner and director of Atelier, which is a contemporary art gallery here in Warsaw, indiana, and, I'll say, the only contemporary art gallery between Indianapolis and Chicago, which is amazing, so cool. Well, again, thanks for being here. Why don't you just take a moment, introduce yourself to our audience, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1:So, yes, I'm C Grandin. I opened Atelier in March of 23, so it's been open about two years now. I moved to Warsaw 12 years ago, yeah, and I have a family of four kids and I love living here in Warsaw and the work that I do for a long time has largely been about me traveling and working, you know, in other places, and I'm thrilled with the gallery opening and that I'm actually able to do what I love and do it right here in Warsaw.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's awesome. That is awesome. Okay, so I want to step back. We're going to come back and talk about Atelier and some of the things you're doing, but want to rewind and go back because, as I read your bio, you have just an unbelievable, just a lot of different things that you have done and been a part of. But take us to the beginning. Where were you originally from? What was childhood like for you?
Speaker 1:Well, I moved around quite a bit as a child, initially at a very young age. I was born in Boston, then Philadelphia, then Michigan, but then arrived in Lexington Kentucky around first grade. So I grew up actually on a horse farm in Lexington Kentucky. I was the oldest of four siblings, so we lived sort of out in the country. We didn't own the horse farm. My parents were academics and they rented the old farmhouse on the property so we kind of had the benefits of this beautiful setting. But you know, yeah, we were the four of us kids just kind of hanging out, using our imagination, running around the farm, reading books, and it was just a very sort of quiet, lovely childhood.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 4:What a setting to grow a creative imagination and brain that I now know is in you.
Speaker 1:Well, I was very envious of kids that lived in neighborhoods. Like I thought that was amazing. Kids that lived in neighborhoods Like I thought that was amazing the idea that you could just play with a friend so easily. But in retrospect that probably did have a huge impact on me, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Did you have a sense early on like leanings towards art and creativity? I know your college path didn't start there.
Speaker 1:Right, right. Well, that's a good question. I definitely read a lot. I was a big reader. I definitely dreamed a lot and had a lot of different ideas, always generating ideas and secret clubs with my siblings, and we would come up with little nonprofits. We thought we should start and have adventures. You know, adventures and that sort of thing. I wasn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't specifically know that I was going to go into a creative field and I think my whole sort of career, education and career just kind of unfolded, you know, in terms of what was interesting to me at that moment and not trying to think too far down the line, doing what I knew I wanted to do at that moment and sort of having trust and faith that it would kind of all come together at some point, sure, which I feel like most recently it truly has.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mostly, you know, like I said, a lot of imagination. I started to get into theater in high school and into photography as well, in high school and into photography as well, and I think that's when I really started to have interest in visual things and composition and design. I always loved rearranging my bedroom and making things look a certain way. Even in theater, while I loved acting, I really was interested in the way that everything looked visually the way the set looked, the way the balance of the people on stage and that sort of thing. So I think that's when I really started to kind of realize that I had this interest in, you know, visual things and aesthetics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, yeah, very cool, okay. So college you double majored in biology and anthropology, is that right?
Speaker 1:That is correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay so how did you arrive at that? What was that choice?
Speaker 1:You know, I just I really liked science. I liked learning about how the world worked. You know, obviously that's biology and then anthropology. I liked learning about civilizations, about how humans, you know, the history of humankind, and I really thought they were an interesting pair of studies to do together. I did my senior thesis. This is pretty exciting. Actually, maybe this was what led to me ending up in Indiana. My senior thesis was maize the political and economic implications of crop genetic uniformity. Oh, my goodness, I feel like you need to say that again for me to get it, even though I intended to live in a big city. Perhaps that was the first inkling that I was going to end up in the cornfields of Indiana.
Speaker 1:Okay, so yeah, I had this whole idea with that too, about writing a novel that would turn into a movie. It would be called Hunger Strike and Harrison Ford would star in it. It would be about there being some sort of blight that you know wiped out the crops across the world Because we've genetically engineered our crops to be so similar.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And not you know, so that they're similarly vulnerable.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay.
Speaker 1:And in fact you know there's a whole espionage about part of it, where you know there's these things called seed banks where they store original, you know, native seeds because they need that genetic material in order to engineer new strands. So there's this part where different countries were trying to steal each other's you know seeds, and it doesn't sound that sexy, but actually it's actually something that's very much starting to come into the news now, yeah, so it's kind of interesting.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's so interesting. Okay, so then law school right after that.
Speaker 1:Law school. So yeah, so I was studying biology, you know, in college and I thought I would go into environmental law potentially, got to law school, really started being interested in intellectual property law, how people, you know, create things and then protect their inventions and their ideas and their work product. So I sort of shifted gears from environmental law to intellectual property law. And then I went to New York City to work as a patent litigator oh my God. So, with a biology background, I worked mostly for clients in biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and this is actually another interesting reason that I've, you know, it's a kind of interesting that I've landed here in a medical device
Speaker 3:community as well.
Speaker 1:So, but you know, even though it seems I mean, people always think it's very, like, disparate that I was an intellectual property attorney and now I'm an art advisor, but there are a lot of similarities, right, like, I'm just fascinated by people who create things, who make things, who innovate, who build, who take an idea and see it through to fruition.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, awesome, go ahead Well.
Speaker 4:New York's still a big part of your life, isn't it? Do you have a daughter that lives there?
Speaker 1:Yes, so we lived in New York, my husband and I, and we had our first daughter in New York City, and she is now back in New York. She went to college there and graduated and is now working there, and then our second daughter is in college there as well.
Speaker 3:So they yeah, she was there too. Yeah, yeah, wow, okay, okay. So any while you were there practicing law, do you recall any of the patents that you can talk about that just like? Oh my goodness, this was crazy.
Speaker 1:That's a good question.
Speaker 3:This was like such a big idea or such a crazy idea that stands out to you.
Speaker 1:You know that's a good question. I did work on a case for Genentech in the federal circuit and it was recombinant DNA technology for a therapeutic drug. So that was just. You know, it was very interesting technology, but probably one of the zaniest things I worked on was when I was actually a summer associate. A partner asked me to start drafting, to attempt, an initial draft of a patent, based on some drawings, for a self-cleaning portable toilet.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so you know, the portable toilets that are dropped in concerts and stuff like this. This was supposed to be a self-cleaning one and it had this self-contained system and you have to detail all the aspects of the technology that make it work. Now the trick was that I received the sketches, the drawings, the inventor was Japanese and everything was in Japanese and I was supposed to just sort of figure it out. That was tricky, that was very tricky assignment.
Speaker 3:No kidding, okay, okay, so cool, okay.
Speaker 1:So then, like you said, you had your first daughter in New York and that's kind of where it seems like the corner turned a little bit towards some of the art, like it was going to be sustainable.
Speaker 1:What was the point in having a child if we were both doing that? So I always intended to step back from that when we started a family and that's what I did. And you know it was a little bit scary to have worked for a while to, you know, get to a certain point in one's professional career and then sort of step back from that. And then to sort of step back from that. So I really was trying to be deliberate about, you know, what are things I'm passionate about that I can do while staying at home to sort of figure out my next step. You know I was trying to think of it as like a little bit of a sabbatical and like this is my chance to explore and I'm in New York City, so there's lots of resources here for me to learn and figure things out.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so the first thing I did was that I remembered in high school I'd won an award for a photograph that I'd taken. Um, and you know, I entered it into a photography competition and I said you know what I really liked that? And I didn't do any of that in college and I didn't do it in law school. I'm going to start doing photography again. So I started taking some classes, I started looking at contemporary photographers, I started learning about the you know art, historical origins of. You know photography, and that's sort of where I sort of made my segue into the field of art. So initially it was me making art, but then the process of making art. You're looking at artists and you're learning about you know being inspired by other people.
Speaker 1:Exactly the history of art, and then also what are people making right now, like what are they doing and how are they doing it, and you know, um, and that's sort of where I started off, yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay. And so I mean with that how did that kind of take off into a career then?
Speaker 1:Right, so, um, so, yeah. So I had a little toddler in a stroller and I would you know I was shooting film photography and I would get on steps and then go down to the photography district to a great photography printer down there and I started, while I was down in the photography district, I started going to galleries more.
Speaker 1:I started going to see shows, I started going to museums more Museums are easy to do with kids in tow, you know and I just started to get really just excited and invigorated and inspired every day by seeing new work and just seeing these things.
Speaker 1:You know, these works that people were creating out of their mind and skill and will, and around that time we started to make a couple initial art purchases for ourselves and it kind of went rather quickly.
Speaker 1:After that, you know, we had a little apartment and we put up a couple of pieces that I thought were fantastic and there were a lot of reasons. You know why I and we can get into that later about you know sort of how I make those assessments but I, you know I hung those works and then people would come over to our apartment for, you know, a dinner or you know whatever playdates, you know that sort of thing, and they'd say how did you know, like, where did you find that? How did you know that the price that you know they were asking was a good price? Like, you know how do you make these decisions, and I sort of explained my process and people would be really interested in it and then they started asking me to help them find artwork, and so it kind of grew very quickly from there, because then you know the new person that I'm helping buy art. They hang the art in their house, and then people come to their house and say how did you do it?
Speaker 2:So it's very organic.
Speaker 4:It was like a hobby for a long time.
Speaker 1:And I have found that most things that have gone extremely well in my life have like that sort of organic quality and that momentum and it just kind of flows. Like I love that when something just starts to flow, you're not fighting the current.
Speaker 4:It was like exactly yeah, so it was really nice.
Speaker 1:And then that was a. You know, it was a the the. My old colleagues at my law firm were some of my initial clients too, and that was a great that was a great thing.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, they understood my professionalism. They also, just from knowing me, knew my aesthetic tastes and judgments. They hired me to start helping them. That was my initial client base. Initially a lot of my clients were in New York City and on the East Coast. Then, when I started getting clients in other parts of the country, once a client somewhere else installed you know one or two or three pieces in their home, I would offer to go out and do a cocktail party for their friends.
Speaker 1:So I would ask a client, you know, invite you know 12 couples to your house. I'll, you know, have food and drinks and I'll do a quick, you know PowerPoint presentation on how to begin collecting contemporary art, what to look for, how to interpret, how to interpret the artist's CV, their you know their resume, and look for things that might give you a clue as to, you know how. Is this work decorative or is it potentially investment grade? You know what's the difference there. And then, you know, I would do one of those parties. You know, you know, 15, 20 minute talk. People would have lots of questions after very informal, um, really fun, and then I would get clients from those events. So a lot of my client base is like these little like clusters all over the country again cause it's sort of organic growth. Um, so I have a lot of clients on the East coast, a lot of clients on the West coast. I have a great a lot of clients in Texas, dallas and Austin are you know?
Speaker 1:are really great markets for what I do. Um, and yeah, that's sort of how it, how it developed. And during that time, geographically, we moved. We had our, as I mentioned, our first daughter in New York, and this is actually kind of funny. Um, we were, we knew we wanted to have a larger family and you know it's tricky in New.
Speaker 2:York.
Speaker 1:So we were spending lots of weekends looking at Brooklyn, looking at the suburbs, and I kept saying I'm just not a suburb person, I can't, I have to be right downtown a big city girl.
Speaker 4:So we actually yeah, it's funny now yes, exactly yes, so we actually moved from New York city to Chicago.
Speaker 2:For that very reason, because I couldn't do the suburbs, I couldn't do to Chicago, for that very reason, because I couldn't do the suburbs, I couldn't do so.
Speaker 1:So, and then we had three more kids in Chicago and I continued doing this advisory work. And, um yeah, how many years were you in Chicago then? So we were in Chicago, I think about nine years. So, um, yeah, and you know so, with the advisory work, it's just a lot of it's like matchmaking. There's a chemistry to it. It's meeting the client, getting to know them. What are they looking for? Sometimes they'll come to me and they'll say here are three famous artists I love.
Speaker 1:Whose work's in the millions. This is not where the level of spending they're able to do, and so it's my job to say who's like an up and coming artist whose prices are going to be, you know, in the range of this client, and not who's copying this master right or the high, you know the higher selling artists but who might resonate in a similar way for whatever reason, and that's really fun for me. And so not only is it matchmaking between the artwork and the artist and the client, it also is often sort of like matchmaking between the couple too.
Speaker 1:If I'm working, with a couple, because sometimes in the couple they'll be very different aesthetic preferences so that's actually really fun for me, too, is to try to find something that both people if it's a couple that's collecting resonates with both of them.
Speaker 2:I think that kind of goes back to even your college of like the human anthropology studying of people, it's like you're still kind of doing some
Speaker 1:of that just like now, in a different way, right, and that's why I tell my children too, you know, especially my older girls, who are really trying to plot out things like. I admire that and some of that is very necessary. But I also want them to take a little pressure off themselves, because you never know the synergies that are going to happen, and you know you're always.
Speaker 1:If you're learning and trying to add some value to the world, you're on the right track. You know that's excellent. Okay, I'm not going to do justice If you're learning and trying to add some value to the world.
Speaker 3:You're on the right track. Yeah, you know. Yeah, yeah, no, that's excellent. Okay, I'm not going to do justice to your full. You know presentation or thoughts, but what would you say I mean for people who are interested in collecting art or starting?
Speaker 4:to do that Like that PowerPoint presentation? Yes, exactly, exactly, yeah, what would?
Speaker 3:you say what would you say? I mean, like right off the bat, what are the things you would encourage people to be thinking about and looking for?
Speaker 1:Well, so for me, I've noticed that there are three things. You know, I usually see a piece and I just love it or I don't Like. I just it speaks to me in some way. So there's just that emotional response. But what I've found in the pieces that I'm drawn to are sort of three common characteristics. So one is just that they're beautiful, and beautiful is such a broad definition and it's different to every viewer obviously as well. But it can be traditionally beautiful, it can be, you know, a more sensual beauty, it could be even something a little, you know, edgy or ugly beautiful even. You know there is something to that as well. So something that just speaks to you aesthetically, visually. The second thing is some sort of artistic virtuosity.
Speaker 1:So I want to see that the artist has a high level of skill in some way like I really want to see that they've honed some sort of you know, they've, they've studied, they're working at their craft. There's a high level of artistic acumen there. And then I love some sort of intellectual underpinning. To me that's part of the story, is some sort of either art, historical influence or historical influence or cultural tie. It can be the artist could be inspired by a novel, a personal experience. But I just really like to know. I want to see some intellectual rigor, some sort of thought process.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like the art's the result of this.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yeah. Those are the things that I look for and then you know there are lots of. I always tell people that the easiest way to get started. A lot of people are intimidated about going into art galleries. Hopefully not Atelier. I really don't. I really don't want, I don't think, I really want it to be available to everyone.
Speaker 1:And I really that's important to me. But in New York City, for example, there are a lot of you know, sort of off-putting, aloof gallery experiences to be had, and so and I do want people, when they're traveling, to feel comfortable going into a gallery and looking at art, and so one of the things that I tell people is a great sort of crutch to use, but it's also very informative is to ask if you like some work that you see. Often galleries won't have the prices on the labels and you're kind of curious and you want to ask more questions, but you're not sure how to start that conversation. You can always ask to see the artist's CV, their curriculum vitae.
Speaker 1:So, all artists should have a CV, okay, and you can ask to see the CV and then you get, you know, a little biography, like sort of what we're doing today.
Speaker 2:You get the educational information.
Speaker 1:you get information about. You know the age of the artist, the. You know where they went to school, if they went to school, and then you get a rundown of solo exhibitions that they've done and group exhibitions that they've done. It's kind of like a resume. Yeah, it's completely a resume.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, they call it a CV in the art world, you know, in academia as well.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, but you could, even, you could certainly ask for the artist resume as well. Yeah, yeah but you could certainly ask for the artist's resume as well. Yeah, yeah, same thing, but it's a nice rundown in publications they may have been in, and so that starts to give you some information to start a discussion.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just interesting, probably for you personally, but if you want to have a discussion with a gallery owner or with someone else you know in the gallery, it gives you some background information and then there are little. You are little clues you can look for on the resume too, to sort of see you know, is this, you know, is it a brand new artist? Is it an artist that has been working for a long time and has done tons of shows? You know, I mean the price of an artist, for example, that has works in public collections, like you know if it says like oh, you know, has work in the Whitney or the MoMA.
Speaker 1:That's going to be a different level than someone who's 25, just got their MFA. But these are all sort of things that can clue you into. You know the trajectory of the artist and kind of give you some idea of what the value should be, and you know, some little hints.
Speaker 3:Excellent, I love hints. Excellent, I love it, I love it. Okay, so New York attorneys turned art advisor dealer moved to Chicago. You're getting closer to Warsaw. Yes, how did you?
Speaker 1:Still didn't know Warsaw existed at that point, yes, yeah. So I had just had our fourth child, and in that sort of I mean it was maybe two or three weeks after we'd had our youngest. Okay, my husband says, and I, I'm, you know, I'm in a haze, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:You just have a newborn.
Speaker 1:My husband says something about. I have this opportunity to you know, in this town in Indiana, and he might've even said of like approximately 15,000 people, and I think it'd be really, it's really interesting to me and I think it's a great opportunity and I'm like what, where? Huh?
Speaker 4:Like I just was, so beyond, I just had I didn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had no. So basically my husband is a mergers and acquisitions attorney and so he was doing some. He was a partner at a firm in Chicago and was doing outside counsel work for Dane Miller and for Biomet.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:So this was at the time when Biomet was planning to do an IPO.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And so the idea was for us to move down here for a couple of years. John would help run the IPO, and then we'd either move back to Chicago back to New York.
Speaker 4:Okay, that was the plan. Yes, that's how he got you, too, what? That's how you kind of made the decision, so that's how you did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and the other thing that helped was that the first time I came down here to look at the town was that we went to Cerulean at the end of the evening I had said newborn with me. It had been a long day of like traveling and like looking at schools and looking at houses and I wasn't quite sure how I was feeling about things. And we were sitting on the porch at Cerulean and, um, the baby was getting fussy and there were these two couples, you know, a little bit older than us, um, at the table next to us and the two women came over and like we'll just take the baby.
Speaker 4:So you guys, can have a nice dinner. No way, yes, and I was like and you're from a big city. I was like where are we?
Speaker 1:And you're from a big city. Yeah, I was like what's?
Speaker 4:happening. You'll just take the baby.
Speaker 1:Like we love babies. We'll just bounce the baby over here and it turned. You know you guys wouldn't be familiar with who these people were. One of the women ended up telling me that she was a kindergarten teacher and at the school that we had just looked at that day my son was going to be an incoming kindergartner and she and her husband coached the chess club and the chess team at that elementary school, and my son was a chess fanatic. He had already, at age 4, won tournaments in Chicago and stuff so I was like okay, I'm on the porch, there's these nice
Speaker 3:people. I'm like, maybe I you know, like here I'm on the porch, you know there's nice feet.
Speaker 1:I'm like maybe I can do this, maybe I can do this.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, that's the beauty of the small town. You sensed it too Exactly.
Speaker 3:Awesome, okay, so you settled here and I think, as I understand it, you were starting to look for office space to kind of continue your art.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, initially, yeah. So initially, like I said, I think we thought we weren't going to be here quite that long. And then the IPO for Biomet turned into the merger with Zimmer.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:And so we were kind of we kind of wrapped up even quicker than we had thought, and at that point we were like okay, what's our next move? And well, our four kids loved it yeah we were like how do we pack? You know, we kind of exploded. You know you, you have more space. Our kids didn't have to, like you know, schedule appointments with us to walk to the park, right, they just ran out the door. Yeah, it's very different than living in an apartment in a city and and we loved the schools.
Speaker 1:I think the schools here are like unbelievable, and if more people knew about our public school system, I mean that would double triple the population easily. We loved the schools, we loved the lakes, we loved the wagon wheel. That was something early on where I was like. This is really interesting to me because this is high caliber theater.
Speaker 4:I've wondered cause, you're on the board of the Wagon Wheel.
Speaker 1:I am now, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So even just hearing you're being interested in theater you know, earlier in your life I'm like cause. I've always wondered how you got plugged in at the Wagon Wheel.
Speaker 1:But now that makes sense, knowing more of your story and my second daughter, the one who's in college in New York, did a lot of the shows, so I wasn't allowed to volunteer or be on the board.
Speaker 4:Because she was there.
Speaker 1:Well, because she didn't want.
Speaker 4:She didn't want Number one. She probably didn't want me in her space.
Speaker 1:But also she didn't want there to be like an idea that somehow she was getting her roles Not that I would ever getting her roles so anyway, um, so yeah.
Speaker 1:But I was just stunned by the quality of performances that they put on and I said, if a theater you know of this caliber can exist in a town this of this size, there's something special going on here yes, that you know, I said and I really I was curious to figure more of that out, because at that point, you know, a couple of years in it takes a little bit of, it takes a while to get to know people, to like kind of learn the area and you know. But that was definitely one of the reasons that we ended up staying and we were like let's, you know, let's do this.
Speaker 1:So my intention was to just kind of keep doing the advisory work out of the house, you know, raise the family. You know I would travel to New York a couple times a year just to stay abreast of what was going on. I try to go to, you know, I go to a couple. I go to art fairs throughout the year. I try to go to New York for the Armory Show, chicago, for Expo, chicago every year.
Speaker 1:I go to Miami for Art Basel every year just to see you know the art fairs are great because you know you have hundreds of galleries showing exhibits and you just walk in and you're just seeing everything that's happening.
Speaker 2:It's very exciting.
Speaker 1:And each year I try to go to one international show and I try to change that around so that I'm finding new artists and new places.
Speaker 4:And connecting to people who speak like you. You know that understands, appreciates the art and everything. Because I'm sure that might have felt a little lonely In Warsaw, maybe Connecting to people on that level.
Speaker 1:Well, I will say that when I moved here, you know the kids pop right into school. Yes, my husband had a built-in job and a network and it took me a little while because you know, once you know, it takes a while to meet people and figure all of that out.
Speaker 1:But actually art was one of the things that I think helped me figure it out because I was able to stay connected with like the outside world. You know, I felt like I stay connected with like the outside world. You know, I felt like I think I was worried about it being too insular here, but you know, if you're always connecting, even you know from your home, like reading, you know, every day I get you know a couple hundred emails from galleries about what their current shows are.
Speaker 1:I get press releases. You know I'm through social media. Obviously you see all sorts of interesting projects going on everywhere, so that was one of the things that really like. Actually, I probably delved even deeper into my work during that time as a way to sort of stay connected to what's going on in other places. So I was very much doing a country mouse city mouse thing.
Speaker 1:You know I was you know I mean I was, you know, doing, you know I had this, you know, very lovely. You know personal life and lifestyle, and then I would jet off and do the work that I found really interesting. So yes, initially I was just planning to sort of amp up the professionalism with office space, get out of the house.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And, you know, really take the work to the next level, especially as my kids were older. I just had more spare, you know, more time. And when you're in sales, the more time you can be selling, the you know, the better. And I, you know I wanted it to be an interesting space architecturally. You know spaces that available there were, you know spaces available in strip malls and that sort of thing, but I was like.
Speaker 1:I really want something interesting and the building um, downtown, on center street, became available, and you know it's a historic building. It's all white, which is, you know, great for showing art. Um, great, you know, we, we did the facade and art class windows, um, and I was like it. Just I was like this could be a great office, but it absolutely just needs to be exhibition space as well.
Speaker 1:And here again it just happened so rapidly. I was like you know, I have this advisory business. I think I'm going to do a gallery too. People can see artwork here in Warsaw. I said it will give people something else to do downtown, because people come here, they drive down, they park, they go to dinner and then they leave because they don't have two things.
Speaker 1:You know, obviously they're shopping, but I'm talking about like an evening out you know to have more than one thing to do To stroll the sidewalk, yeah, yes, and I just I said I'm just going to try it. It sounds to see it seemed a little crazy, but I it just it also seemed right. You know, I don't know it just in that organic flow. Yeah, exactly, and that flows, you know, and it seemed really interesting like it seemed like it was going to be challenging, but it seemed like a really good challenging and I just love that feeling of um wanting to do something, wanting to like pursue a certain vision and, um, maybe it not being easily understandable by everybody immediately, like everybody, you know, like, is that really going to work? Because I like a little bit of pushback. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's rare about you. It fuels me a little.
Speaker 1:It fuels me a little bit, you know, and that's something I've always liked in my life is, you know, just juxtaposition, something a little bit off you know, the the sort of it's the artist creative in you, I guess, I guess.
Speaker 4:I just think it's fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's fun to make something work. Um, that might not be what everybody sort of expects to work. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, so cool.
Speaker 3:So cool. Okay, so you open Atelier.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Your openings, you know, typically have hundreds of people that show up, and we know people come from South Bend and Fort Wayne, so congratulations on the success of that, as it's been rolling and as you've had different shows. I mean what? How do you see the community just coming around it now and embracing it? Because, again, here's, here's how I see it. From my perspective, you have brought in the outside world to our downtown and to our community in such a big way.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. Yeah, I mean it's been really interesting to me, like how it moves in both directions and I love that the sort of community interest in it has exceeded my expectations. I can tell you that, and there is a real hunger probably everywhere, but also in this community, for just for intellectual discourse, for community engagement, for coming together to talk about something or learn about something or see something that you haven't seen before, to talk about something or learn about something or see something that you haven't seen before. And I just really love being there every day, meeting all kinds of different people, having all kinds of different conversations. But back to the point of it flowing both ways, it's been really interesting to me to see how much the community has been interested in it, and then also my collectors that I already had brought with me to Warsaw that live on other coasts are so fascinated by what's going on here, not only at Atelier, but like what is this community that shows up?
Speaker 1:you know a hundred people for an opening you know, um, that, you know, is you know the art that I sell. Often I'll have shows where half of it goes to other parts of the country and half of it stays in Northern Indiana. You know, here in Warsaw, south Bend, fort Wayne. You know, it varies from show to show. It's kind of fun to see what shows resonate with you know people in different geographies. But yeah, it's flowing both ways. And the other thing that's interesting about it is that If I were to be doing this in New York City, for example, I wouldn't be able to show some of the artists that I do show, just because my overhead costs would be at such a high level that, in order for me to keep sustaining, I would have to have artists with a longer, with a more proven track record in order to get the prices that support the artist and support the gallery.
Speaker 4:Here I'm able to show newer artists you know, like the high school students, I just love that. So, yeah, please talk about that. I think that's so cool You're inspiring artists of all ages and levels.
Speaker 1:Well, that was really fun. I mean I try to vary the programming. I mean it's all stuff that I all the shows are things that I'm excited about, and one of the things I really love about having a gallery is that I get to change it completely every two months. It can be a completely different environment, you know. Sometimes it's more, you know, refined and elegant, sometimes it's irreverent. You know it's playful, and I mean that's why art is such an exciting area to work in. Is that there's just, you know, it runs the gamut. I mean it's reflecting humanity and the human condition and it runs the gamut, just like we all do you know, as individuals and communities.
Speaker 1:So each year I do, you know I typically do between four and five solo exhibitions. So obviously a solo exhibition is just the artist, the work of one artist, and then I try to do one group exhibition. So obviously a solo exhibition is just the artists, the work of one artist, and then I try to do one group exhibition. So the first year the group, and that's always organized around the theme.
Speaker 1:So you get different artists, you tell them what the theme is and you invite them to participate in the show. The first year I did a show called Pink is Punk and that was I knew I had, you know, I knew sort of six. When I opened the gallery, I knew the Barbie movie was going to be coming out Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie and I knew it was going to be obviously a big, as we all did, a big sensation. And I thought, you know, if Barbie is this affluent, professional woman with this amazing dream house, like what would her art collection look like? And so house, like what would her art collection look like? And so that was sort of the idea for the show. Um, and that was a very fun, fun show and um. So this year we did a show called next wave surf. The saw as in surfing, surfing in warsaw yes that had I surf.
Speaker 1:The saw was supposed to have a lot of different meanings not only you had hats, me we had hats, we did.
Speaker 4:We had hats, we did surf hats. Yeah, we kind of went all in.
Speaker 1:That was our immersive surf shack experience and so, yeah, that was a show of student work from the high school. We worked on that show for about a year, so we kind of we actually had those students come into the Barbie show.
Speaker 1:To Pink is Punk to sort of see to experience, what a group show was like and sort of like what that more immersive experience is like and um said you know, we're gonna do a show, that of student work, and we I wanted it to. I mean, obviously a surf shack is just fun for a summer show. Yes, yes in and of itself, but I also wanted the show to highlight what is another thing that's so special about this community. Again, I have people that follow on social media and I have collectors in other places and I have galleries in other places that are sort of kind of interested in what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:And so I'm like do you know about our lakes? You know, this is another thing that's so fantastic about where we live, and people just don't even think about it right.
Speaker 1:So I thought you know, this is a great way to highlight that. And then the high school also has this amazing gone board boarding program. So I just love when these shows come together and there's so many different things you can highlight, highlight and do with them. Yes, and so, yes, they are. The students came in a year ahead of time and then, during the course of their you know, their academic year, they were able to work on the products.
Speaker 4:Literally creating boards.
Speaker 1:Creating surfboards, wakeboards, stand-up paddleboards and then even some ceramic pieces. There was a video piece in the show, a surf video in the piece. That was amazing. We just projected it on the back wall. It was such a cool vibe. We just projected it on the back wall. It was such a cool vibe. You know, there was some performance art involved, some photography, painting, so it was a great show and it was really fun to work with the kids and that's something I'm hoping to repeat, maybe every two years not the Surf Shack, but we'll do a different theme. But I'd like to work with get you know, be able to touch you know, students you know, every couple years. I'm thinking is sort of the best way to approach that, just love it.
Speaker 3:No, that was such an amazing thing. And you know, one of the artists, one of the stories I know, is Allie Barkey. So she's a senior in high school with our, with our son, and you know I believe she had the standup paddleboard. You know that was kind of a big part of the exhibit.
Speaker 1:Which sold, by the way, which is incredible.
Speaker 1:So the other part of the show was and that was part of. You know the students took 100% of their profits from the show. You know I wanted them to also see. You know it's obviously about like coming taking an idea, making it happen, and there's a lot of that goes into the engineering and you know aesthetics of these products they were completing at the high school under the tutelage of Andrea Miller at the high school, but then also to see the installation process at the gallery, like how you install the show and to interact with people at an opening and talk to people about your work.
Speaker 4:And for young artists too, that you can, you should be paid for your work Like what you did for their confidence, I think is huge.
Speaker 3:Well, and I bring up Allie just because we've seen her growing up for years and she's worked with her grandfather at some of the art shows down at the village. And we bought some of her pieces and just to see her, the evolution and growth, for her to then be able to step into your gallery and have a really featured piece. And her dad just showed me the picture the other day of it now hanging on someone's wall.
Speaker 1:Yes, the person who bought it and installed it and sent a picture back to the gallery so that I could share it with the artist which is very cool. Um, yeah, no I. I think it's important for a lot of reasons, but I think sometimes all of us as humans, we tend to discount the things are the talents that come naturally to us a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We sometimes underestimate our own skill because, because it kind of comes out of us in a more natural way, we think it's maybe not valuable or it's um easy for everyone, and that's just not the case and so I do really like encouraging people to see that value.
Speaker 4:Yes, um well, I think you have that gift to see of like, seeing it in people and pulling them in. Like, even when you're talking about your um, your themed, uh galleries, like I'm thinking back that the surf one, you had a snow truck or a snow cone truck up front. Everyone came in costumes, like you're making it an event and inviting other people to bring what they offer in the community to it and I think that's like so cool and I don't know is rare like to have to look for opportunities to help people shine well, thank you.
Speaker 1:I you know, when I I named the gallery atelier because it's the French word for an artist's workshop with the idea that not only would it be you know this, you know my office space and an exhibition space, but I was, like you know, sometimes I wanted to create a physical space that would just bring people in to sort of share their talents or thoughts or ideas, like I wanted it to be almost a think tank for the community. So it's been really exciting to see that, you know, start to unfold and you know people will come in. There are amazing, amazingly talented people in this community.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And that's the best part of having a physical door that people can walk into is that they do come in and people that I wouldn't have met otherwise come in and share amazing skills, sets and ideas and work product with me.
Speaker 1:And so you know, that's the best part of having the physical space, honestly, is connecting with those people. And you know, when I do these shows, I'm not. I mean, I'm doing things I'm interested in and that I think are really cool and beautiful, but I'm doing some the same thing I would, I'm presenting the same work I would if I lived anywhere else, like I'm not sort of adjusting it. Um, I it's just, you know, what I think is what you know I think is high level and excellent, and um, and just trying to share it, um, and and that's what I've seen too, but people that I've collaborated with is that there's so many people doing high level videography, photography, cater, catering right here, and it's amazing and it's exciting.
Speaker 3:Giving them a place to connect and collect, like you even have done some fundraisers and you're showcasing, giving people a place to come to share about their nonprofits yeah, Well, one of the things I was excited about having the two of you here is, you know the, the love and passion for creativity and art, and I see, like just the the, the wide range of spectrum of you know you coming from elementary education and art teaching all the way to you fine art dealer. I'd love to hear from both of you just the importance of creativity inside of a community, the importance of art that has in community, because, again, I think people can come in and say where does art have a place in a small Midwestern town? Right, but it does, and it's so powerful. So I'd love to just maybe hear your perspectives on that, do you?
Speaker 1:want to go first. Do you want me?
Speaker 4:Do you want to go first? I mean, art moves people. You said that that emotion is one of the key things that you look for when you're studying and learning about a piece and finding artists to work with. I think that's huge able to put words to how we feel or we think, but by starting to create, by painting or coloring or looking at a piece all of a sudden, it helps us process things. We're going through things. We feel. So whether, yeah, you're with a four-year-old who's scribbling black paint all over a paper, or you know, in a museum and gallery studying work, I think it pulls different things out of us. That helps us process and connect to others. What would you say?
Speaker 1:I 100% agree with you. Um, I have had, you know, you know we obviously have the openings um, which are, you know, well attended. And and back to the thematic aspect of it, people, people have really taken to sort of dressing. Yes, I love that.
Speaker 4:I'm going to come to one of those Dressing inspired by the artwork.
Speaker 1:You've given them permission to be playful in their clothes, which I love. I love that people kind of really take it to the next level. And so really the success I mean, you know, the gallery is really. I think of it as sort of Warsaw's, you know. I mean because the visitors and the viewers bring such energy and their own stories and they share them with each other and they share them with the artist and the artist gets to see how their work moves people.
Speaker 1:But, to your point, there are also those just regular quiet days, you know, where. You know people trickle in and out looking at the work and you know I've had people you know, sort of I've had people get emotional in front of works and then perhaps decide to tell me, you know, what's going on in their life. You know, somebody might. I've had somebody looking at a work and said it really spoke to them. They were, you know, going through a divorce and this sort of piece that they were looking at sort of was a sort of symbol for them of like their next chapter and where they were going. You know I've had people come in and tell me about, you know, losing a spouse of 50 years and getting emotional in the gallery.
Speaker 1:I've had Cub Scouts come in on a Saturday morning and earn their art appreciation badge. I had a candy show up by a Puerto Rican artist at the holidays last year and he's sort of a pop artist expressionist pop, I call it and the kids had read about Andy Warhol before they came into the gallery. So they were telling me everything they learned about pop art and then looking at the work and then the parents said, you know, thank you to earn this badge Before they came into the gallery. So they were telling me everything they learned about pop art and then looking at the work. And then the parents said you know, thank you.
Speaker 4:to earn this badge, we had to go to a gallery or a museum.
Speaker 1:And like it was great to be able to drive five minutes instead of, like you know, over to Fort Wayne or South Bend, although you should still attend your local museums. So, yeah, so I mean I just love the different ways people I have. I have high school students who will come in and do pictures before dances because, they want like a different background and sort of a different space.
Speaker 1:Um, so I love the way that the community uses it. I love the fact that I have all ages coming in. I think that's really exciting. Um, you know, at the openings I had actually somebody from the uh, an orthopedics executive at one of the openings. I had actually somebody from the, an orthopedics executive at one of the openings who pulled me aside and said you know, I've been coming to events in warsaw for, you know, 15 years and I've never seen such diversity in like ages and backgrounds as I see at this event. And that was a huge compliment because, you know, I just I love that there's so much we can learn from each other and it's important to not get, you know, stuck in our little subsets and groups.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I love people. I love it when people bring in their children. I love it when women come for a girl's night out. Be open a bottle of champagne you know, that you know I, there's lots of ways to use the space and the best part I mean I keep saying this is the best part.
Speaker 4:So I guess there are a lot of best parts. You were meant to do this.
Speaker 1:see One of the greatest parts is that the business model supports hundreds of people seeing the work and using the space, even if they aren't purchasing themselves. There's no admission fee. You know all the openings and the gallery is open to the public, and so that's another great thing. I love how that works. I love that that's been able to work that people can come in and just enjoy the art and learn from it, and you know, learn about themselves, you know, I mean, I think, looking at art, you know, it's obviously, art is about storytelling.
Speaker 1:So very much like what you guys do here at Dream On, and it's about empathy. It's about developing empathy for other people because you're learning their perspectives, their stories.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And I think it's a lot about having more empathy for yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1:It's, you know you're seeing commonalities. Yeah, it's so good it's, you know you're you're seeing commonalities. You're seeing other. You know it might be, it might the visual might might be new, but the reason it resonates. There's a reason it resonates, and you maybe not even be able to identify specifically what that is, but, um, there's something that speaks to you and I, yeah, I think you can learn a lot of empathy and grace for your neighbors and for yourself by just considering and listening I mean, you know, we think of art as very visual it is.
Speaker 3:But it's kind of a lot about listening taking in, considering Well and I love how you said earlier too, of lean into what speaks to you, right? And I think sometimes with art there can just be this feeling of like it's not for me and it may be that there's some of it's not for you and there's certain lanes, but there's things that will speak to you. And again, I just want to stress this to some of our Midwest friends that are just maybe feel like I can't walk into it. It is free and you love people coming and the expectation is not come in and buy everything right?
Speaker 1:No, absolutely yeah. And there are plenty of people that are huge fans of the gallery, who, yeah, who haven't purchased yet and maybe they will one day and maybe they won't, and that's fine, and you know. Yeah, I want everybody to enjoy it and experience it.
Speaker 3:Awesome, awesome, yeah, you brought a book.
Speaker 1:I did. Well, this is another way that people can experience it. Okay, so I decided after the end of the first year. I was like you know, there's been so many fun events here, so much beautiful art. We also have book clubs and poetry readings.
Speaker 1:We didn't even really get into the mental health benefits of art yet, but that's another huge one, so lots of great events going on in the gallery and I was like I kind of want to capture it. I kind of want to do like a high school yearbook, especially as I mentioned that people you know start dressing up and wearing these, like you know, art inspired outfits and because the community is such a like, integral, a part of what makes it alive and interesting and breathes the life into the walls, so I, yeah, I brought you guys.
Speaker 1:that's so good so this is the second one so I have. They're the same size each year, so people that um want to follow along. It has all of the shows in it. I ask somebody who lives locally to write the, the sort of last sort of written essay in the book each year with some sort of story about Warsaw.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:I really do like to connect it to this place because it is very. You know, the work might be from elsewhere, sometimes it's from here, sometimes it's from somewhere else, but I like to connect it to where we are for a lot of different reasons, because that is obviously what art is about is finding your own connections with it and making it part of who you are.
Speaker 3:Yes, no, I love it because you've got write-ups about the artist. You've got things about their different works. This is very cool. What a cool idea.
Speaker 1:And lots of pictures of the community using the space. So yeah, I love it as just like a little you know capsule of what's happening each year. And then also it's a nice way for people that might not be in the position to buy a piece quite yet, but they want to have something. You know there's art that they love, that they want to keep on their coffee table.
Speaker 3:So that's another reason we do it so cool. Love that they want to keep on their coffee table. So that's another reason we do it so cool. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1:This is awesome, so enjoy, that is so good, and then hopefully in you know, eight years, we'll have a nice set of 10.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it'll look really nice on your bookshelf. Yes, so good, so good. Well, you mentioned I want to I want to touch on it before we close out the mental health benefits. Again, we're we're living in a time right now it is stressful and there's a lot going on and I think mental health has kind of been brought a little bit in the spotlight through COVID pandemic and politics and all the pieces of now. It's kind of like, okay, we're paying a little bit more attention to this. How does art interact with that?
Speaker 1:So there are the therapeutic benefits, obviously, of creating art. But then just even looking at art and developing compassion for yourself, seeing that you know, oh, I know what I was going to say. So people will say to me sometimes, when they find out that I own an art gallery or that I work in the art world, and they say it here, they say it in New York, they say it, you know, people say this in a lot of different places. But they'll say, oh, I know nothing about art.
Speaker 4:And I'm like I'm not an artist, what? I'm not an artist. I don't know anything about art.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I'm sure you've heard that and I say, well, have you ever been in love? Have you ever had your heart broken? Have you, you know, struggled with your concept of God and a divine being? Have you thought about your mortality, your purpose in life? Um, you know, have you been beaten down by a failure? Then you know what you need to know, I mean. And so when you were saying about people should feel comfortable coming in, I mean, I really think that's true. You know these are, you know artists are sharing their personal perspective on universal themes, so that ties in with mental health as well, obviously, because we need to remember that we're not alone. We need to remember that people before us, people you know, our ancestors and then our descendants and the people around us are all having different experiences, and sometimes they're having tremendous joys and sometimes they're having tremendous struggles, and we need to have grace with each other and with ourselves, and I think art is part of that.
Speaker 4:It's reminding us, you know, of these similarities in the human condition you mentioned empathy earlier and I think that's a huge part too is when you're looking at a piece of art or you're thinking about creating a piece of art, you have to kind of slow down, and I think our way of life now we can just be going, going, going and we pick up our phone if we're in a line and it's not moving fast enough. So it's like when you're studying a piece of art or you're trying to create, you're slowing down and the world slows down and you're kind of able to process through your thoughts and your feelings further than you might just like driving to the next thing.
Speaker 4:Absolutely further than you might just like driving to the next thing, you know, which I really allows, I think, the mental health to get to a more balanced center place, if you kind of can get through the cycle of a complete thought or feeling to figure out root and cause. Absolutely yeah, so good.
Speaker 1:And I think that's actually what intrigues me about the future of Warsaw as well is that we have this, you know, biotech, life sciences, medical device community here, yes, which is obviously sort of tasked with the idea of, you know, protecting and preserving and advancing the human body. Yes, and I like the idea of this sort of we're running in tandem this arts economy that could develop if we play our cards right, erica, and we're working on it, and we work hard.
Speaker 1:And, you know, in conjunction with organizations like the Wagon Wheel, for example, where you know we're charged with, you know, preserving and protecting and advancing the integrity of the human soul. You know, I think that duality could be really interesting and there's lots of interesting commonalities. I mean, engineers are creating ideas, taking ideas and making a product too, and so I think there's an interesting future ahead.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 4:See, you've had your art gallery for two years, yes, and you've done so much. I'm just curious is there anything you haven't done yet, or do you even know, like within this space?
Speaker 1:There's both. Okay, yeah, I mean I have. I'm working on the 2026 calendar right now. 2025 is pretty much set. I'm really interested in doing a lecture series because people do really enjoy the book club and the poetry reading, so I'm interested in doing a lecture series, potentially lecture series slash podcast. I'll have to get back with you about that.
Speaker 1:We'll see, we'll see, and my working title for the for the lecture series slash potential podcast is called Tad Talks, so not Ted Talks, and I have to, you know. Obviously I'll do the intellectual property background.
Speaker 1:I'll work on that, but Tad Talks referring to the name, the namesake of our County, tadius Kosciuszko, and before he started his military career he was a Revolutionary War general, and before he started his military career he attended painting school in Paris. So he has this, and then he went on to be a military engineer. So you have someone who is an engineer and an artist who is also the. Who our county.
Speaker 3:That's the namesake of our county, the namesake of our county, wow.
Speaker 1:So I think it could be very interesting to do, to sort of do a deeper dive there. That's cool, and I think sort of exploring why we're named for this person and who this person was is an interesting way to approach sort of the development of our town as well, because I think sometimes when you talk about progress or advancing the ball, people think that means just new, new, new, new.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it can mean new and you know newer things, um, but it can also mean mean, like investigating more deeply the past, bringing things that are special, that are already here, to the light you know, college education every day, girl, you know what you studied. You're speaking here.
Speaker 4:That's true okay, thank you. Thank you, I never, I didn't know all that about.
Speaker 1:So I think that I mean I, I just think there's a ton of potential that's so, yeah, yeah so, and then, um, I would love to see artist residencies. I would love to do a residency where I have an artist come and, you know, live in the community for three months and create work that stays in the community. I think that would be very. Yeah, there's no end to the ideas. I'm afraid to tell you I love it.
Speaker 3:I love it. No well, please, please, keep dreaming and keep doing the things you're doing. And yeah, you both serve on the Main Street Warsaw board and our community is having a really special moment right now. I mean, it is across the county. Downtown is really just reshaping in such an amazing way, so it's an exciting time to be here. As we wrap this up, tell us about your next show, what you've got coming up and how people can connect with you.
Speaker 1:I am very excited about this next show. So the next show opens on Friday, March 21st. It is figurative paintings by an artist, a 26 year old artist from New York city. How cool he is. Amazing he was. Actually, we did his first solo exhibition in 2023 in spring of 2023.
Speaker 1:His very first solo exhibition. I'd been following him on social media for a while and I had actually bought a couple of his paintings years ago, before he even went to graduate school. Um, and when he told me the price on the paintings, I was like, well, I will give you this amount, but you are not charging enough for your level of talent, Like I feel guilty. Um, so anyway, I circled back with him after he graduated. He um. His name is John McGregor. The show that we have coming up is called dust bunny angels new paintings by john mcgregor. When we had his first solo exhibition in the spring of 2023, the show sold out. I was it was my second show. I couldn't believe that's very unusual to sell a show out completely. A lot of the work did stay local. Some of it went to new york, some went to california, some went to texas, um, but the show sold out. He then went. You know he came for the opening. Um went back to New York, then got group shows in New York city in London. I love his work.
Speaker 1:I said I wonder if he'll still come back now that he's really moving along Um, and I should say too, not only did the show sell out, but the Fort Wayne Museum of Art acquired one of his paintings for their permanent collection, so it was a huge success. He then went on to have these shows in major cities, both nationally and internationally, and I said, you know, John, would you consider coming back in 2025? And he said, of course I will. He's like you know, that show changed my life, and so that is Warsaw showing up, supporting and changing a young person's life and validating his work and his, you know, and you know, propelling him forward. So he's excited to come back. I'm excited for him to show again His work's figurative.
Speaker 1:It's very sort of nostalgic about childhood. They're beautiful paintings. There's always a touch of like a little bit something ominous or sinister in them which I think really delves into our memories of childhood, where we're first sort of learning about there's a lot of beauty and comfort and safety, but then we're also sort of navigating and learning about some of the darker aspects.
Speaker 1:You know, of life and um, and I think you know, john the painter was um, the youngest child of a pastor who moved around a lot in his childhood, so there are always religious themes in his work and I think he is very interested in that idea of you know.
Speaker 1:You have, there has to be a little bit of darkness for you to understand the beauty of the light and you know, and these things kind of go hand in hand and, um, I think it's going to be a beautiful show and it's the perfect show to start spring with too.
Speaker 3:So I love it. I love it. Okay. So March 21st Friday make sure to make it out to that. Come over to Atelier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, 6 to 8.30 PM. Sorry Sorry. Yes, everyone is welcome, please Okay.
Speaker 3:Awesome, Awesome. Well see, I can't thank you enough for being with us today. It's been so much fun and just really appreciate you and the work that you're doing and the way that you're impacting our community. So no, we're all in it together.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely, and it's exciting.
Speaker 3:It's exciting that we get to come together and make this a great place for generations to come. So thank you so much and hey, Erica, great job.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:You did a good job, which means you probably have to come back sometime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so, I think so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so awesome. Well, ladies, thank you so much for joining us on Stories that Move. See you next time.
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Speaker 2:Take care, everyone. We'll see you next time on Stories that Move.