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Art show a marvelous must-see
See a Show!
By Margo Oxendine Staff Writer
 | | "Black Beauty," a sculpture by Tom Morris of Lynchburg, is whimsically adorned with pink satin ballet slippers. The sculpture earned an honorable mention ribbon from judge Jacquelyn Serwer, chief curator of the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture. (Recorder photo by Margo Oxendine) |
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ASHWOOD - Go ahead; I dare you. I double-dare you to go to the 44th annual Bath County Art Show and not find something with which you fall helplessly in love. Or several somethings.
It happened to me, and I do not fall in love easily.
As soon as I saw it, I got that fluttery feeling.
There it stood, in all its wonderful, whimsical glory: Michael Hough's "Please Don't Get Water on the Floor." Now, doesn't that sound just like something with which I'd become enamored?
There's one terrible, insurmountable problem: The sculpture - which includes a claw-footed tub full of bubbles, a large cake of pink soap, a shower head, and a yellow rubber ducky perched precariously atop - costs $3,500.
My practical self (yes, there is one; she is quite small) and my impulsive self have been having a heated argument. Do I fix my porch which, besides being ugly, is in dire danger of falling down? Or, do I buy the beckoning bathtub sculpture? Both cost about the same. Ah, the dilemma.
I hope I do the right thing. But, only time will tell.
The Bath County Art Show runs through next Sunday, July 20. It opens daily at 1 p.m. (not 1:30, as some nincompoop wrote in her column last week), and closes at 5 p.m.
Do yourself a favor, and be smart: Plan to go several times.
I whirled through there late Sunday afternoon, and then again on Monday. It is a wonderland of fabulosity. (The computer doesn't recognize the word "fabulosity." That is because I made it up. I think it is a perfectly good word, and should be incorporated into the general lexicon forthwith.)
As I helped the Bath County Arts Association receive works of art two weeks ago, I spotted something walk in the door. It was carried by an old friend, Ann Green Stinnett. She's a great photographer. I have purchased some of her other works. But this one, "Trout Emerging," didn't just speak to me; it shouted.
Why, oh why, did I decide to nap Sunday afternoon, rather than get to the art show early? When I hied to "my" trout, checkbook at the ready, there was a bright red circle on the card. Someone - one of you, probably - had already bought it.
Oh, the terrible let-down of it all.
That's another reason you need to get to the art show early, and often. There's plenty to fall in love with, yet there are plenty of folks out there, looking for love.
I findI am not the only one who gets giddy and ditzy while darting around the art show. I ran into another friend there Monday.
"Come!" she enthused. "Let me show you a painting I bought!"
We dashed over to an adorable oil of two mourning doves.
"Don't you just love it?" she asked.
"Oh, yes," I said, sneaking a quick look at the price: $650.
She must have been watching my eyes, because she, too, looked at the price.
"Oh my!" she gasped. "I thought it was $350!"
"Well, it's worth every penny, if you have it," I replied, in a consoling fashion.
We flitted hither and yon around the show, exclaiming over our favorite paintings. Yet, every now and then, she'd say, "I can't believe I paid $650 for that painting."
And every now and then, I'd sigh, "Gee; someone bought my photograph."
Who knew the art show could be so bittersweet?
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