Another viewpoint

6/11/2004

Nobody likes rejection.

But a merry alternative can provide comfort.

Opening at 8 tonight with a festive bash is the Salon des Refuses, a refuge for art that was entered in but not accepted to the Toledo Area Artists' Exhibition (which opens at 7:30 tonight in the Canaday Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art).

At the 20 North Gallery across from the Mud Hens' Fifth Third Field, 80-some objets d'art, spawned from the souls of local artists, await admiration. There's a chesty bust a la Mardi Gras, an angular glass-and-wood table, a funky little house with windows of orange slices. There are paintings of landscapes and sunsets, toddling babies and gap-toothed boys, leeks and bubbles.

Among the many delights are a three-dimensional waist-up image of a woman draped in voluminous and revealing cloths. Her name: You Go Girl; her maker: South Toledoan Chris Ueberroth-Krall. A collage of mixed media in yellow, red, and green, she sports a headdress fashioned from a painted hubcap.

Filling and spilling out of an old guitar case are a mandolin, ukulele, guitar, and toy violins in Strings of My Heart by Buzz Meyers, a floral designer by trade. Look closely to see the four piano hammers Meyers salvaged from an old beast he found on a Sylvania curb; they inspired the purple and gold color scheme of this assemblage.

A rare piece of furniture for the Salon is David Parrish's coffee table. A blond triangle (eucalyptus veneer) butts into a dark square (black ash veneer), and stainless steel posts uphold the glass top.

An interactive (don't resist its carnival-esque allure) is Captain Jack, a tall, free-standing board watercolored with a peg-legged pirate, parrot on his shoulder. Where the head should be, artist Greg Kissner cut out an oval, which awaits

your face and a hearty "Aaarrgh!"

A rich still life is Onions, by the Carol Block. A stunning 3-D oil painting by Ann Abate burns with fiery colors and a few bold daubs of blue. It's the sum of its parts - 17 square and rectangular canvases.

The Salon show is sponsored by the nonprofit artists group, Spectrum, Friends of Fine Art. It's open to anyone who has a rejection letter from the Toledo Area Artists' Exhibition, and it costs $7.50 an entry. The number of entries was down this year, said chairman Buzz Meyers. The Salon usually shows more than 100 pieces.

This year's works were judged by Mark Packo of Filmworks Studio in Toledo.

Best of Show, a $300 prize, was awarded to Leo Price and H.W. Vayo for their fish-tail-like cast bronze sculpture.

First place, for $100, went to Janice Dempster for her etching, Roses and Pomegranates. Second place, $75, was won by Mary Jane Erard for Lavender Fields II, a pastel. Third place and $50 went to Vernon Wolcott for his graphite drawing, Caprice.

Excellence in photography went to Melissa Harding for a color print; excellence in sculpture to Condessa Croninger for a two-piece dress fabricated from brown paper, and honorable mention went to Merv Russell for his pastel portrait of Denzel Washington.

Winners of the People's Choice award, voted on tonight, and two starving artist awards for new artists, will be announced about 10 p.m.

Salon des Refuses runs through June at 20 North Gallery, 20 North St. Clair St. Admission to tonight's reception, beginning at 8 p.m., is $1. Awards will be presented about 10 p.m. Hours are

1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.

Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com

or 419-724-6075.