Can you picture one of those immaculately unkempt gardens you see illustrated in children's books, the ones wrought with twisted branches and serpentine vines? They remind me of the minds of some artists I know — beautiful, dense and tangled. Navigating their headspace requires interpreting their art — but at least they give us a map.
The Detroit Artists Market delivers a unique perspective that’s easy to navigate, and stays true to an artistic path. On Thursday, June 18, from 4 to 8 p.m., the DAM will host the annual Garden Party and Art Sale; a dig-able opportunity to explore some area artists, and perhaps acquire some of their work.
Ensuring our interest in the aesthetics of everyday life stays intact, artists whose work will be on display take time with seemingly mundane objects, interpreting their potential with a clever sensibility.
Where translucent wine bottles usually end up at the bottom of a recycling bin, or worse, a garbage can, Lucille Olechowski seemingly transforms them into perfectly imperfect tattooed sea-worn carafes.
The Morton’s kosher salt container — that box in the cupboard your doctor tells you is not your best friend — is the subject of Don Wieland’s panting. His pop perspective is as familiar yet disorienting, like Warhol’s Campbell’s Tomato Soup cans but more fantastical than commercial.
Where a flower is but one of the hundreds we pass by on our daily commutes, Patricia Izzo investigates every curve, wrinkle and fold of a lonely, though striking and vortexual group of petals.
More than 100 Detroit area artists will be displaying and selling their work at DAM’s Garden Party — if your walls are embarrassingly bare, you wouldn’t want to pass this up.
Also in the garden will be the Hot Club of Detroit, a popular band of Django disciples set to throw some much-welcome jazz into the scene. This evening of art and entertainment (and, yes, refreshments) will take place in the beautiful garden of DAM’s former board president, Linda Axe, and the home she shares with her husband John Axe in Grosse Pointe Farms.
You’ll need your membership for free entrance to the party. We hear members should R.S.V.P at 313-832-8540. If you’re not a member, call up and join now — the Detroit Artists Market will allow you to join at the door, because they’re nice like that.
In the meantime, we want to urge the importance of slowing down and taking time out of your busy day to look at this world for all of its funky and colloquial beauty. Also, the Detroit Artists Market’s upcoming exhibition, “From a Different Perspective,” opens June 26, and runs through July 25.
DAM Garden Party and Art Sale: Thursday, June 18, 4 to 8 p.m., 481 Kercheval Street, Grosse Pointe Farms; 313-832-8540; detroitartistsmarket.org.
Don Wieland
Patricia Izzo
Patricia Olechowski
