Ann Arbor artists show off works at Art on the Farm

By Sean Dalton, A2 Journal

If Ann Arbor artist Mark Royal Schroll didn't personally know Dexter Township resident Lauren Kingsley, he probably wouldn't have shown his art in her barn last week.

If his art weren't worth showing, she probably wouldn't have asked him.

This is how Art on the Farm has been going for six years now. Kingsley and her husband, Jack Spack Jr., see an artist's work for themselves and if it's good, affordable and down-to-earth, an invitation is sent.

"Lauren is very good about handpicking artists," Schroll says while standing in the corner of Kingsley's barn, where dozens of his landscape paintings are displayed.

The event is held the last Sunday in October each year in the Kingsley's two barns and common buildings.

It's a surreal atmosphere full of a mixed crowd of art sophisticates and upper-middle class gift shoppers, mingling together as the Kingsley's dogs wander into and out of the barns, while a band plays near a grain silo as visitors take a load off in a chair and eat snacks purchased from an on-site concessions counter.

Schroll, like many of his art community peers at Art on the Farm, are used to galleries and private showings, but the venue held in the heart of Dexter Township has a strong reputation.

"I'm noticing more artists coming to check things out, which means that the show is doing well," he said.

Serious artists only visit shows with some reputation and distinction.

His works are mostly picturesque landscapes that look like windows on the side of a barn that lets sunlight in through its roof during the day. These are the mainstream, decorative pieces that one might see at a community event or festival lined with arts and crafts booths.

Facing the wall of bright and cheerful landscapes, one need only turn around to see some of Scroll's expressions through paint.

"I do landscape and agriculture commentary," he says as he faces a painting that started as a single line -- the curve of a woman's body. From there, Schroll painted a field that is part of an agribusiness farm operation. The curve is the horizon. The painting portrays the farmland as a near literal representation of Mother Nature, which is being destroyed.

"Art is difficult, because it's not a selling item, because you're making a statement," Schroll says.

Several people look deep into the painting as he talks.

While the crowds aren't buying the serious pieces, they're appreciating them like they would in a gallery, in a setting where they can purchase something less serious and more decorative at a reasonable price.

Scott Wettlaufer, an artist from South Lyon, attended his very first Art on the Farm last weekend. It's also his first selling show.

"I've done several exhibitions in the area for the last three years," he said. "The exhibitions are done for maybe a week or a month. People will come in and look at the pieces, and if they know you, they buy your art."

Most of Wettlaufer's pieces, called images versus lettering for the use of picture and texts in the same field, cost $140 and have the dual qualities of being decorative and making artistic statements.

He was surprised at the number of pieces he moved and at just how high-end the little barn-based art show ended up being.

"There's definitely a reputation here, and people are coming looking to buy, which is always good," Wettlaufer said. "Even though it has been a rough year-and-a-half, I think if people see something they like, they'll spend the money on it."

His most looked at piece is a woodcut pieces featuring a god-like-looking figure that Wettlaufer hesitates to identify holding tablets or pages that have the Book of Revelations written on them in Latin.

The intent is to allow the viewer to take in the text as part of the picture, without the natural tendency to start reading text dominating the attention paid to the piece.

Kingsley didn't take a head count, but said the number of viewers coming through the barns increased this year.

"It looks like this is the best attended event we've had in all six years," she said.

A tenacious and meticulous campaign of fliers, postcards, newspaper exposure, signage and word-of-mouth are what she is crediting for the success of Art on the Farm.

"These aren't the sorts of things you see at every craft show, and I think people know that by now.

"People know how particular I am and that I refine it more and more each year," Kingsley said.

People expect to see the envelope pushed, she says, such as with the inclusion of artists like Horton-based Tim Péwé.

Péwé's pieces aren't paintings, but mostly interactive sculptures, wood carvings and structures taken straight from his imagination and given tangible form.

"I don't know how well it fits in," Péwé says of his art -- a marionette on strings, a wall-mounted, a couple of heads carved out of wood, statues with wind catching objects that spin when blown and a wheelbarrow that looks like a robot, but functions exactly like a normal wheelbarrow.

Typically, Péwé's pieces are gallery-only, but the crowds at Art on the Farm showed enough appreciation for his work last year that he came back again this time.

"I like art that's kinetic, that people can (manipulate)," he says as he pulls the tab on his wall-mounted head, forcing out the statue's wooden tongue.

Local visitor Kathy Norris just came to buy a scarf, but she says that Art on the Farm is a place that she spends several hours each year at the end of October taking in the scenery, both on canvas and off, listening to great music and casually broadening her horizons.

"I think every year this gets better and better," Norris said. "The artists are just phenomenal and more people keep coming every year."