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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

May 6, 2005

Warm weather brings spring fever to the Short North

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Columbus-Spring is here-although it's not evinced by the recent weather-and with it comes all the fairs and festivals. One of the first and most exciting of the season will be held this weekend during the monthly Gallery Hop in the Short North, the heart of Columbus' arts and gay community.

The Spring Fever art fair will feature over 20 artists, many of them gay. Included in this fair are out artists D. P. Ackerman, Ernest Wicker, Mark Yasenchack, and Brian Elston. Spring Fever will bring together artists in all different media from painting and ceramics to photography and jewelry making. The idea of the fair is to give artists a venue to display and sell their wares, as well as give audiences a chance to buy art at reasonable rates. One can buy art for one's own pleasure or to give to others on various occasions throughout the year.

Elston, one of the artists participating in the art fair is a graduate of the school of art and design at The Ohio State University.

“I have been painting for over 24 years in a structured environment and have worked for over six years as a full time artist," he said. Elston focuses on abstract painting. He Isaid that his works "reflect an emotional response to the world around me."

"I pull energy into my works influenced by modern architecture, industry and nature's weathering of the world. Each work is built upon a strong structural base and then evolves from there," he said.

This is the second year that the art fair is being held. It is organized by the art co-op associated with Studio 16 in the Short North.

"I am thrilled to be part of the art fair again this year," Elston said. "Last autumn I participated in the art fair, the first and had a wonderful time."

Last year's fair was held in Victorian Village. This year, with it in the Short North and on a Gallery Hop weekend, Elston believes that this fair brings with it "a lot of new energy and optimism of being a huge success."

Curbside

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Brian Elston

Ernest Wicker is another out artist who will be participating in the weekend's fair. Wicker specializes in manipulated digital photographs which he overlays with the use of color pens, watercolors and color pencil to alter the original photos. He then scans

KAIZAAD KOTWAL

the work into his computer and further manipulates the already manipulated photographs using various computer programs.

Through his work, Wicker said that he tells "stories or gives a sense of feelings about experiences in my life. These stories are about friends, lovers, and myself, the things we all go through in life.”

ESCAPE ROBERT KIRBY 2004

OU KNOW THAT FEELING OF " IF I WISH HARD ENOUGH, MAYBE I CAN CHANGE REALITY"? I TRIED LIKE HELL TO WISH THAT GUN OF CAL'S AWAY.

DIS

The Art Fair will run Saturday, May 7 from 12 noon to 9 p.m. and Sunday, May 8 from 12 noon to 6 pm at 17 Buttles Avenue.

I ESPECIALLY WANTED TO BLOT OUT HIS PLANS TO USE THE DAMN THING TO AVENGE THE ATTACK ON ME. MY GUT TOLD ME THAT IT WOULD ONLY LEAD TO EVEN MORE DISASTER.

NO, ATOM, Noo GGHHCCHH

TRY AND SHOOT ME

HUH?

Elston's

Urban Order, top, and Nude Robot

by Robert Kirby

HAD ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT ALREADY SPECIFICALLY, SNEAKING OUT OF THE HOSPITAL ONCE. I WAS STRONG ENOUGH... CUZ, LIKE, OF MY ALLERGIES TO CRUSHING FINANCIAL DEBT. I WAS ONE OF THOSE UNINSURED STATISTICS POLITICIANS FRET ABOUT BUT NEVER ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING ABOUT.

ver

DISAPPEA

THE WHOLE SCARY WALK HOME I KEPT EXPECTING TO RUN INTO ATOM, WHO WOULD OF COURSE FINISH ME OFF IN MY WEAKENED CONDITION.

IT COULD HAPPEN..

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, THE SIGHT OF THE SHITHOLE BUILDING I LIVED IN WAS TOTALLY BEAUTI FUL TO ME.

HOME...

BUT WHEN I WALKED INTO MY APARTMENT IT GOT SLAMMED HOME TO ME ALL OVER AGAIN THAT I WAS A MARKED MAN. FUN NY THING THOUGH: GUESS WHAT THE FIRST THING I THOUGHT WAS?

!!!// CAL! WHERE'S

CAL?!

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