The Screw Factory Artists in Lakewood are approaching thirty years as a haven and space for Cleveland area artists and makers. We trace our beginnings back to 1994 when a couple of American Greetings artists acquired a studio space in the Lake Erie Building, a sprawling century-old factory complex in the Birdtown neighborhood of Lakewood. They were shortly followed by […]
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Commercial galleries are slowly opening their doors as we enter the month of June, but in the summer of 2020 there will be no maker fares, white tent festivals, or urban markets. For makers and crafters whose incomes depend largely on gathering crowds of people drawn to the opportunity to buy local, the COVID pandemic has thrown up a huge […]
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Arabella Proffer’s studio in her Lakewood high-rise apartment has the best view of any artist’s studio I have ever seen. Hands down. As she paints next to huge floor to ceiling glass doors, Lake Erie’s beautiful waters stretch out to the horizon, with the skyline of Cleveland to the right. The main advantage here is not the view (which would […]
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“What more could I possibly ask as an artist than my most precious visions, however rare, sometimes assume the forms of my images.” – Maya Deren On a frigid day recently, Christa Ebert showed me upstairs to her West Park studio. Among the many effects pedals, microphones, and audio equipment stood a vintage projection screen – the kind of […]
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“A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. All photographs are accurate, but none of them is the truth.” – Richard Avedon Amber Ford is busy. With work in two exhibitions that open this week and a job at her alma […]
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There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterwards you can remove all traces of reality. There’s no danger then, anyway, because the idea of the object will have left an indelible mark. — Pablo Picasso “It feels very natural and good to be using figures again as the bones of these new paintings,” said Dana […]
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I asked Cannaday Chapman if he thought of himself as an “Illustrator” or an “Artist”, and without skipping a beat he said: “Illustrator”. I nodded quizzically as I looked over all of the hand-drawn and hand-painted scraps of paper around the room. While Chapman does indeed “illustrate” many things – in particular articles for magazines, newspapers, greeting cards, etc. […]
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Once you are familiar with Jake Kelly’s work you start spotting it everywhere. He is the virtuoso responsible for the giant murals in Melt Restaurants – or maybe you’ve seen his fliers advertising upcoming shows at the Grog Shop, or perhaps you’ve seen his amazing mural inside the Grog Shop, or his serial comic masterpiece the “Lake Erie Monster” made with long-time […]
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Cleveland painter Frank Oriti recently moved into a new studio in the Screw Factory. Much larger than his previous space, sunlight pours into the room through an immense wall of windows. His tools and easels are all carefully set and at the ready, and giant heaps of oil paint wait for his brushes. I have been an admirer of Oriti’s portrait paintings […]
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Adrienne Slane’s studio in Geauga County is perfectly situated in a copse of tall trees, surrounded by marshes and shadowy forests. It’s the kind of fairy tale location entirely appropriate for the creation of her enchanting cut-paper collages. Clearly a collector at heart, every available surface in Slane’s studio is covered with her coveted items – seashells, postage stamps, buttons, scissors, […]
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