Walk features more than just galleries

Some loose talk about Bloomington acting the role of a viable arts community has blown through town this summer, yet the community seems hesitant to identify the city's place among the national and international art talent decorating the globe.\nThe Downtown Gallery Walk commenced Friday evening, the second of four like-minded events scheduled about town during the year, showcasing nine Bloomington art galleries and the artwork contained within their walls. With finger food and swallows of red wine directing hundreds of people to the streets in a somewhat organized and directional manner, people strolled from gallery to gallery spewing hums of orchestrated melody and whispering tidbits of companionship hand in hand and hip to hip.\nThe collective aesthetic of Bloomington's community art speaks through functional ceramics, functional sculpture and landscape painting. For example, the Top Gallery, 209 N. Washington St., offers art buyers and appreciators the opportunity to gaze upon dozens of pastel oil paintings that remind the viewer of calmer times somewhere in a rural landscape.\nMany of the nine local galleries represented in the Gallery Walk filled their chambers with common bourgeois expectations that do not challenge the viewer about anything presumed "real," nor offer the community any sort of dissent or reflection about the status quo. A viable art economy in Bloomington can become a future reality if the city and its galleries market their product toward a targeted audience, since much of the community artwork occupying local gallery space is designed for in-home and outside use rather than simple decoration.\nA collective art community catering to the human imagination also exists, but few local galleries seemed to appreciate artistic aesthetic choices beyond the traditional still life painting, sculpture and pottery. The John Waldron Arts Center, for instance, is one of a few galleries along the walk that dedicated gobs of space for artwork "outside the box." \nMelissa Parrott's "Blue Squid Flower," "Aquatic Angiosperm" and "Weeping Squid Flower," although costing pocketloads of cash, offer campus community members creative clay work in an artistic class of its own. Her bright-colored and twisted creations draw the viewer's eyes along a comic portrait of nature's attempt at life.\nThe focus of a viable Bloomington art economy could also stress the imaginative and market the city as a home for creative thinkers and the possibility of offering artwork outside the Midwest mainstream. \nThough the fastest path between any two points is always a straight line, Gallery Walk participants that wandered from the city's well-traveled paths discovered other community artwork.\nWords, symbols and other images are painted in alleys, on bridges and along walkways leading to and from each gallery during the gallery walk. Political statements, random nonsense and artists' names are stenciled, tagged and spray-painted on local business walls, light poles, dumpsters and fences.\nBloomington's art economy could also include a community drive to paint all alleyways, unused local business wall space and walkways by talented artists, who are posing as criminals due to lack of public art space and their inability to address particular topics through any other acceptable artistic medium. \nAlthough the preferred taste and cultural aesthetic of some Bloomingtonians might lead them to believe that stenciling, tagging and spray-painted murals is simply graffiti that needs to "cleaned," the true artistic heart of Bloomington is apparent through the desire of local artists to beautify their city's public environment.\nBloomington could follow the path of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles by insisting local businesses offer private wall space for the enhancement of the city's image and by offering public space for "outside the box" artists to enhance the cityscape. The Gallery Walk, although offered four times this year, is a limited approach to showcasing the best art from the best artists Bloomington has to offer.\nThe third and fourth gallery walks, for example, could include street booths for local artists who are not gracing local indoor gallery walls and other local artists should have the opportunity to produce their work in public view, rather than under sweatshirt hoods during in the early morning.\nLocal artists like Joanne Shank, who's work is displayed at the Bellevue Gallery, 312 S. Washington St., and Sandy Taylor, whose clocks are displayed at By Hand Gallery in Fountain Square Mall downtown, deserve national and international recognition and Bloomington can lead the way in helping to promote them. A viable city art economy can become a definite reality if local artists are offered affordable and ample living space, workspace and showcase space. \nUntil that time, alleyways will continue to offer space for some of the best artwork Bloomington has to offer and the Gallery Walk will continue to reinforce limited economic perspective due to the watered-down art aesthetic that is commonplace throughout other Southern Indiana art economies.\nAs artists have to compete with one another for time, attention and space, Bloomington should squeeze the tradition, creativity and talent from every one of the town's artists and not only showcase a select few labeled "sellable" items to a select few number of "buyers" with money to spend. The city will receive recognition as an artistic destination only when would-be travelers have an incentive to visit an art community unlike anywhere else across the globe.\nBloomington has more to offer than limestone and the community of artists seems willing to work for shelter, food and support. For proof, look no farther than your local alleyway.