By Gerri Miller
Elmore/Autauga News
Wetumpka’s Village Artists group is gearing up for its second season of Art Walk downtown starting on April 2 and founder Don Sawyer said to expect it to be bigger and better than last year.
The Art Walk is a collaboration among handpicked artists who come together to create a unique art show and sale in the heart of downtown Wetumpka. “This is turning into much more than an art show,” Sawyer said. “This is going to be a big event.”
Shows will be held April through November on the first Friday of the month from 4 to 8 p.m. This is the second season for the show and Sawyer said it has already doubled in size. Last year the shows averaged eight artists and there will be 16 this year ranging from sculptors, woodworkers and mixed media to painters and wood carvers.
This year a new addition to the show will be music. Kevin and Jordyn Boyer will play everything from country to bluegrass and rock music.
Sawyer said the group will set up on Company Street this year and line the street from the old bank to his studio near the end of the street next to the barber shop. He said the group is extremely selective on who is invited.
“I want these artists to be a part of the fabric of Wetumpka,” he said. “Wetumpka is an amazing place already and is going to really shine in May when the HGTV show airs,” he said. He predicts that the art show will again double in size next year.
Sawyer said that artists for the show are selected based on their talent, personality, honesty and reputation.
“It is so important to have artists who don’t just sit there at a table,” Sawyer said. “They need to interact with people, presenting and displaying their art. That is an art form within itself.” He said the group has meetings to train the artists on how to present their work at the shows.
Sawyer said downtown is becoming a prime destination for Wetumpka residents as well as tourists from around the region.
“There are so many great mom and pop-style restaurants,” he said. “Even the restaurant owners come out and greet the visitors. They run their establishments the same way we run our art shows.”
“Customers are not just buying a product, they are buying you,” Sawyer said. “We want people to get to know us.”
Shauna Montgomery is one of the many artists and will display her painted custom furniture. She said she didn’t set out to paint furniture and that it happened out of necessity.
“I needed a way to make the spaces in my house more interesting, colorful… more personalized, so I picked up a paintbrush and started playing,” Montgomery said. “I paint a range of finishes, from updating a piece of furniture with a simple color change to adding visual excitement through layers of texture and colors. That is what I really enjoy; adding layers of color, texture and depth to a piece of furniture, essentially art on furniture.”
Montgomery said she is excited to be a part of the Village Artists. “I love being inspired by other creative people, bouncing ideas around, coming up with new and interesting ways to use various mediums in new and unexpected ways. There is so much talent in this group, from Neill Thompson’s woodwork, Finch Allen’s drawings and Nancy Cooper’s oil’s, it is just inspiring!” she said.
She said Wetumpka has a lot of great things going on in its downtown area. “Great dining, cool little shops and now a vibrant artist community,” she said. “Art Walk will not only be a great way to support the growing art scene, but also a way to be involved in the beautiful rebirth of our city!”
Robert “Preacherman” Mullins is a former student of Sawyer’s. “He started teaching me his style and I created my own style,” he said. Mullins, who is also the pastor at Crossroads Community Church, said he has a degree in graphic design that he used to work as a youth minister for 22 years.
Mullins builds canvasses from reclaimed wood and draws familiar objects such as Wetumpka’s Bibb Graves Bridge and Samford Hall at Auburn.
“I like to see people get excited about what I’ve painted,” Mullins said. “It’s great to get out in the community, meet people and enjoy sharing art with them.”
Sawyer said he predicted that Art Walk would continue to expand because he saw it happen with a group he started in Destin in 2002. “We were the Fab Five. We started drawing a crowd and as that continued to happen, we became the Fab 12,” he said.
He said the group expanded by having Art Expos at Baytown Wharf that included more than 40 artists. Those Expos are still happening today, he said.
Sawyer said he saw so much potential in Wetumpka that he opened his own art gallery downtown three months ago. He said it started out as a place to store his painting and has now turned into a gallery. He also has 65 of his paintings on display at River Perk Coffee House near his studio.
Sawyer is a self-taught artist whose “Hollywood Fish” and other paintings have become well-known and sought after throughout the world. Sawyer is a full-time artist; a colorist who expresses himself more in color than in form. He does not mix paint but uses pure color.
He uses a stiff brush and a heavy body acrylic paint, usually on a board of wood because of its texture and durability. He takes everyday subjects and creates his own version of those subjects.
Sawyer said he sees nothing but continued growth for Wetumpka and that the city has all the components needed to become a cultural arts center.
“God has blessed Wetumpka, Alabama,” Sawyer said. “This is no accident. “There are so many great things going on at just the right time to make it happen.”
