By Katy Conway
Editor

There is something about an auction that both attracts me and makes me want to pull the covers over my head. Living in New York in my 20s and 30s, I remember similar mixed feelings when sample sale season approached twice a year. I am not saying a sample sale is the same thing as an auction. Participating in the former required taking a subway or cab to a grimy downtown warehouse in the middle of a business day and consciously choosing to join a small mob of women ready to do bodily harm to one another in pursuit of highly-discounted Manolo Blahniks. Clearly I, too, was insane in those days. But, they both share an analogous risk-reward dynamic, not to mention the time-is-running-out urgency I am highly susceptible to.

Only two days remain before the “2025 Reimagine” art auction closes at 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, and I still haven’t decided what to bid on. It's time to get serious. If you have not yet visited this year’s ArtsConnect-sponsored show, here’s a final wake-up call to get over to the Main Public Library’s Gallery, pronto. Once there, the color and whimsy on display will likely captivate you. After that, like me, you can worry about where you’re going to hang all the art you’ll want to bring home. 

The show encompasses 52 paired works of art, each pair amounting to a lively, if wordless creative “conversation” between a grade-school-aged student artist and an established Kentucky artist who was moved to choose the student’s drawing as their artistic point of departure. Up since Sept. 15, the paintings, sculpture, jewelry, mixed-media works and collages in the exhibit (together with the respective student’s drawing) are available to bid on until the auction’s conclusion at a student/artist reception at the Central Library on Friday, Oct. 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. — click here to peruse the catalog and bid online. The good news is that the art will stay up until Nov. 14, so the pleasure of in-person viewing continues.

The proceeds from the auction (only 48 hours to bid, as I write this!) directly benefit this year’s participating elementary schools in the form of funds for much-needed art supplies, as well as the professional artists and ArtsConnect. Below are pieces that made it onto my wish list this year. 

“Mudpuppy & Friend” is a three-dimensional sculpture made of fabric, beads, yarn and wire by Christine Levitt, inspired by a captivating drawing by Kylie, a Kindergarten student at Julius Marks Elementary. 

Lovers of reptiles may be equally attracted to “Living Prism,” Pamela McDaniel’s electrifying yet somehow serene portrait of a chameleon in the wild. Lauren, a 5^th grader at Brenda Cowen Elementary, made the terrific line drawing that brought forth McDaniel’s concept. 

Speaking of serene, Charles Ellis’ dreamy oil painting “Fortnight” depicts a lovely summer moment: a swan-shaped plastic floatie adrift in the reflective water of a swimming pool. Miles, Grade 4, at Picadome Elementary prompted it with a skillful, almost cubist, black and white drawing on paper.

“My Cup of Tea,” a charming collage by John Andrew Dixon, has an immediate effect on me. (Excuse me while I put the kettle on.) Here's how he describes seeing the original drawing by Tripp, a  6^th grader at Sayre, “An earnest representation of this everyday object immediately grabbed me.” The artist adds that the drawing’s spareness “… allowed for a wide-open interpretation, with scrounged paper as a medium.”