In a remark aimed at would become the second-largest auction bid of the night. he looked over at Larry Adkison of LaGrange Park -- who was in the midst of a competitive bidding war with another attendee -- and proclaimed "He even brought his own chair!"
Sure thing, as it turned out. Adkison and his wife, Barbara were in for the long haul, determined to take the aptly named "Starry La Grange Night" easel home with them, not to display in their primary residence but in their Edgewater condominium next to a dining room window overlooking wondrous views of the lake and sky.
The easel, one of 45 exhibited throughout the downtown business district all summer sponsored by local businesses and completed by local artists. was certainly one of the auction favorites. In the end, LGBA raised more than $13,000 for the Pets & Pals Charities (which puts on the annual Pet Parade) and the La Grange Area Historical Society.
Still, it didn't take an auction veteran to lead the charge and raise the final price on the second most expensive easel of the night.
"This is the first time we've been here," sa.id Larry Adkison. referring to the numerous public art display and summer's-end auctions the LGBA has hosted.
Adkison's wife fell in love with the original Van Gogh masterpiece when the couple visited the artist's hometown on a vacation to France and, subsequently with the artwork with the La Grange twist on display since May on the sidewalk outside of Blueberry Hill Pancake House at La Grange Road and Harris Avenue.
"It's kind of a neat connection (with the France visit) and we really like the song ("Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean), plus it will fit really well with our place in the city which is right above the water," said the 23-year La Grange Park resident and immigration attorney, his wife at his side in her own lawn chair.
The place, they added, is very secluded and faces the lake. And, he said, there are some starry nights in Chicago which don't look much different than the painting.
The mosaic treatment by the Terra Incognito students and staff lead artist Sue Coombs is what drew so much attention to the piece, said onlookers.
However, the work that secured the highest bid was really not much of a re-creation of the original piece at all. It was just quirky and a favorite among the hoi poloi of the art world: the "Dogs Playing Poker" piece done by artist John Scaletta and sponsored by Digital Studio and Assist-a-Pet.com.
Although the funny artwork (with the village name and incorporation date at the top) sported a suggested opening bid of just $100, it spurred another colorful bidding war between dog-lover Evelyn Biegert and the mother of a 10-year-old dog lover, former La Grange resident Mary Ann Liotta.
The elderly Biegert. who said afterward she "just love(s) dogs," was constantly nudged by La Pidus during the bidding to raise the stakes higher if for no other reason than she'd be "the envy of every man in La Grange." In the end, she let the little girl have her way.
Liotta said she came to the auction for the local rendition of The Beatles' famous Abbey Road album cover titled "The Beatles on La Grange Road" by artist Maggie Allen, who drew the Fab Four in a nonexistent crosswalk in front of the La Grange Theater. But she also purchased the "Dogs Playing Poker" for daughter, Kelly.
While Mom dropped "only" $675 for the Beatles parody, she spent another $2,000 on the Dogs. And her girl couldn't have appeared any happier.
"They just looked real funny and friendly." said the student at Gower Middle School in nearby Burr Ridge who already owns three real dogs: China, Cathy and Snowball. When asked where it will be displayed, she excitedly replied, "In my room. Definitely."
Many of the attendees not only had their eyes on specific easels, but seemed to have planned out long ago exactly where they would be displayed.
Such was also the case of family medicine Dr. Kori Feldman of Oak Brook, who bought the Kimberly Kuba rendition of a famous Norman Rockwell work called "Double Appointment" for a mere $300.
Dr. Feldman. whose new Integrative Family Health Associates' offices are located at 4727 S. Willow Springs Road in La Grange, showed up with her parents to buy the painting just so she could hang it up in the waiting room at her new clinic.
The piece, sponsored by La Grange Adventist Hospital, depicts a doctor performing a checkup on a child, in the foreground of a lobby wall inside the Willow Springs Road health center.
Another popular artwork among auction attendees was a play on a once-popular Roy Lichtenstein work renamed "M-maybe dinner" and drawn by Jonathan Asperger (the husband of Village President Liz Asperger) and sponsored by Community Nurse.
The colorful comic-type work. displayed in between the Community Nurse Health Association resale shop and Mambo Room Bar & Grill on Calendar Avenue, was purchased for $975 by Brookfield resident Jeff Kay.
Lichtenstein was a breakthrough, ultra-modern artist in the same ilk as Andy Warhol, whose Campbell Soup print was among the parody easels auctioned off. Lichtenstein, whose mixed media style involved cartoons, pulp art and so-called pointalism, embraced modern art and painted much differently than his predecessors.
The easel, a parody of the original 1965 Lichtenstein, "M-Maybe," has a troubled cartoon blonde woman thinking "M-maybe he'll miss his train and we can have dinner in La Grange" rather than the original, in which she stated, "M-maybe he became ill and couldn't leave the studio."
That work was eagerly purchased by Jeffrey Kay of Brookfield.
The Brooklyn/Queens native and self-proclaimed art aficionado said he has followed the work of Lichtenstein since his teen years. He has seen Lichtenstein's work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and has always wanted to buy one of his prints, but figured this remake was just as good.
It will be one of two easels to grace the living quarters of a Lincoln Park flat he plans to move into this fall.
Kay, a regular customer of Aurelio's Pizza, also purchased the La Grange rendition of the Salvador Dali masterpiece "The Persistence of Memory." a parody by artist Jane Booth dubbed "The Persistence of Pies." The piece features melting Aurelio's pizza pies instead of clocks that was displayed all summer outside of the Calendar Court restaurant.
Kay only spent the suggested minimum bid of $200 on that piece, but came to the auction thinking he would lose in a bidding match with the pizzeria owner -- who was visibly absent from the auction although had earlier vowed to be ready to drop much more on it.
Artist Lorna Shaw, who has participated in every summer art exhibit for the past four years, said her four entries this year netted $1,100 for the charities.
Her works included Flowerbeds in Holland, featuring the La Grange Village Hall in the background of a vast, colorful flower garden; Nighthawks, a Q-BBQ corner diner with a goofy depiction of its owner, Michael LaPidus, behind the counter; Drawing Hands, a rendition of the original yet recently refurbished La Grange State Bank clock and Hand with Globe, featuring a man sitting in between backward images of both La Grange train stations.
Flowerbeds was sponsored by Blueberry Hill, Drawing Hands by Urban Sole and Hand with Globe by Horizon Wealth Management.
Shaw's Drawing Hands was the only easel that did not appear in the exhibit until the auction. She was originally commissioned to re-draw a famous ballerina piece, but when it did not meet muster with the sponsor, she was given a new assignment.
Shaw said she was recruited for the art promotion in 2006, when she painted a giraffe she still enjoys seeing in someone's front lawn at La Grange Road and Maple Avenue. A year later, she
did two elephants and last year, three Adirondack chairs.
"I like hearing the feedback," she said of the uniqueness of the LGBA event. "I also get excited about the fact my work helps raise money for charity."
West End winners
At the West End Art Festival held Sept. 12 and 13 adjacent to the auction site, awards were presented to artists whose work was considered the cream of the crop, according to festival ounder and chairperson Andrea Barnish.
Winning Best in Show was fiber artist Tammy Deck of nearby Westmont. First-place went to wood artist Thomas Dumke of Oconomowoc, Wisc., second place to photographer Michael Brown of far north suburban Antioch and third place to Sandra Grassi Nelipovich of Anaheim, Calif., whose Batik on silk work won high praise.
Life Above La Grange
The winner of the "Take a Shot at Life Above La Grange" drawing at the festival was Annette Gablin of La Grange. The contest, which challenged children to match upper floor views of La Grange's downtown from various condo developments in and around the central business district, was sponsored by Melissa Budak of the La Grange-based Smothers Realty Group, 324 W. Burlington Ave.
