Thanks for the report James.
Oscar Matos Linares
3221 West Pierce #2R; Chicago, IL 60651
Telephone: 773-315-6842
E-mail: lpstudio@yahoo.com
Website: www.lpstudios.net
________________________________
From: James Parker <dakota.kid@mindspring.com>
To: artshow_photo@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 6, 2011 9:21:00 AM
Subject: [artshow_photo] Re: Storm at Columbus Yesterday
We were there. Our booth was on Long Street. The storm formed directly over
Columbus from nothing. I saw it on the radar about a half an hour before it
actually hit. You could see it in the sky. The show personnel came around and
warned people at 7:15 that there was a big cell coming around 9:30, but didn't
know about the primary threat. My guess is that they hadn't seen it on radar
when they sent the runners out. It formed quickly.
At our end of the show, three tents were blown into a fourth glass display on
Washington St. Joe Becker, the glass artist, got smacked in the head with a
weight, but seemed ok. He lost about half of his work, but was up and running on
Sunday. Erik Dahlager, the photographer next to Joe, was set up on Sunday, too,
with some of his work. The fiber artist and the jeweler, whose tents blew into
Joe and Erik's, were gone. We got our awnings down and the tent buttoned up just
before the wind hit, and the rain started flying. It was like Ann Arbor State
St. at the corner of Maynard and William. Just torrential rain for about fifteen
minutes, small pea-sized hail and gusty winds. We took about 4 inches of water
in the back of the booth and listened to the lighting striking close by. Most of
the artists at our end of the show were ok. Rob Coomer told me he had some
damage from flooding in his booth on Washington but was otherwise fine. Steve
Vaughn and Chris Maher, just down the street, were also ok. Appears as if the
winds were very selective at our end. I suspect EZ-UP were the culprits.
But the worst damage was at the other end of the street, along Cleveland, near
the art center; and on Long, in back of the art center. Pat Whalen's booth on
Long went completely down. So did Mark McKinnon's double booth on Long, which
backed up to a parking lot. Both of those artists are seasoned vets, with strong
tents and heavy weights. About half the tents on Cleveland were completely
destroyed. All in all, there were 34 booths destroyed, out of about 240. The
pictures on Facebook of the storm were taken from windows in the art center, and
show Cleveland Street.Two photographers I know were near the damage: Leah
Cavanah and Joel Anderson. Neither had major damage. Leah C. was so shaken that
she packed up to leave, and helped other artists retrieve what they could. She
told me that a ceramics guy at the end lost his tent completely. It went flying
into the air, and they couldn't even locate it! The 40' food tent in the parking
lot behind Long Street went up in the air, and landed in a tree. It was not
weighted. Luckily for the artist behind the tree on Long, the tree caught the
tent before it landed on them! A transformer blew out on Cleveland, and we heard
the bang and saw the sparks from two blocks away.
People were calm. It happened very quickly. After the storm, we all came out and
surveyed the damage. Knowing there was another larger storm following in this
one's footsteps, the show organizers shut down the show for the night. We all
did what we could to help our neighbors close up and secure things for the
evening. Many took art back to their vehicles for the night. We took our
photographs down and stowed them in the big carry boxes in the tent. Everything
went up where it was dry. Lots of people lost things that were on the pavement
to high water. But the second storm did no damage, luckily. It was mostly just
rain and lightning.
Sunday morning, Leah Alters, the show director, sent all artists an email. They
set up two large festival tents for those that wanted to soldier on with what
work had been salvaged, and let everyone know that there was no penalty for
pulling out early. Many of the Cleveland St. artists came back on Sunday. The
GCAF Facebook page was clear that the show would continue on Sunday and urged
patrons to come out and support the artists. Only one person was injured that I
know of, and that was Leah Alter's husband, Kyle, who was helping a glass artist
secure a tent, when he took a glass shard to the arm. We saw him at the show
with his wife at the end of the show, arm in a sling, making sure that everyone
was okay, and getting packed up. Way to go!
The threat of another storm late in the day Sunday caused many of us to start
packing around 5. The show people came by around 5:30 and officially closed the
show. Although the two pop-up storms looked bad, they divided and passed to the
north and south of us, leaving us all dry for the load-out. Talk about thankful
artists, who'd already been through a lot.
The Columbus Arts Festival has a page where you can donate to help those artists
that lost work or equipment.
https://columbusartsfestival.org/get-involved/artist-relief-fund.php
Jim Parker
parkerparker :: design | photography
http://www.parkerparker.info
248.229.7900
Jim Parker
parkerparker :: design | photography
http://www.parkerparker.info
@dakkid / twitter
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
http://artshowphoto.com/support.htm
PLEASE READ....PLEASE TRIM POSTS!!! Keep quoted material short.
Repeat or create accurate subject lines.
If you want to advertise services related to art shows or photography, either in a forum post or on the resource web site, please contact the forum owner for permission.
Resource web site at
http://ArtShowPhoto.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment