All proceeds of the Anime Hothouse Live Auction to benefit IS183’s Learning Through Arts public school program for grades K-12 in Berkshire County.
ART ABOUT TOWN PACKAGE #1 Drawing by Walton Ford & Private Studio Visit with the Artist
Followed by Candlelight Dinner for Two and Overnight Accommodations for Two with Breakfast at The Old Inn on the Green
Value: $10,000
Minimum Bid: $4,000
Walton Ford was born in 1960 in Larchmont, New York. Ford graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with the intention of becoming a filmmaker, but later adapted his talents as a storyteller to his unique style of large-scale watercolor. Blending depictions of natural history with political commentary, Ford’s meticulous paintings satirize the history of colonialism and the continuing impact of slavery and other forms of political oppression on today’s social and environmental landscape. Each painting is as much a tutorial in flora and fauna as it is as a scathing indictment of the wrongs committed by nineteenth-century industrialists or, locating the work in the present, contemporary American consumer society.
An enthusiast of the watercolors of John James Audubon, Ford celebrates the myth surrounding the renowned naturalist-painter while simultaneously repositioning him as an infamous anti-hero who, in reality, killed more animals than he ever painted. Each of Ford’s animal portraits doubles as a complex, symbolic system, which the artist layers with clues, jokes, and erudite lessons in colonial literature and folktales. 
Walton Ford is the recipient of several national awards and honors including a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Ford’s work has been featured at Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art atChampion, and the Forum for Contemporary Art in St. Louis. After living in New York City for more than a decade, Walton Ford relocated his studio to Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Ford and his family reside in the Berkshires.
ART ABOUT TOWN PACKAGE #2 Painting by Tom O’Neil & Private Studio Visit with the Artist
Followed by Dinner for Two at Rouge and Overnight Accommodations for Two with Breakfast at Stonover Farm
Value: $3,500
Minimum bid: $1,500
Born 1966 New York, New York
1988
B.S. in Fine Art and Art History, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
1987
Apprentice with Red Grooms 1986 Apprentice with David Novros
1984
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
O’Neil works in a manner akin to “stream of consciousness”: a fluid process reminiscent of the push-and-pull strategies of Hans Hoffmann paintings. Abstract forms and markings evolve and ultimately emerge into exquisite and unique compositions. In this organic process, the artist finds his forms through trial and error-in his words, a “survival of the fittest.” In this way the viewer is exposed to the “history” of the painting-privy to artistic decisions typically made alone in the studio.
O’Neil’s work focuses on the fundamental relationships between figure and ground. Reflections of light on the painted surfaces reveal complex veils of color which complicate the rigorous geometric underpinnings of his compositions.The completed painting is always the result of finding a balance between unity and confusion, the static and the dynamic. Louis Grachos,
Director, Albright Knox
ART ABOUT TOWN PACKAGE #3: Karen Allen Custom Knit Sweater & Private Studio Visit with the Artist
Followed by dinner for two with Karen at The Southfield Store and Overnight Accomodations for Two with breakfast at Mepal Manor
Value: $2,000
Minimum Bid: $900
Karen Allen, known for her work in film and theatre, has been a passionate designer and hand knitter since the age of 5. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City at 17 and later returned in 2002 to study machine knitting technology. In 2003 she opened a design studio near her home in western Massachusetts. Karen designs, handmakes and oversees every pattern, fabric and garment in the collection. Karen has taught Master Knitting Workshops in IS183’sfiber arts program.
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Tags: Anime Hothouse, IS 183, IS 183 Fund Raising Party, IS183 Art School, IS183 Party, IS183 Party 2011, The Berkshires
