“It happened to be connected to the Carnegie Museum, where I also spent a lot of time taking art classes on Saturdays. I was a real reader and loved going through the shelves.”
One of Kadish’s first jobs in graduate school was at the art library at the University of Chicago. “I remember thinking that it was entirely appropriate for me,” she says now. “I like the idea of my work being in a library.”
Thanks to an anonymous bequest of $1.3 million, new art inspired by selected pieces from the Dayton Art Institute’s permanent collection by Kadish and dozens of other artists has been commissioned for all of the new and renovated libraries in the Dayton Metro Library system.
Kadish’s contribution to the new downtown library — five monotypes entitled “River” — can be found on the north wall of the Berry Quiet Reading Room on the second floor.
“When I moved to this area, I missed most the number of bodies of water that had been present in my life until then,” she says. “Until fairly recently, Dayton seemed to turn its back on the river, and I wanted to emphasize its presence.”
The abstract work, she says, addresses themes of transformation, the transitory nature of material things and the value of each moment we fully experience. Each print, done in collaboration with master printer Lisa Mackie, contains elements of water, sky, landscape and ultimately the river.
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What’s ironic is that Kadish is now legally blind. But thanks to the “talking books” that are available to her through the library system, she’s been able to continue her passion for reading over the past 30 years. “It’s not as much fun this way, but it means I have a wide choice of material,” says the artist. “I have come to love the fact that the readers are excellent for the most part.”
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ANDREA MYERS
Those who attended the library gala, “The Main Event,” were struck by the colorful fabric collages created by Andrea Myers of Wooster. This new work dubbed “En Plein Art” can be seen on the south wall of the Great Reading Room on the third floor. It was created by sewing together rectangular sections of fabric to form collages with a variety of textures that reference the gesture of painting and the expression of brush strokes.
Myers says the main challenge was making a series of works without seeing the finished space until the work was almost complete. "I utilized a wall at the university where I teach to practice how the six pieces would be installed," she explains. "Also, I wanted to come up with a way to make my installation as easy as possible and given the pieces are organic in shape, I created paper templates to place on the wall first to help determine the final composition."
Myers has fond memories of going to the library with her mom a lot as a child. “I loved going into the children’s section and discovering new picture books,” she recalls, adding that she was especially drawn to books by Richard Scarry and Ed Emberly because of the intricately colored illustrations and patterning. “Now as a mom, I love rediscovering illustrated books with my seven year old daughter,” she says.
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One of her favorite books she recommends to artist friends and students? “Art and Fear,” by David Bayles and Ted Orland. “It is a comforting book for artists that is an honest discussion about the creative process.”
PAULA WILLMOT KRAUS
Dayton artist Paula Willmot Kraus admits that her library commission caused her many sleepless nights.
“I had never done anything close to this size, so making work on that scale really took me out of my comfort zone,” says Kraus, who is responsible for “Morning Glory,” an inkjet print that you’ll find on the north-facing wall of Parkside Place on the library’s second floor. “I was grateful for the construction delays because I kept reworking the images right up until the final deadline.”
Kraus, who was intrigued by Monet's response to light in the DAI's famous "Water Lilies" painting, says she relates photography or "drawing with light" to a painter's process of mixing paint to create the initial palette of raw material. "I am used to printing my own work and to make these I had to outsource the printing," she adds. "It was difficult to let go of that control."
She says she can’t believe that such an exquisite building exists in Dayton and that she got to play a small role in it. “The library is going to be a showcase for Dayton.”
The library in her hometown was small but just as important to her. “I vividly remember that it was one of the first places I could venture to on my own, without parental or sibling oversight,” Kraus recalls. “In that way it became special. It was a place I could go and hide out. I’d sit in the stacks until I found just the right books. What a concept – they let you borrow books for free! That is special.”
GRETCHEN DURST JACOBS
Artist Gretchen Durst Jacobs says her most memorable library story isn’t nearly as good as her dad’s. Not too long ago he told her that his first job was at Dayton’s Main Library.
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“He rode the bus from Northridge and worked at the library, restocking the shelves. “I thought that was pretty cool,” says Jacobs, whose oil-on-panel painting entitled “Truss and River” now hangs above the fireplace on the west wall of Parkside Place Lounge on the library’s second floor.
"The painting started out to be very abstract, but the longer I worked on it it the more it became more grounded in observation," she says. "I like the idea that a lot of people will see it that don't typically own art or look at art on a daily basis. It might open them up to something in the visual world that they didn't experience before. " Her work, she says, deconstructs the oldest type of modern bridge truss.
Jacobs also likes the idea that someone who views her painting might link the image to something they’ve read at the library — a story or article.
SUSAN BYRNES
Gracing the west wall of the third-floor Oehlers Great Reading Room is “Viscosity Garden” by Susan Byrnes. If you didn’t know, you’d assume the 90 individual cast-rubber tiles that form the large colorful piece were made of glass. “I manipulate the color, viscosity and curing properties of liquid rubber to create the forms visible in the piece,” explains the Cincinnati artist. “People often mistake the material for glass.”
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She envisions this piece to be a broad abstract waterscape that provides a bold, playful and colorful respite for the eyes and inspires the imagination of the viewer. “This project had several challenges — from learning how to scale up my piece to mural size, working with fabricators to make the substrate and giant frame, to crating, moving, storing, and installing a 10-foot-high by 24-foot-long artwork.” she says. “Everything worked out great and it was an incredible learning experience for me.”
Byrnes, whose work was also chosen for the Miamisburg branch library, says her fondest library memories date from 1990 when she lived in Utica, N.Y., and would frequently visit the art library housed in the basement of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The modern-art museum is housed in an elegant, small 1960 Phillip Johnson building.
"They had incredible art books — current and vintage — from all over the world," she remembers. "I guess because of the small scale of the library, I felt like it was my own, but the collection there opened up worlds of art to me. Ever since then, I seek out art and other specialized libraries wherever I live."
She loves artist books made as fine art and produced in one-of-a-kind or limited editions. “I own a beautiful one printed on multicolor paper and bound by Loujon Press from New Orleans of early poems by Charles Bukowski, with illustrations by Noel Rockmore,” she says. ” As a kid I always read — still do — and my favorite book was ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ by Madeleine L’Engle.”
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
TERRY WELKER
We needn’t specify where you’ll find the artwork created for the new library by Kettering’s Terry Welker. You can’t miss his spectacular mobile sculpture, which hangs in the building’s three-story Atrium.
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It’s called “Fractal Rain” and is fashioned of 3,500 six-inch prisms on nearly five miles of stainless-steel wire. The dramatic piece, which hangs from the third floor under a skylight and cascades down into the floors below, changes as it catches the light at different times of day. One in every six of the prisms has been optically dyed in studio in Monet colors — lavender, green, blue, yellow, and pink.
The piece, says Welker, references the Great Dayton Flood of 1913 and our city’s love/hate relationship with rain.
The 1,000-pound piece has already made news, selected by the internationally known Collaboration of Design and Art as one of the “top 100 most successful design projects that integrate commissioned art into an interior, architectural or public space. “
Of the six artists, Welker has the most touching early library memory: at age 16 he ditched his little brother to hang out with the woman who was eventually to become his wife. "We count it as our first date!" he says. He and Sandy have been married 41 years.
Welker says he’s honored and thrilled to be in the company of famed Dayton sculpture Robert Koepnick, artist of the last iteration of the public library — whose work that used to adorn the exterior was re-positioned across the street on a tower. “I loved researching the work of Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti, and I’m still moved by their work,” he says.
The challenge for this piece, he says, was “making art you sense with your body and mind.” At “The Main Event,” he was continually smiling as people kept staring at his sculpture and saying “Wow!”
“That was the intended affect,” Welker says. “I always try to live in the moment and seeing people suspend self-awareness means they are living in the moment, too.”
WANT TO GO?
What: Grand Opening and Community Celebration for the new Dayton Metro Library in downtown Dayton
When: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5
Where: 215 E. Third Street, Dayton
Activities: include a wide variety of entertainment, activities for children, music, appearances by Library mascots Cosmo & Pip, and some surprises. The celebration includes a street fair, a ribbon cutting ceremony along Third Street, and the Library Open House:
Here’s the schedule:
11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.: Street Festival on Patterson Boulevard between Second and Third Streets. Featuring DJ Basim, chalk artist, balloon sculptures, DML Bookmobile, Deja Cru street dancers, food trucks, face painters from the School of Advertising Art and more!
Noon: Commemoration ceremony and block-long ribbon cutting. More than 150 community leaders, library supporters, Summer Challenge participants and others will cut the ribbon.
12:30 -5 p.m. Open House featuring Tech Demos, Make & Create, mascots Cosmo & Pip, performances by Muse Machine, The Human Race Theatre Company, Zoot Theatre, bluegrass and folk music by The Repeating Arms, Sierra Leone and The Art of Word in Motion.
The Main Library begins regular hours of operation from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 6.
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