Silent art auction raises money to help environment
Snow-capped mountains line the background in shades of purple with a blue lake in the foreground of a lithograph made by a local Gainesville artist.
Mike Movicar printed the lithograph titled Ideals in color first and then in black and white for the Claim & Reclaim Art Auction on Friday.
The silent auction held by Society Promotions displayed about 30 pieces of art donated by about 10 local artists to benefit C-REx, a non-profit initiative of Earth Givers.
Amy Harris, a University Press employee, said she thought it was interesting to see another form of printmaking on display.
Harris said lithography is a duplication process where ink will only absorb where the artist has drawn, similar to screen printing.
“I was admiring the lithograph,” Harris said. “I haven’t seen that in a while.”
Harris said she was walking down the street when she noticed the art work displayed on the walls of Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate.
“I was meeting some friends when I noticed the screen prints tacked on the walls,” she said.
She said thought the lithographs were a great deal because the bidding started at $8 and normally the prices range from $50 to $100.
Clothespins held the prints up on the wall, and guests could choose to write their e-mail and bid on a slip of paper under the art work.
On the opposite wall, a series of 18 rectangles titled Car Detail were made by Matt Green as a donation.
Each 2- by 4-inch card had a detailed image of a car drawn using colored pencils. One image was of a Volkswagen’s headlight drawn in shades of orange.
Flowers were the focus of a set of four photographs by Miaoyuan Wang.
The local artist used the flowers as the center and blurred the background. In one photo called Bloom, three pink small flowers were surrounded by a blurred background of green vegetation.
As guests perused the artwork they could also screen print clothing with a cartoon design. Society Promotions offered the free screen printing for any guests who brought their own item of clothing.
Janet Kreischer, co-owner of Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate, said she thought the free screen printing was a good decision.
“It is another great way to incorporate art in the community,” Kreischer said.
She used a small wooden square with black ink to print the owl cartoon onto her brown T-shirt.
She said she thought the owl was a popular choice out of the several animal cartoon choices.
“I found my owl, and it only took about three minutes to make,” she said.
She said she learned about Society Promotions about a week ago at the opening for a magazine.
“They are doing great things for the community,” she said.
Jacob Larson, director of Society Promotions, said the organization hoped to raise about $700 to donate to the C-REx initiative to help with carbon offsetting.
Carbon offsetting is a way to reduce energy costs by finding out an event’s carbon footprint and then doing something to make the environment better, Larson said.
“For example, when a local band comes in and leaves a carbon footprint of about 200 tons, we try to offset it by putting in 100 new weather strips on windows,” he said.
Larson said the two methods of reducing energy costs are replacing weather strips to seal air leaks on windows and putting in energy efficient light bulbs called compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Society Promotions is a non-profit organization promoting the arts to enrich the community and inspire change, he said.
“The donations will go toward reducing the carbon footprint of The Fest, the largest punk show in town,” he said.
