Despite the weekend’s forecasted dreary weather, art lovers will keep cozy below Artlandish Gallery for the Catacombs Art Market on Friday and Saturday.
About 30 artists will share their wares with the public at individual art booths.
The Catacombs is located below Artlandish Gallery and has been open since Christmas. It has a permanent gallery, as well as rentable studio space.
“It used to be an old warehouse,” Artlandish owner Lisa Bartlett said. “We were only using it five times a year, so I thought, why not take one section of it and make it a permanent gallery?”
Despite the underground location, the Catacombs Art Market won’t be a somber gallery. On Friday, Artlandish is hosting an art opening, with snacks, live music and tango dancing.
Bartlett said she expects the event to be fun, lively and family-friendly, with more of a shopping element on Saturday.
Bartlett is unsure of what size turnout to expect because the Catacombs Arts Market is usually hosted at the same time as Artrageous Fridays, but the schedule was altered due to Easter this year. Still, she is hoping for several hundred people to attend.
“The mission is to get people over here to come and experience a whole artistic experience on all levels, music, art, performance,” Bartlett said. “We want to expose people to art and a nice place to buy affordable gifts that are hand-crafted.”
Contributing artist Audrey McFadden likes the Catacombs Art Market because it doesn’t remind her of what she calls the typical, stuffy art gallery, so it’s not crucial to be serious about art to attend.
“It’s very eclectic,” she said. “Lots of different stuff going on down there. It’s not just expensive, overpriced art. It’s got a little bit of everything.”
The artists in the Catacombs create paintings, mixed media, pottery and ceramics, jewelry and other handmade crafts.
Artist Lawrence L’Hote says he sells jewelry at his booth, in addition to his other artworks.
“Those small items, people will buy those,” he said. “Most people don’t really want to spend $300 or $400 on something,”
L’Hote describes his preferred medium as green art. He collects a wide array of discarded materials and puts them together in unique combinations.
“The stuff I have, you probably wouldn’t realize where it came from,” he said. “I’m more interested in the process, in doing the thing, than what the final product is. It takes a lot of time to put it all together.”
McFadden’s paintings frequently feature bright colors and floral designs.
“I love bright things,” McFadden said. “I went to an art show, and I couldn’t find anything like that.”
McFadden became involved in the art scene when she had trouble finding wall art to decorate a new house.
“I thought maybe I could do it myself,” she said. “And then I fell in love with it.”
Bartlett estimates that 90 percent of the artists featured in the Catacombs Art Market are local.
“We invite them in if we see some work that we like,” Bartlett said. “Then we invite that artist to come and participate with us. There’s no shortage of artists here.”