Chairs for Charity auction transforms furniture into art

MANITOWOC — When Manitowoc artists Heather E.N. Doucette and Kim Geiser look at a chair, they see a blank canvas.

Geiser likes to paint her chairs in different hues and then lets the colors inspire her.

"I thought of plants and flowers when I saw that green," she said while pointing out a nature-themed chair, one of 13 she has created for the Art & About group's Chairs for Charity auction.

"Our processes are so different," said Doucette, who created four chairs for the event. "I plan and plan and plan. I have to have a layout and a plan and an actual project in mind before I can start."

Their works will be among an expected 100 chairs decorated and donated by local artists for the event, which begins at 5 p.m. Nov. 21 at the Rahr-West Art Museum, 610 N. Eighth St. The two artists introduced Chairs for Charity in 2007.

This year's auction — the group's second — will include an oral auction, silent auction and light refreshments. Money raised from the event will be divided between scholarships for art students, the Rahr-West Art Museum and the Art & About artists group.

Chairs for Charity raised $4,500 two years ago and awarded scholarships to college art students — Jacquelyn Muchin of Manitowoc and Pat Burke of Newton.

"I felt very grateful for the chance to go to Florence," said Burke, who put his $1,500 scholarship toward studies at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy. "It helped me to learn some new techniques and study the sculptures and painting of the masters and the architecture of Florence."

"Without the arts the world wouldn't be nearly as interesting," said Barbara Bundy-Jost, director of the Rahr-West. "Artists capture the beauty around us and make the ordinary extraordinary. Young artists should be encouraged to chase their passion."

The chair auction is "a way to connect to new artists," Geiser said.

It's fun seeing how each artist interprets the project differently, Doucette said.

The chairs range from modern to whimsical, simple to extravagant and detailed to loose. Decorative touches include paint, rhinestones, vines, beads and assemblage work including scrapbooking.

"The Chairs for Charity event celebrates the creativity of people who were inspired by chairs. These creators looked at a utilitarian object, pondered its place in the world and adorned it with artistic flair. Seating one's self on an art-infused chair makes the act of sitting a special experience," Bundy-Jost said.

"Another impressive thing to me is that it spans so many generations of artists," bringing together people of various age groups who might not otherwise come to the same event, Doucette said.

Among the chairs that she created is a miniature chair in vibrant colors featuring sparrows, titled "Fly, Fly Away," done in acrylic paint and Shrinky Dinks.

"That was inspired by my life at the time," Doucette said. "It looks like a positive chair, but it was created from a negative situation."

One bench, painted by Geiser and signed by Metro Jam performers, will include Metro Jam-related CDs and T-shirts inside. Other chairs, created primarily by children at Metro Jam, will be auctioned as well. Also featured will be chairs created by Lincoln High School art students.

Chairs are on display at various businesses and other locations throughout the area before the auction.

The event will be more formal this year thanks to the help of a committee including Laurel Schleis, Kristin Madson, Dani Morantez and Barbara Ferguson, Doucette said.

"We would like to thank the community for their support," she said. "Without them, we couldn't do it."

"People often underestimate the importance of creativity, not just how pretty a town is but how it makes the community more innovative because they're thinking out side the box," Geiser said. "It brings more young people back to the community. If they're excited about where they're from, they want to come back."