Columbus, Ohio USA
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Dis 'n' Data
By Margaret Marten, Editor
email margaret@shortnorth.com
April 2007
Artist Craig Carlisle, who is currently living in Los Angeles, arrives in Columbus this week to attend the opening of his 11th solo show at Sharon Weiss Gallery. The exhibit runs April 6 - 30 at 20 East Lincoln Street. Carlisle first made a name for himself in Columbus in the 1990s with his Big Head paintings of gigantic colorful primitive-looking heads. Since then, his work has evolved to include other characters. Teddy Bird, introduced in 2003, is now a trademarked name and the subject of a children’s book and product design Carlisle is working on. Newly conceived Fuzzy Dinosaur, as well as the dog characters Valley Dog, Domino, and Ding Dong are now on display at the Sharon Weiss Gallery. Developments over the past year include a solo exhibition at George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles, a radio interview with art dealer Molly Barnes that can be heard on his Web site, and a bout of surgery in January as a result of a tendon disrupting Carlisle’s sciatic nerve that caused considerable pain and laid him up for almost two months. He is currently undergoing physical therapy but was well enough to make the trip to Columbus in order to attend the opening and greet all of his beloved friends and admirers. The opening reception is Friday, April 6 from 6 - 9 p.m.
Kim Elliott, a self-trained artist and Harvard graduate featured in Elizabeth Ann James’s Gazette column of March 2006 at the time of her Camelot Cellars exhibit, has been accepted into the Artist-in-Residence Program with the National Park Service in Hot Springs, Ark., the oldest national park in the country. This is her second residency with the National Park Service. In 2002, she visited the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The program offers artists two-to-four week accommodations in exchange for a piece of art, chosen by the park staff, for the park collection. Lightning Over the Lake was selected by the Indiana staff, a painting based on Elliott’s experience on lake Michigan while staying at Indiana Dunes. “There was a night when it was eerie, so beautiful, so calm and peaceful,” she said. “There was lightning behind the clouds over the lake, but you couldn’t hear any thunder. It was in the distance and you’d see it through these breaks in the clouds and reflecting on the water. So, I painted that little scene for them with two figures, me and my husband down below watching it.” Elliott says she loves Americana, animals and nature and is thrilled about her upcoming October residency in Hot Springs. “It will be so great to see another part of the country that I’m not familiar with and immerse myself in it.”
Mary Stuessy, who was recently appointed president of the Short North Neighborhood Foundation (SNNF), has resigned from her position in order to pursue a career with the United States Foreign Service as an officer. She will receive training in Arlington, Va., possibly for a year, and then be sent to another country for her first assignment. She said she came across the opportunity by accident. “Three years ago, I was reading about government jobs on the Internet and was just amazed at how interesting and challenging the careers in foreign service positions sounded.” Her degrees in political science and communications qualified her for the position of Foreign Service Officer, and it seemed to be a natural fit. “I haven’t done a lot of international traveling,” she said, “but I think it’s going to be exciting to see how the world really works. I’ll be going to many foreign countries. My father lives in Vienna, so I’ve been there a number of times.” While employed with National City Bank over the past four years, most recently as Assistant Vice President/ Branch Manager of the Thurber Village Office on Neil Avenue, Stuessy has contributed much time and energy to the Short North community. In 2005, she joined the board of the Short North Business Association (SNBA), also serving as their representative to the SNNF, and as treasurer in 2006. Until recently, she held a position with the Speaker’s Bureau of the SNNF/SID (Special Improvement District) and acted as moderator for a forum at the Columbus Metropolitan Club in May of 2006. She just created a Web site (marystuessy.com) to keep everyone posted during her itinerant life. “Everybody asks me, ‘How do I find out where you are and what you’re doing?’ Well, now they can always reach me.” Stuessy will be leaving Columbus for Washington, D.C., at the end of April, and Stephen Weed, the SNNF’s vice president, will assume the role as president.
The Short North arch lighting ceremony/celebration that was scheduled for early June has been postponed. There are a number of people, organizations and companies who want to be a part of the event, and more time is needed to manage a date that accommodates everyone. Also, city officials indicate that the white lights may be operational as early as next month but that they need to confirm everything is in working order before the colors and programming features can be used. A thorough study may take an additional two months. The ceremony/celebration is tentatively scheduled for July.
Harvey Milk the store cat at An Open Book’s former location, 685 N. High St. They moved to the corner of Fifth and High on March 1. An Open Book relocated last month from 685 N. High St. to 1209 N. High at the corner of Fifth Avenue where Aubreyahna’s Corner (formerly Salem West) had been doing business since 1994. The store is an amalgamation of three businesses now, according to owner Jim Criswell – An Open Book, Kukala’s, and Metro Video. Books are found on one side of the store, videos on the other, and the Kuklala’s aspect is everything in between. (The triple-x videos are discreetly housed in the basement to maintain a more customer-friendly atmosphere on the main floor.) All three businesses have undergone transitions in ownership and location over the years. Kukala’s opened in 1992 in a space next to the current Union Station at 636 N. High St. Its founder, Brenda Duncan, was noted several times by the alternative press for having a store that was unique to the area, said Criswell. “It was our city’s gay pride store. It offered tattoos and piercing, before they were on every street corner, and funky T-shirts and cards and things that kind of pushed the envelope in what was thought to be found in a store.” Criswell acquired the business from Duncan about eight years ago. Prior to that, he owned a gay pride store called Rainbow Tribe at the corner of Weber and Indianola that did quite well and provided the means to purchase Kukala’s. Criswell later bought An Open Book after the original owners Michael Lindsey and Doug Motz went bankrupt. Their store, which opened at 749 N. High but later moved down the street to the current Dr. Mojoe’s space, sat stagnant for months without an offer or any activity from the courts – apparently baffled by the inventory and what to do with it. Criswell reluctantly stepped forward after realizing no one else would save the store. He then moved An Open Book to 1002 Fourth St. after the landlord refused to rent the High Street space to him. “I had to scramble and move all the contents out of that property and get it out by a certain time by court order.” But within a few months, An Open Book was forced to move again after experiencing unresolved plumbing problems at the Fourth Street address. “We ended up having a little grotto in the basement with water running all the time,” said Criswell. “It was a real nightmare.” The former Waterbeds ‘N’ Stuff location was available at that time, yet the space there at 685 N. High St. was really more square footage than Criswell could use, so he decided to merge his two businesses, which he had been operating separately – An Open Book and Kukala’s – and move into the Waterbeds space. A gay pride store like Kukala’s helped the bookstore because with regular merchandise there would be more flexibility in markup. Books are pre-priced; if there isn’t a demand for a title, costs are incurred to return it. “That’s one of the reasons independent bookstores are struggling,” said Criswell. “They have to have a good product mix of cards, T-shirts or things that will allow them to make the money they need to pay their rent.” So combining the merchandise in the larger space made sense and worked out well. A couple of years later, Metro Video at 848 N. High St. became available and Criswell purchased that business, although he continued to manage the video store at its separate location for a time before moving it into the larger space. With tenants above and the entire Victorian Gate surrounding, there was obviously a market for regular inventory as well as gay videos and that is what Metro Video rented and continues to rent out. New releases are in stock every Tuesday. Books are probably only 30 percent of their total sales. “Because of the merger of all three stores, we started calling it a gay and lesbian superstore,” said Criswell, “kind of a one-stop shopping for gays and lesbians. We’re now calling it Kukala’s, An Open Book, Metro Video – all together. On the awning that we’ll put up, all three names and logos will be there.” Criswell also owns two Columbus bars: Summit Station, known as Jack’s (the city’s longest-standing gay and lesbian bar), and WOOFs, which is primarily a men’s bar. And, with a journalism background, Criswell continues that interest by putting out Spotlight, a gay and lesbian publication, every two weeks. The store cat, Harvey Milk, a former Cat Welfare resident acquired while Rainbow Tribe was open in Clintonville, is absent from the new store. “He’s old. If you’ve ever had an older cat, they don’t like a lot of change,” said Criswell about the move. “He’s settling at home right now. Once everything is painted and the carpeting is down, I’d say within the month, he’ll be back.” In the meantime, you can pick up his business card at the front desk, which reads quite simply “Harvey Milk, Store Cat.”
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