Daily Loaf

Denis Gaston. Little Boxes. Mixed media on masonite, 20″ x 16”. Pictured below: Denis Gaston. Ground Control To Major Tom (Grab ‘n Go Art Collection). Ink on paper, 7″ x 5″. Images courtesy of the artist.

If it’s summer, it must be time for the Cool Art Show. Any other time of year, the region would be lousy with outdoor art fairs—but from July through September, who wants to brave heat, humidity or the chance of an afternoon thunderstorm?

Twenty-one years ago, Dunedin artist Denis Gaston had a simple idea that turned out to have staying power: round up a group of the Tampa Bay area’s most committed professional artists and add air conditioning.

Now a tradition at St. Petersburg’s historic Coliseum, the Cool Art Show will feature nearly 75 regional and statewide artists on Saturday, July 18, and Sunday, July 19. The free event, organized by PAVA (the Pinellas-based Professional Association of Visual Artists), includes artists working in wood, glass, pottery, photography and jewelry as well as traditional fine art media like painting and sculpture.

This week, Gaston—who has participated in all but one of the fair’s iterations—was getting ready for the Cool Art Show by generating a new series of works he calls the Grab ‘n Go Art Collection. For the mostly black-and-white pen or ink-and-brush drawings, each about the size of a postcard, Gaston charges $10—a far cry from the $3,000 or so he might charge for a painting.

The cut-rate drawings, which are one-of-a-kind, take their inspiration from a successful past project. Before venturing out as a full-time artist, Gaston supported himself by working at a natural foods store. In the store’s café area (which housed a “grab ‘n go” deli case), he mounted similarly small-scale works to the wall and let customers pick and choose. Payment took place at the vitamin counter.

Gaston counts the unconventional exhibition a success; he sold about 60 of the drawings. When he thought about what to do differently this year, given the area’s presumably soft art market, the idea resurfaced.

“In these hard economic times, I was thinking that people are not going to buy high-end artwork,” Gaston says.

“Many years ago, I started with a browse box,” full of prints for sale at $75 to $100, he says. “I think that might even be too steep for people now.”

The Grab ‘n Go Art Collection won’t prevent Gaston from bringing some of his pricier work to the Coliseum, but it might give a lot more visitors an excuse to open their wallets.

21st Annual Cool Art Show, Sat.-Sun., July 18-19, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., The Coliseum, 535 4th Ave. N., St. Petersburg, coolartshow.com.

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

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