Home Again!

By Don Mertz

Pho­tos by Carl Saathoff

The 2017 edi­tion of the Day­ton Artistry in Wood show was host­ed at the Roberts Cen­tre, Wilm­ing­ton, OH the sec­ond week­end of Octo­ber. 

Even though Artistry in Wood Show has a new home, in the sec­ond year at the Roberts Cen­tre, exhibitors and vis­i­tors alike expe­ri­enced the feel­ing of being “Home Again.”  Artistry in Wood “just feels right” once again as it con­tin­ues its lega­cy of being one of the pre­mier wood­carv­ing and wood­work­ing show in the Unit­ed States. The Home Again feel­ing was expe­ri­enced in the friend­ly atmos­phere of friend meet­ing friend as if for the first time or as long­time friends reunit­ed.  There was a “fam­i­ly” feel­ing while shar­ing one another’s joys, shar­ing a com­mon con­cern for health needs and com­fort for those sor­row­ing.  Home Again was expe­ri­enced in the Sat­ur­day night ban­quet with deli­cious food, refresh­ing con­ver­sa­tion and relax­ing atmos­phere in the ban­quet set up in the well-appoint­ed lob­by of the Hol­i­day Inn.

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THE SHOW GOES ON

By Don Mertz

Pho­tos by Marc Featherly

Since the first event in 1981, Artistry in Wood has been com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing the best wood­carv­ing and wood­work­ing show for the ben­e­fit of exhibitors, ven­dors and vis­i­tors who come to see some of the best expres­sion of wood­en art as well as being able to pur­chase works of art from the wood­carv­ing and wood­work­ing crafts­man and artist.

Every year the Artistry in Wood stays true to this orig­i­nal com­mit­ment by sharp­en­ing and fine tun­ing the show so that it con­tin­ues to be THE show exhibitors and vis­i­tors will want to attend time after time.  Each year the qual­i­ty of com­pe­ti­tion entries improve as does the growth of ven­dors and eclec­tic mix of artis­tic expres­sions relat­ed to wood along with a steady growth in the size of the show.

The orga­niz­ers of the event were placed between a rock and hard place when the show loca­tion for the pri­or four­teen years was sud­den­ly closed, and had find a com­pa­ra­ble sized show venue in a dif­fer­ent loca­tion and show date (due to sched­ul­ing lim­its at the new loca­tion).  Despite that, Artistry in Wood dou­bled its efforts to stay true to its orig­i­nal commitment.

So com­mit­ted are the event orga­niz­ers to pro­vid­ing the BEST Show pos­si­ble for all con­cerned that ihe adver­tis­ing bud­get was increased from $19,427.00 for 2015 to $30,225 for 2016 to assure all con­cerned that “The Show Goes On.”  The show goes on to main­tain the high qual­i­ty of exhibitors, com­peti­tors, judges, demon­stra­tions, children’s activ­i­ties and vis­i­tors’ inter­ests for the show­ing and sell­ing of cher­ished works of art in the medi­um of wood.  And just as impor­tant, the show goes on so that Artistry in Wood can con­tin­ue the long tra­di­tion and com­mit­ment of giv­ing at least $5,000 to Unit­ed Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Ser­vices of Day­ton and $500 to Part­ners Against Crime charities.

The only venue that was large enough to accom­mo­date a show the size that Artistry in Wood has grown to be with a con­ve­nient loca­tion with­in the radius of Day­ton, Cincin­nati and Colum­bus, Ohio was the Roberts Cen­tre near Wilm­ing­ton, OH.  The only date avail­able for 2016 was for Labor Day week­end.  The Artistry in Wood com­mit­tee real­ized that a change of loca­tion as well as date change from tra­di­tion­al date of pre­vi­ous shows and espe­cial­ly com­pet­ing with major hol­i­day activ­i­ties, a Renais­sance Fes­ti­val and coun­ty fair would have an impact on reg­u­lar exhibitors’ par­tic­i­pa­tion as well as vis­i­tors to the show.  But “The Show Goes On” in order to make the tran­si­tion to a new site and a new date for the 2017 and fol­low­ing years’ show dates.  In 2017 the Artistry in Wood show will be Octo­ber 14 and 15 and the sec­ond week­end in Octo­ber in sub­se­quent years in order to get back to a reg­u­lar sched­ule for loca­tion and date for the show.

Even though there was the expect­ed decrease in atten­dance and exhibitors, yet in the final analy­sis the eval­u­a­tion by vis­i­tors, exhibitors, com­peti­tors and ven­dors was very pos­i­tive. The Roberts Cen­tre show room is beau­ti­ful­ly appoint­ed with superb light­ing with more than ade­quate and con­ve­nient free park­ing and with easy access right off Inter­state 71 at Exit 50.  Roberts Cen­tre is locat­ed with­in a fifty-mile radius from Colum­bus, Cincin­nati and Day­ton. Vis­i­tors were very com­pli­men­ta­ry of the venue, qual­i­ty of wood­carv­ing and wood­work­ing art on dis­play and the added fea­tures of demon­stra­tions, orna­ment carv­ing con­test, raf­fle of qual­i­ty prizes, silent auc­tion of donat­ed wood­en art.  Although some­what small­er than usu­al, the qual­i­ty of the show lived up to its rep­u­ta­tion.  Many first time vis­i­tors joined their voic­es of appre­ci­a­tion with the long time attenders. 

The 2016 show was a bridge from what the show has become to what it will con­tin­ue to become in 2017 and beyond at Roberts Cen­tre the sec­ond week­end of October.

High­lights of the show begin with the com­pe­ti­tion. 278 wood­carv­ing entries were judged by Janet Cordell, Wayne Bar­ton and Al Ful­ford judged 278 wood­carv­ing entries.  Wood­carv­ing Best of Show hon­ors were award­ed as follows:

• Steve Bak­er — Best of Show
• Ter­ry Brash­er — Sec­ond Best
• Har­ry Lim­ings — Third Best

Six­ty wood work­ing entries were judged by Roger Hor­nung, Jim McCann and Lar­ry Sanders who award­ed Wood Work­ing Best of Show to:

• Bar­ry Todd — Best of Show
• Scott Hamil­ton — Sec­ond Best 
• Richard Avram — Third Best. 

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AN ORIGINAL ~ Dayton Artistry in Wood

By Don Mertz

Artistry In Wood is the orig­i­nal show by that name, first used in 1981 with its found­ing show. Day­ton Carvers Guild estab­lished a com­mit­tee to plan their first wood­carv­ing show.  Car­ol Kunz sug­gest­ed the name Artistry in Wood for the show’s name as an over­all descrip­tion of the kind of show the com­mit­tee would devel­op.  The pur­pose of Artistry in Wood is to plan and pro­vide the “best” carv­ing show expe­ri­ence for exhibitors, ven­dors and vis­i­tors alike by main­tain­ing the high qual­i­ties reflect­ing an “art show” ded­i­cat­ed to wood. From the begin­ning the “plan” also includ­ed that a char­i­ty should also ben­e­fit from the pro­ceeds of the show.

Artistry in Wood is very unique in the world of carv­ing shows in that its pro­ceeds pri­mar­i­ly ben­e­fit Unit­ed Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Ser­vices, which is a local char­i­ty in the Day­ton area, along with Part­ners Against Crime.  Since that first show, Artistry in Wood has con­tributed over $145,000.00 to charities.

Oth­er shows may use this catchy title for their carv­ing show but there is none that equals the ORIGINAL Artistry in Wood.  The 2015 show dis­play area was expand­ed to accom­mo­date 18 addi­tion­al exhibitors who would have oth­er­wise remained on a wait­ing list.  Always plan­ning and work­ing to con­tin­ue this show of excel­lence, the AIW com­mit­tee is open to mak­ing inno­v­a­tive improve­ments for the ben­e­fit of exhibitors as well as vis­i­tors to the show.  We want to make each show a “once in a life time expe­ri­ence” that can be repeat­ed each year with an ongo­ing parade of mem­o­ries. Over 5,000 vis­i­tors expe­ri­enced the once in a life time expe­ri­ence of the 2015 show.

New Loca­tion and Date For 2016

As “An Orig­i­nal” Artistry in Wood con­tin­ues its tra­di­tion of excel­lence as it moves to a new loca­tion for the 2016 show.  The new loca­tion is the Roberts Cen­tre at exit 50 off Inter­state 71, half way between Colum­bus and Cincin­nati and approx­i­mat­ed 45 miles south east of the pre­vi­ous show loca­tion.  The rea­son for the move is because the Day­ton Inter­na­tion­al Air­port decid­ed to use the Expo Cen­ter for only air­port pur­pos­es.  The Roberts Cen­tre is large enough to accom­mo­date the size in which Artistry in Wood has grown to accom­mo­date the num­ber of par­tic­i­pants and visitors.

The Roberts Cen­tre includes a Hol­i­day Inn with 115 rooms, a Max and Erma restau­rant, con­ces­sion ser­vices and ade­quate onsite park­ing. The con­ve­nience of loca­tion in an attrac­tive and spa­cious Roberts Grand Ball­room will be an invit­ing new loca­tion for the Day­ton Artistry in Wood Show.

The date for the 2016 show is Sep­tem­ber 3 and 4 (Labor Day week­end), the only avail­able open­ing for the com­ing year. The change of date and loca­tion may present some incon­ve­nience for par­tic­i­pants and vis­i­tors dur­ing this tran­si­tion time, but be assured that Artistry in Wood is still ded­i­cat­ed to main­tain­ing its orig­i­nal pur­pose of plan­ning and pro­vid­ing for the best and orig­i­nal wood­carv­ing and wood­work­ing show of its kind and ben­e­fit­ing its char­i­ty of choice.

Vic Hood was the Guest Artist of the 2015 show Spe­cial Exhib­it.  You’ll find a pho­to gallery of Vic and his work else­where in this issue of WOM.

The 2015 edi­tion of AIW had exhibitors from 24 dif­fer­ent states plus Cana­da along with over 5,000 vis­i­tors who came from all over the Unit­ed States as well as Cana­da to view the dis­play tables of 221 exhibitors and 26 ven­dors in 313 spaces.

AIW spon­sors a com­pe­ti­tion in the divi­sions of Wood­work­ing and Wood­carv­ing. There were 377 entries in the Wood­carv­ing divi­sion in 22 cat­e­gories con­tain­ing 65 class­es. The divi­sion of Wood­work­ing had 87 entries in 9 cat­e­gories con­tain­ing 23 classes.

The Best of Show win­ners in Wood­carv­ing were:

• Ter­ry Brash­er from Peters­burg, TN., first
• Steve Bureli­son from Brad­ford, OH, second
• Kathy Mitchell from Wind­sor Ontario, Cana­da, third

Wood­work­ing Best of Show win­ners were:

• Mark Waninger from Jamestown, IN, first
• West­on Hirschfeld from New Bre­men, OH, second
• Mike Allen from Belle­vue, OH, third

Judges of Wood­work­ing divi­sion were: Roger Hor­nung, Jim McCann and Lary Sanders and judges of Wood­carv­ing divi­sion were Al Ful­ford, Janet Cordell and Rick Harney.

Vis­i­tors had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to attend edu­ca­tion­al and infor­ma­tive wood­work­ing and wood­carv­ing Demon­stra­tions on both days with Mark Waninger, Charley Phillips and Deb­bie Ander­son demon­strat­ing on Sat­ur­day and Jim Willis, Don Wor­ley and Scott Phillips demon­strat­ing on Sunday.

Oth­er attrac­tions included:

• The Wood­carv­ing Illus­trat­ed host­ed series of mini Spit and Whit­tle Seminars
• West­ern Ohio Wood­work­ers facil­i­tat­ed a Youth Pro­gram of hands-on wood­work­ing projects
• A silent auc­tion of a vari­ety of carved and wood worked art pieces
• An orna­ment carv­ing con­test where vis­i­tors could watch a new piece being created
• A mag­a­zine recy­cle table of wood relat­ed mag­a­zines avail­able for a donation
• The main raf­fle of 124 carved orna­ments, 3 donat­ed carv­ings of past win­ners, a Ger­st­ner Tool box and a box of 500 $1.00 gold coins

One of the spe­cial high­lights of Artistry in Wood shows is always the ban­quet for exhibitors at which time the win­ner of the Ron Ryan Award is announced. Mulie Sheets was the 2015 recip­i­ent as one who exem­pli­fies the pas­sion and advance­ment of wood carv­ing in the exam­ple of Ron Ryan.  Also dur­ing the ban­quet a fund rais­ing raf­fle is con­duct­ed for a vari­ety of donat­ed prizes with the pro­ceeds help­ing with the $5000 gift to Unit­ed Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Ser­vices as the show’s des­ig­nat­ed charity.

The Car­i­ca­ture Carvers of Amer­i­ca will hold their annu­al meet­ing in con­junc­tion with the Day­ton Artistry in Wood Show on Sep­tem­ber 3–4, 2016 and carvers and vis­i­tors alike will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet and greet these car­i­ca­ture carvers.

The best of the 2015 show along with the best of pre­vi­ous years will con­tin­ue in a new loca­tion and a new date for 2016 because Artistry in Wood is com­mit­ted to con­tin­ue all that Day­ton Artistry in Wood has come to mean as “An Orig­i­nal.”