February 3rd Award-Winning Artists Show as seen in Chester County Press
Three Award-Winning Artists to Exhibit Edgy, Exciting Work at Willow on State for Kennett Square’s February First Friday Art Stroll
If you like artists sophisticated enough to win fine-arts competitions and hip enough to be sought after for their tattoo work as well, you’ll want to visit Kennett Square area’s hottest new gallery, Willow on State, during the First Friday Art Stroll on February 3 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“I look for a balance between subtle and grotesque,” says Admin Torres, whose award-winning paintings of boldly colored human figures, often with skulls, eyeballs, and muscles exposed to view, offer a vivid and uncompromising vision of the body’s vulnerability. But where a less subtle artist would lean on their shock value, Torres seems more interested in creating images that speak with a kind of pitying honesty about life—and death.
Steve Martin is an up-and-coming young artist who, like Torres, does high-end tattoo work. But he’s also accomplished in the fine arts, and the show will features his cityscapes, constructed of strong shapes in delicately muted colors.
Kim Franklin’s sculptures, also much honored in numerous exhibitions, are delicately dramatic forms inspired by nature, with forged metalwork in bold forms supporting an inner core created by intricately patterned and colored glass beads stitched onto hand-formed understructures.
The First Friday artists’ reception will run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Willow on State is the Kennett Square area’s newest art gallery and large crowds have thronged each of its First Friday fests to check out the newest in edgy, contemporary art, along with used books and vinyl albums, retro record players and cameras, and fascinating curios of all descriptions. The gallery regularly features local musicians for First Friday, along with fine food and wine, all, of course, as a courtesy to its guests. The gallery also hosts classes in the arts and other special events.
If you like artists sophisticated enough to win fine-arts competitions and hip enough to be sought after for their tattoo work as well, you’ll want to visit Kennett Square area’s hottest new gallery, Willow on State, during the First Friday Art Stroll on February 3 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“I look for a balance between subtle and grotesque,” says Admin Torres, whose award-winning paintings of boldly colored human figures, often with skulls, eyeballs, and muscles exposed to view, offer a vivid and uncompromising vision of the body’s vulnerability. But where a less subtle artist would lean on their shock value, Torres seems more interested in creating images that speak with a kind of pitying honesty about life—and death.
Steve Martin is an up-and-coming young artist who, like Torres, does high-end tattoo work. But he’s also accomplished in the fine arts, and the show will features his cityscapes, constructed of strong shapes in delicately muted colors.
Kim Franklin’s sculptures, also much honored in numerous exhibitions, are delicately dramatic forms inspired by nature, with forged metalwork in bold forms supporting an inner core created by intricately patterned and colored glass beads stitched onto hand-formed understructures.
The First Friday artists’ reception will run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Willow on State is the Kennett Square area’s newest art gallery and large crowds have thronged each of its First Friday fests to check out the newest in edgy, contemporary art, along with used books and vinyl albums, retro record players and cameras, and fascinating curios of all descriptions. The gallery regularly features local musicians for First Friday, along with fine food and wine, all, of course, as a courtesy to its guests. The gallery also hosts classes in the arts and other special events.
PRESS CLIPPINGS ON WILLOW ON STATE
Economic development in downtown Kennett Square at an all-time high
Published in Daily Local, Oct. 13, 2011
The economy is bad, the jobless rate is high, but in downtown Kennett Square, economic development is at an all-time high.
State Rep. Chris Ross . Chester County Commissioner Ryan Costello and other dignitaries joined with Historic Kennett Square Wednesday night to mark the opening of seven new businesses in the downtown area of the borough.
“Historic Kennett Square and borough officials deserve credit for their success in attracting new businesses to the downtown area, particularly given the state of the national economy,” said Costello...
Read the full article at this link!
State Rep. Chris Ross . Chester County Commissioner Ryan Costello and other dignitaries joined with Historic Kennett Square Wednesday night to mark the opening of seven new businesses in the downtown area of the borough.
“Historic Kennett Square and borough officials deserve credit for their success in attracting new businesses to the downtown area, particularly given the state of the national economy,” said Costello...
Read the full article at this link!
On the Vinyl State of Affairs
Collecting record albums was commonplace in the 60s and 70s when records and players were the main method for listening to pre-recorded music. Today, 17-year olds and 50-year olds are still collecting ‘vinyls’, as they are affectionately called by record enthusiasts. “I love the cover art,” says Hillary Sculthorpe, one of the owners of Willow on State, a contemporary art gallery and vinyl and book store in Kennett Square, PA. Regular customers of the store echo her feeling. One man excitedly located the missing Rush album from his collection. “I don’t listen to them much on vinyl anymore, but I love the look and feel of the album covers.”
Album covers have become so treasured people are paying more for vinyls and are framing and hanging them. “I have all of my old albums hanging in my man cave.” said another record store regular.
Vinyl sales are also driving the sale of record players. “A lady came in and purchased a portable record player from us so her teenager could listen to her husband’s albums.” said a Willow on State employee. “We sell several record players each month. And all of them connect to a computer so people can back up their music to MP3 or their IPOD.”
Artists are releasing new music on vinyl as well. Reissues of older albums are a shock to many people. Sculthorpe laughed, “When people see Abbey Road by the Beatles and it’s labeled as ‘new’, they are confused. And, when I try and explain that it’s a new vinyl of an older record, it just makes things worse. Our supplier has 13,000 vinyl titles in stock. That shocks a lot of people.”
Big box stores such as Target have begun to sell selected new titles in vinyl along with record players. “It’s just not the same as shopping in a small, independent record store.” said one collector. “I really like checking out the eclectic collection of vinyls that the record store owner has created. Old hip hop from the 80s are harder to find and there are some local bands that you just can’t get recordings of anymore.”
New record labels have also popped up in response to the growth and interest in vinyl. Ken Carraway, owner of Hops Records in West Chester, PA has begun promoting Secrets Between Sailors, a new band from the Midwest. “The structure of the music industry is now flattened. Artists and agents have an opportunity to get good music out there via the internet and independent record stores. In the past, if you didn’t get signed by a record label, of which there were just a few, you went nowhere.” Today, radio stations are promoting indie bands, as in independent of a record label. Ken thinks of Hops Records as an indie band record label. “I’m a small business and the bands I choose are also small businesses. I work to bring the band’s music to any listening audience that connects with it.”
Album covers have become so treasured people are paying more for vinyls and are framing and hanging them. “I have all of my old albums hanging in my man cave.” said another record store regular.
Vinyl sales are also driving the sale of record players. “A lady came in and purchased a portable record player from us so her teenager could listen to her husband’s albums.” said a Willow on State employee. “We sell several record players each month. And all of them connect to a computer so people can back up their music to MP3 or their IPOD.”
Artists are releasing new music on vinyl as well. Reissues of older albums are a shock to many people. Sculthorpe laughed, “When people see Abbey Road by the Beatles and it’s labeled as ‘new’, they are confused. And, when I try and explain that it’s a new vinyl of an older record, it just makes things worse. Our supplier has 13,000 vinyl titles in stock. That shocks a lot of people.”
Big box stores such as Target have begun to sell selected new titles in vinyl along with record players. “It’s just not the same as shopping in a small, independent record store.” said one collector. “I really like checking out the eclectic collection of vinyls that the record store owner has created. Old hip hop from the 80s are harder to find and there are some local bands that you just can’t get recordings of anymore.”
New record labels have also popped up in response to the growth and interest in vinyl. Ken Carraway, owner of Hops Records in West Chester, PA has begun promoting Secrets Between Sailors, a new band from the Midwest. “The structure of the music industry is now flattened. Artists and agents have an opportunity to get good music out there via the internet and independent record stores. In the past, if you didn’t get signed by a record label, of which there were just a few, you went nowhere.” Today, radio stations are promoting indie bands, as in independent of a record label. Ken thinks of Hops Records as an indie band record label. “I’m a small business and the bands I choose are also small businesses. I work to bring the band’s music to any listening audience that connects with it.”
Kennett Square: A Cool, Classic Town
Published in County Lines Online, Sept. 28, 2011
If you’re in Kennett Square any time soon, maybe for a First Friday Art Stroll, and want to see what cool new stuff is going on, stroll a little farther east than usual. There’s a new gallery at the corner of Willow and State Streets that’s among the new attractions making a certifiably cool town just that much cooler. The new gallery, called Willow on State, partners Hillary Sculthorpe (daughter of celebrated painter Peter) and Sandy Mayer and features art that Sculthorpe says has a “decidedly contemporary, edgy feel.” Mayer wants to have music there, too, and eventually classes in art and writing, to make the gallery a place where creative people of all sorts can converge.
Visitors will notice the gallery sells vinyl records and used books, and offers vintage record players and typewriters, since Sculthorpe is a huge fan of retro industrial design...
Read the full article at this link!
Visitors will notice the gallery sells vinyl records and used books, and offers vintage record players and typewriters, since Sculthorpe is a huge fan of retro industrial design...
Read the full article at this link!
Willow on State finds art in the new and the old
By Wm. Shawn Weigel
At Kennett’s latest gallery, Willow on State Street, art, books and music combine in an atmosphere as eclectic and as unique as its owners.
When Sandy Mayer and Hillary Sculthorpe decided to open a business together, the duo knew they wanted to create an organic space that was ever-changing, yet stayed in line with their theme of literature, music and art.
Sculthorpe said that when they started scoping out ideas – particularly with respect to the art – they found themselves questioning what was cool and now.
“A lot of what is ‘now’ is old,” Sculthorpe said. “There’s a huge push back to vintage. Even just the act of going and finding something that is new to you but is, indeed, old. Like a door you never went through, but there it is.”
“We really felt that there’s not a lot of opportunity and wall space for the contemporary artists and the evolving solutions they offer,” Mayer said.
“We also felt like there was a bit of a vacuum, especially around the suburbs, of something that is new and exciting and sort of pushes the boundaries, and touches on a lot of different things,” Sculthorpe said.
Read full story. http://www.southernchestercountyweeklies.com/articles/2011/11/29/kennett_paper/news/doc4ed4ff088d089777079348.txt
At Kennett’s latest gallery, Willow on State Street, art, books and music combine in an atmosphere as eclectic and as unique as its owners.
When Sandy Mayer and Hillary Sculthorpe decided to open a business together, the duo knew they wanted to create an organic space that was ever-changing, yet stayed in line with their theme of literature, music and art.
Sculthorpe said that when they started scoping out ideas – particularly with respect to the art – they found themselves questioning what was cool and now.
“A lot of what is ‘now’ is old,” Sculthorpe said. “There’s a huge push back to vintage. Even just the act of going and finding something that is new to you but is, indeed, old. Like a door you never went through, but there it is.”
“We really felt that there’s not a lot of opportunity and wall space for the contemporary artists and the evolving solutions they offer,” Mayer said.
“We also felt like there was a bit of a vacuum, especially around the suburbs, of something that is new and exciting and sort of pushes the boundaries, and touches on a lot of different things,” Sculthorpe said.
Read full story. http://www.southernchestercountyweeklies.com/articles/2011/11/29/kennett_paper/news/doc4ed4ff088d089777079348.txt