The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Garford Arts Fest creates gallery downtown
Part of downtown Elyria became a gallery Aug. 3 for the second annual Garford Arts Festival.
Kerstetter Way was a crossroads of visual art, music, commerce and community as hundreds turned out to enjoy local talent on a warm summer evening.
The event ran 5 to 10 p.m., although co-founders Eddy Marflak and Steve Riggle said set-up began at 9 a.m. They and co-founder Andrea Repko planned a rain day, but were glad they didn’t need it.
One of the musical stages was at Blank Slate, a room meant to be a diverse community space for art and performance. Marflak added that it has gained another audience — Blank Slate has become a popular rental space for baby showers.
Bands were at the Jumpstart Stage and this year, the fest included singer-songwriters performing on the waterfall observation deck of Elyria’s East Falls Riverwalk.
“People were walking down there anyways so they’re kind of naturally lured,” especially with music, Marflak said.
Syoney Baytos, 20, used her first Garford Arts visit to open
the deck as a performance space. Baytos, an Elyria High School graduate now studying music therapy at the University of Dayton, played seven original songs, accompanying herself on keyboard and ukelele.
“It was more peaceful, especially since I don’t have a band and I’m a more of a laid back artist, that it was a good environment for that type of music,” she said. “It was really cool to be down there. It was relaxed.”
She heard of the festival through a friend and through Blank Slate Elyria. She performed there for an open mic night and was offered a slot for the Garford Arts lineup.
Baytos said she had a scare two weeks ago when she had surgery to remove her tonsils, but she got her voice back two days before the event.
“It was really cool. I was honored,” she said.
Away from the stage, Baytos had a painting accepted for display and she intended to find it in the Art Alley.
That space was where Joe Elkhamiri, 15, exhibited one of his paintings, titled “Angst.” He lives in New Jersey but was in town to visit his mother, Sara Stachurski, who had her first time displaying paintings with one of her son’s.
“I think it’s great,” said Stachurski, who lives in Wellington and has studio space in Oberlin. “I love what they’ve done with the alley.”
Their works were among dozens of canvases, photographs, prints and sculptures set in the space.
This year’s festival was a homecoming of sorts for another home-grown artist.
James “The Rev” Giar may be best known for his work with the Rust Belt Monster Collective, a group of Cleveland artists who create murals live during events there, in Columbus, Akron, Canton and elsewhere.
But he said that he has never brought his stand and pallet to Elyria. On Aug. 3, he painted under the same railroad underpass where he used to run around as a boy.
“I’m having fun,” Giar said as he snacked on almonds and observed his latest work, a painting of a gorilla.
Giar said the animals have fascinated him since a huge silverback interacted with his daughter through thick glass at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
Using acrylics, house paint and ink, with bubble wrap, spatter and his fingers to create texture, Giar said he would dance with the panels all night.
When asked about how the arts might benefit Elyria, Giar pointed to the Tremont, Detroit-Shoreway and Collinwood neighborhoods of Cleveland.
“I think those are perfect examples of how art can make a difference. It can draw the community together. It can draw people out,” he said.
Many people draw, paint, play music or make things out of a desire to create, Giar said, and many would do so even no one else ever saw their work.
But the local festival also creates the chance for artists to gain exposure, he said.