THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406240125
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TERESA ANNAS
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Long
She bet Robin Kranitzky and Kim Overstreet that they would win the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show, held June 16 to 19.
{REST} ``Right. Sure,'' said the Richmond jewelers, pooh-poohing the idea. They'd won the year before. No one had ever won on the Boardwalk two years in a row.
The two women sat next to Rogers as the long list of winners was read during a June 17 ceremony at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, organizers for the outdoor show.
The longer they sat, the more convinced they became that they would receive no award in '94. Then, Helen Snow, the arts center's president, called their names.
``We were shocked,'' said Overstreet.
So how did Rogers know?
``I just had a gut feeling,'' said Rogers, who won best-in-show in 1989.
Artist duos are not as rare as you might think. Currently, there are quite a few famous art-making teams, from twin brother photographers Mike and Doug Starn to Soviet painters Komar and Melamid.
``The point of collaboration, of course, is to make art of more power and significance than could be achieved otherwise,'' wrote ARTnews magazine for its summer issue cover story on artist teams.
Kranitzky and Overstreet hooked up in 1985. Each was making clay jewelry. A mutual friend of their husbands introduced them.
Both collected antique found objects, so they decided to make jewelry from their stash. From sales of those pieces, they planned to buy a clay kiln they could share.
But their found object jewelry was a hit. Demand was strong, so they stuck with it. Now, their Lost & Found jewelry includes found doodads plus portions they fabricated.
The untitled brooch that won best in show is made of brass, copper, paper, eggshell and Plexiglas. ``There's a figure inside,'' said Overstreet, ``and he's boxing lightning bolts.
``I guess you might look at it as somebody struggling against, oh, life's problems.''
Just as their little man emerged from a hole in the ground to rise above his problems, Kranitzky and Overstreet have popped from obscurity. From 1986 to '88, they sold through major department stores such as Barney's in New York. Then they graduated to art galleries.
Now they work almost exclusively with Philadelphia's Helen Drutt Gallery and Susan Cummins Gallery in Mill Valley, Calif. Their work is included in ``Brilliant Stories,'' a national touring exhibit currently at San Francisco's Contemporary Crafts Museum.
Paula Owen, director of Richmond's Hand Workshop, a regional center for craft arts, was one of three Boardwalk judges.
Owen knew Kranitzky and Overstreet won in 1993, but the other judges did not. In fairness to the jewelers, Owen didn't mention it.
``On some of the other awards we haggled back and forth,'' Owen said, ``but on best in show, we really all agreed.''
The judges felt the duo's work showed ``a remarkable degree of skill plus imagination.'' The jewelry ``communicates little messages about abstract concepts like time or ritual. They might have an ironic or humorous edge to them.
``So, in addition to being real creative or skillful, they have this added layer of meaning.''
The other judges were contemporary art curators at significant North Carolina institutions - Jeff Fleming, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem; and Mark Leach, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte.
Only one other artist won top prize more than once on the Boardwalk - Laimons Eglitis of Catonsville, Md., best-in-show winner for 1971 and 1973.
Did winning the Boardwalk show twice catapult his career?
``I don't know whether it makes too much difference on one's resume,'' said Eglitis, reached by phone at his home. ``However, I remember the motivation it gave me. And the high. Particularly since I was the first one'' to win twice.
He won for naturalistic oil paintings - a still life, and a still life with two female figures. Lately, he's been working in large-scale watercolors and pencil drawings.
Eglitis, 64, hasn't shown on the Boardwalk since the early 1970s, although he's visited it since then.
``I've been showing mostly indoors.'' Most notably, he's been exhibiting in museums in his native Latvia. He also teaches art at Catonsville Community College.
The other Boardwalk winners:
Virginia Award ($1,500): Grant Ward of Jacksonville, Fla.
Award of Excellence ($1,000): Valerie Bock of Alexandria
Award of Distinction ($500): Lyn Mallison Morrow of Chapel Hill, N.C.
Awards of Honor ($400 each): Deborah Rogers of Norfolk; Phyllis Sheffield of Palatka, Fla.; Marco Celotti of Little Meadows, Pa.; Damita Jo Nicholson of Atlantic City, N.J.; Bonnie Jackson Fehling of Sarasota, Fla.; Jack Brumbaugh of Annapolis, Md.; Michael Remson of Camden, Mn.; Michael Grove of Boonesboro, Md.; Andrew Hersey of Charlottesville; Linda Gourley of Dry Fork, Va.
Awards of Merit ($300 each): Peter Stanziale of Unity, Maine; Rosan T. Hunter of Colonial Beach, Va.; James Chalkley of Virginia Beach; Keith Kinney and Pat Kristoff of Yellow Springs, Oh.; John Fehling of Lake Wales, Fla.; Brian Wetherell of Atlanta; Joseph H. Thunderhorse of Dunnellon, Fla.; Ed Huddle of Ephrata, Pa.; Mitch Lyons of New London, Pa.; Vonnie Whitworth of Virginia Beach.
Sand Dollar Awards ($250 each): Dana Simson of French Town, Md.; Barbara Mahl of Roanoke; Robert and Beverly Pillers of Chesapeake; C.G. Woody Jones of Decatur, Ga.; Archie Smith of Banner Elk, N.C.; Kim Young of Richmond; Bert Beirne of Dunwoody, Ga.; Fred McGann of Waynesboro; Curtis Krueger of Wilmington, N.C.; Lisa Leydon of Englewood, Fla.
The Boardwalk Art Show is the largest fund-raiser for the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. By mid-week, the arts center hadn't yet tallied the proceeds for this year's show. But they expect the profit to surpass last year's net of $125,000.
The center offers a yearround schedule of exhibits, programs and art classes. At the center through July 5 is ``Between Home and Heaven: Contemporary American Landscape Photography,'' a traveling show sponsored here by Virginia Natural Gas and organized from the VNG parent company's art collection - the Consolidated Natural Gas Collection of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
VBCA's second largest fund-raising project is ``A Taste for Art'' - 18 parties through September, proceeds from which benefit the center's exhibition and educational programs. There's a party for every appetite and pocketbook.
The soirees started this weekend. Tonight at 6 at the Pavilion Center in Virginia Beach, The Lucky Star restaurant will provide a pasta and veggies supper for a '60s party ($40 per person).
Or, you can ``Get Down Under'' at a July 3 Aussie dance party at the arts center. For $25, have your fill of grilled chicken and steak and Foster's beer.
On July 16, rock out at the home of VBCA President Helen Snow for ``Yabadabadoo!'' - a Flintstones jam, what else? Live backyard band and food by The Dumbwaiter; $45 per person.
Or, take a break from our beaches. Head north to Nantucket for a long weekend; $800 per couple includes three nights in an 1846 inn and two round-trip air fares.
Call 425-0000 for a ``Taste for Art'' brochure. by CNB