THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408260096
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CRAIG A. SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
REMEMBER?
Mahogany cases with trays and trays of napoleons and eclairs ran along the rear wall. Off to the side was a small soda fountain. Tables and chairs were crammed into the little space that remained. It was dark.
Not now.
Those cases, a display for hand-blown perfume bottles, are the only tie between the bakeries that once operated at 1511 Colley Ave. and Artifax, the gallery that opened there just over three weeks ago.
Even the ceiling is different. Owners Stephen and Patricia Swan took out two others to get to the green and white pressed tin ceiling from the late '20s. Their new venture - they also own 19th Street Gallery in Virginia Beach - is open and airy, a place that invites browsing by allowing room to do it.
There have been other radical changes too.
Except for Sundays, Artifax is open evenings until 10, way past quitting time for other shops on Colley. The Swans hope it will have a ripple effect. In the meantime, they've had a steady business from people out for a movie at the adjoining Naro Expanded Cinema or walking off dinner at neighboring restaurants.
``Most businesses are run for the convenience of the owners and employees,'' said Stephen Swan. ``I wanted to run one around the customers.''
With that, he hustled off to get his favorite piece among the pottery, jewelry, glycerin kaleidoscopes, hand-marbled silk ties and traditional glass, metal and fiber art - the work of some 200 artists from as near as Hampton Roads and far off as Washington State.
Swan returned with a user-friendly ceramic pasta bowl created by Michigan artist Mike Taylor. It has handles so it can be gripped like a steering wheel - it's about the same size, too.
``We want people to pick up stuff and play with it,'' said Patricia Swan, ``to feel the hand of the maker.
``Someone once explained to me that New York City is like every place in the world at the same time. This store is getting the same feel to it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Stephen and Patricia Swan in the doorway of the front display window
of their new gallery, Artifax, on Colley Avenue in Norfolk.
by CNB