Thomson Artist & Wayne King Memorabilia Featured at 321

Special events are coming to the 321 Art Gallery on Main Street in Savanna this Saturday. A Bake Sale, a display of art work by Carla Klootwyk of Thomson, and a presentation of Wayne King memorabilia plus a reception for the general public will be held from 6 to 8 on the evening of April 3 to honor both of these exhibitors. All are welcome to attend this unusual showing and the Artists Cooperative of Savanna, sponsors of the event, urges anyone interested in the technique of stippling or the history of the famous musician, to visit the Gallery, see the show and enjoy a journey through a musical memory lane.

Artist Carla Klootwyk is a Midwesterner who grew up mostly in Newton, IA and entered the University of Northern IA at Cedar Falls, where she sought a degree in Art Education. Discouraged by the lack of support for a realistic approach to drawing and uncomfortable with the “Pop Art” that was currently in vogue, she changed her degree to Interior Design and Business where she focused on creating one and two point perspective renderings of rooms with color and texture in three-dimensional presentations.

She worked in the Interior Design filed for a number of years; at the Yonkers Store For Homes in Des Moines, assisting their well-known designer, Don Huss, and after her marriage, worked for The Added Touch, a professional design shop in Mt. Pleasant, IA. While in that city, at the suggestion of the Chamber of Commerce, she did some one-point perspective drawings of two blocks of their square to try to upgrade the downtown district by doing renderings of 2 blocks worth of building fronts to attract more business. Relocating to Kearney, NE, she left the interior design business to raise her family. At the present time, having sorely missed using her artistic abilities on a regular basis, she is employed by the HyVee Bakery Department as a cake decorator.

The Klootwyks moved to Thomson in 2001 and, with more free time than she’d had before, Carla chose to expand her artistic knowledge and skills. Her daughter had begun taking classes in Graphic Design and after viewing one of her advertising assignments, this glimpse of techniques and her desire to create more finished work than mere “sketches” inspire her to learn the technique of stippling.

“Stippling”, she said, “is a little known process of covering an area with dots to create a picture. The stipple, or dot-laying technique, produces pictures manually that resemble 19th Century engravings or woodcuts that were often used in newspapers of that time.” The technique was popular, she explained, because it produced shaded line art illustrations for publication, and drawings made this way could be reproduced in plain black ink. The other common method was hatching, which used lines instead of dots.

The resulting image is a collection of dots strategically placed to suggest forms, shapes, contrast and depth. These drawings are also closely related to what is called Pointillism. In both techniques, it is the viewer’s eye that completes the picture, much in the same way that the dots and pixels in a computer or television form the dots and half-tones that we see on monitors. Images produced by half-toning and computer printers operate on similar principles (varying the size and/or spacing of dots on a surface) but do so via photographic or digital processes rather than manually. These newer techniques make it possible to convert continuous-tone images into patterns suitable for printing, but some artists still choose stippling for its simplicity and handmade appearance.

“It’s a very time-consuming technique,” she said. “It requires careful study of portraits of people for the shading and folds in their faces and takes me from 30 to 50 hours to complete one. But the end result is very like the subject I’m working from. It’s done with a technical pen and in my case; the image is drawn dot by dot on paper, though it can also be done on glass, an engraving plate, a quilt or even an interior wall. I do occasionally use lines and crosshatching, but mostly, it’s just dots.”

Coming to this part of IL and meeting some of the artists here has been very helpful to her, she said. Encouraged to share her gifts, she also taught a class for other artists and has met many “kindred spirits” who love creating art as much as she does. “It has been a joy to get back into artwork, Klootwyk said. “And with every photograph I work from I learn something more. In fact, after years of going to Art In The Park at Kearney, working with the Palisades Art League and the ACS here, I’ve come to believe I learn just as much from other artists as I did from my class work and collecting other’s art….it has made me feel that I, too, can be a small part of keeping the awareness of “Art” growing in this area.”

She would like to expand her abilities into making card and trying watercolor, but for the moment, she’s content to integrate bit and pieces of the past into her artwork. “I think,” she smiled, “that when you can imbue your work with childhood memories that people can relate to or give them a moment in time that resonates with their own past, your work creates a nostalgic feeling that they respond to. A lot of my pieces are inspired by special moments that we hold close to our hearts and the practice of art is very adept at reminding us of those special times.”

The other exhibitor in the Gallery show is a former resident of Savanna, the famous Waltz King so very popular from the early 1930’s into later years. Wayne King spent much of his boyhood and early adult years here, leaving to go on to fame and fortune as big bands became more and more popular in the music world. Scott Law of Savanna has collected memorabilia and stories of Wayne King for many years and now, through the generosity of Wayne King’s son, who lives in AZ, he is sharing much of this material with area residents who remember this fine musician. Included in the collection are several signed oil paintings done by the bandleader in his later years using a pallet knife, made after King was no longer leading a band. These were typical, his son told Scott, of his father’s interest in all the arts and his constant effort to always improve his abilities and skills. Also on display will be many other items from his years of radio broadcasts, including the Golden Record Plaque awarded to him on the radio show “An Evening With Franklin McCormick” at the Chicago Opera House on April 20, 1968. This award was given for the 5 million mark for the record sales of “Melody of Love” and “Why Do I Love You?” which was quite a milestone at that time.

The public is urged to visit the 321 Art Gallery to view Klootwyk’s work, the Wayne King Collection, and the many examples of artistic one-of-a-kind items on display by members skilled in the use of wood, clay, stained glass, paper, jewelry, handmade soaps, knitted goods, canvas and other Savanna memorabilia. Visiting this not-for-profit Gallery is free and open hours are 10 to 4 on Wednesday through Saturdays. Sunday hours are from one to four p.m.