Photos by John Nation
New space meets old: the 2-D studio of watercolor and collage artist Stephanie Palaisa.
On a warm late-fall day, the main stretch of mall at the Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Center, with its warm brick, constant to-and-fro of artists, bustle of retail activity and near-constant hum of construction, recalls the back streets of Rome.
From a noon table at the Little Peace Cafe it’s possible to be absorbed into a uniquely satisfying urban arts experience evoking the artists’ colonies of the Mediterranean.
The concept is this: Convert the massive 360,000-square-foot former Fischer meat-packing plant into low-cost, custom-designed accommodations for a wide range of painters, sculptors, jewelers, photographers and various artisans, adding in retailers, a health center, dance studios, reception rooms and, to date, one cozy restaurant.
The colony appears to be reaching critical mass, poised to present itself as a viable option to the malls as a destination for the all-consuming holiday shopping season. You might well consider perusing Mellwood Arts Center for an original work of art — a painting, a piece of handcrafted jewelry, a hand-thrown pot — as a uniquely interesting alternative to another tie or a pair of socks. Not to say a word against socks; many of my friends wear them.
Developer John Clark’s vision of a place where artists and craftspeople and a certain kind of retailer can find studio space and a place to sell, all under one set of roofs, faced the catch-22 of downtown development, but in microcosm: The challenge was to attract patrons in large-enough numbers before there was a real density of shops, and to attract retailers before there was sufficient foot traffic. Reporting that there are now more than 40 retailers selling wares at Mellwood, Clark says, "We truly have turned the corner."
Left to right: Former Fischer meatpacker Larry Humphrey Jr.; husband/wife photography team Chris Higdon and Jessie Kreich; nationally recognized figure specialist Jeaneen Barnhart.
A wealth and variety of products are now available "on campus" amidst a generally relaxed and happy atmosphere. The center is a massive Lubyanka-like hulk of a building on the right as you head east on Mellwood between Brownsboro Road and Zorn Avenue. It comprises 40-plus acres and includes among its attractions open-view artists’ studios, a tenant co-op art gallery, an art supply shop and numerous storefronts featuring jewelry, pottery, wood products and original art of all sorts.
John Clark has the reputation of being a modest and reclusive figure, but his commitment to the project is total, as is, apparently, his willingness to pour in huge amounts of energy and money — "millions and millions" is as specific as he gets. He is joined in the endeavor by, among others, local architect Moseley Putney and Scooter Davidson, the general manager and chief marketer. Clark’s wife is a painter, but he claims no artistic leanings. He acquired the land and buildings in September 2003, and in searching for a creative reuse, noticed that artists who were unable to afford Market Street space at the center of Louisville’s visual arts scene were migrating across the river to lofts in Southern Indiana.
The rustic wares of Walnut Creek (left), and Artist and Craftsman Supply owner Sean Taylor.
Already he has 188 "doorknobs." That is how he and Davidson describe the artists and guilds of artists who are their tenants, and since the guilds have multiple members, the 188 doorknobs may represent as many as 250 artists. The studios are spread out warren-like over two floors in the main area and across a bridge on a mezzanine. Lease prices range from as low as $2 per square foot up to $13.
Relaxing in the courtyard outside Little Peace (left), and recently arrived tenant Gallery Janjobe.
Lunchtime at the center’s Little Peace Cafe.
For some of the tenant artists, Mellwood is already a success story. Jeaneen Barnhart has a large client base, in Louisville and nationally, and has been acclaimed for some high-profile work: Kentucky Derby posters, a PGA Golf commission and the 1999 St. James Court Art Show poster. Her fluid draftsmanship on paper and her brightly welcoming oils often focus on either human or equine forms. Barnhart cherishes a setup at Mellwood that allows her to work upstairs and show at street level. "I understand the convenience of being represented by an art gallery, but I appreciate more the ability to keep my work close by me," she says. (She is occasionally intensely possessive of her pieces, guarding and protecting them for a year or more before letting them loose in the world.) Mellwood lets her work and show in a climate she creates and controls.
Artists are often a lot more interesting than we ordinary folk, and of the many interesting characters encountered in a day’s stroll through Mellwood, first among equals is Larry Humphrey Jr., a soft-spoken African-American painter who seems in himself to be sufficient justification for the whole concept and complex. His connections with the place are unique: He worked here in its days as a sausage factory (if I were lacking in self-control I might be tempted to refer to him as the "vital link"). Now he’s a baker early in the day and a painter in oils afternoon and evenings. He has used the facilities and exposure offered by Mellwood to expand his client base and also as a continuing-ed experience.
"Being in the company of some much more experienced and highly trained artists has helped me learn my craft," Humphrey says. "There is a competitive factor, being up against so many skilled artists. I have also learned from other artists how to market myself: tips on pricing, display, negotiating skills."
He is a fascinating person who can talk about the spiritual qualities of his baking and carry the metaphors through to a discussion of his painting without it seeming contrived or pretentious. Anyone who has baked bread and experienced the life-giving properties of live yeast — or watched a loaf rise, fall and rise — will understand Humphrey’s near-mystical approach to his morning craft and afternoon art. Both involve what he calls the "wow factor," visible to those who pass his studio in vibrant oils and very telling portraits. He is a triumph of the best American spirit; he’s a self-taught artist who absorbed many of his techniques from art books at the Louisville Free Public Library.
Davidson is in a real sense the spirit of Mellwood. Aptly named "Scooter," she is petite and bustling with energy. She whizzes around the vast complex calming and encouraging retailers and promoting rentals and tenancies. She has an arts-related background, with a degree from Parsons School of Design, and big-sell experience — five years marketing her own children’s clothing line followed by a stint with "the Donald" (and Ivana) Trump, opening stores in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and at Ivana Trump’s hotel in Atlantic City called, with disarming modesty, Trump Castle.
Davidson is a passionate advocate of the notion that buying original art is the brightest, most creative solution to the annual Christmas shopping dilemma, and skillfully steers interested customers through the maze of retail shops and a still vaster maze of artist studios. Her punny slogan for Mellwood is "Skip the mall, do the Mell."
Marian Lord, a gentle soul whose serenity is reflected in watercolors of great beauty, has a long record as an artist, teacher and, at times, businesswoman. While her association with Mellwood goes back only 18 months, she is a modified enthusiast — optimistic enough to be present much of most days, working in her small light-filled studio space. She wishes more artists would do likewise, believing, as do many others, that a critical mass of creative artists present on a regular basis will be the single greatest factor in Mellwood’s potential success.
Artist sensibilities spill over into the center’s retail components as well. One of those shops, Walnut Creek, opened in May, and its proprietor, Janet O’Koon, is the first to admit — nay, offer — that her rustic oak furniture, antler wine-holders and canteen lamps are not to every taste. But for the growing numbers of people with lakeside homes, log-cabin-like retreats or, in certain mildly eccentric cases, who live in the Highlands and wish to feel they are experiencing rural bliss, her brand of "rusticity" makes her a destination.
O’Koon sees Mellwood as a great launching place for the start-up specialty shop; it is affordable ("about one-third less than Bardstown Road or Shelbyville," she says), and as foot traffic develops and grows, she sees great potential. She too would like to see more artists present and working more of the time. People, she believes, come to Mellwood to watch art being made, and while it is difficult to channel and contain creativity within office hours, the visual experience of observing studios in motion can be a major draw.
Rebecca Fulmer’s Little Peace Cafe is in a sense the heart of Mellwood. She has been on-site for three years and open for 18 months. Her comfortable space, which spills onto courtyard seating in warm weather, offers an appealing range of lunchtime specials and she has as much work as she can handle. It’s quite a change in cuisine from the past, when her place in the building served as a cooler for Fischer hot dogs. "When retail and art come together in sufficient numbers," Fulmer says, "the place is going to explode."
That foot traffic at the center can generate business is one of the draws for the young photography team of Jessie Kriech and Chris Higdon, who have a lovely, sparse space almost opposite Little Peace. They are an interesting pair whose photographic skills and philosophy are neatly complementary. Like many in their trade they rely on wedding business. Much of their work comes from their website, but they pick up business from drop-ins to the studio. They particularly like the last-Friday-of-the-month Frankfort Avenue Trolley Hop, not for what it brings on that night but for the after-effects of exposure and word of mouth. Visiting their small, brick-walled enclosure and seeing its industrial severity softened and illuminated by wonderful child portraits and luminous wedding pictures is to witness a sort of visual metaphor for Mellwood itself.
Artist and Craftsman Supply stands out as an anomaly for the center in that it is a chain store — one of the at-present 13 created by Larry Alderstein out of Portland, Maine. The Louisville outlet is the high performer in the chain nationally, due in part to the artists who have a one-stop art supply emporium steps away from their studios. Art materials range from the most demanding media for the most conscientious painter in oils to pre-packed drawing and painting kits for small children. Anyone who enjoys puddling about with color or cherishes beautiful papers and crayons, charcoals and drawing pencils will find diversion here.
A sense of wonder is the goal of the architect who laid out the Mellwood Center. Moseley Putney, known to all as Mose, long ago studied in Venice. "La Serenissima," it seems, not Rome, was the inspiration for the warren of asymmetrical studios, spaces and lofts that are the defining characteristic of Mellwood. The architect talks lyrically of his adventures prowling the dark alleys of that most mysterious of Italian cities — shadowy walkways, underpassages, dog-legged lanes too narrow for two to walk abreast — leading unexpectedly into a blaze of light in some splendid baroque piazza. That air of discovery and the unconventional is what infuses much of his Mellwood design.
"I’ll know Mellwood has reached my vision when we’ve got a critical mass of diversity from artists, musicians, choreographers, sculptors and businesses, leading to the residential component, which will make it a true village," says Putney. "Right now we are a destination — I want us to be a village."
Clark, meanwhile, is looking for ways to connect Mellwood with River Road’s commercial and residential scene. Ideas for the center abound, it seems, and here it is like Rome: It will not be built in a day. But it is a very interesting work-in-progress.
