Artists playing nicely

LITTLE ROCK — Melody Lile just wanted a place to paint.

The fact that she wound up sharing it with two dozen artists was a bonus.

On the second story of a shopping center at 1525 Merrill Drive in Little Rock, neighbors with Market Street Cinema, The Art Loft is a year-old extension of Melody and Matt Lile’s passion for art and fine food. The couple own the restaurant Lulav in downtown Little Rock, which had been displaying her paintings and those of other artists. In need of a better studio for her, they set one up in the Merrill Drive suite.

“I came up here and painted, and it’s pretty lonely painting by myself,” said Melody Lile. “I invited one of my friends up here; we were sitting at lunch and we were going, you know, ‘We have a lot of space here. We need to start inviting people.’ ... Within two or three months we had everything full and we still have a waiting list.”

The Art Loft is a warren of studios, hallways, and galleries. Every wall is crammed with art in a dizzying array of styles, which means it’s also crammed with a dizzying array of artists, who together form a cooperative.

“We have a great crew here now,” Lile said. “Everyone seems to get along. We have fun doing it.”

Art cooperatives may not inhabit every corner of the Natural State, but they are not entirely new to the scene, either. Probably the state’s oldest is Arkansas Craft Gallery in Mountain View, which sells works by members of the Arkansas Craft Guild. The guild started in 1962.

A number of other coops have popped up over the years, including The Artists Workshop Gallery in Hot Springs, The Art Group Maumelle, Local Colour in Little Rock, Fayetteville Underground and The Artisan’s Cooperative in Calico Rock.

And there’s a hybrid version, with a gallery attached to studio spaces rented to artists, such as Gallery 221 and Art Studios 221 on Second Street in downtown Little Rock, as well as studio/galleries available above the Thea Foundation’s headquarters in the Argenta Arts District in downtown North Little Rock.

The cooperative model is at odds with the archetypal image of the tortured artist, doomed to labor in solitude with none but the muse for company. The combination of studio and gallery space near other creative types has proved a profound draw to the members of several local artists’ co-ops.

Key to their success is the merger of two traditionally separate functions: art’s creation and its sale. Co-op artists work and display in shared spaces, and to the Liles that’s a great excuse to throw a party every month. Their gallery events feature gourmet appetizers by Lulav’s chef, Matthew Cooper, and wine tastings with vintages from around the world.

“We are looking for about 300 people that would like to come through here on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night,” Matt Lile said. “The folks come in, walk around, talk to the artists to visit and explain what they do.

“And of course,” he added, “everything is for sale.”

SMALLER COMMISSION

The Art Loft takes a commission on sales, but it’s smaller than traditional galleries, the Liles say — 20 percent, which they estimate is about half of a typical commission. Artists also rent their spaces, and again, the Liles say the cost is lower than commercial space.

That was part of the draw for Kelly Furr, a Little Rock native who holds an art degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She had been looking for studio space for some time — “I just was flabbergasted by the prices of things,” she said — when her mother called her and told her about an artists’ co-op she’d just found.

“I was like, sure, OK, Mom, I’m sure there’s something like that in Little Rock, whatever,” Furr said. “Then I remember walking into this place and walking around with an ‘Are you serious?’ look.”

What she saw was something she’d been missing since art school: A place where lots of artists working in lots of styles each had their own space but also the freedom to mingle, talk shop, borrow supplies, and ask for (or give) pointers. In short, a community.

“The first few weeks I was walking around and going, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s another artist I can talk to!’” Furr said. “[It was] that environment you have of studios everywhere, friends, companionship, even though so many times doing art can be a very lonely, very isolating process.”

Dan Thornhill came to the same conclusion.

“I tried doing it at home, and it just doesn’t work because you need more space, and I kind of like being in a surrounding where there are other creative people around me,” said Thornhill, who’s retired from the General Services Administration and the ministry. “I learned a long time ago it’s best to separate where you do your artwork and your home.”

Even if that separation is just 7/10ths of a mile, as in his case.

HE’S ACTUALLY 66

Ask the white-haired Thornhill how old he is and he’ll jokingly tell you 35, although he’s actually 66 — “One of the old guys,” he says. In addition to working as an artist full time — he prefers acrylic paints and mixed media — he’s pursuing a graduate degree in studio art at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Kathy Thompson is another second-career artist at The Art Loft. She retired as a stockbroker due to multiple sclerosis, and planned “creative time” once out of the work force. An oil painter who also works in mixed media, she became a founding member of the co-op after talking to Matt Lile about hanging her art in Lulav.

In addition to few distractions, plenty of space, and camaraderie, Thompson likes what the co-op can offer.

“Melody and I are the only two people here who do not have a degree or education in art; we are more of the business people,” she said. “The advantage for us to be here is we have the business knowledge; if one or the other artists is talking about selling a piece, I can step in there because I was in sales my whole life.”

Exposure to artists has boosted her confidence.

“This peony I’m doing, it has tons of tiny petals in the middle,” she said. “I didn’t feel any qualms about tackling it, but [before] I wouldn’t have had the confidence to tackle something like that.”

DECADE OF COOPERATION

Local Colour, at 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood, has been around for a decade. Bob Snider is just inside the gallery’s front door, taking advantage of the natural light let in by floor-to-ceiling north-facing windows. He’s working on the kind of painting he’s best known for: racehorses, rendered in oil paints with bold strokes and striking colors.

But Snider’s not merely on display, he’s also on the clock.

Like all members of this co-op, Snider puts in about one day a month minding the shop. He doesn’t see it as an inconvenience, but instead part of the trade-off that makes the co-op work.

“You have 28 artists who are paying rent, working one day, and paying a very much smaller commission,” he said. “That will make the gallery break even.”

Snider has been painting full time since he retired four years ago after 30 years with Morgan Keegan, where he worked as an investment banker. But his interest in art goes back to his youth.

“I was an art major at Ouachita Baptist, but I knew I would starve to death, so I got a degree in business and got an MBA,” he said.

He started painting again about 20 years ago, first in watercolor and then oil. He also went the traditional route of representation with full-commission galleries — he’s currently represented by Gallery Central in Hot Springs — but he also liked the opportunity offered by Local Colour.

“In this day and age, especially in this economy, an artist needs to market themselves any way and every way they can,” he said. “I sell art through that gallery, this gallery, Facebook, in personal relationships.”

PASSING THE TIME

Local Colour was founded in 2002 by Boots Barnett Warrick after a layover in Oklahoma City. While passing the time until her next flight, she found a co-op gallery and the idea resonated with her. A painter herself, Warrick began Local Colour with 15 other artists.

“We are celebrating our 10th anniversary in November; a lot of co-ops have a general life span of three to five years, so we’ve done exceptionally well,” she said. “When we began 10 years ago, we started with several of our artists who were beginners. And it’s 10 years later and they are doing some very fine work now.”

Warrick says so many of the original artists are still with the co-op because “they like the percentages.” Local Colour takes only a 10 percent commission from each sale.

“Plus, the fact that a lot of people don’t have the space in their homes to have a working studio. If they want to bring easels and supplies to the gallery, they can; they can leave their things up here,” she said. “I think the customers come in and love to see people painting; they love an active studio gallery.”

Warrick said the member artists are literally on a rotation: Their display spaces move around the gallery’s walls at regular intervals, so everyone gets a turn in the most visible spots. Each month a featured artist’s work is displayed prominently just inside the gallery entrance.

As word spread and the number of artists grew, Warrick had to start a waiting list.

“Our artists all sign contracts. If someone fulfills their contract and feels something’s changed in their life and they want to leave, we have a huge list of artists waiting for that phone call saying we can take something new,” she said. “We just had an artist leave after 10 years only because she has grandchildren now, her life has changed, she has different commitments. I immediately picked up the phone and called an artist who’s been waiting for several years. He’ll join us for the November show.”

That other artists are eager to join the co-op doesn’t surprise Snider. He said the gallery fosters an all-for-one attitude.

“We all kind of take ownership in it because we’re partners in it,” Snider said. “We’re just as interested in selling somebody else’s art as our own.”