Pull up a creative chair at library fundraiser

Jane Davison is a longtime scrapbooker, but when friend Tina Hubert asked her to use her creativity on a chair, she did.

Her lacy cream-colored chair with a big tulle wreath on back is one of 28 chairs that will be auctioned between 3 and 6 p.m. Sunday at Granite City’s downtown library, 2001 Delmar Ave. It’s part of the Decorative Antique Chair Auction Fundraiser and Award Reception hosted by the Six Mile Regional Library District. The sturdy wood chairs were original to the downtown library when it was completed in 1929. Several unpainted chairs also will be auctioned.

“I looked at decorated chairs on Pinterest and picked one that I thought would be nice to do,” said Jane, 55, of Madison. “I sanded just a little so paint would adhere. I laid lace down on the seat of the chair and spray-painted. I made a tulle wreath for the back. I have a girlfriend who makes wreaths. She told me what I needed to do. That was my first time doing it. I thought, ‘Please stay together.’”

She wove lace into the rails of the chair back and hot-glued burlap trim to match the center of the tulle flower.

“Someone said, ‘You should have made two, one for the bride and one for the groom.’”

Jane, who cares for elderly parents and an uncle, likes to knit or read when she’s not scrapbooking or decorating chairs.

“I’ve been trying to finish a knitting project for a baby shower,” she said. “I just read ‘To Kill A Mockingbird.’ I’m also going to get the other one (“Go Set A Watchman”) that (Harper Lee) just put out.”

Last week, 12 decorated chairs had been completed — six at the downtown branch and six at the Johnson Road branch. Materials ranged from decoupage and duct tape to ostrich feathers. Kathy Wojtowicz decoupaged seed packets onto a chair painted white. Lorrin Combs paid tribute to the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Black tape images of Audrey Hepburn popped on a pair of bright pink chairs. Sophie Strehl put a coat of black paint on a chair to make his cityscape stand out.

Betsy Mahoney, research librarian and community chair for the event, advised artists: “Just make whatever you think will sell. Be creative and consider this is the library.”

Then, she followed her own advice.

“I thought about what I would like in my home,” said the research librarian at the Johnson Road branch.

A gray silhouette of a tree branch and hovering hummingbird decorate the seat of her white painted chair.

“I tended toward minimalist design and what I could do with my minimum art talent,” she said. “I had wanted to redo and refinish a chair. It hit all my Pinterest issues and desires. It was time-consuming to sand and prime, but really an enjoyable weekend. I put a polyurethane coat over it.”

She had fun watching the other chairs come in.

“They will appeal to lots of different tastes,” said Betsy. “That will be great for raising funds.”

Tina Hubert, library district director, led the way to finished chairs at the downtown library.

“People are so creative, it’s just amazing,” she said.

Nicole Harris’ blue chair with an ostrich feather back and padded seat has a story. According to Tina, Nicole was inspired by peacocks that roam a farm where her daughter takes horseback-riding lessons, but she didn’t use their feathers. She ordered them just for the chair. Then, she went in a different direction, decoupaging artwork and words from Dr. Seuss’ “Oh the Places You’ll Go” on a second chair.

Need to know a little about Granite City and Illinois history? Check out Molly Johnson’s chair.

“Granite City was the Six Mile (Settlement) because it was six miles from St. Louis,” said Tina. “Then, it was Kinder, then when we became a city, we were Granite City. I think Molly used original drawings on her chair and decoupaged them on. The chair has lots of history. It’s one of the things that’s neat about this project.”

The two guys on the chair back? The Niedringhaus brothers, William F. and Frederick G., patented the process of granite ware production, said Tina. They founded tthe company that later became Granite City Steel.

Molly broadened the scope of her chair by decoupaging the state bird (cardinal), the state flower (violet), the state insect (monarch butterfly) and the state mammal (white-tailed deer).

Mother-daughter artists Gail Gargic and Angela Botz created masterpieces that may be a shame to sit on.

“I am just in awe,” said Tina, studying Angela’s bright painted scene of bluebirds on a branch filled with red berries.

“We both had a great time painting,” said Gail, 80, mother of four and grandmother of seven who volunteers at Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City. “She would check on me and I would check on her. She could draw as I did from the time she was in the cradle. Our techniques are different. She worked with me at Picturesque Graphics (a screen print business at 3130 Chouteau in St. Louis. Before that, Gail had a business, Murals by Gail, airbrushing designs on cars, vans and motorcycles.). Angela and I are painting something all the time. We are pretty used to these big projects that come down the pike.”

Gail’s chair is a tribute to the popular children’s book “Where The Wild Things Are,” winner of the 1964 Caldecott Medal for Most Distinguished Picture Book of the Year. The story is about a young boy named Max who, after dressing in his wolf costume, wreaks such havoc in his house that he is sent to bed without supper. Max’s bedroom transforms into a jungle, and he winds up sailing to an island inhabited by beasts known as “Wild Things.” He wins over the creatures and is hailed as king, but returns home to his bedroom where a hot supper awaits him.

“From the very first moment they proposed the chair project to me, it pushed into my head,” Gail said. “My kids didn’t like the book. It scared them. The monsters in the book were not attractive. I explained to them things that are kind of scary visually aren’t going to get you. That it’s a good thing to have an imagination. We had long conversations about the book. That all came back when they proposed the chair project.”

Gail used dark greens and browns as a base.

“I wanted to put the atmosphere of the book on that chair, then I could go to work on the illustrations.”

She painted the scene of Max sailing off to the unknown, all in the atmosphere of his bedroom.

“It was just incredible fun.”

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 3:27 AM with the headline "Pull up a creative chair at library fundraiser."