Biddle Gallery 1995-2012
In 1994, Ross and I were restless. He hated his job, so I told him he should
quit. It’s the first and only time he ever listened to me! I, on the other
hand, had a pretty cushy job as an office manager for a large automotive aftermarket
warehouse. Ross went back to school and
took a part time job in the shipping department at Pewabic Pottery, which
allowed us to take free classes at the pottery. Who knew sticking our hands in
mud would change our lives!
One day we got this crazy idea that
we should start our own business, so we put an offer on a building in downtown
Wyandotte with plans to open a gallery featuring pottery and handmade tiles. Our offer for this dilapidated building was
not accepted.
Nine months later, my Aunt Lena
passed away at the age of 52. My boss at the time, Ron Galecki had just left GM
to start a truck accessory business. I was talking to Ron how life is short and worried
I would wake up one day without trying something outside my comfort zone. I was
telling him what a bummer it was that we didn’t get the building in Wyandotte.
Ron asked if it was still available and when I said yes, he said put another
offer in! So, we did, and they accepted!
We sold everything: our house, boat,
camper, motorcycle, and on October 2, 1995 we signed the papers to purchase the
building at 2840 Biddle Avenue in Downtown Wyandotte.
On December 2, 1995 we sold our
first painting – actually 2 paintings by Bruce Tims (you never forget your
first!) This event started the first of many happy dances in the back room.
We really had no idea what we were
doing. Fortunately, our first show featured Gordon Price. Gordon guided us in
creating press releases, postcards, and setting up our first major event. It
was a huge success thanks to Gordon, and Frank Pahl whose band, “Only a Mother”
performed to a packed gallery during an unseasonably warm night in February
1996.
Biddle Gallery strove to provide
work by artists who enlightened viewers either politically, socially, environmentally,
spiritually – heck, even mathematically! If the artwork happened to look good above a couch,
that was fine, but we wanted more than that, and felt our customers did as well.
We
cranked out some pretty amazing events, but one of my favorites was Summer Solstice. This took place
annually for a few years, commencing exactly at the time of the start of
summer. Animated movies by Dave Moroski and Davin Brainard, along with a lively
sidewalk performance by Charlie Slick, complete with bubble machine, confetti
and light show had everyone dancing in the street!
Some
events received national recognition. A few standout: Monkey Day on December 14th, which
featured simian theme artwork (customers received a banana with every purchase);
our holiday show was featured in Niche magazine; paintings from Janet
Allinger’s series, Flying Nun got us on the Catholic Anti
Defamation League’s naughty list along with some threatening phone calls from some
very angry and not so nice Catholics.
It was an incredible 17 years at
Biddle Gallery – from our first show featuring Gordon Price to our last
artist-in-residence, Megan Gurisko who brought so much excitement in the summer
of 2012, and all the others in between who made Biddle Gallery an amazing
space. We learned much and met some incredible people along the way – many who
have become life-long friends. Thank you
to all the artists who enlighten us. We continue to see the world around us in a
whole new way and for that, we are grateful. We could not have done it without you!
Good things end so better things can
begin. As we did 17 years ago, we sold
everything and are starting over.
Ciao,
Karen Thomas
To
be continued….
