When Yorktown artist Elise Graham puts together her art exhibits, she”™s not looking to set up shop inside a museum or gallery. Instead, she creates her own space inside a retrofitted 12-foot step van, serving as a mobile art gallery.
She takes Rodi Gallery, a 2006 Ford Utilimaster van, to the burgeoning art districts throughout the Hudson Valley. There, she presents the works of undiscovered artists.
Two weekends ago, Graham, 56, showcased recent Cooper Union graduate Torey Thornton”™s art pieces inside her van at the Riverfront Green Park in Peekskill, overlooking the Hudson River. The Brooklyn-based artist brought collages made from cat hair mounted on wooden panels and created pieces using acrylic and spray paints. Other techniques Thornton used include mounting art on a cotton T-shirt instead of a canvas. Nail polish and construction paper were incorporated to craft some of the art pieces, too.
Graham said she”™s looking for artists who won”™t just create art that “looks good or matches people”™s décor,” but she gravitates toward art that conveys a deeper meaning.
“Being an artist, I have strong ideas on what”™s important,” Graham said. “I didn”™t want to compromise what I felt was important ”“ having meaningful art ”“ with having to sell enough art to keep my gallery going.”
She added that the meaning the artwork conveys could be anything ranging from political and metaphysical to plainly making a commentary on art itself.
Graham, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornell University and a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College, experiments with unconventional ways to create and display art.
“Lots of images I use are related to the natural world, including animals,” Graham said. “But they”™re altered so people aren”™t sure what they”™re looking at. I like art that presents a question rather than answers and creates unease on the part of the viewers.”
Her art includes collages made from book cut-outs, charcoal, ink and poster paint coated with packing tape to give her pieces a glossy, grid-like effect. Graham interprets people”™s unease as a sign that her artwork is compelling.
For over a year, she”™s prepared five art pieces, which she plans to showcase at the train station in Beacon from noon to 5 p.m. on Oct. 5. The evening before she opens her pop-up art gallery, she plans to be in Cold Spring for the First Friday, a townwide celebration of the arts, which invites artists to receptions and gallery openings.
As a budding entrepreneur, the biggest challenge for Graham was finding a van that wasn”™t too big to drive. She said the 12-foot step van she bought for under $20,000 came with a unique feature that sold her when she first saw it in a Watertown, Conn., truck lot.
“One thing I absolutely loved was the fiber glass ceiling,” Graham said. “It makes the light in the van so fabulous.”
Everything else required remodeling including additional walls built around the sides of the truck, which had previously been made of rough plywood. She had her husband David Graham, an architect, hire a million-dollar home contractor to polish the aluminum floors and build stairs, so she can step onto the back of her van.
“One of David”™s contractors Richard Donsavage, latched onto the idea and thought it was something unique,” Graham said. “He took it on as a pet project, and he was here many Saturdays with carpenters, floor guys, and metal fabricators and helped us put the whole thing together.”
The lighting in the back of the van is powered by deep cycle marine batteries connected to an electric inverter. She said she has “enough juice” to keep her gallery lit for five hours at a time.
Rodi Gallery pays homage to Graham”™s father, Herbert Blumberg, a Long Island resident who started his business Rodi Automotive 56 years ago. ”˜Rodi”™ was named after Graham”™s mother Roselyn and her dad”™s business partner”™s wife Diane.
Pronounced road”“eye, Graham said she thought the name was fitting for her art gallery on wheels.
“The name they chose 56 years ago applies to what I”™m doing: I”™m on the road with an eye for art,” Graham said.
Before the Grahams moved to Yorktown, they lived in Manhattan. Elise Graham had sold Hoover vacuum cleaners when she first moved to the city from Long Island and done advertising work for art galleries in SoHo. Meanwhile, David Graham, who grew up in Chappaqua, formerly worked for Paul Rudolph, a renowned architect most famous for his work on the Yale Art and Architecture Building.
The Grahams have a 24-year-old daughter, Nora, who works in fashion in New York City and a son, Aaron, a 22-year-old Cooper Union graduate who contributes to his mother”™s mobile art gallery business.
Great great great. Lots of good luck with this endeavor. Will see you on the fifth. Roz. B.