By Coma News Staff
Challenge your cultural blinders and re-elevate your class perceptions at one of the newest art experiences in town.
Marlee Bumgartner, activist, shut in and co owner of Coma’s daycare ‘House of the Little Peoples’, opened her latest art exhibit Monday “Coma as Canvas” to highlight the town’s long-unappreciated street art. The collection, which includes shot gun pellet-pocked street signs, aims to publicize the working classes’ under-valued artistic expressions.
According to Marlee Bumgartener this art shows that the Coma working class is either happy or sad.
“This is how our working class says ‘I’m happy,’ or ‘I’m sad,'” the curator said in a phone interview from her home. “The only question is whether we are brave enough to listen to them.”
This car on some hay bails says, “listen to me.”
Other artwork on display includes arial photos of “doughnuts,” or mud tracks torn in lawns with off-road vehicles, as well as mail boxes smashed during games of “road ball.”
“As their Scotch-Irish ancestors rebelled against the boot of English tyranny through cultural expressions of songs and games, Coma’s working poor are rebelling against corporatization and an ever-shrinking Dollar Menu,” said Bumgartner, a cultural historian.
The exhibit seemed to touch a nerve among attendees at its opening.
“Obviously, Coma artists choose the streets as their gallery as a way to communicate directly with the public — free from perceived confines of the formal art world,” said Natalie Peters, Town Council member and local musician.
But the artists drew less support from the members of some generations.
One of the most powerful images is an areal view of a car doing doughnuts.
“I understand street artists are trying hard to present socially relevant content infused with esthetic value, but I just miss the mailbox my late wife painted flowers on,” said Stan Bargmeyer, one of the oldest residents of Coma.
Undeterred, Bumgartner plans to imitate the practice of street artists, who travel widely to spread their designs, by opening additional exhibits around town as new artwork appears.
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