'Collaborative Show' reworks stock '80s oil paintings with humor

 By Mary Lee Pappas / Star correspondent

Posted: January 29, 2010

Visitors to local galleries and museums in the last decade are probably more familiar with Brian Presnell's work as a preparator of exhibits than as an artist.

Presnell, who owns Midwest Aesthetic and Design, has been fabricating, designing and installing exhibits since his first gig as an exhibit tech at the Indianapolis Museum in of Art in 1997.

But a sampling of his approach to art-making can be seen through early February in "The Collaborative Show" inside the Marsh Galley at Herron School of Art and Design, where Presnell graduated in 1996.

The exhibit is a joint venture of reworked, mass-produced paintings humorously augmented over four years by Presnell and his painter friends: Darren Strecker, Sacred, Cents, Alex Peace, Devon Ashley and Joel Pinkerton.

"John Mallon gave them to me a long time ago," Presnell, 38, said of the Editions Limited Gallery owner and friend who gave him the stock oils of exotic animals, woodsy landscapes, and other provincial scenes produced in the early 1980s.

"They're bad. I was fortunate the paintings had a lot of different looks -- celebrity paintings (think Elvis), marine scenes, many different genres that we could play with and add things to."

For instance, a serene image of a barn is disrupted, juxtaposed by graffiti tagging. Now, the works are funny in a way that compliments or validates the original, rather than insult them.

"It was an opportunity for us to get together, laugh it up and paint," said Presnell. "I've done this sort of work with a lot of folks and different mediums, but this show is predominantly the paintings."

It only marginally represents his repertoire of work as a performance, mixed-media and visual artist.

Some pieces from this body of work were in his successful solo show, "I am Brian Presnell," at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art in 2006.

"It's really a fine-art show," said Presnell about the current exhibit. "I'm not the biggest fan of conceptual art; a lot of it is so heady that it doesn't make sense to the general public. There's a little conceptual nature to the work, yet it's obvious.

"I think it's important for people to go to shows, understand what they're looking at and not feel alienated. I want my work to be easily legible. That was a goal, and I think we achieved it."

Adds Presnell: "I'm trying to have fun. I'm not looking at it as my strongest or most important work. This is something I get together with my friends and do, and we knocked it out."

Brian Presnell, Herron School or Art and Design, Midwest Aesthetic and Design, Marsh Gallery, Editions Limited Gallery, John Mallon, iMOCA, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art

 

Chelsea van der Meer's silk-scarves come from need to make art

By Mary Lee Pappas / Star correspondent

Posted: January 22, 2010

Chelsea van der Meer has a home studio painted bright pink that's the hub for her silk-scarf business, which was born from her inherent, nonstop need to make art.

"My whole life I've just needed to be making something all the time, whatever it was with whatever I had," said the 23-year-old artist.

Originally from Williamsport, Pa., van der Meer majored in graphic design at Pennsylvania College of Technology. After moving to Indianapolis five years ago, she earned a degree at Ivy Tech Community College, where she thrived in traditional fine-arts courses.

Since then, van der Meer's works have been exhibited at Wug Laku's Studio and Garage on Indianapolis' Eastside and in the Stutz Building at the now-defunct Pivot Gallery. A notable design project of hers is the 2007 CD and Web site art for the band blueprintmusic. She also interned with the design firm Lodge Design.

Van der Meer exhibits through Midwest Emerging Artists, and she created the artwork for the 2009 Broad Ripple Music Fest sampler CD.

But it was a fabric-arts class with Ivy Tech's visual communications department chairwoman Stephanie Lewis Robertson years ago that inspired van der Meer's current path.

"She (Roberts) was amazing," said van der Meer. "She motivated me and taught me the basics with dying silk."

"I was really thinking about why I took to it," she said. "There's just something about the quality of silk that's like water."

Using mostly charmeuse and chiffons, van der Meer applies many dying techniques to her one-of-a-kind scarves that vary in size from 25-by-25-inch squares to 30-by-90-inch wraps.

"The results are very organic and subconscious. Art I've made in the past is very conscious -- I've decided everything. When I'm doing a painting or something, I decide how everything is going to be. But, with this, it's organic," said van der Meer. "You really never know what a dye is going to do when it meets another dye. It's a surprise when the wax comes off sometimes."

She said those surprises are luscious colors and fluid patterns that complement the fabric and look great. Her techniques include stamping, masking off colors, wax batik and multiple layers of color and painting swaths of color in with a brush.

This winter, a cotton scarf series she produced sold out, but more will be available through her Etsy shop soon at www.Etsy.com/shop/chelseaofthesea.

She also produces how-to videos and charming thank-yous for customers across the country while packaging up their orders. "I want people to feel a connection from the time it's made to when they have it, that there's a spirit and energy in it."

Of her videos, she says, "I want to be a very transparent artist. If someone wants to know something, I will share. I wouldn't have any problem with more creators in the world. There is just really nothing like the feeling you have when you are creating."

Chelsea van der Meer, Artist, Ivy Tech Community College, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Broad Ripple Music Fest, Stephanie Robertson, Stutz, fabric art, Indianapolis, Indiana

Artistic process is the story behind exhibit of 12 paintings

 

Artistic process is the story behind exhibit of 12 paintings 

By Mary Lee Pappas / Star correspondent

Posted: December 25, 2009

"Small Paintings," William BurtonLawson's exhibition at the Indianapolis Art Center, reveals all of the artist's artistic quirks.

The 12 little oil paintings in this show are all different. They aren't part of a body of work, but rather glimpses of Lawson's influences, his direction and what makes him tick as a painter.

His process, not subjects, lends the cohesion to the pieces that vary from plein-air vantages of the Oregon coast to a straight-on view of the Fountain Diner.

An Indianapolis native and professional painter for more than a decade, Lawson lists Hoosier Group artists T.C. Steele and William Forsyth, as well as regionalist artists of the Depression era William Kaeser and Cecil Head, as inspirations. But he doesn't imitate.

"There aren't too many artists my age who look up to these guys, but I have always felt a strong connection with their paintings. I chose to go against the grain and honor tradition," said Lawson, 35, who describes his work as "representational with both contemporary and traditional values."

Add his Precisionist tendencies, and the result is comfortable abstractions of what would otherwise be mundane.

Urban landscape scenes of buildings, homes and alleyways have distinguished Lawson from other local artists, particularly those in his generation. Half of the show features these works, which best represent his sensibilities and abilities.

Compositions of nondescript Downtown locales are tightly cropped like segmented studies where rooftops become flat color fields of unnatural hues and get bent in skewed angles.

In a painting titled "Rooftops," his mental method, the way he intellectualizes and dissects space, is fully realized. The works are simple and unemotional, and the everyday subjects seem irrelevant to the task at hand: painting. His gestures are smooth, steady and even; nothing feels forced.

"Carnival" is another such painting -- a garage is central to the fragmented scene, with a bit of a Ferris wheel tucked into the background and a car in the foreground.

"These paintings have a more contemporary feel," he said. "People can identify with the work, and I like to think that it creates a balance between individual expectations and conceptual thinking."

The visually easy balance he strikes with form and his stark palettes, which vary painting to painting, is effortless. It's upon closer inspection that you realize significant architectural details are missing, or that a gutter is disproportioned to create a comfortable, believable illusion. His visual twists are subtle and smart.

Two paintings of lone vintage typewriters also have found their way into this survey of Lawson's work.

"I have an ongoing series of typewriters that are getting pretty good response," Lawson said of this continuum. "I think it's important that people find something in your art that's fun and with which they can easily identify."

William Lawson, painter, Indianapolis Art Center, T.C. Steele, William Forsyth, William Kaeser, Cecil Her, Urban Landscapes, William Burton Lawson, artist, Indiana

 

'Blood, sweat and tears' that went into exhibit re-energize painter

By Mary Lee Pappas / Star correspondent

Posted: November 27, 2009 Indianapolis Star

Walter Knabe, known for his celebrity-favored wall coverings and fabrics, gets back to his painting roots in "New Paintings: A Shift in the Paradigm," an exhibit at the Evan Lurie Fine Art Gallery in Carmel.

"I think it's the bravest thing I've done," Knabe says of the 22 works of art he created over the past year, which helped to restore his painting mojo. "I feel like I've been blocked for quite a number of years with the painting."

Retaining his soothing palette (Knabe makes his own paints), he obstructs his iconic and refined imagery of queens, Buddhas and floras with jarring swaths of abrasively applied paints. Irreverently dynamic, it's somewhat risky for a man who has made a comfortable name for himself in the fine-art world.

"Brown Muse," for example, features a young royal flanked in his Fairfield wall treatment juxtaposed with a small square of idiosyncratic flowers that are at once abstract and pretty. The dichotomy is rampant in this cohesive and exceptional grouping.

"It was out of my comfort zone. Some of it was blood, sweat and tears, it really was. Now I feel like I'm on this rocket ship that's taken off," he says of his creative resurrection. "It's going to continue. It's going to become a bigger part of what I do."

Originally from Cincinnati, Knabe and his wife of 32 years, Cynthia, moved to New York City in the early 1980s, where he silk-screened for Andy Warhol. For the past 15 years, he has called Indianapolis home.

Knabe, who started his career as a painter, says the work in his current exhibit embodies his art-making repertoire.

"You can see some fragment left from every period I've painted. Splatters from college, staining from when I lived in that loft, that's all culminated in these works. I feel like this work is picking up where I left off."

The last piece Knabe completed for this show is the most striking, a self-portrait titled "Real Home."

More than 12 layers of hand-painted and hand-screened imagery, riddled with personal symbology, produce a visually lyrical autobiography.

Chalk-like notes of New York and Indianapolis residences and studios linger to one side, while a bear, representing his daughter Anna, and a bunny, representing his daughter Gwen, mesh into the antiquated, fairy tale-like scene.

"I thought of my wife" in making the piece, Knabe said. "I realized the only person that's going to get this, the only person on this Earth is her, because she traveled that same journey with me."

Although it's a personal painting, Knabe says, people have responded to "Real Home." "I'm surprised people have responded to it so strongly. It just seemed strange, wild to do myself."

He approached this work with confidence, and had a blast doing it.

"Going, 'No you're not there yet, man. You're not quitting, you've got to go in and ruin it again,' " he playfully said, referring to his multiple screen maskings and layers of paint.

A First Person on Art Critiques - Does Indianapolis Really Want Arts Criticism?

By Mary Lee Pappas
NUVO art critic
spring 2005

Should an art critic write about artists whose work they collect? Should an art critic fraternize with artists they write about? Should they accept gifts from artists they’ve written about, be an exhibition consultant, sit on boards of visual arts organizations, or exhibit their own artworks?

According to “The Visual Art Critic: A Survey of Art Critics at General-Interest News Publications in America” by Columbia University’s Journalism Program in 2002, there was no consensus among the 169 art critics surveyed (myself the only Indianapolis representative) regarding blanket ethical conduct within the American art world. This perhaps resulting from the public’s equally as uneven expectations of what art criticism ought and ought not to be.

An opinionated bunch to begin with, participating art critics had to have written at least twelve ”evaluative” pieces the previous year to qualify for the survey. Those are reviews that make judgments regarding quality, purport, and context based on the work, the artist, the venue, the curatorial competence, and sometimes funding. It’s gauging art instead of strictly spouting anthems of advocacy, subjective explanations, and taking strict emotions into account.

Critics, predominantly employed as part-timers or freelance at both daily and alternative weekly papers, were actually found to be “intimately connected” to their local arts communities. Is this conflict of interest, or fundamental for the role? 24% of us had worked in museums, 18% in commercial galleries, while nearly half of us were artists – 70% of whom exhibit or have exhibited their works. 14% were employed in art-related industries. Four out of five newspaper critics and three out of four alternative weekly critics collect art.

Though 90% of the critics were curiously Caucasian when multiculturalism in visual art is ever present, well preparedness for their work varied greatly. The majority of practicing art critics had on average 13 years of journalism/art writing experience. 20% of art critics had no formal training in art or art history, while only 26% of us actually had a B.A., M.A. or Ph.D. in art history. But, apparently it doesn’t really matter who’s writing about art anymore.

Some artists should, “Park their paints,” and let go of ego, pride and fickleness local painter, art historian, and gallery owner Doris Vlasek Hails said to me once. But there has been an increasing trend for artists and arts organizations across the country to steer clear of uncompromising critics and seek-out positive press thereby creating their own undeserving derivative art stars. Some buy it.

As our local visual arts community flourishes so too do the proliferating and, more often than not, only moderately talented artists who Indianapolis audiences so anxiously and sometimes bafflingly accept. Can anyone who can afford rent at a trendy studio be an artist? Are gallery owners and proprietors actually qualified to choose quality art to present to the public just because they can fund their venues? Who is drawing the line between hobby and excellence? Should critics simply relinquish themselves to this laissez-fare intellect regarding the fine art process and art history thereby giving artists and venues the praise they ultimately fancy? Where does criticism fit in and who really wants it anymore?

Indianapolis appears to be succeeding at placing novelty (or propaganda at times) above discrimination. The survey makes an example of our city by stating, “Citizens of significant urban agglomerations, including Indianapolis and Las Vegas…do not have the benefit of hearing from an art critic who might qualify for inclusion in this survey,” from a daily paper.

This perhaps in part because formal criticism doesn’t serve the city’s desires to make Indianapolis a cultural destination overnight. However, celebrating the mundane won’t make it happen either.

Though art critics across the board thought they were writing for a “lukewarm audience that is not too well steeped in the arts,” nearly two-thirds unfortunately write strictly positive reviews, with “rendering a personal judgement” about the artwork being “the least important factor in reviewing art.” It’s a sorry commentary that’s ultimately destructive of the arts evolution (like Indianapolis’ visual art growth spurt), and the art itself. So are gallery openings where the art plays second fiddle to the party.

Are arts writers accepting expenses on press junkets? Are papers merely supposed to conform, jump on the promotional bandwagon, and be another form of advertising?

Perhaps this is an indication that some “critics” should park their pens or thicken their skin. Perhaps local media should give more space and credence to the visual arts cultures of their communities, and artists should challenge themselves to create more than attractive formula paintings accompanied by contrived statements of purpose.

Local eagerness to be exceptional in the visual arts has created levels of administrative and artistic inferiority that can be remedied by demanding quality and education from those that serve the arts community, critics alike. Inferring that arts audiences and potential arts audiences are un or under educated (as is the rhetoric from artists and arts orgs.) only serves to insult and estrange audiences…as does substandard art.

Everybody's an Art Critic by Michael Mills - February 6, 2003 New Times

Everybody's an Art Critic by Michael Mills Feb. 6, 2003 New Times Everybody's an Art Critic If they're college-educated, city-dwelling, 40-something white people, that is By Michael Mills Article Published Feb 6, 2003 Details Last year, the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University contacted more than 200 art critics across the country, inviting them to participate in The Visual Art Critic: A Survey of Art Critics at General-Interest News Publications in America. About 75 percent of those responded. I was one of them. It was a lengthy, exhaustive survey, available online or in hard copy, that quizzed critics on our backgrounds, our aesthetics, our opinions of specific artists and even theorists and other art critics. I was glad to participate in the study and looked forward to seeing the results. I finally received my copy of the report recently, a slender paperback that resembles a modest exhibition catalog and features a reproduction of Honoré Daumier's The Critics (Visitors in a Painter's Studio) (c. 1862). The drawing shows a handful of middle-aged-to-elderly white men peering intently at an unidentifiable work of art. Given Daumier's dim view of critics, it's not surprising that the ones shown here are made to look vaguely buffoonish. In some respects, not much has changed in the nearly century and a half since Daumier's critics gathered, at least not in America. Artists, curators, and gallery owners still approach us warily, as if we might bite. And according to the survey report, which is full of pie charts, graphs, boxes, and sidebars, while art criticism may no longer be predominantly male territory -- about half of the survey respondents were women -- it's still an overwhelmingly white domain. Ninety percent of the critics who took the survey are Caucasian, with just two Asian-Americans, one African-American, and one Hispanic responding. The report characterizes "the statistically average art critic" as "a highly educated, Caucasian city-dweller in his or her late 40s (the median age is 48)." Am I squirming yet? We also tend to be well to the left of center, politically speaking. Just over half of the critics surveyed characterized themselves as "Liberal," with another 20 percent calling themselves "Progressive" and another 16 percent weighing in as "Moderate." In other words, don't get us started on government arts funding, censorship, and freedom of speech in the Dubya era. Critics at newspapers classified by the survey as alternative weeklies, the category New Times Broward-Palm Beach falls into, are even further to the left. Fully 85 percent of us are liberals or progressives. So why don't I get more hate mail? Maybe, one outspoken critic of the survey suggests, it's because America's art critics aren't critical enough. Los Angeles Times critic Christopher Knight, in a recent column on the report, complains, "By and large, journalistic art critics don't write art criticism." (Knight was invited to participate in the survey but was unable to because of Internet problems, although three of his colleagues responded.) Knight marvels that a mere "27% of survey participants said they place a great deal of emphasis on forming and expressing... judgments. Twenty-seven percent!" Instead, he worries, we're too concerned with the other aspects of criticism ranked in the survey: accurately describing the art in question, providing historical background on the art and/or artist, creating a piece of writing with literary value, and theorizing about art. He begrudgingly acknowledges that these are "important but nonetheless routine concerns." It seems especially irksome to Knight that an overwhelming majority of art critics agree with the statement "My job is to educate the public." Sixty-five percent strongly agree with that idea, and another 26 percent somewhat agree. Such an attitude, Knight frets, represents arrogance and elitism, condescension and superciliousness. I don't recall my specific response, but I'm sure I sided, for once, with the majority. What surprises me is the vehemence of Knight's insistence that art criticism and art education are incompatible. Perhaps he forgets that the survey participants, as the study's subtitle indicates, write for general-interest news publications, not academic journals or art magazines. An inherent function of the "general-interest news publications" the survey focuses on is to share knowledge. And I'm not just picking on Knight, by the way. Other critics have written about the survey, among them the New York Observer's cranky Hilton Kramer. He begins by calling the report "the silliest, most expensive, and least necessary 'research' folly ever devoted to the art scene in this country" and later refers to it as "a perfectly useless enterprise."

THE VISUAL ART CRITIC A Survey of Visual Arts Critics at General-Interest Publications in America

THE VISUAL ARTS IN THE UNITED STATES have recently experienced a period of dynamic growth and professionalization, prompting the timely question: Do the news media provide sufficient exposure for art, artists and art institutions? In early 2002, the National Arts Journalism Program set out to answer this question, inviting art critics at general-interest news publications around the country to complete an online questionnaire about their backgrounds, educational credentials, work habits, tastes and opinions on issues concerning art in America today. The survey's 169 critics—drawn from 96 daily newspapers, 34 alternative weeklies and 3 national newsmagazines—write for a combined audience of approximately 60 million readers. The findings suggest that although art critics have carved out important roles at many publications, criticism is struggling to keep up with the swift evolution of the art world. The Visual Art Critic draws a portrait of a profession that is deeply committed to advancing the national discussion about art, yet hampered by job insecurity, vagueness of ethical standards and uncertainty of mission. Accompanied by insightful comments from artists, art-world professionals and the surveyed critics themselves, the findings of this report call attention to the need within newsrooms for continued investment and support for the enterprise of art criticism, especially in smaller communities, where some of the most noteworthy artistic developments are taking root.

Jack C. Hartigan, May 11,1970-January 2, 2006

It saddens me deeply to report that artist Jack Hartigan has passed away. 

Jack exhibited his large photographic works at the IUPUI Cultural Arts Gallery last year (where I am the curator) and was scheduled to do so again this winter. At Jack's request, his show was tentatively rescheduled for this spring because of his struggle with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma which sadly took his life this week. He was at peace. 

Jack had amazing vision with his photographic works that were politically poignant delving into the touchy subjects of contemporary civil rights issues while all the while being very elegant and intelligent. Few artists in this city have had the depth of intellect and the artistic aptitude to not just tackle sensitive topic matter, but to make it approachable and beautiful. 

It was an honor to work with someone so gracious and thorough, and also to host the fruition of his ideas. I'm thrilled IUPUI hosted his challenging work. The angel piece above was on the lighter side and features Erin Elizabeth Finn, a friend, as model. IUPUI had even discussed making Jack the "resident artist" at the Cultural Arts Gallery because of his abilities, his standards, his personality. And, Jack liked the idea too. We had discussed transforming his photos into installations and performance pieces...we discussed a lot of ideas. Jack was always very inspired (thus inspiring me), so ideas were always forthcoming. 

 Jack's funeral will take place this Saturday, January 14, 1 p.m. at St. Matthews Catholic Church. An exhibition of his work (venue to be determined) will be later this spring, with sales benefiting the Damien Center. I wish I could have known him better, but I admired and respected the person I did know. Thank you Loral Tansy for being an angel. May his memory be eternal.

Larry Endicott "Kuala Lumpur: A Photography Journey" - Stutz Gallery - Sept. 7, 2005 - 3 1/2 stars

Larry Endicott "Kuala Lumpur: A Photography Journey" 

at the Stutz Gallery 

Sept. 7, 2005 - 3 1/2 stars

What's most artful about this series is the paper treatment upon which these ink jet images are printed. The watercolor paper, glistening from its murky and yellowed polyurethane coating, adds to the sense of quietness all of these pieces by this Creative Renewal Fellow achieve. Fortunately, it smartly lends a bit of sympathy as well to some of the weaker, ordinary images. 

Unframed, copper nails adhere them to the crooked line of walls that compose the Stutz Gallery. Framed, one will set you back $1,200 - an optimistic asking price. There appear to be two aesthetics at play in this series that, as a whole, is a refreshingly refined break from Endicott's typical stylized and commercial leanings. Most pieces have straight-on vantages (a 50 mm feel) of Malaysian life shot with an inconsistent journalistic edge ("Performance Series #2" of an older couple singing on a sidewalk is amazing while "Greetings" is baffling), though the group of images lacks a story and incompletely documents his mission to contrast capitalism against poverty. This work does not feel like a series. 

Considering the times, this contrast could have been demonstrated anywhere in the U.S. where the divide between rich and poor is widening. How and why did this necessitate a trip to Malaysia? Had Endicott exhibited the images that encompass the towering buildings and contrasting cityscapes exclusively, like the stand-alone image "Homestead" (also called "Passenger"), it would have nailed his aim and made for a consistent, more successful show. Seen as a series (not broken down into like groups or some sequence) it's not as effective. Building images "Overseer" and "Radiant" possess a dreamlike stillness and emptiness that encompass a great amount of energy and life - they're great. Individually, most of the photos do have worth, proof that Endicott's drive to hone his skills has evolved and practice pays off. Seen as a whole, it's choppy, but could have been aided through a process of elimination. www.stutzartgallery.com. Through Sept. 13, 2005; (317) 833-7000. -Mary Lee Pappas

NUVO Newsweekly, September 7 to 14, 2005

Brose Partington and Phillip Lynam - MLP's two top 30 under 30 picks for NUVO published September 7, 2005

Phillip Lynam, 29, painter “I always drew and painted. It was something I got attention for doing,” Phillip Lynam says of his interest in visual arts. Overseeing the Star Studio at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, he has the opportunity to inspire a new generation. After graduating from Ben Davis High School in 1994, he received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and MFA in painting from the University of Maryland. “I taught design, painting and drawing at three schools in the Washington, D.C., area and would drive from one to the other,” he says of his role as gypsy professor at such schools as Montgomery College and Maryland College of Art and Design. “Basically, what I wanted to do was a full-time tenured track professorship, but they’re not just handing those out apparently,” the soft spoken Lynam laughs. He and his wife, Mirjam, moved back to Indianapolis (“Closer to family, farther from traffic”) in August of 2003. Their son, Ian, will turn 1 this month. “I started working in the security department at the museum because I needed a job with benefits. It actually was a really good way to sort of learn how the place worked.” He moved over to the exhibits department a year later and has been with the Star Studio since the museum reopened this year. “There are several ways the IMA reaches out to families with the studio programs and family days programming, but Star Studio is a unique place within that context because it’s a spot where we’re exhibiting work, and not kids artwork,” he says of the educational gallery. “It’s contemporary, challenging artwork that, framing it with activities that are geared toward families and children, gives them a way to … begin discussing the art. If it works right it ought to have a role in how kids can experience the rest of the art in the museum as well.” Lynam adds, “Anytime that I can have young people having a good experience with contemporary art and not feeling that it’s something they are alienated from, in the long run it’s good for everybody.” Visit www.philliplynam.com to learn more about Phillips’ artwork and www.ima-art.org to learn more about Star Studio and family programming. —Mary Lee Pappas Brose Partington, 25, sculptor/furniture maker “We work with the curators and the designers,” Brose Partington said of his role behind the scenes with the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s exhibition staff. “The designers have shows laid out the way they want them to be. They have it all measured up, how many paintings they want in a space. We install or build the walls to their specifications.” Currently, they are installing 300 objects for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s International Arts and Crafts exhibition that opens Sept. 25, in a 10,000 square foot gallery space. “We’re helping the couriers install work. We have the cases in, but still have to put fabric in them. Everything has to be sealed tight and pass conservation’s standards.” A furniture maker and sculptor, Partington has a degree in sculpture from Herron. “I started Herron not knowing what I wanted to do and then I took a sculpture class and fell in love with it because the professors were great,” he said. “I spent a lot of time outside as a child and playing around ponds. I loved mowing the lawn and putting designs in it with the tractor, walking along the levy and building forts with my brothers and sisters. It was great to hide, be alone and gather your thoughts with no one being able to find you the rest of the day,” he said of why nature was a major influence in his kinetic metal and wood sculptural work. “Just being outside and watching things move. I like to make sculptures that are changing and not too repetitive. “And my dad was a clock maker. He taught me a little about mechanics,” he added about his father, artist Michael Partington. His stepmother is ceramicist Soyong Kang. Getting his ideas to fruition is a part of the process. “There are different motions I want to do every time I want to do a new sculpture, and I’ll read a little bit about it. You have to feed your head and make things up to make it work. “I’m trying to lead my work into more sculptural furniture and I’m about to start a project which is a kinetic piece of furniture, so it’s definitely moving toward the sculptural side. I’ve always loved wood. It influences me a lot. Just finding and looking at a piece of wood gives me ideas.” www.brosepartington.com. —MLP

Anna Lee Chalos-McAleese: "Suspended Motion in Glass" - Indianapolis Art Center - August 31, 2005 - 5 stars

"Petra de ora" sandstone from the St. Meinard quarry, wood and glass are combined to create sensuous, defined, sculptural forms that feed off of instinct. Clear blown glass balls, central to all the pieces, spur an inborn attraction with their water-like shine from catching the light. They're also the perfect size to fit comfortably into a hand like an ancient pestle or tool, which only stimulates an innate tactile yearning. Further feeding on primordial senses is the placement of these vulnerable and slightly oblong looking balls between squarely cut stone as in "Bon Ami." Looking like a large raindrop or bubble, the glass defies its seeming flimsiness to hold the unlikely weight of the perfect stone. The implausibility is not an outright or harsh illusion, but rather a subconscious subtlety. The contrast of time trapped in the striation of the stone's gritty texture, with the free sense of movement and weightlessness exerted from the glass, is present though the two meld into a comfortably soft aesthetic. Eight children filtering through the gallery, captivated, exclaimed "wows" as their testament to this work's success. It tinkers with the laws of attraction. Chalos-McAleese, an art teacher of 20 years, received a Arts council of Indianapolis Creative Renewal Fellowship that enabled her to build this exceptional body of work. Through September 6, 2005; 317-255-2464. - Mary Lee Pappas

Robert R. Rough - Corner Coffee - Aug. 24, 2005 - 3 stars

Corny titles (like "Got the time?" of the familiar mound of watches in the window of Sasha's in Broad Ripple) don't help elevate the eight photography images by Gough beyond what you would expect from a well-immersed and well-trained hobbyist. Gough is capable of more. Quality of presentation and images exhibited are inconsistent as if Gough hasn't found his niche or tapped into a unique personal style with his art. Is he still experimenting or slightly uncomfortable with his technology? Typical landscape images and cats are (yawn) OK, but too ordinarily composed and conceived and thus average. Some are on the periphery of being great with "800 West Sunset" defying its mundane companions. Trees are black silhouetted against a hot sunset reflecting off of what appears to be an icy, flooded bank. Obviously with the direct sunlight, the aperture was set high and thus the image is crisp throughout. It's an unusual look at the everyday phenomenon against an unlikely setting. For the $95 price, it's a prize. Through August 2005. -Mary Lee Pappas

"Visual Fringe: An Explosion of Passionate Creation" - 4 Star Gallery - Aug. 17, 2005 - 1 star

"Visual Fringe: An Explosion of Passionate Creation" at the 4 Star Gallery

Aug. 17, 2005 - 1 star

"Visual Fringe 2005 sets out to uncover and tap into the most diverse and exciting range of local high caliber artists to paint or draw what they felt was their concept of lndy Fringe. The response from the artists was awesome. Visual Fringe will challenge people to look at art in a new way," writes www.indyfringe.org of its visual arts component to the Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival. But the work, individually and as a whole, is so embarrassing I wondered if I had walked into an intentional parody. Was I, the observer, part of some performance art joke? 

This show is a misrepresentation of the quality of visual art happening in our city and is thus way out of touch with what truly is fringe locally. And what does "the response from artists was awesome" mean when the call for artists was narrow?

Scarier still was that this show, the opposite of what it asserts to be, was juried. First effort excuse is unacceptable. How could such a well-orchestrated and amazing event allow this hoax to happen? Kudos still to Shawn Miller, owner of 4 Star, for always maintaining an open mind, taking risks and opening his doors to cutting-edge art, possibilities and ideas. His efforts alone earned the lone star rating. Perhaps next year Miller or some group like IMOCA will take the helm of the visual arts component and maybe revive his ahead-of-its-time Installation Festival. Through Aug. 28, 2005; www.indyFringe.org, (317) 822-4386. - Mary Lee Pappas 

 

Here are three letters received from this review. 

FYI, the show was solicited as being juried.

There was a fourth that is just too weird to add...maybe I will though. 

Letter #1 August, 21, 2005 

I am baffled, disappointed, and hurt by the review that the Visual Fringe Show received by Mary Lee Pappas. I understand a critic is allowed to judge a show based upon their expertise and thus report that to the public.  It is their job as a journalist for the paper they work for to report the quality of shows.  However, her comment that the work individually and as a whole was embarrassing was rude and based upon what?  

The show was juried by the curator of the Indiana State Museum.  The call to artists went out on the IndyArts site.  Quincy Owens one of the artist who had 3 pieces selected shows work on a regular basis at The Harrison Center, The Stutz Gallery and Lamp to name a few.  He also has done commentaries about the arts in Indianapolis on the TV. Emma Overman and Liz Margason are both in the Hoosier Salon show right now.  

Mary Lee Pappas had mentioned Emma Overman as having her work stand out to her in her review of the Hoosier Salon Show.  Emma also shows her work in the previously mentioned galleries and others, will have a one women show at the Stutz this winter, has shown at Talbot Street, and is a published children's book illustrator.  Sojna Widmer, Emma Overman, and Liz Margason were in a juried show with Mary Lee Pappas' painting at the Fletcher Pointe show call the Lamp's Art Party which was hosted and awards given by Jennifer Kaye of the Lamp Fine Arts Gallery.  Emma Overman won first place and Sojna Widmer came in 4th per popular vote at that show. Sojna Widmer's work has shown in New York at the Cork Gallery off Broadway, Dean Johnson Gallery in December, The Indianapolis Art Center's Winter Solstice show, Lamp Fine Art Gallery, Broadripple Art Fair, and on a regular basis at CCA Gallery in Zionsville. Sojna Widmer has won first place, merit awards, and prize money for her collage work at numerous shows.  

I don't know what Mary Lee Pappas was basing her opinions on that the work at the 4 Star Gallery didn't represent the quality of visual art in the Indianapolis area when indeed we do.  I don't know what writing to you will do to help any of us artists but hope you have a sympathetic ear.  I just indeed hope it doesn't hurt any of us any more than the uneducated and opinionated review did. 

Sincerely, 

Sojna Widmer 

Letter #2 August 20, 2005 

Are you an art critic? And what is your background? 

I would personally like a response from Ms. Mary Lee Pappas. 

I am one of the artists at 4 Star Gallery for Indy Fringe. INTAKE did a great spread this week showcasing the artists and the art. Have you seen it? Quite frankly, being synical and negative is much easier than asking questions and understanding. Do a little research. Do you know what artists are showing? Did you know that Q. Jones (Quincy Jones) has been written up time and time again as one of our best? Your records should show Jan12-19 2005 p. 20. Just to mention one article. 

I make and sell art for living- in homes, galleries, retail boutiques (in some of our "finest" ones I might add).... Another artist is a children's literature illustrator...for a living. The mix is actually quite nice and extremely diverse. I will keep the rest of my opinions about Ms. Pappas review for a later discussion if I would be allowed. Overall it is her "misrepresentation" of our Visual Fringe at 4 Star that really, seems mostly prematurely judged. 

By the way, it is Shawn Miller, not Sean. I look forward to hearing from you both. 

Sincerely, 

Shelley Savini 

Letter #3 

When someone presents me or anyone I represent with outright lies and blatant misrepresentation, I don't stand idly by and allow it to happen. This may take some energy which I don't have vast stores of, but I usually go ahead and do it anyway. 

When I was teaching as an adjunct professor of journalism, any student of mine would have been called to the table with lack of research and blatant inaccuracies in any piece they had written. I no longer teach but am calling someone on their published work. Today, I bring Mary Lee Pappas to the table. She wrote a "clip" as a "freelance writer" for Nuvo about the Visual Fringe 2005 currently at the 4 Star Gallery until August 31st, 653 Massachusetts Avenue. The "clip" lacks research, quotes, and accuracy. 

She didn't get the gallery owner's (Shawn Miller) name right but lauded him. I'm appalled at what Pappas had to say in a small "clip" or review. In journalism, there's this thing called the "inverted pyramid," so am placing the important stuff at the top. 

First, I encourage readers to pick up an Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival program and read all about the fringe fest and also the Visual Fringe. Go fringe, and stop in at 4 Star to see 26 fabulous art pieces plus art for sale in the print bins. All sales benefit the fringe and the artists. The artists whose works were selected to fill the blank walls of the 4 Star Gallery for the month of August did not receive any awards, stipends, nothing. Neither did I as coordinator of the show. There wasn't a contest. There are no awards. There was a very broad Call For Entries. This is not considered a juried show. But, we had a blast at the opening art reception where upwards of 300 to maybe even 400 people showed up according to both my own, Quincy Owens' and fringe president Tom Battista's best guesses. There are gifted, talented professionals in this art show who garner award after award and have done so for a long time. There are people represented in this group who have contributed significantly to various aspects of art development in Indianapolis, some of us, if old enough, for years! All one has to do is to just glimpse through the bios and note the accolades. 

When veteran Nuvo readers read the "clip" at the bottom of page 26 in the current issue, I hope they will consider the "source." I don't have to pen a dissertation here as it was published last year in a Nuvo article by Allan Schoff in the May 19, 2004 issue in a response to an inaccurate report published by Pappas' in Nuvo. Go to: http://www.nuvo.net/archive/2004/05/19/art_vs_art.html. He says it better than I ever could. I strongly urge Pappas to get facts, as a first step, then to report them honestly, accurately, and in a kinder spirit. For starters, all one has to do these days is run a simple search on a search engine. You can find out a lot about the artists of the current Visual Fringe that way if you spell their names correctly. Or maybe even if you don't spell them right. 

As for Pappas, I learned that she taught a seminar through Arts Alliance back in 2002 on "How To Write A News Release." I wonder how she came up with her facts to give to the attendees? I learned that she was in an art show with Quincy Owens, a Visual Fringe artist, who is a very nice and talented young man. And I wonder why Pappas spoke so unkindly? Sandy Dorste (a visual fringe artist) and I visited that show in June 2004 at the Harrison Center where Pappas' works were also shown. I wonder why she wrote such a piece about a talented colleague? I wonder if Pappas ever attended a fringe fest before this event here in Indy? I wonder if she knows anymore about it than I did until almost a year ago? I wonder if our dear late and great Harrison Ullmann (who spoke to several of my journalism writing classes) is turning in the grave a bit about poor journalism? I owed Harrison a story, and we talked about it each time we spoke. He died before I ever got one written for him. Until now, several years down the path. Whether it's regular or alternative journalism, a report has to have accurate facts. I wonder if Pappas is a trained journalist? Back to the search engine. Such inaccuracies are not acceptable, 

Ms. Pappas. I believe you owe 13 people who are in the Visual Fringe 2005 an apology. I believe you owe the current, wonderful editors of Nuvo, Jim Poyser and David Hoppe, an apology. The piece was small and many readers may have missed it. 

Finally, hats off to the editors for great coverage of the Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival. Come see the shows. Come see the Visual Fringe 2005 at 4 Star Gallery. And come see \"Confusion\" by Foreal Art Company at the fringe at the Athenaeum, which is about, and above all, honesty and integrity in today's world. Glad you and your wife saw it, Jim!!! 

Charlene Faris

Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, Charlene Faris, Indy Fringe Festival, Harrison Ullmann, Jim Poyser, Patricia Wildhack, Quincy Owens, Shawn Miller, 4 Star Gallery, David Hoppe, Shelley Savini, Tom Battista, Alan Schoff, Sandy Dorste, Fringe Fest, Indiana State Museum, Harriso Centre, Emma Overman, Hoosier Salon, Sonja Widmer, Lamp Fine Arts Gallery, Liz Marason, Stutz Gallery, 

Dead Meat: Indiana’s role in the horse slaughter industry - August 3, 2005

Indiana’s role in the horse slaughter industry

A pickup truck on U.S. 20 hauls three horses in a cattle trailer to the Shipshewana auction.

The pickup truck on U.S. 20 drives slowly, its red cattle trailer veering back and forth over this two-lane highway. The cargo, three horses much too large for the container, struggle to keep their footing.

As the trailer rocks, one horse’s hind end rubs against the trailer doors, creating a blood-colored, burn-like wound. With every bump in the road, his haunches and shoulders hit the roof. His head is also forcibly lowered down to fit. Still, his drive to the Shipshewana auction will be better than the one to the slaughterhouse.

The Shipshewana Auction, Inc. in Shipshewana, Ind., holds a kill auction every Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. A kill auction is an auction for slaughter-bound horses whose meat will be sold overseas. It’s termed a “loose auction” though it’s common knowledge that the horses there are bought by buyers, called kill buyers, working for the three foreign-owned slaughterhouses operating in the United States. Horsemeat, a popular alternative to beef in the wake of mad cow disease, will be shipped to Italy, Belgium, France, Japan and Holland.

Toward the center of the huge, two-story auction barn, away from the small, seated, arena where work and saddle horses are auctioned, the horse with the bloodied dock stands among nearly 80 others crowded into five stalls. Thirteen to 17 horses of varied types are packed into side-by-side stalls approximately 10-by-40-feet. These are the kill pens.

The center stalls contain athletes — thoroughbreds, standardbreds and quarter horses — with shiny coats and shoed feet that click on the straw-covered concrete floor as they walk into the auction area. Unlike the horses on U.S. 20 this morning, these are delivered mid-week and/or in the middle of the night on back-roads so they’re less likely to be seen.

The Indiana Board of Animal Health and the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) would prefer the public believed horses sent to slaughter are past their prime.

The auctioneer at the Shipshewana kill auction rattles through bid amounts in the makeshift auction ring as the kill buyers inspect horses they'll send to the slaughter. Most horses in the kill auction are healthy and young, with some on the fleshy side, some with braided manes and leather bridles. No evidence of food or water is present. Signs of dehydration exist in the animals — like sunken eyes and temples. Indiana law says horses at market for more than 24 hours must have access to food and water, but most of these horses will spend less time than that here. Profusely sweating and skittish, many of the horses are unquestionably nervous. A small horse, sandwiched among others, continuously kicks a draft horse in the neck and face with neither one being able to gain space despite their struggle.

Stall by stall, one horse at a time is ushered into a partitioned bend between a series of gated enclosures where the kill auction discreetly commences. The auctioneer sputters through bid amounts as most horses, identified by numbered white hip tags, bound about in the space encircled by vacant, stony buyers, seemingly unmoved by the scene.

“4X,” he shouts, indicating the winning buyer’s ID number. A woman tallying the sales furiously scribbles transaction details from a decked walkway above where a crowd, including children and Amish, watch the kill auction below. 4X’s horses are then maneuvered by teen-aged handlers into another crowded stall no different than the kill pens they just left.

The athletes, possibly retired racehorses from the two Indiana tracks, Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park, were going for about $300. “That’s a good one,” the auctioneer says of one that sells for $470. The auctioneer’s voice becomes unhurried as he eyes the buyers, saying, “Look at the hips on that mare,” of a fat, regal, gray draft horse, her head held high. She’s calm and seems deliberate with every step as she faces a kill buyer. Bidding starts at $700. The slaughterhouse will get $20 per pound for her. That’s nearly an $18 profit margin. Bulky draft horses are most sought after by the kill buyers who get 20-40 cents per pound from slaughterhouses; the best kill buyers get more.

Thirteen to 17 horses of varied types are packed into five side-by-side stalls approximately 10-by-40-feet. These are the kill pens.

Two horses sustaining injuries walk through. One, dirty, thin and disfigured from a leg break that healed poorly long ago, sells for $125. Disoriented and possibly sedated, the other ragged, swaybacked horse staggers with a limp and incessantly sways its head. He’s given free to the kill buyer.

A hearty horse that follows prompts the auctioneer to joke, “Here’s a walkin’ horse! Look at him walkin’!” A woman in the crowd rescues the last horse up for bid, a mini, for $100.

Any horse can wind up in this kill auction. Quota contractors supply horses to the kill auctions to keep the slaughterhouse’s dollars rolling in. They comb the state for horses they can get cheap to turn a quick, usually cash, profit. Because the horses can change hands many times before reaching a kill auction, their paper trail can vanish — that means ownership and health records. Auction records therefore don’t always show quota buyers as owners. Horses can also be stolen.

It takes just under 30 minutes to sell the nearly 80 horses at the Shipshewana auction. That would average some 4,000 horses sent annually to slaughter from there alone. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service/USDA, 65,976 American horses were slaughtered for meat in 2004.

Horse auctions

The Rushville Horse Sales Co. Inc. in Rushville, Ind., conducts their auction every Tuesday at 4 p.m. though their auction license was terminated Feb. 28, 1998.

The Veedersburg Sale Barn, Inc., 100 S. Maple St Veedersburg, Ind. 765-376-5144

The Shipshewana Auction and Flea Market 345 S. Van Buren St. Shipshewana, Ind. 260-768-4129

Kill horse rescue

Kimberly King, Fox 59 news reporter and meteorologist, at Indiana Downs in Shelbyville, Ind., where her volunteer efforts with CANTER Indiana give throughbred racehorses a second chance.

“We need this because we have a pretty big thoroughbred industry in Indiana,” Kimberly King says of CANTER Indiana, a national nonprofit affiliate that provides retiring thoroughbreds with opportunities for new careers as hunters, jumpers, sport horses or beloved pets. The Fox 59 news reporter and meteorologist volunteers with CANTER (Communications Alliance to Network Thoroughbred Ex-Racehorses) by walking the shed rows early every Saturday morning at Indiana Downs in Shelbyville, Ind., networking with trainers and owners and typically saying, “Would you like to find a new home for your horse? He’s done racing.” She explained, “We are purely a middle-man to give the trainer free advertising for the horse. We put the horse’s picture on the Web and give the phone number of the trainer.” Depending on how long a horse has been raced, thoroughbred prices range from $500 to the claiming price of a given track, which is $3,000 at Indiana Downs. CANTER receives no commission.

Hoosier Park, owned by Churchill Downs, has also recently partnered with CANTER Indiana. “We are thrilled to have both Indiana tracks as partners of CANTER,” King says. “We have gotten a very good response. Initially … they [trainers and owners] weren’t that familiar with the program. Since we were coming down every Saturday, they got to know us.” It didn’t take long before they wanted to find their horses homes. King says they would tell her, “‘His racing career is over and I don’t want him to end up somewhere that’s not humane.’ That’s the whole point of CANTER — transitioning them and giving them new careers off the track.”

Jon Schuster, Indiana Downs general manager, agrees, saying in an e-mailed statement to NUVO: “Along with CANTER, Indiana Downs also feels that every horse deserves the opportunity to go into retirement as a pet or find a new career. The well-being of each horse is of great concern for both parties and CANTER is a great organization who we wish further success and welcome them to Indiana.”

Horse rescue groups

Consider donating your horse to a therapeutic riding organization or equine rescue rather than selling it at auction. Report stolen horses to local and state authorities. Report abuse and neglect to a local animal control office and to law enforcement. Responsible horse ownership could mitigate the number of horses that ultimately wind up at kill auctions.

CANTER Indiana

765-779-4148, 317-966-1882

e-mail canterin@canterusa.org, www.canterusa.org

Indiana Horse Rescue

916 S Prairie Ave., Frankfort, Ind., 46041,

765-659-5209

e-mail inrescue@ccwave.net, www.indianahorserescue.com

$250-$750 adoption fees

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF)

450 Shrewsbury Plaza, Suite 351, Shrewsbury, N.J., 07702,

732-957-0182

www.trfinc.org

adoption fees: $500-$2,500; sponsor a TRF Retiree: $250 on up

Old Friends

411 Mill Road Place, Midway, Ky., 40347

e-mail contact@oldfriendsequine.com, www.oldfriendsequine.com

$50 donors become part owner of thoroughbreds they rescue.

Indiana laws don’t protect horses

Jim Bradford, city-county councilman (R), believes Indiana can protect horses from slaughter and improve care and treatment legislation.

Jim Bradford’s love of horses was instilled at a young age. “My dad, he loved horses,” City-County Councilman Bradford says of his father who passed away four years ago. “We always went to opening day at Churchill Downs,” he reminisces, adding that advocating for horses is a way to pay tribute to his father.

Growing up, he rode ponies at Acorn Farm Camp in Carmel and worked at the harness racing track at the Indiana State Fairgrounds summers and weekends as a teen-ager.

When Bradford met Michael Blowen of Old Friends, a racehorse rescue organization in Lexington, Ky., “I started learning about slaughter and what happens to these old racehorses,” he says. Old Friends rescues American racehorses shipped overseas for syndication and stud that ultimately wind up slaughtered for meat. Bradford’s interest was also spurred by the slaughter of Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby and 1987 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, in 2002 for meat in Japan. “It was such an outrage … this wasn’t going to happen again.”

Bradford is creating a nonprofit comparable to Old Friends to rescue Indiana racehorses overseas and in the U.S.

“There are no laws that take care of these horses. Basically, they are livestock. I’ve gone to kill auctions in Indiana and found it very distressing,” Bradford says. While attending the Rushville Horse Sale Co. Inc.’s horse auction this spring, he observed a sick horse that fell and remained on the ground. “Why wasn’t there someone in that barn to make sure those horses don’t hurt themselves or hurt somebody else? Obviously, no one was looking after them.” The Rushville Horse Sales Co. Inc. in Rushville, Ind., conducts their auction every Tuesday at 4 p.m. though their auction license was terminated Feb. 28, 1998.

While horses serve predominantly as companion animals, they’re considered livestock. Federal tax laws deem horse owners as farmers. If horses were no longer designated as livestock, federal and state taxes for horse operations would probably increase.

Bradford believes that if the public knew what was happening, laws would change. “We have a new governor who wants to make changes,” he says of Mitch Daniels. “These horses are a product, a part of the economy.” He hopes to have a dialogue with Daniels and state legislators about the welfare of Indiana’s horses. He would like to see double deck trailers used to transport horses and kill auctions ended. “To basically outlaw the slaughter … of horses for human consumption, that’s my goal.”

He explains that legislative efforts advocating for horses in New York have been futile, winding up in the hands of agricultural committees. “In Indiana, we’ve got a great opportunity” to make change, he says. “If we want to be involved in thoroughbred racing, then it’s our obligation. Indiana can be the first state to say if we’re going to breed a horse here, we’re going to make sure those horses are retired and taken care of. We need to push legislation.”

Bradford would like to see stricter guidelines for obtaining auction licenses and permits, and see the Indiana Board of Animal Health enforce inspections.

“If the criteria are vague and loose, then we need to make sure they are outlined enough so that the horses are being better taken care of, that you’re going to give these horses enough space at auction barns.”

Slaughter subculture

A double deck truck sits on the Shipshewana auction's lot.

On Sept. 15, 2004, a double deck truck carrying approximately 50 horses flipped over on Indiana S.R. 1 just north of Lawrenceburg. While going around a turn, the vehicle slid, hit the guardrail, then plowed over the embankment. It’s not uncommon for trucks to use this route to avoid the weigh scales on I-74, and to avoid Ohio gas taxes.

Twenty-one horses died and 12 were euthanized on site. According to eyewitness accounts, quarter horses, a team of draft horses and horses with show braids were among the survivors. Some horses had their withers worn raw from rubbing against the truck during travel while another with a broken leg wanted to graze. One lucky horse was sold at the scene. It’s not known if these horses came from an Indiana auction or whether they were going to slaughter. Young and thirsty, they weren’t unlike those slaughter bound.

Intended for transport of cattle and hogs, double deck compartments are too small for horses. Ceiling heights are as low as 5-foot-7, while most horses are 7 to 8 feet tall. Double deck trailers also allow urine and feces from the horses on the upper deck to fall onto the horses in the lower deck. Trailers are dangerous when weight is unevenly distributed (as evidenced in the Lawrenceburg accident and others) and top decks have been known to collapse.

Double deck trucks containing horses travel Indiana back roads at night, a tactic to keep Indiana’s role in the horse slaughter industry under the public’s and law enforcement’s radar. From the Veedersburg kill auction (see sidebar), trucks drive U.S. 41 north to get to the Cavel horse slaughterhouse in DeKalb, Ill. Drivers heading from the Shipshewana auction with their double deck trucks need only U.S. 20 to start their drive to Canadian slaughterhouses.

On Dec. 7, 2001, the USDA passed a bill that will go into effect in 2007, banning the use of double deck trailers for use in transporting horses directly to slaughter — but not for horses traveling elsewhere.

Sen. Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne) proposed legislation in S.B. 86 in 2002 prohibiting double deck transport of horses. Had it been enacted, it would have created criminal penalties for those who transport horses in a vehicle having two or more levels stacked on top of one another, and that does not allow the horse to be transported in a standing position with its head in a normal upright position.

The bill’s biggest opponent was state Rep. Bob Cherry (R-Hancock County), director of local government affairs (former lobbyist until his 1998 appointment) for Farm Bureau.

Lousy laws

Indiana has no laws regulating transporting or living space requirements for horses.

Federal law requires they have access to food, water and rest for a minimum of six hours immediately before loading into a conveyance. Slaughter drivers sign a USDA form, VS Form 10-13, to that effect, though the form is said by the Indiana Board of Animal Health to be used primarily to track disease outbreaks rather than enforce care and treatment accountability. According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners, a horse’s daily water requirement varies from 5 to 20 gallons.

An amendment made to the 2005 Federal Appropriations Bill by Sen. Burns (R-Mont.) last November has allowed the commercial sale of wild horses, allowing individuals and corporations to buy wild horses with the intention of slaughtering them for profit. On Jan. 25, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.V.) introduced H.R. 297, to repeal the Burns Amendment, restoring protection of America’s wild horses. Comparably, a bill to restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros was introduced March 9, 2005, by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.V.).

The U.S. House of Representatives on June 8, 2005, voted in favor of stopping horse slaughter in the United States by a 269-158 landslide vote, House Amendment 236 of H.R. 2744, to bar federal funds from being used to facilitate all horse slaughter. Because it’s attached to an annual spending bill it will only stop horse slaughter for one year. However, it demonstrates strong congressional support for a permanent ban that can be achieved through H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, sponsored by representative John Sweeney (R-N.Y.), who also sponsored the amendment. Joining him on both measures are U.S. Reps. John Spratt (D-S.C.), Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.V.). H.R. 503 reads, “To amend the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.” The equine industry supports this bill, including National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the Breeders Cup, Ltd.

Contact your local congressman regarding H.R. 503; visit www.in.gov/apps/sos/legislator/search/. Until horses are presented for slaughter for human consumption (food animal), they are classified as a “companion animal” and are not subject to the regulations of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.

Conscious citizenry
Denise Derrer, public information director of the State of Indiana Board of Animal Health (BOAH) says, “We do at least at minimum an annual inspection,” regarding the frequency with which the agency visits livestock auctions.

“We’re not there at every auction or every week by any means, but we’re there on a regular basis just for other business or other investigations. In addition, particularly at Shipshewana, the U.S. Department of Agriculture folks are there because of other inspection programs going on, particularly in cattle.”

How often does the USDA inspect Indiana horse auctions? “I don’t know,” Derrer says.

The chain of custody and accountability for horse welfare and what agency should be enforcing abuses is difficult to decipher.

“Now, abuse and neglect of horses is against state law,” Derrer explains. “Under state law, interpretation and enforcing that law has to be done at the local law enforcement level.” Every county has its own neglect ordinances. “There’s not infinite resources to follow every horse trailer moving on every county road. We have four animal health inspectors covering the whole state with vet staff on top of that. We just don’t have the enforcement authority … even if we saw something.”

Why don’t we eat horsemeat?
Common equine parasitic drugs like Quest and Equimax have labels that read, “Do not use in horses or ponies intended for food,” and, “Not for human consumption.” When drugs, like the concentrated hormone Lutalyse, wear off, wouldn’t there still be a concentration of those and other drugs in the horse’s blood stream and a residual content in their tissue?

Amanda Eamich, Congressional and Public Affairs, Food and Safety Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, tells NUVO, “The Food and Drug Administration approves drugs used on animals. Many carry a mandatory withdrawal period, which is verified by an ongoing residue testing program.”

How is it that France and Japan allow horsemeat from the U.S. to be consumed? She answers, “FSIS conducts a monitoring program, sampling a certain percentage of horses presented for slaughter for residues. In addition, the European Union [EU] established a residue testing program that is carried out by horse slaughter establishments. The EU audited horse slaughterhouses in 2005 and all results were acceptable.”

In the United States, “Horse meat can be used in dog food. It is also purchased by zoos,” she adds.

VS Form 10-13 is a form that horse slaughter transport drivers sign off on ensuring that horses have had access to food, water and rest for a minimum of six hours before being loaded onto a conveyance in addition to other care standards. Falsified information can result in fines or imprisonment. The BOAH said the form was used to track disease outbreaks as well. Eamich offers, “The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service [APHIS] administers and enforces form VS 10-13 ensuring that animals are transported in a safe and humane manner. FSIS also ensures the humane handling and treatment of horses, which are an amenable species, as required by the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.”

The question, “Why don’t we eat horse meat in the U.S.?” was left unanswered.

Slaughterhouse operators render horses unconscious with stun guns (designed for cattle) that send a 4-inch nail into their heads. The Humane Slaughter Act requires that an animal be rendered unconscious by a single blow, but with horses it can require more. Shackled, hoisted into the air, their throats are cut to be bled before being dismembered into steaks.

After the auction
The auctioneer’s voice constantly rattles through bids. “Hundred and a quarter,” he bellows jumping right into the bids for the next horse.

“One-eighty,” he says of the selling price of $180 for a chestnut colored horse with the next few horses going for under $200.

“Hundred and a quarter,” he shouts of another winning bid amount over the eerie shrill of a high-spirited horse’s constant neighing.

It elevates to such a high pitch it sounds like a child’s scream, drowning out the auctioneer not 15 feet away. The horse paces in its spot where he’s tied up. Pulling at the rope that tethers him, he repeatedly walks backward, lifting his front legs to get leverage to fight the rope. His eyes are huge. His “flight” behavior is symptomatic of his fear, and his journey is only beginning.

Sitting openly on the Shipshewana auction’s lot is a double deck trailer. All the day’s auctions will end and the public will go home before 4X’s horses are loaded on to it. Dusk will settle in by the time this happens, so no one will see.

mpappas@nuvo.net

Recommended reading
After the Finish Line by Bill Heller Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz