Burlington Memorial Auditorium hosted the annual Celebrity Brush Battle again this past Friday. A rare crowd gathered for dinner and ate while watching five local legends try to reproduce a painting by a famous artist. All this is done in order to raise money for the Burlington Arts Center.
ACB Director Elizabeth Papas said: “We were able to make this happen thanks to our incredible advice, our tireless staff, our army of volunteers and this community that continues to support the Burlington Art Pop event on November 18th.
This year’s theme was pop art, and artists were shown a painting minutes before kickoff, with each team of artist mentors choosing a famous painting to emulate. Each celebrity is painted on a 20×24″ canvas on stage in front of a live audience.
The food is tasty and plentiful – the Bent River and Broadway collaboration includes street tacos with pico de gallo, cilantro and lime cream; sausages with sauerkraut and mustard IPA; Polish sausage skewers with chili and onion served with IPA, buffalo or Asian mustard. chicken wings.
A full lobby bar is available to all in attendance, run by the undefeated David Kroll, assistant director of Burlington Riverside Entertainment.
These teams are Alec Cornick and coach Jerry Sparks, Jason Hutcheson is coached by David Garrison, Kim Staub is coached by Janet Hutchmeister, Mike McCoy is cared for by his granddaughter Nora Bell, and Mike Ripple is his own worst critic, even in the pundits. With the help of Jessica Kirby.
The evening began with the music of Eric Pettit Lyon, the band provided an excellent artist watching background music, almost perfect sound reinforcement, smooth vocals and Chris Robbins’ delicious steel guitar.
McCoy wore a pinstriped gangster suit, white hat and red tie. “Gangster” was his nickname.
Wearing a black wig and calling himself “Royal and Cheese”, Ripple looked a bit like a hungover John Travolta.
Cornick sported his flip-flops as “Flip-Flop” to the Blue Swede version of “ooga-chukka” of BJ Thomas’ hit “Hooked on a Feeling”.
Staub’s team is Iowa vs. Illinois, with Staub wearing a Hawkeye jersey and Coach Khachmeister wearing Illinois colors.
Jason Hutcheson, dressed as Ringling’s bandleader, lived up to his “Great Showman” catchphrase, while David Garrison was trapped by the “Lion Tamer” in Warhol’s nightmare.
Painting starts. The artists squinted, writhed, drank, smeared, indulged. The audience is ecstatic.
Artwork hanging from the stage includes Andy Warhol’s psychedelic Marilyn Monroe, a creepy portrayal of Keith Haring, and the Burlington Mafia. A cartoon notebook by an artist I don’t know.
Fleming auctioned off an eye patch that Jason Hutchison, executive director of the Great River Badlands Foundation, had to wear for five minutes while painting.
“It’s terrible, it’s terrible. I’m not an artist,” Ripple mutters, looking hopelessly as he struggles to reproduce the same painting that Connick created with ease.
Fleming received $100 from a backer who wanted Ripple pro Jessica Kirby to help McCoy within five minutes. Then former ACB director Tammy McCoy paid $250 to have her friend Vivian Anderson paint alongside her favorite art team, Staub and Hachmeister.
“I majored in graphic design,” Anderson said. “I didn’t know what she was drawing and then she showed me a picture on her phone.”
McCoy’s trainer, granddaughter Nora Bell, laughed when someone asked her about her grandfather’s chances of winning for Andy Warhol’s classic Marilyn Monroe.
“He has little chance here,” Bale said with a laugh. “I hope he can take third place. My goal is the third.
As real estate expert Kim Staub worked on her interpretation of…whatever it was, one observer asked her how painting in front of a crowd compared to selling a house.
“It’s a lot harder because I don’t know what I’m doing here, at least I know what I’m doing when I sell my house,” she said with a wry smile.
Malaysian-born Dao Lim, an engineer at Winegard, moved to Burlington a few years ago. Someone asked Lim if there is any event like Celeb Battle in Malaysia.
“No, it’s very unique. I have never seen such an event before. Everything is very ordinary,” he said, before admitting that he has a favorite artist on stage.
Shortly before the auction, last year’s winner, Dr. Michael AbuAssali, expressed his family’s opinion.
“Jason’s art is top notch, but I think he did it too fast,” Abu Assali said, his tongue sticking out prominently on his cheek. “He needs to come back, recheck, do some finishing touches.”
Abu Assali said that whoever bought Hutcheson’s painting probably wanted him to show up later and do some minor repairs.
“It just needs a bit of retouching, but overall it’s a good job,” he says, frowning.
“It’s apples and oranges, it’s actually a completely different art style,” said Abu Assali. “Overall, a great drawing… He used to be my doctor colleague, and now he’s my boss, so I have to say that I like his drawings the most.”
“But there’s nothing you can do about it!” Hutchison objected. “Every time I touch it, I ruin everything. So let’s just call it good.”
The two men were standing in the middle of the room, and as they looked at Hutchison’s painting on stage, the artist suggested that it would be better for people to look at it from that angle.
“If we get too close, we have nose and jaw problems,” Hutchison said. “But from afar, when someone is standing in front of him, he looks normal.”
After two hours the painting stopped and the artists began to auction their masterpieces. Ripple gave away prizes, including Bees Bucks and his psychopathic Travolta wig, before telling viewers that his drawing was a donut.
When the auction closed, the Cornick-Sparks team took home the highest bidder bacon: $5,100.
“It’s always fun to get involved, it’s even more fun to be involved,” Connick later said. “I had a great time. More importantly, it was a fantastic evening for the Arts Center. I congratulate them on such a success of this event.”
Hutcheson-Garrison was second with $3,400, Staub-Hachmeister was third with $3,000, McCoy-Bell was next with $2,000, and Ripple-Kirby was last but still with offers in the thousands. The Art Center is raising funds.
Oddly enough, only Ripple’s masterpiece will be on display at the art center this week, as four other buyers have absconded with their wares.
“This is the first time I’ve had such fun painting under my granddaughter’s artist,” he said, before thanking Pappas and BRE executives Kroll, as well as executive director Mike O’Neill. “Well done Elizabeth, Mike, David and their staff, I enjoyed the opportunity to embarrass myself and have fun at the same time.”
Pappas said she and her staff were “overwhelmed by the overwhelming support from this great community.”