For
painter artist Andy Van Schyndle coming to the Black Swamp Arts Festival in 2011
was a trip into the unknown.The Wisconsin-based artist specializes in trips to
the unknown. Hiscanvasses are full of odd images of wacky circuses, vampire
penguins andspace aliens. “Midwest surrealism,” he calls his work.Van Schyndle
never heard of the festival before, he saw it listed onthe ZAPP, the site the
festival uses to handle applications to thejuried show, and given he had an open
weekend in his schedule decided totake a chance.“It was fantastic,” Van Schyndle
said. “It was one of my best shows ofthe year.” His triumph was capped by
winning the Dorothy Uber BryanPainting Award.So he’ll be back on the street when
the art show occupies Main StreetBowling Green Sept. 8 and 9. Saturday art show
hours are 10 a.m. to 6p.m. and Sunday hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.Van Schyndle
does about 20 shows a year. “I tend to go back to a lotbecause I know what
they’re like and I’ve got a good client base.” Stillhe tries out a few new shows
a year. “Sometimes you win, sometimes youlose.”The Black Swamp Arts Festival was
definitely a winner. “It was great, just perfect.”He loved “the energy” of the
event. In some shows “the crowds are lackadaisical … people just mill
around.”In contrast, “you could just tell people were really excited to
bethere,” Van Schyndle said. “The crowd is what makes it a good or badshow.”His
girlfriend will come with him this year, so he’s looking forward to getting out
and seeing more of the show.Van Schyndle, 37, is in his ninth year on the art
fair circuit. Thejourney started in elementary school in Green Bay, Wisc., when
he andhis friends would get together to draw cartoon and video gamecharacters,
Pac-Man, Frogger and Donkey Kong. “We always looked forwardto a rain day at
recess, so we’d just stay inside and draw cartoons.”Now he has kids come up to
his booth and show him their drawings. Helooks at them and realizes “that’s
exactly what I was doing at thatage.”In high school, his art took a realistic
turn toward images of flora andfauna — deer, fish and landscapes — that were
“ultra-realistic, almostphotorealistic. “Van Schyndle went on to study art at
the University of Wisconsin GreenBay . There he discovered the surrealists,
particularly Salvador Daliand Rene Magrittte.What to do with the degree was as
much as problem for him as other art graduates.“I remember the day I graduated
(in 1998) I got the paper and looked atthe classifieds and didn’t see ‘artist’
listed,” Van Schyndle said. Hewondered: “What do I do now?”He continued working
for his father’s plumbing business, where he’dworked since he was 10. He also
did some traveling visiting nationalparks, living in his van.Several years after
graduating he realized he would be “stuck doing plumbing” if he did devote
himself to art.So he headed way north to Alaska. He lived there for a
year,concentrating on his work. “There’s no better place to get away from itall
than Alaska,” he said. “I was kind of like a hermit up there, doing alot of
painting.”What came out on canvas were fantasy landscapes. “That’s just what was
in my head.”He was able to use the technique he’d developed depicting nature
tocreate images informed by the pop culture and fantasy world from hisearliest
attempts at art. Connecting with that youthful energy is whatso many artists try
to do, Van Schyndle said.He returned to Wisconsin, and in 2004 started
“dabbling” in art fairs.“At first I didn’t make any money at all. I lost a lot
of money,” hesaid. “I don’t know why I even kept doing them. I guess it was
justsomething to do, to have fun and show the artwork.”He kept adding a few art
fairs a year. Then in the fourth year, businesstook off. It was fortuitous he
said, because at that point the economydeclined, and with it the plumbing
business. For the first time in 20years he was unemployed.Now he was making just
enough to be a full-time artist.Those years in plumbing, digging trenches and
breaking concrete, thoughwere valuable. They gave him the work ethic needed to
spend long hoursat the easel bringing to life the twisted and grotesque figures
thatdanced around in his head.It also helps dealing with the rigors of the art
fair circuit.“Doing art fairs is a lot of work,” he said. He must prepare for
everyshow, travel and then set up his booth. “It’s as much work as I wasdoing
when I was plumbing.”His booth is elaborate, almost a secret chamber into which
the viewer enters into Van Schyndle’s bizarre universe.Dennis Wojtkiewicz, a
Bowling Green State University faculty member whojudged the festival last year,
was impressed by Van Schyndle’s boothwith its towering wooden superstructure.
“You enter into this world. Thebooth supports the work and vice versa. …. The
complete package is animportant part of how you respond.”Van Schyndle attributes
the popularity of fantasy in pop culture withthe success of his work on the art
fair circuit. Younger artists likehimself tend to be a minority on the
circuit.He tries to encourage young artists he meets at fairs to consider
artfairs. “These art fairs are great for getting the art right out in
thepublic’s face.”While a gallery may attract 10,000 people in a year, the Black
SwampArts Festival draws a total of 60,000, and other larger shows havecrowds
over 100,000. That’s in just a weekend.“It’s almost a perfect venue for them,”
Van Schyndle said of youngartists. “They’re doing a lot of raw crazy stuff and
that would bereally fun to see at art festivals. The public would get to see a
lot ofcool stuff.”Meanwhile he’s looking forward to returning to Black Swamp.
He’ll havesome new paintings but mostly it’ll be “the same crazy stuff.”