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Overlooked artwork emerges from Corner

Just when you think the Corner has nothing more to offer, when you've been there and done that at every watering hole, coffee shop and eatery, University Avenue's easy-access cultural hub jumps up and surprises you.

There's food, sure. Enough coffee for the student body to pull a collective all-nighter. And the beer options are quite simply absurd. But there's also a healthy dose of ... art.

Does the average Corner patron notice the variety of - dangerous word - aesthetics? Espresso Corner, Espresso Royale Caffe, Martha's Café and Michael's Bistro and Tap House are just a few of the Corner establishments that allow a revolving door of artwork to complement their wares. It may seem like window dressing, but a good deal of talent, effort and yes, artistry, goes into what's hanging above your table, unacknowledged.

And the art seems uniquely suited to the venues. From the tattered, smoky milieu of Espresso Corner to the clean, quiet sterility of Espresso Royale to the quirky comforts of Michael's and Martha's, each establishment has found art that complements the mood of the place.

Coffee Shop Collages

Espresso Corner has been open for five years, making it the old war horse of Corner coffee shops - the definitive spot, with a devoted collection of regulars and an atmosphere so thick it's visible. The art, then, can afford to take a few chances, and often does.

At the moment, Espresso Corner patrons have an artistic monopoly on their hands. Not only did artist James Hacking create all of the current paintings, notable for their thick brush strokes and bold use of color, but he also has provided the shop with two murals, one above the counter and one on the walls around the bathrooms. The latter has an innocuous Southwestern motif, all cacti and tumbleweeds, while the other is a more whimsical concoction of spaceships, planets and aliens, with requisite narrow black eyes, drinking coffee and playing jazz.

Hacking, who came to Charlottesville to display his art at Espresso Corner, also has a penchant for creating unusual collages. There was a brief installation of trash-stuffed disposable sushi containers mounted on the walls, and if you didn't catch it, well, you either missed out on a stunning commentary on consumer culture, or the extra flies buzzing around the coffee shop that week.

Hacking "has a habit of collecting random junk," Espresso Corner employee Safia Harrison explained.

In an "Artist's State" posted on the wall, Hacking explains he had not painted for three years before coming to Charlottesville, but that his collage-making kept him sharp: "This process of archaeology and archiving kept me familiar with the formal elements ... color harmony and composition balance."

It was more difficult to become familiar with Hacking. Tara Griffin, who books the art at Espresso Corner, described Hacking as a "traveler," and this proved prophetic, as he could not be reached for comment.

Nevertheless, Espresso Corner is the one Corner establishment that functions as a miniature art gallery, with Griffin, who used to work at an art gallery in Woodley Park in Washington, D.C., booking a new show every few months.

"I look for original pieces, work that is expressive of something more," Griffin said.

And Espresso Corner is an ideal venue for provocative artwork.

"It's a good place to make a large impact, because you have everything from professionals to students to people just hanging out, having interesting conversations," she said.

Artists, Please Serve Yourselves

Espresso Royale Caffe is a buttoned-down coffee shop, basically a study hall with beverages. Speak too loudly in the back and you're likely to get stared down. Appropriate, then, that its art is well framed and arranged in an orderly fashion. One even could argue that the pieces are strongest at the front of the shop and least intriguing in the back.

But this, like some of the art itself, seems to have come about largely by chance. Ty Harris, who has managed Espresso Royale since it opened in April 1998, has a laissez-faire attitude toward what adorns his walls. He has been seeking art passively since day one and has had no problem finding interested parties.

"We basically put a sign on the door saying, 'We want art,'" Harris said.

Harris has found that his venue has been good for the artists as well as the patrons. "I think most of our artists are younger and their peers can look at [their work] ... They come in here themselves, so they're interested in our business," he said.

One such enterprising photographer is Mark Shappirio, a second-year graduate student in engineering physics, an applied science program in the Engineering School. Shappirio has an intriguing series of photographs of zoo animals on display. With his use of selective focus, he takes the subjects out of context, with the surreal effect of making them appear neither in captivity nor in their natural habitat.

Not that Shappirio gets too worked up about all this. "I'm not sure I put that much thought into it," he said. "I thought the pictures would look better without evidence of cages."

Another highlight of Espresso Royale's current display is the photography of Steven Francis Cooper, who takes carefully framed black-and-white compositions and adds a human foil that infuses each piece with conceptual energy. Yet Cooper's work also is marked by a lack of pretension: A business card mounted next to his photos informs he is available for weddings.

More than Waitresses

Like Charlottesville's only English-style beer engine, the art at Michael's Bistro is exclusive to the place. Most of it was created by current and former employees. The result is an atmosphere suffused with art.

"Most of the waitresses here are pretty artsy," Bistro waitress Rebecca Muller said.

Is Muller herself one of the artsy ones?

"I wish to remain anonymous," she said.

Muller then pointed out that all of the tables at Michael's were decorated with a beer or liquor bottle painted resplendently and filled with flowers. She drew attention to one in particular, mentioning it was her favorite, before admitting to having done it herself. Ah, artists.

As for the walls, they're home to some interesting work, much of which is photography manipulated in one way or another. A former employee managed to develop black-and-white photographs on canvases, selectively filling in the parts of the image that interested him. The effect is to defamiliarize and aestheticize images of college-age men and women enjoying the warm weather somewhere.

Michael's has a permanent piece hanging above the kitchen, which employees and patrons call "The Corn Goddess," painted by Don Glover of Fredericksburg, who taught art at Mary Washington College. All one can say about "The Corn Goddess" is that somehow, without it, Michael's wouldn't be the same.

Personal Showcase

On to Martha's, where most of the work also is in-house. The collection of paintings, impressive for its variety in such a small space, was created almost entirely by Carrie Payne, who owns the eatery with her husband, Michael.

"Right now, it seems like she likes painting flowers," Michael Payne said.

His wife also specializes in abstract figures, often based on the female form, and dogs. One of the more striking pieces is a partition between the dining room and the kitchen, which Payne has filled with individual, snapshot-style abstractions.

"She found this door dismantled on the side of the road in Charleston," S.C., Michael said.

All of Carrie's art is for sale, but she's a restaurateur first; painting is a hobby.

"She paints because she likes to, not because she hopes to become famous," Michael said.

Payne's assessment seems to apply to all the artists who display their work on the Corner. Their work won't change their lives, much less yours, but it's certainly worth more than a passing glance as you sip your latté or Hefeweissen. The artists of the Corner may be toiling in obscurity, but at least they're not starving. If anything, they're well fed - and caffeinated.

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