Mannequin Legs and Siamese Twins

“I never thought I would be playing with dolls,” Vince Packard says, making his new marionettes dance.

Vince Packard has lived in the apartment above the North Water Street Art Gallery for about a year and a half. Ingram gave Packard a place to stay and showed his work in the gallery. {larger}

There is not one blank space in his small apartment above the gallery. Every corner is filled with his art: a pair of painted mannequin legs with lights inside, paintings of Siamese twins, glazed toilet seats with pictures of Jesus on them and intricate masks fashioned with a third eye.

The innovative artist has had work displayed all across the country, most notably at CB’s 313 Gallery in New York City, where he exhibited a mounted doll’s head with bright red hair and antlers. Packard has displayed some of his artwork at the North Water Street Art Gallery, created fliers for the gallery’s events and helped with costuming for the New World Children’s Theater.

Packard’s friendship with Ingram goes back nearly 20 years when he played drums in Ingram’s punk band, PPG. The two met again in October 2002 when Ingram invited Packard to be a part of the gallery’s Eyepitaphs art show for Kent’s Day of the Dead celebration.

“It’s really one of the best galleries I know of just because Jeff is very open-minded, and you don’t have to be professional,” Packard says. “He likes quality, but being professional doesn’t necessarily make you great. It’s more about pulling the community together. We need to break away from the TV and connect with our community, and the gallery is a good place to do that. An art show is a perfect little get together.”

“I never thought I would be playing with dolls.”

The gallery displays a new exhibit every month. In addition to established local talent, Ingram is now working with art students from Kent State to bring younger artists to the gallery.

The Art Club at Kent State is collaborating with the gallery for the first of what it hopes will become an annual exhibit of student art at the gallery. Many members have displayed their work at university art shows and see this as an opportunity to get their work into the community.

“We wanted to do a show independent of the university,” says senior art major Jen Graven, the club’s president. “It will be good to show art in a different atmosphere.”

Senior art major Natalie Capannelli says she enjoys the opportunity to show her large abstract paintings and drawings in a new venue.

Some of Packard's art, including his painted toliet seat. He was inspired to paint toliet seats because of their smooth surfaces. {larger}

“It’s nice when fellow artists in the community can show their support for emerging artists trying to make a name for themselves right out of a university,” she says.

The gallery also has a yearly children’s art show where young artists proudly hang clay masks, string puppets and collages from the white walls.

“Young views are important,” Ingram says. “Children’s art shows are always amazing. We get more variety of art than we get in any other exhibition.”

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