News editor
When Phoebe Janzen of Florence was approached about doing a show featuring her photography, she told Jan Davis of Gallery 101 in Marion that she wouldn’t do it alone.
Janzen, fellow photographers Kevin Fruechting and Galen Obermeyer, and mosaic artist Peggi Wilson opened a two-month show of their work Sunday at Gallery 101. They will donate 10 percent of their sales to cancer research.
“Between Phoebe’s husband (Steve, who died last fall of cancer) and my husband (Jim) who’s dealing with it now, we decided cancer research is so important,” Davis said. “It can change everything.”
The conversations and activity at Sunday’s open house, however, focused on art.
“This is the first art show like this that I’ve done,” Fruechting said. “It’s been fun to just watch people look at your stuff. Everybody kind of gets drawn to different things, and it’s fun to listen to them talk about what a particular picture means to them.”
Fruechting was on board from the start with the fundraising idea.
“My mother died of breast cancer,” he said. “Erin, our daughter, when she was two, had kidney cancer. She was diagnosed with what’s called a Wilms’ tumor, but she’s fine now. It’s a good cause, and I think virtually everybody in here that’s displaying today has some connection to it.”
It’s Wilson’s first show, too, but she didn’t originally plan to bring her mosaics.
“I do photography, too, but I had a bunch of photos on the computer all edited, and my computer died,” she said.
In place of photos are mosaics made of broken pieces of dishware, which Wilson said she has been making for about five years. Having an artist with something besides photographs helped draw people to the open house, she said.
“It’s been great,” Wilson said. “Oh my gosh, I’ve sold a lot of stuff. I’m going to have to get busy and make some more.”
Showcasing Marion County talent is a primary goal of Gallery 101, Davis said.
“I always have quality stuff from local people, because we have local artists that are great,” she said. “It’s just that nobody knows it.”
“I was telling the gals earlier it’s amazing in a small community like Marion how many people with various talents there are,” Fruechting said. “There’s so many people that have a gift to do something artistic.”
The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., though Davis does break for lunch during those times.