When artist Char Downs first heard the buzz about the Paducah Artist Relocation Program in 2005, she was impressed but wasn't interested in checking it out.

As a neo-expressionist artist based in San Francisco, she was content personally and professionally. She had even moved into her dream home on San Francisco Bay.

Life, it seemed, had other plans for Char. Two months after she heard about the program in Paducah, Kentucky, her husband lost his job during a company take-over. Afterwards, serendipity kept stepping in. An artist consultant pulled out a full-page ad about the Paducah Artist Relocation Program and said "This is what you're looking for." When she picked up a coin at the base of an escalator, it was the Kentucky quarter. The director of a show she was participating in was from Kentucky. Everything pointed toward considering the program.

Exploratory Trip
In August 2005, Char and her husband went to Kentucky to check out the Paducah Artist Relocation Program. "I talked with the artists. They spoke my language. They collected the same things I collected. It was like old family," Char recalled. "We said, 'We're going to do it!'"

Space in a brick building on 7th Street was available. They could design the inside the way they wanted, with a traditional gallery and studio on the main floor and living quarters upstairs.

"We came in August, did the (architectural) plans in September, moved here in October and opened the gallery in November," Char said. "It was that fast!"

Program Incentives
The Paducah Artist Relocation Program offered abandoned properties in a 20-block LowerTown neighborhood for free, a dollar, or the fines against them.

"This neighborhood used to be in really bad shape. Lots of crack and crime on the streets," Char said, pointing out her window. A local artist named Mark Barone challenged the city to do something about it. The result was the Paducah Artist Relocation Program, with Barone at the helm. LowerTown now boasts safe streets with smooth sidewalks, tended lawns and stately, renovated, brick buildings. The initial group of half a dozen artists in 2000 has grown to nearly 50. The program continues to actively recruit artists and businesses.

"Paducah has some great visionaries," Char added. And risk-takers. The local Paducah Bank set standard lending practices aside and granted construction loans for worthless properties that could not be appraised. The program also provides medical insurance, funds for consulting with architects, and low interest mortgage loans.

November 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of the Pinecone Art Gallery. To celebrate this milestone, Char has turned the entire gallery into her studio—Space Odyssey—where visitors can interact with her while she creates. In November, she will exhibit everything she created throughout the year.

The Artist at Work
Char hangs an open sign on her gallery door Wednesday through Saturday—and any other day she's in. She is happy to chat with visitors about LowerTown, the art community and her work.

I happened upon her on a Monday when she was prepping the gallery for the Paducah School of Arts Show she hosts every October. Although she was in the midst of repainting a wall, she dropped everything and welcomed my sister and me into her studio.

I was taken with Char's work. Stories, music, imagination and dreams inspire her creations. She uses a variety of media to express them—watercolor, acrylic, color pencil, pastels, even gelatin. She also does wood carving and printing.

"I love the human form," she said. As I looked closely at her painting "Mermaid and Neptune," I stepped into the process of discovery her paintings evoke. Faces, eyes and sea creatures moved in and out of the image, gradually revealing themselves.

Char defines her art style as neo-expressionist with a surreal slant. Her current painting process of "creating and destroying" resulted from wanting to be surprised by the outcome. "I go through a lot of construction of an image, bringing things out that I really like, then destroying it by throwing or pouring paint on it, scraping it and turning the canvas this way and that," she explained. "Something will be one thing but will change to another—that's what I like to do."

When to Visit
If you're near Paducah, Kentucky, in November 2010, be sure to see Char Downs' fifth anniversary celebration show. Pinecone Art Galley (412 North 7th Street) will be exhibiting what she created throughout 2010 in her Space Odyssey studio. She is open Wednesday through Saturday. And she'll invite you in any other day she is in the gallery.

Be sure to visit the other galleries in the LowerTown Arts District, too. Every second Saturday, they open their studios to the public. Most of the galleries are also open every Friday and Saturday. The LowerTown Arts District is located between North 3rd to North 10th Streets and between Jefferson Street and Park Avenue.

By the way, Paducah is a city of 30,000 residents located off Interstate 24 in western Kentucky, halfway between Monkey's Eyebrow and Possum Trot.

Find out more at www.char-downs.com and www.paducaharts.com.



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