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United Family Services held their great annual "Art With Heart" auction Saturday night in SouthEnd's Design Center, with proceeds benefiting domestic violence programs, The Shelter for Battered Women and Victim Assistance. Folks who pay $40 and $50 each to attend get to socialize, have a cocktail or two, and bid on donated art in both silent and live auctions. A woman named Gail Marshall -- who has a molasses-thick Southern accent that Stonewall Jackson would be proud of -- emcees the whole event. Every year, Art With Heart gets a name artist to contribute to the event. Last year, it was Ben Long. This year, it was George Pocheptsov. I mean, "Georgie" Pocheptsov. Never heard of Georgie Pocheptsov? Why, you must be overlooking the apparently lucrative Child Prodigy Art Market. You see, little Georgie is a painter, one who some art folks think exhibits a sensibility similar to a young Picasso or Chagall (which, likely, has a lot to do with the fact that most of his paintings look like cubist-y Picasso subjects interjected into a lush Chagall-like background). George, who is 11, looks like your typical tousled-hair kid and can sit looking bored with the best of them. His painting, a dreamy musical-themed number called "Art With Heart," went up for bids about midway through the auction. Bids started at a respectable two grand, and flittered their way upward over the next 10 minutes like origami birds made of hundred-dollar bills. Remember, said guest host Sonya Gantt, little Georgie has been on Oprah, and Colin Powell owns one of his paintings. Bids continued shooting skyward. To the uninitiated art collector, fame is a good substitute for limited knowledge -- see Basquiat, for instance. The bids kept climbing -- $6,000, $7,000, $8,000 -- and I began to reconsider my line of work. If this kid can get this kind of dough at 11, imagine my faculties at near three times his age! Why, I might be a regular Jackson Pollock, and not even know it! Bids continued -- $10,000! -- and little Georgie started happily clapping, and folks broke into spontaneous applause that lasted for quite a while. Not for little Georgie, mind you, though his star power was considerable (Admission: when little Georgie approached later that evening, I held the elevator for the mini-Monet). The cheers were for the fact that the city has more than a few locals who are good enough to drop a big bundle for an organization that isn't necessarily the sexiest of charities. As a thank you, they get a little piece of imagination. It's a trade off this town could stand to make a lot more of.
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Calendar
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Wine & Paint @ Blackfinn Ameripub- Ballantyne
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Face to Face Foundation Gala @ The Revelry North End
- Fri., April 19, 6-10 p.m.
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An Evening With Phil Rosenthal Of "Somebody Feed Phil" @ Knight Theater
- Fri., April 19, 7 p.m.
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Kountry Wayne: The King Of Hearts Tour @ Ovens Auditorium
- Fri., April 19, 7:30 p.m.
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Queen Charlotte Fair @ Route 29 Pavilion
- Through April 22, 4-11 p.m.
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Canuck in the Queen City 7
A Canadian transplant looks back at her first year as a Charlotte resident
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Homer's night on the town 41
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