Coventry Art Show at Griffin Coffee

 

You might have noticed the beautiful artwork on display inside Griffin Coffee at 5224 West 25th Avenue in Edgewater. Here’s our conversation with the artist behind the artwork, Max Fowler.

What inspired your artwork on display in Griffin Coffee?

I started the series this summer in the depths of the pandemic we are still navigating. It started with some quick character study paintings on black construction paper. I was intrigued by the results and wanted to explore what was possible so I kept going.

The paintings quickly evolved to tell a story of an art district, the Coventry neighborhood, in Cleveland/Cleveland Heights Ohio. I’d lived there before I got married and moved to Colorado and my band had a residency at the local venue. For decades the scene was vibrant and home to musicians, artists, college students, scenesters, and the like. But the pandemic was killing the neighborhood as it has some many things. Venues, night clubs, cafes and art galleries have hard hit as they rely on crowds and a social experience to work.

I wanted to document the feel of the neighborhood, the art scene, before it was lost forever. It was really one of the formative wombs of my adult being.

So the series tells the story of a day in the life of a neighborhood. From waking up hungover, adrift, and existentially alone through the rhythm of the day, morning brunch and writing at a cafe, to afternoon soccer amongst the bohemians, to the glories of the night, and finishing with the final contemplative cigarette of the night.

How long have you been painting? How did you get started?

I’ve gotten this question a lot recently. To be very precise, I’ve been painting for a grand total of 8 months now. Yep, this series represents my first crack at it.

I got started because I was painting some model figures as a hobby, which I’d only started two months prior. I needed an outlet for what I was feeling in the absolutely crazy 2020.

To be honest I was semi close to entering college as an art major as I’d taken every art class I could in high school but never really had the confidence and I was focused on my sporting career at the time. But I hadn’t picked up a paint brush in 26 years.

We noticed some soccer paintings in the collection. Why is that?

Soccer is just an intimate part of my life. It’s been my profession in one way or another my entire life and I really can’t separate myself from that sport. Funny enough I started out almost with the express intent to not do any soccer paintings, as something about them just don’t spark my interest. Now the atmosphere around the sport, or the humanity just on the fringes of the actual action, those are the stories I like to tell. It’s the same with stage actors, the play itself is the artistic format that it should be viewed, but backstage, or the personal struggles and triumphs, that’s interesting.

So the two in the show are telling those stories along the fringes of the main action.

Also, right next to the art district of Coventry was a refurbished football stadium turned into the local high school’s soccer stadium. In Ohio, all varsity sports are played at 7:30 pm under the lights. So the matches were actually attended to by the artists and musicians of the neighborhood. It made for wonderful cheep entertainment.

Plus there was a pick up game most Sundays and we were allowed use of the locker rooms and everything. Both those feelings are represented in the series.

What drew you to start a soccer club in the Edgewater area? 

I started a soccer club in Edgewater for two reasons really. The first was a reaction to the political environment and discourse that really started to crest in 2016. I wanted to start a club that not only represented the community it called home, but also looked like it in all of its diversity. It’s really a statement that the community is actually stronger BECAUSE of the diversity we enjoy.

It’s a reflection of what I was taught that America was. It is an idea, a shared set of principles and ideals, and it is a meritocracy. The only question that matters is can you do the job.

The other reason was I wanted to give Edgewater something their own that could unite people whether or not they are interested in sport. The clubs exists to help give back to the community. And our greatest achievements and proudest moments will always be when we help our community. Whether it’s donating new Joma training jumpers to both the boys and girls varsity soccer teams at Jefferson High School, or selling our cup jerseys to raise money to help feed Edgewater residents with meals from Edgewater businesses, or working to raise money so the city can have better sporting venues for the community, that will always be our reason for existing.

You can learn more about the Athletic Club of Sloan’s Lake here.

What do you love about the Edgewater area?

I love that Edgewater is an actual community, a small town tucked into a large city. It isn’t some suburban dystopia, a sea of identical beige houses where people never talk to their neighbors. It’s vibrant, accepting, and supportive. People walk places, talk to each other and share communal moments. The go to local establishments rather than Chili’s. And it has both working and middle classes, and a multitude of backgrounds and cultures and problem solving that makes the whole much stronger then the sum of its parts.