Annual Paul Farrell Memorial Art Auction Brings In $14,420

March 19, 2013

Hector Cobos Leon, left, answers questions in an interview that was conducted with him during the recent 13th Annual Paul Farrell Memorial Art Auction. Herald Staff Photo/Nancy Kletecka

The final tally has been done and after expenses, the 13th Annual Paul Farrell Art Auction on March 1 at Pickle Creek in Guymon, brought in a whopping $14,420.
“That is down just a little from last year, but it is in the range we normally run,” said event organizer Bryon Test said. “Some years it is a little higher than that and some years it is a little lower.”
Test, who is an art instructor at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, agreed that it this year’s tally was good considering the current state of the economy. He was particularly happy with how the student pieces did in the auction this year.
“I was very pleased that a lot of the student work went higher than normal,” Test said. “Their egos are pretty fragile and it is really good when that happens. A lot of those kids - this is the first time they have ever sold any of their work and they really don’t have a clue.... If it doesn’t bring much money at all - some of them it bothers them. We didn’t have anything like that happen this year and it seemed to go really well for the students.”
There were 50 pieces up for auction this year contributed by students, alumni and instructors. Only 49 of the pieces actually sold as one of them was damaged prior to the auction - a piece by Kenton Schmidt entitled “Il regno di Nettuno” (The Kingdom of Neptune). Schmidt’s piece was a 16x24 photo of the ocean.
The biggest seller this year was a shaving set created by OPSU Art Instructor Brent Shoulders entitled “Clean Shave”. The set consisted of a shaving mug, brush, straight razor, shaving tray and two bars of shaving soap. The handles on each of the pieces were created from Cholla cactus and the bristles for the brush from badger hair.
Where will the money go from the auction?
“Part of that money goes into an endowed fund and we give away the interest off of that every year through scholarships,” Test said. “The rest goes into an endangered student scholarship fund.”
The monies in the endangered fund are vital to many students.
“Some times we have two or three like that a year and some times we don’t have any,” Test said. “But, that money is so if we have an emergency situation we can take care of it right now. We don’t have to go through a lot of red tape to award it to someone in need. We help a lot of kids with that money.”
And helping the art students is what it’s all about, according to Test.
“That’s why we started this,” he said. “When we first started we didn’t have any money to help anybody with.”
Test was also pleased this year with the attendance.
“It was really good - it was up,” he said. “We got really concerned about having enough seats because everything we had was pretty full. This year we had a lot of people buying up entire tables.”
Made up of all volunteers, the event is a challenge every year to surpass the previous year’s event. Three of the volunteers in particular were specially recognized this year: Mike and Becky Gatlin and Test’s son, Jack.
Jack has been a fixture at the annual event for some time; however, he will soon be heading off for medical school.
“In medical school they don’t get a whole lot of free time,” Test said of his son. “But I’m sure when he finishes he will come right back to doing it, because he grew up with this event. It has been a part of his life since he was a little kid.”
As for the Gatlins, they, too, have been fixtures since day one.
“Mike donates his time and has been with us since the very first auction,” Test said. “He used to live in Liberal, but now he lives in Pueblo West (Colorado) and he drives down every year.”
Gatlin’s involvement began because of a “personal” interest.
“His son, Lance, was one of our very first art students at OPSU and actually helped us put this event together,” Test explained, adding with a chuckle. “When we needed an auctioneer, Lance volunteered his dad.”
According to Test, Gatlin and his wife, Becky, have been coming together. He auctioneers and she clerks for him.
“And when we finish, everything is right where we need it to be - they do a great job,” Test said.
The couple were presented with an Yvonne Sangster original pastel as a thank you for all they have done for the event. Sangster, who is also an art instructor at OPSU, had another pastel which was auctioned off during the event entitled, “Back In The Blizzard Of ‘57...” which brought $525.
As for next year, Test said they are always “working on that” and pointed out that the “bar always has to be set a little higher each year.”