FOURTH WORLD CRAFTS: ART FROM THE BASEMENT

"Wily Penelope" by Alan Naslund

"Police Vase" by Sarah Riley

Two years ago, Sarah Riley and family began making hand-painted candlesticks from scrap wood with the intention of selling them.

"I was on a sabbatical and low on money," explains Riley, chairwoman of the Department of Art at Southeast Missouri State University.

The family's artwork now is sold under the name Fourth World Crafts and marketed by the Swanson-Cralle Gallery in Louisville, Ky.

Their collaborative hand-painted furniture and individually produced paintings and ceramics will be on display beginning Friday at Gallery 100, located at 1707 Mount Auburn Road.

Though Riley, who is represented by the Leedy-Voulkos Gallery in Kansas City and the Artists Circle Gallery in Washington, and even husband, Alan Naslund, who sculpts, have established themselves as artists, the other collaborators are working on their portfolios. Riley's children, William Riley-Land, 12, and Elizabeth Riley-Land, 7, are elementary students at Washington School.

They aren't the only youthful contributors to Fourth World Crafts. "The neighborhood kids helped with a couple of these," Riley said as she and William hung the show earlier this week. Elizabeth was at a dance class, Naslund is teaching in Japan.

Besides painting furniture and candlesticks, William also creates art on his Macintosh computer. He began taking ceramics classes at the age of 6.

One of Elizabeth's pieces is a ceramic house.

The project has taught her things about children and creativity. "They really are creative if you just let them work with the material and not be judgmental," Riley said.

Her art students are much more willing to take direction than her children are, Riley said. "If your parents say anything you take it as the worst criticism."

They buy the furniture at junk stores and work on it in the basement, usually jointly. The works evolve in phases.

The darkness in the basement may account for some of the Abstract Expressionism in the work, Riley says, half joking.

But one of the candlesticks William painted absolutely deserved the label when he finished, she says. "I was just blown away."

At first the projects feel like work, Riley says. "Towards the end you see it is not so much chaos. It's controlled chaos."

She views family art projects as a healthy throwback to the days before the Industrial Revolution when parents and their children worked and played together.

"There are things transmitted through the air that you don't get if you're not working together," she says.

A reception for the artists will be held later in the month. The gallery's regular hours at 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays.