There are a few factual errors, but overall, it's a great story.

Clinton artist teams up with café to launch gallery

By Karen Nugent TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

CLINTON- A regular customer at Clark's Café, Sheryll A. Collins eventually became friendly with owners Al and Ann Clark. She also became a little weary of looking at the mediocre artwork on the restaurant's walls, which Mr. Clark had bought from an out-of-town company. Knowing that Mrs. Collins, a nurse, was an artist, Mr. Clark suggested she bring in some of her own work to perk up those walls. She agreed, and has now enlarged upon his idea, creating the "Art on Rotation Gallery," which has its debut this month. The gallery, in the restaurant at 310 High St., will showcase a different local artist each month, starting with W. Eugene McCarthy, a retired College of the Holy Cross professor whom she met at the Worcester Art Museum.

His paintings, for sale at the restaurant, include scenes of Sterling, plus some from his travels to Maine, New Mexico and Croatia. His framed paintings are priced from $50 to about $300, and some prints are available."It's an opportunity for us to get recognition for local artists. I try to keep the costs low, and it hopefully will bring more customers into the restaurant," said Mrs. Collins, a mother of five and grandmother of five - with another on the way.

She already has artists booked for all of next year, including an all-artist show next December, in time for the holidays.

When paintings are sold, Mrs. Collins and the Clarks get 10 percent of the price, with Mrs. Collins getting 9 percent.

"I'm not making any money on this, believe me," she said with a chuckle. "It's a labor of love, and I'm doing it to promote the fellowship of artists.""I said to myself, 'If you don't go for it, and push it, nothing happens.' It's this entrepreneurial thing in me," Mrs. Collins said. "Al (Clark) thought it was an awesome idea, and I just wanted to go for it."

Next month will feature the works of Elizabeth McDonald of Shrewsbury, and Dr. Sapna Savant, a physician for the Fallon Clinic in Worcester. The restaurant, in the lower terrace near the post office, has room for dozens of paintings.

Kat O'Connor, a Worcester-based art teacher with whom she became friends, teaches at Mrs. Collins's home. Mrs. Collins comes from a family of artists. She and her twin sister, Sharon Carloni, have been painting seriously since they were in the third grade."Our teacher told my mother to get us private lessons right away," she said. Now, she is joined in her passion by her husband, Stephen D. Collins, who works for IBM, plus three of her daughters."So it's an art family," she said.

A reception for Mr. McCarthy took place at the restaurant last Friday, -and a reception is scheduled each month for featured artists. On Jan. 5, a reception for Ms. McDonald and Dr. Savant is scheduled at Clark's.

"Lots of artists lack self-esteem. I want to get them out and show their work," Mrs. Collins said. "Their work is a gift, and it needs to be shown. And besides, we need something like this out here."Mr. Clark said he also was getting tired of hanging art from a company that more-or-less mass produces paintings, although he said they were hand-painted. He said some of them sold, but they were a lot smaller than the local artists' paintings, and definitely not as well done.

"I just put them up to decorate the walls, but then I thought of Sheryll's art, and thought it was a great idea. The quality is much better."

"This is unique," he said, gesturing to the paintings on the restaurant walls. "It's local artists, and some of the scenes are around here. People might recognize a spot they know and relate to it. I think it will work, and if anything, it gives artists more visibility."

He joins a growing number of artist-business owner partnerships that have sprung up in Worcester County and elsewhere. From a law office in Gardner to Emerson Hospital in Concord to coffee shops in Worcester and a townwide event in Uxbridge, artists are circumventing expensive and hard-to-penetrate galleries. The Uxbridge project has evolved to nearly 300 artists having their work shown in businesses all over town.Mrs. Collins said she is always looking to showcase additional artists.
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The article by Karen Nugent of the Worcester Telegram has some errors in it.

Here are the corrections;

1. B. Eugene McCarthy not W. Eugene McCarthy
2. The gallery at Clark's was my idea not Mr. Clark's.
3. Mr.Clark's percentage of sales is 1%, the gallery percentage is 14%, for a total of 15% per painting sold. Other venues percentage of sales assessed at the sale of a painting will be slightly higher for the Art on Rotation Gallery.