Charitable labs do
job
Sculptures sell in
lively auction
By DANA
DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
The Sun
Valley Labs auction was held Dec. 28 at Ketchum’s 511 Building, which
has been doubling as a Lab Gallery for the past few months.
Larry Flynn auctions off a Sun Valley Lab, “Bird Dog” by Ted
Villa, while “LABindale” Russ Lamb carries it down the runway for bidders to view at the Sun Valley Lab auction held at the 511 Building in Ketchum.
Photo
courtesy of Hawley Graphics
The
proceeds will be split between four charities, including the Canine
Companions for Independence, the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley,
Rescue Ranch Animal Sanctuary and the Delta Society.
Lynn
Stallard and Teri Tischer, the event organizers, have been at work on this
charity event for 18 months. Initially, inspired by Chicago’s cows, they
created the fiberglass labs, found sponsors and hired artists. They
created a web site, organized the Running of the Labs last June, made
T-shirts, coloring books, posters and maps, and installed the labs around
town for the summer. Then, after postponing the auction due to the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, they created the Lab Gallery to
house the labs until December.
The gross
amount raised at the end of the auction, including an on-line sale of a
LAB was $108,000. David Frei, of Smiling Dog Public Relations in Seattle
and co-announcer for the past decade of the Annual Westminster Dog Shows,
acted as the celebrity master of ceremonies. He quipped that compared to
the Westminster dogs these were better behaved.
The
stairway of the 511 Building was turned into a runway stage where each of
the 40 Labs were shown, and two male "LABindales" paraded them
around for the crowd of some 250 people.
The valley’s
ubiquitous auctioneer, Larry Flynn, did a superlative job of whipping the
holiday party goers into action. The catering was by Judith McQueen from
Entertaining Sun Valley.
The
glorified Chippendales, now known as LABindales, were artist Russ Lamb,
whose CandleLABra went for $4,400, and Tom Christian. They not only
carried each lab on the runaway, but towards the end of the evening they
shocked and amazed the crowd by performing a "Full Monty."
Considering the crowd had been plied with shots of flavored Stolichnaya
vodka in blocks of ice, the secrets of the Monty may be difficult to
recall.
Among the
highest grossing Labs auctioned that night was Carol Glenn’s "Hot
Dog" for $6,100, Scott Glenn’s electric green "Love’s a
Bitch" went for $4,600, and Andy Hawley’s clever "HydroLAB"
brought in $5,500. The latter is a glass table, around a lab, who
seemingly is chasing a floating tennis ball. Owners of the 511 Building,
Lynn and Tom Knudsen, bought the astronaut pooch, "Sky Lab," and
plan to keep it in the building. Voted best in show, Ginna Lagergren’s
"Lab Top Labscape" went for $3,500.
"They’ve
all going to good homes," said Stallard. The amounts raised from the
auction of both the "LibertyLAB" and "Stars and
Stripes" will go to The Urban Search and Rescue dogs in New York City
and to the local Search and Rescue dogs.
Dancing to
a DJ, complete with dancing girls on the runway stage followed the
auction. A Seattle tourist who went home with one LAB said, "This was
so much fun, more than I expected."
So will
this be an annual event?
"Not
in this LAB time!" Stallard said.