“It’s the hardest thing for me to explain, pin striping,” began ‘East Coast’ Artie Schilling, for whom Artie’s Party at Syracuse Nationals, an auction for charity, is named.
He was busy Saturday afternoon – sliding a recently striped electric guitar back into its case, sending a volunteer off to dinner, shaking hands and searching for a panel he had painted earlier to show as an example of his work.
He couldn’t find one, and realized they must have all been auctioned off earlier in the day – not a bad sign, as 100 percent of the auction profits are donated to McMahon/Ryan’s Advocacy Site, Onondaga County’s child advocacy center.
Last year, the Panel Jam raised $33K for the center; the total raised this year was $45K, due in large part to the $10,100 bid DuPont placed for a striped carousel horse, originally from Coney Island.
This year marked the second Artie’s Party Charity Panel Jam in Syracuse. Schilling said he was contacted last year by Bob O’Connor, Right Coast Association director, to organize the first auction.
“He knows I do this sort of thing,” Schilling said.
Robert McLean, communications representative from Right Coast Cars, said the artists who donated their time and talent for the auction came from all over the country – some from as far as England, and they all paid their own way.
The first jam brought 27 stripers; this year 47 artists joined for the event.
“I have the greatest group of friends in the world,” Schilling said, after fellow stripers had retired for the day and the horticulture building had nearly cleared out. “They come from all over, and they come because I ask them to. I never thought I’d be able to do something like this. To be able to hand those people thirty-thousand dollars… it leaves me speechless.”
For more information about East Coast Artie’s charity auction, visit Artiesparty.com or Eastcoastartie.com
