They say that there are “six degrees of separation” between all of us; that by looking at each person we know, we can discover that no more than six people separate us from each other, and that it's a much smaller world than we thought. Last Saturday, the six members of the collaborative artist event, E6, proved how right that is, bringing 150 people together into a crowded room on the first floor of the new Village Hall.

The six Ellenville-area artists, Chuck Davidson, Roger Baker, Charles Broderson, Andrew Reed, and Phil and Judy Sigunick, came together to paint a collaborative and improvised mural, which was divided into 85 different sections using a system not unlike the game “Battleship.”

Those pieces were then bid on by spectators via silent auction, and one row was distributed through a raffle, which required the purchase of a $5 ticket for entry. Each of the remaining 80 pieces were bid on and sold for at least $10, with many pieces going up into the thirty and forty-dollar range, with the highest bid reaching $55.

People were eager to bid on pieces that were in the same vicinity in order to have larger sections of the piece to take home. The result was a series of bidding wars that were frantic and fun, made even more so because of the way each of the sections changed as the evening went on.

In all, according to Debbie Briggs, who ran the auction, the event raised $2,127 that will go to funding arts initiatives in Ellenville. With refreshments donated by six local restaurants and the cost of supplies amounting to $300.00, the event was deemed a rousing success.

Many of the assembled spectators hailed from Cragsmoor, the hamlet from which the members of E6 come. However, there were also several people from the village itself, as well as visitors from neighboring areas in the Hudson Valley. Terri McCabe, a resident of the Village of Ellenville and an x-ray technician at Ellenville Regional Hospital, attended the event with her mother Renee Dickman, a former resident of 58 years who was visiting from Florida.

“It's wonderful. It's nice to see people coming out and doing something constructive,” said McCabe, who found out about the event after reading the Ellenville Journal.

Tobi Magnetico and Jeremiah Meachum, from Monticello and Neversink respectively came after reading about the event in the Times Herald Record.

“I think it's great, I think there's a nice turn out,” said Magnetico, an artist herself. “It's an interesting idea and people definitely seem interested.”

After the artists finished painting, Chuck Davidson and the Sigunicks thanked many of the people and businesses that had helped contribute to the night, and had a few words to say about the artistic experience they had just undergone. Judy, head of Ellenville's arts council, made sure to thank the aforementioned Debbie Briggs and Carolyn Peters-Baker, without whom “this wouldn't have happened.”

“Artists very typically never stop dreaming,” continued Judy. “And it's always the next painting, the next sculpture, the next idea…we just keep dreaming. Tonight the dream here is that the community, the businesses, the artists, the government, we dream together.” After her comment, the crowd broke into applause and cheers. Next, Judy's husband Phil spoke. “I learned something today about artists' egos, and it was a real revelation,” he said. “An artist's ego translates into the piece, so that the ego is not set aside, it actually relates to the work that you're doing, and whatever contributes to the goodness of that work, is what is paramount in the artist's mind.”

Chuck Davidson, the member of the arts council who proposed and organized the E6 event, spoke last, comparing the experience to a trip or journey. “We got together and our journey is on that wall,” said Davidson. “And when you go away somewhere with a group of people, you remember them in relationship to that experience. So, for me to be part of this experience and these artists, that we've joined together and done something that makes that type of connection is really terrific. We're connected by the painting, by the process, and by the fun we've had. It's great.”

After the auction closed, the six artists stayed to talk with the spectators. Roger Baker dismantled the mural and distribute the pieces to the winning bidders. If winners stayed around, they also had the opportunity to have the pieces signed by all six of the artists.

The group hopes to put on future events to raise funds, either returning with this roster or by finding six other artists to act as the next E6. Whichever six people next pick up the paintbrushes, one thing will remain true: all it takes is six people to bring a community together.

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