White Christmas at Slanted Art invites holiday spirit

11-26-25

By Lauren Royce, Editor
MONTROSE — White snow in the form of soft felt and sparkling decorations blanketed the inside of Slanted Art in Montrose for their “White Christmas” themed gallery opening on Nov. 21. The studio features work by over 50 different artists, each with their own curated display. Many have works for sale as well.

“We started out in a little tiny, like a living room of a house,” said Sue Polackas, one of the artists who helps maintain the space and also has works hung. Susan and Chaz Tellner began Slanted Art
“Ever since the borough went back to doing third Fridays,” Polackas said. “We started having our open house on the third Friday. We had always had a featured artist and we had always had an opening for that artist.”
Joanne Sivers, her husband Doug who makes wooden art pieces and Maureen Plitt were part of the crowd at the art studio Friday. They admired the hard work that had gone into holiday decorating and arranging items in each of the rooms, from the main floor to the bottom floor. Tin types, beaded trees, paintings and photography adorn the walls but without being too overwhelming. Every few months, artists draw numbers to swap locations so the gallery doesn’t look the same all the time.
Inside the featured artists’ room, a warm white glow of Christmas lights surrounded the various pieces on display from woodwork to wire and mixed media. Some paintings showed wintery scenes while others depicted children’s toys.

“We have an application form, an agreement, and three or four pieces of art that are juried,” Polackas said, with a $30 monthly fee to belong to the collective as an artist.
Polackas explained there would also be a gingerbread house contest, with first, second and third places available for different age groups.
“There’s an adult category, a teen category and a children’s category,” Polackas said. “It has to be an edible gingerbread house. (Afterwards), it goes back home.”
Whichever display gets the most votes cast on little papers, wins.
Anyone can enter as long as they make an edible gingerbread house and bring it to Slanted Art on Dec. 3 and 4 before the contest opens during Christmas in Montrose on Dec. 5-7.
“We’ve sponsored it for three years now,” she said, with 10 entries last year. “We have artists who actually donated all the prizes this year.”

Venice and Madrid Tapas and Wine
Downstairs past more Christmas decorations and costume art, a door leads to Venice and Madrid’s restaurant. As an extra treat, they plan to open a new spot upstairs in Slanted Art’s main room, straight back from the main entrance. Owners John and Doreen Tillman are looking forward to opening “The Little Foodie Cafe,” the week of Christmas in Montrose.
“We’ll be open on Friday and Saturday and we’re gonna be doing dinner hours from 5 to 9 p.m.,” John Tillman said. “During the day, we’re opening a new cafe upstairs— that’ll be up and going for Christmas in Montrose, at least during the day.”