Tulsa Art Lover Stops a Tanker, Buys Lots of 5x5s

Not every fan of the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition 5x5 Show & Sale has stopped a tanker truck in its tracks while waiting for the show to open, but Tulsan Claire Johnson is not just any fan. This year’s show will open at 5:55 p.m. Fri., May 1 at the TAC Gallery but Johnson will get there before noon and set up camp with a folding chair and cooler on the sidewalk outside the gallery at 9 E. Reconciliation Way. One year, Johnson’s dog, a Parson-Russell terrier rescue named Walter, ran out in front of a milk tanker from nearby Borden Dairy. “I bolted out in front of the tanker yelling for Walter ,and the driver stopped just in time. Luckily, he was only going about 15 miles an hour, but it was still a blood-curdling heart-stopping experience,” Johnson said. And that’s not the only excitement. Over 17 years, Johnson has bought 46 artworks from the 5x5 Show & Sale including some from well-known artists. 

For 25 years on or around May 5, Tulsans have lined up on the sidewalk in anticipation of the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition 5x5 Show and Sale. Months earlier, TAC gives any Tulsa creative who wants to participate a blank 5x5 canvas. The creatives paint, collage, sculpt, embellish, or sketch on the canvas creating a tiny original work of art. Then they donate the artwork to TAC and each one is sold for $55, regardless of whether the artist is nationally known or a student in high school.

Johnson has had many adventures camping out on the sidewalk, always joined by fellow 5x5 fan Diane Buckner, who has come to almost every show for 25 years. When the show opens, it’s always a race to find the desired artwork and grab the tag off the wall so no one else can buy it. Buckner and Johnson help each other by sharing what they’re interested in ahead of time, and whoever sees it first grabs the tag. Johnson has acquired two paintings by the late painter Otto Deucker, and three pieces by multi-media artist Cynthia Marcoux.

Another of Johnson’s prized 5x5s is a portrait of Walter by Matt Moffett. One year Johnson hosted a party for friends to paint 5x5s to donate to the show, and a friend of hers brought Moffett who painted a portrait of Walter and donated it to the show. Luckily no one beat Johnson to the purchase, and the painting hangs with the other 5x5s in Johnson’s home. 

“It can be cutthroat, but it brings me joy like very little else does,” Johnson said. “The 5x5s are a little snapshot of the artist in that moment, and the fact that they created something that speaks to you is like a cosmic connection. I love the inspiration of art,” she said.