Cooperstown NY- Side door gallery director and artist, Gary Bower (Charlotteville, NY) will moderate ‘Playing Hardball,’ a three-artist discussion Wed. Sept. 3 at 5PM, a free program. Artists are Charles Bremer (Otego NY originally from Pennsylvania ), James Gregg Herman (Hartwick, NY, originally from Missouri) and David Wilson (So. New Berlin, NY, originally from Yorkshire, England).The title of the panel references the preponderance of bats, baseballs, homeplates and katana (or samurai swords) the three artists contribute to the current show, Samurai Baseball & More. The Art Garage will open at 4:30 with light refreshments. Seating is limited: reservations recommended. Contact: leartgarage@gmail.com, text/call 315-941-9607. Parking on lawns is requested, for public safety. Moderator Gary Bower, originally from Ohio, earned undergrad and graduate degrees at Ohio State University. His paintings incorporate a blend of figurative and abstract imagery with an impressive use of color. His work is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American and other public and private collections. Recently he stablished ‘side door gallery’, a non-traditional exhibition space, in Charlotteville, NY. Of the panelists, Charlie Bremer, presents five small, exquisitely presented photographic mixed-medium paintings of baseballs—floating in water, in deep dark space, or ‘bottled’ in luminous vintage bottles with astounding layered transparency. He writes, “Baseball, as is the earth, is always a wonder.” James Gregg Herman offers two powerful paintings, both comments on baseball’s homeplate, which he has thoroughly researched. One presents a homeplate occluded by delicate shapes that suggest shards of broken glass, Ball / Strike embodies a kind of double vision homeplate, perhaps referencing different ways to judge balls and strikes. In his artist statement, Strikes / Balls / Hits he classifies important moments in an artist’s career as balls, strikes or hits. The statement poem is posted next to his art. David Wilson displays two sculptures. A vertical tabletop sculpture, Samurai Baseball, presents a classic samurai action figure atop a baseball monument wielding a bat instead of a sword, the monument base embossed with “bushido”, the core samurai tenets;”Samurai Baseball Trophy” is a dramatic display of a baseball impaled on a katana ( samurai sword) that hovers over a saya (scabbard) All artists’ pieces were created in 2025. Wilson also curated a selection of video clips for the ‘pop-up baseball shop’ in the MG Gallery, that feature a samurai and a professional ballplayer slicing fast-pitched balls with swords. Don’t miss the Anda Stelian baseball tiles, the Richard Walker baseball collectibles (photos, magnets and mugs) and classic vintage posters in the pop-up. The Windowsill Gallery features Ada Yonenaka’s hand-stamped one-of-a-kind notecards, copies of baseball-centric out-of-print books: Diamonds are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball (S. Waller), and a biography of Ichiro Suzuki edited by Elmer Luke (Cooperstown). Serving the area for 14 years, the gallery also represents the estate of Lavern Kelley and produced the monograph, Lavern Kelley Farmer Artist. The current 15-artist exhibition, Samurai Baseball AND MORE: a fine-arts-look-at-baseball, is on view through Saturday September 13. The Art Garage is open Saturdays 11-3 and every day with an appointment: call/text 315-941-9607. text/call 315-941-9607 or email leartgarage@gmail.com. For more images see FB/Instagram @artgaragecoopersrtown.