| You might liken Columbus’ Chop Chop gallery to a Japanese bento box: it’s colorful and full of exotic experiences not always familiar to the Midwestern palette. Even though there are haphazard flavors thrown into the mix (a blind car mechanic? neon green walls? an electric guitar recital?), it’s an altogether consonant with experience. The main course of Chop Chop, a space recently opened on Parsons Avenue, is its art gallery. The current location was gutted and renovated shortly after it was purchased in mid-2006. According to owners Craig Dransfield and Ashley Puckett, they seek out “imaginative, self-motivated artists” of all backgrounds and styles to exhibit media. | 
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Nicole Hollon
Courtesy of Chop Chop Gallery.You might liken Columbus’ Chop Chop gallery to a Japanese bento box: it’s colorful and full of exotic experiences not always familiar to the Midwestern palette. Even though there are haphazard flavors thrown into the mix (a blind car mechanic? neon green walls? an electric guitar recital?), it’s an altogether consonant with experience.
The main course of Chop Chop, a space recently opened on Parsons Avenue, is its art gallery. The current location was gutted and renovated shortly after it was purchased in mid-2006. According to owners Craig Dransfield and Ashley Puckett, they seek out “imaginative, self-motivated artists” of all backgrounds and styles to exhibit media.
Oftentimes, the gallery takes a flexible attitude toward their new recruits: artists can put together a show without giving much notice. Artists also have the option to grow their show from the roots up, making fliers, and writing their press releases. According to Puckett, “when artists have the opportunity to curate their own show…it’s an empowering learning experience.” This organic, flexible attitude toward shows attracts youthful and street-inspired artists.
Chop Chop is at times a springboard for artists who begin their careers here in Ohio and move on to bigger cities once they’ve had some exposure. But Chop Chop itself (the name derives from the horse of a childhood friend) is immensely more than just an art launch pad. It’s more of a creative compound. “I desire community, shared resources, and also an interesting space to vibe off of and hole up in,” Puckett said. This explains why at least five artists are always housed in the gallery’s studio spaces—artists who otherwise might be working out of basements and garages around Ohio. Thus far, Puckett and Dransfield have hosted Dirty Booty children’s clothing, a soap maker, a bike messenger bag company, and various illustrators, painters, and graphic designers. Studios are custom built to support artistic need. Puckett and Dransfield themselves do a good share of screen printing for local businesses. They sell their T-shirt designs to the Wexner Center Store near the Ohio State University campus, as well as in the windows of their own storefront.
If Chop Chop gallery doesn’t already sound eclectic, let’s introduce Ed Marko. At the twilight of his career instead of on the launch pad, he moved into the garage at Chop Chop to continue his passion of fixing cars. In his 70s, and blind, he was Dransfield’s mentor, and “taught him everything he knows about mechanics and building cars. He… was thinking about retiring, so he moved in,” Puckett explained matter-of-factly.
Clearly, what might sound bizarre to readers is a commonplace reality for the owners. One of the gallery rooms is painted a refreshing shade of lite-brite green. There was recently an elementary school electric guitar recital. Ian Mackaye of Fugazi, Davy Rothbart of Found Magazine, and Frank Warren of PostSecret have all performed or talked at Chop Chop.This whimsical, “let’s all finger paint” attitude is what Columbus needs. In a rapidly growing Midwest city that is only recently burgeoning to embrace hip restaurants and New York style, a playful, inclusive attitude is what is getting people in to the gallery. When asked about the future of Chop Chop and of a growing Columbus arts scene, Puckett was optimistic. “If individuals would spend as much time making art as the collectives and spaces like ours have spent trying to nurture art making, then boom, we’ll have a great arts scene,” Puckett said. “Columbus will have style and substance.”
