Posters

To some people, art is intimidating, a high-brow pursuit of the culturally adroit. But there's at least one kind of art that is anything but daunting. Vintage posters, almost invariably advertisements for products as mundane as soap, cars, shoes and olive oil, are a hot item for collectors, who, by some estimates, are shelling out more than $20 million a year around the world for rare examples of the craft. "It's fine art but it's attainable art," said Scott McHale, the sales manager at Gaines McHale, a Baltimore antiques store that is holding a large poster sale this weekend, the 11th consecutive year it has done so. "They were designed not only to sell something but to be entertaining, to be funny, to evoke some emotion."

More than 100 colorful posters decorated the walls of a small room on the third floor of a Read Street building in Baltimore. Young people ages 7 to 9 dashed around, inspecting each poster, trying to choose one to publicize the annual "Books for Kids Day" collection drive sponsored by the Baltimore Reads literacy organization. The children judging the posters on a recent Saturday afternoon were members of the organization's first "Kid's Committee," designed to involve children in planning the book drive, which will be held May 5 at Polytechnic Insti- tute/Western High School in Baltimore.

Feet dangled from the rear of an ambulance, but the rest of the body was unseen. Nearby were an intravenous fluid pole and a defibrillator, while strewn outside were beer bottles, pills and poison. Attached was a toe tag, which read, "Name: Drug A. Buser, Age: 2 Young." The scene was on a poster drawn by Brooke Alder, a 9-year-old pupil at Hampstead Elementary School and the all-county winner of the second annual "Tragedy Is Only a Drug Away - Say No to Drugs" poster contest. Brooke and 53 other Carroll County fourth-graders were honored Tuesday at Friendship Valley Elementary School in Westminster for their efforts in portraying an anti-drug message for the county's Safe and Drug Free Schools program.

Like other Navy wives, Kristin Factor catalogues the passing years by her family's base postings. Between 1997 and 1999, she and her husband, Lt. Douglas Factor, lived in San Diego. In 2000, Newport, R.I. was home. Norfolk, Va., in 2001 and last year, and this year, Corpus Christi, Texas. No matter where she lived, come each October for the past seven years, Factor has boarded a plane, bound for the Annapolis gallery of artist Nancy Hammond. "The images help keep me less homesick," said Factor, 34, a native of Upper Marlboro, who waited in line 24 hours to purchase Hammond's latest limited-edition poster.

The images portray women old and young. Some have strong bodies, but all have strong spirits and loud voices. A group of Anne Arundel County middle-schoolers has chronicled the achievements of women in politics, business, sports, entertainment and art and their impact on our society in more than 40 posters and essays in honor of Women's History Month. The posters will be on display in the Arundel Center until the end of the week. The Anne Arundel County Commission for Women invited the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders - girls and boys - to depict women they admire based on the theme "Women Are Changing America, Everyday."

The conservative French academy of the 1890s thought it could suppress modernist rebels like Paul Cezanne, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard simply by refusing to show their paintings. But the guardians of tradition underestimated the ingenuity of their opponents. Instead of meekly going away, the insurgents fought back by enlisting the power of the press and the relatively new medium of the color lithograph print. The result was an explosion of printmaking during the last decade of the 19th century that helped define the visual character of the age and allowed the most progressive artists to present their works directly to the public.

It was politics as usual, all right. Smiling candidates uttered vague promises about more dances and spirit days, pledging to make freshman year "a blast for everyone" while delivering "leadership for the new millennium." Teachers urged the electorate to concentrate on the issues, while disillusioned voters, decrying the influence of powerful special interest cliques, said they felt disenfranchised from a student government that had become "just a popularity contest." Unsubstantiated rumors abounded: Candidates were accused of stealing each other's posters, trading Jolly Ranchers for votes and running for office merely to beef up their college applications.

In the more than 45 years since the Prime Rib opened, precious little has changed at the iconic midtown restaurant. Walking in is like stepping into a bygone era: Well-dressed diners carve into steaks the size of dinner plates while waiters in suits top off their wine glasses. The walls are black with gold trim; on them hang paintings, posters and framed covers of Vogue from the early 1930s. And who could miss that swinging '60s leopard print carpet? The Prime Rib has been around long enough to see its style fall in and out of fashion.

Oversized illustrations of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin have begun to spring up on abandoned buildings throughout Baltimore, the work of a street artist protesting the death of the 17-year-old at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer. An image of the young man's hooded face went up overnight on Wednesday at the intersection of Caroline and Baltimore streets. Only the youth's chin is visible, but a bag of Skittles — the type of candy Trayvon was carrying when he was shot — is superimposed in the lower right corner of the poster.

Bel Air Lions Club members Madeline Hartman, left, and Pat Hogan flank the Lions Club International Peace Poster banner at the United Nations in New York, as Lions and the UN celebrated the 25th year of working together on this project. Middle school students from around the world submit posters with their visual interpretation of peace. Lion Hartman runs the program for the Bel Air Lions.