Monthly Archives: April 2012

W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

Cochlea by W.G. Middleton, James Harmon, Dr. Mindy George Weinstein, glass, acrylic, wire, 22x22x32″, W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

DoN asked William G. Middleton about the eclectic mix of classical figurative sculptures with the eye-popping abstract mixed media pieces representing microscopic anatomy details? “It’s interesting. I’ve been doing this classical stuff for probably forty years.  That’s how I went to art school, because I was doing that.”  W.G. Middleton attended PAFA.  “I got into it and I never did another classical piece of sculpture.  For one thing, I was much older than a lot of the people in sculpture.  So, they could afford to take year to do a piece, which is what it takes to do a mold and pour bronze.  I said, ‘You know, I really don’t have that kind of time‘.”

W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

“I turned to abstract sculpture, which was much more fun because you can sit around and think about it and it would evolve.  And, so, that’s where I went for a long time but I’ve always liked to do classical pieces, you know?”  DoN knows Bill from figure study workshops at The Philadelphia Sketch Club, his drawing skills are formidable. “I got away from doing those, I did one recently but that’s about it.  Then, part of the evolution of doing these was in school I was studying how things worked in the body.  I just kept going and going until I got to the microscopic level.”

W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

W.G. MiddletonBody Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

“In classical works there are portions that are common – there are either seven or eight heads, there’s three heads to the belly button, there’s a direct proportion – well, in the interior stuff, there’s no relation to anything.  But, it’s still basically form following function and it’s a totally different beauty involved.  But, it all works for the same reason.  I realized one day, it’s interesting I’ve gone from classical, totally different stuff, but it’s still in the body, it relates to the body.”

The dramatic sculpture in the window of Twenty-Two Gallery looks like found objects but Middleton explained, “No, it Boorman’s Space and the loop of Henle, so when blood comes in through here, it’s separated out, urine is separated out.  It’s not forced, it’s a balance of fluids through a filter and then the blood continues down through the loop of Henle where it is again extracted comes around here and then actually the blood takes back certain things it needs.  This is in the kidney, a pretty complex thing.”

W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

W.G. MiddletonBody Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery, Edy, clay, 19x17x20″

W.G. Middleton, Body Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

Retina, W.G. Middleton, James Harmon, Dr. Mindy George Weinstein, glass, acrylic, wire, 48x7x20″, W.G. MiddletonBody Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery

Retina, a dazzling complex sculpture on a dramatic black platform, is a combination of glass, plexiglass and light, “It’s actually a replica of how the cell in the retina works. The colors come in and then they separate out and then they’re separated and sent to the brain through the rods and cones. The primary colors are the rods, and the cones are complementary. It’s interesting, it goes to the brain and is reconstructed but in a different image based on memories, so your experiences aren’t based on what you’re seeing.  What you’re seeing and what I’m seeing are totally different.  You don’t realize it, but…”

W.G. MiddletonBody Aesthetic at Twenty-Two Gallery through May 6, 2012.

Photographed and written by DoN Brewer

Ivette Spradlin, Everything Changed, Then Changed Again at Center for Emerging Visual Artists

Ivette Spradlin, Everything Changes, Then Changed Again at Center for Emerging Visual Artists

Ivette SpradlinShuanna with Child, Braddock PA, inkjet print, Everything Changes, Then Changed Again at Center for Emerging Visual Artists

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists has had artist exchange exhibits with the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts for the past five years.  The current show which ends April 20th is Ivette Spradlin‘s Everything Changes, Then Changed Again, is an exhibit of large scape black and white “portraits”.  Ivette Spradlin has ties to Philadelphia because she went to grad school and taught here at Tyler School of Art, graduating in 2007 after which she briefly moved back to Atlanta then on to Pittsburgh. When she began working there Ivette realized she needed to build a community of friends and figure out a way to meet people. Her photography project came about from the need and desire to connect to people and wasn’t originally intended to be shown but more of a way to get access to people.  The collection was first shown at Pittsburgh FilmmakersCFEVA is the second venue for the collection. 

I wanted to start shooting portraits again so I started asking a couple of people that I knew there and it kind of built up from there.   I would meet people and ask if I could take their portrait and I would have them choose a space and location and let them know that I was looking for a space in transition.   Some of these people are in some sort of transition in their own life and I felt I was, so, this was a way of documenting that transition for me and for them.  And getting to know Pittsburgh.”Ivette Spradlin at Center for Emerging Visual Artists

Ivette Spradlin at Center for Emerging Visual Artists 

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists has had artist exchange exhibits with the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts for the past five years.  The current show which ends April 20th is Ivette Spradlin‘s Everything Changes, Then Changed Again, is an exhibit of large scape black and white “portraits”.  Ivette Spradlin has ties to Philadelphia because she went to grad school and taught here at Tyler School of Art, graduating in 2007 after which she briefly moved back to Atlanta then on to Pittsburgh. When she began working there Ivette realized she needed to build a community of friends and figure out a way to meet people. Her photography project came about from the need and desire to connect to people and wasn’t originally intended to be shown but more of a way to get access to people.  The collection was first shown at Pittsburgh FilmmakersCFEVA is the second venue for the collection.

Ivette Spradlin at Center for Emerging Visual Artists

Ivette Spradlin, Heather in Marchester, Pittsburgh PA, inkjet print, 42″ x 52″

I think that those ideas about adapting are always in my head  and that’s definitely what this work was for me, adapting to Pittsburgh and learning to be a person there, an artist there, a teacher there, a friend.   When I first started it, I really wanted the figure to be really small and encompassed in a landscape, part of that is a visual thing but Pittsburgh’s landscape it can kind of tower over you, there are a lot of mountains, and I wanted it to feel like you’re enveloped in the landscape, almost a little bit lost in it.   Then some of the turns (of the subject) we came up with are kind of an optimism, a hope, like the turn of a transition, like their life was looking towards something else.  Some of them are getting divorced, some of them are having babies, so I think that had a lot to do with that.”  Most of Ivette Spradlin’s portraits were collaborations with her subjects as far as setting and wardrobe but sometimes she would be led to a certain spot and learn some of the subject’s personal history.   “We shot in many locations for each person and that’s the part where the photographer makes the decisions, like where you’re going to photograph them?  And where they’d look good, what’s nice aesthetically.”

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer 

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Recommended reading from Ivette Spradlin

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Eva Preston, Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Eva Preston, Judgement Day, mixed media at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Bonnie MacAllister and Joanna Fulginiti know each other through the Women’s Caucus for Art and worked together at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rachel Udell, also a member in the show, worked at the museum as well. Bonnie explained to DoN, “We got into F & N Gallery because we were curated into a show…and we talked to the gallery director and he with a wonderful woman named Jess McCann invited us and donated the space to us, it was this beautiful collaboration.  We were able to extend the call beyond our WCA members and got work from as far away as Atlanta, we have a film that was lent to us for the night, and the dolls will be in the window for a week.”  Sorry, little DoNSters it’s taken a while to get this story together, this event was April First Friday, the dolls are at http://phila-wca.blogspot.com/2011/08/call-for-art-rag-dolls.html

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking, The Ragdoll Project

The Ragdoll Project is meant to create awareness for human trafficking, they invited participants from different workshops, in West Philly through Spiral Q Puppet TheaterFollicle Hair Studio on South Street.  Joanna described the production to DoN, “We set up sewing machines, we used donated fabrics and we just made dolls. The dolls will be sold and all the money will go to Dawn’s Place which is a shelter for victims of human trafficking in Philadelphia.  Dawn’s Place is the only place in Philadelphia that helps victims of sex trafficking specifically.  And they do need money, they need donations, so we’re going to sell all the dolls and donate all the money.”

Rachel Udell, Danielle Ferrell, Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Rachel Udell, I’m Tired, digital image and Danielle Ferrell, effraye’, screen print at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

“The dolls were made by the Women’s Caucus for Art and other people that come to our workshops.  I get dolls sent to me in the mail everyday from people who heard about it on www.theragdollproject.org  That will show you how you can make a doll and donate it, anyone can make a doll and it is a donation, so they won’t get it back but we’ll sell it and the money will go to the victims of trafficking.”  Jess McCann, the co-curator of the show is part of the Philadelphia Modern Stop Slavery Group, she and Joanna Fulginiti selected art by women and intended the installation to have an educational aspect.  “We have certain statistics or quotes that we felt were very important to capture about the issue that would inform the people something that they might not be familiar with.  A lot are quotes from Johns who purchase sex, statistics about who is prosecuted; rarely are the pimps or traffickers prosecuted it’s usually the women, the women themselves. Who are often victims.”

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Beth Prusky, This is How It Feels, charcoal and acrylic on archival mylar at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

“They wind up going in jail, that’s something people need to know about.  The violence like this piece by Rachel Udell, this is about the violence women in prostitution face.  They have a violent life.”  Joanna points out a particular quote, “A study of 475 people in prostitution finds 62% reported having been raped, 73% reported having experienced physical assault and 92% said they wanted to escape prostitution.”  Joanna is passionate about the subject, “It’s a violent life and the violence comes from the pimps and the Johns.  People have this idea of prostitution like it Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman, glamorous, but it’s not. It’s full of violence.  That’s what the first two pieces are about, the inner turmoil.”

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Lauretta Paraguassu, Children of the Night, watercolor and ink on paper at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Quote from a John, “She gave up her rights when she accepted my money.”  Joanna dismisses this myth, “You know, men just kind of doing this like it’s that old boy’s club kind of thing, ‘there’s nothing wrong with this’, ‘this is how you treat women’, like blindly going along with this male idea.”

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Megan Kelly, Body Monster, collaged painting on paper at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Joanna Fulginiti, Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking, The Ragdoll Project 

Joanna Fulginiti, Ragdolls, mixed media at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Joanna Fulginiti‘s painting started The Ragdoll Project, “I did that piece because these girls are just being treated like rag dolls, they’re not even human beings.  They can be tossed away after they’re used and I started that and once we starting thinking of a project we could do to raise money for the victims and someone commented on my piece like, ‘Oh, maybe we can work with rag dolls.’  They’re not hard to make so that’s how we started with this.”

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Joanna explained the context of the art, “Most people don’t know that the average age of a prostitute is 13 years old.  Which is so scary, this is a children’s issue. Pimps are luring teenagers into this.  The average age of entry is thirteen and actually the average lifespan of a girl after she enters prostitution is six years.  So it’s stealing their childhood, that’s what these pieces are about.  Suicide, homicide, like many of these girls are homeless girls, they may have lived in foster families their whole lives, so it’s not like they even know where they are.  Some of these women became prostitutes and no one even came looking for them or cared where they are.”

Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Blind Leading the Blind: Captured, screen print/linoleum block print at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

“You know I don’t think in the justice system they’re seen as victims.  Yet.  Certain states are more progressive than others but a lot of times in law enforcement they consider the women the criminals when a lot of them are forced into this.  They’re victims.  This is about treating girls as criminals.  There is hope you know?  These women can start over.”

Alison Altercott, Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

Alison Altergott, Saturday’s Child, mixed media at Stop Slavery Now: A Conversation About Human Trafficking

According to Joanna, “The more you read about a country where it’s legal versus a country where it’s illegal, if you read about what actually happens, it’s very, very clear that legalizing it, increases demand.  It normalizes the activity.  so, them more people are prone to do it and there’s so much demand they can’t get enough women who want to do this on their own. They have to get, well – if it’s Amsterdam, it’s from Eastern Europe and they have to start trafficking because they just can’t keep up with the demand.  If you legalize prostitution, your demand goes up so much that you have to force women into it just to keep up with it…there’s this idea that if you legalize it you can control it and make it safer but it’s almost impossible.  It’s so violent.  How do you make it safer?  When a John beats up a prostitute, how do you stop that?  The facts show when you legalize it, it increases demand and you’re putting all these girls at risk for being trafficked.”

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

Read more at Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio

“I went running out on the eye beam because I saw this shot.  And my friends were like, ‘They were right about you!'”  Veronika Schmude is an urban explorer who loves to takes risks to get a great photo.  Veronika asked DoN to help her hang her show at Apple Jacks Studio at 319 North 11th St, 4th Floor, Philadelphia, the arts building near Vine Street, it’s flattering to be asked for artistic advise, especially in a hot art spot like the Khmer Building with Vox Populi and Tiger Strikes Asteroid.  We decided to arrange the work formally with an even eyesight line with some quirky informal arrangement of the smaller pieces mixed in.  With the broad spectrum lighting Veronika installed and the industrial loft vibe of the gallery, the photographs looked perfectly amazing.

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio

Veronika Schmude explained to DoN, “All of these are the Richmond Power Plant except for the center piece, the center one is called Machine and was taken at Global Dye.  Which they’re apparently shooting a movie in; the Richmond Power Plant had a bunch of movies shot there: 12 Monkeys (Special Edition), is the most known, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Two-Disc Special Edition), that was shot there as well, parts of it and it’s actually a fascinating building.” DoN wondered how one get’s inside a locale like an abandoned power plant?  “They make attempts to keep us out by putting grating and a fence but..” A conversation starts between Veronika and a couple of her explorer pals about which tools the authorities would be consider those used for breaking and entering and those for hobbyists, Dremel Rotary Toolare for hobbyists (wink, wink!)

Acting normal and like you belong there is a technique the explorers use if confronted with questions as to why they’re there.  “I’ve always been fascinated with abandoned buildings and industrial sites since I was a kid.  I would go into abandoned buildings in the town I grew up in, Springdale PA, about forty miles outside of Pittsburgh.  And between the abandoned warehouses along the train tracks and the abandoned homes I came across interesting stories and one story in particular.

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio

“There was this one house that was cut into three different apartments.  Well, this one apartment I went into, they were all open, because it was a small town and they didn’t need to lock up anything really.  Everything was left as is, they literally picked up and left, down to food on the stove in the pot and I ended up later meeting the woman who used to live there.  She was obese to the point of bed-ridden, her husband had elephantiasis, and they used to have two kids living in this apartment.  And, according to them, these children became possessed and they literally had to pick up and leave and the children were eventually taken away because they were, well, they had some problems.”

DoN asked Veronika about the emotional sensations she experiences exploring abandoned spaces since she started as a kid?  “Yeah, I have to say there is something almost appealing, very sexy about the whole smell of, like, decay and rust and the air’s so thick you can feel the particles, there’s dust landing on you. There’s something like also very innocent about it because it takes me back to my childhood, but, it’s a thrill, too.  I mean, it’s definitely a rush getting into these places without getting busted.  Getting back out with everything intact.  Some buildings I have to be quicker than others, get in and get out, depending on if there’s homeless or whatnot, squatters.  I shoot with a Canon 450D, on my last shoot which at the Saint Nickolas Coal breakers I borrowed a friends camera, both Canon, and an Canon XTi, the Canon XTi has a 135 mm wide angle and my camera, the 450D, had a 90 mm normal lens which I use for closer, smaller shots.  I use a color enhancing filter and I adjust my white balance to give a warm tone or a cool tone…which gives that warm red hue, makes the rust colors really pop.”

Veronika Schmude at Apple Jacks Studio, 319 North 11th Street, Floor 4, Philadelphia PA 19107

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

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Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

The Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club usually hosts a group art show, April, Jazz Month, is exhibiting a collection of photographs by Robert J. BrandDoN asked Bob about the photographs in the one-person show?  “The show is photos of jazz musicians in performance and I’m not selling anything.  I’m giving away work to friends and my friends all support Obama for President.  So, they write a check to Obama for President, then I give them a piece of art.”

Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

Robert J. BrandJazz PhotographsDownstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

DoN noticed that the prices are, shall we say?  Affordable.  “Well, we’re not going to win this election with the Koch Brothers.  It’s going to require people giving money, making phone calls, ringing doorbells, walking streets and turning out the vote.  So, making the art affordable is part of getting people involved. Sometime during April, I have a portfolio of twenty-two pictures that I took in Mississippi in 1966.  The portfolio is titled It’s Always Been About Voting. And it’s a limited edition, forty boxed sets and all the money from that will go to groups that are fighting for the right to vote.  The money’s going against all the anti-voting actions of state governments around the country.”

Robert J. Brand, Jazz Photographs, Downstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

Robert J. BrandJazz PhotographsDownstairs Gallery at the Plastic Club

DoN asked Robert J. Brand when he began taking pictures?  “I got my first camera in 1963, around Thanksgiving when I had just started college.”  Are you shooting digitally now?  “I have gone digital but some of the pictures in this show are silver bromide images but everything I do now is digital and we’re digitizing as fast as we can. The 1966 pieces have all been  digitized. In 1965 and 66, I was in Mississippi several times, the pictures in the portfolio all came from the James Meredith march.  He set out to march against fear to show people they could register to vote and he was shot the first day of the march.”

“And ten thousand people came from around the United States to finish the march.  And, we did.  Before that we worked on what became the first integrated Head Start Program in Mississippi which we physically built over Christmas and New Years of ’65, ’66…I guess I was twenty years old, there were over ten thousand people there.”

Plastic Club Art Studio and Gallery, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia PA, 19107  215-545-9324

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

Read more about Jazz Show at The Plastic Club at Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog