Monthly Archives: August 2012

light being (Frank), Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

light being (Frank), Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

light being (Frank)DoN Brewer, digital photograph, Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

On the way to deliver my entries for the annual Absolutely Abstract show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club I had the usual reservations entering a landscape photograph in the abstract show. But once again another of my abstract landscape images from the light being series is included along with the painters, I am humbled and honored to have my work recognized as an abstract image drawn directly from the real world.

Absolutely Abstract 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club 8/31 – 9/22/2012, Reception 9/9/2012 2-4:00pm

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

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Gesshel at Jed Williams Studio, Printmaking Demonstration

Gesshel at Jed Williams Studio, Printmaking Demonstration

Gesshel at Jed Williams Studio, Printmaking Demonstration 8/22/2012

Philadelphia artist Barbara Gesshel is a printmaker who combines excellent drawing skills with multiple printmaking processes. Old planks of wood become reliefs carved with images of nature in reverse, an old headboard is repurposed and carved away to reveal a family portrait, mono-prints become statement pieces…at Jed Williams Studio, 615 Bainbridge Street, Gesshel will demonstrate several printmaking techniques tonight, August 22nd, followed by refreshments and question and answer session. You may get a chance to even make your own print plus you will get a preview of Gesshel‘s upcoming solo show at Jed Williams Studio in October. Tickets are $7.00

Read more at SideArts.com 

http://gesshelprintmakingdemo.eventbrite.com

Through SideArts.comDoN is offering online and in-person one-on-one consulting services to visual and craft artists and art businesses.  Read all about it here.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

Affiliate Marketing [disclosure page] Shop on-line at Amazon.com and help support DoNArTNeWs.

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, Sky Holes, digital photograph, inkjet print © DoN Brewer

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, Sky Holes, digital photograph, inkjet print

Sky Holes, a photograph of tree shadows on garden gates has been accepted in this year’s Art Ability International Juried Arts Exhibit for People Living with Disabilities at Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Malvern, PA. The image plays a few optical tricks and color ways that are intriguing – the gray color on the left where the sun hits the black wood is the same tone as the shadow falling on the white door on the right, the green in the middle appears in the shadow but turns white in the light. The illusion of soft focus is the result of light shining through the spaces between the leaves and branches of the trees making sky holes of illumination. The term abstract is appropriate to apply to this landscape photograph because the image modifies the objects in the setting to patterns and colors, separates the elements from a concrete reality and emphasizes generalized shapes.

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, light being (Dee), digital photo, © DoN Brewer

DoN BrewerAbstract Photography, light being (Dee), digital photo

This photo appeared in The Plastic Club‘s Members Choice Art Show in August, read my story about light being (Dee) at SideArts.com.

DoN Brewer, Abstract Photography, light being (Frank), digital photo, © DoN Brewer

DoN BrewerAbstract Photography, light being (Frank), digital photograph, 2012

light being (Frank) is for all the departed Franks – Zappa, Sinatra, Anne – but the title is influenced by a favorite dance song called Frank Sinatra by Felix da Housecat – the lyrics go:

every night with my star friends

we eat caviar and drink champagne

sniffing in the v.i.p. area

we talk about frank sinatra

you know frank sinatra?

he’s dead…dead?

ha, ha, ha

The first DoNster who guesses the location where light being (Frank) was shot will get a free print.

Through SideArts.comDoN is offering online and in-person one-on-one consulting services to visual and craft artists and art businesses.  Read all about it here.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

Affiliate Marketing [disclosure page] Shop on-line at Amazon.com and help support DoNArTNeWs.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Wayne Franks, Row House Rose, oil

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Wayne Franks, Row House Rose, transparent oil on panel

The Art of the Flower show at The Philadelphia Sketch Club usually coincides with the Philadelphia Flower Show in March while it’s still cold and drab outside after the long Winter. But moving the annual celebration of floral art to the dog days of Summer is a good reminder to appreciate the gorgeous gardens in full bloom during this withering weather. The Art of the Flower show is a favorite of the member artists, it’s theme of natural splendor a motif filled with evocative beauty and drama.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Ruth K. Fackenthal, Day Lilies, acrylic on linen

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Ruth K. Fackenthal, Day Lilies, acrylic on linen

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club click the thumbnail for larger image

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Kathy C. Lin, Hugging, oil

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Kathy C. Lin, Hugging, oil

This painting just makes me happy. The way the composition flips back and forth from abstract to still life to impressionist to naive expressionism is just plain fun.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Elizabeth MacDonald

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Elizabeth MacDonald

Betty MacDonald’s piece is multiple mono-prints on paper transferred from common paint stir sticks. The sense of storytelling and descriptive imagery ties together a lifetime of experiences. References to painting as utilitarian and decorative practices, flowers as design and symbols of nature and inferences to embroidery, handwork and decorative art creates a narrative of how art influences our lives and nature influences our art.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club click the thumbnail for large image.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club

The gallery at The Philadelphia Sketch Club is brimming like a huge bouquet of flowers of all kinds presented in all manner os media but to my eye painting is dominant. Whether watercolor, oils, or acrylics, artists find flowers irresistible for study and painting, images of flowers were found buried at Pompeii and have long been symbols of personalities or special occasions. You can’t help but feel good when you see all the exuberant color, fluid shapes and sensuous compositions interpreted by serious artists.

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Pearl Mintzer, Magenta Blossom, acrylic

Art of the Flower at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Pearl Mintzer, Magenta Blossom, acrylic

The Art of the Flower show is only on exhibit through August 18th check the website for gallery hours and experience the many interpretations and inspirations of floral art.

Through SideArts.comDoN is offering online and in-person one-on-one consulting services to visual and craft artists and art businesses.  Read all about it here.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

Follow DoN on Twitter @DoNNieBeat58

Affiliate Marketing [disclosure page] Shop on-line at Amazon.com and help support DoNArTNeWs.

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel, photo by Bonnie Schorske

Corrina Mehiel is half way through the Masters Degree Program in Studio Arts at the University of the Arts, a program lasting almost three years and is independently driven with 45 artists from all over the world.  Corrina explained her public art project, Bike (PH)ix this way, “I am interested in the unspoken social conversation that’s going on. In each city there’s a different kind of conversation happening. I moved here last June and I had been to Philly a couple times but not really that much. I was really struck by the amount of stuff existing on the street and the street life here. People that are existing with objects that are either this kind of free-cycle thing that happens in Philly where people just take stuff but in other cities it’s taken to a donation center.”

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel

“Here it’s just outside your door. It’s like this unwritten code about that ‘it’s fine to just take things’ and then beyond that it seems that almost theft is acceptable here. Just this culture that the bikes get stripped and people don’t come back to get the parts and students coming out of the university just leave their bicycles when they go back home, so, to me the city is talking about a kind of detachment or something. In other places I’ve lived humans have such a strong object attachment and our identities are so wrapped up in our objects. Things that we are about, you know?”

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel, photo by Bonnie Schorske

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel, photo by Bonnie Schorske

“So, I’ve been thinking about these street objects – non-functional street objects like bikes, pay phones that don’t have phones, newspaper boxes with no newspapers, all these things that sort of exist here, that are permanent, I felt like,’Well? I guess they just exist.’, so, I never would have imagined the City would remove these bike frames. I was looking at them, thinking about it, thinking about it and then I did some work related to this, a sticker book collection, I did ink paintings of these objects as stickers sort of questioning where do these things belong. We know the function but they don’t have a function. I made a book, a typical book, referencing a coloring book or a book from childhood that would be blank outlines recognizable as Philly and pages of these stickers in color of these non-useable objects to give the viewer the opportunity to at least think about where these things go in the city.”

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel, photo courtesy of the artist

Bike (PH)ix by Corrina Mehiel, photo courtesy of the artist

Corrina Mehiel continued, “Thinking about the bikes, though, I have this love of transportation and movement. I traveled a lot, it’s like a compulsion, not like crazy, somewhere between doing my work and being a tourist. And just going to places and existing there with no money, it’s weird, I’ve gone to India many, many times and just to be…I like doing that kind of travel and then being in cities in the U.S. is a little more hyper-aware of objects.”

“I’m interested in this conversation but I’m also thinking about the idea of responsibility in the context of a utopian society and who’s to say what responsibilities we should be taking on. How much should we want to clean up our space? I don’t know if it matters. But, these ideas point out the need to change the feeling of a neighborhood and that it leads to people taking care of their homes and they all layer on top of each other.”

Corrina Mehiel‘s story and adventures in guerilla art-bike repairs is on her blog “a year of making things“.

Written and photographed by DoN except where noted. Thank you to Bonnie Schorske for sharing her photographs and Joe Girandola, Director of MFA Program in Studio Art at University of the Arts for his enthusiastic introduction to Corrina Mehiel.

Most of the bikes are gone already but this is where they were if you think you saw one:

Broad and Lombard (SW corner)

Pine between 15th and Broad (North side)

Pine between 9th and 8th (South side)

Walnut and 18th Street

Spruce and 13th Street

Lombard and 16th Street

15th between Pine and Lombard (West side)

12th and Vine (West side)

11th and Appletree

11th and Cherry