Monthly Archives: May 2014

But Is It Art?

But Is It Art? OTWGalleryBut Is It Art? Ninth Annual Community Juried Art Show at Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Frank’s, NE Corner 13th and Pine Streets, Philadelphia. June 1st through August 1st, 2014. Opening Reception June 5th, 7:00 – 10:00pm.

Artists were asked to present work that did not include photography or digital media. Over forty artists submitted more than 100 images and two sentence artist statements. I had the honor to sit on a panel with and amazing group of Philly artists including photographer Veronika Schmude, director Jena Serbu, Philly Poet Laureate Frank Sherlock and artist/curator Jody Sweitzer. Togo Travalia read the artist statements while we looked at digital images several times on a big screen TV.

Narrowing down a show to meet the theme took several hours with a lot of debate about what was art and what wasn’t. The artist statements were interesting, I must say. There were a lot of ellipses, incomplete thoughts or run-on sentences. I would suggest artists write a two sentence elevator pitch and practice reading it out loud. You never know who’s going to get on the elevator with you. A poet? A director? A photographer? A curator? A blogger?

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Melvin Chappell

Melvin Chappell, Germantown Ave. ProjectMelvin Chappell, Germantown Ave. Project, Germantown Historical Society5501 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, Opening reception is Friday, May 30th, 5 PM to 6:30 PM

“I am happy to announce that during the month of June I will have two solo exhibits taking place. The first is, GERMANTOWN AVENUE: A PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTEBOOK. This exhibit is being hosted by the Germantown Historical Society. The opening reception is Friday, May 30th, 5 PM to 6:30 PM. The site is located at 5501 Germantown Ave. The show closes August 15th. The second show will feature my nature photography. It will be at Little Jimmie’s Coffee Café. The show runs from June 1st to June 29th. The café is located at 26 W. Maplewood Ave., in Philly.

I will be participating in three Fine Arts and Craft festivals during the month of June to expand the reach of the Germantown Ave. Project.

Sunday, June 1 – “Arts In the Park” – Sponsored by Friends of High School Park. Inside of the k on Montgomery Ave., Elkins Park, PA From 10 AM to 5 PM

Saturday, June 14 – “Art for the Cash Poor 15” – Sponsored by Inliquid. The Crane Arts Building,1400 N. American St, Phila, PA. From noon to 6 PM.

Sunday, June 15 – “Art in the Arboretum” – Sponsored by The Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. 100 E. Northwestern Ave., Phila, Pa. From noon to 5 PM.” – Melvin Chappell

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Melvin Chappell

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The Plastic Club

The Plastic Club, Rick WrightThe Plastic Club, Rick Wright Photography, Deya Daphne, iPhone photo, $595. Gold Medal Winner 2014, 102nd Members Medals Exhibition.

The Plastic Club holds a standard of inclusion for artists to participate in a metropolitan art space that is high yet accessible. To be a member of the Plastic Club is to be part of a community of like minded artists who find an eclectic creative vibe in the historic studio and gallery.

The 102nd Members Medals Exhibition has everything: paintings, drawings, sculpture, fiber, video, assemblage, photography, collage and more. Each artist could enter one piece so the quality and range of media is competitively high and does not disappoint. Juror, Roberta Fallon of Philadelphia’s ground-breaking theartblog, selected a contemporary photography masterwork for the gold medal.

Rick Wright’s, Deya Daphne, iPhone photo is a panoramic shot he took in Majorca, Spain. The print is gorgeous with a wonderful anthropomorphic figure in the tree like a reclining goddess. Rick has been exploring cell phone photography since cell phones came with cameras, creating intriguing images with simple materials and systems. Knowing how to make the simplest formats work well lets the artist think in more intellectually connected constructs. Rick took the opportunity at the awards to thank his friends who were there with him when he took the photograph.

The Plastic Club, Donna CotzenThe Plastic Club, 102nd Members Medals ExhibitionDonna Cotzen, Palm, acrylic, $400.

When I say the club offers a metropolitan art experience I mean The Plastic Club has offered me so many opportunities to participate in and learn about the art world that I don’t get anywhere else. The club offers a wide range of workshops, art show opportunities, educational presentations, an art salon and parties. Rick Wright lead a workshop on how to photograph your artwork that taught essential tools for the new digital image requirements for art shows. I presented a couple of workshops on how to use social media and blogging.

The monthly movie night offers memorable double features. Recently Philadelphia Poet Laureate Frank Sherlock read poetry from his new book on a Sunday afternoon, harpist Elizabeth Morgan-Ellis played contemporary harp composition accompanied by planetarium star lights on a Saturday night. Awards and contests, lectures and slide shows, poetry and music are all great but the parties at The Plastic Club are positively divine.

The Plastic Club, Jody SweitzerThe Plastic Club, 102nd Members Medals Exhibition, Jody Sweitzer, My Guardian Angel Wears Rubber Boots, video installation, $5 per DVD.

Last year the club brought back an old tradition that had somehow been abandoned fifty years before called The Rabbit. The Rabbit is a costume party with a theme, skits and music. It’s called The Rabbit because Welsh Rarebit is served, cheesey goodness on ticks of toast. This year the theme was Art and Artists and the club members, like a Stefan tour of nightclubs, had everything from jugglers to a play with Elvis Presley as bartender for Salvador Dali to an interpretive dancer with a spinning sword on her head.

The BBQs and holiday parties are always convivial and friendly, the competition is appreciated and rewarded with true appreciation. Club president Cynthia Arkin told me she just wants the club house to be used in the way it was intended as a haven for free thinking and the creative spirit.

The Plastic Club, Bill MyersThe Plastic Club, 102nd Members Medals Exhibition, Bill Myers

The Plastic Club has a strong connection with the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, monthly meetings are held in the studio and many members cross over. Photography is included in most show,  the club is very inclusive about experimentation with art. Eileen Eckstein, PSoP President, even figured out a way to print photography on fabric so she could be in the fibers show. Photographer Bill Myers epitomizes the club’s pro-photography ethos with his surreal composition with original and found photography. The accomplished photographer also regularly has his documentary photography included in The Philadelphia Public Record newspaper. The photographer in the picture is Morris Klein a dual member of both clubs.

The Plastic Club, DoN BrewerThe Plastic Club, Horizontal Industry, photograph on plexiglass, 20″ x 24″, $300. 102nd Members Medals Exhibition, DoN Brewer

“The Club’s home is a historic double townhouse located on one of Philadelphia’s “little streets” in the heart of the city. Built in 1824, it houses the club’s spacious studio, gallery spaces, offices and dining facilities. The club purchased the property in 1909, and expanded it to include the house next door in 1910. In the past ten years the building has undergone many renovations so that it now functions like a 21st century building, but still retains its 19th century charm.” – The Plastic Club

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Written and photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted.

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On Flora and Fauna

Artists House Gallery, Carla LigouriArtists House Gallery, On Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal Rescue, Carla LigouriFrank DePietro and Doris Peltzman

Artists House Gallery57 North 2nd Street, Old City, Philadelphia is a treasure trove of Philly art talent. The current exhibition On Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal Rescueis a heady mix of animal art and floral paintings by many of Philadelphia’s top artists. The subject matter is ripe for interpretation and the artists have offered us a lush and beautiful world of flowers, pets and places that resonate with the heart strings.

Artists’ House Gallery features the work of more than eighty outstanding emerging and established artists, primarily from the greater Philadelphia area. Artists’ House offers art lovers and collectors the opportunity to purchase excellent affordable works of art.

“On Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart,” an exhibition benefitting Main Line Animal Rescue. Area artists offer favorably priced works that celebrate our cats and our dogs, our fish and our flowers. 10% of the gallery proceeds will go to Main Line Animal Rescue. Contributions will also be accepted. 

Artists’ House is now in its sixth month under new direction. While Artists’ House Gallery continues in the tradition of classical representational art it has also opened its doors to new visions and expressions to embrace non-objective works that explore pure color and line.” – Artists’ House Gallery

Artists House Gallery, Doris PeltzmanArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal RescueDoris Peltzman

“I am a direct painter, painting from life to capture the moment. The excitement of the moment and the immediacy are what drive me. It is that total impression that creates the completed painting. I focus on color, harmony, light, mood, texture, composition and the calligraphy of my brush strokes. I love to experiment with a variety of palettes and surfaces. It is the visual stimulation that drives and moves me forward.” – Doris Peltzman

Artists House Gallery, Doris PeltzmanArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal RescueDoris Peltzman

Artists House Gallery, Isaiah RattermanArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal Rescue, Isaiah Ratterman

“I hold a reverence for the Romantic painters of the past, however their ethos has been replaced in our age of excess, leaving a need for our relationship to the landscape to be redefined. Through the landscape, I find a narrative that questions the primacy of Necessity based upon my own travels. Experiences under these circumstances become important and fulfilling, offering a brief glimpse into a deeper meaning of Being. Thoughts are not processed within the moment, but collected and decrypted afterwards. My paintings act as a way of deciphering the felt experiences I hold so close.” – Isaiah Ratterman

Artists House Gallery, Andrew PinkhamArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal RescueAndrew Pinkham

“My animal portraits challenge what we think of as historic or authentic, whether it was yesterday of hundreds of years ago. THey blur the lines of time and engage the viewer in how we interpret the idea of history itself.” – Andrew Pinkham

Artists House Gallery, Alice DustinArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal RescueAlice Dustin

Alice Dustin is an oil painter who delights in color and the way oil paint can be put down with a brush. Leigh Gustafson of Artists’ House Gallery of Philadelphia said Dustin’s “enthusiasm comes out of her brush stroke. She has a spontaneous…juicy brush stroke.” “She’s not afraid to paint. With just a few brush strokes, a simple bowl comes alive,” says Larry Toro of Toro Gallery in Huntingdon Valley. Alice Dustin is known for her impressionistic style, a natural result of alla prima painting, done in or outdoors reacting to the subject at hand.” – Alice Dustin

Artists House Gallery, Sean CarneyArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal RescueSean Carney

“Painting and drawing have always been an extension of who I am. I find beauty in many things but portraits and landscapes will always be my home. I paint because I am driven to. The only political or social statement I am trying to make is to see the beauty in the world and appreciate it. Sometimes we forget to value what we have around us, so I hope my work can remind you. Thank you for spending some time with me.” – Sean Carney

Artists House Gallery, Carla LiguoriArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal RescueCarla LigouriWhispering Down the Lane, terracotta, wood, acrylic, $1150.

Artists House Gallery, Mat TamezskoArtists House GalleryOn Flora and Fauna: Close to the Heart In Co-operation with Main Line Animal Rescue, Mat Tamezsko, Untititled (Tree), mixed media, $499.

Mat Tamezsko is a Philadelphia based artist primarily producing paintings influenced by the social environment of the city and the urban experience. His paintings often reflect social issues and conditions, and are made up of materials and imagery drawn from everyday visual language. Tomezsko is a Tyler School of Art graduate, and has participated in exhibitions at various commercial and underground galleries. He has also made a number of temporary public art installations, an example of which, Look Long and Look Good, a series of 30 paintings, can be seen on Main Street in Manayunk, and Here is Your Mirror, a moving installation currently on view at 2nd and Germantown Ave in Northern Liberties.” – Artists House Gallery

Main Line Animal Rescue, located minutes from Valley Forge National Park in scenic Chester County, Pennsylvania, is considered by many to be the finest animal shelter in the United States. With more than four hundred active volunteers, over a thousand companion animals adopted a year, a state-of-the-art veterinary clinic, innovative training and educational programs, and almost sixty acres of fenced pastures and walking trails, MLAR is not only a sight to behold but an experience you will never forget.” – Main Line Animal Rescue

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Written and photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted.

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Autism Expressed

Autism Expressed, Michele McKeoneAutism Expressed, Michele McKeone

Autism Expressed: Improving Digital Literacy” with Michele McKeone

Program Description:

Digital Literacy is an essential part of job readiness, socialization and independence. Without these skills this generation faces a critical barrier to independence.

Working to continually raise the bar on the educational landscape and level the playing field for students with disabilities, McKeone presents, consults & facilitates training to reinforce the notion that students with autism and other learning variations can achieve more. This year Autism Expressed was named winner of the Educational Services of America Prize, Startup of the Year, and appeared on the cover of Philadelphia Magazine for their innovation in special education.

Join Michele and Trainers Edge to find out how she developed the idea for Autism Expressed and brought it to life to serve not only as a catalyst for new and innovative cognitive and social development for this generation of adolescents with autism, but for everyone living in the digital age.

Would you like to learn more about how AE started and addresses digital literacy? Join Trainers Edge ASTD Philly on Saturday, May 17th to find out more. Just sign up to register http://bit.ly/1lHySks

I met Michele McKeone at a Corzo Center for the Creative Economy event at University of the Arts. Her concept to use technology to help kids with autism communicate is deep and thoughtful. Michele is a real Philly N3RD, too, Autism Expressed is a home town tech start up with a great mission.

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