DoN is extremely grateful and humbled by the wonderful turn out of old and new friends, fellow artists and enthusiasts who came out last Tuesday to hear him speak about his collection of photographs called “light beings”. Thank you so much to the hard work of Amie Potsic of The Center for Emerging Visual Artists for arranging the event which drew about 70 people to hear DoN talk about the origin of the concept, how the photography and presentation is realized, which cameras DoN prefers and stories about the people in the titles.
To say that DoN’s mouth went dry when he saw the sea of faces is an understatement, at one point his upper lip curled up onto his dry teeth so much he had to reach up and un-stick it. Everyone said they didn’t notice but DoN thinks they’re just happy it wasn’t them dealing with a bit of stage fright. Luckily, DoN’s speech went well, even if the people in the back of the room stoically stood their ground while they mouthed, “I can’t hear you.” People, if you can’t hear, sit in the front row - duh!?! And the art raffle was a success, too - DoN offered art cards as raffle tickets and sold enough to raffle off an art work. Ironically the winner of the drawing is one of DoN’s collectors who had already purchased one of the works from the exhibit. Since the raffle was so successful, DoN is extending the offer because CFEVA has arranged for the show to hang three extra weeks! If you have already purchased a raffle card you are still eligible to win, contact DoN to purchase your cards for a chance to own one of DoN’s photographs. If you haven’t seen the show, please go, the space is beautiful, the staff is cute and the coffee will keep you awake all night.
Kathleen Rockwell, DoN, Lori Hess and Carly Valentine @ The Radisson Warwick Hotel’s, The Coffee Bar.
Back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, DoN was a member of The Regional Art Association, a grass roots arts club who met in the dilapidated Clementon Court House. Kathleen, Lori & Carly’s grandmother, Jean Walsh, kept the group going for almost a decade, when DoN lost his job with a major communications company and returned to art school full time, these fine folks supported and encouraged him to push ahead and realize a dream.
Thank you to Shoshanna Aron, Alden Cole and Les Howard for helping to install the show and their continuing love and support. Thanks to Ona Kalstein and Ted Warchal of Da Vinci Art Alliance Board of Directors for their confidence and encouragement. Thanks to Danny Reilly of the Photographic Society of Philadelphiafor taking pictures and just being there, Danny is a great photographer, it’s an honor to have him document the event. Thanks to Lisa, Regina, Faith, Fran, Jean-Paul, Karen & Don, Sheila, Deb, Helen and all of the friends and family who came out to Center City on a hot Summer night to hear DoN. Without the interest and recognition of art enthusiasts, making art can be a lonely pursuit, but, when you feel the love, it’s totally addictive.
light being (Anne D’Harnoncourt), DoN Brewer, art card @ The Coffee Bar, 17th & Locust Streets - A Center for Emerging Visual Artists Event. This image did not make the show because of soot damage to the original photo - a tip: frame your photos under glass, glare-free if possible. DoN’s art cards are printed locally by Media Copyin Center City - thanks to Debbie and the crew for their great work.
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 @ 5:30 PM, CFEVA will host a closing party and artist talk for DoN Brewer at The Radisson Warwick Plaza Hotel, The Coffee Bar, 17th & Locust Sts. DoN is raffling off one of the photographs by selling limited edition greeting cards, signed and numbered, $5. each or 3 for $10.00 - 25% of sales is dedicated to a well deserved commission for CFEVA. If all 200 cards sell, two pieces will be raffled off. The exhibit is on display through the end of July.
Seven Dishsoaps, Peter Seidel @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, 7th & Catharine Streets in South Philly. Peter Seidel won the Da Vinci Art Alliance Gold Medal for his superb painting.
DoN Brewer, Heptagon, photoshop. DoN was honored to be on the jury committee to select the medal winners, which also freed him to produce whatever he wanted for the show. Seven will be shown at The Noyes Museum annex in Hammonton, NJ this Fall.
Lois Allen Charles, Seven Waterlillies and Lilliana Didovic, Seven Elephants @ Seven, the current member exhibition at Da Vinci Art Alliance has a wide interpretation of the symbolism of the number seven, yet the discussion around the sign went on long after the show was installed. The DVAA exhibitions committee really tapped into a concept the members could grok.
Anna Vosburgh, Hope 1 @ Da Vinci Art Alliance - Anna is not only a great painter, she’s a blogger!
Alden Cole completed his series of self portraits portraying the Seven Deadly Sins, the first three sins are included in a painting Cole produced for DVAA’s Henry IV, Part 1 @ The Lantern Theater Company’s Black Box Gallery. These two panels, though, are more explosively emotional, brashly colorful and deeply introspective; Alden acts for the camera then paints the facial expressions with light, color fields and texture as if he’s looking deep into your being, reflecting back the many faces of sin.
Rosalind Bloom’s model’s dummy poses in pain and peril a top a slippery slope of rock and ice. Bloom mixes metaphors and media creating deeply intimate portraits of human emotion as if the dummies are trying to find their place in a confusing world.
Sharri Jerue, Indecision, mixed media @ Smile Gallery.
Sharri Jerue is a scenic designer who usually has to realize other people’s ideas but in the Faces and Figures show @ Smile, Sharri is able to mix and mash her ideas into anthropomorphic heads, using found materials with abandon. The inspired combination of wacky heads and puppets in peril is the brainchild of Dr. Deb Miller who saw the neural network between simple shapes and ideas and racial memory based deeply in our brain stems stimulated by paintings and sculpture.
Curator Dr. Deb Miller, artists Rosalind Bloom and Sharri Jerue at the opening of Faces and Figures @ Smile Gallery in Center City.
Carly Valentine’s black and white photography looked gorgeous mounted on the historic walls of the venerable Philadelphia Sketch Club Gallery on Camac Street. Four times a year the club hosts the grads of AI to show their work in the gallery with a gala party; a great reason to dress up and have a drink. Valentine’s deeply narrative work, mostly self portraits, nod to modern art with Magritte-like compositions, beaux arts frames and costumes from another era. The rich blacks, creamy ecru and dreamy metaphors filled books, the walls over the fire place and the entire “winners wall” of the gallery. Carly was unaware of the historic significance of exhibiting in America’s oldest art club, her grandmother, DoN’s good friend Jeannette Walsh, was long time president of the Regional Art Association in Clementon, NJ (the foundation of DoN’s art career), who was a fine artist in her own right, as well as a blue grass musician and entertainer. Jean would be so proud to know Carly is excelling not just in fine art and photography but in being a really nice person, a trait no school can ever teach.
John Moore’s painterly photographs combine natural elements with ethereal industrial constructs creeping into the composition. The grad show at PSC was very gratifying with a focus on business, including business cards, book arts, web sites and unique presentation for their photography, information useful for art students emerging into a competitive market. DoN appreciated that Moore bucked the trend and “forgot” his cards, DoN wrote his name on another grad’s card. The graduates had a crash course in installing a show at The Sketch Club which concurrently has Phillustration 2010 running, they had to take down a complete show, install a new one, then re-hang the first show in the same order - welcome to the art world!
Tamara Brown’s carved books with photo emulsion images inside the books are fabulously evocative and transmogrifying, combining text and technique in a unique mash up. LoVe iT!
Carol Wisker with her award winning mixed media creation, Machine: War Games Series, when the show first opened at Smile Gallery, Carol won Best in Show. The huge gallery space at RRCA is a wonderful opportunity to see most of the original show hanging together again. 3rd Friday in Millville was really fun with live entertainment tucked into every park, alley and plaza including a glee club performance!!! The creative vibe of the monthly event with art shows, restaurants and shops welcome visitors warmly with small town ambiance and upscale art.
Ted Warchal @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts special exhibit, Through My Window, A Da Vinci Art Alliance Members Exhibit. Ted, Ona & DoN are members of the Board of Directors of Da Vinci, thanks to all the artists & volunteers who arranged for the art to show up on time and to Dr. Debra Miller & David Foss for the expert installation, the RRCA is a wonderful exhibition space.
David Foss & Nicole Koenitzer.
Betsy Alexander’s Sci-Fi homage drew some teenage geeks into the gallery who seemed mesmerized at the depth of knowledge in the obscure references. Burnell Yow! told DoN he was hesitant when Betsy voiced her encyclopedic idea - but beam me up!
DoN Brewer’s drawing of Paris rooftops is paired perfectly with Lilliana Didovic’s Boathouse Row painting.
The concept pf Through My Window is that more than 20 artists were offered a window to do whatever they wanted with, the result is a uniquely Philadelphian art perspective: Bobbie Adams, Betsy Alexander, Jesse Best, DoN Brewer, Rachel Citrino. Alden Cole. Lilliana Didovic, Jerry di Falco, David Foss, Carl Johnson, Ona Kalstein, Nicole Koenitzer, Gail Kotel, Rikard Larma, Lee Muslin, Liz Nicklus, Kathryn Pannepacker, Michael Shane Simmons, Mike Sweeney, Ted Warchal, Carol Wisker & Burnell Yow!
Our annual members show in July is on the theme of Seven; there is no entry fee for submissions, all work will be included, per rules on attached prospectus. The exhibition will travel to The Noyes Museum of Art in October!
CALENDAR FOR JULY MEMBERS SHOW:
Delivery of labeled art work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 27, 2010, 5-7 pm & July 7, 6-8pm
Installation of show. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 8, beginning at 11 am
Opening Reception and Awards Presentation . . . . . . . . . July 10, 6-9pm
Pick-up of unsold art work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 25, 4-6 pm & July 26, 5-7 pm
*The PPT lecture on “Depictions of the 7 Deadly Sins in Northern European Art of the 15th-17th Centuries” will be presented by Da Vinci President Deb Miller, supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.
All events are free and open to the public. Please plan to attend, and to invite guests!
The Annual Members Exhibition of the Philadelphia Sketch Club at Newman Galleries on Walnut Street is a wonderful introduction to the many fine artists who belong to America’s oldest art club. The swirly mix of styles, techniques and ideas is evocative of the Philly art community in microcosm; the mezzanine and third floor gallery holds a heady mix of contemporary art by masters, newbies, wannabes of all ages celebrating the first decade of the 21st Century.
Edna Santiago, Museum Stroll, acrylic on plexiglass.
Garth Herrick, Red Barn, 11:00 AM at Beaver Farm and Donald Meyer, Study (Structure) Hosta Series, egg tempera.
Linda Townshend, Holstein, oil on canvas.
Idaherma Williams, No Masks, archival pigment print.
Karen McDonnell, Wisdom, mixed media. Karen e-mails DoN phone pics of stickers of this little guy in public spaces, her contribution to the Philly art scene by introducing graffiti style into the mix of traditional media is like when photography put it’s foot in the door. The silver spray paint gives a glamorous luster to the surface of the canvas as if dressed up for the special day when all the artists show their best work.
The 2010 Members Exhibition of The Philadelphia Sketch Club @ Newman Galleries with 156 works by as many Philadelphia area fine artists runs through 6/9/2010.
Danielle Bursk, Kiss, casein & acrylic on paper. Danielle’s ginormous drawings seethe with energy and motion yet there is a zen like calm in the action drawings. The compositions of flowing plumes of marks are like phosphenes flashing and blinking, like after-images inside your eyelids after staring too long, the dramatic drawings look deep inside the mind.
Cecelia Rembert, Eulogy, oil on canvas. Now based in NYC, Rembert is a CFEVA alum currently working on a series of paintings about storytelling the human experience. Cecelia’s paintings in the show mostly feature a bird or two reminding DoN of Steven King’s psycho-pomps - the idea that birds are messengers from another realm. The bird images soar and connect with an internal yearning to be able to fly.
DoN did not meet Mr. Bullochs at the opening but the masterful drawings speak for themselves, the liquidy graphite forms cloud shapes, horizons and dream scapes then turns to large scale scientific illustration of imaginary microscopic life forms, the overall effect is introspective and alluring like the shapes that float into your mind as you drift off to sleep.
Ana B. Hernandez @ Material Motion. Ana’s swirling scarlet fabric sculptures exemplify the tone of Material Motion, @ Dalet Art Gallery on 2nd Street, the fluid shapes float above the crowd, melding into the mood of the room. The deep red speaks to the large graphite drawings in a secret language of color and shapes. Material Motions is curated and organized by the fabulous team at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists; Amie Potsic has such a dream job of pairing artists with venues and Ann Koivunen works tirelessly to promote the arts in Philly, even though the work is demanding, the level of professionalism and care for the artists is gratifying and inspiring. Works by fabulous Philly photographer James B. Abbott and Christine Elfman’s ethereal paintings complete the coherent theme the enormous space that is the Dalet Art Gallery allows, each corner is activated and inviting. Later this summer the gallery will be hosting the Princeton Photography Society.
Apologies to Danielle for posting photos sideways - oops!
Paul DuSold and DoN have been working on this video since the Winter. From a lecture series presented in artist Francis Galante’s uber-cool studio / loft in Old City, Philadelphia, the video is a glimpse into the five hour demonstration Paul presented to a class of about 25 lucky artists. DuSold explains the Sargent Method of painting and gives a superb painting demonstration while talking - a trait found in PAFA trained teachers.
The High Definition version of the Paul DuSold movie is on DoN’s YouTube channel.
Author and art-marketing consultant Alyson B. Stanfield, of ArtBizCoach.com, focuses on sharing the artwork directly with potential buyers through electronic and traditional communication outlets—in a manner that is comfortable, not artificial. Artists match Internet marketing strategies with sincere personal skills to take charge of their art careers.
The book includes online worksheets and downloads.
