Jessica Hummel, Self Portrait took first prize with her photographic trilogy.
The Plastic Club on Camac Street is hosting an outstanding show of art by artists models; who else but models have insight into the world of artists, absorbing and intuiting the complexities of visual arts. Many of the plastic club models have been mentored by the fine artists they pose for and artists are grateful for the intricacy and nuance of posing. Susan Stromquist is included in Off the Wall Gallery’s Summer Show of past award winners - her folded chalk and pastels are Rorschach pop melded with classic atmospheric naturalism.
Karl Richard Olsen, Jeno, POR - looks like a bargain since this appears to be what’s known in the art biz as a masterpiece. Olsen draws and paints everyday, even while walking, honing his eye and exploring new ways to express his vision. Karl’s Flickr page is very cool and he’s currently completing one self portrait each day for 30 days.
Rob Willis, Self Portrait - you know, DoN had to double check but he knew this drawing is by Willis, last year’s Model’s Show big winner, since a definite style has emerged over time - he’s really handsome, too.
Jenn Warpole @ The Plastic Club’s Model Artists Exhibit.
Echo Shi @ The Plastic Club
Rob Willis @ The Plastic Club
Rob Willis - the paint job on this chopper is Super Kawai, super flat, super cool - DuChamp for everyday life.
Jym Paris, Shooting for the Moon & The Night Has A Thousand Eyes. DoN LoVeS Jym’s fearless style, infectious personality and spontaneous gesture. As Antony & the Johnsons sing, “I’m a little boy now, but when I grow up I’ll be a beautiful woman.”
Deborah Dias, Ratamandala.
Model Artists @ The Plastic Club through 8/22 - the club is holding special event workshops with moving model Stephanie Hyland - imagine long, slow croqui’s with the model slowly , steadily changing. Contact the club for dates and times.
In Your Dreams June 11 - September 11, 2009
50 Philadelphia artists showcase work related to dreams. Juried by the Art In City Hall Exhibitions Committee. 2nd and 4th floors, NE corner. Art in City Hall has been offering public art shows for more than 20 years, displaying work in large display cases, the ongoing exhibition is usually theme-based with the current show focused on dream imagery juried by a panel of professional artists. The exhibition features drawing (Justin Duerr is the bomb), fantastical jewelry by Christine Alaniz, photography by Morris Klein and Julia Blaukopf, paintings by Patricia Burns and Anne Caramanico, sculptures by Brujo De La Mancha, mixed media and books. The strength of the show is the acceptance of many forms of art to visualize and share such deeply personal experiences.
Display case two clockwise: DoN Brewer, Shell Game, scanner/Photoshop collage, Brujo De La Mancha, mixed media painting and sculptures, Kathryn Johnston, Saturation, mixed media collage.
Alex Cohen. This painting seems to tell an entire dream story with a beginning, middle and end.
Angela Washko, “Imposter”, oil on canvas - the large painting highlights confusing imagery of bunnies confronting a slipper demonstrating the duality of dreams where friendly subjects take on menacing behaviors.
Tanya Dodd, The Right Track, photography and mixed media. Not all dreams are strange, some are dreams of escape and finding the route to happiness, security and freedom.
Artist Tanya Dodd recently had a solo show at The African American Museum.
DoN Brewer with Morris Klein’s digital photograph “Daydreaming“, DoN Brewer’s digital photo “light being (Edward Hopper)” and DoN Brewer’s digital photo”hole” @ Art in City Hall, Philadelphia. Photo by Les Howard.
Philadelphia City Hall is a spectacular venue for art with every detail of the building designed to the max - sculpture, painting, wood, marble, gold - it is an honor to have art displayed in such a great historic space; a dream come true.
Armond Scavo, the well-known and respected Philadelphia photographer, is a fine artist and business person traveling up to 40 weeks a year promoting his work. Scavo’s collection of Philadelphia landscapes and astounding close-ups of gemstone and minerals is his stock in trade, each piece offering a narrative, assured coloration and excellent quality. Proficient in wet dark room as well as digital techniques, Scavo presents exquistely framed images as well as affordably priced matted prints. Armond’s easy demeaner and friendly smile draws people to his display often resulting in sales and commisssions. Scavo turned DoN onto the book,”I’d Rather Be In The Studio” by Alyson B. Stanfield which is a complete guide to promoting one’s self as a professional artist and he is just that - professional. Armond Scavo’s website Earthlight Images (designed by Burnell Yow! of Ravenswing Studio) is a treasure trove of inspiring ideas; he even has self-published a book of photo’s of Philly’s famous Rittenhouse Square called “Through an Artist’s Eye - Philadelphia“. Thanks to Armond for providing show tickets for Shoshana, Alden and DoN; each of us left the Convention Center exhausted and inspired by the wide range of highly desirable objects.
Dragon Lady, Wendy Ellertson of Boston, MA. creates mixed media sculptures of dragons; DoN and Wendy chatted about all the famous dragons she incorporates into her works - she even knew about The Dragon Riders of Pern! Dragons may be mythical but Ellertson visualizes each one with a depth of knowledge and technical virtuosity emphasizing why so many of us still believe in the magic and dream of a strong, loyal and fierce companion to serve and protect.
Matti Laaninen of Hudson River Inlay creates beautiful furniture and functional objects of rare woods, mother of pearl and unusual materials. Recreating natural shapes of leaves, twigs, insects and flowers in intricate patterns and fascinating designs, DoN found he was envious of Matti’s skill and style - who doesn’t wish they could produce beautiful furniture and art that everyone desires?
mar·que·tryn. Material, such as ivory or wood, inlaid piece by piece into a wood surface, in an intricate design, and veneered to another surface - especially furniture or flooring - for decoration.
Cheryl Olney of Louise’s Daughter - the colorful mixed media art is outshone only by Cheryl’s smile. Quirky, fun, funky and exuberant, Louise’s Daughter offers a perfect mix of art and design.
Ileana Andruchovici of Bala Cynwyd’s creater of Olympia Creations - Digital Couture, developing her own fabric designs combining, photography, illustration and unique printing techniques on silk and fine fabrics. When DoN walked past her booth, Ileana remembered him from last year’s show at the Armory and invited him in to see her latest creations - dresses, pant suits, tops and even neckties, each one lovingly designed, constructed and produced to provide the wearer with an indivual identity. Beautiful!
The Convention Center venue was a definite plus for the artists but the parking situation for patrons is a sham! Some garages charge $25 or more for two hours, we found a spot on the street but the meter ate quarters like potato chips, ignoring half of the money we fed it preventing our group from spending more than 90 minutes to see the hundreds of artists in Paradise City. Philadelphia should be embarressed by the Parking Authority and the Mafia-like shake down of visitors to our town.
Betsy Alexander and Burnell Yow! of Ravenswing Studio are art collectors, their home is filled with beautiful objects of all kinds and even had a recent story about their eclectic decorating style in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The duo have recreated their art house at Salon des Amis in Malvern, asking all of their friends who have contributed to their collection to show new work in the gallery. Sunday was beautiful weather and a large gathering of their friends arrived at the gallery to find the space filled with work by more than 40 artists.
Luminary artist, Alden Cole @ Art House in Salon des Amis.
Linda Lou Horn @ Salon des Amis for the Art House opening in Malvern.
Philly photographer, Armond Scavo with his work at Salon des Amis. Scavo has just published a book of photographs of Rittenhouse Square, a favorite locale for artists to find inspiration, Through an Artists’ Eye - Philadelphia can be purchased from Scavo’s website.
Eileen Feigenbaum, “The Blue Lady”, oil on canvas.
DoN Brewer, “light being (Rick Selvin)”, digital photograph.
The art crowd for Betsy Alexander and Burnell Yow!’s Art House @ Salon des Amis in Malvern.
Thank you Betsy and Burnell, it’s already nice just being friends with you both but when you do something so special like this art show it re-enforces the bond even more. Salon des Amis means House of Friends - so apropos!
Introductions ’09 at The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design, Widener Foundation Memorial Gallery, 20th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia is just so amazing – lot’s of wild mixed metaphors, deep narrative streams of consciousness and memes within memes within memes.Brenna K Murphy’s “Roots #3” is a prime example of an artwork weaving multiple meanings of normal images, encountered daily, into an interesting story that plays in your mind like a movie.Brenna’s “roots” are wrapped in human hair, completely encasing real tree roots, which are arranged lovingly on a large white wall.DoN asked Murphy about the origins of the work, “Wrapping the roots is about home and the body.”Growing up as a nomad, to Brenna the hair represents the body as home.Donald Carter, who is rooted in Philadelphia, asked Brenna how she would sell the work.Good question: the piece has already been exhibited at Eileen Tognini’s house but hanging from the ceiling, so the piece is growing and changing all the time.Time, growth, security, luxury and fun all swirling together like twisted dreadlocks, representing culture and sub-culture, luxury and lunacy, safety and insanity all wrapped up in hair. ”Roots #3” is an adventurous idea, realized with meticulous craft, enthusiasm and industriousness - what more can we ask of art?
Brooke Hine’s ceramic mixed media sculpture also has slippery hidden narratives, “These are a Few of My Favorite Things” is composed of ceramic, slip, stains, glaze and whiskers.Real cat whiskers.
Daniel Traub’s large format c-print is hyper-realism with a hypnotic story to tell about Chinese “Cities Edge”; the incomplete skeletons of future luxury housing is occupied by industrious people gleaning the pervasive demolition of old China and reselling to the secondary market.An amusement park is on the horizon while stacks of doors and windows, each a metaphor, lean against the concrete.Fabric and plywood fill the vacant windows like layers of pages from a book.
The Plastic Club @ 247 South Camac Street is hosting a new art show – small WORLDS exhibition.All works in the show must be less than 16” in any direction including 2D and 3D works by hundreds of artists; there are 182 artworks in the show, no small feat to install.But, the committee performed wonders in creating groupings, tableau and mise en seine drawing the visitor into tiny spaces packed with authenticity, superior craftsmanship and creativity.Karl Olsen’s “A” is a masterful painting of his ubiquitous hat, Alden Cole entered a wildly erotic fantasy, Doris Peltzman’s “Portrait of Amber” is haunting and masterful…
small WORLDS opens February 1st – here’s a sneak peek.
DoN Brewer’s “light being (Chink)“, Ellen Grenwell’s “4:12 AM, Please Kitty“, Rob Willis‘ “Ichibano” & Hugo Hsu’s “Tenguska“.
Catherine Zeidler’s eponymous gallery at 2207 South Street has become the Women’s Creative Alliance featuring the art of Philadelphia area women.The current exhibit features 3D work by Dorothy Roschen, jewelry by Barb Baur as well as pastels and paintings by Patricia Woodruff.The theme throughout the show is how spirituality is filtered through the creative arts.Roschen, who taught art in high school for many years, creates mysterious sculptures of glass, clay and objet trouve suitable sitting on a table or hanging on the wall.Dorothy develops designs exploring positive and negative space, hard and soft surface and translucence vs. solidity.
Woodruff’s drawings and paintings depict sprites, spirits, fairies and gods of old in fluid, sensuous lines and serious color, her high school friend Barb Bauer creates designs reminiscent of Lord of the Rings or Celtic knots in silver.Both Woodruff and Bauer enjoy spending time in Floyd, VA, and a vibrant arts community enabling them both to find expression through the sense of community and variety of artists who migrate there.Bauer has begun experimenting with hard metals such as steel and is developing a series of pennular brooches appropriate for clasping an ancient cloak or a modern scarf.
The art party Friday evening brought out a good crowd even though it was only 19 degrees outside but with warmth and friendship found inside this great art space on South Street.
Wall sculpture by Dorothy Roschen @ WCA.
Dorothy Roschen @ WCA.
Dorothy Roschen @ WCA.
Silver jewelry by Barb Baur.
“Thought and Memory“, pastel by Patricia Woodruff depicts Odin with his ravens.
October 23rd, Alden Cole and DoN attended the opening of the Green Exhibit at Philadelphia City Hall, the 56th group exhibit for local emerging and professional artists with the exhibit focussing on concerns about our environment. The art display cases have been updated with improved lighting and larger exhibition space allowing the 45 participating artists to show their own take on what it means to be green. Carol Cole has always reused cast away objects to include in her striking sculptures which appear to made of metal and stone but usually turn out to be styrofoam and plastic - so clever.
Dolores Poacelli @ Art in City Hall’s Green Exhibit. Dolores reuses used aluminum printing plates which she dumpster dives for even though the rats scare her. These two amazing pieces still reveal traces of the imagery that came before she sanded, rusted and glued the panels onto wood.
Junk Mail Shag by Valerie Linhart created with shredded junk mail. DoN LoVeS iT!!! The Green Exhibit @ Art in City Hall runs through January 23, 2009. Support your local artists and go buy some art since their are no commissions and the quality is so high. DoN even got to say,”Hi!” to Mayor Nutter.
Sandra Benheim’s “Museum Pass“, a collage of museum passes and maps. Art in City Hall, Philadelphia.
Paula Mendel’s “Growth Where You Least Expect it” @ Art in City Hall.
DoN opened his studio to the public again this year with hundreds of other Philly artists participating in Philadelphia Open Studio Tours. Visitors signed the giant “Hello My Name Is…” sign that he received as part of Newstoday Print Exchange 4. DoN’s MoM, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and friends stopped by to view recent drawings, paintings and prints. POST is a great way to meet other artists and make new friends as well as sell some art. Thanks so much to good friends Shoshana and Alden with their help and support; it’s a lot of work. KaTy the ArT DoG and her pal Doofie, the St. Bernard/Chihuahua mix greeted visitors with wagging tails and lots of slobber. This year the tour started West of Broad Street so DoN didn’t get to visit friends such as Paul DuSold or Betsy and Burnell but DoN’s MoM did and is still talking about how Nora the Piano Playing Cat plinked out a tune for her - thanks Nora!Panoramic shot of DoN’s Nude Room.
East of Broad Street was super-exciting with dumpster diver Alden Cole’s spectacular display of drawings, paintings, luminaries and found object constructions. Alden has returned to his painting roots and is producing interesting compositions packed with metaphors, narrative and deeply personal spiritual art works. Obviously it’s too much to see all the studios in one wekend but I’m sure if you contact Alden he would be more than happy to allow you to explore four floors of art.Panoramic shot of Alden Cole’s kitchen gallery. Cole is having an exhibition at Smile Gallery in November.
Robert Stauffer in his quirky alley gallery @ 7th & Federal. Stauffer’s mixed media, paintings and photos were super-fun especially viewed in one of Philly’s famous narrow alleyways.
Dr. Doris Peltzman with friend Reta Sweeney at Morris Street Studios deep in South Philly. Peltzman is having a one woman show at the prestigious Carspecken Scott Gallery in Wilmington as well as a group show at Artist’s House. You go girl!!! Doris is truly gifted and dedicated to producing work that stretches her limits with brilliant coloration, bold brushwork and subtle compositions.
Painting master, Francis Tucker, also at Morris Street Studio displayed just a few of his masterworks and demonstrated his proficiency at framing. Tucker was DoN’s first painting mentor back in the day when UArts was still PCA and still teaches emerging artists skills involving materials and technique.
Artist Arthur Ostroff, also of Morris Street Studios, explained to DoN his plans for a one man show which has turned into a retrospective of his lifes work. The exhibit, Arthur Ostroff Then and Now, will be at Montgomery County Community College West Campus Art Gallery, November 1 through December 19, 2008.
Mixed media collage by Art Ostroff.
Painting by Charles Cushing and sculpture by Carol Cole @ 915 Spring Garden art studios.
Frances Galante’s studio was humming with activity and filled with masterful landscapes and still iife paintings. DoN asked Galante about including architecture in her works, “I like to include architecture because it shows the human element and gives scale to painting.” This past summer Frances painted at Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine at an artist’s colony.
Frances Galante’sSailboat on the Delaware.
Ana B. Hernandez’ flamenco inspired hanging sculpture. Ana tells DoN her work, “… attempts to capture the movement and energy as a visual vocabulary of the skirt of the dancer.”
Wendy Wolf has a system of layering paint and then scraping away bits to reveal the layers, she then saves the bits in little boxes as a separate art object. Wolf is also a jeweler producing beautiful necklaces and bracelets, she says, “…life is charmed.” An MFA graduate of Tyler Art School, Wolf has been at 915 Spring Garden for more than two years.
The left over bits from a Wendy Wolf painting displayed in clear plastic boxes.
Peter Cunicelli’s studio @ 915 Spring Garden. Each piece is handmade from slabs of clay allowing Peter to create space-age style ceramics perfect for contemporary interiors; Peter is working on producing multiples so he can offer table wares in his unique style. Cunicelli was included in this summer’s Art of the State exhibit in Harrisburg. Congrats!
Brooke Hine’s studio displayed her ubiquitous organic ceramics; always interesting, delicate and absorbing sculptures in a style all her own. Hine recently curated a fabulous show at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists and was also included in the Art of the State show in Harrisburg. DoN LoVeS Brooke!!!
Shoshka. Alden and DoN made the pilgrimage to Crane Arts Center in Fishtown to witness the spectacle of innovation, artistry and experience design the arts space is becoming famous for.The University of Delaware has taken over the old Busy Bee space and the current exhibition of MFA students is insightful and fun. Looming over the first floor are fiber and plaster neuron-like constructs by the afore-mentioned Mark Donahue; similar to the Hopkins House installation, this time Donahue has balanced separate components on top of each other creating strange transmitters communicating in a language all their own. DoNwas greeted by the elegant Virginia Bradley, artist/curator/educator who shares a studio on the third floor with Chris Malcomson - Virginia and DoN commiserated over sharing studio space (more about that in a minute).
Mark Donahue @ UD@Crane.
Untitled, mixed media, Jim Reske. Is this thing cool or what? Simple sun-bleached plywood panels lean against the wall as if Josef Albers were in the house.
rickery, watercolor & ink on stretched & cut paper, Francine Fox @ UD@Crane.
Francine Fox displayed several three inch square paintings that are executed with virtuosity, flare and fluid surrealist imagination. Like seeing a weird image in the clouds or faces in foam on the beach, Fox finds eery fractals of flesh, skin and organs which are all intricately applied to the glossy surface of the wood in delicate strokes of paint.
Anthony Vega with one of his multiple image paintings. Vega uses a projector to capture multiple images within the plane of his painting. Using found or original images he combines blobs of paint into pixel-like splotches which when viewed from a distance morph into pulsating icons that DoN’s brain tried to make sense of but was thwarted by the cacophony of ideas vying for attention. Vega told DoN, “…it’s evidently handmade.”
Sho, Alden and DoN all LoVeD the balloon-stuffed panty hose, each of us explained the concept to at least one of our friends. Like Christo’s temporary installations, these pieces will obviously deteriorate rapidly but will live on in memory and photographs. Of course, one could always make more and have fun doing it.
At Nexus Gallery, our threesome was treated to a video installation by J. Makary and Bilwa as part of the Philly Fringe festival. The gallery transformed into a movie theater with stadium seating presented an extraordinary video: part art movie, part music video, part dance performance with an emphasis on hand gestures and body language. The saturated colors, quirky dance moves and evocative narrative was absorbing and abstract in it’s simplicity of experience design.
Nick of Nexus tells DoN the gallery will be installing a low powered community radio station ala Whitney’s Biennial radio station. People can schedule air time by contacting the gallery. Lo-fi Coolness Rocks!
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.
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