DoNArTNeWs

Shoshana and DoN attended “A Night of Art, Music & Film” @ Studio 34.  The yoga/healing studio/art space at 4522 Baltimore Ave hosted avant garde music, poetry, the premier of a film and an art exhibit, creating an exciting and interesting vibe in the mixed use space. 

Artist, Stefan Kietzman with his paintings in the gallery at Studio 34

Painting by Stephan Kietzman @ Studio 34.

From surrealist abstraction to impressionist landscape, Stefan Kietzman demonstrates his wide range of technique and painting facility.

Photographer/Artist, Alan Massey with his photography installation at Studio 34 (sorry for the lens flare) but DoN wanted you to see the scope and scale of Massey’s  unique display.

Detail of Alan Massey’s photos of sidewalk cracks which seemed to spill out of a broken picture frame and squiggle across the wall.  Each photo is an image of an actual crack in city concrete, Massey can tell you exactly where each one is located.

 Artist, Maryann Held with her modern pin-up illustrations.  A graduate of UArts, Held says the school, “…pushed not just what was good but what makes me happy.”  Holla!  Held is planning a career in illustration and designing books for kids.

Djo Fortunado working on a background painting for his production of “Gods vs. Men” to be performed at The Rotunda in University City.  Fortunado wrote, directed, cast, designed costumes, created sets and even wrote music for what the artist calls a Reggae, Rock, HipHopera.  During the evening Djo also served as MC, introducing the eclectic mix of artists and performers.  Cool.

Drawing by Djo Fortunado @ Studio 34.

Character studies for “Gods vs. Men” by multimedia artist Djo Fortunado.

Cait Davis, starred, directed and produced “in This Place“, a movie she wrote and designed with a little help from her friends.  The abstract narrative follows Cait’s character through trials and tribulations of being young in the city - DoN found himself wishing she wouldn’t smoke so much in the movie.  The saturated colors and quirky angles captured by cinematographer Ray Flynn takes the viewer from The Green Line Coffee Shop (a very funny scene) to the bedroom to a dreamscape with precision and technique which truly resembled the qualities usually found in film not video.  ”In This Place” will be entered in the Brooklyn Film Festival.

A unique aspect to the evening was that many of the artists are high school friends who all attended CAPA, the High School for Creative and Performing Arts (Cait and Alan have known each other since they were two) remaining close and collaborative.  So, friendship in the modern age isn’t just who has the longest friend list on FaceBook or being friended by strangers on MySpace, it’s actually showing up and supporting the people you love.  PAFA people support each other and so do members of Da Vinci Art Alliance, the Plastic Club and Philadelphia Sketch Club.  Being an artist is a competitive business, not for the thin-skinned or weak at heart, but with the appreciation of friends and family, producing art can be a rewarding intellectual experience.  Thanks to James Peniston for being such a gracious host and introducing DoN to all the artists.

Philadelphia Area New Media Association presented a primer on new web applications which was totally fascinating, fast-paced and intelligently presented, including talks by Kelani Nicholeof M, Johnnie Billota of Indy Hall and Nick Floro of Sealworks Interactive Studios.  DoN learned so much cool stuff about the web, social networking, design and working with clients - PANMA is a wonderful resource for artists, designers, coders, videographers, photographers - if you are one of the afore mentioned you should join PANMA, it’s free, fun and informative.  The presentation took place in the Buckminster Fuller room with a portrait of Bucky that seems to stare at you wherever you are in the room as well as his Dymaxion map of the world - very cool.  Do you know what “FOAF” or “OWL” means?  DoN does now.

Some of the cool websites we looked at include:

Smashing Magazine

A List Apart

Wine Library

eCost.com

Maramushi.com

37 Signals

Ning.com

Saturday, Shoshka and DoN visited the Center for Emerging Visual Artists Show House at 1634 South 13th Street, the former home and studio of artistScott Pellnat.  The townhouse is filled with art by CFEVA artists including Anne Canfield, Katie Murken, Julia Blaukopf, Kara Rennert, Caleb Nussear, Darla Jackson, Jennifer Chapman, Serena Perrone and of course Scott Pellnat’s wonderfully wacky constructions.  Pellnat is an accomplished woodworker and avid dumpster diver creating mechanical constructs out of marquetry of colored pencils, found objects and wood, there’s even a hidden room behind bookshelves which open by pulling on a book ala the Addams Family revealing robotic creatures pulling ropes and strings producing a dramatic diorama.

Looking up into the turret Pellnat built on the roof.

Looking down from the turret into the house - the walls are covered in colored pencil marquetry and the floors are spray painted through lace and stencils. 

The top floor is filled with a knitted installation with tendrils swooping through the room like some kind of giant alien brain cell.  The site specific piece was created by Katie Murken.

 Scott Pellnat in his “secret studio”.

As if the room isn’t creepy enough, there’s a gravity distortion which turns the room sideways!?! 

DoN posted a 30 second video on YouTube of the Super Mario Brothers music which is enchanting and magical; using the score from the video game soundtrack and sound effects from character/avatar interaction with puzzle elements in the game, the music is post-post-post modern.  The video is just part of the Golden Calf exhibit in the fabulously dark installation of paintings, photography and sculpture about decay, destruction, nausea and mysticism.  DoN found the art to be emotionally raw and psychologically dismal with elements of claustrophobia, isolation and estrangement; Hagit Barkai’s ”Vomitous” is awesomely powerful, the paintings are Bacon-like in their facility, the subject charged with feelings of fear, powerlessness and despair, the paint application is expert.  The artists of Golden Calf are establishing New Philadelphia as the art center of the region, unafraid to tackle the more difficult apects of modern life.

Brian Billingsley’s ”Homage to Me” video and “Untitled (Saturn Devours His Son)” oil on canvas in the Golden Calf Show at Crane Art Center.

Weird little blobby things were all over the place.

Super Mario Music!!!