Pinhead(s), Tara Vargas, mixed media quilt, Local Art, Open Call Art Exhibit at Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Avenue. Tara Vargas‘ quilt, Pinhead(s), takes an old fashioned task and injects punk. An homage to The Ramones, the quilt has zippers, ripped denim, duct tape border and portraits of the band. DoN was transfixed by the time trip aspect of the piece mixing the Victorian era with Seventies squalor in a 21st Century artwork. The effect is sublime combining metaphors for youthful anarchy with artful utilitarianism, it’s extraordinary. Read more about Local Art at the new www.DoNArTNeWs.comPhiladelphia Art News Blog
Written and photographed by DoN Brewerexcept where noted.
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I just read the blog you wrote on 12/6/12 about the Interiors exhibit organized by the Plastic Club this past December (http://www.donartnews.com/interiors/). Your description of Meat Dance, the piece that my collaborator Dan Rose and I were showcasing is quite vivid and right on target about what we were trying to convey with it! Dan and I happen to have an opening this coming Friday at Cafe Lift at 6pm. I thought you might be interested in attending to see some other of our pieces. On top of the work we have been doing as part of our collaboration, Dan will be showcasing some of his drawings while I will be showing some recent photographs. Our collaboration is called Steamroller Labs.
The Oasis (RHD) community is seeking investment and support in the Shoe In to raise funds, social empathy and awareness for some of our society’s most vulnerable and valueable citizens. Your investment will help create both sustainability and continuity of essential programming for the voices of these Outsider Artists. Support these artists to strive for independence on their own terms.
The Shoe In is a political exhibition designed to counteract the erosion of funding for day services for PA citizens with intellectual disabilities.
Oasis is a one-of-a-kind experience for individuals of diverse abilities. The only organization of its kind, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oasis offers group instruction in art, technology, literacy and life-skills
Oasis (RHD) is a studio art and life skills program staffed by artists that nurtures the talents, skills, and creativity of individuals living with mental illness and/or intellectual disabilities. We offer programs and services that support people with developmental and intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for employment, community connections, and personal development through the arts. Oasis (RHD) is a part of its parent company Resources for Human Development.
The Benefits of Our Project: The Shoe In
Every pair of shoes brings with it an opportunity and benefits for the members of the Oasis (RHD) community to study:
Formal academics in a venue that uses the arts to communicate foundational cognitive adaptive skills needed to increase independence.
Concrete participation in collaboration and planning
Support for development in ‘activities of daily living’ (ADL)
Opportunity to develop an understanding of Empathy
Participation in the regional art community through exhibitions and partnerships with established innovative artists and institutions.
Help Us Raise Our Game
The Oasis (RHD) community is seeking investment and support in the Shoe In to raise funds, social empathy and awareness for some of our society’s most vulnerable and valueable citizens. Your investment will help create both sustainability and continuity of essential programming for the voices of these Outsider Artists.
Contributing to Oasis (RHD) to fund ‘The Shoe In’ will assist us to continue essential day programming services for the emerging Outsider Artists we serve. We are a small service provider to over 100 adults whose needs are difficult to meet elsewhere.
Policy changes, financial miscalculations and proposed budget cuts by the Pennsylvania state government continue to ravage services that fell short of current needs even during fiscally flush times. What does this mean for the 2.3 million citizens served and the approximately 16,000 people waiting for services, 4,000 of which are people whose situations are considered emergencies?
Funding cuts hurt all of us. Not just those of us with disabilities.
Whether the shortfalls are attributed to the budget crisis, a shift from county-run to state-run services, and the states belief that providers, as a whole, can operate more efficiently, the message is still the same: slashing our funding slashes the quality of service provision needed for the artists that call Oasis home.
“One of the best reasons to visit ROADS LESS TRAVELED this weekend — if you didn’t make the Opening Reception — is to experience SUSAN STROMQUIST’s amazing installation. Our 3-D space has rarely hosted an installation that is so expertly integrated, narrating, to the extent possible, the complex path Susan has taken in developing her own brand of experimental art. You can see the unique tools — one person last night likened them “something out of Duchamp” — she has used to turn her body into an art-making apparatus. Three major physical creations, a canvas, a scroll and an accordion book, are on display. And a looping DVD of three videos, available for $20, captures vividly the artist at work on three projects: CLIMB, GIVE & KEEP and DRAWN.” Like Off the Wall Gallery on facebook.
Pinhead(s), Tara Vargas, mixed media quilt, Local Art, Open Call Art Exhibit at Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Avenue. Tara Vargas‘ quilt, Pinhead(s), takes an old fashioned task and injects punk. An homage to The Ramones, the quilt has zippers, ripped denim, duct tape border and portraits of the band. DoN was transfixed by the time trip aspect of the piece mixing the Victorian era with Seventies squalor in a 21st Century artwork. The effect is sublime combining metaphors for youthful anarchy with artful utilitarianism, it’s extraordinary. Read more about Local Art at the new www.DoNArTNeWs.com Philadelphia Art News Blog
