Category Archives: Mixed Media Art

Mixed media art by Philadelphia artists.

Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

Jess Yohn, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

DoN was invited to the Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012 by graduating artist Hayley Tomlinson, as soon as he arrived DoN ran into professor of illustration Rich Harrington who asked if I was covering the story for DoNArTNeWs? That was not originally the plan but when DoN was presented with the massive show of talent in the Galleries at Moore it made him realize how illustration works and it’s continued relevance in the modern world.

Visual cues, archetypes and formats are integrated into images creating patterns that trigger memories and memes of experiences. Presentation was key, each artist created their own sense of self identity and accomplishments in a very professional manner. DoN was impressed with the level of business acumen and polished presentations of the artists with their thoughtful projects and confident communication skills, with business cards, art cards, websites, Tumblr blogs and all sorts of swag to accompany and sell their main objective of making memorable images.

Jaine Kopala, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

We want the funk, get up off that funk. Jaine Kopala, digital prints.

Breana Karnis, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

2 = 2 = 22, 2012, hand cut Sintra, acrylic and monofilament, Breana Karnis‘ majored in textile design but this mixed media artwork works as fine art, installation, decor and more.

Natalie Helman, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

Jennifer Villareale, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

Rich Harrington introduced DoN to Jennifer Villareale, one of his illustration students who overcame shyness with her aggressive, tough illustrations of heroic adventure. The watercolors are vibrant and controlled, “Watercolors are tough. I went through some really bad paintings but, you know, every single painting you do get’s a little bit better. And as I was going I got tighter and tighter, even with the gradations of the color, each painting got better. You have to do thin layers and it takes a lot longer.” said Jennifer Villareale.

Kait Amadio, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

Stacy Hornung, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

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Basma Abouelenein, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012, photo courtesy of the artist.

Basma Abouelenein, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

The experience design in Basma Abouelenein‘s installation was multi-media and multi-faceted from the business card to the rustic box of problem’s to the unusual use of an overhead video monitor, the craft and sense of the hand was strong but the obvious competence and cleverness in the use of technology asserts the new direction illustration and experience design is headed.

Sandy Frank, Moore College of Art and Design Senior Exhibit 2012

Instead of business cards Sandy Frank gave away flags.

Congratulations to the Class of 2012 at Moore College of Art and Design.

Sunday is the opening of Phillustration 2012 at The Philadelphia Sketch Club under the artistic direction of Moore’s Rich Harrington, the reception is 2-4:00 PM. The annual show always exhibits the state of the art in contemporary illustration in the historic gallery/studio on the Avenue of the Artists.

Written and photographed by DoN

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BLACKWHITE ANDINBETWEEN @ 110 Church

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Trish Thompson, BLACKWHITE ANDINBETWEEN @ 110 Church Gallery

BLACKWHITE ANDINBETWEEN show is already over but DoN is still thinking about the art installation that focussed simply on black and white. The gallery in Old City installed a three person show of black and white artworks by Philadelphia region artists: Trish Thompson, Tom Hlas & Wendy Wolf. The May First Friday crawl is all about discovering new art talent and 110 Church Gallery, off of 2nd Street in a quirky store front, feels so comfortable it’s like an oasis from the art mobs on the prowl offering a delight for the eye for the weary art crawler.

Tom Hlas, BLACKWHITE ANDINBETWEEN @ 110 Church Gallery

Tom Hlas explained to DoN how he meticulously crafted the woven collage, working each edge and surface of the paper with deceptive intensity. The group of three black and white collages all had red dots, Tom was grinning ear to ear with the satisfaction that his idea reacted with his audience in the best way.

Wendy Wolf, BLACKWHITE ANDINBETWEEN @ 110 Church Gallery

Wendy Wolf installed a site specific piece composed of string and and organically shaped cut outs that resemble Locust leaves. The pristine white elements create a pattern of shadow and shades of gray that only appear because the mind has to process the information somehow. The taut strings call to mind musical instruments, the random leaves striking chords in a holographic-like space between the strings and the wall. During last weekend’s Art in the Open event at Schuylkill Banks Park the artist installed a massive mixed media piece using her unique language of simple elements in a tree near the Philadelphia Art Museum. Her work weathers well and interacts with the environment in a pleasing poetic song-like work of art, one is still on view outside the art gallery.

The next event at 110 Church Gallery:

Josette Urso: Here and Then

Written & photographed by DoN

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Bob Jackson, 100 Faces of Bob at Off the Wall Gallery

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Bob Jackson, 100 Faces of Bob at Off the Wall Gallery

100 Faces of Bob is over one hundred mixed media art objects mounted on the wall at Off the Wall Gallery created by outgoing President of The Plastic Club, Bob Jackson. Last week DoN watched a movie at The Plastic Club‘s monthly art salon, shot in 2006, of Bob Jackson‘s collections and studio, a consummate pack rat collector and inspired artist. Jackson collects objet trouve’ then transmogrifies the collected elements, found at flea markets, yard sales and antique shops into anthropomorphic portraits.

Bob Jackson, 100 Faces of Bob at Off the Wall Gallery

Off the Wall Gallery usually hosts group show but gave over the whole space to Bob Jackson’s thesis: attractive, fun, visionary art that’s affordable. Bob Jackson has been leading The Plastic Club for many years, he’s seen it all, good and bad, and synthesized the information into an art style that is aspirational and accessible. Like his ball point pen drawings on typing paper, the 100 Faces each express the artist’s hand, thought, effort and time. Anthropomorphism is practically the original art, the Venus of Willendorf speaks to us over mellenia, Bob Jackson is able to tap into our deepest cultural memories and speak to us here in the future.

Bob Jackson, 100 Faces of Bob at Off the Wall Gallery

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Bob Jackson, 100 Faces of Bob at Off the Wall Gallery

The Off the Wall Gallery consistently installs thought provoking and relevant art shows. Usually the installations are juried group shows offering emerging artists opportunities to show their work with established artists. Art is part of the business model at Dirty Franks Bar, space on their wall is coveted and their sales record is really good. 100 Faces of Bob will be remembered as one of the great moments in Philadelphia art history, the show looks like it will be sold out. Each piece is only $50.00. Bob Jackson‘s legacy will be a strong, real, measurable impact on the Philadelphia art community, DoN has personally cried on Bob’s shoulder over art matters and know’s he has counseled and supported hundreds of other artists with assurances, solutions and advice. Creating a wonderful experience design, the show offers so many lessons in art making, marketing, networking and socializing from a master Philadelphia artist, 100 Faces of Bob reveals the beautiful face of a friend.

LoVe

DoN

Marjorie Grigonis, Kristine Flannery at Third Street Gallery

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Marjorie Grigonis, Present Tense, Third Street Gallery

Marjorie Grigonis and Kristine Flannery‘s exhibit at Third Street Gallery (on Second) is a compare and contrast in action painting and abstract expressionism. Marjorie Grigonis calls her collection Present Tense, Kristine Flannery‘s exhibit is called The Multitudes; Grigonis’ mixed media and paintings uses mark-making and color fields with emotive color and Flannery’s action paintings exude energy. DoN talked with Marjorie Grigonis May’s First Friday in Old City.

Marjorie Grigonis, Present Tense, Third Street Gallery

How did you get involved with Third Street Gallery? “I’ve been part of the gallery for at least ten years. Someone invited me to put my work up and be juried in and I’ve been part of it ever since. I was one of the directors a couple years back which is a job no one covets, it gets passed on every two years. But, it’s a good gallery, it’s good people and I think a really great showing space with the windows and the location.”

Marjorie Grigonis, Present Tense, Third Street Gallery

DoN asked Marjorie Grigonis to describe her style, a combination of collage and painting, “Well, the painting is very much gestural and early was somewhat based on abstract expressionism but it’s been modified. As you can see, it’s not that free anymore. But the looseness that I started with, I find painting really hard, I struggle with it and I edit out. There’s probably six paintings underneath that painting. I just paint over, scrape off, and paint over.”

Marjorie Grigonis, Present Tense, Third Street Gallery

“I started looking at all the scraps of things in my studio and making collages and it was fun. But I realized that I was thinking , in this show particularly, that there’s not any content, and there’s not a lot of content here, but, I was thinking just about the general anxiety of personal and global and I think a lot of these sort of reflected that. The woman holding her hand, the fear itself, I think even the paintings are just a little bit anxious, not totally. I think there’s a good time going on in some of them.”

“I don’t mean to be a downer, I just think of me, there’s just a little more of a sense of that, sort of, pervading everybody and everything right now. I’m sensitive to that and I think humor is a way to deal with that and so I just thought some of these were pretty funny. Maybe ironic.”

Marjorie Grigonis, Present Tense, Third Street Gallery

DoN commented to the artist that anxiety is not what he felt from the colorful abstractions and that he overheard people saying how much they liked them, “Well, I’m glad because it’s partly just me, probably a lot of it’s me.” DoN said, “Well, you are the artist.”

Kristine Flannery, The Multitudes at Third Street Gallery

Third Street Gallery is an artist-run cooperative art gallery established in 1972.

Kristine Flannery, The Multitudes at Third Street Gallery

Kristine Flannery‘s action paintings represent movement and gesture through space. The energetic marks and swipes of paint each try to capture a moment of movement, the paint permitted to be watery and move on it’s own, sometimes smeared into submission. DoN spoke only briefly to the artist and her husband, she was fatigued at the end of the First Friday festivities but if you go to the Third Street Gallery website there’s a good statement about her goals with the show.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer

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Anne Saint Peter, 915 Spring Garden Studio Visit

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Anne Saint Peter, 915 Spring Garden Studio Visit

When the Spiker, Jeff the photographer and DoN arrived in Anne Saint Peter‘s studio on our open studio tour at 915 Spring Garden Art Studios, the collection of unusual photographic prints glowing in the afternoon sun fascinated our art crawling trio. Jeff the photographer shoots with a beautiful Nikon camera, DoN has his trusty Kodak and iPhone for Instagramming, and the Spike-man uses his iPhone camera to document his life through photography. So, when the photo-geeks saw Anne Saint Peter‘s studio there were a lot of questions to ask about photography.

Anne Saint Peter, 915 Spring Garden Studio Visit, photograph by Jeff Stroud

DoN asked Anne Saint Peter about the process of printing images on metal? “I was looking to do panoramic photography, I wanted a panoramic camera but they were tremendously expensive because of the lens to do that, so I figured out how to do it by using multiple exposures. And then I was looking for an interesting alternative to inkjets and I found that some people were printing on aluminum and I thought,’That’s sound cool.” But how does that work?

Anne Saint Peter, 915 Spring Garden Studio Visit

“It has to have a special coating, the aluminum, in this case it’s roofing material, you have to clean it it, basically scrub it down. You coat it and things working out well it goes evenly. Actually the Epson ink-jets are really good with this type of thing. They can even take cardboard. So, it’s an interesting thing. The bottom ones I got commercially printed because their starting to do it commercially, wedding photographers like it because of the reflective quality. But they’re doing full color photographs and full color photographs done like that on aluminum pop. But if I send them these files they turn out totally differently.”

“I don’t like coating aluminum, it seems kind of a waste of why you’re doing it. They also make what they call metallic paper which gives you some of that pop but the problem with me is that when you cover it with glass you sort of lose it, like what’s the point? I’m trying to figure out how to show it without glass.”

Anne Saint Peter, 915 Spring Garden

The trio of photo geeks were fascinated with the box camera set up in the studio. Anne Saint Peter said, “It’s an eight by ten, the glass plates are under here. You just slide them in and open this up (remove the lens cover) and you’re good to go. This is actually such a small lens, in terms of aperture, you have plenty of time, it takes longer so it works out really well. The problem is the focussing and things like that because the image that you see on here is upside down and reversed. So, it’s interesting, I can’t tell if people are smiling or not. You know, like if you’re doing a portrait and it’s a little hard, if somebody moves you’re out of the pool.”

Anne Saint Peter, 915 Spring Garden Studio Visit, photograph by Jeff Stroud

Anne Saint Peter continued, “But when you get it, people who are good at, I’m just not, I don’t do it enough, I can do a smaller one, 4 x 5.” DoN asked if the camera uses glass plates? “No, I use film. You can use the glass plates but then the glass plates have to be coated and processed within a couple minutes, finished in a couple minutes. And that’s, I love the images, but it’s too much to try and control. And what killed me in the end is they were coating them with shellac and alcohol over a flame. And I was out of the pool right there. Shellac sticks to everything, everything’s stuck to your hand, how do you get it even? The answer is you just practice. Over an open flame which could start a fire any minute with glass that’s going to break. No. To me printing with inkjet on aluminum is a lot easier”