Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011 – the Trailer
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Category Archives: Multimedia Art
DoN Brewer, Building an Art Brand Starting with a Typo
Andy Warhol‘s real last name was Warhola, Banksy is a made-up name, Lady GaGa is made up, there are one name stars like Cher, Madonna, Christo – the idea is to build a brand, be memorable and stand out in a crowd. P!nk uses an exclamation point as does famous Philly artist Burnell Yow! to make their name stand out. DoN is attending seminars at the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at the University of the Arts, on a cold early Spring evening, CO-COO of ZEROTO5IVE, Michelle Pujadas, an expert in business branding, lectured at length about famous brands and their imagery. DoN worked up the nerve to show her his business card in front of the room full of art entrepreneurs, the card with the big red DoN and crown which the branding guru then critiqued at length. She liked the big N in DoN because it looks different and quirky, big & red always works, she liked the crown a lot, a memorable image that creates links in the viewers mind but thought the mouse drawn crown should be simplified, she did not like the swirly pink background at all (DoN tried to explain the tie-in to his website but if you have to explain…start over) and she particularly critiqued the hand feel of the card, what DoN thought was slick and shiny Michelle Pujadas felt was slimy! Slimy! Her card has a memorable logo and lush, velvety touch with room to write personal notes. Ink doesn’t even adhere to DoN‘s old shiny/slimy cards.
DoN also learned that he was over-promising services on his business card; as a multimedia designer and artist it seemed important to list all of his skills including Flash, seo, video & reiki. What DoN learned was that even though those activities are ones he enjoys doing, working with others on their ideas or problems isn’t always a satisfying experience. DoN learned at the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy events to be able to express what he does as a business in the length of time it takes to ride an elevator. So, with his new business card design, DoN highlights what he likes doing best – art, blogging, photography & web deign – if search engine optimization, Flash animation, producing video or healing pesky past life issues with reiki enters the conversation, cool. If not, oh, well.
ZEROTO5IVE also recommended simplifying the color palette of the card, DoN eliminated the disco swirls and changed the font up a little, still his favorite Futura, a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner, but now the D is a bit bigger, the o a bit smaller but the capital N remains capitalized, a favorite of the audience and the expert presenter, even people in the back row got it. The crown in DoN‘s new logo is now the W from the free font called IntellectaCrowns from www.dafont.com designed by Intellecta Design, a Brazilian type foundry interested in typographical research and revivals of all forms of ancient typefaces and handwriting styles. It searches historical churches, museums and similar institutions to develop handwriting and other fonts from old documents. This kind of research is not common in Brazil. In addition, their design team also works to create new and modern typefaces for all applications. DoN removed the Flash animation with the dizzying swirl and unexpected noises from his homepage, too. DoN has people say to him all the time,”The Don with the big N, right”. People also think DoN looks like Wille Nelson, but that’s another story. A simple typo has turned into a moniker, logo and brand that folks remember, even if they think it’s a mistake. The big N continued when DoN began writing this blog, DoNArTNeWs – DoNBrewerMultimedia Reviews the Philadelphia Region Art Scene, now with over 60k hits per month, thank you, and the typo has become a meme.
Now, DoN‘s card is still bold but simplified, the advice from the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy has helped DoN re-focus his energy and values on projects that re-invigorate, inspire and develop his brand – DoN with a capital N. As a result of meeting entrepreneurs at the Corzo seminars DoN is now a Contributing Writer, providing exclusive content about the arts, to Philly.SideArts, an artist portfolio and arts opportunity website. And it started with a typo.
Logo by DoNBrewerMultimedia.
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Every corner of the mammoth Icebox Gallery in the Crane Arts Center is activated with visual signs, symbols and sensory stimuli. Last January curator Amie Potsic sent a call for ideas to the Fellows of The Center for Emerging Visual Artists for the huge art space in Fishtown. Site specific works were encouraged, developed and confirmed by April and last week all the pieces fell into place and Construct, an invigorating, unique, studied look at contemporary art and how assemblage, construction and collage is integral to the new way of seeing. The photo above looks so Rauschenberg but it’s mash-up of two large installations, one a trippy multiple collage by Jennifer Williams applied directly on the walls and a large assemblage by Don Edler that sprawls across the concrete floor like a drift of entrancing debris.
Don Edler @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Mami Kato in coming to the end of a long relationship with the special Japanese grass she uses to create the sinuous sculptures which take years to make to a new direction using resin for the bio-morphic sculpture in the foreground. Her work looks so beautiful in the Gray Area, tying up the space in a confounding knot of dense yet floaty tubules.
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Laureen Griffin plays with styles, textures, composition and sexual role models – huh? DoN overheard a comment, “What’s that girl doing in the chair?” The girl is dressed quite masculine, like a business woman, reading a paper, a strong contemporary image of a black woman set against the grain of an antebellum manor. Intensely conflicting narratives zipped through DoN‘s neural network from stories embedded in the fabric, visual cues in the styling and strangely involving decor. Gorgeous!
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Kimberly Witham was concerned for a moment that the photographs that are so huge in her studio would seem dwarfed by the scale of Icebox, but arrayed salon style, the still life photographs using dead animals, wallpaper and found objects read perfectly well. The beautifully rendered still life photographs are so bitter sweet, we get to look at beautiful creatures living on after death in a work of art, an exquisite corpse of a different kind. Witham’s photographs drew a crowd of people who stood and stared a long time; the mixture of repulsion and fascination, ugly and beautiful, cheery and morbid strums a tender nerve. And the concept that raw steak is not just the color of cabbage roses but can be sexually Dali-nian is genius.
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Alison Stigora, Whirlwind, charred wood, site specific installation. Like a charcoal drawing in space, Whirlwind is a feat of imagination swirling up like a tornado; Stigora and a friend hand-charred the wood, pulling logs from the fire and dousing them with water to preserve the scarred luminous iridescence of the wood for the construction. Alison wants all DoNsters to know she is not a pyromaniac, having a healthy fear of fire and does not play with matches. The imposing sculpture continues Stigora’s investigation into the fractal like forms of the natural world, especially trees and all that art owes to them.
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Alison Stigora, Whirlwind, detail.
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Lewis Colburn was seated atop a 15 foot wooden tower where he typed War and Peace by Tolstoy during a performance at the opening reception; Colburn typed out part of the book relating to a theory about history and calculus, a repetitive process which spilled a long stream of paper into a puddle on the floor. The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Lewis Colburn @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Maggie Mills has five paintings included in the exhibit, each artwork representing a bit of the anxiety she feels about the political and ecological environment her young daughter is growing up in. Mills’ paintings incorporate compressed narratives, coupled with coming of age incidents and rituals. In each of the paintings, young people are involved in a manner of play that involves constructions like kites but in a dream state haunted by angst, danger and fear for the future.
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Swim Team, oil on panel, Maggie Mills @ The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Panoramic shot of the Icebox Gallery, The Center for Emerging Visual Artists – Construct @ Crane Arts Center.
Artists exhibiting are: Noah Addis, Arden Bendler Browning, Lewis Colburn, Don Edler, Laureen Griffin, Jordan Griska, Ana B. Hernandez, Mami Kato, Allison Kaufman, Daniel Kornrumpf, Maggie Mills, Tim Portlock, Alison Stigora, Jennifer Williams, Kimberly Witham, and Bohyun Yoon.
Construct is on view through June 29th, a short run for such a big show but exhilarating in it’s scope, direction and audacity.
Photos by DoN.
Jessica Barber – The Industrial Complex: A Visual Interpretation @ Twenty-Two Gallery
The Commodore Barry, mixed media on panel, Jessica Barber – The Industrial Complex: A Visual Interpretation @ Twenty-Two Gallery.
Flare Up at the Refinery, 4 color lithograph, Jessica Barber – The Industrial Complex: A Visual Interpretation @ Twenty-Two Gallery.
Some Strings Attached, mixed media on panel, Jessica Barber – The Industrial Complex: A Visual Interpretation @ Twenty-Two Gallery.
Investigating the super structure of her surroundings, Jessica Barber has discovered a hidden beauty in the ugly encroachment of the industrial complex we live in. The harsh angles and abrupt interruptions in the landscape are the leaping off points for Barber’s intense paintings and prints. There is no secret that her endeavor for this show was about industriousness whether in her complex lithographs, an artistic technology unto itself, thickly painted industrial landscapes or thoughtful, contemplative figures, the effect is serious yet hopeful insight. Seeing the beauty in the ugly is something we have to live with anyway, Jessica see’s the blight and decides to make something beautiful, deep and lasting for us, capturing the moment when the sun hits the bridge at just the right angle or the soft glow of oily asphalt at sunset. There may be no right answer to the ugliness but Jessica is willing to look hard and see the wonderful patterns, colors and textures inflicted on the industrial landscape and offer answers in the form of art.
Photos by DoN.
VIII – 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center
Rebekah Wilhelm, VIII – 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.
Rebekah Wilhelm, Untitled, detail
Rebekah Wilhelm, Untitled, VIII – 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center in Fishtown.
Rebekah Wilhelm‘s most excellent print display @ UD Crane is filled with information, tightly packed into clever, spare prints like an art lesson on less is more. The prints of swirling words explains how viewers interact with vision, her chain link fence prints are confounding and restrictive and the reams of paper spread in a long swipe across the floor is provocative yet simple and easy. Wilhelm already has plans to go to work teaching at the University of Delaware and is considering studio space in Philly. DoN chatted with UD Crane curator Anthony Vega, he highlighted how there was more focus on craft and skill in traditional media and no video this year. C. Grant Cox, III includes multimedia and mechanics in his sculpture but there was a noticeable absence of flat screens and projections in the gallery.
Tara Russell, VIII – 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.
Jacob Smiley, VIII – 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center.
Tia Santana, VIII – 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center. Tia Santana’s performance/installation anchored the lower gallery by the stairs with the artist studiously braiding what looked a lot like hair into long dreads. Dressed in white, Santana focused on expanding the mound of braids, weaving memes like “roots”, “identity” and “work” into a fascinating presentation of a simulacra-like archetype that a week later is still vibrant in DoN‘s mind.
Daniel Jackson, VIII – 2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Delaware Department of Art @ Crane Arts Center. Check out Jackson’s web site for a good look at his work, his paintings exhibit not just vibrancy and virtuosity but thoughtful content, decorative panache and strong painting science. The glossy panels thick with layers of saturated color and ancient technique are mashed up with a contemporary sense of irony; Jackson’s paintings illustrate Vega’s observation of skill being penultimate.
Congratulations to Matt Giel for his desirable photographs, Leontien Rotteveel’s beatific objet trouve-like sculpture/installation and the entire class of UD 2011 for a refreshing look at the endurance of art. The gallery is University of Delaware‘s outpost away from school, offering students a really cool space to show their work, creating an aspirational vibe and a real clarity of vision of who artists can be after college.
Photos by DoN.