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Art in Philadelphia

Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

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Soldenise Ramos-Gonzalez, Pink Self Portrait, acrylic, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Soldenise Ramos-Gonzalez, Pink Self Portrait, acrylic, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

The Philadelphia Sketch Club is America’s oldest artist club established in 1865, for the past twenty-eight years the historic club has honored Philadelphia High School art students with an exhibition of work selected from all of the High Schools in the city.  On February 19th, 2012 the awards ceremony and closing reception took place in the historic gallery and more than twenty awards were presented to Philadelphia High School art students or their teachers.  The generous awards included monetary awards for the top winners and the many memorial awards, wonderful gift packages of art supplies for honorable mentions made the presentation go on for almost thirty minutes, and a wonderful reception with tons of food for hungry teens.  Congratulations to all the artists from DoNArTNeWs.

Emanuel Rodriguez, Living Room, Best in Show, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Emanuel Rodriguez, Living Room, Best in Show, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

The High School Art Show at Philadelphia Sketch Club included 149 works of art for the jurors to select from.  Mina Smith-Segal, Lois Schlachter and Joseph Winter spent hours winnowing down their faves but with 22 awards almost of the schools took home prizes.  DoN was impressed by the high level of craft and presentation, even without frames many pieces were appropriately matted to best effect.

Ada Anderson, Digital Photo Award, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Ada Anderson, Self Portrait/Woman, Digital Photo Award, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Ada Anderson told DoN her teacher pushed her to take her Photoshop skills to the max, sending her back to the computer to refine the photo over and over; Ada took her original self portrait then used the star paintbrush tool to decorate her scarf, layers of rainbow gradient are subtle mimics lens flare.  Digital Photo Award well deserved.

Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Linda Lvea, Travis Balker, acrylic, Kimberly Neubauer, John Frusciante, acrylic, Catherine Cordoza, Steve Jobs, acrylic, Tara Downey, Steve Buscemi, acrylic, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012.  The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, Graphic Arts Teacher Jeff Evans

Maisum Shami, Cast Drawng, conte, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Maisum Shami, Cast Drawing, conte, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012, Dick Blick Award

Miranda Gibson, Chair/Space Study, mixed media, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Miranda Gibson, Chair/Space Study, mixed media, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Dorothy Roschen, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Dorothy Roschen, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 28th Annual High School Art 2012

Special thanks to all the donors of awards, volunteers for hanging the show, food donations, committee co-chairs Debra Cooperstein and Dorothy Roschen, Jaqueline Barnette, Jaqueline and Richard Kunin, Mina Smith Segal, Norka Shedlock, Catherine Bath, Joanne Bosack, William C. Patterson PSC President and Executive Director Richard W. Fink, III.

Dorothy and the team begins work of this project in September to present a wonderful example of the state of the arts in High School.  Expressing creativity and ideas through the arts is essential for young people to learn in order to communicate more effectively in the adult world.  The skill of being able to draw is underestimated in society.  Support the arts by helping the Philadelphia Sketch Club 29th Annual High School Art Show even bigger and better, in only takes volunteer time to make a big difference in a young artists life.

Photographs by DoN Brewer
Students, get the best service, selection and price: shop at BLICK!

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Bruce Kravetz, Photographer

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Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manyunk

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manayunk

Bruce Kravetz and DoN walked along the tow path in Manayunk along the canal, part of the bike trail that leads from Locust Street to Valley Forge, after having coffee at La Colombe on Main Street.  Bruce’s photography studio is in The Mill Studios at 123 Leverington Street, an artist’s studio space since the late 1990’s, and the discussion was around his pending presentation of a new work at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center in Fishtown.  Geese swam in the low greenish water of the canal, the roar of cars up on the expressway echoed across the valley. “It’s a place you can show your work and talk about it, it’s the first time I’m showing that eighty-five year old nude.”

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manyunk

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manayunk

“So, it should be kind of interesting.  It’s the first time I’m showing it in public, I’ve shown my wife and my friends and I got their feedback but I’ve never shown it to a group of people.  So, this is going to be kind of interesting, I don’t know how they’ll react.  The size of the print is actually 44″ by 135”, shot with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera with EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens, I printed it myself on my Epson Stylus® Pro 9880.”  DoN spoke up like one of the squawking geese, “That’s a lot of paper!  And ink!  Is this a one shot deal, it must be expensive?”

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manyunk

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manayunk

“Well, no, I think the ink figures in at fifty cents a square foot and the paper is about a dollar a foot, it’s not that expensive.  If you don’t count the price of the printer.  If I can’t be good to myself, be big.”  DoN asked about the subject of his project, aging nude female models, posed classically, “I always find for some reason young models are a dime a dozen, and they’re over done..I always find that older people have something to say, they’re not vacuous.”

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manyunk

Bruce Kravetz, Philadelphia Homeless #2, archival pigment print, (photograph courtesy of the artist), the photograph is included in the Photo Review 2011 Competition website.

How long have you been working on this project?  “Well, I’d say about three months now.  I get some interesting comments when I approach people, I have to be very careful when I approach women, reassuring them that they can have somebody accompany them.  I’m having trouble getting models, I like people who look their age.  I’m not looking for body-builders, I’m just looking for normal, everyday kind of people, normal wrinkles and normal things that happen to the body as it ages, I find it interesting and exciting.  You can intellectualize it up the wazoo; a blank wall or a brick wall that’s old, with moss on it and stuff like that.  I feel about it that same ways, it’s a body that has lived.”  As Bruce Kravetz and DoN started the steep climb up Leverington Street back to the Mills he said, “And they say things to you with wrinkles and crevices, sagging parts that are certainly more interesting than a Photoshopped young twenty year old.”

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manayunk

Bruce Kravetz, Photographer, The Mills Artist Studios, Manayunk (photograph courtesy of the artist).

DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog

Photos by DoN except where noted.

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Her Philadelphia Tales, Book Party

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Lilliana Didovic, Of South 2, Smile, Her Philadelphia Tales Book Signng Party, 2/25/2012

Lilliana Didovic, Of South 2, Smile Restaurant, Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic Book Signing Party, 2/25/2011, Instagram.

A brisk north wind bit into DoN‘s face as he walked up 22th Street to Smile Restaurant on a Saturday night for his book signing party.  Lilliana and Joseph reserved the dining room upstairs and invited all of our friends to celebrate the publication of Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic.  The creation of the book was an adventure in itself, DoN is a blogger, publication in print is not a goal for DoNArTNeWs.  DoN is into page impressions, rankings and search engine optimization results and the effects of reporting on Philadelphia art in Google.  But Lilliana said DoN‘s writing uses “nice words”.

Lilliana proposed collecting reviews from DoN‘s blog posts with her art in book form, an art book to sell and use to further her career as a painter.  Writing a book and writing a blog are not the same thing, page layout in a column is very different from designing a book.  A blog you can always go back and fix, a book is a one shot deal.  No pressure.  The book is published by CreateSpace on Amazon.com.  The 98 page book is full color, 9.5 x 11″ glossy soft cover with beautiful prints, even now when DoN thumbs through it feels surreal that an actual, tangible product has emerged from his writing.

Beyond Lilliana and DoN‘s wildest expectations, right at 6:00pm people emerged from the freezing Winter evening to crowd into the dining room made ready with a table full of beautiful Thai appetizers by chef Ken and Lilliana‘s own famous Bosnian chicken salad.  The wine flowed and people actually lined up to buy books and sit with the Lilliana and DoN to have their copy autographed.  C. Todd Hestand the mastermind behind the Side Arts blog platform which enabled the bulk of the material used in the book was there chatting with artists, gallery owners and educators…Lola Z, Spike, Ted and Ona (the Ona-bomber), Carl and Liz, Regina, Steve, Chris Z, Rachel, Kathryn, Dr. & Mrs. Dunn, Gordan’s liver transplant doctor…OMG – it was so crowded and the roar of conversation was so loud that Chris Z yelled in DoN‘s ear, “I think there are a lot of Bosnians here!”  The evening was wonderfully cosmopolitan, so many languages, so many people from all diverse backgrounds, artists and entrepreneurs, all together in the middle of down town Philadelphia for something as East Coast elite and snobbishly intellectual as a book signing party.  DoN LoVeD IT!!!  The night will always be one of DoN‘s most memorable moments.

Thank you so much to Lilliana and Joseph for hosting a beautiful evening.  This fantastic team of husband and wife, who have been through so much, have shown hospitality towards DoN that has always been exceptional.  Telling  Lilliana‘s amazing story with DoN‘s writing and information design is an accomplishment DoN has only dreamed about until now.

Lilliana Didovic, The City, Smile, Her Philadelphia Tales Book Signing Party, 2/25/2012

Lilliana Didovic, The City, Smile Restaurant, Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic
Book Signing Party, 2/25/2012.

Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic by DoN Brewer, Lilliana S. Ddovic book signing

Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic, Lilliana S. Didovic book signing party, February 25th, 2012.

Other stories about Lilliana S. Didovic: Lilliana Didovic @ TRUST, Lilliana’s Tales, Her Philadelphia Tales, Structure and Gesture

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Leap Year!  DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog achieved a new milestone for page views topping 2000 unique visitors on one day, February has seen a consistent climb in page views achieving the highest rankings for the blog so far.  DoN is also a Contributing Writer to Side Arts Philadelphia art blog and is participating in a demonstration on how to write a blog post on the Side Arts platform at the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at the University of the Arts, March 24th, 2012, 1 -3:00pm.

Get tickets http://corzocenter.ticketleap.com/side-arts-demo/

Prince Twins Seven-Seven

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Twins Seven-Seven, Indigo Arts, Crane Arts Center

Prince Twins Seven-Seven, Igarra, Nigeria, 1944 – 2011, Acrobatic Dancers, 2007, oil, acrylic, ink and pastel on plywood, Indigo Arts, Crane Arts Center

“Prince Twins Seven-Seven is an artist from Nigeria who actually passed away last June.”  Indigo Arts Gallery owner Tony Fisher explained to DoN, “He was probably the most prominent living Nigerian artist at the time and he spent quite a lot of time in Philadelphia.  The last fifteen years he spent a lot of his time in Philadelphia because he was in some degree in exile from Nigeria both political problems and personal financial problems.  He was in Philadelphia for quite a while, the last five years or so he was back in Nigeria before he passed away.  But, he was told since he has a Green Card he could come back and forth every six months.  He would stop in every six months, and in a lot of the cases, bring me new work.”

Twins Seven-Seven, Monkey with Fish, Indigo Arts, Crane Arts Center

Prince Twins Seven-Seven, Monkey with Fish, 2007, oil, acrylic, ink and pastel on plywood, Indigo Arts, Crane Arts Center

“He was not born with the name Prince Twins Seven-Seven, he took that name on to commemorate the fact that according to his mother, according to him, he was the sole survivor of seven successive sets of twins.  Obviously the child death rate in a country like that is high, seven sets of twins in a row and they all died in childbirth or whatever, even his own twin died.  It’s not totally unbelievable in that Nigeria, the Yoruba people of Nigeria gave the highest rate of twins on Earth.  As a result of that, in their religion there is a special place for twins.  There’s a cult called the Ibedgi cult that honors twins with these little figures that are carved that represent when one or both twins die the figures represent them.  Either the surviving twin or the mother of the deceased twins will keep that figure and honor it, feed it, dance with it in ceremonies, things like that for the rest of her life.  There’s really a special place for twins in that culture.”

Twins Seven-Seven, Indigo Arts, Crane Arts Center

Prince Twins Seven-Seven, Indigo Arts, Crane Arts Center

“In his case I think he had a real flair for names, in general he had a flare for drama and I think he had the second Seven because it sounded better than Twin Seven.  This was in 1964, which was in kind of the era of 77 Sunset Strip so he didn’t credit it to that but Seven-Seven had a good sound to it.  So he emerged as in artist in 1964 when he first started painting and he was immediately very successful in Nigeria.  He appeared in shows all over the world, several museum shows in Europe, he was really a very big name.  In the period that he was in Philadelphia he was kind of in decline, I think he had kind of been forgotten and he was really, well it was in the last five years that he was really beginning to revive again.  There were several shows of his work, the Philadelphia Art Museum bought a major piece that they have there now, the Smithsonian has one of his pieces, so, he was picking up but he didn’t get to enjoy it for long.  Unfortunately, it’s like so many artists’ tale, I’m sure it won’t happen instantly but his reputation will rise again since we’re now looking back on him as a key figure of post independence African art.”

DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog

Photographs by DoN Brewer

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InLiquid v.12

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Ellie Brown, InLiquid Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Ellie Brown, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Brenna K. Murphy, InLiquid Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Brenna K. Murphy, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Clarissa Shanahan Schirmer, InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Clarissa Shanahan Schirmer, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the ArtsJim Houser, InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Jim Houser, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Jung Wah Ung, InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Jung Wah Ahn, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Jordan Griska, InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Jordan Griska, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

LGTripp Gallery, InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

LGTripp Gallery, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Donna Usher, LGTripp Gallery, InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Donna Usher, LGTripp Gallery, InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

InLiquid Art and Design Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012, ICE Box Gallery, Crane Center for the Arts

Rachel Zimmerman, the mastermind behind the artist representation website InLiquid, sent DoN a FaceBook message asking if he had received his V.I.P. invitation to the  InLiquid v.12 Benefit Auction 2012?  DoN double checked his inbox and passes to the pre-opening Silent Auction cocktail party for the biggest art event in town unopened.  Cool!  4:00 – 6:30pm, Friday February 10th – DoN had copped the ultimate art party early-bird special!

The ICE Box Gallery in the Crane Center for the Arts is massive but the hall was filled with art of all kinds, tables brimming with collectibles throughout the room, even extra walls to accommodate the array of art and DoN had it all to himself, sort of, for about thirty minutes.  Wandering through the collection DoN spotted familiar artists from across Philadelphia and lots of new faves.  A cocktail bar was in the middle of the room and a bartender made DoN a drink with gin, aloe vera juice and muddled basil, in the Gray Area (the large gallery next to the ICE Box) tables with fantastic treats like a thin crustini with a smear of sun dried tomato paste topped with a dollop of pate’.  Displayed around the room were silent auction bidding sheets for dozens of desirable services and a group of prints selected by jurors from submissions.  So, even if you didn’t win your bid you can still buy a collectible art print.

Soon DoN had a good buzz going from the gin, wandered back in the hall to absorb the sights and ran into artist Amie Potsic.  Walking and talking we were struck by the high quality of the art: a bold red and black painting by Da Vinci Art Alliance Executive Director David Foss, massive abstract expressionist paintings by one of Amie’s faves, Jung Wah Ahn, Brenna K. Murphy‘s hair art, Ellie Brown‘s bag photographs (she photographs people and the contents of the bag they carry) and so much more by many great Philadelphia artists.

Amie Potsic is an artist, photographer, maven, Director of Career Development at CFEVA, and has been an InLiquid member artist since it’s inception in 1999 – that’s pre-Google.  Amie told DoN the more web presence she has the better.  InLiquid is a non-profit organization providing hundreds of artists not just portfolio web pages but real world opportunities to show their artwork, their website is information rich with artist images, bio’s, statements, events and news.  Some of the donated art is still for sale on the InLiquid website.  Support the efforts of InLiquid artists and businesses who gave so generously from their own inventory to help the artist community hub in Fishtown grow and thrive.

More photographs on DoNArTNeWs FaceBook page.

DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog

Photographs by DoN Brewer