Category Archives: Philadelphia Art

Art in Philadelphia, PA.

Joyce Chan and Mark Price at studio:christensen

Mark Price at studio:christensen

Mark Price at studio:christensen

According to artist Mark Price his artwork, “I guess it is collage but it’s from editions that I’ve been screen printing. The screen prints are from ink drawings and also design elements composited into these environments. Yeah, kind of revisiting all this material that you generate when you do screen printing, it’s a fast process as far as the hand printing goes, and as I was doing the editions, you know, I would give some away, but I still had a bunch left over. And started doing this thing of slicing them and with one single edition, collaging them, it almost feels like a stuttering of the image.  Or if you’re driving and the elongation of the landscape, like a pause repeated over and over.”

Mark Price at studio:christensen

Mark Price at studio:christensen

“This is the first time I’ve tried working with an edition as material as opposed to it being the end point.  It kind of reactivated how I was like thinking about it, like, ‘Oh man, this feels like it leaves the process a lot more open, like now the work is finished, the relationship with it is closed.  It was always like I enjoyed the process but once you get to the end instead of having an image that is clear one moment, to have an image that’s fragments of this memory or this other experience.  It’s all there but it’s like kind of fractured, or it’s like I remember it one way but it’s just this specific detail of it.”

Mark Price at studio:christensen

Mark Price at studio:christensen

The odd shapes of the artworks is intriguing, really breaking the bounds of the picture plane.  “I think that was a way to relieve the process, like the piece is still moving and the idea of, ‘Is this where the image ends or should I continue’. And also with abandoning 90 degree angles and the rigidness of it puts it in a place where it’s moving through three dimensional space.”

Mark Price at studio:christensen

Mark Price at studio:christensen

DoN commented to Mark that the art seems to glow from behind, the pieces are mounted away from the wall with pins, and wondered if the pastel glow was intentional? Mark Price said, “Well, it’s like collaging onto this material that has a fluorescence so it’s not so heavy, it’s like this thing that’s just hovering.  And with the drop shadow projecting a color it makes it different. I’m glad you picked that up.”

Joyce Chan at studio:christensen

Joyce Chan at studio:christensen

There’s a couple large monochromatic patterned paintings in the gallery by Joyce ChanDoN didn’t get to meet her, but the pairing of her quiet abstractions with Mark Price‘s vivid collage creates a kind of conversation between the artwork each speaking a similar but different language.

The studio/gallery/boutique on South 20th Street changes almost daily with pop-up shops by Hy/Lo, new aspirational furnishings, fashion shoots, art lectures and social events that there is always something new to see and desire.

Through SideArts.comDoN is offering online and in-person one-on-one consulting services to visual and craft artists and art businesses.  Read all about it here.

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

Consulting Services with SideArts.com

DoN has been posting on the SideArts.com Philadelphia art blog for many years. Not just for the free/inexpensive public platform to self promote but the website for artists actually directs visitors back to this blog. And vice versa. Pingbacks, comments and hyperlinks between the blogs improves search rankings and also keeps blog posts alive with synergy.

Working with the team at SideArts.com, CEO C. Todd Hestand & Contributing Writer Cassandra Hoo, has introduced exciting new social media dynamics for connecting with the DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art Blog and SideArts.com audience. Creating a measurable presence in social media is now integral to self-promotion.

Through SideArts.comDoN is offering one-on-one consulting for artists who need help developing their action plan for promoting their artwork.

SideArts.com offers online and in-person one-on-one consulting services to visual and craft artists and arts businesses.

Our consultants help with:

  • promotional tactics
  • edit writing
  • writing copy for press releases and other material
  • setting up social media and Side Arts accounts
  • advice on promotional and sales strategies.

First time clients will receive a free three month premium trial Side Arts membership.

Consultant Fees:

  • $150 per online two-hour session.
  • $200 per in-person two-hour session (additional charges may apply outside the consultant’s travel area)

Clients should provide these items three days before the scheduled appointment:

  • Artwork or a logo image
  • A brief bio, artist statement, or business mission statement
  • Any other documents that needs to be reviewed
  • A statement of goals and objectives for the consultation

Contact one of our consultants for additional details.
Email: cassandra@sidearts.com or don@sidearts.com.

All payments will be made in advance. All appointments start and stop promptly on time. Payments will not be refunded if the client does not show up for the appointment or if the appointment is rescheduled or cancelled with less then 24 hours in advance.

DoN Brewer Consulting Services with SideArts.com

Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Stephen Heigh, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Stephen Heigh, Sunday Morning Robots, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club ends on June 16th 2012, so if you want to see a collection of 77 amazing works of art, illustrations for books, magazine covers, advertising, self promotion, then you have to visit the Avenue of the Artists now.  To see illustrations in person is so different than what you see in print.  Often a book cover is from a large painting, the art for a magazine cover may be quadruple the actual size, many are masterful works of painting virtuosity not illustrations made on a computer with Illustrator.

And you get to visit amazing alternate realities, space adventures, scary crimes and romantic trysts through the eyes and imagination of professional artists.  Some of the art is by recent graduates from design school, especially from Moore College of Art & Design where Rich Harrington, the master-mind behind Phillustration V for the past five years, is a professor of illustration.  The artistic talent he gathers together each year is impressive creating the opportunity to view artwork not normally available to the public except as a commercial product like a book or magazine cover.

Glenn Zimmer, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Glenn Zimmer, Lost in the Tower of LondonPhillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Glenn Zimmer helped get members of the Bucks County Illustrators Society to submit work and deliver it to Philly.

Robert Byrd, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Robert Byrd, The Grand Plans and Vision, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club – click the thumbnail for a larger image but Robert Byrd‘s website is amazing!

Stephanie Struse, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Stephanie Struse, OwlPhillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Mike Manly, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Mike Manley, Judge Parker 5.2.2012Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Jennifer Villareale, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Jennifer Villareale, Finist the FalconPhillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

DoN featured this piece about the Moore 2012 graduate in a recent DoNArTNeWs blog post, it was especially satisfying to see the art in the historic gallery of  The Philadelphia Sketch Club. Again, for a good look at this image visit the artist’s website or the gallery while the show is on.

Stacy Hornung, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

Stacy Hornung, Belly Up IPhillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

David Palumbo, Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

David Palumbo, Terrible WeaknessPhillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club

The oil painting by David PalumboTerrible Weakness, is enormous, almost life sized, and evokes passion and emotion so skillfully that it’s scary.  The Phillustration V at The Philadelphia Sketch Club will blow your mind with the creativity, masterful skill and myriad styles of modern illustration and proves you don’t need a computer to be an illustrator.

Read about Phillustration IV on SideArts.com Philadelphia Art Blog

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

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LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin Tan explained to DoN the concept behind Primitive Level Signals, the spectacular multi-media exhibit at Dalet Gallery in Old City, “It’s an animation installation, it all uses 3D animation software to create the animations and we also have animation stills. Printed directly on the wood the prints use technology that is new, a new way to print on different materials, ridged materials, normally it must be much softer.  Now you can use hard wood or metal, aluminum…”

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin TanPrimitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin Tan explained, “Now I can print on all kinds of materials, not just paper. Also, the concept behind this is Chinese Taoism, what this means is that the Chinese have always dealt with five elements: fire, water, metal, earth and wood. All of the elements consistent with Nature is where the idea came from. Also my idea combines the ideas of the North American Indian people with ideas like the dream-catcher.”

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin TanPrimitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

The gallery is filled with fascinating creations from the mind of LiQin Tan, there are prints on animal skin stretched in frames with industrial clamps paired with an abstract video on a glossy monitor mounted on the wall above the dream-catcher. “Using spirit levels as a signal to describe a natural phenomenon in humans, where human brain development is an equalized procedure.  The competing concepts of the brain, whether the battle of the brain’s size versus it’s intellectual capacity , or of it’s technological versus spiritual side, are always kept in equalibrium” –  Dalet Gallery art card.

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin TanPrimitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

The gallery displays five pairings of prints on wood with accompanying video like these three above to represent the five Taoist elements: fire, water, metal, earth and wood. The animation stills printed on the panels of wood are ethereal, with Max Ernst-like abstract images that evoking dreams, mind storms, underwater mysteries and the being lost in the deep forest.  The animations are mind-blowing in complexity and creativity.  In the front gallery is a series of monitors, tangles all in wires and cables, with an animated lava flow ebbing back and forth using video game technology realness to the point that the piece looks hot from melted stone.

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin TanPrimitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

“In this dream-catcher you see here, the animal skins, I made them by myself, is from the North American Indian people as well, they’re used in a way to represent their culture. I stole it from them. In the animation is the biggest stone, the spiritual stone.” said LiQin TanIn the picture above is a shot, a still if you will, of a large dream-catcher, the animal hide stretched taut in the primitive circular frame using the same cruel clamps, the installation has two of them. From both sides of the darkened gallery four video projectors shined animations onto the stretched skins, the light shining through like when you hold a flashlight to the web on your hand.  The animation includes dancing figures, “The Miao people, a small group of people in China, are represented by the dressed dancers…I mixed the cultures, I call it digital primitivism, using digital technology to make it primitive.”  The effect is deeply spiritual, connecting with memories, archetypes, cultural resonance and internally rooted thoughts and ideals.

“You can see that in the animation, but I also used the American Indian skills because I made the animal skins by myself. Using primitive skills, using calf skin, this kind of skin the procedure is called primitive, so I used the primitive skills to make them digital.  And I used digital skills to make primitive art.”

LiQin Tan, Primitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

LiQin TanPrimitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery

“It’s a two-way work, digital art with old society and modern society, it’s multi-faceted.  I like the North American Indian culture a lot. I did a lot of research in Canada and I made a lot of multimedia pieces about North American Indian culture, so it’s about how during the day I teach digital animation but I have North American Indian culture in my brain. So the idea came very easy, very natural especially when it connected with Chinese Taoism, I did a lot of research, I’m not a religious person but I read a lot of philosophy and a lot of the research is organized in this idea.”

LiQin TanPrimitive Level Signals at Dalet Gallery through June 23rd.

Written and photographed by DoN

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Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Simone Spicer, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Simone SpicerArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Katy the ArT DoG photo-bombs this pic of the site specific installation created by Simone Spicer for the Art in the Open weekend at Schuylkill Banks Park.  The artist gathered plastic or plasticized trash, decorated each piece with paint or collage, then strung them like beads along the bike path.  The effect was like a waterline where all this wacky trash had washed up on the banks of the nearby river commenting on the ecological effects of plastic trash.  But Simone Spicer also lavished time and effort on each element accentuating the careful design of these daily-use objects and the efforts of designers and corporations to make them attractive enough to buy.  And throw away.

Simone Spicer, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Simone SpicerArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Art in the Open 2012 was a big commitment by the participating artists – three days set up as a working artist along the bike trail from Lombard Street towards the Philadelphia Art Museum.  The point wasn’t to sell work but to demonstrate how art is made, engage with the public, raise questions and answer questions.  The artists are rewarded with a show at The Philadelphia Seaport Museum for the rest of the Summer opening June 15th. The experience of strolling along the trail with the dog is one of DoN‘s favorite activities, the addition of art was like an alternate reality for an afternoon, it would be cool to see more artists along the scenic path all the time.

Barbara Gesshel, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Barbara GesshelArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Photographer, Jeff StroudDoN and Katy the ArT DoG walked along the bike path in the hot Spring sun and stopped at a shady tree where artist Barbara Gesshel had set up her studio out of the sun.  Using the tree as a work surface Barbara Gesshel rubbed charcoal into large sheets of paper, using the ridges of the bark to create a naturalistic atmosphere to her drawing.  Working with nature instead of against it, Gesshel’s use of charcoal, the charred remnants of dead trees, onto the living surface of a tree to make her drawings is poetic and inspiring.

Barbara Gesshel, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Barbara GesshelArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park, photo by Jeff Stroud

Barbara Gesshel, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Barbara GesshelArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park, photo by Jeff Stroud

Barbara Gesshel has an expansive one-person show of prints and paintings at Red Hook Cafe on Fabric Row.  Read DoN‘s blog post about the show on SideArts.com.

Erika Bergere, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Erika BergereArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Cyanotype is one of the oldest types of photography there is, artist Erika Bergere set up on the lawn with her baby and made the beautiful Prussian blue photographs using only the light of the sun and a solution of potassium ferricyonide and ferric ammonium.  The wet paper hung out on a line to dry while the family lolled in the shade on the grass.

Justin Tyner, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Justin TynerArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Stained glass artist Justin Tyner was one of the only artists who needed to connect to the grid, he made this beautiful rose window outside with his soldering iron.  Shortly after this photo was taken the window was mounted in a round wooden frame on the lawn on a hill near the art museum.

Jeannie Moberly, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Jeannie MoberlyArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Jeannie Moberly, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Jeannie MoberlyArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Artist Jeannie Moberly used a variety of media from her art box to create the drawings on long expanses of paper that she planted in the ground with wood dowels.  The maze-like effect was bold and beautiful at the bend in the river.  Sitting in the bright sun with a big hat and long sleeves to guard her arms, the artist contentedly worked out the ambitious drawing while bikers, walkers and gawkers stopped by to check out the colorful display of art.

Abdelkrim Djennas, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Abdelkrim DjennasArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Flowers made from battle caps – gorgeous! Abdelkrim Djennas flattens out bottle caps with cuts along the edge transforming refuse into delightful dumpster diver art.  Like tramp artists of old, he takes what society discards and makes something desirable and pretty.  The metal flowers sprouting in the woods near the art museum were whimsical yet prescient with a question of whether Nature will be overtaken by man made objects.

Nicole Donnelly, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Nicole DonnellyArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

Using found materials, Nicole Donnelly wove a structure of twigs and branches around one of the boulders along the river.  Obviously temporary but the piece touched a childhood nerve of playing in the woods.  The rocks along the river make convenient resting spots, Donnelly’s hut-like structure evokes Clan of the Cave Bear-like racial memories and the satisfaction of creating shelter.

George Apotsos, Art in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

George ApotsosArt in the Open at Schuylkill Banks Park

George Apotsos used simple chicken wire to create his ethereal Occupy People. The wire torsos planted in the Earth at oblique angles, each faceless head looking in a different direction evoking the mixed message mantra of the Occupy movement. We can see right through them. Using a mannequin as a form, George Apotsos molds and trims the common material, using heavy gloves and strong shears, into a metaphor for modern life.

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted.

Contributing photographer, Jeff Stroud

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