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About admin1

DoN Brewer is a Philadelphia based multimedia designer including blogging, web design, video production, photography, drawing, painting, writing, sound design, affiliate marketing and promotion. DoN graduated from University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2002, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Multimedia and Communications.

Smile Gallery – Sunshine and Flowers

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Smile Gallery

Artist Lilliana Didovic, artist Karen McDonnell and Ken Tutjamnong @ Smile Gallery opening for artists Ken Tutjamnong and Mike Sweeney.

Ken Tutjamnong’s impressionist floral paintings are exuberant with a variety of mark making techniques splashed across the canvas then scraped away to reveal subtle coloration and form.  Ken, a native of Thailand, is a dedicated painter and a member of the DaVinci Alliance – not only does he manage the most excellent  Smile Thai Restaurant which is more than a full time job, he finds time in the morning or after to work to develop his unique painterly style.  Tutjamnong’s paintings for the Sunshine and Flowers Show are absolutely happy with rich texture, color and composition; Ken obviously is working hard to realize a dream.

ken2.jpg

Painting by Ken Tutjamnong

Mile Sweeney

Artist Mike Sweeney @ Smile Gallery.

Mike Sweeney mixed paintings and photographs in Smile’s Sunshine and Flowers show. he says, “Photos are an ethereal experience, a painting  you have to live with, get to know, be there a long time.  A photo lasts forever as that moment.”  Again, time shifting and experience design create new vibrations, since DoN is a multimedia guy, it’s refreshing to see an artist freely mix the medias usually kept separate. 

Mike Sweeney

Painting by Mike Sweeney @ Smile Gallery. 

Ken and Matt

Ken Tutjamnong and his brother Matt Lyons. 

Yale MFA Photography @ 339 Gallery

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stolfa

 The Yale MFA show at Gallery 339 is amazing, crystal clear imagery of manufactured reality, hyper-realism and narrative experience design. What is real and what is staged?  Which part is Photoshopped and which part is documentary?  Photography isn’t just a “snapshot” of a moment any longer, it may take as long to create a great photo as a great painting.  Sarah Stolfa’s photographs are cinematic in scope, packed with narrative creativity.  Stolfa’s goal was to make “…something, real and big.”  Glendale TX, a powerful image of a young man in jeans standing in a scorched field with a fire truck nearby is serene yet ambiguous, did this saint-like boy/man win or lose this battle against nature?  There’s a photo of logging that is so scary and brutal yet honest.

339’s Martin McNamara told DoN, “Yale offers reality versus fictional pictorial.”  Marley White has several large images depicting a reality which is so perfectly perfect that it looks impossible yet what DoN is seeing is so real, so detailed, so authentic – this image is a good example of how White interacts with emotional engrams; residual cuteness is creating “Aw!”-inspiring moments in art from photography to painting to constructions.Marley White @ Gallery 339.

Marley White @ Gallery 339.

Ed Bronstein & Martin McNamara

DoN chatted with artist Ed Bronstein whose “Old Dog” painting is featured on Twenty-Two Gallery’s art card for “To A Good Home: Animal Art“, a group show to benefit Main Line Animal Rescue.  Ed mentioned a plein air competition for next Spring.  Ed is a painter and DoN had been painting with Paul DuSold in Laurel Hill Cemetery that day, so our painterly eyes are most comfortable with the softer edges –  we both commented on the incredible detail of the photographs; the photo Mike, Del Reo, TX, 2008 by Jen Davis really feels like you’re being stared down by an urban cowboy. 

Thanks to Julia Koprack for introducing DoN around to the art stars, the evening was so exciting – the Yale MFA show is a great sampling of the future of photography and manufactured hyper-realism.  

All photography by DoNBrewerMultimedia Photography

LoVe DoN 

Second Thursday @ Crane Arts Center – The Gray Area

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DoN posted a 30 second video on YouTube of the Super Mario Brothers music which is enchanting and magical; using the score from the video game soundtrack and sound effects from character/avatar interaction with puzzle elements in the game, the music is post-post-post modern.  The video is just part of the Golden Calf exhibit in the fabulously dark installation of paintings, photography and sculpture about decay, destruction, nausea and mysticism.  DoN found the art to be emotionally raw and psychologically dismal with elements of claustrophobia, isolation and estrangement; Hagit Barkai’s “Vomitous” is awesomely powerful, the paintings are Bacon-like in their facility, the subject charged with feelings of fear, powerlessness and despair, the paint application is expert.  The artists of Golden Calf are establishing New Philadelphia as the art center of the region, unafraid to tackle the more difficult apects of modern life.Brian Billingsley’s “Homage to Me” video and “Untitled (Saturn Devours His Son)” oil on canvas in the Golden Calf Show at Crane Art Center.

Brian Billingsley’s “Homage to Me” video and “Untitled (Saturn Devours His Son)” oil on canvas in the Golden Calf Show at Crane Art Center.

blobs

Weird little blobby things were all over the place.

Super Mario

Super Mario Music!!! 

Susan Abrams @ The Enclaves Gallery (short video clip)

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Susan Abrams exhibit @ The Enclaves Gallery featuring Shoshana.

Susan Abrams makes her own paper, applies emulsion and exposes them to light in her darkroom; working with negatives she captures a wash-like effect, distorting reality, repurposing each line and shadow. Abrams is a teacher in her former life and watching her interact with the kids, explaining her process in simple terms, was a very enjoyable experience.  The Enclaves Gallery looks just beautiful with Susan Abrams’ work energizing the space with nature, science and impeccable presentation.   

Susan Abrams @ The Enclaves Gallery Susan Abrams (left) @ The Enclaves GallerySusan Abrams (left) @ The Enclaves Gallery.

 

During Susan Abrams reception, DoN met Stephanie Yuhas of Project 21, a collaborative project bringing together film makers, artists, designers, actors…to create teams and make a movie in 21 days, followed by a film festival.  Stephanie and DoN dished about local viral video star, Nora the Piano Playing Cat and Angry Video Game Nerd.  This is a geat opportunity for the New Media community to get to know each other better, the way the Philadelphia Sketch Club, the Plastic Club, PANMA and DaVinci Art Alliance bring together creative people. Maybe Comcast will put some videos on all those blank “public access channels”?  Or on that faboo screen in the lobby? 

Second Thursday @ Crane Arts Center – Nexus Summer Community Arts

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Second Thursday evening’s @ Crane Arts is very cool; from the very end of The Avenue of the Arts across town via Passyunk Ave, Sho & DoN drove North to Fishtown.  Nexus Summer Community Art Series presents Remembering the Past, Embracing the Future; this unique exhibit features an artistic collaboration between Rwandese children from Rugerero Survivors Village, Rwandese hand-crafter, Patrick Sentama, and Jefferson Medical students, Komal Soin, Karen Connolly, Jennifer Heckman, and Dana Johns.Rawanda

Combining photographs, handicrafts and children’s art, the exhibition offers a glimpse into another world that is sadly beautiful.  The drawings by kids aged 5 – 13 displayed with photos of the conditions the kids live in is really bold, so much narrative with so few words.  DoN likes seeing photos and paintings, crayon and camera, hanging together, it creates temporal distortions, photos are fast/crayon drawings are slow; Nexus is so cool to host this frank, easy-going, accessible show filled with deep cultural resonances.

Landscape paintings of Rawanda

Landscape paintings of Rwanda @ Nexus Gallery