DoNArTNeWs

Frances Galante, Overlooking San Miguel, oil at Artists’ House Gallery.

The exhibition at Artists’ House Gallery includes many fine artists and beautiful artworks, check the website or better yet go to the gallery, but when DoN walked in the front door of the well established gallery he was greeted with a group hug from old friends Frances Galante’ and Robert Bohne.  The gallery was packed on October First Friday, so Frances and DoN squeezed through the crowd packed in the hallway to see Clarissa Shanahan Schirmer’s ethereal encaustic compositions, to the quiet back room where we could sit and talk, having not seen each other in ages.  Frances Galante has been showing her atmospheric naturalist paintings at Artists’ House for twenty-one years, “I think they opened in 1990 and I was one of their first artists.  So, they’ve survived, I’ve survived; it’s a good gallery.”

Frances Galante teaches three painting classes per week at Woodmere Art Museum, “I like teaching as part of the routine because I get out of the studio and I learn things from teaching.  I like the energy and to be social and be around people who are enthusiastic about learning.”  After a sabbatical to paint on her own Frances realized she just needed to be with people again, “Share information and get feedback and energy from them.  I’ve branched out a bit, too.  I don’t know if that’s a result of teaching, the influence of some of the students, but my work has gotten more colorful than it used to be.  My colors used to be more muted.  This is something new for me.  It’s not so much about my work but what I see them doing, I pick up things, their interests and the things they’re exploring.  It gives me new ideas.  I teach adults, some of them actually exhibit, some are hobbyists but a lot of them are quite serious and quite good.”

Artists’ House Gallery, Frances Galante

Frances Galante, Musing, oil

Robert Bohne explained to DoN, “Well, I work my job with Amtrak and I do this.”  All DoN could say was, “Wow!?!”  “I work several jobs, more than two actually.”  “Really?”  “Well yeah, I work for Amtrak, I have a Union job which is related to the Amtrak job, I’m the Chairman.  I do a lot of auctions, that’s where I get most of my frames, at auctions.  So I do a lot of buy and sell at auctions and then I do this.”  This being painting modern realist artworks with a contemporary sensibility of descriptive atmospheric naturalism.  DoN asked when he has time to paint?  “There’s time.  I have everything set up in my house, so, when I go home there’s no set up involved, it’s all ready to go and I can paint.  That’s the way to do it, yeah.  It’s a mess, but it works.”  It is messy but worth it.

Artists’ House Gallery, Robert Bohne

Artists’ House Gallery, Robert Bohne, S.S. United States, oil on panel

“The S.S. United States is one of my most recent paintings, I worked on it this past Winter, the day after Christmas and and I set up across the street in the Chick-Fil-A parking lot.  And while I was working on the painting, they were plowing the snow.   The guy came running across the street to see what I was doing and he told me that his mother had came over on that ship.  He knew the entire history of the ship and he told me about the super-structure of the ship being made of aluminum, that’s how they kept the ship very light, it set speed records, it’s a fascinating story.  It’s interesting, the other day I was at an auction and I picked up this little silver-plate coffee pot and on the bottom was, The United States Lines, so, it’s from the ship.  A unique find.”

Artists’ House Gallery, Robert Bohne

Artists’ House Gallery, Robert Bohne, Turning, oil on panel.

Photos by DoN.

Jessica Hoffman: Forever and After @ 110 Church Street Gallery

Dear Mad, I Really Like Your Hair! Love Johnny, hair strands from Jessica Hoffman’s head in glassine envelopes.

Jessica Hoffman: Forever and After @ 110 Church Street Gallery

Slideshow, vials of shavings from photographic slides the artist found.  Hoffman scraped off bits of each slide, saved the scrapings, then presents the slide show with the bits of image removed.  Each vial is labeled with the trip, location and time period the slides were taken.

Jessica Hoffman: Forever and After @ 110 Church Street Gallery

Talent Show, split screen video footage projected on the wall.

DoN saw this show two weeks ago and has thought about it often as he scooted around town seeing art over the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011 festival, leaving little time to report.  But Jessica Hoffman’s show is about memory and the passage of time.  Forever and After incorporates three major narrative elements used in ways that look at the passage of time in abstract even obtuse angles.  “Slideshow is an investigation of memory, using a collection of found slides from the 1960s and 1970s shot throughout Europe and the United States by the same person.  Talent Show is a split screen video piece using footage shot at a school talent show on the left and my own version of the performances on the right.  Dear Mad, I really like your hair today! Love, Johnny is an installation inspired by a box of hundreds of love letters found on the street. - HeavyBubble website”  Each element of the installation recaptures moments in time that are personal, private, secret presenting them in Dada-ist style - should DoN believe that the love letters were found on the street?  Did Jessica really sit and scrape off bits of image from hundreds of slides?  The split screen throw back style to the Woodstock movie era of the video could have been shot over the Summer.  It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, making found objects or finding found objects, then arraying them exquisite corpse style creates a strange narrative as the mind tries to grasp the connections.  At 110 Church Street Gallery, Jessica Hoffman’s installation, Forever and After, combines sweet nostalgia, contemporary oblique strategies and pure, clean, simple presentation to take the viewer on a time trip back from the future.

Read more at Philly.SideArts

Photos by DoN.

Bluestone Fine Art Gallery: Amie Potsic, Danielle Bursk and Gregory Brellochs

DoN had not been to Old City in a long while for a First Friday art crawl, parking and traffic sucks, so, DoN took the bus.  $2.00! with live entertainment included ; ), and a chance to watch the cityscape go by, delivering DoN to the intersection of Market & 3rd Streets right into the hubbub of street artists, musicians and even a puppeteer capitalizing on the monthly crowds of young couples and art lovers.  A short stroll down Third to Vine Street is the new Bluestone Fine Art Gallery, just around the corner from the Painted Bride.  The current show includes work by three artists - Amie Potsic’s photographs, Danielle Bursk’s ink on paper and Gregory Brellochs‘ charcoal and ink drawings.  The artists are using different media but the theme of the wonders of nature run through the show like a stream of consciousness.

Bluestone Fine Art Gallery: Amie Potsic

Amie Potsic, Made in China: Yangtze River, archival pigment print

“My mission is to create a process, an action comes from that, whether it’s experiencing more art or it’s doing something political.  That’s the hope, I mean, so,  you see something like this, you see something in these images and you have a conversation about it, then you see images about that in the news, then you get an e-mail about signing a petition, and then you see a thing about going to a demonstration and you do something!”  Amie Potsic’s scroll-like photographs of trees have a sense of being foreign, the Chinese calligraphy, done by a poet in Taiwan, and the perpendicular typography subtly leads the mind’s eye across the ocean to a distant land.  But these trees are probably shot right here in Philly presenting the bewildering notion that maybe China owns these trees and therefore made them.

“Because it’s a cumulative effect of impressions and influences and with all that, nobody does anything.  Part of the reason I do this work, some of it was done in Rittenhouse Square, the most chic section of Philly, and there was a very graphic demonstration by a Chinese group that follow the Falun Gong religion, which essentially is Buddhism.  But you’re not allowed to practice organized religion in China in that way.  So people were jailed and tortured physically and there was a demonstration in the middle of Rittenhouse Square with patients on gurneys being mock-tortured, it was shocking, I got the materials they were handing out and that made me reference my audience with the Dalai Lama and learning about what happened in Tibet and putting those two things together.  At the same time I was photographing images of trees in this sort of long scroll format and realized they look like Chinese scroll prints, I saw the demonstration and had been thinking of these issues and all these things came together to form this project.”  The metaphors, memes and memories exuding from Potsic’s photographs are like an epic poem which stirs the mind with beauty, mystery, wonder with trepidation for the future and forgotten lessons from the past.

Amie Potsic @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery in Old City, Philadelphia.

Danielle Bursk, Avalon, ink on paper @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery

Danielle Bursk, ink on paper @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery

Danielle Bursk, ink on paper @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery

DoN commented to Danielle Bursk that he noticed her drawings now include a defined horizon.  “The horizon line is the most control you can exert as an artist and I just wanted to try something that was more of a landscape…but the work is also inspired by the ocean.  I grew up in Florida, I spent a lot of time at the beach, I still go to the beach quite a bit, if you just sit and stare at the ocean there’s a lot that goes on.  I don’t like it to be too representational, so if you approach it thinking that way you can see that it also looks like hills or a tidal wave, with all my work I like an open ended-ness where you can bring what you want to it and interpret it how you want.  So, yes, there’s definitely a horizon line, it’s sort of a landscape but not quite.”  DoN also noted that Bursk’s drawings could be considered still life like a close up of fabric or fur, “…even something under a microscope.”  Danielle Bursk explained to DoN how she’s trying new things like working with a square image as opposed to rectilinear and smaller works using oblique strategies to force changes in her work with arbitrary constraints.  Even though the horizon line is consistent across the smaller works in the show, each one is unique and separate from the others.  “In fact, I took each one off the wall before I started the next one because I didn’t want to be influenced by it, I was excited when I looked back because some are really dark, some are a little lighter, some have bigger movements, so they all work very differently.”

Gregory Brellochs @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery

Forest Floor, graphite on paper, Gregory Brellochs @ Bluestone Fine Art Gallery.

Gregory Brellochs is an art professor at Camden County College and is a father of two, “I came on there seven years ago now, they brought me in to teach sculpture and design…and it really gives me the opportunity to shape the program, work with the curriculum, and have direct contact with a lot of the students and we’ve turned it into a much stronger transfer program.”  DoN asked where Brellochs finds time to create his heroically scaled drawings?  “I just got done with these large curving drawings, you saw one at the CFEVA gallery, that was the fourth one that I’ve done and there’s one that I thought I had finished maybe a year ago and then I just had to go back in and basically quadrupled the detail.  The minuteness of the branches and roots, that became the longest drawing that I’ve ever done, the most labor intensive went over four hundred hours of drawing.  Um, but, it’s something I love to do.  And once the kids are in bed, I make a pot of coffee and up to the studio I go to work until I’m too tired.”

DoN asked if the images came out of Gregory’s mind?  “Yeah, I always work from my imagination and it’s really important to me that that’s how I arrive at that image because it’s not meant to be just a facsimile of Nature, a repetition of something that exists but something that really comes out of the mind’s eye.  All as a process of drawing, so that sometimes I don’t start with a composition in mind but a general form language…working with tree root-like structures I kind of allow it to evolve and I find that I am much more in tune with the work when I approach it that way without preliminary sketches or some kind of fixed idea in mind, it allows me to breathe life into the work because it evolves organically.”

The Bluestone Gallery of Fine Art will be open this weekend, October 15th and 16th, as part of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011,  Gregory Brellochs will be hosting.

Photos by DoN

Paige West, Founder and Curator of West Collection of Contemporary Art, Les Stoetzel, Director of West Collection and Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer, City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture & the Creative Economy answer questions about the expanded West Collects Prize after Mayor Michael Nutter’s announcement at Philadelphia City Hall.  West Collects has increased their budget and is dedicating $100,000.00 to collect art from Philadelphia artists to be exhibited in the gallery and halls at Philadelphia City Hall for six months next year.

Video by DoN Brewer

Eileen Eckstein, President of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia sat down with DoNArTNeWs to share some of the exiting events taking place October 2011, the society’s 149th year. The Photographic Society of Philadelphia is the oldest photo society in the USA and the third oldest in the world. The society is presenting a special month long exhibition of Photographic Society of Philadelphia members works on all three floors of The Plastic Club Art Gallery, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia.  Each Sunday in October a photographer reception will be held between 2:00 - 5:00 PM.  The next PSoP member’s meeting is Tuesday, October 18th, 2011, 7:00 PM with guest speaker Harvey Finkle.

Read more about the Photographic Society of Philadelphia at Side Arts.

Video by DoNBrewerMultimedia
Kodak.com

Haus of DoN, Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours is the best value in artist public relations available to artists looking to promote their public image in the Philadelphia region.  In it’s twelfth year, the city wide art event has artists of all stripes opening their studios to the public – no kidding, a public art event of regional scope with many of the town’s top artists welcoming visitors into their think tanks.   The event is imbued with freedom, sharing, transparency, creativity and cooperation along with healthy American spirited competition.  The open-ness of Philadelphia Open Studio Tours is the coolest part; visitors experience environments that normally are private spaces where artists create and folks are not just allowed but encouraged to go behind the scenes. DoN’s claim that POST is the best value from a PR perspective is based on a cost/benefit analysis and target audience response.

POST offered a substantial early entry discount for artists, providing entrants with an artist profile web page with links on their comprehensive web site, listing in the information packed tour book with maps of every corner of the city inhabited by artists, a city and region wide advertising campaign, with banners, posters and art cards strategically supplied to almost 100 locations likely to attract interest to the appropriate demographic as well as special events, venues and workshops for artists whose studio is far off the beaten path.  POST’s goal was to get the right materials into the hands of art tourists likely to use them in a real way.  Every visitor to Haus of DoN held a curled back copy of the glossy catalog with their itinerary planned out to cover the neighborhood they had chosen to explore.  Each participating artist is provided with posters, art cards, catalogs and red balloons to promote their studio; the red balloons are a simple, effective signal to art crawlers that they’re heading in the right direction.

DoN’s decision to pay the $45 entry fee back in early Spring brought many dedicated friends and art enthusiasts to the Haus of DoN, South of South Street, a mostly residential area not near many commercial businesses.  The event pushed DoN to re-organize and display the wide array of interests he explores as part of his multimedia empire.  DoN had to spend no other money to promote the event instead advertising through FaceBook and DoNArTNeWs; no new art card this year, even though post cards are cheap to print and fun to design, mailing is costly and impact difficult to track.  DoN has had art cards returned by the Post Office months after the event was over.   DoN promoted the annual art crawl event on DoNBrewerMultimedia home page, on DoNBrewerMultimedia YouTube channel,  @DoNNieBeat58 on Twitter and Philly.SideArts.com, all free media outlets that directly targeted people interested in arts and culture.

Good advise from Ann Koivunen, director of exhibitions for POST, led DoN to think about what he wanted to present to the public and ponder his goals for the event; DoN decided to put on an art show.  Simply displaying photos, graphics, paintings and drawings in a beautiful, clean, pure way opened an opportunity to engage with visitors about what DoN does, his interests and connections and get his business card into the hands of each visitor.  The result is DoN met and interacted with more than fifty different citizens interested in the arts, including gallery owners, art curators, educators, fellow photographers, new neighbors, old friends and colleagues, he gathered contact information, intercepted  feedback on what people like about his art and experienced an authentic feeling of community for well less than a dollar per head including Candy Corn and Sweetzels  Ginger Snaps. 

Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2011 continues October 15^th & 16^th, 2011 for studios East of Broad Street.

Font Hill Manor, oil on panel, Edward Marston, Infrastructure @ Twenty-Two Gallery

Edward Marston, Infrastructure @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Little Boulder Creek, oil on canvas and Hedgerow, oil on panel by Edward Marston.

Edward Marston, Infrastructure @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Pretty Lady, oil on canvas and Boulder Field, oil on panel.

Edward Marston, Infrastructure @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Home Gone, plexiglass and wood.

Edward Marston, Infrastructure @ Twenty-Two Gallery.

Edward Marston explained to DoN why he was so happy about the painting in the window of Gallery Twenty-Two, “Schuylkill Expressway belongs in the window because it belongs in Philadelphia, it’s local. And it shows the freight trains and the Schuylkill Expressway in twilight and it brings home what I feel about that area. “  DoN asked if Marston was intentionally tapping into the market for Philadelphia art or if it was a more personal painting?  “I’ve been coming to Philadelphia since I was a kid, I grew up in the suburbs but it’s been my main destination as far as urban goes. And I think it’s absolutely a lovely city and fascinating architecture and every time I turn around I see something new.  Almost all of the paintings are plein air or draw first plein air and I use drawings as a reference.  None of them are photographic renderings.” 

DoN inquired how Edward Marston feels about being a landscape painter in the 21^st Century?  “This is what I do.  They’re landscape paintings but they’re not an idyllic trip to the past.  I think a lot about these paintings and they all comment on the contemporary scene, I’m aware of what I’m doing. When I paint something that’s coming apart, it’s something that maybe shouldn’t be coming apart or it’s a comment on a thing that shouldn’t be.  Old roads, that you wouldn’t know was a road; I recognize them as ancient roads and everything resonates as far as I’m concerned, it’s all today.”

Photographs by DoN.

Prelude Gallery uses QR codes to help patrons learn more, Gaby Heit explains how she’s using them to promote artists.  HD Video, watch in full screen mode

DoNBrewerMultimedia Video

Ann Koivunen is the Director of Studio Tours and Exhibitions for Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, one of the top art events of its kind in the USA.  Ann offers great advice on what to do and what not to do to have a successful, fun event.  The clip is nine minutes, so get a cup of coffee and sit a spell, Ann has a wonderful perspective on POST.   DoNBrewerMultimedia is participating in POST 2011, October 1 & 2, 12 - 6:00PM, check the awesome on-line resources for information on neighborhoods and events at the POST website.

Video by DoNBrewerMultimedia

Karen Schechter is a relatively new member of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia but she is enjoying the society debut show at their new permanent showplace, Café Twelve, 212 S 12th St, Philadelphia 19107, in the heart of the Philly’s famous Gayborhood, with great long walls to show art and an inviting casual vibe.  DoN asked Karen how she felt about having a PSoP show? “It’s very nice because it’s the first one I’ve had and I have another one coming up that I’m hanging next week.  One falling on the heels of the other is awesome.”  DoN commented on the style of the collection of photographs in the lounge area of the café, “I work primarily in black and white but do some color, the first half of this show, which isn’t up anymore was more color pieces.  I go from muted color to extremely vibrant.” Karen showed DoN a lovely close-up photograph of a hydrangea flower with its lurid red silkiness and delicate stamen.

Photographic Society of Philadelphia @ Cafe Twelve featuring Karen Schlechter 

“I used to do everything on film and sadly had to get rid of my dark room a couple years ago as I finally made the complete switch-over to digital; it’s sad but it’s convenient.  I can go though things a lot quicker, I can process things a lot quicker.”  Schlechter is working with Photoshop, the dark room experience gave her a grounded background for using the digital tools.  The collection of gear went to a friend’s daughter studying fine art photography.  “It’s so nice to be able to sit in a coffee shop and go through my photos and go from there.”

Karen Schlechter got involved with PSoP because she was previously a member of the Delaware County Camera Club, which had a different focus towards improvement of skills via competition as to the education bent of the Philly Society.  “I was missing the camaraderie and exchanging ideas.  And it was a wonderful gift from my boyfriend.”

Photographic Society of Philadelphia @ Cafe Twelve featuring Karen Schlechter

The Photographic Society of Philadelphia meets Second Tuesdays at Café Twelve; a wide array of photographs by Philadelphia fine art photographers and a solo show by featured photographer Karen Schlechter  is on exhibit with new work being installed every other month.  The evening DoN met Karen was rainy and miserable but sipping coffee and talking about photography with friends is worth wet feet.

Photos taken with DoN’s iPhone.