DoNArTNeWs

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.

Deanna McLaughlin & Jack Larimore @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall, Philadelphia.

Juror, Jack Larimore told DoN he’s a furniture maker first, it’s sculptural yet it’s furniture.  Larimore liked seeing work by Philly region artists he had not seen before especially with an open ended concept like Dysfunctional Furniture - become part of the furniture, the piece above doubles as a font.  Even things we perceive as being dysfunctional may have a function we are unaware of, a great metaphor for life.

Artist Deanna McLaughlin carried a matching mini shopping cart hand-bag to match her lounge chair made from a re-cycled shopping card and thrift store leather belts, the social implications of weaving our own furniture and learning from the homeless is palpable.

Holly E. Smith, Deceased Vole Coffee Table, wood, chair parts @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.  Smith told DoN the sculpture started with the tail and gradually became an assemblage of objects, eventually an homage to dead voles.  Artist Ted Warchal commented on how the legs of the sculpture are appropriately sized, larger in the rear, smaller in the front.

Hannah Fink @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall, Philadelphia.

Michelle Post @ Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.  Post uses salt & pepper shakers, some quite collectible, like sequins on her altar-like tissue box, a bizarre bedazzling of function, craft and stream of consciousness.

Lauren Frazer, Beauty is Only a Promise of Happiness, fabric, stuffing, plywood, synthetic human hair.  “Furniture plays an important role creating theatrical context for my sculptures”.  Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.

Herbert Simon, Chair Forward, welded steel, found objects. Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall

Kay Healy, Stuffed, screen-printed fabric.  Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.

Burnell Yow! The Puzzling Love Life of the Superhero, mixed media.  Yow!s mirror reflects the puzzle of what we see in the mirror and the quest to get all the pieces of life fit together, even if it’s just because they touch without matching.  Dysfunctional Furniture @ Art in City Hall.

Juror Albert LeCoff said Dysfunctional Furniture re-emphasizes what a strong region Philadelphia is for sculpture with an innovative use of material, one of the real surprises was Kay Healy’s fabric sculptures and the use of materials.

Art in City Hall is a great civic program with a new art space in Philadelphia City Hall of the 1st Floor; coordinator of Art in City Hall, Tu Huynh is featured on the web site for The National Arts Program.  Thank you Tu for bringing art to the forefront of the civic consciousness in Philly and national attention to our artists.

Dysfunctional Furniture
December 16 - February 25.
Juried by Jack Larimore and Albert LeCoff and featuring artists: Gretchen Altabef, Carlos Avendano, Michael J. Brolly, Charna Eisner, Hannah Fink, Laura Frazure, Kay Healy, Lydia Hunn, Tara Inman-Bellofatto, Jack Larimore, Henry Loustau, Deanna McLaughlin, Ife Nii Owoo, Michelle Post, Matthew Alden Price, Leo Razzi, Maria Schneider, Adam Shuman, Herbert Simon, William Skrobut, Holly Smith, Chris Todd, Michael Wiley and Burnell Yow!
Art Gallery at City Hall, Room 116 and
1st and 2nd Floor display cases.

Caroline Biel, Untitled, Latex/silicon/Monofilament @ Fibers and Textiles @ The Plastic Club.

Caroline Biel, Untitled, Wine/ToolDip/Thread.

Caitria Gunter, Untitled, thread/cotton.

Fibers and Textiles @ The Plastic Club on Camac Street.  The main floor and the studio gallery have an amazing selection of fiber art which is so creative with trippy felting, witty quilts, OCD handiwork, lush textures and a freedom of design which is deeply satisfying.

Kate Graves, Camels and Elephants, cotton & silk @ Fibers and Textiles @ The Plastic Club.  Kate Graves’ quilt is like being with Grandma reading little Donnie Arabian Nights, the cold Winter wind blowing outside, inside cuddled under the colorful crazy quilt with marching rows of exotic desert animals.

The Fiber and Textile Show @ The Plastic Club has an amazing sixty-six art works which are sure to bend your mind and stir the imagination.  Through November 28th, 2010.

Photos by DoN.

Lauren Sweeney edited her display of art for the Philadelphia Open Studio Tour so visitors could get a good grasp of her style.  Lauren is a member artist of Gallery Twenty-Two and has established herself as one of Philly’s finest watercolorists, her prints and giclee’s are high quality and affordable.  Sweeney’s studio was DoN’s first stop on an art crawl through Center City West last weekend; this weekend is POST East of Broad Street.

Twenty-Two Gallery smartly participated in the annual open studio tour allowing art lovers to discover this gem of a gallery on 22nd Street; Derek Jecxz’s large format prints are exquisite.  Jecxz is a new member of the Twenty-Two Gallery.

Derek Jecxz @ Twenty-Two Gallery on the Philadelphia Open Studio Tour West of Broad the first weekend in October - a new show opens tomorrow, 10/08/10, with new work by Karen S. Davies.

Jacque Liu @ Area 919 in Cityspace @ 22nd & Chestnut Streets.  Michael Garden of Area 919 is hosting Liu’s “drawings” made of folded mylar creating enlarged architectural details which meld beautifully into the fabulously ornate interior of the luxurious office space - Jacque Liu’s: An Abstraction of Details is on exhibit through 11/13/10.

Jacque Liu @ Cityspace Area 919.

Moe Brooker @ Sande Webster Gallery @ 2006 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.  Moe Brooker’s bold, big abstractions look fantastic in the large main gallery space, it was a nice respite to sit in the quiet gallery and take in the stunning array of masterworks before setting out to see more studios. Charles Kalick is in the salon gallery.

Of course, DoN Brewer had to stop by Bonte’s Cafe @ 17th & Sansom Streets to check out his own one-person show of photographs called Dark Matter - a Photographic Society of Philadelphia event through 10/13/2010.  The space offers PSoP members the opportunity to display their own work as long as it fits the 16 x 20″ format, the warm toned walls and intimate space is a perfect accent for the art work.

DoN’s last stop of the day was at #1 on the Center City POST list - Jerry DiFalco and his etching filled studio.  The bright room on the 9th floor is jammed with fabulous etchings for which DiFalco has gained wide-spread notoriety, the quality of his work is timeless and ethereal.

Jerry DiFalco is well known for his liturgical art which graces many places of worship; as the sun set over the Schuylkill River the light poured over the large golden painting in DiFalco’s studio while Jerry and DoN chatted about DiFalco’s true passion - teaching art.  Jerry told DoN he was inspired by his visit to DoN’s place last year - such a great compliment assures DoN will participate in next year’s tour.

Photos by DoN.

Susan Benarcik installed thousands of toothpicks on the walls of the CFEVA Gallery @ 15th & Locust Streets as part of Sculpting Nature, a three person show of CFEVA Career Development Program Fellows .  Benarcik’s wooden installation wraps around a corner paired with hanging tear-drop shaped sculptures made from white wire hangers, some of which were rusted from hanging in a private garden (hmm…do the initials E.T. come to mind?).

Susan Benarcik’s wire sculptures are light and airy yet angsty and filled with emotion casting shadows of doubt in the gallery’s alcove.

Susan Benarcik @ Sculpting Nature.

R. Noel Shaak’s pen, ink & marker drawings are goth & Goethe mash-ups each telling an entire movies worth of narrative like some steam-punk Gorey for 2010.

John Woodin talked about how his vineyard photos are actually Long Island and not some exotic European country.  The large scale photographs have a strange geometry, formal compositions drawn from informal resources like walking through a warm East Coast forest in summer.  DoN knew the photos were Woodin before he knew they were Woodin, that’s style.

The cohesive show is an amalgam of styles each somehow tuned into the concept of nature changed by the gaze of people, Benarcik’s sculptures energize the room, Shaak’s drawings whisper weird secrets and Woodin’s photos traverse space and time.

John Woodin @ Sculpting Nature in the Center for Emerging Visual Artists Gallery through 9/2/2010.

Trina Mansfield, Eiffel Tower, quilted fabric collage @ The Cosmopolitan Club.

Trina Mansfield is a multi-media artist working primarily in fabrics but she also takes the photographs, plots the designs on the computer then pieces together elaborate “quilts”.

Trina Mansfield’s labels for her exhibition @ The Cosmopolitan Club are truly exceptional - hand-written notes in pencil with tiny sketches like getting a nice letter from a friend.

Trina Mansfield @ The Cosmopolitan Club.

DoN LoVeS quilts and fabric art (he watches all those geeky sewing shows on TV), maybe because there’s an emotional link to Grandma’s crazy quilts from childhood.  Mansfield’s quilts are painterly and impressionistic, even though the concept is based on crazy quilts these designs are exceptionally lucid and lush with witty contrasts and meticulous details.

Alden Cole @ Galleria Deptford - Deptford Municipal Building, 1011 Cooper Street, Woodbury NJ.

While Alden installed his fantastical display of luminaries he was constantly stopped by the flow of visitors to the lobby of the Deptford Municipal Building, everyone wants to know what they are or they have a story about one of the components or their grandmother had a lamp just like that.  Cole takes memories, shakes them up in his mind, recombining the pieces into objects with the logic of dreams; people are drawn to the glowing objects, filled with little stories, overflowing with light and love.  And people are drawn towards him to find out how he figures this out and if he wants their grandmothers old lamps or why didn’t they think of that?  Alden has a story for each luminary and a moment for each admirer.

Stars Stairway, in Alden Cole’s gallery/studio in South Philly.

Starlings Under Glass #4, oil on glass, Alden Cole @ The Plastic Club, Red White & Green Show.

Memento Mori #1, marker, Alden Cole @ Conscious World of Art.  Alden is influenced by Nicholas Roerich and Mati Klarwein - Roerich was the first artist to win a Nobel Peace Prize and Klarwein created the famous Santana album cover.  Alden Cole’s art brings people together, his art works the room like a good conversation, creating a buzz, upping the voltage with voodoo god-heads & peaceful warriors.  Alden’s Starlings series taps into a deeply seated symbol pattern recognition with his sprightly characters playing out human emotions and exhibitionism in a playful accessible way.  James Warhola just acquired one of Alden Cole’s pieces at the Da Vinci Art Alliance’s current show.

Starlings #2 & Delicious, shown here @ The Plastic Club, now available @ Dumpster Divers Gallery, 734 South Street.  Don’t worry, be happy.  Alden Cole currently has work available at the Deptford Municipal Building Galleria Deptford (psst…really great prices, big selection), The Plastic Club’s Red, White & Green show, the Da Vinci Art Alliance Under $200, SOTA on Pine Street, Home & Planet in Bethlehem, the Dumpster Divers Gallery on South Street and @ The Conscious World Art of Alden Cole Gallery/Museum.

DoN LoVeS this photo with Alden Cole’s Light Beings and DoN’s “light being (Rick Selvin)” @ Galleria Deptford.

Nancy Barch, Chained Mail, mixed media @ Grow - Off the Wall Gallery.  The use of disposable materials such as the ceiling tile and old slides reek with hidden meaning and memes.  Slides are so anachronistic and ceiling tiles, even though functional at insulation and sound-proofing, are out of style.  Barch’s piece sends obtuse mixed messages stimulating social consciousness neurons to fire in the brain.

 Grow @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Frank’s Bar.

Alisa Fox, Jars, mixed media.

One of the cool things @ Off the Wall is the corner display case where more delicate constructions can be installed.  The team of Jody and Togo extend much effort in branding, soliciting, promoting and selling art from publicity to art cards and posters to installation, the production is always top notch. Off the Wall has hosted hundreds of local aspiring and established artists in their thoughtful exhibitions.

Karl Olsen, Free Compost, mixed media including ingredients from mustard to absinthe.

Grow is on display through August 7th and includes work by 30 artists including members of the Plastic Club, Photographic Society of Philadelphia and other regional arts groups.  Frank’s has been an outpost for many Plastic Club members and recently Anders Hansen hosted a Salon at The Plastic Club to discuss the Grow show.  In branding the show, curator Jody Sweitzer and manager Togo Travalia, put a new spin on the current “green” trend with a focus on recycled materials and ideas.

Karl Olsen used phylo dough, Julia Fisichella’s amazing photoshop collages are inspired, Ed Snyder’s floral photograph exquisitely illuminated the concept with an image pinched from nature, Veronica Schmude’s moody interior photograph is brimming with stolen narrative (Veronica is the guest speaker at this Tuesday’s PSoP lecture series at The Plastic Club).  The Salon was lively: Shoshanna Aron (just back from Israel) pointed out how being “green” is a new concept - that the old paradigm was consumerism, Bob Bohne introduced the topic of the healing power of art and the importance of community outreach, Alan Clawens highlighted how artists resist creating new work for a theme show and try to squeeze old works into new parameters, DoN mentioned bricolage and Burnell Yow!s amazing show at Smile.  The group sipped wine and chatted until sunset and the party moved to Frank’s.  The discussion helped DoN realize that thinking outside the box isn’t always the best approach - sometimes all you need is the box.

Armond Scavo, the well-known and respected Philadelphia photographer, is a fine artist and business person traveling up to 40 weeks a year promoting his work. Scavo’s collection of Philadelphia landscapes and astounding close-ups of gemstone and minerals is his stock in trade, each piece offering a narrative, assured coloration and excellent quality. Proficient in wet dark room as well as digital techniques, Scavo presents exquistely framed images as well as affordably priced matted prints. Armond’s easy demeaner and friendly smile draws people to his display often resulting in sales and commisssions. Scavo turned DoN onto the book,”I’d Rather Be In The Studio” by Alyson B. Stanfield which is a complete guide to promoting one’s self as a professional artist and he is just that - professional. Armond Scavo’s website Earthlight Images (designed by Burnell Yow! of Ravenswing Studio) is a treasure trove of inspiring ideas; he even has self-published a book of photo’s of Philly’s famous Rittenhouse Square called “Through an Artist’s Eye - Philadelphia“. Thanks to Armond for providing show tickets for Shoshana, Alden and DoN; each of us left the Convention Center exhausted and inspired by the wide range of highly desirable objects.

Dragon Lady, Wendy Ellertson of Boston, MA. creates mixed media sculptures of dragons; DoN and Wendy chatted about all the famous dragons she incorporates into her works - she even knew about The Dragon Riders of Pern! Dragons may be mythical but Ellertson visualizes each one with a depth of knowledge and technical virtuosity emphasizing why so many of us still believe in the magic and dream of a strong, loyal and fierce companion to serve and protect.

Matti Laaninen of Hudson River Inlay creates beautiful furniture and functional objects of rare woods, mother of pearl and unusual materials. Recreating natural shapes of leaves, twigs, insects and flowers in intricate patterns and fascinating designs, DoN found he was envious of Matti’s skill and style - who doesn’t wish they could produce beautiful furniture and art that everyone desires?

mar·que·try n. Material, such as ivory or wood, inlaid piece by piece into a wood surface, in an intricate design, and veneered to another surface - especially furniture or flooring - for decoration.

Cheryl Olney of Louise’s Daughter - the colorful mixed media art is outshone only by Cheryl’s smile. Quirky, fun, funky and exuberant, Louise’s Daughter offers a perfect mix of art and design.

Ileana Andruchovici of Bala Cynwyd’s creater of Olympia Creations - Digital Couture, developing her own fabric designs combining, photography, illustration and unique printing techniques on silk and fine fabrics. When DoN walked past her booth, Ileana remembered him from last year’s show at the Armory and invited him in to see her latest creations - dresses, pant suits, tops and even neckties, each one lovingly designed, constructed and produced to provide the wearer with an indivual identity. Beautiful!

The Convention Center venue was a definite plus for the artists but the parking situation for patrons is a sham! Some garages charge $25 or more for two hours, we found a spot on the street but the meter ate quarters like potato chips, ignoring half of the money we fed it preventing our group from spending more than 90 minutes to see the hundreds of artists in Paradise City. Philadelphia should be embarressed by the Parking Authority and the Mafia-like shake down of visitors to our town.