DoNArTNeWs

Since DoN’s last post he stopped by the Philadelphia Sketch Club to meet with executive director Barbara Murray who manages the constant whirl of activity at America’s oldest art club and catch up.  Barbara was on the phone so DoN went upstairs to preview the Art of the Flower show and Professor Rich Harrington of Moore College of Art and Design was organizing the extensive catalog and labeling system required to mount a major exhibition.  Rich was multitasking to such an extent that DoN was flabbergasted, during the take-in of art there was a numbering glitch requiring the team of volunteers to justify the entries by removing and replacing dozens of art works, he had recall of virtually every entry and where the piece was in the room, 100s of different images!  DoN can recognize some artists’ styles & work by sight but Harrington knew all the artists and he’s also going through finals at Moore with students bombarding him with presentations.  The catalog that results from all the hard work is a a collectible, many artists save in their files - to be juried into the prestigious art show is exciting, having a beautiful, informative memento is like a confirmation of acceptance in the art world.

Philadelphia Sketch Club, Art of the Flower 2011 - the reception & awards is March 6th, 2 - 4:00 PM.

DoN popped into the Plastic Club to preview the gigantic Small Worlds exhibit and his own mini-exhibition, part of a group show including Diane Podolsky, Burton Greenspan, Mervyn Kline & Cara Kendric in the Downstairs Gallery, and found all the numbering and information sheets completed and ready for the show.  The Plastic Club uses a numbering system instead of labels which is less cumbersome, the Plastic Club allows all member artists to include their work in most shows and the Philadelphia Sketch Club usually shows a selection from a mass of entries, the tradition of a name tag is expected.  Either way, there’s someone at a computer organizing Excel spreadsheets or Word docs or Photoshop files to create the information design of art show memorabilia and advertising.  It takes a village and organizing volunteers is a job unto itself, join in, helping is fun.

The Plastic Club, Small Worlds exhibition of art.

Gallery sitting can be a drag, Saturday DoN invited friends to visit the Da Vinci Art Alliance Gallery to talk about Search Engine Optimization for Artists which easily made two hours pass in a flash; DoN loved the bemused information overload on the artists faces after the discussion, asking them to think about their brand, what people think of them, how they want to be recognized and then how to make it appear on page one in Google.  Creating an event, inviting friends and designing an experience really helped to bring people into the gallery; opening receptions are expected by the art crawlers, keeping people coming back to the gallery is the challenge.  Thanks to all the volunteers who make the Philly art community thrive and grow.  Visit your local art gallery today, you might make a new friend.

Yeoun Lee @ Diverse Perspective, Da Vinci Art Alliance Gallery, 704 Catharine Street, South Philly.

Today there are receptions at both the Philadelphia Sketch Club and the Plastic Club on Camac Street, the Avenue of the Artists, both are free and open to the public.  The Da Vinci Art Alliance Gallery is open today, too, artist Yeoun Lee will be gallery sitting for the Diverse Perspectives group show even though she’s included in the Art of the Flower show with two gorgeous paintings and the Small World’s show.  Please stop in the historic gallery in South Philly and tell her how much you like her work, Yeoun and Charles are becoming quite the art power couple around town, both volunteered to help install the massive Small Worlds show at the Plastic Club, too.  Art work isn’t just painting after all, it’s real, hard, tedious work designed to make people feel good about themselves and the world around them.  Enjoy!

Roz Bloom @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, Apocalypse Soon 2012.

Carol Wisker, Through My Window, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event at Smile Gallery, Carol won First Prize; the exhibit went on to be shown at Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts in Millville, NJ and the Perkins Center for the Arts in Collingswood, NJ.

Da Vinci Art Alliance -  Seven, a Da Vinci Art Alliance members exhibit went on tour to the Noyes Museum of Art in Hammonton, NJ.

Seven @ Da Vinci Art Alliance - Year in Review 2010.

Seven  @ Da Vinci Art Alliance.

Seven a Da Vinci Art Alliance event @ Noyes Museum of Art, Hammonton NJ.

The Black Light show @ Smile Gallery, a  Da Vinci Art Alliance event - DoNArTNeWs Year in Review 2010

Rachel Citrino, Picturing the Decameron, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event in collaboration with the International Opera Theater @ Smile Gallery.

Alden Cole @ Bartram’s Garden, What’s the Buzz? a Da Vinci Art Alliance event in collaboration with Bartram’s Garden Art Gallery in the oldest barn in Philadelphia. DoNArTNeWs - Year in Review 2010

DoN Brewer, Shared Passion, @ Bartram’s Garden, What’s the Buzz?  A Da Vinci Art Alliance event - DoNArTNeWs Year in Review 2010

Lilliana Didovic @ Bartram’s Garden, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event, What’s the Buzz? - DoNArTNeWs Year in Review 2010.

Ted Warchal @ Bartram’s Garden, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event - DoNArTNeWs Year in Review 2010.

Through My Window, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event @ Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts - DoNArTNeWs Year in Review 2010

Through My Window, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event @ Perkins Center for the Arts - DoNArTNeWs Year in Review 2010.

Karen McDonnell & Anthony Cortosi @ Da Vinci Art Alliance Tis the Season - Karen & Tony are such good friends and great artists, their collaborative spirit spills over into all areas of the Philly art scene, representing what is possible when people work together.

Tis the Season Da Vinci Art Alliance - DoNArTNeWs Year in Review 2010.

Thank you so much to the Da Vinci Art Alliance for offering innovative, inspirational opportunities to create art, meet fellow artists, and stretch the imagination.  Being a part of the board of directors is an honor, DoN edits the Vitruvian newsletter, the talent and determination of the team is strong.  Thank you to Dr. Debra Miller, President, Lucrezia Minniti, Recording Secretary, Lilliana Didovic, Treasurer, Alden Cole, Sharri Jerue, Ona Kalstein and Ted Warchal, being included in decision-making of such an august and revered alliance is a lifetime achievement.

Happy New Year

LoVe

DoN

Toni Nash, Leaning Tower of Brass @ Dumpster Divers Art Gallery on South Street.

Toni Nash, Hand of Time @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

Toni Nash explained to DoN that her found object construction expresses the concept that people always look to their hands to acknowledge the passage of time.   Nash uses hand imagery in her work, “…because what can you do without hands?  A baby see it’s own hand, I see stuff and it talks to me, then I interpret what it says.”

Toni Nash, Last Sunset of the Millenium @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

Nash was intrigued with the last sunset of the 20th century but not the first sunrise, she became involved in an art project involving Legg Eggs and transforming the Titanic ship to look like a rocket and forgot to watch the sun come up on the new millennium.  It’s fun chatting with Toni in the eclectic gallery on South Street with the collection of art made from recycled materials surrounding us and hipsters wandering in off the street to check out the unusual art, Nash hosted a long running talk show in the Philly region and has zillions of stories to tell about meeting stars.  The gallery is decorated for the holidays with some wack-a-zoid toy assemblages which are enthralling kids on South Street, stop in and meet the artist, she’s really cool.

Deja Vu - 6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery in Dirty Frank’s.   DoN is honored to be represented in this show, the requirements were stringent and the jury big league. the opening party is Thursday, December 2th, 2010, 7 - 9:00 PM.

DoN Brewer, I Was Here, digital photograph, inkjet print @ Deja Vu - 6th Annual Juried Competition @ Off the Wall Gallery.

William Parker, Caribbean Dream, colored pencil.  William Parker, a Philadelphia artist, is included in the 15th Annual Art Ability International Art Exhibition and Sale of art and fine crafts by people with disabilities in the Bryn Mawr Rehab Center, his portrait of a pretty girl with flowers sprouting from her head is pure exuberant joy.  Using a mouth-stick, the ebullient Parker explained to DoN that depending on the subject a drawing such as a face may take two weeks to draw, a simpler drawing only a few hours; the smooth contoured shapes describing the head are sinuous and silky, the color saturated into the paper’s surface with Dada-ist comparisons between lips and roses in subtle tones.  Parker said this is a new beginning for him, he did an abstract and thought, “this is really nice!”

Sheryl Yeager, Pittsburgh PA, Happy As A Rose, pastel @ Art Ability in Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.  Sheryl is planning a series of greeting cards for her popular animal pastels; the originals are popular, too.  Sheryl originally got into art as therapy but now is presenting mature inspired works that touch your inner animal spirit.  Yeager’s primitivist style dials right into the art collector psyche with signified shapes, rich layered color and impeccable presentation, a real self advocate, Sheryl promotes her art by participating in art show across western Pennsylvania.

Sheryl Yeager, Giraffe, pastel, 3rd Prize winner for Works on Paper, the Marjorie M. Schwartz Memorial Award.

Arnie Segal, Hippopotamus in a Pink Tutu, sculpture @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.

DoN Brewer, light being (Walt), digital photograph @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.

DoN had the opportunity to talk with Art Ability Committee member Doris Gordon’s role in putting on the massive art show which had thousands of entries and is showing over 500 works this year?  Originally the committee’s goal was to collect art for a permanent collection, and there is a superb selection, but after a few years the concept of an international juried art show by artists with disabilities was conceived and is now, after 15 years, the focus of the group.  Doris told DoN that the committee works so well together it took only 3 major meetings to delegate this year’s duty’s from the take-in to the jurying to the hanging to the most excellent, informative catalog.

Daniel Neufeld with his paintings in the Art Ability annual art exhibition at Bryn Mawr Rehab Center.  The Patron’s Preview Party was really fun with artists mingling with patrons, supporters and enthusiasts over wine, tasty appetizer stations, roving waiters with hors d’oeuvres, light dinner and yummy dessserts; the attentive sales staff promoting the art guided patron’s through the maze of halls lined with one fantastic piece after another.

Allison Merriweather, mixed media @ Art Ability’s annual art extravaganza.

Carla Laws, Valid Points, computer graphic.

Cynthia Lyon, Red Hot Ice, oil.  Is this awesome or what?  The trompe l’oeil effect of the super-kawaii painting is pun fun yet artistically on point with it’s Pop Art reference with placement between hospital charts and everyday objects.

Al Walton, The Fix, woodcut print.  First Prize for Works on Paper, In Memory of Jacqueline Van Handel.

Kurt Weston, Stained Glass Cathedral Woods, photograph.  Weston is from Huntington Beach California.

Gregory Gans, The Near Shore, photograph @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.  Gregory Gans’ creates deeply emotive works with photography and post production, his narrative style is like leaves drifting on the water sweeping the viewer into a mystical vista.

d’Elaine Johnson & Robert Davis Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.

Victor Mordasov, Italian Girl, oil.

Beth Livingston, The Fourth of July, mixed media.  DoN spotted this awesome piece right away during the drop off of work, the distinctive red stripes vibrating all the way across the room.  Every inch of the mixed media piece is packed with information, the spools weaving a panoply of rich color, the corrugated material suggesting waves, the sparkling embroidery of melting stars as poignant as the National Anthem.

Kathryn Pannepacker, mixed media @ Art Ability 2010 @ Bryn Mawr Rehab Center in Paoli, PA.  Kathryn Pannepacker is included in the permanent collection of Bryn Mawr Rehab but she too has evolved beyond the original kernel idea into a true art star, creating murals throughout the city preserving textile patterns of the world, a woven mural on Ludlow Street, the handmade by the homeless weaving project on South Street and so many more philanthropic, selfless exercises in beauty and kindness that she truly epitomizes the spirit of this show, that art heals the body, mind and soul.

 Photos by DoN.

Rachel Citrino - Philadelphia Open Studio Tours 2010.  DoN called Karen McDonnell, the Queen of Hip-Hop Graffiti, to ask where she recommended to start on the last day of the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, 2010, West of Broad and she immediately replied, “Rachel Citrino!”  lola & DoN drove out Girard Ave,. past Frankfort Ave. to the east end where Rachel has a studio in a beautiful old Philadelphia row-house.  The long, narrow interior is filled with Rachel’s mono-prints, paintings, photographs and prints, her brazen color and appealing compositions look great on her pumpkin colored walls; chatting at Rachel’s kitchen island about her process and projects is a memorable highlight from an art saturated weekend.

Rachel Citrino’s studio in Fishtown, a short walk from Girard Ave., is filled with bright color wall-to-wall.

Piety Choi @ Highwire Gallery

Kensington was our next art stop, a short drive up Frankord Ave, to a cool cluster of galleries and studios on a warm afternoon.  Highwire Gallery is showing a group show called Exploring Invisible Piety Choi, Maria DiMauro, & Karen Steenwhich,  a totally entrancing collection of enigmatic paintings, Choi’s recognizable style is so calm and thoughtful, her multiples are dreamy, the symbolism drawing DoN into her creative world with ease.

Piety Choi, Encountering Beauty @ Highwire Gallery in Kensington.

David Stanley Aponte @ BYOPrint.

According to co-founder Lauren Fischer, Aponte is a master print-making guru with a wealth of knowledge to contribute to this unique operation - a community print-making shop you can rent by the hour or the day, be a full-time member or just hang out when you’re in the mood.  The BYOPrint team will help you realize your dream of an intaglio, woodcut, silkscreen, monotype, collograph and more; Lauren told DoN, “We’re about making prints happen.”  The space in a loft overlooking a motorcycle repair shop is cool bonus.

Lauren Fischer’s workspace @ BYOPrints in Kensington.

BYOPrints, the DIY all-purpose print shop in Kensington participated in this year’s Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Extra Extra bookshop & gallery showcased A Diamond is Forever - Alexandr Skarlinski, Daniel G Baird, Dave Murray, Jordan Tate & Michelle Ceja - above in the corner is 85% of All the Art I Made Turned into A Diamond by Dave Murray, a glamorously spare presentation of an en-cased diamond with a story. “Extra Extra is an artist-run space dedicated to the exposure of under-represented artists challenging the limits of the visual and performing arts.”  The multi-media and light art is enthralling, this space is one to re-visit and be rejuvenated.

Abbey Lee Sarver @ Extra Extra bookshop & gallery in Kensington - her website is groovy, too.  Sarver’s mixed media pieces in the loft bookshop is awesomely engrossing, playing mind games with generic archetypes transmuted into futuristic artifacts.  The bookshop sells handmade and special edition books, curator Derek French told lola & DoN that the artist collective, a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, set up shop in Philly instead of their hometown Baltimore because it’s not as combative here.

Part Time Studios in Kensington featuring recent work by in-house studio artists.  The cluster of art spaces in Kensington allows young artists to work at their art by teaming together and re-imagining the old world work spaces into new millennium intellectual outposts in Philly’s north-east.

Stopping for coffee at Rocket Cat Cafe across from the Warlocks Motorcycle Club made a cool continuum of the art smart vibe we’d been experiencing all day, sitting and watching hipsters pet their beards is a fun past-time, too.

Our final stop of the day was the Studios at 2424 East York, where we met two fine artists that the fine people at POST had arranged to display their art in the halls of the terrific arts building anchored by the uber-cool Skybox Gallery,  Ellen Abraham and Marge Feldman took full advantage of the long hall showing a large collection of paintings; Ellen Abraham’s style is cartoon expressionistic and Marge Feldman’s God’s-eye view paintings are other-worldly yet familiar.  As it turns out Abraham is a fellow member of Da Vinci Art Alliance, DoN encouraged her to enter the upcoming Decameron show.  It’s so great that POST helped artists to find great new spaces to make them part of the famous art crawl, if only there was more time (and energy) to explore all the hidden art treasures to be found throughout all of Philly’s neighborhoods.

Ellen Abraham @ Studios @ 2424 York Street during the annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Marge Feldman @ Studios @ 2424 York Street during the annual Philadelphia Open Studio Tour.

Thank you so much to the Center for Emerging Visual Artists and Philadelphia Open Studio Tours for creating such a wonderful experience design, the catalog with maps is a keeper, the posters around town were divine especially when DoN spotted an artist he knows in the picture, the advertising and promotion was probably the best ever by a local arts organization with a terrific web resource, inviting all of the city to come out and support their local artists.

Photos by DoN.

Roz Bloom, Divided by Seven, mixed media and Bobbie Adams, The Seven Signs, ink @ The Noyes Museum of Art in Hammonton, NJ.

Liz Nicklus, The Mick, mixed media.  Liz mixes media & metaphors with this clever assemblage, a memento mori mashed up with meme Micky Mantle, the narrative vibrates with liveness and death.  Nicklus, a Da Vinci board member is an a accomplished muralist and educator, her determination and drive is inspiring.

Seven, a Da Vinci Art Alliance event @ The Noyes Museum of Art in Hammonton, NJ is a wonderful symbiotic relationship between a contemporary art space looking for work to show and a grass roots community art group of the stature of the South Philly art collective known as Da Vinci.  The significance of the number 7 is explored in a myriad of media in the naturally lit large gallery, the opening night party was attended by board members of Stockton College, Noyes Museum Executive Director Michael Cagno, assistant to the director Brittany McPherson, Da Vinci board members and artists with the comfortable setting buzzing with conversation.

Seven, Da Vinci Art Alliance @ Noyes Museum of Art - Rex Sexton, Peter Seidel, Gerald DiFalco.

Alden Cole sandwiched between Carol Wisker’s 3D mixed media sculpture, Yemaya Oqqutte:Goddess of the Seven Seas and Cole’s own epic painting, Burning Men, oil on canvas.

With the success of the Noyes Museum of Art in Hammonton, NJ, Stockton College is planning to expand into a nearby building with enough room for workshops, offices and galleries, Michael Cagno, executive director of Noyes told DoN he hopes to continue the relationship with Da Vinci Art Alliance with future events

Photos by DoN.

Lilliana Didovic, Boat House Row, mixed media with crystals @ The Perkins Center for the Arts presents Through My Window, a Da Vinci Art Alliance Event.  Lilliana is one of the artists who painted the Philly Phanatics which were waving to us from all over the city last summer - Lilliana Didovic & writer Ronnie Norpel’s piece sold at a charity auction for a bundle, Congratulations!

Lilliana’s painting with crystals representing the iconic lights outlining the architecture of the houses glitters in the huge, open gallery at the The Perkins Center for the Arts in Collingswood, NJ.  Didovic’s window on the world finds glamor and glitz among the darkness of the night and the intimidating rushing river; the crystals as LEDs is genius, both forms will send us light far longer than the old incandescent bulbs stretched across the boat houses.  DoN misses the old lights, though, with the hidden narrative of guys climbing high ladders and walking along rooftops to replace light bulbs but the new lights are totally groovy.

Through My Window @ Perkins Center for the Arts.  DoN is honored to have his drawing featured in the catalog for this exciting art venture, the adjunct to the more famous Moorestown art center, is riding the renaissance wave of artistic and cultured lifestyle that is washing down Haddon Avenue with plush restaurants and historic architecture.

Executive Director, Alan Willoughby told DoN that the town has been very supportive offering the building to be renovated into an art space with workshops, galleries and vitality.  As the center goes through it’s first round of renovation, Willoughby sees a positive potential for growth in a small town with a lot of character.  Watch for a review in this week’s Philadelphia Inquirer, Da Vinci Art Alliance board members Dave Foss & Alden Cole were interviewed about their perspective on this unique exhibition.

Perkins Center for the Arts, Collingswood, NJ.

Michael DiPrinzio, mixed media @ Perkins Center for the Arts, Through My Window, A Da Vinci Art Alliance traveling exhibition through November 11th, 2010 with a special event today called Creating the Poem- 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM.  Hurry up, get over there!

Photos by DoN.

DoN posted as donbrewer for almost 10 years on QBN.com, the design social network website formerly known as Newstoday.com.  DoN occasionally posted links in the public forum on QBN to DoNArTNeWs stories that he felt were of interest to not just the Philly art scene but the global art, design & culture community.  donbrewer participated in many Friday Photoshop Battles and two Newstoday Print Exchanges, sharing art with friends around the world and participating in the broad discussion about design and art.

QBN has blocked donbrewer from posting on the website and deleted his contribution to the history of the network.  DoN appeals to QBN to restore his cyber-identity; if you are on QBN and you appreciated links to DoNArTNeWs stories, please let QBN know donbrewer’s posts belong in the public forum.

The photo is a closeup of a David Foss sculpture currently on display at LGTripp Gallery in Old City, Philadelphia.  Censorship sucks.

Photo by DoNBrewerPhotography, 2010.

Bobbie Adams. Annette Alessi, Roz Bloom, DoN Brewer, Pat Burns, Lois Allen Charles, Piety Choi, Rachel Christy, Rachel Citrino, Alden Cole, Francesca Costanzo, Lilliana Didovic, Gerard Di Falco, Judy Engle, Linda Dubin, Laura Guzzo, Louise Herring, Ona Kalstein, Maria J. Keane, Gary Koenitzer, Sandi Neiman, Marlon Majette, Lee Muslin, Liz Nicklus, Arthur Ostroff, Anna Pizzoli, Peter Seidel, Rex Sexton, Francine Strauss, Anna Vosburgh, Ted Warchal, Carol Wisker, Wendelyn Anderson, Karen McDonnell, Anthony Cortosi.

Noyes Museum of Art- Hammonton
5 S. Second St.
Hammonton, NJ 08037
(609)561-8006

The DaVinci Art Alliance: “7″ Deadly Sins

Exhibit Dates: October 1 - November 24, 2010
Opening Reception: October 1: 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Artist Lecture with Marlon Majette: October 6: 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Da Vinci Art Alliance is a non-profit artists’ organization located in South Philadelphia.  The organization was founded in 1931 to serve the needs of professional artists and artisans in the Delaware Valley.  Da Vinci Art Alliance currently has over 150 members and is supported through membership dues, gallery rentals, sales commissions, grants, and donations.  Da Vinci Art Alliance holds exhibitions of members’ and non-members’ artwork as well as special events, workshops, performances, poetry readings, and lectures.

DoN is thrilled about his museum debut with the Seven Deadly Sins exhibit in the Noyes Museum of Art, Hammonton, NJ for some wack-a-doodle time-tripping reasons; DoN has a history with Hammonton, showing in the Noyes is kind of cosmic.  DoN hung out with GadFly, an early radical blogger who stirred local political shit in a way that not many people have the balls to do today even in our social networked world.  GadFly posted blogs that ended up getting him interviewed by the FBI, radio talk show hosts and the town council, who he called nasty names which ultimately ended up being quoted in his obituary, a final insult to his political enemies.  Before the internet GadFly wrote letters to the editor in papers locally and nationally, ranting endlessly about corruption, when he discovered blogging there was no stopping his vitriolic sarcastic wit.  GadFly’s blog was the inspiration for DoNArTNeWs. 

GadFly is now known as Dead Larry, a former life guard, since drowning ironically in a gym pool a few years ago.  DoN adopted, his now geriatric, Lady Doofus, the St. Bernard/Chihuahua mix who lived on Dead Larry’s farm but is now an urbane canine retiree in Marion Anderson Historical Village; Lady Doofus may make a surprise appearance at the art gala in her former home town, along with KaTy the ArT DoG who also enjoyed romps in the Pine Barrens swamps.  GadFly would LoVe that DoN is presenting his art in Hammonton, New Jersey, his home state (DoN was named most artistic, Deptford High School, Class of ‘71), especially the 7 Deadly Sins part - gossip with DoN at the opening party, 10/01/10, to get the real dirt on Dead Larry aka GadFly.

Hammonton, NJ, once a vital town in South Jersey, is recovering from being hit by the Walmart Bomb, the downtown became a bit shabby but now is truly quaint like a Hopper painting, the Noyes Museum Gallery is a revitalizing force - art to the rescue!