New images from the Unreal Spaces series

I have just uploaded some new images to my site. The above piece is from the Unreal Spaces series. It is 14" x 17", pencil on paper. The Brown lines are achieved by applying a light weight artisan paper to the ground. Additional new images are here.

Dorothy 6 in Braddock

It's been a few years since I've been to Braddock. A lot has been happening there over the last couple years, with the opening of an artist's studio building and several art events. Bus service from my residence to Braddock is a long, drawn-out process and I am at the mercy of public transportation. However, if you have the wherewithal to attend functions at Dorothy 6, I would highly recommend it.

Dorothy 6 is in a small, concrete block building, topped by the Mayr's residence. Next door is a church that has been converted into a performance space. Both spaces have unique qualities, both are exceptional.

There is a small garden area in front of Dorothy 6. On Friday, the space was filled with people and fire.


The performance venue, next door to Dorothy 6 --
I took this image at the back of Dorothy 6. The silouettes are from the paper cutouts in the installation.
The reason for being at Dorothy 6 on Friday night? Swoon is in Pittsburgh, collaborating with Leslie Stem and Chris Stain on a new installation --
You Can Never Hold Back Spring
April 27 - May 27
Dorothy 6
416 Library St., Braddock
By appointment: 412-951-0622

Images from the installation --



"There are so many spaces that don't really need to be brown," renowned street artist Swoon told the New York Times in 2004. Inspired by sources including German expressionist wood-block prints, her life-sized, realistic and often stunning paper cutouts were wheat-pasted in Manhattan streets and alleys, where their decay furthered the art. Gallery shows in Europe and the U.S. followed, as did write-ups in big art mags.


Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon

Swoon

Thanks to my good friend Jean McClung for the head's up --

7-11 pm SWOON collaboration!!!!!!

Fri., April 27

"There are so many spaces that don't really need to be brown," renowned street artist Swoon told the New York Times in 2004. Inspired by sources including German expressionist wood-block prints, her life-sized, realistic and often stunning paper cutouts were wheat-pasted in Manhattan streets and alleys, where their decay furthered the art. Gallery shows in Europe and the U.S. followed, as did write-ups in big art mags. This week, Swoon is in Pittsburgh, collaborating with Leslie Stem and Chris Stain on a new installation at Dorothy 6 gallery, You Can Never Hold Back Spring. The opening reception is tonight. BO 7-11 p.m. 416 Library St., Braddock. Free.

Hill House Soars

We had made kites over the month of March in preparation for a flight festival. We had something like forty blanks, and somehow that wasn't enough! We were at Kennard and Ammens fields and Arcena, which was the designated flight space for adults.

We met in the Hill House lobby, where Bourbon Street Catering had set up a wonderful array of cookies, cheeses and meats. Seriously good cookies. I particularly liked these little butter cookies with raspberry and almonds. Can you tell that I am completely at the mercy of my stomach?



The weather was sunny and warm. The Frustrationless Flyer kites that we used for the project are good in light wind, which is great because we had gusty, light wind in the afternoon. I tested this kite and it goes up really easily, I was able to launch mine with no assistance. I was at Kennard field and I am in love! It was a great place to fly and I can't wait to go back. Next time, I hope there's enough wind to launch my stunt kite.

Images from Kennard Field --



Here are some of the kites that were made during the Community Gallery Project

Spring @Drink and Draw

Drink and Draw was inspiring last night. Renee was amazing, with this really wonderful costume. See for yourself...
Renee as Spring
Paul LeRoy
Steve Dines

And just as a reminder, don't forget the following VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

News Flash!!
We have scheduled Wednesday dates each month!

Really Big News Flash!
The Mother May I Marathon
May 5, seven hours of drinkin' and drawin'
RSVP to brilloboxdrinkand draw@yahoo.com
Here is a calendar of the upcoming sessions --

4/25/07 Tinsel Garland

5/1/07 Sarah Bauer from Zany Umbrella Circus

5/5/07 THE DRINK AND DRAW MARATHON!!

5/15/07 Christiane D

5/23/07 Olga -- Burlesque

5/29/07 Erin Carey --

drink and draw
brillobox
4104 penn ave
412.621.4900

Two additional images from Steve Dines!

Persad

Okay, so I think every one should know about these things. So heads up, people.
Time to get behind the cause ...

The Women's Law Project and Persad Center present…

An Evening with Evan Wolfson

Thursday, April 19

Kelly-Strayhorn Theater

5941 Penn Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15206

6:30 pm Wine & Hors d'oeuvres Reception

7:00 pm Presentation and Q&A

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Evan Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry and Founder of Freedom to Marry, returns to Pittsburgh for this very special event. CLE credit available

For more information, or to RSVP, call The Women's Law Project at 412-227-0301 or via email at treynolds@womenslawproject.org

UPMC presents CELEBRATE LIFE, CELEBRATE ART

An Auction to Benefit Persad Center

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

The Patron Party

Friday, April 20^th - Society for Contemporary Craft, 7 - 10 p.m.

Enjoy a cocktail reception featuring Barefoot Wine, dinner by Kazansky's Catering, and a preview of selected artwork with an award ceremony for prize winning artists.

The Auction

Monday, May 14^th - Carnegie Museum of Art

5:30 for Patron Ticket Holders & 6:00 p.m. for General Admission

Featuring live music by the Renaissance City Women's Choir and Ben Opie, delicious food from over 15 area restaurants.

Celebrate Life, Celebrate Art, formerly known as Art for AIDS/Art for Change, is an annual art auction that benefits Persad Center. Over the past 18 years, the Celebrate Life, Celebrate Art benefit auction has generated over $2.7 million for Persad. Featuring a silent and verbal auction with original artwork from over 175 international, national, and regional artists. All proceeds support Persad's unique counseling, wellness, education, and research programs. Special thanks to 2007 sponsors: UPMC, National City Bank, The Giant Eagle Foundation, Ernst & Young, Mellon, Grubb & Ellis, The Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation, Mullen, The William T. Hillman Foundation, Red Bull North America, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Barefoot Wine, Comcast, Fried & Davis, LLC, Images, Pgh City Paper, and WYEP.

Additional information can be found at Persad Center's website

Graffitiburgh

Graffiti shot at Heppenstall, a defunct steel mill located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh

I was flipping through the Post Gazette and ran across this article about a tagger that was arrested and fined for his graffiti at $560,764.50 in property damages. Two points in the article are very interesting. Daniel Montano has a home here and in San Francisco. The other? To quote --

Only 50 percent of graffiti is reported in Pittsburgh. For years, the city was considered a blank slate for many in U.S. graffiti community. Enforcement was considered weak and the abundance of vacant warehouses and cramped hidden alleyways -- many of them in the Strip District -- offered a canvas for many miscreants wielding a spray can.

The Heppenstall complex and the Armstrong Cork buildings are both within walking distance of my home. I have visited both on several occasions. The Armstrong Cork building has been renovated and is now a loft and business complex. It has been getting more and more difficult to get into the Heppenstall complex. Recently, I noticed bulldozers on the site and there has been talk about turning the five or six block strip into a mixed usage complex. Both sites have been well-documented from deterioration to the proliferatrion of graffiti.

There is a huge divide of perception of grafitti, even among those that follow and create it. Most taggers seem to find havens, like these abandoned buildings, to express their creative energy. Some use whatever blank wall is available. I am of the former philosophy, believing that there are enough abandoned buildings to provide blank canvases that taggers can utilize without intruding on vital and operating properties.

Hill House Soars

We have been making kites over the month of March in preparation for a flight festival. Sites have been chosen for the day. We'll have kites available for decoration at the sites, so even if you don't already have one, you can pick one up there. Part of the project was conducted with the Community Gallery project although there were additional workshops for kids and adults.

We'll be meeting in the Hill House lobby, where you can pick up kites, snacks and a map to the sites.

I'll bet you're wondering when and where this extravaganza will take place ...

The Hill House Association lobby
1835 Centre Ave
April 21st,
Check in between 11:30am and 12:30pm

The weather forecast is good; sunny and 52, wind at 8mph. I tested this kite and it goes up really easily, I was able to launch mine with no assistance. But hey, if you have your own kite, bring that too!

The accident

John Prine's The Accident has been running through my head all day today. Especially the last verse...

Pamela hit her head on the mirror
Mrs Wlaker got a bump on the knee
the man hit himself
in the face and said
"Why does this happen to me?"
the neighbors came out
and they gathered about
saying "Hey! who hit who anyway?"
and the police arrived
at a quarter to five
and pronounced all the victims "Okay"

My feet went out from under me and I banged my head on the sidewalk, knocked the breath right out of me. I'll be sporting a lovely egg on my noggin tomorrow night for the opening at Digging Pitt.

Time flies

Can it be thirty years?

I am a boomeranger. I grew up in Pittsburgh, left after college and lived on the west coast for nearly two decades. There are quite a few of us in Pittsburgh, and more are returning all the time.

I read an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette yesterday about the Mattress Factory turning thirty. It's hard to believe that it's been thirty years. In 1977, I was eighteen. I had been out of high school for nearly a year. I was working as a sales clerk in McCrory's 5&10 on Fifth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. On April 1st, I received my acceptance letter to Carnegie Mellon University. I don't think that I would remember the date except that my dad pulled a really heinous April Fool's joke on me.

At the time, I was taking studio classes in weaving at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild. I had purchased my own loom and was starting to exhibit my work. Mostly with the help of my mentor, Lynne Raphael. Pittsburgh had put together Rennaissance II, an initiative to revitalize the lower Northside neighborhoods of Manchester and the Mexican War Streets. Through this initiative, condemned and abandoned properties could be purchased for a nominal fee and government subsidized loans were issued to bring the properties up to code.

A boon for area artists.

Many, including Barbara Luderowski, purchased properties in the Mexican War Streets. I remember the Mattress Factory. It was an old warehouse with long, open floors. There was a communal kitchen on the first floor and a freight elevator that took you to the upper floors. The Mattress Factory, at that time and through my college years, was a residence for artists.

I came back to visit my parents several times while I was living on the west coast. I didn't always take the time to visit my old haunts and it wasn't until my niece was in high school that I went back to visit the Mattress Factory. She had gone to visit an exhibit with a school tour and was very excited by what she has seen. I was speechless. There was a real elevator. No more kitchen on the first floor. An all of those changes took place in a little more than ten years.

Now the Mattress Factory is a major institution, exhibiting high-caliber work. They have expanded their physical space with an addition to the original building and by purchasing an additional building in the neighborhood. All from such humble beginnings.

Congratulations.

Too busy

So, there it is. This is a well thought-out article and an interesting social experiment. Unfortunately for me, the vid player that the Washington Post used crashed my browser, so I was unable to watch the clips. Gene Weingarten, who wrote the article, gave a very full sense of the environment and the music. I wish I could hear and see the clips, though.

Not enough time for beauty, not enough time for living instead of working. That's really sad.

Mixed review for a mixed exhibit

Kurt Shaw's review of In Full Bloom in the Trib. Refreshers are here and here.

Community Gallery project in the Hill District

We had the reception for the Community Gallery project on March 31. The projects were on display in the lobby. It was a lovely afternoon, with children and artists popping in and out. Terri Baltimore was there, along with Lissa Rosenthal from Pittsburgh Celebrates. The post from the kick off is here.

Kites from the project with Deanna Mance. For all of you kite enthusiasts out there, join us for the Soars event on April 21. I'll be making an announcement about this soon, but...
April 21
Hill House Association
1835 Centre Ave

Check in: 11:30am - 12:30pm
pick up kites and maps to the flight sites. Refreshments provided

We have three sites in the Hill district that we have designated as flight zones. And if you don't already have a kite, we will have some available for you at the Hill House.
These are from the assemblage project that Christine Bethea did with the students.
Some of the visitors enjoying the display.
A very crowded lobby! Everybody loves those giant puppets

Vanessa German @ Drink and Draw

The lovely Vanessa German posed for the drawers at brillobox on April 3, murmuring poems and lounging in a beautiful dress on crushed red elvet.
You might have missed this one, but there's always something else coming up. Check in for updates.






free snacks & coffee
three dollar well drinks and microbrews


News Flash!!
We have scheduled Wednesday dates each month!

Really Big News Flash!
The Mother May I Marathon
May 5, seven hours of drinkin' and drawin'
RSVP to brilloboxdrinkand draw@yahoo.com
Here is a calendar of the upcoming sessions --
4/17/07 Renee Ickes

4/25/07 Tinsel Garland

5/1/07 Sarah Bauer from Zany Umbrella Circus

5/5/07 THE DRINK AND DRAW MARATHON!!

5/15/07 Christiane D

5/23/07 Olga -- Burlesque

5/29/07 Erin Carey --

drink and draw
brillobox
4104 penn ave
412.621.4900

77 million paintings

Via Heart as Arena, via Edward Winkleman -- Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings.

QUESTY QUEST

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild is an arts organization whose purpose is almost solely educational. And especially for youth. They have a beautiful facility in Manchester on Pittsburgh's Northside. They have been producing student arts programs for well over thirty years. I went to classes there when I was in high school. I can't begin to express my gratitude to this organization or to the instructor that mentored and encouraged me to pursue the arts.

The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild exhibits student work in a small gallery off the lobby of a building on Penn Avenue in downtown. This past Friday, the Guild opened Questy Quest, a combination of performance and static arts where passersby were encouraged to kill the beast with sporks. It was wonderfully riotous.

The detritus from the destruction, as well as the video, are on display through April 15.

QUESTY QUEST The Questiest Quest Ever Requested
A Mentors & Makers Exhibition at 800 Penn Avenue
March 23 - April 15

brillobox Drink and Draw April 3!

Drink and Draw
is an open studio live model drawing session that meets every other Tuesday on the second floor of brillobox, located at 4104 penn ave, pittsburgh, pa. This session is relaxed, suprising, and inspiring. amazing models dressed in various themes, old timey music, great company, and decor. All mediums, except oils, welcome.

free snacks & coffee
three dollar well drinks and microbrews

The next session --

4/3/07
Vanessa German

6-9PM
$10
Drink specials!
Door pizes!

News Flash!!
We have scheduled Wednesday dates each month!

Really Big News Flash!
The Mother May I Marathon
May 5, seven hours of drinkin' and drawin'
RSVP to brilloboxdrinkand draw@yahoo.com

Here is a calendar of the upcoming sessions --
4/17/07 Renee Ickes
4/25/07 Tinsel Garland
5/1/07 Sarah Bauer from Zany Umbrella Circus
5/5/07 THE DRINK AND DRAW MARATHON!!
5/15/07 Christiane D
5/23/07 Olga -- Burlesque

5/29/07 Erin Carey --
drink and draw
brillobox
4104 penn ave
412.621.4900

Chocolate Jesus

Chocolate Jesus Outrages Catholic League


Chocolate Jesus, KFed & Spears, And My Trip


Chocolate - it's the tool of the oppressors darn it!