On this snowy day in Philadelphia (picture at the bottom), I hope everyone’s enjoying the view out the window, if not the thought of shoveling snow off the sidewalk. Below is a roundup of some new notable projects and other newsy things from the inbox or from my occasional blog reading.
Hope for Hope benefit exhibit and sale, Sunday, Jan. 30, 4-7:30pm, @The Clay Studio
Joe Girandola, UArts professor and director of the MFA Studio Art program there has organized a benefit for UArts ceramicist Hope Rovelto, who was crossing Girard Avenue last November 4 and was hit by a car that kept right on going. Hope is recovering but has huge medical bills not covered by insurance.
Here’s the story:
On Nov, 4th 2010 at 7am, Hope was on the corner of 2nd and Girard, two blocks from her house. She was walking across the street and without any notice a car, illegally taking a fast left hand turn at the lights, hit her. The car hit Hope’s legs and took her feet out from under her, leaving Hope lying on the ground. The only thing she saw was the brake lights of the car that hit her before the vehicle sped away. Fortunately, a car coming the other way on Girard stopped and called out, “Are you OK?” Hope answered, “I don’t think so.” The woman and her passenger dragged her out of the road and gathered Hope’s items that were thrown all over Girard Avenue and called 911. She was brought to Hahnemann Hospital as a trauma patient and immediately rushed to surgery that day. Hope tore all of the ligaments in the left leg and damage to her right leg is still being diagnosed. Hope. Hope has immediate medical bills that amount to around $15,000 that are not being covered by insurance. More information about this Sunday’s benefit and about Hope at the blog Hope for Hope.
Kip Deeds’ Viewfinder project
Kip is a longtime friend of Artblog who keeps his own blog. Recently the artist and printmaker started a project, Viewfinder, that’s like a call and response in music. He sends out a print of his, based on the old idea of the viewfinder, a cardboard square with a hole in the middle used for finding the best view to make your art scene with. And he asks for a response. “I mailed the print to artist friends for the purpose of collecting perspectives that could then be re-examined,” he said. “Some artists spent hours laboring on their little card, others responded quickly, and some were never returned (this is also a kind of view).
The responses have been coming back, and Kip’s posted the first one, by Anda Dubinskis. About Dubinskis’ piece he says, “(it is) a mysterious depiction and I can not help but feel empathy for this displaced character and what seems to be unresolved action.” The project is ongoing and Kip will post more response works as they come in. It’s a great homegrown project and an example of finding community and sharing.
Steven Baris’ Exurban Archipelago project
Baris shows his colorful abstract paintings at Pentimenti Gallery. The works reference the real world of architecture and spaces in between. So in a way, his new project, based on Google Earth satellite maps, is a natural outgrowth. The artist superimposes his colorful abstract rectangular lozenges on top of the map images and voila! something new and quite wonderful emerges. The project’s website lets you roll over the images and see both the satellite image and what Steven’s done in his alteration. He’s got a lengthy q&a with a curator on the site, too. It’s fictitious and as he says, facetious. But it captures his ideas about mapping and the world. Great project merging paint and technology.
KB Dixon’s “A Painter’s Life”
In 2009 I wrote a review of KB Dixon’s “A Painter’s Life.” The Oregon author wrote this week to say he is finalist for the 2011 Oregon Book Awards. In his email, Dixon says rather phlegmatically, “All in all pretty exciting stuff. Makes me wish I used exclamation points.” I have no trouble with exclamation points so will say congratulations!! The book is a great read.
Elsa Longhauser at the Los Angeles Times
There is a wonderful story about Elsa Longhauser, former head of the Galleries at Moore, in the Los Angeles Times recently. Longhauser moved to Santa Monica ten years ago to become Director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art, where she’s apparently been programming up a storm — just what she did when she was in Philadelphia.
Snow day outtake from my kitchen window
