Today my adventures landed me at the Curtis Center here in Philadelphia. The building was historically the home of the Curtis Publishing Company, which was well known for publishing Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, among others. But little did I know that the interior of this building is so grand. The offices in the building lie on the outer edges of every floor and the huge court on the main floor has a cathedral ceiling that extends up to the skylit roof. Obviously, it’s had some remodeling, but it’s still pretty magnificent. I was overwhelmed with the interior that I forgot to take a photo of the exterior. Next time.
Little did I know that also within the Curtis Building resides a huge Tiffany mosaic piece entitled “Dream Garden.” It was designed by artist Maxfield Parrish and executed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios in 1916. it measures 15 x 49 feet. It uses over 100,000 pieces of favrile glass that were each hand-fired in each of the 260 colors. I’ve lived in Philadelphia for about 14 years and had no idea that this was even here. It is huge and amazing and I highly recommend checking it out if you live or visit Philadelphia. Read more about the piece here. The Curtis Building is on the corner of 6th & Walnut. The entrance with the Tiffany piece is on 6th Street.
So last year around this same time, I had a few photos in a one night show at Main Line Art Center in Haverford, PA and I didn’t give the announcement until the last minute. Well, I’m giving you over a 3 week notice this time so that you have plenty of time to mark your calendars! I will have 3 pieces of my work (probably photos and woodcut prints) on display and available for purchase (one night only!). And even if you don’t want to come out for the art, there’s free beer courtesy of Victory Brewing Company and free food and probably music. And even if you don’t care for the art or the free junk, *I* would love to see you! Here are the details…
Friday, February 6, 2009
5:30-9 pm
FREE!
Main Line Art Center: 746 Panmure Road, Haverford, PA 19041
With over 2,800 murals, Philadelphia has more murals than any other city in the US…and that’s just the murals that have been painted by Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program. Did you know that we also have one of the original Keith Haring murals that still remains on public display? The mural, entitled “We The Youth; City Kids of Phila & NYC”, was created by Haring in 1987. Check it out for yourself: corner of 22nd & Ellsworth.
My woodcut class is over for the semester. That went by pretty quickly. We had an awesome group of nice and creative people. It makes me want to take it again, but I don’t know if I will. I will definitely continue to make my own woodcuts. I currently have two that I’ve finished cutting, but haven’t printed. And I have another 3 blocks that I’m currently working on. I plan to set up my own little printing area in my apartment. My apartment where I already have so many other things from having too many interests. It’s recently been described as “eclectic”, but I prefer to call it “messy”.
Someone in the class (Cynthia Miller) made a portrait of me! I’m so flattered! A photo of the portrait is below.
I’ve been sick for a couple of days with a nasty cold that I can’t seem to kick. I’d rather just stay inside where it’s nice and warm and not rainy. However, life must go on! And on it does…tonight someone hit the mirror on my car door and tore it completely off…needing a replacement….assholes! Nothing ever goes smoothly. Ever.
I’m having a difficult time getting out of bed or even do anything these days given the circumstances of everything in the last month. I’m sure it will all eventually hit me like a brick wall, but for now I’m just numb, with sporadic twitches by an emotional nerve that causes me to cry my eyes out. I’ve decided that I should probably buy stock in Kleenex. I’ve gone through more in the last month than I have in the last year. Thank goodness for those tissues with lotion.
My photography has seen a bit of a hiatus with the onslaught of recent events. I’m having a difficult time creating much of anything. So I’m going to post some old work for a while and share some other things that I’ve been working on.
I did start some new artistic outlets this fall. I started taking a woodcut class, taught by Jeffrey Dentz, at Fleisher Art Memorial. The class started at the beginning of October and ends in a few short weeks. It’s been more of a workshop than a class, but it has still been a learning experience. It’s a dedicated 3 hours every Wednesday that I go to do something else with like-minded people who also enjoy art. Everything about the class has been awesome. I’ve had an infatuation with all types of printmaking for a long time.
I guess I failed to mention this new direction of art that I’ve taken to a lot of people who have just recently replied with, “a woodcut class??!” in surprise (you know who you are). I had started to teach myself how to do linocuts and printing back in 2000 and had intended to pick that up again a year ago (it got delayed a bit). I had never worked with woodcuts before, but I’ve found that it’s much easier to cut. It doesn’t seem to produce the same intricate lines that can be achieved with linoleum, but I have found that it’s easier to add more texture to wood. There’s some strange satisfaction that comes along with cutting a piece of wood….almost the satisfaction that you get by breaking a toothpick in your mouth (I know my mother is probably shivering at the thought of that).
Other than learning how to create a woodcut and the various ways to print them, my main goal was to learn how to turn my photographs into an image that I’ve physically created rather than the moment in time that I had captured in my camera. I’m not a trained artist and I can’t draw to save my life so moving from one medium to another has been a challenge, but not as difficult as I had expected. In fact, I feel as though I’ve achieved my goal rather quickly. I’ve produced 5 woodcuts in the last 7 weeks and the last two have turned out to be my favorites…both based on my own photographs.
I’ve only printed proofs of my woodcuts so far. I’m using oil-based ink. The wood seems to absorb a lot of the ink so it takes a few prints until the print starts to look really crisp. But now that I’ve printed the proofs and the blocks seem to be a bit more “sealed”, I am going to attempt to do some edition prints that I may have up for sale in the future.
This one is based off of a photograph that I had taken of traffic on the Schuykill Expressway with the skyline of Philadelphia in the distance. Most of this had been created using a razor blade. This is a proof with oil-based ink on Asian rice paper. I need to make a slight touch-up to the block before printing final editions. I’ve also noticed that Philadelphia has suddenly been displaced in Europe where everyone is driving on the opposite side of the road (because I didn’t carve the block in reverse). Oh well. So be it.
With the start of 2008, one of the things that I wanted to do this year was take some kind of art class. I wanted to do something that would allow me to think in other ways rather than through the viewfinder. For ages, I’ve really wanted to take a formal class in printmaking (etchings, intaglio, lino and woodblock, etc.)…do illustrations…and paint. But I realized that almost all of the things that I want to do involve drawing of some sort. Or at least the technical basis that comes along with drawing.
I’ve taken some bio illustration classes in college: learning how to draw plants, wildlife, and smaller natural subject matter. But it’s been a long time and I’ve never really worked with subject matter other than nature.
Well, I signed up for a semester of Drawing I that I go to once a week with my drawing paper and pencils in hand. And the best part is…it’s FREE! There’s about 30 people in my class, which seems to have gotten smaller since we began three weeks ago. In just the three weeks of class, I feel as though I’ve learned so much and my teacher is fabulous. It really seems to have become a highlight of the week for me and I find myself wanting to draw more and more. It seems to be motivating me in other creative aspects as well. I’ve been doing a lot more photography and I’ve been viewing things differently…and asking myself, “I wonder if I could draw that”. So we’ll see what happens.
Yesterday I ventured out to Philadelphia Cathedral in west Philly with Albert to see Losang Samten work on a mandala, which is a 6-foot circular colorful sand painting that is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist art form. The mandala that Losang is creating is the “Wheel of Life” and represents the universe and many aspects of life. Each mandala has the same concept, but no two mandalas are alike.
He grew up in Tibet where he was a personal attendant to the Dalai Lama. Losang escaped Tibet in 1959, in the same year as the Dalai Lama. Losang introduced the mandala art form to the USA and founded the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia in the late 80s.
I was familiar with mandalas after seeing the movie Kundun (directed by Martin Scorcese) in the theater over 10 years ago and it has remained one of my favorite films. Little did I know that Losang was one of the main actors in the movie, playing the role of himself: the Dalai Lama’s attendant. He also served as a religious advisor and master sand painter in the film.
Here is a photo of me with Losang (in mid-laugh) taken by Albert.
Losang working on the mandala on a raised platform with the entrance to the Cathedral in the background.
Two metal tubes containing colorful grains of sand are rubbed together, releasing only a minimal amount of sand.
This is how much of the mandala has been created so far when we visited yesterday. Losang started the mandala on January 13th. Through January 27, creation of the mandala is open to the public during the hours of 10am-4pm (he takes a lunch break from noon - 1pm). You can also view the creation process of this mandala on the Cathedral’s website. In addition to the mandala creation, there is a photography exhibit of recent photos from Tibet by photographer, Jeff Donovan. The Cathedral itself is also worth checking out.
The creation of the mandala is part of Philadelphia Cathedral’s pilgrimage for peace that runs from January 13 - February 3. There will be a ceremony on February 3 at noon when the mandala will be swept away and returned to nature.
