Interviews with Bovey Lee

One of my favorite Pittsburgh artists, Bovey Lee, was recently interviewed by Design Boom and by CBS Pittsburgh.

The interviews and accompanying images are lovely, and she describes her latest projects. My favorite quote is her advice to young artists:

"Stay the course. Have the courage to say no to an opportunity that looks attractive at the time but you know will distract you from what you really want and love to do. Gather all your strength and confidence and show it in your work."

Read the full interviews here:

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/16522/bovey-lee-new-work-interview.html

and

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/guide/bovey-lee-paper-cut-precision/

Bovey Lee, Paper Streets, 2011 (as exhibited at 709 Penn Gallery in April, 2011)

Teenie Harris at the Carnegie Museum of Art

Charles "Teenie" Harris, Woman seated on car, with steel mill in background, c. 1940-19461

This past weekend we went to see Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story at the Carnegie Museum if Art. It is a wonderful retrospective of the photographer whose images for the Pittsburgh Courier (the country's most widely circulated African American newspaper during the civil rights era) capture the poetry of every day life and important figures who helped shape the 20th Century.

Figurative paintings from the Carnegie Museum of Art

The Carnegie Museum of Art has so many beautiful examples of figurative art in its permanent collection. Here are a few that caught my eye during our visit this past weekend...

Raphael Soyer, Pensive Girl, 1946-1947 (above)

Alex Katz, Lake Time, 1960 (above)

John Currin, The Old Fence, 1999 (above)

Elizabeth Peyton, Ben Drawing, 2001 (above)

Detritus by Thomas Norulak opens Friday @ 709

Detritus, a solo show by Thomas Norulak, opens this Friday, November 25, at 709 Penn Gallery. (Reception 6-8 p.m.)

Root Cluster, Thomas Norulak, etching

In Detritus, printmaker Thomas Norulak finds beauty in objects that have been altered over time by their interaction with the elements.

Subjects include rocks and debris along riverbanks and hiking trails, an uprooted tree trunk, an abandoned truck tire, machinery rusting in the woods, and a dead fish washed up on the shores of Lake Erie.

As nature has transformed these objects over time, Norulak’s studio process is also transformative. “I start by taking photographs of these phenomena, and use the following process to transform them into black and white etchings: Laser prints of the photographic imagery are transferred onto a zinc plate with a solvent, and then etched in nitric acid. Using traditional printmaking techniques such as aquatint, open bites, scraping and burnishing, the images acquire abstract or surreal qualities, bearing little resemblance to the original photographs.”

Imagination

Albert Einstein by Andy Warhol, screenprint, 1980

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." -- Albert Einstein

The Awakening

The Awakening, J. Seward Johnson, aluminum, 1980

(photographed by Karen O'Connor, my sister)

Last winter we went to the National Harbor to see this incredible sculpture, The Awakening, a 70-foot giant struggling to rise from the earth.

(Click image to enlarge.)

Closing reception @ 709 Penn Gallery this Friday!

Thomas Bigatel, The Prism Within, oil on canvas, 2011

Don't miss the closing reception for Universal Expressions: Movement in Multiple Dimensions, paintings by Thomas Bigatel and sculpture by Peter Johnson, Friday night, Nov. 11, at 709 Penn Gallery in the Cultural District. (5-8pm)