Tar Baby Jane and Doo-Wop

Vanessa German, Crisco for Cakes Frying Pastry, mixed media, 2010 (above image)

Tar Baby Jane and Doo-Wop:

Everything Useful for Your Modern Household

Installation and performance by Vanessa German

709 Penn Gallery
July 9 - August 30, 2010

Opening reception: Friday, July 9, 2010 (6:00-8:00 p.m.)

In Tar Baby Jane and Doo-Wop: Everything Useful for Your Modern Household, Vanessa German creates a historical fantasy, an imagined storefront of art objects that seem to have existed long ago. While the sculptures are “useful” with an implied function for the home, each has a spirit beyond its purpose.

The installation provokes thoughts about our interaction with the material world, what we use and how we use it, and the history within objects that have performed tasks through their use over time, as experience.

Describing the inspiration behind Tar Baby Jane and Doo-Wop, Vanessa German said:
“I am very interested in old things, specifically old domestic objects – the items my grandmothers and their mothers would have used to make a life and a world for the people around them, from tools to utensils, to the advertising ware of these things. I am imagining that there are stories in these items, that these stories remain present, in the skin of the objects. I think, Who used this item and why? What were they thinking and feeling while using it?

What stories are in the object? What history is in the object? Does the object do the obvious-stated thing in the clear and obvious way? Or, does it also work in a spiritual way? I imagine that these objects are the power objects of my life and imagination – that they are imbued with levels of purpose and intention – doing the stated useful thing and infinitely more.”

Vanessa German is a nationally recognized Pittsburgh-based multi-disciplinary artist, well known as a sculptor, photographer, performance artist and poet. Tar Baby Jane and Doo-Wop: Everything Useful for Your Modern Household, presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Dept. of Education and Community Engagement, opens on Friday.

Fine Lines

Drawing by Deanna Mance (above)

Wren, Intaglio print by Maria Mangano (above)

Two local Pittsburgh artists won the two Best in Show awards (one per weekend) in this year's Three Rivers Arts Festival's Artist Market. Both were Emerging Artist Scholarship winners, and this was their first time participating in the arts festival.

Deanna Mance won for her imaginative drawings inspired by the mechanics and inner workings of nature, and Maria Mangano won for her intricate intaglio prints, inspired by nature's little critters (primarily birds and insects).

See more of their work on their web sites:

Deanna Mance: http://deannamance.com/

Maria Mangano: http://avesmaria.blogspot.com/

Claudia Hart

Claudia Hart: Empire at Wood Street Galleries closes on Sunday.

The exhibit includes "Empire", a 10-minute animation installation inspired by Thomas Cole's "Course of Empire," during which the light slowly shifts across a virtual monument from sunrise to sunset.

The exhibit also includes an animation of a drowned Ophelia, and a black and white semi-abstract animation of a dreaming woman called "Dream". My favorite is an animation called "The Seasons" in which a seated figure of a woman, plaster white, is engulfed in a flowering rose vine that slowly blooms and withers.

I found this exhibit to be overwhelmingly beautiful, both feminine and romantic.

See more of the artist's work on her web site, here:
http://www.claudiahart.com/

Three Rivers Arts Festival

Waking Up to the Arts by Stephen Haynes, grand prize poster contest winner for the 51st Three Rivers Arts Festival (above)


The Three Rivers Arts Festival starts 1 week from today on Friday, June 4! The Festival will feature hundreds of artists with work for sale, music every afternoon and night, gallery exhibits, special performances, and more.

Opening night, there will be celebrations at galleries throughout the Cutural District (Liberty and Penn Avenues, Downtown) from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. including pretty amazing art exhibits that will be on view just for the Festival!

To take it all in, I recommend the following schedule for Day 1: Start early in the Artists Market in Gateway Plaza and Point State Park to get first dibs on what the artists bring. (Note -Artists' booths open at noon.) Then at 4pm, treat the evening as you would a gallery crawl in the Cultural District to see all the special exhibits and some special performances. Have a drink and enjoy a little music at Katz Plaza between gallery stops. Then, head down to Point State Park to have your once-a-year funnel cake while enjoying the concert in the park that night!

Visit the arts festival's web site for a complete listing of events! http://www.artsfestival.net/

Remembering John Metzler

John Metzler was both an inspiring artist and an inspiring person. He was the founder of Urban Tree Forge, President of the Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors, and an incredibly gifted sculptor. He was a friend to many artists and a leader in Pittsburgh's creative community. He found inspiration in trees, and loved sharing his passion with others.

John used salvaged wood from downed trees from Pittsburgh's urban forest to create stunning artworks and beautiful, functional furniture. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Post-Gazette wrote a lovely feature article about John's work.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10122/1054556-437.stm

The Pittsburgh Art Blog features a very touching tribute to John with images contributed by his friends and loved ones.
http://pittsburghgalleries.blogspot.com/2010/05/in-memory-of-pittsburgh-artist-john.html

John was an inspiring force in Pittsburgh's artistic community, and I am grateful to have worked with him on several different projects over the past five months. I enjoyed working with him very much because of his kindness, humor, and gentle spirit. He was a truly wonderful individual -enthusiastic, humble, hard-working, creative, and always positive and friendly. I feel so sad for his friends, family and those who loved him, but I know his memory will live on. He leaves a legacy through his example and through his beautiful work.

some discoveries of beautiful books:

Lost Crafts by Una McGovern

Print & Pattern: Bowie Style - collected from this awesome blog: http://printpattern.blogspot.com/

Swoon: Artist Cadelonia Curry

100 Contemporary Artists A-Z (Taschen 25 Anniversary)

Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa by Hans Silvester

Moscow and St. Petersburg 1900-1920: Art, Life, & Culture of the Russian Silver Age by John E. Bowlt

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Photographs by Abelardo Morell

Abelardo Morell, The loveliest garden you ever saw, 1998, printed later (above)


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Photographs by Abelardo Morell, a premiere exhibit for the Three Rivers Arts Festival organized by the Silver Eye Center for Photography, opens this Friday at 709 Penn Gallery. A reception is scheduled for June 4, for the kick-off of the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

From Betty Boop to James Joyce, Salvador Dali and Tim Burton, Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland novels have inspired more than a century of literature, music, film, fashion, art, photography and much more. Renowned photographer Abelardo Morell has reimagined Alice in Wonderland by combining cutouts of Sir John Tenniel's classic illustrations for the book’s original edition in 1865, with his own ingenious photographs that comment cleverly on the text. Morell’s work brims with a wit, delight and imagination that Carroll himself, a pioneer photographer, would have relished.

Organized by the Silver Eye Center for Photography; Presented by the Three Rivers Arts Festival and The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Department of Education and Community Engagement

May 7 – June 25
Reception/ Three Rivers Arts Festival Opening Party in the Cultural District: June 4 (4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)