2012 Three Rivers Arts Festival

It was a wonderful festival!  Here are a few of my snapshots:

String Chair by Wade Kramm, Best in Show winner of the Juried Visual Art Exhibition

Euthenic Device by Jason Lee, Juror's Choice Award (selected by Linda Benedict-Jones)

Collaboration 4 by Allison Terndrup and Elizabeth Plakidas (selected by Murray Horne)

               

Backboard by Ron Hollingshead, Juror's Choice Award (selected by Michael Olijnyk)

J. Seward Johnson sculptures at Gateway Center added to the ambiance and fun!  His characters seamlessly blended into the crowd, delighting festival-goers...

Dee Briggs brought her elegant abstract sculpture to the Festival this year.  "Two Rings" was beautiful from every angle, and complemented the cityscape perfectly...

The sun was shining on the Artists Market...

Green was more than a color at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, the most environmentally conscious event of its kind...

Recycling receptacle designed by artist Sherry Rusinack
(also in picture above)

Recycling receptacle and robot designed by artist Don Jones

Students brought their portable easels for a plein air painting workshop taught by Ron Donoghue, part of the Trust Arts Education Center's 2nd Saturday Workshop Series...

With hundreds of thousands of visitors, over 400 artists, and excellent music every afternoon and night, the 2012 Three Rivers Arts Festival was another great success, truly Pittsburgh's grand kick-off to summer!

 

2012 Three Rivers Arts Festival

The Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival is almost here!  10 days of art, music, and fun in Downtown Pittsburgh, June 1-10.

Sooo excited for this year's Artists Market and Juried Visual Art Exhibition!

It's always an honor to help make my favorite event happen, a party for the city!  So much hard work and love from so many people goes into it.  I hope it's a fun and art-filled summer for the festival-goers, a creative and prosperous one for the artists, and an all around great time for everyone!

Impressionism: In a New Light @ CMA

Impressionism: In a New Light is a wonderful exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art which highlights the radical nature of the Impressionist movement. These now familiar and well-loved painters were indeed considered "shocking" in their time, introducing a new way of painting, a new way of seeing, and personal expression through the emotional power of color.  (So "shocking" in fact, legend has it, that a viewer of an Impressionist exhibition reacted to seeing the new paintings by running out into the street and biting another man on the leg, driven "mad" by those loose colors!  Imagine that!)

What is particularly exciting about this exhibition (which is surprisingly and delightfully extensive - a merit to the Carnegie's own collection), is the parallel it draws between Impressionism and Pictorialism, with several beautiful images by photographers Stieglitz, Cameron, and Käsebier.  

In the last room, Monet's Waterlilies are lovingly displayed on a curved wall reminiscent of the Musee de l'Orangerie.

Pittsburgh Sketch Crawl this Saturday

Looking forward to the Pittsburgh Sketch Crawl this weekend, a 6-hour drawing marathon through downtown Pittsburgh!  I just completed the map, and it's going to be very visually inspiring, and I just saw the weather report, and it's going to be gorgeous! Perfect! The Sketch Crawl is FREE to participate, a Second Saturday Art Workshop presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Education Dept. Illustrator Rick Antolic will be on hand to help participants with their drawings. Pre-register here: http://trustarts.culturaldistrict.org/event/3296/pittsburgh-sketch-crawl-workshop

2012 Juried Biennial - Westmoreland Museum of Art

Daniel Marsula, Father and Son, 2011, Oil on canvas

(on display in the 2012 Juried Biennial at the Westmoreland Museum of Art)


Just got back from a very enjoyable day trip to Greensburg to see the Juried Biennial at the Westmoreland Museum of Art.  The Biennial offers a look at the amazing work being created by contemporary local artists, which is very diverse, making for an eclectic, fun exhibit.  The above image, by Daniel Marsula, was one of our favorites.


We also visited the museum's permanent collection, which now also maintains a selection of the Born of Fire exhibit from a few years back, featuring beautiful Pittsburgh scenery and a glimpse at the city's history.  It was a lovely afternoon! 

Gallery Crawl Friday!

Don't miss the Gallery Crawl this Friday night in the Cultural District, a great opportunity to catch some of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Distinctively Dutch Festival!

Caravan closes Sunday at 709

There are still a few days left to see Melissa Kuntz's solo exhibit at 709 Penn Gallery. Caravan closes on Sunday. Check out this great review of the show by Kurt Shaw in the Tribune Review:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/museums/s_788749.html