A Spring Unblurred

OMG! What a great night on Penn Ave (Brian Kane installation on the MWFA facade)

I knew it was going to be great night when I got off the bus on Friendship and spotted that double rainbow. Sure, it was spattering a little, but it wasn't even bad enough to put up an umbrella.

My first stop was Garfield Artworks and the Pittsburgh Artists Against Fracking fundraiser. The gallery looked great, as did ALL of the donated art work. The final count was 78 donating artists, many of whom contributed multiple pieces. Kudos and roses for Bob Ziller, who coordinated the event, making sure that the gallery was in top shape for the opening. There are several pieces from the show included in the gallery at the end of this post. If you weren't able to make it to the opening, there will be a CLOSING PARTY on Monday, April 28th from 6 to 9 pm.

Matt Gatto VIII

 Meanwhile, next door at ImageBox, there was a wonderful little show of Matt Gatto's work: Diametric Forces. I was really struck by the wall pieces in this show. They were compact bursts of light and metal, very interesting to the eye. The exhibit is open through the month by appointment.

If you're planning on going to the Mr. Roboto Project over the next month, you'll have a chance to see Megan Shalonis' Mansion Apartment Shack House. These brightly painted assemblages are sweetly charming. Now, I am seriously old; I had never heard of the game that is referred to in the show title. I did look it up, though. It seems pretty popular, you should see the umpteen number of returns I got on search.

Anonymous Street Art

One of the the many things I like about traveling along Penn are the random acts of art, like the piece at the right. It was just such a bright bit of color in that grey night.

I stopped in at Edge Studio, but I must have missed the Pyrotopia promo. The doors were up, and the two artists that were there had a nice collection. Louis Boston the "Pi Guy" who does art from mathematical equations and anomalies, had a table of prints based on pi. The robot sculptures of Donald Jones were simply fun.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the first Springtime Unblurred. In the meantime, get ye to the Waterfront for the opening of Most Wanted Fine Art's new digs! The grand opening is this Saturday. More images from Unblurred are available in the slideshow. Image credit: Jason Sauer (for the OMG! image)

Bob Ziller's Pittsburgh Beautification Project

I found this video along with some nice shot's of Bob Ziller's community project to pretty up the burgh on Bittersweet Harvest which is one of the best single sources of dope on the goings on here.

Some of these are on active businesses that boarded up for the G20.

This is agood example of the kind of small grass roots projects aided by The Sprout Fund.

The Pittsburgh Beautification Project Wants You!

The Pittsburgh Beautification Project is on a mission to beautify abandoned/neglected buildings
throughout the city - by painting artwork on chipboard, and then installing the artwork on boarded
up windows and doors on empty buildings. (There is an attachment to this email for reference,
an empty building that was "beautified" at the foot of the Birmingham Bridge in Uptown.

During the first phase, up to the G-20 summit, a homage to hometown art hero
Andy Warhol will be enacted by placing renderings of his Flower paintings around town.
The paintings will be done by community volunteers, like you, at publicly held Painting Parties.
At the parties, templates of the paintings will be filled in, much like a coloring book - easy enough
for kids and non-artists to have fun and participate.

The Painting Parties will be held at 4810 Penn Avenue (the old Red Star Iron Works garage),
on the following dates:

First Friday, Sept. 4th, 7 pm - midnight
Sat. & Sun., Sept. 5 - 6, noon - 6 pm.
Sat. & Sun., Sept. 12 -13, noon - 6 pm.

Hope to see you there!
Thanks,
Bob Ziller

The preceding was cut and pasted from an email Bob Ziller sent.

As YOU CAN SEE THE FIRST ONE IS TONIGHT DURING AND AFTER UNBLURRED

Bob Ziller Blooms Birmingham Bridge

I was surprised early Sunday morning to get a call from my friend Bob Ziller, as virtually everyone I know would expect to hear back from me late in the afternoon rather than actually get me on the phone at that time. For some reason I was awake, and that was fortunate. I don't really enjoy documenting other folks' projects, but for Bob I'm usually willing to see what he's up to. So I pulled myself together and drove down to the Hive to find out what he had in mind. I quickly learned that it involved ladders, and secretly began to regret my decision. But when I found out what we were going to do, I got excited.

Bordering Fitzpatrick Street in the Hill District (a stone's throw from the house where Andy Warhol was born), there is this abandoned building that greets everyone at the end of the Birmingham Bridge. Bob decided to make some neighborhood improvements, and he wanted me along for the ride.

While I helped schlep some stuff back and forth (and manipulate some ridiculously unwieldy ladders), I discovered that Bob was perfectly capable of installing his work himself. That left me free to shoot a series of shots that ended up being pretty fun. Here I've included the before and after shots of the property. I can't imagine anyone would have any serious objection to this particular brand of public art. Bob plans to continue this activity, so please keep a look out for the next entry in the series.

In the meantime make it a point to travel northward over the Birmingham Bridge (from the South Side) sometime soon, because there is no guarantee this is going to last and it is really best experienced in person.

Photo Credit: David Grim 2009