Spring @Drink and Draw

Drink and Draw was inspiring last night. Renee was amazing, with this really wonderful costume. See for yourself...
Renee as Spring
Paul LeRoy
Steve Dines

And just as a reminder, don't forget the following VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

News Flash!!
We have scheduled Wednesday dates each month!

Really Big News Flash!
The Mother May I Marathon
May 5, seven hours of drinkin' and drawin'
RSVP to brilloboxdrinkand draw@yahoo.com
Here is a calendar of the upcoming sessions --

4/25/07 Tinsel Garland

5/1/07 Sarah Bauer from Zany Umbrella Circus

5/5/07 THE DRINK AND DRAW MARATHON!!

5/15/07 Christiane D

5/23/07 Olga -- Burlesque

5/29/07 Erin Carey --

drink and draw
brillobox
4104 penn ave
412.621.4900

Graffitiburgh

Graffiti shot at Heppenstall, a defunct steel mill located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh

I was flipping through the Post Gazette and ran across this article about a tagger that was arrested and fined for his graffiti at $560,764.50 in property damages. Two points in the article are very interesting. Daniel Montano has a home here and in San Francisco. The other? To quote --

Only 50 percent of graffiti is reported in Pittsburgh. For years, the city was considered a blank slate for many in U.S. graffiti community. Enforcement was considered weak and the abundance of vacant warehouses and cramped hidden alleyways -- many of them in the Strip District -- offered a canvas for many miscreants wielding a spray can.

The Heppenstall complex and the Armstrong Cork buildings are both within walking distance of my home. I have visited both on several occasions. The Armstrong Cork building has been renovated and is now a loft and business complex. It has been getting more and more difficult to get into the Heppenstall complex. Recently, I noticed bulldozers on the site and there has been talk about turning the five or six block strip into a mixed usage complex. Both sites have been well-documented from deterioration to the proliferatrion of graffiti.

There is a huge divide of perception of grafitti, even among those that follow and create it. Most taggers seem to find havens, like these abandoned buildings, to express their creative energy. Some use whatever blank wall is available. I am of the former philosophy, believing that there are enough abandoned buildings to provide blank canvases that taggers can utilize without intruding on vital and operating properties.

Impressions of Flux # 14.

The weather last Saturday was cold and wet, and I'm certain it kept a lot of people from attending Flux #14 in Braddock. That's a bit of a shame because it was just as good as I remembered it being from the last one three years ago. It was a bit of a surprise too, because my only previous experience with this beat up East End neighborhood filled me with sadness and abandon. Take a ride through the heart of the town during the day some time, and you'll see what I mean. It's true inner-city squalor. On my visit there a couple of years ago, there were a few pawn shops and beat-up antique stores still holding on amidst the desolation. Had there not been a truly enticing event, I wouldn't have been tempted to visit Braddock on a Saturday night.

Driving down Braddock Avenue at 9:30 PM, I was struck by the lack of activity. The few people on the street were rushing through the drizzle to the event. They walked with their heads down, afraid that they might make eye contact with some dangerous permanent resident. The Flux logo was projected in large letters on the side of a former bank on Library Street. That throughway was blocked off to traffic, and there were steel barrel fires with shivering art-lovers huddled around them. We entered through the bank entrance, showed our IDs, and paid the $10 admission fee. Walking through this empty center of finance was surreal- like it could be the set for some raving capitalist zombie film. We exited through a side door into an alley, and proceeded through another portal into a derelict church.

The church building housed the main stage, and had a huge sloping wooden floor facing it. There was a table off to one side where you could buy a little platic cup for two bucks, and a long line (that moved fast) to wait in to get the cup filled with beer (Penn Brewery products). Throughout the night that line oddly grew shorter and shorter. I watched some band I've never heard of playing some predictable, if competent, hard pop-rock. Later on I saw the positive, old-school, hip hop act called Lucid Music. I'd seen them before and enjoyed them. They've got flow, and they are good to dance too. The space could have accomodated at least 15 times as many people as were there- which was alright with me because I like my space.

There was art on the side, and in the little hallway passage behind the stage. I really enjoyed a Brian Docherty installation that consisted of multi-colored strings of yarn running in patterns up the wall, some of which were being animated by an electric pulley. It was a nice effect. In back there was a collection of macabre assemblages reminiscent of the Brothers Quay (sorry, I forget the name of the artist, and it's not listed on the official Flux webpage). On the other side of the stage, where you exited back to the main hall, was an interactive video installation that I didn't have much time to process. In the basement was scuptor James Simon's temporary studio, and patrons were randomly throwing balls of clay at an evolving animal figure. There was also installation art by a group referring to themselves as the Hospitable Food project. I'm fond of some of the work of the artists involved, but I have to say that this conglomeration looked to be rather hastily thrown together. Plus it smelled like puke down there, so I beat a fast retreat.

Having drank a good quantity of vitamin water, it was time to seek out a bathroom. In the basement of another building resides the rapidly-approaching-infamous Braddock Elks Club. That's where Mayor John Fetterman holds court every Friday night, welcoming tourists. Last night it was packed with every variety of hipster to be seen around town. In one corner they were selling hot dogs, nachos, ham BBQ, and some very water-logged kielbasa with kraut (guess which I had). At the other end was a fully stocked bar. And yes, there were the bathrooms too, and no line to speak of. Upstairs was another performance space. When I visited they had DJ's and hotties shakin' it on the dance floor. There was art on the walls here, but it was difficult to squeeze through the dancers to get a close look. There is a wide front porch outside, and Bob Johnson was holding court with a video presentation of his new Ravine Cubes project (an evolution from his River Cubes, which consist of refuse pulled from the region's waterways and compacted into 1600 pound squared clumps). On the flatbed of a sturdy-assed pickup was chained the inaugural piece of his latest series, pulled together from the ravine below the Bloomfield Bridge.

Between the Elks and the Church is Dorothy 6- the first floor gallery of the Mayor's residence. They were having a poetry slam there, and I caught a rant about the evils of Walmart. The thing about Flux is that you constantly feel like you are missing something you'd rather see, so you spend a lot of time wandering from one venue to another. Then you need a fill-up on refreshments, or you have to piss, or you need to find one of your misplaced friends. This is both the curse and the blessing of these events, depending upon your transitory mind state. I was anxious to see what the very first branch of the Carnegie Library had to offer.

I'm not certain how much of the library is still in operation, but I have to say it's an amazing place. I slogged up the grand flights of stairs to a basketball court at the very top, and found a huge inflatable sheep by Tom Sarver and Tim Kaulen. I peeped that and noticed that I had just missed some performance piece by a group calling themselves the Dutchmasters. Too bad. I worked my way through another series of entranceways and passages and found myself entering a beautiful, full-sized theater with wraparound balcony. It felt as if I had stepped into the year 1925. There were rows of wooden seats, and I sat in the back and watched some locally-made film projects. I would have liked to stay there for awhile, but it was time to make an honest effort to find the friend that I had come with, and drive home.

Overall I'd say that the event was successful, despite the oppressive weather. Flux has recaptured their status as the premiere art party of Pittsburgh. With the scope and potential of those classic abandoned facilities in Braddock, it is easy to understand why the organizers would make a commitment to hold an event there in each of the next two years. The place is brimming with imposing and eerie flavor. It's truly a feast for the eyes, and provides an ambience that will linger in your memory. I can't wait for the next one. Walking to my car at the end of the night and seeing the flames pouring from the smokestacks of one of the last industrial plants of Pittsburgh, it became possible for me to believe that this neighborhood might just capture the imagination of a new generation of urbanites.

Pittsburgh, Meet Jersey City

Sound familiar?:

From yesterday's USA Today (article by Rick Hampson):
"Once, this was a city of browns and grays. Railroads owned a third of the land, and trains rumbled night and day to the cacophonous riverfront. Factories belched fumes and leaked chemicals. 'Nobody cared,' says Bob Leach, born here in 1937. 'Smoke meant jobs.'

"And those were the good years. Then, in the 1960s, the railroads went broke. Rail yards were abandoned, piers rotted, factories closed. In the 1970s alone, the city lost 14% of its population and about 9% of its jobs.

"Now Jersey City has come back as its own antithesis: clean, green and growing ....

"Once written off by the rest of the nation as another Rust Belt failure, Jersey City is now seen as instructional."

Read More: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-15-jersey-city_N.htm

Katherine Young - - Gilding Demonstration

Katherine Young's work, which was exhibited at Digging Pitt Gallery for the Lush Life show, mixes the obsessive decoration and fervent craft usually associated with religious art. The explicit sexual imagery calls into question our definitions of sacred and profane. Katherine's work explores feminine gender anxieties provocatively and innocently, with something a bit disturbing underneath. The mixed media manipulation of traditional, domestic, and kitsch elements resonates with the mystical and the mundane, the illogical and the ideal. Seemingly paradoxical, it often encompasses morbid elements of the female experience.

Katherine demonstrated gilding, a technique that she uses to great advantage in her work. This ancient technique has been used to decorate temples and sculpture, imbuing the wooden support with the luster of fine metals. The demonstration was on April 1, 2007.

WHAT UP, PITTSBURGH? Poet of the People, Martin Espada, read to a room full of history scholars, 4/14/07

Frankly, I was embarrassed. A Puerto Rican poetry student traveled here from Erie to see Martin Espada, one of his very favorite poets, read on Saturday April 14th at Posvar Hall, but almost no one from Pittsburgh’s literary community came. As far as I could tell no one outside of University of Pittsburgh (and some visiting University of Toronto history scholars) attended, and even then the audience was almost exclusively comprised of people who were involved in a History Department symposium to which the poetry reading was connected.

The reading was not sanctioned by the Cultural Trust or the Thomas Merton Center; it did not take place at the Shadow Lounge, or at the Brillobox, or at a Union meeting. But each of those audiences should have been there, and then some. Martin Espada is a poet who looks at history and its lessons (learned and unlearned), who has served as a lawyer for tenants’ right and immigrants’ rights and bilingual education, who grew up poor in a wretched neighborhood in Brooklyn, who has never stopped working for a living, and who writes to include working-class men and women--their resistance and their creativity and their humanity--in the annals of an American history which seeks to exclude them. “Most people are not aware that poetry in this country used to be closely tied to resistance and to a political and working-class spirit, especially in the 30s and 40s,” Espada told us. “That history was suppressed by something called McCarthyism. We are only now beginning to bring those writers and that history out of obscurity.” He marveled at the fact that “the Republican states--the people in power, using language for power--are referring to themselves as Red. It wasn’t so long ago that you could ruin a person’s life by calling him Red. Red was always our side, the color of revolution.”

Espada spoke with some disdain about the poetry that is most lauded today, which is “hip, cynical, detached, or worse, obscure in its meaning.” When asked about his own writing process, he made sure to warn of “anyone who tells you that ‘If you don’t write every day, you’re not a writer.’ If they claim that they get up at 5am every day and write for several hours, they are not telling you the whole story, which is that someone else is cooking for them, cleaning for them, doing their grocery shopping, someone is taking care of them. The vast majority of us will never have that luxury. Most of us, are, in fact, caretakers.” He went on to say that he usually writes on trains and planes, and in the terminals of those trains and planes. “I make a living, not from poetry royalties, but from running workshops and doing readings. That means I’m often traveling.” He said that “being a poet is the art of being a time bandit. This is a mercantile society. But I don’t get paid to write a poem. So I have to steal time from my life to write a poem. I steal time everywhere I can.”

Espada read us beautiful, lyrical, and impassioned poems, poems that held both outrage at injustices and a deep faith in human resilience, in vitality. Espada was a talented performer of his own poems, which often almost-literally sang off the page in his baritone English and Spanish. He read to us of his father, arrested in 1950s Mississippi for not moving to the back of the bus; he read to us of the Vietnam veteran-poets whose warnings about the nature of war were not heeded;he read to us of “Local 100,” the 43 union members who died working at Windows on the World, the World Trade Center, on 9/11; he read of the little-known Palm Sunday Massacre in Ponce, Puerto Rico; of the first 9/11, in 1973--the murdering, torturing, Nixon-sanctioned coup in Chile; of digging latrines in Nicaragua and watching a woman wash her dress and herself at the same time, for scarcity of running water. He spoke of the importance of bearing witness, the importance of not forgetting what came before, and the importance in his writing of combining memory and experience with analysis and meaning-making. “I have seen people live through powerful experiences, and not grasp what they mean, not understand where they fit into the scheme of things.”

When asked if he ever gets in trouble for the strong political stance he takes in his writing, Espada said no, that he “enjoys the freedom” of saying what he wants because no one is much threatened by poetry in America anymore. “The best place to hide a poem is between the pages of a book.”

On the other hand, Espada was once commissioned to write a poem for NPR. The finished work was written about an unnamed prostitute who was then the latest witness to come forward in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s innocence. The poem was banned from airplay.

Espada further spoke of the many people who had told him at his readings, “Poetry saved my life.” “And they mean it quite literally. People who were living as alcoholics, as addicts, people in prison, people living self-destructively, people living in hell and headed, literally, to an early grave, have told me that they discovered poetry, and that wanting to read it, and write it, and share it with other people, turned their life around. It made them want to live.” He shared a story of a poetry reading he gave in L.A., “A large man came up to me, a Puerto Rican covered in tattoos. He was intimidating--he was bigger than me! Then he told me, ‘Your poetry saved my life.’ He told me that he had been in prison, and he found one of my books. He said it gave him hope, and turned him around. Now he was studying poetry in college and planning to teach it in prisons and elsewhere. But the different thing in this story is that, he started to thank me, and then he began to cry. He broke down in deep, loud, racking sobs, in the middle of a crowded room! I took him aside where we could talk more privately, and he apologized for crying. I told him, ‘No, I am a poet. To a poet, tears are coins of gold! I’ve hit the slot machine right now.’ ” Espada continued, “There are people who are invisible in our history, who desperately need a mirror held up to them. I try in my poems to be the mirror that shows them that what they are doing, these working people all over the world, has creativity and dignity.”

So, Pittsburgh artists, event organizers, writers and poetry audiences—-was this low turn-out (among the non-history majors) a result of target marketing, or a ghettoized attendance? Was it too much to cross a bridge or a mountain, or just too much to cross the threshhold of perceived sub-divisions? Is Pittsburgh just big enough for its writers and audience of literature to be this complacent when such a relevant voice, in the prime of his creativity, comes through to speak and read? Is it some lack of communal forum, that there is not really a BUZZ off campus? I must admit, I’m truly baffled.

Don't Miss This Poetry Reading

Attention poets, writers, readers, spoken word artists, lyricists, afficianados of cross-culture, audiences who believe in supporting out-of-towners, Union members, New Yorker subscribers, literature lovers, star fuckers, and ex-pat Brooklynites!! Martin Espada, one of the most passionate and articulate living poets, will be in Pittsburgh to read this Saturday on Pitt’s Oakland campus, for free!

Born in Brooklyn in 1957, much of Espada’s work is drawn from his Puerto Rican heritage and his work experiences, which range from bouncer to tenant lawyer.

Find a selection of his poems here: martinespada.net

Martin Espada Reading: Saturday, April 14th, 5:30-7:00 pm, 2500 Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Oakland. Free and open to the public. Contact Professor Marcus Rediker for more details: marcusrediker@yahoo.com

Community Gallery project in the Hill District reception

We had the reception for the Community Gallery project on March 31. The projects were on display in the lobby. It was a lovely afternoon, with children and artists popping in and out. Terri Baltimore was there, along with Lissa Rosenthal from Pittsburgh Celebrates. The post from the kick off is here.

Kites from the project with Deanna Mance. For all of you kite enthusiasts out there, join us for the Soars event on April 21. I'll be making an announcement about this soon, but...
April 21
Hill House Association
1835 Centre Ave

Check in: 11:30am - 12:30pm
pick up kites and maps to the flight sites. Refreshments provided

We have three sites in the Hill district that we have designated as flight zones. And if you don't already have a kite, we will have some available for you at the Hill House.
These are from the assemblage project that Christine Bethea did with the students.
Some of the visitors enjoying the display.
A very crowded lobby! Everybody loves those giant puppets

Closing's Tonight

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review has listed the closing in their top picks for the weekend. Check it out here.

Closing reception for Lush Life, Visual Abstraction and Regenesis
April 7, 6-9PM

Lush Life - Side I --more information
Paul LeRoy
Todd Pinkham
Jessica Sommer
Katherine Young


Visual Grammar: Five Approaches to Abstraction-- more information
Curated by Gary Jurysta
Charles Andresen
Glen Brunken
Joren Dykstra
Patrick Schmidt

Regenesis: David Grim @Digging Pitt Too-- more information
David Grim

Closing reception for Lush Life, Visual Abstraction and Regenesis

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review has listed the closing in their top picks for the weekend. Check it out here.

Closing reception for Lush Life, Visual Abstraction and Regenesis
April 7, 6-9PM

Lush Life - Side I --more information
Paul LeRoy
Todd Pinkham
Jessica Sommer
Katherine Young


Visual Grammar: Five Approaches to Abstraction-- more information
Curated by Gary Jurysta
Charles Andresen
Glen Brunken
Joren Dykstra
Patrick Schmidt

Regenesis: David Grim @Digging Pitt Too-- more information
David Grim

QUESTY QUEST

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild is an arts organization whose purpose is almost solely educational. And especially for youth. They have a beautiful facility in Manchester on Pittsburgh's Northside. They have been producing student arts programs for well over thirty years. I went to classes there when I was in high school. I can't begin to express my gratitude to this organization or to the instructor that mentored and encouraged me to pursue the arts.

The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild exhibits student work in a small gallery off the lobby of a building on Penn Avenue in downtown. This past Friday, the Guild opened Questy Quest, a combination of performance and static arts where passersby were encouraged to kill the beast with sporks. It was wonderfully riotous.

The detritus from the destruction, as well as the video, are on display through April 15.

QUESTY QUEST The Questiest Quest Ever Requested
A Mentors & Makers Exhibition at 800 Penn Avenue
March 23 - April 15

Vanessa German @ Drink and Draw

The lovely Vanessa German posed for the drawers at brillobox on April 3, murmuring poems and lounging in a beautiful dress on crushed red elvet.
You might have missed this one, but there's always something else coming up. Check in for updates.






free snacks & coffee
three dollar well drinks and microbrews


News Flash!!
We have scheduled Wednesday dates each month!

Really Big News Flash!
The Mother May I Marathon
May 5, seven hours of drinkin' and drawin'
RSVP to brilloboxdrinkand draw@yahoo.com
Here is a calendar of the upcoming sessions --
4/17/07 Renee Ickes

4/25/07 Tinsel Garland

5/1/07 Sarah Bauer from Zany Umbrella Circus

5/5/07 THE DRINK AND DRAW MARATHON!!

5/15/07 Christiane D

5/23/07 Olga -- Burlesque

5/29/07 Erin Carey --

drink and draw
brillobox
4104 penn ave
412.621.4900

Flux Braddock

FLUX 14: Braddock
Saturday, April 14, 2007
8PM to 1AM
entrance located at the corner of Braddock Ave. and Library St.

A project of the Three Rivers Arts Festival in partnership with the Braddock Borough Council and the Mayor’s Office of Braddock

Artistic Direction by: Omar Abdul, DJ Brewer, Edgar Um Bucholtz, Michele de la Reza, Lea Donatelli, Curt Gettman/Unicorn Mountain, Chris Ivey, Patrick Jordan, Osman Kahn, Thad Kellstadt, Peter Kope, Merissa Lombardo, Lauri Mancuso, and Matthew Wellins

Featuring artwork and installations by: Beano, Jennifer Birch, Tony Buba, destroy/destroyer, Brian Dougherty, the Hospital Food project (featuring artists from the Ohringer Building), Chris Ivey, I.R.E., Tim Kaulen, Jennifer Lee, Mule Kicked Visions, New Guild Studios, Obsolete, Owl Kahol, Rivercubes ATM, Tom Sarver, James Simon, Joshua Space, and Andreas Tapias-Urzua

Performances by: Attack Theater, barebones Productions, Centipede E’ est, Charon Don & DJ Huggy, DBL D, Dutchmasters, Daryl Fleming & the Public Domain, Flotilla Way, Joy Ike, Jmalls, Lucid Music, Pandemic! Deejays, Nate the Phat Barber, Aesir St. James, Steel City Poetry Slam Team, and the Weakness

Sponsored by: The Richard King Mellon Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development, the Henry John Simonds Foundation, Wall to Wall Studios, Penn Brewery, WYEP, Vincent Lighting, East End Food Co Op, B.P.O.E. Braddock Lodge #883, the A.J. Silberman Company and the Braddock Carnegie Library

Tickets $10 at the door cash only, $8 for students (with valid ID), Kids under 10 free
All door proceeds benefit participating artists.

Must be 21+ with valid id to purchase alcohol. Limited handicap accessibility.

Yinzer's Bomb Chelsea

So, I went to NY to network and catch the solo of an artist from Pittsburgh that has had some stuff in my gallery. From my past experience, I usually find that with almost no research, I run into 3-5 shows of artists with strong Pittsburgh ties per trip - not counting Andy Warhol. A last minute email from another artist clued me in on my own role in a group show which was a great bonus.

Philip Pearlstein

Emily Noelle Lambert

John Morris (don't believe that bio-- I live in Pittsburgh; not Queens!!!)

I guess one has to chalk that up as one of the ongoing humiliations of living in "fly over country".

Fly Over Country

It's funny how something small can just encapsulate and focus all the pain's and humiliation of life in one place. This photo has sort of done it for me. We don't live in a place, just the space in between places- I guess.

In Full Bloom @SPACE - images from the exhibit

So finally, here are the images from the In Full Bloom exhibit at SPACE. I may have to go back. There are over a hundred works from forty artists in the exhibit. It is difficult to take a show like this in all at one time. I saw a lot of the work at drop off and I've been back to the gallery twice since the opening. It's the kind of exhibit where you see something new each time you go, as much because of your mood as the sheer number of works.
Kevin Wenner

I had mentioned that I was going to shoot Kevin Wenner's piece after the opening. Pretty luscious, huh? Speaking of luscious works, check out Ed Parrish's work, below. This was a pretty ambitious undertaking. Someone mentioned to me that he created this piece for the In Full Bloom exhibit.
Ed Parrish
Ed Parrish -- detail
Masha Vereshchenko

Maybe it was my mood, but I was really drawn to the lush works in the exhibit. Masha Vereshchenko's delicate ink drawings on this heavy-textured paper pulled me in. This deserves more time and I look forward to visiting it again.

Amir Rashidd

This piece really drew me in, too. The dichotomy between the loose ground and the tight rendering of the figure appeals to me.

I wish I could credit this one. The work is hung very high on the wall and I couldn't read its label. Also, my image doesn't do the color justice, so use this as an incentive to go and view the exhibit.

More details about the exhibit can be found here and here.

Easter Egg Hunt @the Carnegie Museum

So, there are flyers up around Oakland, near the Carnegie Museum.

Where are the names of notable women on the facade of the Carnegie Museum?
Some suggestions for inclusion are written on Easter eggs and hidden in and
around the museum. How many can you find?

Good Luck
E. Bunny

We at Digging Pitt have received further explanation from E. Bunny, in the form of the following statement...

March 29, 2007
One of the first interesting things I came across when I returned to
Pittsburgh two years ago was the list of notable women posted on the skinny
building in commemoration of Women's History month - women who might be
candidates for inclusion in the all-male frieze of names carved into the
facade of the Carnegie Museum. A self-addressed stamped envelope is not what it
used to be and my request for a copy of the list that LUPEC compiled went astray. I thought it would
be fun to write the names on the bottom of those plastic ducks they use in
carnival games and dump them in the fountain in front of the museum. I bought a
dozen ducks from a novelty store on the strip and finally found someone who
would download the names for me. Wouldn't you know it, the fountain has been
shut off for a month now because of some sort of repairs or construction. So I
bought two bags of those plastic eggs, wrote names and dates from the list on
the outside and scissored apart the biographic material and folded it inside the
egg: Then I posted flyers at the bus stops announcing the Easter egg
hunt after I hid them in, on and around the museum.

Another idea I had for using the names (which any other like-minded
feminist is welcome and encouraged to copy) was to write them on smooth stones
and leave them at the base of the statues of the four white guys outside, the
way that Jews leave stones at a gravesite, on a headstone, to commemorate a visit to
a dead family member. Or attach the name, with paper and string, as one would
tie a message to a stone about to be hurled through a window.

I had some questions about the list itself - it was unnecessarily long and
I found myself clipping a group of three or four and making them share an
egg.There was someone named"Roger" with no biographical or explanatory material
provided. Artemsia Gentileschi's name is
misspelled. And why isn't Elizabeth Barrett Browning's name included? I
also wish that it had mentioned that one of my favorites, Hypatia, had been stoned to
death by a mob of Christians.

Your Friend
E. Bunny

Happy hunting everybody. And thank you, E. Bunny.

John Morris @D’Amelio Terras

John Morris

D’Amelio Terras
D'Amelio Terras is located on the ground floor at 525 West 22nd Street, in between 10th and 11th avenues.


Works on Paper:
Case Calkins, Damien Deroubaix, Roland Flexner, John Morris
March 31 – April 28, 2007
Opening Reception: March 30, 6-8pm

If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and see the exhibit. More information

Flat Line @Digging Pitt

Marci Gehring: Flat Line (Side I)

Pittsburgh … Digging Pitt welcomes Marci Gehring to the gallery. In April, Digging Pitt will hand the gallery over to Gehring for Flat Line. An opening reception takes place on April 14, 2007 from 6-9pm. A closing reception takes place on June 2, 2007 from 6-9pm. Free and open to the public.

Marci Gehring: Flat Line (Side I)

In April, Digging Pitt will hand the gallery over to Marci Gehring for Flat Line. An opening reception takes place on April 14, 2007 from 6-9pm. A closing reception takes place on June 2, 2007 from 6-9pm. Free and open to the public.

It has been several years since Pittsburgh has had an opportunity to view Marci Gehring's large-scale paintings. Gehring's richly ornate canvases closely reflect a philosophy crowded with figures both mythical and common. The detail of this figured work is overwhelming in its scale.

"My idea is to have everyone's inner gold come forth, and show how we are one, we're connected," says Gehring in her interview with Bill O'Driscoll.

Craft Congress in Pittsburgh

It's not too late -- you too can come to lovely Pittsburgh for the first ever Craft Congress. The Craft Congress has been organized by Handmade Arcade and will take place March 31 - April 1 at Spinning Plates. Information here.

The Pop City article mentions that some crafters have had their ideas lifted by national manufacturers, without acknowledgement or compensation. The congress invites organizers of craft fairs and artists' websites to Pittsburgh to discuss such issues.

The Craft fair has been getting some press locally and nationally in Bust magazine. A number of crafter blogs have been talking about the congress for a few months. Craft revolution has a recent post that lists some of the attendees, who are coming from all over the United States to Pittsburgh. In the article, they quote organizer Gloria Forouzan--

“The goal of Craft Congress is to build connections between the movement's organizers, who have been working to expand the craft culture primarily in their own communities. Craft Congress is an original concept; attendees will have the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience, creating a network that will foster sustainability.”

This is a wonderful idea and I am glad that this event is taking place in Pittsburgh.

Bridge to Nowhere

Filming starts today for the Pittsburgh crime flick, "Bridge to Nowhere," starring Ving Rhames and directed by CMU grad, Blair Underwood.

"The Bridge to Nowhere" was a local term referring to an Allegheny River bridge which ran out of funding, and reached only halfway across the water for the better part of a decade. A Pitt student once drove over it into the drink in the middle of the night, but lived through it with hardly a scratch.

I'm always struck by the Allegheny bridges, which to my eye look like New York shapes at a Paris scale. The bridge pictured is one of the "Three Sisters" and cuts from Sandusky Street (in front of the Warhol) on the North Side to Seventh Street in Downtown.

In Full Bloom reception@SPACE

SPACE was so crowded at the opening that I really didn't get to look at the work. The show includes over one hundred works by forty artists. It was a massive undertaking. Bob Ziller brought some very fine work in for this exhibit. And the artists really put their best foot forward, with some creating work specifically for this show.

I will be going back over the next week to get images of some of the works but following are some images of the reception.


Christane D. and Eden McNutt
Kevin Wenner, working on Full Bloom. I'll get an image of the completed work when I go back next week.
The inconquerable Marci Gehring. This image is from a previous exhibit, where she was showing off one of her afghan creations. I just love these, especially on tall, lanky women (and men: see below). But on me? No, I would look like a couch!

Marci brought a rack of these garments to the opening; there are more images on Chuck Busha's pbase site. Go check it out, they're way better than mine.

April events

Stay updated on happenings at Digging Pitt gallery on the Digging Pitt Blog. And for all of you cycle enthusiasts, Digging Pitt brings you Motorheads on MySpace.

Gilding Demonstration with Katherine Young
Save the Date! April 1, 2PM

Katherine will be demonstrating gilding, a technique that she uses to great advantage in her work. This ancient technique has been used to decorate temples and sculpture, imbuing the wooden support with the luster of fine metals. Free and open to the public. Please RSVP to Digging Pitt Gallery by email or at 412-605-0450. -- more information

Closing reception for Lush Life, Visual Abstraction and Regenesis
Save the Date!
April 7, 6-9PM

Lush Life - Side I --more information
Paul LeRoy
Todd Pinkham
Jessica Sommer
Katherine Young


Visual Grammar: Five Approaches to Abstraction-- more information
Curated by Gary Jurysta
Charles Andresen
Glen Brunken
Joren Dykstra
Patrick Schmidt

Regenesis: David Grim @Digging Pitt Too-- more information
David Grim

Opening Reception for Flat Line, Prodiga diNero, George Kollar
and Photography Showcase
Save the Date!
April 14, 6-9PM

Marci Gehring: Flat Line (Side I)-- more information
Marci Gehring

Selene dePackh:
The Graphic Tales of Prodiga diNero (Side II) -- more information
Selene dePackh

Spotlight on George Kollar (Side II) -- more information
George Kollar

Photographic Showcase Exhibit @Digging Pitt Too -- more information
Produced by Redfish Creative
Curator: John Eastman
Kim Curinga
Elena Hiatt Houlihan

Pinhole Photography workshop with George Kollar
Save the Date!
April 29, 12-2PM
Join George Kollar at Digging Pitt Gallery on April 29, Worldwide Pinhole Photography day. George will be conducting a pinhole photography workshop. 12-2pm Free. Please RSVP your interest to Digging Pitt Gallery by email or at 412-605-0450 -- more information

John Morris – Director
Digging Pitt Gallery
4417 Butler Street
Digging Pitt Too
45th and Plummer Streets
Pittsburgh PA 15201
412-605-0450
john@diggingpitt.com
Digging Pitt Gallery
Digging Pitt Blog
MySpace
Motorheads

Butler Street Gallery Hours:
TH 12 - 9
FR 12 - 7
SA 11 – 7
SU 11 - 7

Too Hours:
SA 12 - 5
By appointment and at other random times

Double Warhol

Drink and Draw on Tuesday, March 20. We had two models dressed as Warhol. It was a very interesting session, as I'm sure you can imagine.

The images on the left are courtesy of Paul LeRoy. The images on the right are courtesy of the artist, Sara Sweeney. 'Cause I, yet again, forgot to bring my camera to Drink and Draw on Tuesday. Thank you, Sara and Paul.

Gilding Demonstration @Digging Pitt

Gilding Demonstration with Katherine Young

April 1, 2007 at 2pm.
Free and open to the public.
RSVP to Digging Pitt Gallery by email or at 412-605-0450

Katherine Young’s work, currently on exhibit at Digging Pitt Gallery, mixes the obsessive decoration and fervent craft usually associated with religious art. The explicit sexual imagery calls into question our definitions of sacred and profane. Katherine's work explores feminine gender anxieties provocatively and innocently, with something a bit disturbing underneath. The mixed media manipulation of traditional, domestic, and kitsch elements resonates with the mystical and the mundane, the illogical and the ideal. Seemingly paradoxical, it often encompasses morbid elements of the female experience.

Katherine will be demonstrating gilding, a technique that she uses to great advantage in her work. This ancient technique has been used to decorate temples and sculpture, imbuing the wooden support with the luster of fine metals.

Katherine Young
Lush Life -- Save the Date! Closing reception April 7, 6-9PM

In Full Bloom @SPACE

In Full Bloom
March 23 - May 12, 2007
Opening on March 23, 6-9PM
Gallery Crawl on April 20
SPACE
812 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh PA 15222

In Full Bloom was curated by Bob Ziller. I found images of some of the work that is in the exhibit. I wish I could include more. Some of the artists in the exhibit--

Laura Jean McLaughlin
Marci Gehring
Maggie Aston
Karl Mullen
Masha Vereschenka
Biko

Hope you can join us in celebrating on March 23.

Kate Bazis
Susan Constanse
Christiane D

Photographic Showcase @Digging Pitt Too

April 14 - June 2, 2007
Photographic Showcase @Digging Pitt Too
Produced by Redfish Creative


Photographic Showcase @Digging Pitt Too
Opening reception April 14: 6-9PM
Produced by Redfish Creative
Curator: John Eastman
Kim Curinga (top image)
Elena Hiatt Houlihan (bottom image)
More information

In April, Digging Pitt Too will be presenting a photography showcase. John Eastman, who is the curator, selected works by artists whose approaches to photography are entirely different. Please join us on April 14 for the artist reception.

Curator Statement -- John Eastman

One of the magic elements of photography is that the photographer has the opportunity to present to the viewer an image, captured for a split second or less, maybe never existing again in that context. It is through their eyes, and of their lens, that a type of artistic interpretation is made available to us. While images appear seemingly obvious, it is the interpretation that I always look for in a photographer's work, as this is their version of the story, or the message they are asking you to be open to see.

The process of creating a photographic montage, I believe, further extends that liberty. We have the benefit of experiencing close-up, a detailed working process that starts with a series of skillfully captured images, re-imagined, re-created, and edited by the photographer. Ultimately they present us with their vision of another version of a continuous whole.

This new composite enables us a visit inside the photographer's mind, and not just through the lens of their camera. Welcome to the interpretations of Elena Hiatt Houlihan and Kim Curinga.

Digging Pitt Too
45th & Plummer Streets
Pittsburgh PA 15201
412-605-0450
SA 12 – 5
by appointment
and at other random times
www.diggignpitt.com

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

What is Pinhole Day? Anyone, anywhere in the world, who makes a pinhole photograph on the last Sunday in April, can scan it and upload it to this website where it will become part of the annual Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day celebration's online gallery. A number of workshops, lectures and exhibits are available as Worldwide Pinhole Phtography Day approaches. Up-to-date information about events and workshops worldwide can be found here. There are several events planned in the Pittsburgh area.

Spotlight on George Kollar (Side II)

Opening Reception:
April 14, 2007: 6-9pm

Pinhole photography workshop with George Kollar --more information
April 29, 2007: 12:00pm

Closing Reception:
June 2, 2007: 6-9pm

George Kollar's motorcycle portraits will be spotlighted in a special presentation at Digging Pitt Gallery. The soft focus, inherent in the pinhole photography process, brings a gleam of quiet life to these beasts of the road. -- more information


The f295 Symposium on Lensless, Alternative and Adaptive Photographic Processes
Thursday, April 26 - Sunday, April 29, 2007

The event brings eight contemporary photographers together to engage in discussion and debate regarding the rising use of alternative photographic methods in an age of increasingly sophisticated technological means.

This multi-day event offers lectures, round-table discussion, and hands-on workshops held in association with Pittsburgh area arts organizations.
more information


Pinhole Camera Workshop
Instructor: Tom Persinger
Location: The Mattress Factory
Date:28 April 2007
Time: 10am-4pm (includes lunch)
Cost: $35 ( $30 for MF members)
Registration: by email or phone (412) 231- 3169 ext. 212, 213

In this exciting, hands-on workshop participants will build their own large format pinhole camera, drill their own pinholes, expose images using paper negatives and develop them in the darkroom. Act 48 credit available is available for educators. --more information

dePackh and Kollar @Digging Pitt

Selene dePackh: The Graphic Tales of Prodiga diNero (Side II)
Opening Reception:
April 14, 2007: 6-9pm
Closing Reception:
June 2, 2007: 6-9pm

Artist Selene dePackh, working as Prodiga diNero, shares a glimpse into the process of creating her artistically sophisticated 'comix'. She will show excerpts from her self-scripted, Pittsburgh-set "Serpent in a Steel Garden", a contemporary supernatural noir comic; and "The F-Xsis Chronicles" a serialized graphic novel featuring a powerful, motorcycle-riding heroine created by Marianne (Bear) Taylor of the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company. Also shown will be a series of posters being developed for possible use by the Buell division of Harley-Davidson, likewise in collaboration with Ms. Taylor.
Selene dePackh
More information

Spotlight on George Kollar (Side II)
Opening Reception:
April 14, 2007: 6-9pm
Closing Reception:
June 2, 2007: 6-9pm

George Kollar's motorcycle portraits will be spotlighted in a special presentation at Digging Pitt Gallery. The soft focus, inherent in the pinhole photography process, brings a gleam of quiet life to these beasts of the road.
George Kollar
More information