Urban Architecture II at Soulard Art Market

Untitled, a photo by Hilary (curioush) on Flickr.

Several years ago I was at a museum in Kansas City and saw an amazing photograph, Isabella's Two Chairs.

I loooooooooooooved this photo. I'd never heard of the photographer, Michael Eastman.  I knew nothing about the photo or when it was taken — was it from 40 years ago? 60?

When I got back to St. Louis and my computer I looked up Michael Eastman and to my great surprise learned that not only is he contemporary and making amazing work right now, he's based in St. Louis, very near my parents' house.

His Vanishing America series is just fantastic, and his Cuba photos (which include Isabella's Two Chairs) are incredible.

When I learned recently that the nifty Soulard Art Market had a call for entries to its Urban Architecture II exhibit, and discovered that Michael Eastman would be judging the submissions, I had to enter something.

What a thrill it would be to have one of my photos accepted into a show that was judged by my photographic hero! And ... it is thrilling!  I'm very excited to have two photos — the one above, Hierarchy of Needs, and another — accepted into the Urban Architecture II.

The show will be up March 8-April 5, 2013, with an opening reception Friday, March 8, from 7:00-10:00 p.m. You should come!

Soulard Art Market
2028 S. 12th (at Russell)
St. Louis, MO 63104

Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition opens this Sunday

Untitled, a photo by Hilary (curioush) on Flickr.

I will have this photo and another one in the Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition, opening this Sunday at the St. Louis Artists' Guild.
From the St. Louis Artists' Guild:

Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition

Opening Reception: Sunday, June 17, 2012; 1pm–3pm
Exhibition Dates: June 17–August 11, 2012
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 12pm–4pm

A biennial all-media, all-content, all-styles exhibition, open to artists across the United States. Juried by Marla Prather, Curator, Department of of Modern and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC.

Awards for the Ann Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibition will be presented at 2pm during the Opening Reception on Sunday, June 17, 2012.

EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Muhammad Alhawagri* (St. Louis, MO)
Laura Bailey* (St. Louis, MO)
Geoff Bent (Glen Ellyn, IL)
Susan Bolhafner* (St. Louis, MO)
Pat Brokaw* (Bonne Terre, MO)
Elizabeth Cavanaugh Cohen* (St. Louis, MO)
Maria Cooper* (Collinsville, IL)
Jerry Cox* (Hillsboro, MO)
Cathie Crawford (Peoria, IL)
Miguel de Aguero* (Gray Summit, MO)
Ted Denton (Marshall, MO)
Dennis DeToye* (Edwardsville, IL)
Tim Eberhardt* (St. Louis, MO)
Suzy Farren* (St. Louis, MO)
Carol Foster* (Tampa, FL)
Deidre Fox
Claire Frandsen (Fenton, MO)
Sarah Gillespie (Edwardsville, IL)
Karen Glines* (St. Louis, MO)
M.J. Goerke* (St. Louis, MO)
Derek Gollaher (Farmington, MO)
Katy Guetzlaff (Fulton, MO)
Eden Harris* (St. Louis, MO)
Hilary Hitchcock* (St. Louis, MO)
Diana Hoffmann* (St. Louis, MO)
Donald Hortsman (Fenton, MO)
Khara Koffel (Jacksonville, IL)
Albert Kuo (St. Louis, MO)
Jerry Lamme (Tuscaloosa, AL)
Andrea Land (St. Louis, MO)
Sherry Leary* (Goddy Daisy, TN)
Laurie LeBreton (Chicago, IL)
Jimmy Liu (Ballwin, MO)
Casey Lowry (Newman, IL)
Greg MacNair* (Clayton, MO)
Nathan Marshall (St. Louis, MO)
Christy Martin* (O’Fallon, MO)
Ron McIlvain* (Kirkwood, MO)
Michael Meinhold* (St. Louis, MO)
Dawson Morgan* (Chesterfield, MO)
Benjamin Mudd* (St. Louis, MO)
Bonnie Murray (St. Louis, MO)
Ken O’Toole (Ft. Worth, TX)
Mark Pease (Carbondale, IL)
Debi Pickler
Brittany Ransom (Chicago, IL)
Joel Ray (Cape Girardeau, MO)
Taylor Reed (Carbondale, IL)
Frank Roth* (St. Louis, MO)
Neeta Salam (St. Louis, MO)
John Schnellmann (Chesterfield, MO)
Nora Schomogy* (Maryland Heights, MO)
Dan Scott (Columbia, MO)
Steven Silburg (Collinsville, MD)
Mimi Silver
Courtney Tharpe* (St. Louis, MO)
Jim Trotter* (St. Louis, MO)
Jim True* (Crystal City, MO)
Andy Van Der Tuin (St. Louis, MO)
Terry Vermillion* (Fenton, MO)
Margaret Von Kaenel* (St. Louis, MO)
Maggie Wheelcock (St. Louis, MO)
Melissa Whiteman (St. Charles, MO)
Tom Whitton (West Palm Beach, FL)
Jenny Wiener (Tavares, FL)
Christoper Wille (Bloomington, IL)
Gwin Willis* (St. Louis, MO)
Kay Wood* (St. Louis, MO)
Peggy Wyman (Macomb, MO)
Thomas Yanko (St. Louis, MO)
Carol Zeman* (Osage Beach, MO)
Fotios Zemenides (Chicago, IL)
Maggie Zografakis* (St. Louis, MO)
Barbara Zucker* (St. Louis, MO)

*St. Louis Artists' Guild member

EXHIBITION JUROR: Marla Prather

Marla Prather is Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which she joined in 2008. From 2005 to 2007, she was the Curator for American Art at Tate Modern, London, and from 1999 to 2004, the Curator of Postwar Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. She joined the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., in 1986, becoming Curator and Head of the Department of 20th Century Art from 1996 to 1999. From 1982 to 1984, she was the Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, where she was also a lecturer in the history of art.

Among her exhibitions at the Whitney were "Unrepentant Ego: The Self-Portraits of Lucas Samaras (2003–4)" and "American Legacy: A Gift to New York (2003)". At the National Gallery of Art, her projects included the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden (1998), "Alexander Calder, 1898-1976" (1998) and "Willem de Kooning: Paintings" (1994), which travelled to the Metropolitan Museum and Tate Gallery. She has been a Trustee of the Archives of American Art since 1999. Last year, she was the curator for the Met's venue of "John Baldesarri: Pure Beauty". Most recently, she contributed to the Metropolitan's Picasso catalogue and to the catalogue for an exhibition at the National Gallery, London on the work of British artist Bridget Riley. She is currently preparing "Ellsworth Kelly: Plant Drawing"s for Summer 2012 and "Regarding Warhol: Fifty Artists Fifty Years" for the fall of 2012.

For more information about this exhibition, please visit our website: http://www.stlouisartistsguild.org/new/ann-metzger-2012

Who's up for a road trip?

Some of my photos (including the one above) are in Placement, an invitational photography exhibit in the gallery of the Donald D. Shook Fine Arts Building at St. Charles Community College:

St. Charles Community College is pleased to announce "Placement" a Photography Invitational shown in conjunction with the "UMSL Student Photography Exhibition" located in the gallery of the Donald D. Shook Fine Arts Building on campus.  The participating invitational artists include Robert Boettcher, Richard Glass, Beth Goyer, Hilary Hitchcock, Donald J. McKenna, and Bob Rickert.  This exhibition runs from Jan. 30-March 4, 2012 with an opening reception on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 from 6-8 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Details here.

"wonderfully weird...": Pinholio exhibit at Good Citizen Gallery

The Riverfront Times has a short and sweet review of the Pinholio exhibit at Good Citizen Gallery, in which I have two photos. 

The show is only up through December 17, so if you want to take a look, you'd better get there soon!

This weekend is a good opportunity, when the gallery will be hosting a holiday sale by Sprouted Designs, which will include housewares, children's clothes, and tea towels, among other things.  Check it out!

The Sprouted Designs sale is Saturday and Sunday, December 10-11, from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.


Good Citizen Gallery is at 2247 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, MO 63104, just a little bit northeast of the intersection of Jefferson and Gravois.

"Right this instant" event this Sunday at Urban Eats

Yesterday I knocked over what seemed like an entire bucket of salsa in my refrigerator—what a great opportunity to clean out the fridge! (Sometimes I need a little salsa crisis to spur me into action.)

What worried me the most about this was the stockpile of Polaroid film I've got chillin' like Bob Dylan in there.

Polaroid Corporation stopped manufacturing film several years ago, so as each type that I use was being phased out, I bought up as much as I could. I try to save it mostly for things that I know will be well-suited for the medium—some of the colors of one type really lend themselves to intense skies, for instance. And type 669 is used for Polaroid transfers (see example above. See more about the process here.)

I think I got the Polaroid boxes cleaned up quickly enough that there will be no lasting salsa scars, but I was a little wistful when I saw how small my pile of Polaroid film is getting. It won't last forever, even in the refrigerator, so I put some of it to use recently in preparation for my current show at Urban Eats, "Right this instant." I've got traditional Polaroid photos in the show, as well as Polaroid transfers and emulsion lifts, and Holgaroids, photos made with a Holga camera with a Polaroid back.

The show is hanging up throughout May, and I'll be at Urban Eats this Sunday, May 23, from 11:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Come say "hi"! (There will be food and drinks for sale in the cafe. And while you're at it, see work from Angie Griffith, Naomi Silver, Thomas Shepherd and the PPRC Photography Project. You can download a flyer with more information on all the artists here.)

Hope to see you Sunday!

Urban Eats Cafe (enter Urban Arts Collective through the cafe)

3301 Meramec St (at Virginia)

St Louis, MO 63118

PS. There is a company that is trying to revive some Polaroid film. Learn more about it here.

St. Louis Through the Lens

Aren't my nieces cute? When my little sister (their aunt) got married two years ago, we -- the wedding party -- traveled around town to various spots to take photos. The wedding photographer did a phenomenal job. I got a few photos off to the side when we weren't "on". Like this one.

This photo was accepted as a finalist (yay!) into this year's Irv Schankman Memorial Photography Contest, St. Louis Through the Lens.

The exhibition is intended to promote work by regional photographers and features the city of St. Louis as its subject. The jurors for the competition are Ellen Curlee, Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, and Bob Little.

In addition to the juried exhibition there will be a selected exhibition of work by Irv Schankman. Irv Schankman (1924-2004) was a professional photographer and the founder of Allied Photocolor and Imaging Center. His love of documenting St. Louis began as soon as he picked up his first camera in the 6th grade. In his junior year of high school he made his way through police lines to shoot an emblazoned gasoline storage facility. These photographs, which appeared in St. Louis’s Star Times as dramatic silhouettes, marked the beginning of his professional career.

The exhibit runs September 10-December 5, 2009 at Gallery 210 on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The opening reception and announcement of awards is this Thursday, September 10 from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Come!

Sedalia-bound

Heading to Sedalia, Missouri this weekend to drop off this photo for the Missouri 50 Exhibition at the Missouri State Fair. I'm really honored to have had my work accepted into this for a second time; I've enjoyed visiting the exhibit each year and seeing all the artwork from across the state.

The fair runs August 13-23, 2009. You should go! There's a lot to do and see there.

Plus? Sedalia is home of the Guber Burger. Do.not.miss.it.

Cherokee Open House report

I've been neglectful about saying how much I enjoyed the Cherokee Street Open House.

It was a beautiful day and I was really pleased with the turnout. Loads of people came by -- and why wouldn't they? Foam is such an attractive spot and such great care is going into it that I know everyone is as eager to see it open as I am. Pretty sure it will be open for business sometime this summer. Stay tuned!

Thanks very much to those of you who came by and took a look at my work. And, of course, to Mike from Foam for giving me a space to show my work. I really appreciate it!

Foam

I'll be at Foam Coffee & Beer today beginning at 11 a.m. and going until we tire out, I guess! I have special one-day-only discounts and new work to show.

Most of the activities scheduled to happen on Cherokee today are between the hours of 11 a.m. and 9 p.m., but I know of at least a couple of other things that will be going later.

If you are bringing littles, think about stopping by mid-afternoon, when there will be stuff for kids at Foam. From Mike, Foam's owner: "If you have kids be sure to come by Foam (3359 S. Jefferson and Cherokee) for some free, family friendly entertainment. We'll be reading stories at 2:30 and have a musical performance starting at 3pm. I know there will be sing along and group participation as well as some original solo acoustic material. The weather is going to be nice and the doors will be open. Cherokee is the place to be! But of course you knew that."

Foam is on the northwest corner of Cherokee and Jefferson, right where the big statue is.

Please come by and see me! Don't forget that if you mention you read my blog, you get a postcard as my free gift to you. No obligation. You can cancel at any time.

Phooey!

 

Turns out that the blank roll of film was NO problem, because my film developing class, which was supposed to begin tonight, has been canceled. So now I've got to come up with a new plan to learn the process. More than a few folks have told me that it's fairly easy, but I'm more of a learn-by-doing than a learn-by-reading type, so I was hoping to have the chance to try it out with instruction a few times before I attempted to tackle it on my own. Anyone local who has ideas on somewhere else to take a course in this?

The photo above is one of the handful of digital photos I took on Saturday's excursion. The Knotty Pine Inn and Motel is in Breese, Illinois, on Old Route 50. I had fried chicken there.

Oh, before I forget!: I am super excited to be participating in the Cherokee Street Open House on Saturday, April 4. Mike from Foam* has generously offered to let me have some photos on display the day of the open house. My first solo show! Yay!

If you are in STL that day, won't you pretty pretty please come by and see me? It would mean the world to me. Holler at me for details. I promise to continue to harrass you about this until it's over.

Love,
Me


*do you know about Foam? It's going to be a coffee and beer place (but way more than that) opening at the corner of Cherokee & Jefferson, right where the statue is. Got to take a peek in it the other day and the work that's in progress there is way cool. Come take a look!

Celery

I will be donating a photo to the Missouri Coalition for the Environment's 2009 Earthworks exhibit and auction at the Regional Arts Commission* in the Loop here in St. Louis in May.

I was in this show a couple of years ago and found it to be really cool. So be sure to check it out once it's up!

Still thinking about what photo I'll use. I have a few things in mind. One idea that came to me tonight was one of these photos of celery that I've been working on. In my brain there are reasons why one of these might fit with an environmental theme, but I've not got all the words for it yet.



* I still have a couple of pieces hanging there currently in the Holga Polka Invitational through February 22.