Urban Eats shows

My first event at Urban Eats is this Sunday, April 25, 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.  There will be food and drink for sale in the cafe side, and art for looking at in the Urban Arts Collective side (enter through the cafe.)  My show this month is "Sign language", photographs I've been taking of signs over the last few years.  (And while you're there check out work from Angie Griffith, UMSL's PPRC Project, Thomas Shepherd, and Naomi Silver.)


A week after this event the sign show comes down and up goes the May show, "Right this instant", which will be a collection of images I've made with Polaroid film.  The Polaroids will be up all throughout the month of May at Urban Eats, with the meet-the-artist event on Sunday, May 23, 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. 


And in June I will put up my final show at Urban Eats — the theme is still being ironed out, but it will more than likely include at least a few photos of Globe Drugs, on my beloved Cherokee Street.


So the photo above really fits with all three shows ... I knows what I loves, and I loves that sign.


Hope to see you at Urban Eats!

"Sign Language" show at Urban Eats

I hung up my first show at Urban Eats this past weekend.  I've got a lot of new work in it.  There are matted photos and postcards for sale, in addition to the framed pieces* that are hanging.  I'm very excited about this show and the other artists' work as well.  (Download a flyer here for information on the other artists.)

The show will be hanging throughout April, after which we will rotate in our next shows for May.**

I am having a come-see-me event on Sunday, April 25, from 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.  Urban Eats will have tasty food and drinks for sale.  So come have br/lunch and say hello!

Oh, to whet your appetite for the show, click on the video below to see a little preview video made by one of the participating artists, Naomi Silver of Culture Surfer.



And one more thing ... I had postcards made for the show and I would love to send you one.  Just message me your address and I'll pop it in the mail to you.***  With a check for $15,000.****


*Did I mention that usually framed 8"x10" photos are $125 but for this show they are available for the low low price of $80?  I didn't?  Well, I did now!
**Mine will be Polaroid photographs and images made with Polaroid film.
***Free, no-obligation, nobody will visit your home, even if you are unable to come to the show you may keep the postcard as my free gift to you.  So you out-of-town folk, request away.  I want to use these!  While supplies last.
****Checks will not be honored.

The medium is the message

... or something like that.

I certainly think signs are super interesting to look at even when I am not absorbing what it is they are trying to convey to me. 

There are so many signs visible at this corner that I almost don't know where to look; no matter, it's the greater whole that draws me in. 

I have a show next month Urban Eats Cafe in south St. Louis on Meramec Street.  Have you been?  They have drinks called boozies.  That's smoothies + booze.  What more could you need to know? 

Back to the show:  It's called "Sign Language".  I will have photos of signs.  All kinds.  Little, big.  Metal, neon.  Maybe even paper.  Man, there will be some materials that I haven't even mentioned yet, I'll bet.  You don't want to miss this!

I don't know if this photo will be in the show yet.  You'll have to come see.  The show is going to be full of all kinds of crazy surprises like that.

A few details are here.  More to follow, I'm sure.

Out and about

I've not been so great about taking pictures for some time but I'm making an effort to do it even when I think I don't have time or don't have any ideas, etc.  After I do it, I'm always glad I did.

Last weekend I went out to take some photos for an upcoming show at Urban Eats Cafe*.  The first show will be mostly pictures of signs, so this is more of an outtake than something I'll use, but it just seemed to south St. Louis to me and also felt like pictures I used to take a couple of years ago and I sort of miss those pictures and anyway....





*I'll be participating in the April-June rotation

Missouri

I hate the term "fly-over country." It's so stupid. As if all this land is just a buffer between the coasts. The coasts are plenty interesting and obviously they have their fans but man there is some interesting stuff here in the middle.

I find Missouri to be particularly interesting, probably because I've seen more of it than I've seen anyplace else. Yet there's so much I haven't seen. I'll get to it.

This sign makes my heart sing every time I see it. All the words, all together. The different script styles. The colors. It's so—not sure if optimistic is the word I'm looking for, but something that is an antonym of cynical would capture my meaning.

I made a commitment to myself that I would list a new item on Etsy every night for a week. I've been sort of behind on my photo-taking lately, and also way behind on going through photos I've taken in the last six months or so to see what I have. I've got a show coming up next weekend* and wanted to produce some new material for it, and just generally get back in the photo-taking-and-making saddle.

I've passed by this sign eleventy thousand times and photographed it many of those times, but haven't gotten a picture of it that really let it be a star**. Found this one in my recent investigations into what pictures I took this summer and fall, and here it is. Seemed a fitting capstone to my new-listing project as it's been sort of an ongoing project for me to get this thing how I wanted it.


*are you coming? you should you should!
**speaking of star—isn't the star over the I in Ballerina beautiful?

Beacon's Holga Polka review and video

The St. Louis Beacon, a cool online journal, posted a review of the Holga Polka event and a video from it. There is a quick glimpse of one of my pieces at about 3:02 (it's three photos on a clothesline, part of "Car Wash").

Holga Polka

Day 9: Holga Polka
Originally uploaded by davidwraith can't sleep

My friend Dave took this of him and me at the Holga Polka show. It was nifty to see him, been a long time.