East Side Bridge Pier Project

The east side of the Bridge Pier Project was complicated on Memorial Day in near 90 degree temperatures. The west side phase, Three Billy Goats Gruff, was completed by me and my Street Art Honors Seminar Students (See my previous post for May 11, 2012). However, in this phase I worked with an all-volunteer crew and they were the greatest! Many thanks to my wonderful group of artists: Shannon Baldauf, Eric Price, Amanda Swann, Susan Hogan, Chris Villamagna, Bekah Karelis, Lambros Tsuhlares, Mia Szabo, Jeremy Morris, Hal Gorby, Marc Harshman, Georgette Stock, Andrea Stock, and Roy Jenree. Here is a slide show of the east side piers as they came to illustrate a series of fairy tales. (These piers are located under the Fort Henry Bridge/I-70, at Main Street, Wheeling, WV. An easy on/off access from Interstate 70.)

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The Bridge Pier Project

In the spring of 2011 I submitted a proposal at West Liberty University to teach an Honors Seminar on the subject of street art and graffiti. The idea for the class came about based on my photographs of NYC street art taken over the past 15 years. Along with my own images, there has been a huge amount of material written on the subject of street art, as well as several documentary films.

Anyone who doubts that street art is one of the most significant art movements of our century, need only walk through the streets of any major city and view the art that has been created on its walls. Ranging from photocopied scribbles to complex stenciled, hand-painted, or pasted pieces, the work is uncensored and in your face, ready to be loved, hated, critiqued, or ignored. Especially of interest to me is the influence of street art is having on museums, galleries, and contemporary art itself.

As part of the course, participating students were part of an urban painting experience. With support from the Wheeling Organization, Training, Revitalization and Capacity team, Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation, and the City of Wheeling, the Street Art Honors Seminar students and I were ready to paint the support piers under the Fort Henry/ I-70 Bridge. Our support people provided funding for the paint, but also secured the OK from the West Virginia Department of Highways, and the Federal Highways Administration. Wheeling city workers power-washed the concrete surfaces prior to painting.

Our subject for the west side piers is the Norwegian fairy tale, Three Billy Goats Gruff. Appropriate, I thought, since it deals with a troll who lives under a bridge, and has a reputation for eating anyone and anything that comes across “his bridge”. Then he meets three very smart Billy goats!

Thanks to everyone who made this first phase of the project possible: In addition to the agencies listed above, thanks to my Street Art Seminar students Niki Baker, Amanda Swan, Tricia Brown, Andrew Price, and Amanda Carney; to all around super human, supporter and team coordinator, Susan Hogan; to Greg Smith & ON-TRAC; to Dr. Peter Staffel, Chair of the Honors Program and who supported this wacky idea of mine; and to my wonderful wife, Chris, who supported my idea and also listened to my whining as I worked to put this class together this past winter. It was a great experience, and here is a slide show of our progress:

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Altered Photo Workshop at MAD Festival

The 2012 West Virginia MAD (Media Arts and Design) Festival was held at West Liberty University on Friday April 27, 2012. As part of this annual, full day celebration of media arts, I taught three 0ne-hour mixed media workshops based on altered photographs. My inspiration for this workshop is the work of artist Alex Gross. I recently had saw the exhibition, Product Placement, at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in Chelsea. As part of that exhibition, Gross included a series of altered cabinet photos, which were most excellent! Once workshop participants got into their work (play?), I was able to participate as well.

 Here is a slide show of the workshop in progress, and some of the resutlts.

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A Short Story About a Photo Album

I enjoy finding old photographs and photo albums at flea markets. There is just something about being able to enter the lives of the people in these photos, if only for that split second click of the shutter. Most of the photos I find are given a new life as they end up in my collage work. The more interesting of the finds go on the wall or in the “collection”. Last summer I purchased a photo album at a local outdoor market, which in itself is nothing unusual. However, this particular album belonged to a student of the New York Institute of Photography in 1921.

Last week, in another one of my many attempts to clean my studio, I was moving some materials and rediscovered the album. I stopped my cleaning task to once more take a peek at the photos inside. After turning page after page of various portraits in a variety of settings and lighting situations, I discovered that there was a last page in the album that I had previously overlooked. Perhaps the page had been “stuck”, or it may have been that I had glance through the album too quickly. Regardless, here on the album’s last page were four photos taken on an elevated railroad somewhere in New York.

I had just revisited the wonderful Highline in NYC a few weeks back as part of a West Liberty University art trip. I was excited to think that these new found images might be early photos of that vary location. Upon examining the photographs further, I believe that this particular elevated railway may have been in Long Island, NY, based on a building sign in one of the photos.

In one of the photos you can see part of a restaurant sign reading “Chop Suey”, not unlike the sign in the painting by artist Edward Hopper. In the painting are two fashionable women dining and a similar sign can be seen just outside the window. Probably just a coincidence, but fun to think that just maybe….

I have included details from two of the photos. One shows a sign reading “Dr. Rubin Dentist”. If you look closely, you will see Dr. Rubin working on a patient. The other detail is of the Long Island Bird Store, just because I think the signs are so great! (The photo gallery may take a minute to load. Enjoy!)

First Rogers of 2012

When Chris and saw the weather forecast for Friday….sunny, high-fifties, and zero chance of rain…..that could only mean one thing! A trip to Rogers! This was our first visit this year, and several thousand other people seemed to have the same idea, and the flea market was jammed. By noon it was really difficult to move through the aisles. It was madness…..and fun! A beautiful to look at antiques, junk, people, food, and of course….art materials! Chris and I both found some tin, along with numerous other items which included a folksy looking wood dog that will now has a home. Here is a slideshow of the day, and while you are watching you will notice that Rogers becomes more and more crowded!

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The Ann Weber Project

In 2009, Chris and I spent 8 days in San Francisco. We had a wonderful visit, and for me it was my first return after having lived there as a pre-schooler. We stayed at the Parc 55 Hotel, near Union Square. Just off the elevator were two large basket-like sculptures. Chris asked me one day if I had looked at them, and I assured her I had. “Did you see what they are made of?”, Chris asked. “Ratan….. or some kind of basket  material,” I replied. “No”, Chris replied, “Cardboard!” NOW she had my attention! I suddenly took a new interest in these ‘baskets’!

We took several photographs of these sculptures, with the  possibility of creating a project for my Design II. or Sculpture classes at West Liberty University. For some reason I let the whole idea get pushed to the back burner, and forgot about it.

Then this past December I was planning projects for my spring Design II.class, and I ran across the photos of the cardboard sculptures. I decided that the first thing I needed to do was see if I could find out the name of the artist who created these pieces. After just a short time Googling various key words, I found the creator! California artist Ann Weber! Here are a few words describing Ann and her work, from an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on line:

Artist Ann Weber, a delicate woman, relies on some indelicate tools: a $25 Arrow P-22 stapler from Ace Hardware, a box cutter, shellac and loads of cardboard pulled from trash bins. Weber cuts cardboard into strips and staples pieces together until forms take shape. Sometimes the shapes are primal, looking like pods and seeds. Sometimes they are woven or coiled abstract figures. Sometimes they are smooth, elegant and towering shapes, resembling members of a wedding party awaiting a portrait.

“I was drawn to the challenge of making beauty from something so common and ubiquitous as cardboard,” said Weber, whose path to creating sculptures from cardboard began with her first pottery class in the 1970s, ”I’m from the Midwest, where the saying is we can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

Weber’s works range in size from 12 inches high to 16 feet tall. While some of her pieces are finished in bronze or fiberglass, most are plain cardboard preserved and strengthened with shellac. She fishes around trash bins near her Emeryville loft for much of the cardboard, she said. She has come to see the difference in cardboard made in different countries, and looks for cardboard faded in uneven ways by the sun.

I shared Ann Weber’s story with my Design II. class, along with images of her sculptures. After planting that seed, the students put pencil to paper and worked out their ideas. From that point on the studio was a flurry of cut cardboard, and the air was filled with the sound of clicking staplers. While most of the students did use staplers, a handful did the project using a hot glue gun. On behalf of the Design II. classes, and myself, I would like to thank Ann Weber for both her inspiring sculptures and her words of encouragement regarding this project. Here are the results:

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Tape Project: 2012

For several years now I have given my Design II. students an assignment lovingly referred to as “the tape shoe project”. The project consists of creating a full size shoe using only masking tape. This year I decided to mix things up just a bit by adding two options to the assignment. Option #1: students may choose to use duct tape, and option #2: students may choose to use an object, other than a shoe, as a model. The results, besides the traditional shoes, included a dress, jacket, video game console, hat, and Lady Gaga’s shoe to name a few. Here are some of the finished projects:

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Tin Workshop at Society for Contemporary Craft

I taught a one-day tin collage workshop this past Saturday at SCC in Pittsburgh. A great space to work in, and  a fun class with energetic students: Steve, Kim, Judith, Susan, and Honey the dog. Here are some photos from the workshop.

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The Meat Show

"If You're Happy and You Know It, Clamp Your Hams", by Robert Villamagna

 

Nutting Gallery at West Liberty State College is showing the annual Art Faculty Exhibition, “The Meat Show”, January 18 through February 19, 2012.. Art faculty members participating in this years exhibition are Brian Fencl, James Haizlett, Moonjung Kang, Paul Padgett, Nancy Tirone, Lambros Tsuhlares, Robert Villamagna, and Neal Warren.

Each year the Art Faculty Exhibition features a theme and this year the art faculty voted to follow the theme of “meat”. In this exhibition we are primarily focusing on meat as the edible flesh of animals, especially that of mammals. For the most part, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues. The result can be anything from images of meat to images of the Burger King and the musician, Meatloaf, or visual statements about the consumption of meat and vegetarianism.

The consumption of meat has various traditions and rituals associated with it in different cultures, which one may find among these works. The ethical issues regarding the consumption of meat, as well as objections to the act of killing animals, is also touched upon in this exhibition. However, the exhibition is not a “carnivores vs. vegetarians” debate, but rather eight artists exploring the theme of meat, each in his or her own way. The works in the Meat Show cover a wide range of media including drawing, painting, mixed media, digital, construction, photography, and video.

Having a new theme for the exhibition each year does a number of things: it brings a freshness to the annual exhibition, it challenges the members of the art faculty, and it shows students how a diverse group of artists each approach a single problem or idea, each in their own unique way and in a variety of media.

Here is a slide show of the opening and some of the works in the exhibition.

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OH+5 exhibition 2012

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  The OH+5 Borders Biennial Exhibition is currently at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio. I have two works in the show, but one of the pieces arrived broken. Yesterday Chris and I drove to Athens to see if the piece could be repaired. We got the “art surgery” completed in just under three hours and the piece, Bad Air Delivery, was on display two hours before the opening.

The winter weather slowed us down on the drive to Athens, and because we were concerned about conditions on the return trip, we left prior to the evening opening. We did get to see the exhibition, thanks to Andrea Lewis and staff, and the show looks great. I feel honored to be sharing space with these talented artists. Here are a few photos of the exhibition: