Artblog Celebrating 20 Years!   Support Us Today!

Thursday, this and that: craft fairs, street sales, a book and feathered dogs from New Zealand


sponsored

The inbox is overflowing with the stuff of life–silliness, sadness, wonderfulness and just stuff.  Here’s a few things that stick out for reasons I can’t quite identify except that I want to share them.

A Street Sale–Too Big to Fail!
Tim Bowen, artist-gallerist of the once-hopping and now-closed Falling Cow Gallery on South 4th St., is having a street sale this Saturday of his paintings from the late 70s and 80s. I ran into Bowen last week. He was sitting on his stoop on Carpenter Street and we caught up on this and that. Ill health has been his lot for the last year or so and the sale will help him raise some cash to pay bills. Bowen told me he just received a $4,000 grant which is wonderful to hear.  Anyway, I love the title of this event. And Bowen’s got a band (or a portion of a band) –Rocco Notte of The A’s– who will be playing keyboards. Sounds like a mini block party with a purpose.

Tim Bowen, World War III, pop meets disaster in a work from the 70s or 80s.
Tim Bowen, World War III, pop meets disaster in a work from the 70s or 80s.

 Technorati Profile

TOO BIG TO FAIL!
Saturday 4/18
sidewalk ART sale
Recession busting prices!!
1125 Carpenter St.  12-5 pm
music by Rocco Notte

A Book–Grey Gardens
I heard Drew Barrymore interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air the other day.  Barrymore is playing Little Edie in the HBO re-enactment of Grey Gardens which begins April 18.  The HBO series is based on the original documentary by the Maysles Brothers about Little and Big Edie Beale who lived in a crumbling wreck of a house on Long Island.  Can anyone tell me why HBO is re-creating this in a docu-drama?  It seems silly.  Meanwhile, the interview reminded me that the Free News Projects book, Grey Gardens, is now available for pre-order.  The book, produced in cooperation with the Maysles family, documents the original Grey Gardens film and includes a CD with conversations by the Beales and others. The book has photos, film stills, production notes, a transcript of the Beale’s telling some of their stories, a transcript of the film and the 60-minute CD.

Grey Gardens, book published by Free News Press and now available for pre-order.
Grey Gardens, book published by Free News Press and now available for pre-order.

Grey Gardens
PUBLISHED BY: Free News Projects
DISTRIBUTED BY: D.A.P. FORMAT: Hardback, 9 x 11in. / 304 pgs / 160 color
ISBN: 9-78-0-9776523-6-5  PUBLICATION DATE: 5/01/2009
$39.95

A Dog with Feathers by Emily Valentine
We are hot on the art of New Zealand since meeting Stuart Shepherd at Fountain Art Fair and seeing the New Zealand outsider artists he represents.  So, when Carrie from New Zealand sent this image and information about feathered dog art, I perked right up.  The artist, Emily Valentine, says feathers are her paint.  I don’t believe she’s one of Shepherd’s artists but the work has a strange outsidery quality to it:

Elizabeth Hennessy's feathered dog, part of her ongoing project to use found bird feathers to create fabulist canine art.
Emily Valentine’s feathered dog, part of her ongoing project to use found bird feathers to create fabulist canine art.

Three Craft Fairs between May 16 and June 15–Warm up your pocketbooks.
Taking their cue from the art collectives who love to throw art parties with music and host movie nights and have craft evenings and just hang out, the Piazza at Schmidts opens May 16.  It’s a great hang-out opportunity with a trunk show and bands.  They’ll also have a movie night and a Phillies game watching party that weekend.  See here for directions and schedules.  The Piazza is part of the Bart Blatstein housing and mixed use mega-development that engulfs the neighborhood where the old Schmidt’s Brewery used to be at Girard and 2nd St.  The Piazza is somewhere behind the new buildings at 2nd and Germantown.  Thanks to Chris Clark, whose work is included in the trunk show, for the tip.

Chris Clark, screen print on t-shirt. He'll have his work in the CP Trunk Show May 16.
Chris Clark, screen print on t-shirt. He’ll have his work in the CP Trunk Show May 16.

The City paper Trunk Show, aka craft fair, begins the outdoor fair season and I have to say how many of these can one city handle in a month?  Art Star Craft Bazaar is May 30  & 31 at Penn’s Landing and inLiquid’s Art for the Cash Poor is June 14 & 15 at the Crane.

That is all.  I need to get out in the sun.