Rose Art Museum to close

Brandeis to sell school's art collection

By Geoff Edgers and Peter Schworm - Boston Globe Staff
January 26, 2009

Rocked by a budget crisis, Brandeis University will close its Rose Art Museum and sell off a 6,000-object collection that includes work by such contemporary masters as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Nam June Paik. ...

Read more from the Globe here. And more here and even more here. And more from the Globe again here and here.

UPDATE:
A must-read. Modern Art Notes Q&A with Michael Rush, Rose Art Museum Director. It offers a whole new perspective...

Petition here.

Polaroid...possible?

A group of past Polaroid employees and visionaries have acquired an old Polaroid factory in the Netherlands in the hopes of reviving instant pack film. And there was much rejoicing!

Dubbed "The Impossible Project," this intrepid group has a fascinating web site. Check it out here and enjoy the wonderful vintage video about SX-70s by Charles and Ray Eames above. It's worth the 10 minutes, so be sure to stick with it. The images are amazing; this duo is the bee's knees!

Vote vote vote! for the Boston Art Awards

Greg Cook of the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research just posted the ballot for the first (and hopefully annual) Boston Art Awards. Thank you for your efforts!

The rules are here and the ballot is here. Greg recommends pasting the ballot into an email and deleting those who don't get your vote, thus leaving those for whom you are voting.

The PRC's landscape show New England Survey is up in a couple categories (Best reflection of our local community, Big idea show, and Local curator of locally made art), but of course participation is what counts. It's good for you and good for the community.

Hurry, though, you have only until next Friday, January 23rd at 6pm. Now, go vote!

Witness a whole year in 40 seconds

I came across this fascinating video on yahoo. It's a whole year of a landscape in Oslo, Norway seen in 40 seconds. Similar to condensed multi-year video portraits on youtube (which seems to have continued according to his website), it's a viral hit.

I did a little digging on the photographer's web site, eirikso.com, and found some interesting tidbits. In short, he took all of the images manually as stills using his Canon from the same location. After converting to HDR, he used photoshop to layer them into a stack (so they would all line up exactly), cropped, and then pulled them into final cut pro. Eirik's blog is quite great and has some other interesting photo tech stuff, so I encourage those who lean towards social media, internet, blogs, etc. to check it out - this is you DK!

Time has been on my mind as of late (see my show Keeping Time), as has landscape (see New England Survey). Although on a more vernacular level, this video idea certainly also recalls Jem Southam's work as well as Boston's own Karl Baden (who has been photographing himself for over 20 years). Southam's work was on view at the Davis Museum this past year (you can read a great interview with him here) and Baden's entire "Every Day" project was on display at Howard Yezerski's in 2007. In the latter, contact prints were for sale for $10 on a first-come, first-served basis. I bought three.

Hopefully 2009 won't go as fast as the above. Enjoy!

Nominate Nominate Nominate!

The gregarious Greg Cook of NEJAR (New England Journal of Aesthetic Research) has initiated the 2008 Boston Art Awards, in part to make up for the AICA awards not being held this year. Thanks Greg - Boston needs this and we appreciate all of your hard work.

Please help by nominating your favorite everything in the below categories. (Of course, if you particularly enjoyed an exhibition held at a venue using a three letter acronym that starts with a P and ends with a C, it would be much appreciated!) Either way, it's just good to get involved and support our local arts community. I just submitted mine and it was fun!

In order to jog your memory of Boston area exhibitions and events from the last year, browse the following Spring and Fall 2008 previews from the Phoenix as well as scroll through a whole year of Randi Hopkins's picks.

Nominations are accepted via posting in the comments or via email. Instructions are at this link as well as a partial list of those submitted so far.

Put your thinking cap on and ponder the below categories:

When making nominations, please list name of artist or curator and place and date of exhibit. Also, some broad categories to consider: favorite local artist, local curator, local show, new media, photography, conceptually-driven installation/performance (including video thereof), favorite gallery show, favorite school show, favorite museum show, favorite historical show, favorite contemporary show, best survey/retrospective, favorite solo show, favorite group show, favorite public art (or best non-exhibition space project), favorite on-line project, favorite outdoors project, favorite art book/publication.

Mappy Nude Rear!

In a reprise of a few years ago, I present you with Tim Garrett's fabulously funny new year's postcards. Every year for ten plus years, he has produced a postcard with a phrase that rhymes with "happy new year." The newest creation is pictured above.

You can find out more info and purchase a set of postcards here. Tim is the co-founder of www.photobooth.net, which we featured in the PRC's 30th anniversary exhibition along with Tim's own photobooth art. Tim was nominated by our local fav Henry Horenstein. We had an awesome time when Tim visited, as you can well imagine.

From www.fullchordpress.com

Chocolate letters for all and to all a good night

Every year my Aunt gets our whole family chocolate letters for Christmas. Since the closing of the Dutch shop in Rochester, they have been harder and harder to find.

Chocolate letters are a Dutch tradition (my mom's maiden name is Van Hooydonk and my great grandparents came over from Holland) and are associated with Sinterklaas. Pictured is an an example of a contemporary chocolate letter from Droste as well as a depiction in a 17th century still-life painting.

Below is the definition from wikipedia, but you can read much more at the Saint Nicolas Center or if you know Dutch, at chocolateletter.net. Apparently, I ought to look to www.chocolatelettershop.com next year to stock up!

Happy holidays all!

Celebrants of the Sinterklaas celebration are traditionally given their initials (or occasionally the neutral letter S (for Sinterklaas) or P (for Zwarte Piet) made out of chocolate. Various sizes, types and flavours are available.

In order to use the same amount of chocolate for each letter the manufacturer varies the thickness or the depth of the grooves in the letter. This way one letter is not favoured over another, for example the W, or the M over the I or the J. An often used typeface is Egyptienne.

Flickr image above from here
Painting above is from here. Still life with Letter Pastries, Peter Binoit, ca. 1615, Museum Amstelkring on loan from the Groninger Museum Photo: C Myers (click for a close up)

PRC Landscape show is bright spot

The intrepid Greg Cook of the The New England Journal of Aesthetic Reseach cited my PRC exhibition New England Survey in his year-end review in this week's Boston Phoenix, "Year in Art: Beyond the Gloom."

Under the heading "A sense of where you are," he writes:

New England Survey at the Photographic Resource Center offered ravishing photos of this region's landscape that reminded us why we return again and again to our outdoors to find our roots, to find solace, to find awe.

Thanks Greg! NES just closed at Harvard's Fruitlands Museum, but you can still visit it online here.

Be sure to also check out Greg's call for nominations for the first annual Boston Art Awards. Likely initiated in part to make up for the AICA award hiatus, Greg has valiantly taken up the torch.

Click here to read more about the Awards and nominate your favorite [insert below here]....

"Also, some broad categories to consider: favorite local artist, local curator, local show, new media, photography, conceptually-driven installation/performance (including video thereof), favorite gallery show, favorite school show, favorite museum show, favorite historical show, favorite contemporary show, best survey/retrospective, favorite solo show, favorite group show, favorite public art (or best non-exhibition space project), favorite on-line project, favorite outdoors project, favorite art book/publication."

Holiday cookies gone bad

It's a crazy snowy, blustery weekend in New England. In honor of my previous post, Amy Elkins's fantastic last couple of holiday card posts (here and here), and the ever-fun blog Cake Wrecks, I did a a little flickr searching for "bad holiday cookies" or "ugly christmas cookies."

Below are the results of my search, with links to the original photos. I decided to cull only ones that the authors admitted were bad or ugly themselves. I think some of these, preserved of course, could be contenders for the Museum of Bad Art, now with a second outpost in the basement of the Somerville Theatre.

Happy snow day!

Thanks to Merfam, Steveningen, and Tammi Marie

Santa Photo Op Gone Awry

I came across a fantastic article - "Santas can freak out screaming toddlers" - on cnn.com today. The piece has an interview with the authors of Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland, a book which I now covet.

Inspired by a call for entries by the Chicago Tribune, the perfect stocking stuffer sports spiffy chapter titles such as "Titans of Tears," "Santa has Feelings Too," and "Want a Smile, It'll Cost Ya."

Of course, this led me to surf the internet for more scary Santas and crying babies. I just know I have a pic of me tearing up on Santa's lap somewhere. Until I find it, I share with you the following skewed Santa photo galleries. Enjoy!

• Sfgate's aptly titled baby blog, "The Poop," features a crying baby Santa gallery
• "Crying Santa" search on flickr
• The original Chicago Tribune "Scared of Santa" gallery
  

Help me raise $ for the PRC!

Greetings ~

I have set up this fundraising page in order to raise money for my favorite 32-year-old non-profit and the organization to which I have devoted the last 7 years, the Photographic Resource Center. I am sent this to artists and people I have worked with and admired, but of course such folks are also online too.

As many of you know, I am entirely committed to the PRC as well as the artists, many of them emerging, that I exhibit or view well beyond the time that I show or see them. The PRC is an amazing institution and humbled to be a part of its fabric and history. Hopefully we have made a difference in your life too!

(PS...We're having a little friendly competition at the PRC to see who gave raise the most on their page, so I'd love your help - it's fun too!)

Your tax-deductible donation will be used in support of the PRC's Annual Appeal, which helps to raise much needed funds for all of our award-winning exhibitions, education, and member programs. Obama's campaign had it right: small amounts from many committed people instead of large amounts from a very few. Any donation over $1 will help!

Donating through this page is fast and secure. Forgo the latte today and pick your favorite number and click "GIVE NOW" on my page:

www.firstgiving.com/lesliekbrownprc

Many thanks for your support -- and please forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too by clicking "share this page" or start one of your own!

Thank you for your time. Know that whether not you can give at this time, know that we still think of you and hope all are well.

Warmest regards, Leslie

PS - My emailing list had a little glitch. Thanks in advance for your patience if you get emails from more than one person or got more than one from myself!

In praise of Barbara Bosworth

I am a huge fan of Barbara Bosworth - her work and her person.

It all started when I saw the above image in my very first PRC auction exhibition, Christmas Eclipse in my Father's Hands, Sanibel. I remember exactly where it was installed in the old PRC. I was new - I didn't know her personally yet, but boy did I covet that image.

Time passed and last spring, I was delighted to work with her and feature her Meadow series in New England Survey at the PRC. That same show is on display now through December 21st at the Fruitlands Museum. Last month at the Fruitlands (appropriately in the Hudson River School painting gallery), Barbara gave a wonderful overview of her whole career. I was enthralled all over again.

Courtesy of via Mary Virginia Swanson's blog, I came across this very cool slideshow of Barbara's work from her recent Smithsonian show.

Click here or above to to see it!

Keeping Time review in the Globe

The Keeping Time review ran today in the Boston Globe and it's a good one! Yippee! I am in Rochester now so have my backups picking up a copy in Boston. Click here to read it.

The perspicacious Mark Feeney has some incredible insights as always. We get two wonderful literary quotes too:

"In 'Four Quartets,' T.S. Eliot writes that 'to apprehend/ The point of intersection of the timeless/ With time, is an occupation for the saint.'"...(begins the review, and later on)... "Their concern is with what Edward Abbey, in 'Desert Solitaire,' describes as 'that ultimate world of sun and stars whose bounds we cannot discover.'"

Here are some of my favorite Feeney phrases (the last Morris Louis one is truly super):

Among the virtues of "Keeping Time: Cycle and Duration in Contemporary Photography," which runs at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University through Jan. 25, is the reminder it brings that time is not just the ocean photography splashes in but also the spray that it raises.

All photographs are, so to speak, sun-singed. ...Think of the process as a visual equivalent of distressing a surface. Where a photograph captures an instant in time, McCaw's techniques indicate time's ongoing effects on that instant.

As the sun casts shadows from wine bottles, drinking glasses, and the like, Cummins traces the outlines of those shadows in colored inks. Meal concluded, she photographs the chromatic accumulation. Visually, it's like having Morris Louis as your waiter.

Happy Tofurky Day!

Bruce and I are getting ready to drive to Rochester for the holiday to see family, friends, and make our tofurky.

Last year, I posted images from Farm Sanctuary's "Celebration FOR the Turkeys" and, although I don't normally discuss my dietary habits and choices, I thought I'd share some images and links again. Given the recent Sarah Palin interview, I can't help but also share an article that also gives one pause.

Farm Sanctuary is an organization that "works to end cruelty to farm animals and promotes compassionate living through rescue, education and advocacy." You can help by sponsoring a turkey! Click here to see the crew and adopt a turkey.

Safe travels everyone!

Image: Sammi and Aya certainly are big fans of this classic holiday pie (photo by Jo-Anne McArthur) from Farm Sanctuary's flickr stream

Photoshop Old Skool style

I just found this amazing "low tech" rendition of Photoshop on Rachel Hulin's blog post regarding the launch of CS4. (It's actually not an ad not from Adobe, but from an Indonesian agency.) Click on the image above to see a larger version.

As Bruce points out, it more closely resembles the layout of CS3 with the tool palette of CS2. Gotta love techies! This is way beyond me. I am a dinosaur when it comes to this - I won't tell you the versions of software programs that I use. You should see the graphic layouts I can do in Word!

For those who really want to geek out, here are some links:
* a history of Photoshop (as of 2000)
* an overview of the splash screens from each version (the box that pops when it's loading)
* a run down of all of the Photoshop toolbars

Barack Obama's flickr and post election thoughts

Surfing around blogs/links, I came across Barack Obama's flickr stream. With 50,000+ photos posted dating from his candidacy announcement until today, this is a treasure trove and a delight to peruse.

Obama's use of 21st century social media--his flickr site combined with text messaging, twitter, and email--made this historic campaign even more astounding and transparent. (See this post by Mel Trittin for an example of the email sent right after his victory and this great twitter-inspired artwork by Brian Piana.) I especially like his "about you" section on flickr, seen below.

Around the blogosphere, I also enjoyed Shane Lavalette's quotation of my favorite part of Obama's acceptance speech and Dawoud Bey's thoughts on the true dawn of the 21st century. Like Amy Elkins, I was warmed by the photos and montages of global citizens celebrating as well as the impromptu "pots and pans" parade in my neighborhood on election night. Sitting on my couch, I welled up yet once again, especially at the above picture of his beautiful family.

I so much look forward to the next 4 years.

A bit more about Barack Obama...

Occupation:	Senator (D-IL)
Interests:	Basketball, writing, loafing with kids
Favorite Books & Authors:	Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison), Moby Dick, Shakespeare's Tragedies, Parting the Waters, Gilead (Robinson), Self-Reliance (Emerson), The Bible, Lincoln's Collected Writings
Favorite Movies, Stars & Directors:	Casablanca, Godfather I & II, Lawrence of Arabia and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Favorite Music & Artists:	Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), and The Fugees

Keeping Time opens Thursday

I am not sure how many folks know what work goes into putting together an exhibition at a small place. With a staff of four, I am not only the curator, registrar, pr person, wall text and label designer, opening food getter, assistant installer, packer, but also the art transporter. This past Thursday, I did my roughly 4 times a year drive to New York City and back in a day in a brand new Enterprise van. The amazing intern Caleb Cole (hire and show this emerging artist!) helped me navigate and kept me company on his official last day.

After a late start filling up the huge tank, we got into NYC about 12:30 and had to made our way down to Michael Mazzeo Gallery. I've seen Michael several times now at portfolio review events and we always have a good time and he has a great stable of emerging artists. Michael is showing Chris McCaw's work, which I first saw at Photolucida in 2007. I was immediately transfixed (and should have bought one then!!). Michael kindly bought us sandwiches and we caught up. (FYI - it's easy to park in NYC with commercial plates, although I am still a nervous wreck driving and parking in the city.) Chris's work looks amazing in his solo show; he's now started working with a 16 x 20 camera and the results are stunning.

After that, we headed uptown to Bonni Benrubi to pick up Matthew Pillsbury's work. Picking up here is much more difficult than Chelsea, but luckily we found a commercial muni spot. Lou and Thom helped me once again and after tying everything down, we headed home, only to be stuck in traffic in CT for over an hour. I woke up at 5am and about 17 hours later, I was back at home. I am still exhausted.

The gallery is painted a beautiful Benjamin Moore historical color (Templeton Gray) and Vinnie and I install on Monday. I am very excited about this show and I think it will be beautiful. All of the artists are great and I am very proud of them and the show. Come on out Thursday, November 6th from 5:30-7:30pm to see the product of all of our labors. If you are not in town, you can poke around the online component. Click here or on the image above to read my essay, see all of the images and artist statements (just click on the individual images). I will post installation images later. Whew...now back to work.

ABOVE IMAGE: Sharon Harper (Cambridge, MA), Moon Studies and Star Scratches, No. 9, June 4 – 30, 2005, Clearmont, Wyoming, 15, 30, 20, 8, 5, 1, 5, 2, 1 minute exposures; 15, 8, 10, 14 second exposures, Digital C-print from 4x5 transparency, 50 x 40 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Roepke, Cologne