fresh stART 2006

Thigh Cream, Metairie LA 1993 from the series HOMEFRONT

fresh stART 2006Saturday, April 22, 2006 7-9p

An exciting one-night sale of paintings, works on paper, and photography to benefit therapeutic art programs for at-risk youth.50% of art sales go to My Friend’s Place and A Window Between Worlds, and 50% to the artists.

Fabulous Cocktails and Hors d’oeuvres

Music by KCRW DJ Scott Silva

Tickets: $35 in advance/$40 at the doorMasterCard, Visa, and checks accepted.

Location:Arena 1 Gallery at the Santa Monica Art Studios3026 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405(across from the Barker Hangar)

http://www.freshstartweb.org/index.html

BRING IN THE BIG GUNS

Central Lock Up Mural, New Orleans 1999

The New York Times reports today about murder rates in New Orleans: "There have been 16 killings this year, compared with more than 60 for the same period last year, which means quieter days for the police but still works out to an annualized rate of 32 killings per 100,000 people, ahead of Cleveland and Chicago."

BY THE NUMBERS*

Flooded House front Steps, New Orleans 3/2006

33% of the pre-Katrina population of 463,000 is now back in New Orleans.

14% of the 122 public schools have reopened.

11% of the 15,000 businesses operating before Katrina have reopened.

38% of the 13 public libraries have reopened.

35% of the 26 hospitals are open.

*Sources: Dartmouth Flood Observatory, City of New Orleans, Brookings Institution, New Orleans Hospital Association.

FACING ACADIANA

I spent saturday afternoon in Lafayette, Louisiana at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, making portraits. CARRY ON a day of renewal , sponsored by the Acadiana Arts Council, was a festival intended to benenfit and support displaced artists.

STREAM OF UNCONCIOUSNESS

Window of flooded House, New Orleans 3/2006


Shattered lives
and shattered dreams.
Shuttered windows
and torn up screens.
Close your eyes
and remember the days
when children played
on Esplanade.
Hear the street car and
see the lights, as you pass
Mandina’s way past midnight.
The smell of horses
The sound of Jazz
Plays in my mind
after Christmas passes.
The familiar faces of strangers
around town
are now gone and may
never be found.
The sadness I feel,
I cannot speak. Its
in my eyes , I feel
Like a freak!
I’m not alone,
most of us aren’t but
it sometimes feels like
my town is now haunted.

MY IDEA OF A GOOD IDEA.

"Where Fun comes to Die" , Jazzfest, New Orleans 2005. from the new series "8Days in Spring"

I have been asked a million times, how can I help New Orleans? Come to Jazzfest! Buy your brass pass at www.wwoz.com . Its a tax deduction! You achieve stud status at the Fest wearing your BRASSPASS ! And you will witness, I predict, a festival that won't be forgotten.

KATRINA TRINKET SHOW

Tara and Peter's Flooded House, New Orleans 2/2006

I am already tired of the Katrina art and the Katrina shows! What seems to belong in the pages of Life magazine are images that quickly end up on "museum" walls , as art just made two minutes ago!

Spencer Brownstone Gallery

Tree and Sign, New Orleans 1993


Tim Barber: tinyvices
Opening Reception, Saturday March 11th, 8-10pm
March 9th - April 8th, 2006

Spencer Brownstone Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition organized by Tim Barber, based on his website tinyvices.com.

Barber, a New York-based photographer, started the tinyvices site a year ago as an accessible showcase for his own and other photographers' work. The exhibition will include a complex installation of photographs, drawings, and paintings by over 60 of the artists, known and unknown, that are featured on the tinyvices website.
tinyvices is a re-conceptualized web log. It functions as a community publication, an editorial project, an art gallery and archive. The site receives thousands of daily hits, and hundreds of new images are sent in for consideration every month in response to a continuous open call for submissions. Over the past year the site has expanded to encompass images from around the world, incorporating a wide variety of subjects and styles. A frequent format is that of the 'travelogue', with Barber and others' photos of everything from cross-country road trips to a visit to the vet. Common to all of the posts is a disarmingly personal perspective. A 'China Update' link, for example, turns out to contain images of ice sculptures taken by a friend's mom on holiday.
The site includes remarkable found imagery from World War II; documentation of the punk scene in rural Bavaria; old family snapshots; and obsessively repetitive images of cats. From photos of a day at a baseball game, to a series of drawings by a kid in detention, the site is like a scrap book with dozens of authors. Summing up a kind of restlessness and desire for community that lies at the heart of much of the work on tinyvices, Barber poignantly ends one dispatch from another tumultuous night at 'the Fish', with a shot of a snow pile he spots on his way home: "If we were still kids," he writes, " this snow pile would be our Max Fish. You don't need anything but snow piles when you're a kid."
Contributing artists include: Lesley Arfin, Patryce Bak, Tim Barber, Marc Bell, Jordon Bennett, Boogie, Ali Bosworth, Scott Conarroe, Gemma Corsano, Michelle Cortez, Mark Delong, Vincent Dermody, Chris Dorland, Anthony Easton, Shayne Ehman, Louise Enhörning, James Erdeg, Diego Fernandez, Leo Fitzpatrick, Ryan Foerster, Alessandro Formenti, Jason Frank Rothenberg, William Galindo, Philippe Gerlach, Kava Gorna, William Greiner, Jeffro Halladay, Bala Heller, Eleonore Hendrix, Jerry Hsu, Gordon Hull, Marc Hundley, Sanya Kantarovsky, Ryan Kearney, Thatcher Keats, James Kendi, Richard Kern, Una Knox, Tuomas Korpijaakko, Jessie Kotler, Kim Krans, Gregory Krum, Gary LaChance, Jeff Ladouceur, Fabien Laurent Foureault, Leigh Ledare, Jason Lee, Scott Lenhardt, Gina Liberto, Jimmy Limit, Andrea Longacre White, Ryan MacFarland, Glynnis McDaris, Ryan McGinley, Jason McLean, Jason Nocito, Patrick O'Dell, OODA Group, Christian Patterson, Jaret Penner, Brad Phillips, Ben Pier, Brett Pittman, Caitlin Teal Price, Bobby Puleo, Athena Razo, Kevin Romaniuk, Max Ryazansky, Shay Semple, Aurel Schmidt, Robin Schwartz, Jeremy Shaw, Asha Shechter, Dan Siney, Thomas Stavnes, Jane Stockdale, Peter Sutherland, Jamie Taete, Ah Kee Thiang, Jonathan Thiang, Lucas Thorpe, Kon Trubkovich, Yu Ukai, Brian Ulrich, David Uzzardi, Jaimie Warren, Martynka Wawrzyniak, Jason Wurm.

http://www.spencerbrownstonegallery.com/000featured.htm

REST IN PEACE

My dear friend and mentor, Gordon Parks , died yesterday at the age of 93. Gordon was a huge
inspiration to me and many others , having overcome poverty and racism , to become an acclaimed photographer, filmmaker, poet and writer. May he rest in peace.

Gordon Parks and William Greiner , New York,NY 1992

THE PRICE OF OIL.

Louisiana could address and solve the coastal erosion problem and building better levees for New Orleans, if the Federal Government gave us our fair share of off shore oil and gas revenues. I think whats good for other oil producing states is good for Louisiana?

Oil Spot , New Orleans 6/2002

ALL THE NEWS THATS FIT TO......

I have been traveling out of Louisiana this past week and I was happy to find, still, plenty of news circulating nationally about New Orleans and the whole Gulf Coast.

Sea Grove Beach FL 10/2005