We set out for Borrego Springs early on Saturday to photograph some of the wonderful sculptures created by artist, Ricardo Breceda.

Breceda (originally from Durango, Mexico) was once a carpenter who took up sculpting 13 years ago after he fell from a second story and broke his back while working construction. He persevered and found a way to make a living from his passion for things that roamed millions of years ago by establishing Perris Jurassic Park. Then, years after his penned creations peeked over the fence along the 215 Interstate, a millionaire who happened to have purchased some dessert land surrounding Borrego Springs and Anzo Borrego National Park came along. His name is Dennis Avery, who like Breceda, shares a love for the prehistoric. Avery, upon a drive by and turn around, first saw a 30 foot Tyrannosaurus Rex leaning over the chain link fence. From that first sighting, he commissioned several works by Breceda and the transformation of Galleta Meadows began.

What I particularly like about what I saw is, not only the craftsmanship and how it weathers in the elements, but also the placement of each creature. You get the feeling you are watching them in their true setting or how they would have lived. I also love the fact that you can drive your car right up to them, making it easy for folks less able to get around, see and enjoy them easily…oh, and did I forget, it’s all free. These two men, along with their vision, have given the general public a wonderful gift that can be enjoyed by future generations.

If you missed the first (sold out) PKG Concert of the year at Old Cabell Hall, all hope is not lost. You can enjoy the music of the night from a live recording while looking at the great photography courtesy of Robbie Oberholzer of R&B Photography. Below are the Intro and first two songs, I Wish I Knew and Preaching Blues. Follow the links to hear the whole set and see an album of photos of the band. Not quite the same as watching their great live show, but a small glimpse at the evening.

Intro:

YOU are invited TO THE OPENING of “AN URBAN LOOK” Nov. 19th, 7-10 pm as well as the artist reception Dec. 2nd, 7-10pm at TRIOS’ SUNSHINE LAMP GALLERY, 112 MAIN ST., JOPLIN For LINDA TEETER’S NEW PHOTO-ART SERIES, URBAN ART — colorful images captured in the West Bottoms area of KC Mo, Joplin.St. Louis, & NeW Orleans.

Show runs THROUGH DECEMBER 29th.

Artists Statement: ‘URBAN ART’, are photos of graffiti-sprayed, artful and colorful expressions left by often unknown artists to artist wannabes. Whether they were being playful or mischievious… destructive vandals or showing inspired communications… whether they were trying to show the gang’s colors or express anger, love, misguided celebrations…whatever… it is creative vernacular that has taken over the early 1940 construction in the WEST BOTTOMS area of KC MO, as well as many urban street corners in NEW ORLEANS, and some in JOPLIN to ST. LOUIS, on abandoned storefronts. Architecture left standing alone and neglected, often are reborn with new meaning by the creations of these gypsy artists that come at the crack of dawn to leave their mark that might wash off with the first rain or remain for eternity. Focused on their mission, hurriedly but with often great detail to simple scatterings. The images are shared here with you to draw your own conclusions. Is it vandalism? or is it ART?

ALSO SHOWING: a vibrant collection of unique and expressive images from the creative mind of CURTIS ALMETER: URBAN Sophisticated photography giving a thought provoking look, with a avant-garde twist on modern portrait photography.

BRANDON NEPOTE, area sculptor, will join the show next week with his works showing the use of abandoned materials as art.

Introducing…..

Once Upon Artists :: Tabitha Emma
From:: New South Wales, Australia
:: Site :: Blog ::

As seen in :: Total Girl :: MadeIt Recipe Zine :: Peppermint Mag :: (…and of course the gorgeous Once Upon Poster !)

Heading off to a new home is one of my favorite prints from my trip to Savannah, Georgia a couple of years back, “All That Glitters.” The photo is a shot of a vintage chandelier as seen through an antique mirror in one of the very beautiful historic homes in Savannah. The house these are in is said to be haunted and I wanted to capture that with the photo, layering it for an aged, vintage feel. I could just picture a beautiful Southern belle many, many years ago, looking in the mirror, getting ready for the grand gala that would be taking place in the grand ballroom just next door to this room. Nervously primping her hair, straightening her dress, and getting ready to dance the night away with her love.

I am so very pleased that this print was purchased in the largest format I offer, 24×36 as while I love any picture, no matter how small, I especially love to see my favorites large and in charge in all their glory. Just last week I shipped off another large format print, of “The Barn” and was so pleased that my buyer absolutely loved it (feel free to check out the feedback here).

This and many other prints can be purchased in all sizes in my online gallery. I absolutely love custom orders whether it be large format prints, gallery wraps or framing so, if you don’t see it, definitely send me a message!

"All That Glitters"

Portrait Photography of Virginia Beach is offering 25% off wedding and portrait collections from October 1st thru December 31st. Please contact us today to book your wedding, family portraits, senior portraits, or anything else that suits your portrait needs!

(757) 621-8635

Lady GaGa is without a doubt the weirdest dressed singer/artist in showbiz right now. Her edgy looks are futuristic and very innovative. I personally think that more artists should be dressing like GaGa, because it helps the viewers/fans think outside of the box.

She is one artist, who knows how to put on a show. Her clothes are a show in themselves. Every time I look at one of her videos, such as her latest one called “Bad Romance”, I ask myself, “What is wrong with this woman?”. But then I think that maybe she is the one who is right in being fashion forward and ahead of the game, while everyone else just lingers behind, and can not read her ‘poker face’.

Check out these rock-star portraits we shot in Downtown Norfolk.

Courtesy of Miss Lotion

Introducing…..

Once Upon Artists :: Anna Laura Blandford
From:: Victoria, Australia
:: Blog :: Flickr ::

Two sleeps! Yay!

“Landscapes and Contemplations” til Jan. 3

Kalle Kataila is a Finnish landscape photographer.  His generous use of beautiful skies, be they sunsets or a seemingly pure black night, is haunting.    The low horizon is Kataila’s subject.  The horizon of the vast desert, of endless rolling green hills, and of the expanse of the far north.

In the foreground, a lone individual looks out over the landscape with his or her back to us. It is through these various characters that we experience the vista.  It’s a mediated view. Take out the figure and I think we take away some of the magic of these photos.  The journey of the character is part of the photograph’s story.  The horizon serves as metaphor for a look at what is to come.

They also say “slow down” and take it all in. I only wish that there was more information about where these photographs were taken.  These landscapes are fascinating and I want to know more about them.

The Venice Biennale is a big scale look at the current mover and shakers in the art scene. The whole idea in a nut shell is a representative from each country from around the world gets the chance to show whats hip and current in their region TODAY its contemporary at its best ! Its held every two years in Venice. It is divided into 2 regions in Giardini & Arsenale.

I wasn’t surprised to see vast amount of Video work at the Biennale some of the video work was amazing including the Polish ‘GUESTS’ – The project opens the Pavilion’s space to both virtual & real scenes showing the immigrants from countries.These scenes filmed through windows,are projected onto the Pavillion Windowless walls. Enter the concept, I suppose you call it, behind the video. The piece was dealt with emigrants and peoples reaction to the foreign people and the reception that they received. It was a powerful atmospheric, moody video installation and to me virtually ground breaking. These humongous cinematic screens in the shape of a church and the entire ceiling of muted blue screens with videos of mysterious shadows and outlines of people doing day-to-day chores. To street scenes, labours all behind these screens accompanied with sounds of people from everyday environments.

Another image from the Polish entry

All images taken from me at the Venice Biennale 2009

A video from the Biennale showcasing the Polish artist Kryzsztof Wodiczko and his art piece ‘GUESTS”

I woke up a few days ago and my foot was killing me.  There was a sharp but inconsistent pain in the sole.  This throbbing annoyance was just enough to completely blow a whole painting day.   Every time  I sat down to work, my mind kept focusing on the pain and I could not focus on what I was doing.  Further, I was in a delicate phase of a new oil painting I was (am) working on and the work requires my full attention.

Point being: It’s amazing the simple small things which can kill a mood.  For those of you out there who are not artists in any form, know that motivation for creating is often fickle.  Some of the painting-a-day people can still piss out their terrible works, but for anyone who cares about painting or even some illustrators, a three-day foot pain can lead to the demise of the whole work.  It’s somewhat nice that I have no 9-5 job at the moment, other than the intense poverty which is a whole other problem towards working.

CALLING ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS, MAKE-UP ARTISTS, AND THE LIKE!!!

I am incredibly interesting in doing something like this, but I am none of these. If you are interested in doing something like this in the Sacramento area, please contact me and let me know.

Wikipedia refers to Marissa Nadler as a “dream-folk” artist. I don’t know where that attribution came from, but it kind of makes me mad because of how perfect it is. Where does Wikipedia get off making such brief and apt descriptions? It makes us bloggers look bad. But alas, I can’t think of a more perfect way to describe Nadler’s music.

Nadler’s music is dark, airy, and it dances with ambient music. It is from a dream, if your dreams are tinged with country music. She’s got one of those voices that you hear at the other end of the woods, and you feel compelled to follow it to safety. I honestly can’t think of another singer with such a legitimate siren’s song. It’s soothing and comforting.

Plus, she’s really pretty.

Marissa Nadler – “Mistress” (from Little Hells)

Marissa will be at Schubas tomorrow night (Nov. 17) with Alela Diane and The Singleman Affair. Here’s her list.

five tunes

4) Billie Holiday – “Gloomy Sunday” (from I Like Jazz) – “I love Billie’s version of ‘the Hungarian Suicide song.’”

With so much commercially available music on the internet today it is very easy for ones’ perception to be skewed, particularly among the younger generation.

Big name artists such as Metallica, Pink, Coldplay and Robbie Williams greet you at every turn, not only on the sites of major distributors, but also in ads on a multitude of social networking sites. Make no mistake, I am in no way criticising these artists, they just sprung to mind. I actually happen to like them, despite being trapped in the rock music of 1972 as far as my taste in music goes. These artists are not only extremely talented but they have worked extremely hard for a long time to get where they are. There is no such thing as ‘overnight success.’

So where do lesser known or barely heard of artists fit into this picture? As far as the major distributors are concerned, they don’t. They are not making the distributor vast amounts of money so when such independent musicians puts their material up for grabs on the likes of iTunes and Amazon, etc, unless people in their droves download their mp3 and download it quickly, the artist may as well not be there.

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I finished a week long creative intensive on the circus students at l’Ecole de Cirque in Montreal. It was a rock and roll, fast, throw it out there experience with these highly energized physical specimens. Loved their ‘freakishly’ amazing abilities and youthful enthusiasm. My main goal for the week long intensive was to choreograph to popular music and to fuse dance with the circus arts. The 3 works had to be created quickly and for me had to be accessible and well communicated to any type of viewer. My biggest challenge was not the time limitation but the fact that I was working with inexperienced talent in their formative stage as circus performers. I needed to remind myself that they were not professionals nor were they dancers and we were still within an educational institution. My expectations were lowered on their dancing abilities however my demand for hard work were never compromised. With a few exceptions, the maturity level was very high. I generally ignored or did not use those who were not generous or open to working ‘professionally’.

The results were quite fun. Got most of them ‘dancing’ and managed to make some very interesting work with these folks. It was a hard but satisfying exercise for both the creators and the performers. I tried to get them out of their comfort zone by choreographing dance while still respecting and integrating their particular art forms within each of the 3 works. I highly enjoyed the experience at l’Ecole de Cirque as it confirmed that creation with hungry artists is always satisfying. The kids were great and it was a blast to discover other possibilities of moving. It was damn fun and can’t wait to see a copy of the video.

November Art Salon is this Wednesday at Longview Gallery! Between now and then, get to know a few of the artists performing.

Photo by Mike Daly