Last Friday, sweetie and I went to the Art-o-matic opening event. It was a wet, soaking, rainy day but we went anyway. It was a great giant mess of random art (and non-art) and commercial art and great art and poor art and everything in between. We didn't make it to the 4th or 5th floors because I tired out from all the people, the heat, the sheer amount of stuff to look at. The rooms were so randomly patterened and connected that I began to think that the building (the old Children's Museum soon to become a spa or condos or something) was an old insane asylumn. It wasn't, but it was an old Sisters of Emphatic and Stern Mercy hospital (or something like it). There were tons of bathrooms, some with the best old porcelain fixtures.
We finally ran into skarlet and Eric when we were on our way out the door. We also ran into a woman I work with and her husband. It turns out her son (whom a friend and I tried to befriend for awhile in 1996 until it became apparant he had no social skills) had pieces in the show. He was on the 4th floor, though, so we didn't see his stuff. If the paintings were anything like the ones I'd seen at his parents' house, I shudder. I really hope he's improved. I also heard that another person I work with has art in the show.
There was way too much to see. A few of my favorite pieces were by the following artists (if they made cards or flyers available):
Jennifer Morgan Brill's site is supposed to be at this address but I can't seem to find it.
Ruza Spak's paintings with sky blue backgrounds were really nice. The one with the snarling dog in the corner was my favorite, I think.
Lindsay Bishop had the cutest little shadow boxes that incorporated her jewelry. Her Sputnik piece was the best!
An installation that I liked a lot was a sort of ephemeral video capture and loop piece. Don't remember the artist.
Another installation that wasn't original (I've seen it done before) but can be fun was postsecret.com.
Finally, of what I remember, the natural wood carved into partial sculptures was quite nice. I'm not much of a female torso sculpture person but I did like that work (and the space - very calm in the midst of chaos).
( 12:26 EH | aural pleasures. oh, that's just not right. silly hooha. things with words. urban living. )