See Saw

GALLERY TOUR: PINE STREET ART WORKS

Every month or so I rearrange the gallery: each exhibit demands a different ambiance. Right now I've got the fabulous lamps from Studio-Glow, the wonderful husband and wife team of Riki Moss and Robert Ostermeyer from Grand Isle, VT.

Here are some Studio-Glow sculptures in the show window, from the inside. The sun going down behind Lake Champlain created this amazing blue glow. It's different each day, and of course, what the camera captures is always a bit different than what the naked eye can see.

These are some of the Studio-Glow table lamps in front of a 2004 series of reverse paintings I did of Leda and The Swan.

Gallery view with Studio-Glow Lamps and a variety of art and artifacts.

Every year at Winter Solstice I sell these wonderful beads and jewelry by Madlyn Erb, Mad Glass Beads.

 

art by TMNK and Shepard Fairey.

These pieces are  not for sale but I want everyone to see them. The picture in the upper left is by TMNK- The Me Nobody Knows, a wonderful artist from New York City, who will be here with his art next September for Art Hop. The small piece at the bottom is his also. The other two pieces are signed limited edition silk screens by Shepard Fairey. I'm not selling any of these pieces because they are from my personal collection and I'm just not willing to part with them but I want people to see them.

See, this is where my branding becomes really fuzzy. Because sometimes PSAW is a tiny bit more like a museum than a shop and people get confused, so I have to greet people by saying 99% of everying in here is for sale.

Meanwhile, if you love TMNK as I do, check out his blog and his sales on eBay. And I will be having his work for sale starting next September, which will be here sooner than you think.

 

Photo at Atelier Tove, by Jordan Silverman, SevenDaysVT copyright 2008.

One of the reasons I've redecorated this month is that I've leased my back room to Atelier Tove, run by Tove Ohlander, a glass blower from Sweden. Tove and I know each other because our kids are in fifth grade together. Small city, Burlington. Another fifth grader in their  class is the son of Ali Marchaldon from Flashbags. Schools build community.

But I digress. Tove is using the space to sell the glassware that she and her husband, Rich Arentzen, make under the name of AO Glass, and to give art classes for children. Here's an article about her from SevenDaysVT our local alt weekly newspaper.

AO Glass at Atelier Tove.

Today Tove is hosting a Create Your Own Obama Art event in her space.

Tove, Atelier Tove, prepping for Obama Art Event. TMNK painting in the background.

COLLECTING PRESIDENTIAL ART AND MEMORABELIA: WASHINGTON TO OBAMA - OBAMA TO WASHINGTON

It seems clear that President-Elect Barack Obama has inspired more and better art than any previous America political candidate or victor, but political imagery and ephemera is not a new category for  collectors. I started collecting campaign buttons in the early sixties - most of which I regret that I no longer have. But fliers, posters, celluloid buttons and other propaganda is a fertile ground for art collectors and cultural/political historians.

Campaign buttons have long been a popular way to market candidates. George Washington and many of his supporters wore brass clothing buttons reading "G.W. - Long Live The President" at his inauguration in 1789.

George Washington Inaugural Button, 1879. Courtesy of politicalbadges.com

In a  marketing strategy that continues to this day, William Harrison sold himself as a man the common people, with his "log cabin" image. The truth that he came from a wealthy, prominent family was no more relevant than the fact that "cowboy" George Bush did.

William Harry Harrison, 1840. Sulphide badge. Courtesy of politicalbadges.com

Not all presidential imagery is used to sell the canditate running for office. Sometimes the images are used to sell unrelated products. My sister, Holly Cowan Shulman, one of the world's leading experts on Dolley Madison relies on, and loves, the pop cultural images of the "first" first lady, hostess of Washington. Madison's name and image was used widely, after her death, to market products from ice cream to tobacco to cake.

Dolly Madison Ice Cream. Note that the name is spelled wrong. Courtesy of The Dolley Madison Project.

By the time of the Abraham Lincoln campaing, tintype and ferrotype processes allowed for mass manufacture of images and campaign promotional badges. 

Abraham Lincoln star button. Courtesy of Politicalbadges.com

 

Lincoln ambrotype badge/pendant. As much an ad for the manufacturer as for the candidate. Courtesy of Politcalbadges.com

 

Teddy Roosevelt button. Courtesy of Politicalbades.com

Adlai Stevenson celluloid button.

 

Heavy on symbolism - the Adlai Stevenson hole in the shoe pin. A wonderful customer gave this to me.

 

Adlai Stevenson, hole in his shoe. 1952, photo by William M. Gallagher. This photo, shot at arm's lenght so Stevenson wouldn't realize what was happening, won the Pulizer prize in 1953. The Flint Journal

Any photojournalist or political historian remembers the Stevenson photo and the powerful symbolism of a president who encourages thrift. Which brings us to Barack Obama.

 

Photo by Callie Shell/Aurora for Time. Providence RI, 3/1/2008 "Senator Obama was doing press interviews by telephone in a holding room between events. Sometime later as he was getting ready to begin his event, he asked me if I was photographing his shoes. When I said yes, he told me that he had already had them resoled once since he entered the race a year earlier. "

The Obama buttons are famous, as are the Shepard Fairey Obama Hope posters. Right now, all you politcal ephemera collectors can jump on the bandwagon and get this new sticker by Shepard Fairey from MoveOn.org. But hurry up. The limited edition (5,000)  Shepard Fairey Yes We Did poster sold out in record time yesterday and I blinked and missed it. Really. I was with a customer and when I came back online they were gone. They will be available on the secondary market, but prices will rise dramatically.

 

Shepard Fairey, Yes We Did sticker available from MoveOn.Org.

You can get one sticker for free, 5 for $3 or 50 for $20.  I've seen these available for sale on an online auction for $5 each, and they haven't even been released from the artist/publisher yet. I find that unscrupulous, since they are still available for free from the source. So get yours while they are still available from MoveOn.Org.  And give them a generous contribution while you're at it.

update Nov 11: the signed We Did It poster sold out. At last look, MoveOn.org was still offering unsigned posters for a donation of $15.

PICTURE THE FUTURE: OBAMA ART part 2

Shephard Fairey, Obama Hope 2008

Continuing my mini series on Obama Art, here is the now famous picture by Shepard Fairey, Obey Giant, Obama Hope 2008. Fairey is a Los Angeles based graphic artist whose work, politics, commitment, and marketing strategies I admire greatly.

This mixed media stencil collage sold for $108,000 at the Art For Life auction/Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which provides "disadvantaged urban youth with significant exposure and access to the arts, as well as providing exhibition opportunities to under-represented artists and artists of color"

Fairey's work consciously evokes Aleksandr Rodchenko and other Russian avant garde  poster designers like Dziga Vertov, whose work I also adore. In fact, his work references most of the cannon of poster art. ( Thegiant.org -not Fairey's site - has a list of sources  - follow this link.) As a dedicated FAKE! myself, I appreciate this urge, and value how Fairey has taken on the cannon, borrowed heavily, yet made for himself a very distinctive look. I do wish he would rigorously credit the artists he borrows. Nothing wrong with FAKE! but giving credit is not only ethical, it also helps people learn about great art.

His work for the Obama campaign and Rock The vote is invaluable, and I honor him for that.

                      
Shepard Fairey, Say Yes               Aleksndr Rodchenko

And it just so happens that this event takes place tonight. Another Shepard Fairey design.

Shephard Fairey - Party For Change

Website to visit for more Obama Art - The Obama Art Report. Check it out.

thanks to The Obama Art Report, again, I found this article from the LA Times on Graffiti Art/Street Art and the Obama Campaign