All Art Friday

All Art Friday

Photos for the Gulf Relief Aid Initiative

Editors Bill Wolff and Billie Hara of Composing With Images Press have composed a collection of photographs and reflections by 22 photographers that document the activities, communities, and ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico. (See my earlier post, "Artists Aiding Gulf Coast Efforts", for background on the project, the last brief in that post.)

Now available as Photos for the Gulf, the collection highlights work by both professional and nonprofessional photographers, all of whom share a deep passion for this area so devastated by the BP oil disaster in April. Images in color and black-and-white have been reproduced beautifully; each is accompanied by the photographer's own 100- to 150-word reflection. Every Gulf Coast state is represented.

The book, the first photobook by CWIP and created in association with Write to Succeed, Inc., may be previewed here and here. Contributing photographers are Dawn M. Armfield, B.J. Burton, Margaret Coughlin, P.K. Donson, Sharon Gerald, Billie Hara, David Johndrow, Christopher W. Luhar-Trice, Neha Luhar-Trice, Marianne Marcell, Frank Myers, David Morgen, Stephen Pearlman, Cheryl Rutherford, Christina Steidl, Torri Thompson, Sanford Tweedie, Michael Waddell, Nora Whalen, Jimmy White, Stephanie Willson, and Bill Wolff.

Proceeds from photo submission fees and book sales go to The Gulf Relief Foundation and LA Gulf Response to aid ongoing relief efforts in the Gulf. As you consider your end-of-year donations, don't forget the Gulf. Consider Photos for the Gulf and help the project reach its $5,000 fundraising goal.

Bill Wolff, Ph.D., is assistant professor writing arts at Rowan University. His decompositions & other reflections may be viewed here. Billie Hara is assistant professor of English at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Each week the two blog on a photo theme.

Composing With Images on FaceBook and Twitter

Exhibitions Here and There

✭ Alexandria, Virginia's Athenaeum is showing through January 2, 2011, "Molded from Complicated Mixtures", classical-style paintings by Megan Marlatt inspired by the quirky characters and funky forms of today's plastic toys. Go here to see Marlatt's toy-inspired paintings.

✭ A show of early work by the much-honored Wolf Kahn, known for his use of color and his landscapes, opens tomorrow and runs through February 5, 2011, at Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina. Included are paintings and pastels from 1950 to 1970.

Wolf Kahn's Website

✭ Work by Berkeley-based painter Michael Tompkins is on the walls of Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, through December 18. Featured are oil on wood panel paintings and works on paper of still lifes rendered in realist or trompe l'oeil style.

Michael Tompkins Profile/Images on ArtSlant

✭ In New York City, Nohra Haime Gallery is exhibiting "Julie Hedrick: Red" through December 4. Images of 19 of Hedrick's shimmery and vibrant abstract oils in different shades and values of red, and bearing such titles as Red Rain, Red Heart, Red Poem, and Sacred, may be viewed collectively here.

Hohra Haime Gallery, Gallery View of "Julie Hedrick: Red" Exhibition

✭ Farther from home, in Ottawa, Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada has mounted 50 of Carl Beam's large-scale paintings, sculptures, and constructions, as well as ceramics and video. Beam's The North American Iceberg was the first work by a First Nations artist (Beam, 1943-2005, was of Ojibway heritage) to be purchased by the museum for its contemporary art collection. Information about the exhibition, which remains on view through January 16, 2011, is here. 

National Gallery of Canada on FaceBook and Twitter

ArtDaily Review of the Beam Exhibition

Art of Carl Beam at Neon Raven Art Gallery

Art-Related Blogs and Websites of Note

Continuing my highlighting of art-related blogs and Websites of note, I encourage a visit to the following:

✦ Bob Cornelis' Art Blog ~ Cornelis, a fine art photographer living in California's wine country, writes engagingly about all things artistic.

✦ Conversations with the Muse ~ This is the popular Art and Sketchbook blog of professional painter Susan Cornelis (wife of Bob Cornelis),  also an art workshop instructor; she frequently writes here about painting techniques, her sources of inspiration, and creativity.  Cornelis also maintains several other sites, including Imagine with Art and Susan Cornelis Paintings, where she posts images of her farm country, landscape, and figurative paintings. Cornelis recently published Conversations With the Muse: The Art Journal as Inner Guide; a preview is available here. 

✦ Real Clear Arts ~ This blog, written by independent journalist Judith H. Dobrzynski, tracks culture in America.

✦ The Virtual Diego Rivera Web Museum, currently displaying "The Mexican Children of Diego Rivera". Images of Rivera's murals may be seen here.

✦ WomenArts ~ This is the site of the San Francisco-based WomenArts, a worldwide community of artists and supporters who endeavor to increase opportunities for and visbility of artists who are women. In addition to online networking, fundraising, and advocacy services, the nonprofit group organizes Support Women Artists Now Day (SWAN Day), an annual internationally observed day to celebrate women's creativity. (Next year, SWAN Day will be observed on March 26.)  Formerly known as The Fund for Women Artists, WomenArts maintains a network of more than 1,400 women artists and arts organizations.

WomenArts Blog and WomenArts NewsRoom

WomenArts on FaceBook