a must-see at the Digging Pitt Gallery

If you're in or near PIttsburgh, you should stop by the Digging Pitt Gallery this weekend, for the closing reception of Marci Gehring's show. The painting shown above (borrowed from Digging Pitt's website) is a floor to ceiling piece that is really quite wonderful. The artist manages to create images with very intensely worked surfaces that reward close inspection, while still working on a very large scale. Great stuff! The closing reception is June 2, from 6 - 9, and the gallery is open Thursday through Sunday if you can't make the reception.

And, should you be thinking a little further ahead, you might also want to jot down June 16 in your calendar book. That's the date for the opening reception of Inside Out Six: Selections from the Flat Files - Side II, also at Digging Pitt. This is a show curated from Digging Pitt's extensive flat files, and I'm delighted to say that I'll be one of the fourteen artists included in the exhibition.

Uncle FIMP's Storytime

Here's a little bit of silliness for you:

If you would like to purchase "Once Upon A Time", the tiny book that takes Uncle FIMP by surprise in this video, just visit FIMP's auctions on eBay!

d. a. levy

Making the Jim Lowell linocut for Bottle of Smoke Press got me thinking that it was about time that I did a portrait of d. a. levy. So, here it is!

"Cop", and more!

Here's a new one - actually, a new old one - well, let's just say here's your first chance to buy "Cop", as #1 of an edition of 10 goes up for auction on eBay, along with a number of other linocuts. Go check 'em out.

Jim Lowell linocut for Bottle #5

I recently completed this linocut for the cover of Bottle #5, a collection of broadsides by 20 poets published by Bottle of Smoke Press. This image is another in a series of heroes of the small press that I have made for the Bottle broadsides. The subject is Jim Lowell, and that flowering plant is a reference to Asphodel, his bookshop. Jim Lowell was a bookseller in Cleveland, where he specialized in first-edition, small-press publications, especially those of the counterculture movement of the '60s.

I printed this 2.5" x 2.75" linocut in an edition of 40, all of which will be found on the covers of a special first edition of Bottle #5, signed by all of the living contributors. Bottle #5 includes 20 letterpressed broadsides by 20 different poets, with a healthy mix of styles and poems from both well established poets (including Charles Bukowski) and some younger writers. Bill Roberts has hand-set all of these broadsides with various type and has fed them with those very same hands into his 1914 Chandler & Price press, without losing a single finger. The broadsides are printed on various colors of high quality cardstock. Bill does beautiful work, and his letterpressed broadsides are as much a delight to hold and to look at as they are to read.

There will be a regular edition of 200 available as well, where the Lowell linocut will be reproduced on the cover.

The first edition of 200 will cost $25.00, the special edtion of 40 signed by all of the living contributors and including the original linocut will cost $150.00. If history is any guide, that special edition will probably sell out quickly, and orders should be placed in the next week to insure a copy. If you want to reserve a Bottle #5, you should visit Bottle of Smoke Press at http://www.bospress.net/index_current.htm for details.

Strolling Around

A few weeks ago I mentioned a math problem that was apparently a piece of graffiti. Sadly, as time has passed the yellow utility box has lost some of its strangeness, as the long division has been obscured by later additions to the box.



Though I must admit, the printmaker in me likes the new sticker.

Speaking of printmakers, some street art that is pretty spectacular that pops up in Pittsburgh once in a while is that of Swoon. I found this video of one of her murals through the very excellent blog of Pittsburgh's Digging Pitt Gallery.




Sadly, Swoon's work isn't something that I see on my daily stroll with my baby daughter. Which isn't to say that we don't see a lot of neat stuff. We frequently roll along Walnut Street, where my favorite artworks are the telephone poles, with their wonderful encrustations of staples and nails and such.



My daughter's favorite sculpture seems to be this fire hydrant, which we have to very carefully inspect every time we pass it:



Based on our strolls, you'd think that the next time we wander through a museum she'll be really excited about this:


Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986

and daddy might be more interested in this:


Kongo "Power Figure in the form of a two-headed dog", the Congo

though I must admit I'm pretty fond of the bunny, too.