Cluster F....

Here it is, the end of the first month in the new year and I feel like I have already lived the remaining 11 months. That's right kids, its been a whirlwind from the get go and I am gearing up for a couple of the big events that have been kicking my butt. The one really major event is the exhibition I am opening in Kipp Gallery at IUP. Just to remind you, I spend a lot of my time as the Director for the art department's gallery here at IUP. I will be opening "The Far Side of Function: Contemporary Works in Wood" on this coming Tuesday 2/2. This is a really great exhibition but also a really large exhibition. I had a local gallery in town involved from the beginning but they had to pull out due to the fact that they are still under construction and also out of funding ...hmmmm...can you say, "cart before the horse"... anyways, being a little creative with this show I was able to spread it out into our Performing Art Center and all is well. This show has such wood luminaries as Jack Larimore, Craig Nutt, and Tom Loesser and includes furniture based works and large scale sculpture that will be placed outdoors. I am almost ready...just a couple more tweaks.

A bit of personal good news... I have been curated into a very interesting exhibition at the Pittsburgh Center for Art. I will be dropping off/installing my piece this weekend. The show entitled "Cluster" will sprawl throughout their entire space as the building is broken up into separate galleries. I know a couple people that are also in the exhibition and I am very pleased to be included along with them. That show opens 2/5 and runs through March 28. Here is part of the statement from the curator...Cluster takes over all PCA's gallery spaces at the Shadyside campus and features invited artists who've investigated the spatial device of connections. These connections might be obvious, esoteric, direct, or juxtaposed, and elicit a fundamental element of artistic discourse. Welch says these artists are, "working within their interests to profess what they know or do not know, for a purpose that is both self and collectively informing."...

...sounds cool. Here is the piece that is going..."Poppy Field".

And finally, I wanted to share another bit of my recent trip to Athens, Ohio. Actually, this part is from a short side trip to the little speck of a town called Nelsonville. After we loaded up on fresh baked cheese and sausage bread and Turkish coffee at the local farmer's market we took off to visit this hipster mecca. It was no more than 15 minutes outside Athens and was refreshingly free of University propaganda and large groups of drunk frat boys. Nelsonville was an old coal mining town that bit the dust years and years ago but has since been revived by local art loving folks. There are 7 or 8 galleries around the main downtown couple blocks along with good eats, coffee, and a very cool old opera house turned hip music venue. One of my favorite things about this little area was the sidewalks...all made from these super cool salt glazed star bricks. The link built in here is a thorough and folksy account of that areas past and the production of these bricks.

So there you have it...a little crazy blog

meandering on a bitter cold winter day...hope you are staying warm. Until next time...cheers.