Untitled (R.R.) by Brian Bishop
Showing at the Penn College Gallery from Oct. 26 to Nov. 21, 2008
"Art Lives Upon Discussion"
-Henry James
This is the site of a brand new art blog for Williamsport! The goal of this site is to have people armed with pens and notebooks as they stroll through downtown, ready to associate memories with, express emotions about, and passionately respond to local art. The best way to explore your love for art is to think about it through writing. Why do you love a certain painting? Is it because the green fields remind you of your grandmother's farm? Or because a particular color brings out deep feelings that you forgot you had? How does it compare to other paintings you like? In what ways is it similar or different?
By fleshing these thoughts out through writing, you will capture your artistic event in words and connect with others who have seen art the way that you do (or differently, perhaps). Then our community of art lovers will grow even more through shared experience.
Come join us!
If you have any questions about how to write on this blog, email me at matthewparrish1@gmail.com. I hope to see all of you for First Friday on November 7th and for the Governor's Awards for the Arts in Pennsylvania Nov. 10th through the 16th. I'll be floating through the galleries on Tuesday the 17th from 5 to 10 pm.
2 comments:
The Gallery at Penn College has been a great place for me to go and see the work of a variety of artists.
I am taking a course at Penn College called Advanced Media Writing. My professor has us go to the exhibits and write articles about them. The following is one article I wrote about The Dog Museum by Brad Holland after going to his exhibit.
From Court to Museum
By LEAH MATHER
matlea63@pct.edu
WILLIAMSPORT—The Dog Museum by Brad Holland is based on an idea he had for years after his divorce. The acrylic on panel painting is part of an exhibit titled Third Eye in the Gallery at Penn College, and it was created to cover a book.
“I got this assignment for a book called Inside the Dog Museum, and I thought, ‘Perfect,’” said Holland.
He recalls when he was getting divorced he filed the papers at the New York City Supreme Court building. The same building was used in Miracle on 34th Street; he saw it as a “great, old building” and imagined it in 200 years with dogs roaming through it.
“There were all these pillars in this building,” he said. “My idea was horizontal, and it had [those] pillars.”
For his idea, he wanted to paint a lot of “wolf-like” dogs, but the book’s dogs were little pit bulls. Transforming his thoughts meant tracking a stranger, who was walking a pit bull, around the streets one night.
“I just followed them around for a while and visualized the dogs walking and then came home and painted them in,” he said.
For the assignment, his idea also became vertical, and the pillars became more dramatic. “It kind of grew as I went,” he said, remembering.
In the end, The Dog Museum includes a variety of whites, grays, and blacks that stretch up past the canvas, 7 small dogs, and allows everyone who sees it to judge the book by it’s cover.
The following is another.
Gallery Welcomes Illustrator
By LEAH MATHER
matlea63@pct.edu
WILLIAMSPORT-The Gallery at Pennsylvania College of Technology was pleased to welcome Brad Holland, who has earned recognition worldwide for over the forty years of his career as an illustrator and who earned recognition gallery-wide for not just his work but for his talent as a conversationalist. For the Gallery Talk, Holland took time to answer questions with personal memories, descriptive details, and careful explanations.
“I was struck-looking at all the pictures-at the difference in the use of imagery of men and women, and I was wondering if you could comment on that,” said Dr. Janet Sherman, a professor of Biology at Penn College, adding what she had noticed: women in his exhibit were portrayed realistically as compared to the dreamlike portrayal of men.
Sherman was referring to the nude images of women Holland perfected while working for Playboy back when it was probably the highest paying magazine in the world. She was also referring to two images of two men Holland created for the Odeon Theater’s play Com di Com Com.
“I don’t see it as dreamlike. I just see them as drawn without reference,” he said. “If you’re painting a bunch of apples, you’ve got apples in front of you; and if you’re painting girlfriend, you’ve got your girlfriend in front of you. If you’re painting what you see in your head, you haven’t got anything in front of you,” he said, carefully explaining “without reference.”
While drawing an image he focuses on what he sees “in his head,” and because what he sees isn’t always vividly defined he eventually can only focus on what he thinks he saw. Still, he keeps working until it looks right or until the deadline for it arrives.
“Sometimes, I send pictures off to clients that just didn’t work at all, and they come back,” he said without resentment. When he sends a work that isn’t exactly what he had in mind, he hasn’t given up and certainly isn’t content. If it comes back, he “monkeys around with it” and repaints some parts to make a new picture. A background color he likes is spared a second coat.
The Gallery at Penn College—on the third floor of the Madigan Library—continues to show some of Brad Holland’s work in an exhibit titled “Third Eye” until September 14th.
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