After seeing a daguerrotype (one of the very first photo processes), the painter Paul Delaroche declared "Painting is dead."  Of course that was more than 150 years ago, and yet people are still making paintings and painting is still a highly valued art form.  Bruce Linn, who curated this show, is a painter himself and works for UofL.  If you go in the Cressman Center downtown, you're likely to meet him.

There are a lot of good artists in this show, including Denise Burge who will be showing at the 930 in a couple months for the exhibit "Conspiring with Nature".  Letitita Quesenberry is also in this show and she's one of my favorite local artists for sure.  I've never met her though, so I'll try to meet her at the reception thursday.

So, most of you are not probably familiar with Osso, but I bet you've heard of Sufjan Stevens, even if you're not quite sure how to say his name.

This Monday at 21C, Sufjan will be introducing a film he made titled The BQE, about a roadway and hula hoops or something like that.  Osso, a string quartet will be playing an arrangement of Sufjan's 2001 release 'Enjoy Your Rabbit.'  Full event details here.

Thanks to backseat sandbar for cluing us in to this event.

If your t-shirt has something to say, wear it to 21C on Thursday, September 24 between 9 and 5 and be photographed for an artist's project.

Louisville-based photographer Leslie Lyons is doing an art project where she makes portraits of people with words on their t-shirts.  At least one photo taken on this date will become part of an exhibit to be shown at the Art Directors Club in New York and then later at 21C here in Louisville.

Here are the details for the Talking Back photo session event at 21C.

On June 27, 2009 The Shotgun Fest returns to Germantown.  It will be located at St. Therese and go on from Noon - 9:00.  It's a small neighborhood festival with music, food, and just hang out time with neighbors.  This year they are also offering free booth space for artists and crafters.  You might have to do some searching to figure out how to get involved because I don't have the correct contact information unless you have a myspace.  Here's the shotgun fest myspace page.

The music schedule looks pretty good too:

Steve Halla, local master of art and theology, recently found himself in the unenviable position of being put on public radio to talk about art and spirituality with fabric artist Penny Sisto and former Speed museum director Peter Morrin on NPR's State of Affairs.  I say unenviable only because I know I wouldn't want that pressure of being on live radio talking about something so tricky to talk about.

All of the participants had good insights, given their particular backgrounds, interests, and spiritual practices.  One challenge of such a conversation in that context is to say anything substantial without being pigeon-holed as a narrow-minded fundamentalist.  The other challenge is to say anything substantial without dwindling into a meaningless gooey spiritual-ness, but it's worth a listen.

You can listen to the program on the State of Affairs website.

This Tuesday at the 930, Luke Asher and Bradley Hathaway are playing their tunes.  I'm looking forward to it because I like both of these artists as musicians and friends.  Plus, my wife Mickie and I have made the album art for both of their new records they are promoting.

This show is the official release for Luke Asher's Don't Leave So Early.  I photographed Luke in the delapidated upper floors of the downtown Bike Couriers Bike Shop.  The cover ended up being a simple photograph of old wallpaper.  The simple photo fits his simple music I think.  We did some portraits as well and those were used on the back cover as well as a way out of focus full-body shot on the inside (above).  Why is it so out of focus?  I don't know.  I just liked it that way.

I respect Bradley Hathaway a lot and he's just really nice to be around.  For his latest album, A Mouth Full of Dust, he sent us a pre-release copy and told us to figure out what the album art should be.  We said we didn't know exactly, but that it sounded like a long drive out west.  So that's what we did; We drove all around the southwest making photographs of dusty spots along the way.  A petting zoo sheep was the shot that stuck for the cover but there are dozens of other photos from the trip in the packaging as well.  Mickie made the above portrait photo of Bradley in Cherokee Park during his last visit to town last fall.

So I hope you'll come hear the concert Tuesday, and also buy an album.  The music is very good and I think the album packaging is alright too.

Bradley Hathaway / Luke Asher / Aaron Lee Martin

Tuesday, May 26 @ 7:00 p.m. / 6:30 doors / $7 / all ages

The 930 / 930 Mary St. Louisville, KY 40204

This week's LEO cover article reviews the current 930 exhibit 'Holy Lands.' It's actually a really well-written, fair response to the issues that the exhibit brings up about evidences of religion in popular culture and the results of commercialism upon Christian culture.

The opening for the exhibit is tomorrow Friday May 8th, 7-10p.m. and it's up through June 7th. Full details here.

You can read the LEO article here.

The Butchertown Art Fair Folks are making 2009 better than ever. They're now looking for artists and crafters to fill booth spaces. Here's the info:

Sunday, May 17, 2009, 11a-5pm
We are now accepting booth reservations for artists & crafters at our lowest rates ever—only $25 if you live in Butchertown!

CALL FOR ARTISTS!

Reserve Your Space
10 ft x 10 ft
$25 /Butchertown residents
$50 /non-Butchertown residents & all businesses
Multiple booth spaces available, if you'd like more information, be sure to get in touch with us. If you are interested in renting a tent or table for the day of the event, send a note to Natasha Maze, nmaze1@yahoo.com

Location
On Washington St between Webster St & Adams St in the heart of Butchertown.
Parking will be available for vendors day of event.

Download Application Form Here!

I'm very much looking forward to the Anathallo concert Thursday at the 930.  Last week I finally took the time to sit in my car with their new CD, Canopy Glow, turned up full blast.  I read through the lyric sheets as it played and was amazed at the depth of the music.  The vocals are so acrobatic, I hadn't really heard most of what they were actually saying until I read along.  "Northern Lights" was the climax for me.

"You paper cut the air above the tundra when you came back in silence, in sheets, and the neighbors called me out of my sleep to watch you unfold the blanket.  Wrap me back into the womb.  The first thought is fear, and brother, it emits a crippling bend.  A shame you can't know that you carry until you've seen it offered down.  Watching shielded in the silence, shielded in the knowledge that has no use for language.  Standing on the lawn at a distance.  Watching shielded in the silence.  Shielded in the knowledge that has no use for language.  Standing on the lawn until you wish to be crushed in its collisions.  You paper cut the air above the tundra when you came back in silence, in sheets, and the neighbors called me up."

The cover art for Canopy Glow is a haunting painting by Chicago artist Tim Lowly.  We put up an exhibit of Tim's wonderful paintings last fall at the 930 and he stayed at our house for a weekend with some musician friends who play music with the Tim Lowly ensemble (Tim has not only mastered painting, but songwriting and performing also).  The painting on the album cover is of the artist's daughter, Temma, who is severely disabled.  What's disturbing about the image is that she is laying helplessly in a desert landscape.  Initially disturbing, the cover art works well with the album upon a deeper listen.  The image particularly resonates with "The River" and with "Noni's Field" both of which have a death theme.

Tim Lowly's wife is a minister at Berry United Methodist Church in Chicago, and when they met Anathallo, they were able to offer practice space to the band inside the church building.  Talking with Tim, I was really impressed with the easy and natural way he and his church were able to use their resources to help out a band.

Also, my friend Greg Leppert, who played trumpet in Anathallo for a short season, did the album design.  Good job, Greg.  Good job, Tim Lowly.  Good job, Anathallo.

Anathallo plays the 930 with Chemic Thursday April 16, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m.  6:30 doors. $10.

The mailman kindly brought me a very nice postcard a couple days ago, sent from my photographer friend and hero Michael Wilson.  You might be most familiar with Michael Wilson's photographs of musicians.  He's done most of the album art for Over The Rhine and has photographed all kinds of famous musicians like Wilco and B.B. King.  He made my favorite little art photography book (I See That Hand).  Also, he was one of the first artists we showed at the 930 and he'll have another exhibit at the 930 this fall.

But the big news with his work right now is that he's got a mid-career retrospective called 'the day of small things' showing at the Weston Gallery in Cincinnatti's Aranoff Center.  It opens April 10th and there's a gallery talk May 6th.

I'll be checking it out soon and will write up a response - glowing with appreciation I'm sure.