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.

Tomorrow evening during the first friday gallery hop, be sure to visit Swanson Reed at 638 E Market to see Scott Scarboro's exhibit.  He'll also be playing some wild music incorporating circuit bent noise makers, electro fried canjoes and other bits of archaic technologies.  Scott's art often has a lot to do with aliens and past visions of the future and modified toy robots.

I found this interesting bio for Scott on his website www.junkabilly.com:

Scott Scarboro is a Multimedia Artist and Entertainer from Louisville, Ky who creates kinetic junk art and electrified home-made Instruments with a Fat Albert and Rube Goldberg meets Lester Flatts and Earl Scruggs anything goes kitchen sink esthetics.

He attributes his main source of inspiration to childhood memories of his Grandfather, who would often solve everyday house hold problems in highly creative ways.  The sight of his grandpaw attaching a Falls City beer can to a mouth harp with wire to remedy the lack of the teeth needed to play the instrument, changed Scott's life forever.  Other sources of inspiration are Dr. Seuss, Kiss, Batman reruns and Rock-A-Billy musician Hasil Adkins.

He's been a kindergarten teacher,  a lamp repairman and a prop builder for clowns at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, Florida.

Exhibit runs to March 28

Swanson Reed Contemporary

638 east market Louisville ky 40202

(This poster is not in the art show, but it is by Tyler Deeb and it does advertise a great show happening next week at the 930.)

Our own Tyler Deeb (Pedale Design) will have some concert posters in the show "Gig Posters" at Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.  The show opens this Friday 5-9 pm and features concert poster art by a bunch of local and national poster artists.  This opening is during the first friday gallery hop event, so that means all the galleries downtown are open and you can go see stuff and eat cheese and drink wine, all for free.

Ron Jasin (Madpixel), who does a good chunk of the design work for Sojourn also has work in the show and will be there at the opening in person, making some new silkscreen posters on site.

Again: "Gig Posters: The Art of Contemporary Music Promotion" Friday March 6, 2009 @ Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. 715 W Main St. www.kentuckyarts.org.  Free.

4:00 p.m. @ UofK Student Center’s Worsham Theatre

Alec Soth blew up in the photo art scene a few years ago when his first project "Sleeping by the Mississippi" came out. His large format color photographs explore social landscapes. What he does so well is convey the sense of place, while imposing his own themes in portraits and places. 

He's got an exhibit at UofK right now through October 26, 2008. I've never seen his original prints before so I'm looking forward to that. Plus, I know he’s a good speaker because I heard him about a year ago at UofL. He's one of the sharpest contemporary voices on photography.

Michael Brohm is one of the best art photographers in Louisville. His portraits of the Russian people carry so much personality, even if they are all expression-less. Now, he's bringing together Louisville photographers to do an exhibit in Perm, Russia, which is a sister city of Louisville. The Russian title for the exhibit translates as "My World is a Family" and the images are supposed to relate to the idea of 'family.'

At the same time, photographers from Perm, Russia are being brought together to produce an exhibit with the same theme that will be exhibited in Louisville in late 2009.

Contact Michael Brohm at permphotoproject@insightbb.com to get the details on how to submit photos. Deadline to submit is November 15, 2008.