Skip to main content

A fashionable assemblage of elegant notables



Salon n.

2. a fashionable assemblage of elegant notables (as literary figures, artists, or statesmen)



Last Saturday evening, October 5th, Patty and I held a salon at our Chicago apartment. Patty is a writer and I am a visual artist, and since about 2003 we've hosted one party a year (sometimes more) at which we invite the many writers we know to read something from work in progress or published work, the artists to bring some work along and talk about it, and any musicians to play a song if they feel inclined. It's more of a party than a salonin the traditional sense--no Gertrude Stein holding forth about modern art in the corner, no competing for attention or ascendancy. Just an opportunity to eat, drink, and share some work to combat the isolation that usually goes along with the writer's and artist's lot.

This recent one was great for many reasons, chiefly that so many people contributed, and so many were there for the first time. In addition to the photos from the salon posted here, below are links to the elegant notables' work online, where I could find them (I will add more as I find them).

Writers


Geoff Hyatt, Birch Hills at World's End (novel).
Patricia Ann McNair, The Temple of Air (stories).
Gail Wallace Bozzano, interview.
Wyl Villacres, excerpts.
Columbia College Chicago student writers (link).

Visual artists


Lynn Tsan
Sal Campbell
Rita Grendze
Lynn Neuman
Dimitri Pavlotsky
Deborah and Glenn Doering
Kevin Swallow
Joanne Aono
Mare Swallow
Doug McNair

Musicians


Randi Russo (links to the song, Invisible, that she sang for us)
The Dawsons (Ted's band, Mr Mayor and the Highballers, is performing at the Battle of the Jug Bands on October 25th

And finally, I played ma gee-tar a bit, but here is me playing better than I did a few nights ago:



Popular posts from this blog

Restoring my Printing Press

I've just finished restoring and assembling my large etching press -- a six week process involving lots of rust removal, scrubbing with steel wool, and repainting. Here is a photo of the same kind of press from the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative: And here is a short YouTube video of me testing the press, making sure the motor still works after nearly seven years of lying in storage:

Brancusi in Plastic

Artist Mary Ellen Croteau is showing these columns made from recycled plastic cartons and lids in the window of the Columbia College bookstore on Michigan Avenue. They are a playful homage to Brancusi's "Endless Columns", with a serious environmental message for our times: Image copyright Inhabitat.com and Mary Ellen Croteau Mary Ellen also runs a wonderful experimental art gallery in a window space in west Chicago, called Art on Armitage . I will be exhibiting a mixed media piece there during August 2012.

How to etch a linoleum block

Linoleum as a material for printmaking has been used for nearly a hundred years now. Normally, you cut an image out using special gouges similar to woodcut tools, cutting away the lino around the image you want to print. This is called relief printmaking, because if you look at the block from the side, the material that remains stands up in relief from the backing material. You then roll ink with a brayer over the surface of the block, place paper over it, and either print by hand or run it through a press. You can do complex things this way (for example, reduction linocuts), but the beauty of the process is that it is quick, simple, and direct. Incised lino block, from me.redith.com Etched lino block, from Steve Edwards A few years ago, I saw some prints that were classified as coming from etched linoleum blocks, and I loved the textures I saw in them. In the last few months, I've been trying to use this technique in my own studio, learning about it as one does these d