One Wild Ride

Alright, this is it. For those of you reading who don’t know, this has been a great bit of fun, but it has also been a school project. This semester kicked my ass

Steve Streisguth

up and down the tri-state area. Sometimes I would work for days straight, only stopping for some sleep or a bit of food. But there was this thing built into my schedule. Just about every seventh day I had written into my schedule “go get a drink and interview artists.” Or hang out at a gallery and watch El Topo and think of things to ask this world 

class artist standing next to me. I am most likely leaving the area for a few months but my journey cataloging art is not nearly over. I spent time interviewing athletes and educators and I can’t say its nearly as rewarding as trying to draw some artist out of their shell and get them to talk about why they do what they do. I never really was restricted by the format as much as empowered to learn, But now this blog is totally mine and I will be able to cover what I please, and will most likely be surrounded by art again. So as my semester ends I just wanted to reflect and say its been a wild one.Some of my best work has been for this class and I’m happy to say that it’s not over. I’ve met a lot of artists that I can’t help but w

Jeff Daniels

ant to profile on my own. But along the way I checked a few of those off. here are some of my favorite posts:

Jeff Daniels profile: My Jeff Daniels artist profile I thought was a lot of fun and really constructive for me. For one his art is really great. Secondly I thought it was just plain fun to actually find real things out about someone. Especially when it pertains to their art. I was interested to learn that Jeff didn’t know much about art as a kid and doesn’t know what is about art now. He is just infatuated with emphatic, stunning visuals… and cheeseburgers.

Evil Gods and False Idols: This post was about a show at Phantom Hand curated by all time good guy Anthony Pedro. The show was a smash hit, and I’d like to think that my article was a part of it, as some of the artists picked it up and linked to it. It

Pedro

was the perfect show for a lot of my favorite artists, and it was a criminally good time hanging out with Pedro, Jeffro Kilpatrick and John Moriarty.

Street Art Volume II; Colorful Concrete: My favorite of the street art posts was my comprehensive look at art in one of the best places in the city, Fishtown. I learned shortly after that not all areas are created equal as far as street art goes. I expected to see pillars coered in graffiti, and while there were some what I found even more were walls covered in one artists vision. It was stunning to see. And of course I had a tremendous amount of fun walking around the city, no matter the area. Ever since living for a year in Boston in 07′ 08′ I have had an amazing time in cities. And spending so much time in the one where all my American ancestry origionates has been a blast, and its not quite over.

I’ll be back to cover Moo Noo; Plastopia in the coming days. But after that its up in the air. It’s been a wild ride, so thanks for coming with me.

A Community of Color

Not many groups of people in the city are more prepared to hear words of doom than this group of artists. It fits their art as much has it fits their psyche’s.

James Heimer

Of all of the art spaces in the city there may not be one as in touch with their own mortality and the possibility of change in the worst way. For this group of artists at Phantom Hand, change came last week essentially in the form of an eviction notice. Sam Heimer explains…

So the run is at an end. A few weeks after getting an extension that merited much celebration, a stroke of bad luck and fate comes through and wipes it all away. Although it seems any news to this group is a reason to celebrate, so the smiles were out and it was a sight to see. Almost all of the artists showing had piled in, in part I’m sure after hearing the

Sam Heimer

news. But there was much to celebrate as the past few months for them have been a wild ride. “Phantom Hand was the best thing ever in Philadelphia and no one will ever get to experience a better place. Complete with mental water slides and emotional ball pits, every show they ever had was the best thing I ever saw,” said Jeff Daniels, who was showing some new Jason Voorhees art. “Imagine a brightly lit white walled room with a bunch of the friendliest weirdos in the city all having a drink and chatting about the funny stuff on the walls. The themes of the shows were always great, like the mythology and gods show. I didn’t see any boring still life’s of bowls of fruit at phantom hand. Nope.”

Jeff Daniels.”

Well it would seem the great run is at an end. Although Arts on South is trying to find them a new space so they can finish their extension, head honcho Sam Heimer is skeptical about the amount of work it would take to move the art. But others who are willing to put the work in are not so down. Doom and gloom, aside there was new art on the walls and plenty of people to talk to, ( I recommend Robb Leef if you want to exercise your noodle).

The new show was a spring cleaning show. So everybody brought out a few things and filled the room with their more colorful version of cheer. There was probably a little too much beer to go around but in the end it worked in my favor as I was the lucky guy who got to do the group picture of all these characters, missing a few heavy weights but quite a group nonetheless. And also like just Phantom Hand, its filled with originals. Hopefully everything works out for this cast of characters. Most

Rob Leef

seem to be finding a way to stay alive through odd commissions and long hours. But one thing is for certain that they certainly would rather be showing their art on South Street. The book is not closed yet but the string of luck may have come up short. Either way its been a crazy few months for the ones who worked there and the contributing artists. It was a true community that hopefully will spawn another chapter. This may be the end but there’s a chance that is just the beginning of something much larger.

 

The Gang

Greg Pizzoli