Early Christmas Present

I'm kind of in love with these Matthew Craven drawings.


Sorry to have missed the show this summer. How do I miss every good show? Anyone want to go to shows with me?

The Proposed Hirshhorn 'Bubble'

While museum expansion is currently a hot-button issue, especially in Philadelphia where the famed PMA continues to mount its immense expansion plans in the face of unfavorable economic circumstances, this New York Times article tells of a museum that might have found another solution. The Hirshhorn has always been one of my favorite art museums, (second only to the Pompidou Center) so this idea caught my attention.



The article explains that the huge inflatable meeting space will, among serving many other purposes, make the architecture of the Hirshhorn less, well, ugly. Personally, I disagree that the original architecture is so undesirable and find that the drawing of the 'bubble' makes the place look kind of like one of those 'pooping pig' toys crossed with a can of facial lotion.



Beyond aesthetics, however, the director of the project, Richard Koshalek hopes that the new meeting place will facilitate a change in the nature of the discussion of contemporary culture -- a move from aristocratic self-indulgence to a real, meaningful discussion in which the public are not only welcome but necessary. The article says, "The project could become something Washington has never had: a real democratic forum for the debate of cultural issues as varied as, say, Hollywood morals and the impact of fundamentalism on the arts. It could also, of course, become a political punching bag."

I'm skeptical that a bi-annual meeting in Washington, inflatable bubble or no bubble, will bring any significant numbers of new voices into the discussion. My initial instinct is that it will just be another party spot for the same old crew that dominates every other discussion of culture.

At any rate, it's too soon to say how this will work out, but I hope the lotion bubble will serve all of Koshalek's idealistic dreams.

2009 - A Year In Review

As so many blogs do, Dana O - One Night Only will feature a 'Year in Review' post. This is mostly self-indulgent (actually, it is solely self indulgent, as are many of my other endeavors). As you'll see, I've divided the events into categories by topic rather than by chronology. Also, fair warning, the list may have gotten a tad long.

Feel free to contribute anything noteworthy you might remember via the comments section.

Art Stuff

• Courtney Mendenhall, Lisa Murphy, Bailey Goldenbaum, Rachael Ocelus and I conceived of and founded The Great and Terrible Artist's Collective.
• Angel O's senior thesis exhibition got written up in the artblog!
• Angel O, Masha Badinter and Sarah Wray showed their post-thesis work at the Life Lines show at Midwives Gallery.
• Ashley Flynn's solo show at Knapp Gallery earned rave reviews.
• Ryan Trecartin got the last laugh -- and the $150,000 Wolgin Prize.
• Kelly Kozma's work was shown at Pterodactyl's "Creepy" show in October.
• I mounted my first off-campus show, "Shooting Lessons" at Angel Studios in Kensington.
• Lisa Murphy, Breana Copeland and I (among others) exhibited our work in the galleries at City Hall for the Fairmount Park Historic Houses exhibition. (We also won prizes and got written up in the Inquirer.)
• Lisa Haskel, Andie Olson, Alison Gulcyzinski, Kelly Kozma and I mounted the "5 Artists: 1 Bar" show at Top Hat in Old City.
• Barclay Hendricks "Birth of the Cool" came to PaFA's galleries.
• Denise Coolbaugh won Best of Show at "The Whole 9 Yards", a joint show put on by the Midwives Collective and Dirty Frank's bar.
• Jamie Moore, Emma Pouncey, Amanda Moore, Rosie Raisen, Chloe Muxart and I constructed a public exhibition of installation and video art as a collaboration with the Wilma Theatre based on their production of Scorched. We were later nominated for a Barrymore Award for New Approaches to Collaborations.
• Emma Pouncey, Becca Jennings, Claire Buchanan and I all won travel fellowships as part of the junior fellowship competition at Moore. The fellowships allowed Emma to travel to London and Venice, Becca to Tallahassee, Claire to the American South, and me to Paris.
• Emma Pouncey, Becca Jennings, Janelle Adamska, Diedra Krieger, Martha Gelarden, Sarah Hunt and others created performance photographs for the one night only photo show, "Acting: 201" at the Midwives Gallery.
• Plastic Fantastic, masterminded by Diedra Krieger puts on "Filthy", an exhibition about water at Studio 34 in West Philly.
  
• Banksy hit the Bristol Museum.
• The Art Blahg was started as a critical response to issues in the Philadelphia art scene and created a reasonable, if short-lived hubbub.

Affairs of the Public

• Philadelphia nearly lost all of its libraries due to the threat of losing state funding.
• SEPTA workers went on strike for a week causing inner city commuters considerable inconvenience.
• The Phillies failed to win a second consecutive World Series after a real honest effort.
• Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States of America and, among other things, began his attempts to improve America's healthcare system through drastic overhaul.
• Bill O'Reilly got really upset about an episode of Law & Order: SVU.

My Always Tumultuous Personal Life

• My sister, Maggie and I traveled to Paris (with a short stopover in Dublin). We watched a lot of films, stayed in a well-recommended hostel that booked us out of our room and overcharged for everything, then moved to a virtually unknown budget hotel at which Maggie sweet-talked the concierge into giving us the staff access password for the wifi.
• As a consolation prize for being dumped by my then boyfriend of a year, my mom bought me a new fish.
• Epsilon Chai Tea hosted a few more knockout parties, and then disbanded into its separate satellite campuses.
• Sandy Frank, Dennis and I began our lives as residents of Gringotts and hosted The Communist Party.
• "I love you more than I hate myself," "You're a piece of shit and I never want to see you again" and "You're the John to my Paul and I wish you were here" a boy I didn't want to date said to me.
• Maggie started and finished her first semester of college at Tulane University.
• Maggie also bought a guitar.
• Under coercion, I recorded an album of my personal songs that I didn't want anyone else to hear.
• Sandy Frank Program Sales Formerly Known As The Sandy Frank And Gladys Experience Formerly Known As The Trusty Haybales recruited two honorary members, Dennis and Adam, and changed their name to The Meager Feast Formerly Known As Sandy Frank Program Sales Formerly Known As The Sandy Frank And Gladys Experience Formerly Known As The Trusty Haybales. We also performed at Moore's Open Mic Night.
• In a moment of particular frustration the week before classes started for the fall, Sandy Frank and I got new tattooes: The Deathly Hallows symbol for SF and a cockroach for me.
• I starved for a few weeks because the bank took all of my money. (short version.)
• William and I met and had many dinners, coffees, teas, movies and laughs.
  
• I spoke at the Visionary Woman Awards Gala at Moore.
• The Kabuki Superspeed was stolen.

It's Video Wednesday!

Recent Work - Part I

Untitled Bull #1, Monoprint, 2009

Cragen Obscured, Monoprint, 2009

Angry Cragen, Monoprint 2009

Longhorns, Monoprint 2009

Once Upon A Time In The West, Monoprint 2009

Detail of Stampede, Monoprint 2009

Untitled Bull #2, Monoprint 2009

Portrait of Mr. John Waters, Collograph and ball point pen, 2009

Untitled, Monoprint 2009

Clint Eastwood, Monoprint 2009

Detail from Cragen Dissolving Into A Burning City, Monoprint 2009

Artist's Statement (I Shall Search Forever), Mixed media 2009

Family and Cragen Balloon, Watercolor and Pencil 2009

Tonight!

Still from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the ArtForum, digital video by Chloe Muxart and Dana M Osburn.

Don't forget to stop by the Society Hill Synagogue at 4th and Spruce tonight between 5 and 7 for Drawing Conclusions! Eat food, drink wine and view recent works from 22 emerging Philadelphia artists. There are definitely some exciting things to see in this show, including BUT NOT LIMITED TO: Day-Glo body builders, orange squirrels, flying staplers, and, of course, tiny toga-clad dogs.

I'll see you there!