Friday, November 25, 2011

What are you thankful for?

 Every November the Thanksgiving Holiday is an opportunity to think and acknowledge the things we are thankful for.  As a WMPG Southern Maine Community Radio DJ & Art critic I am totally thankful for the opportunity to share the music I love & my thoughts on Maine's art scene each and every week. I'm also Thankful to you readers & listeners for your support, criticisms and feedback that you have shared with me over the last year (s) . 

I'm also thankful for these people, places & things:
My Bride Kat
PMA
Space Gallery
Frontier Gallery
St Lawrence Center for Arts
Nosh French Fries
The Port City Music Hall
Mom & Pop
The State Theater reopening!
The Morrison Center in Scarborough 
Explosion of Maine Micro brews,  Peeper Ale, Marshal Wharf, Baxter Brewery
ABrahamObama by Ron English
Ringwood Yeast
First Friday Art Walks
Otto's
Family
Friends
Fishing
Moosehead Lake
Baxter State Park
Chronic Funk
Osher Map Library
The Old Port
Ability to admit I have been wrong on a few issues
Healing Power of time.
Living in the Moment
Living in the Past
Sharing those moments with others
Safepassage
Creativity & inspiration of my Bros & Brohenia's
"Stuck in the 80's"
"Hukkin' a Chainek" host Steve Hirshon
Chris Darling 
Abrahamobama
The Beautiful Casco Bay
Blue Wrap Project
The Royal Bean
Brother Chip



There's more but it's your time to reflect,

Thanks Again for supporting; 
Me, MPG & Art in Maine!

The Gallery Talk is made possible by the generosity of the WMPG Radio listening community.  The blog is the text version of the art rant heard every Thursday at 7am, 5 & 9:30pm on WMPG college and community radio Broadcasting from the University of Southern Maine
90.9 , 104.1 and streaming on the web at http://www.wmpg.org/  

Note: WMPG 90.9 fm will be increasing it's FM signal strength from 1100 kilowatts to  4500 kilowatts in a few weeks, for radio listeners in southern Maine that's a good thing.  It means that you'll be able to hear MPG on your car radio from Augusta to Kittery .  The station management, the University of Southern Maine & DJ's are totally pumped and excited about the ability to bring you fresh diverse live radio with a clean crisp sound!    


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Art lover's Guilty Pleasure

There are several things we should do more often and don't. 

Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Is it a huge bowl of ice cream at 11:30 at night? 
Is it enjoying the warmth of your pillow for 5 more minutes in bed after the alarm?

One of my guilty pleasures in this town of  163 art galleries is going to Ed Pollock's gallery on Forrest ave "A Fine Thing" 

Ed is one of the more interesting people in Portland,  an antiquarian by desire  he has a passion for old books and swanky art with history.   The current exhibition is right is his sweet spot it's simply called the "Poster Show"   
Ben Shaw's  A=B thus C  1946
  This special exhibition runs through the end of November and features limited edition posters from the French Film industry, French War council, Harper's Bazar, Art openings and a poster titled "Wanted for Genocide" it is a powerful print image in one color, purple ink on brown paper.  It is more than a poster it is a  document of the twilight days of the reign of one of the most extraordinary self proclaimed emperors of the twentieth century. Marking a reign which experienced over a hundred thousand people dying of starvation! You can feel the tension and the power of this tragedy that foretold decades of war and instability. 

Swanky cool art & history all under one roof.  I always enjoy the adventure, learn a bit about art  (and myself)  and leave there feeling better than I did before I  entered.  What more can you ask of art? 

Off the Main drag but easy to find, from Congress street turn down Forest Ave about 2 block down on right is A Fine Thing  at 29 forest Ave, if you see Sanctuary Tatoo you've gone to far.     

Why go to the Poster Show at Ed Pollock's A Fine Thing Gallery? 
Go because your good mind needs good art! 




The Gallery Talk is made possible by the generosity of the WMPG Radio listening community.  The blog is the text version of the art rant heard every Thursday at 7am, 5 & 9:30pm on WMPG college and community radio Broadcasting from the University of Southern Maine 
90.9 , 104.1 and streaming on the web at http://www.wmpg.org/ 

Thursday, November 3, 2011

ALBUM COVER ART ROCKS!

Led Zeppelin's House's of the Holy gatefold album cover art by Hipgnosis

                The album cover as an art form was driven out of existence, this weekend at the University of Southern Maine and through the month of November at Space Gallery you have an opportunity to see a huge assortment of album cover art!   Here's the story: 




     Recording & reproduction of sounds in the late 20th century & 21st century was a truly dynamic time in invention.  It was the phonautographic cylinders of Leon Scott in 1857 that was then improved in 1877 by the inventor Thomas Edison into the Phonograph,  this can-like cylinder with engraved wax on the outside was the cutting edge of technology and the Edison "records" as they were called had a glory period from 1888-1915.  The evolution of recording then went flat, literally with the advent of the gramaphone recording system.  This flat shelacked rubber disc would eventually triumph over the phonographic cylinders and held a predominant position as the prefered medium for recorded sound for nearly a century.  The flat records went through many of their own changes from as small as 5 inches to 7 inches, then the ever popular 10" 78 rpm eventually going to a 12 inch 33&1/3 rpm Long Playing "LP" with approximatly 15 minutes of recording per side.  For a brief period in the mid century the RCA company released a 7 inch with a larger center hole that could have multiple discs loaded into their playing machine, the explosion of this new 45 rpm disc ruled for time, only to have the LP return and dominate the blossoming music recording industry.    The recordings now called "Albums" withstood a competive run from reel to reel tape, the tape cassette & my favorite the 8-track cartridge. It wasn't until 1988 that the tables would turn.  The compact disc surpassed the gramophone record in popularity. Many believe it was the record companies themselves that pushed the industry into the compact disc.  This new formate was much more profitable than the larger vinyl records. Record companies also deleted many vinyl titles from production and distribution, further undermining the availability of the format thus accelerated the format's decline in popularity. Many view these actions as a deliberate ploy to make consumers switch to CDs.  In spite of their flaws, such as the lack of portability, records still have enthusiastic supporters and most recently have seen increases in production & sales.

What's this all have to do with Gallery Talk? 

Santana 1969 by Lee Conklin
I personally love the 12" Album covers as a unique medium for art.  The cover photographs of bands reflect the era of their production in a way no other can portray.  The psychedelic art covers from bands like King Crimson, the artwork of "Hipgnosis" (Aubrey Powell & Storm Thorgerson) think Pink Floyd's Dark Side of Moon or Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy,  or Lee Conklin's 1st album cover for Santana are a few of my favorites.  Everyone is familiar with Mouse's work for the Grateful Dead, it became the logo of a lifestyle, the Skeleton & Roses. The Cubist works of graphic designer S.Neil Fujima on the Jazz Albums Ah uM by Mingus & Dave Brubeck's Time out are unique and accent how cool jazz was at that time. These are but a few memorable covers.  The LP cover offered medium for art to promote, protest, experiment comingle the visual & the audio into on statement. For the artists it presented an opportunity for an audience of millions to see their work.  Contrast that with the CD jewel case in it's 5 inch by 5 inch format just does not possess the ability to punch like a 12 x 12 LP or better yet a 12 x 24 gate fold LP jacket. 

Time Out Cover art by S.Neil Fujima 
There are two great forums honoring this art form.  The first is a one day event happening Saturday November 2nd.  It's the WMPG record sale and benefit. There will be Thousands of LP Albums and their cover art on display for viewing and collecting.   Not advertised as an art event, this coming together of WMPG Radio, record collectors and dealers is as huge a collection of LP art as there is anywhere in the world. It's right here in Portland Saturday from 10-3pm at the USM Sullivan Gym.

The second display of LP art has got a little twist and is presented by the folks at Space Gallery.  The LP Cover art as interpreted by Camden artist Gideon Bok.  Gideon's premise is that this cover art is a "Still Life" and he treats each cover as such in a painting that celebrates the unique moment it time in which the LP jacket was created.   His "LP as still life show" was recently in NYC and I'm excited to have it come home for good view right here where art meets the worldly and has a beer, the Space Gallery.   


               Why Go to WMPG Record Sale or the Space Gallery for some "LP" ART
Go because,  your good mind needs good art! 


The Gallery Talk is made possible by the generosity of the WMPG Radio listening community.  The blog is the text version of the art rant heard every Thursday at 7am, 5 & 9:30pm on WMPG college and community radio Broadcasting from the University of Southern Maine
90.9 , 104.1 and streaming on the web at http://www.wmpg.org/