If You're Here, I'll Be There

If you followed my advice and trekked to Philadelphia, I should be at Dirty Frank's Bar on 13th and Pine by around 8:30 for the opening reception of the Mid-Summer Invitational exhibit. The show features the work of 6 carefully selected artists including me. I'm showing old work so if you see it please don't ask me if any of it is from The Meadowlands. They're both paintings of locations here in Philly. The new stuff will be at 10th Street Laundromat in October, and I'll post some info for that in a month or so.

There hasn't been any progress on Xanadu since Monday night, as I've been suffering from a toxic combination of stress and exhaustion brought upon by the demands I place on myself. I actually went to bed at 10:00 two nights in a row and felt like I slept for days. Work on Xanadu will pick up again next week.

Here's the text from the email blast Off The Wall Gallery sent yesterday, so you'll know what you're missing if you're not coming:

At OFF THE WALL GALLERY at Dirty Frank's (NE Corner, 13th & Pine), our MIDSUMMER INVITATIONAL SHOW, opening TOMORROW, AUGUST 11, from 7 to 10 PM, works the invitation process on two levels:

* YOU'RE INVITED -- as you are to each of the seven leading-edge exhibitions we present each year.

* And YOU YOURSELF INVITED THE ARTISTS whose work is on display through Friday, September 30.

You might ask, "Now, how did I invite the artists?" Well, the MIDSUMMER INVITATIONAL is our once-a-year opportunity to feature the work of talented artists who are relatively new to our community but swiftly won a following through critical response, often translated into sales, and awards and citations garnered in OFF THE WALL's biannual juried shows.

This year, three unintentional pairings take shape on our Wall:

* Two sculptors who are as deft at imbuing their ceramics with conceptual vitality, invention at the molecular level and connections to the world around them as they are at firing and glazing their sublime pieces: BERNADETTE CLADEK and BRITTANY SUNDHEIM.

* Two photographers whose mastery of black-and-white composition and printing serves to maintain the momentum of our recent B&W show while engaging us in new perspectives and, indeed, new worlds: RIIKKA SALO and BONNIE J. SCHORSKE.

* Two painters who pursue their craft to ambitious ends ― one exploring the complex palette of human emotions and subliminal messaging in society and the other using urban decay as a platform for exploring the timeless struggle of humankind vs. nature: KAT JOHNSTON and MATTHEW GREEN.

Please join us tomorrow evening to spend time with these gifted artists and their work; partake of light hors d'oeuvres and sometimes potent beverages, both provided by our bartender for the evening AND curator for every show, Jody Sweitzer; and enjoy the power of compelling art in a neighborhood enclave that never fails to host a good party. And if you're running late, just come ahead ― we'll keep the party going until you get here.

Don't you feel left out? I thought you might.