Art Intersection

PHOTOtapas 2012-A Huge Success!

2012-02-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

February 14-19, 2012, Art Intersection, along with Northlight Gallery at ASU, Jeremy Rowe and Tilt Gallery, held a 5-day event, PHOTOtapas.

The mission of this event was to provide a concentrated opportunity for those interested in fine art photography to experience a wide range of activities including, lectures, demos, portfolio sharing, and dialogue surrounding the medium.

Our endless gratitude to all the presenters who gave of their time and talent to make this a great event, Sant Khalsa, Mark Klett, Tom Persinger, Mark Haunschild, David Adams, Stan Klimet, Mike Lundgren, Chris Colville and Richard Laugharn.

Thank you to everyone who attended PHOTOtapas, especially those of you traveling from out of town. Your support is a vital part of the equation in the development of an energetic photo community that encourages education and growth.

To all of you in the photography community, we want to hear your ideas about what you’d like to see happening at PHOTOtapas 2013. Drop us a line at info@artintersection.com.

To see more images from PHOTOtapas visit: Art Intersection on Facebook

SMOCA Visions Teen program visits Art Intersection

2012-02-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

Fourteen amazingly talented high school students from the Visions Teen program at SMOCA, came to study book arts and mixed media with our program director, Carol Panaro-Smith. They spent one session in Scottsdale making an accordion book and another session here at Art Intersection filling their book with original photographs, ephemera and a variety of media.

We love having youthful enthusiasm here at Art Intersection and hope we can continue to collaborate with Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.

To see more images from the workshops go to our Facebook page.

Their work will be on display at the young@art gallery located in the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center May 10, 2012 - Sept 9, 2012.

Taking Your Work to the Next Level

2012-01-19T16:57:00.000-08:00

Twelve artists from all walks of life decided to embark on a journey together to explore their process of art making. We had several photographers and three mixed media artists working in fiber, collage, and drawing and painting showing their work each week and getting invaluable feedback.
In addition to weekly critiques there were discussions about presentation, artist statements, getting your work out, and other stimulating conversation about art and life.
It was exciting to see the final presentation of work in the last week and a testimony to the power of a supportive community that encourages growth and taking new risks.
The next seminar starts February 23. Here's the link for more details and to enroll. http://artintersection.com/workshops0112.html#seminar

Art & Arizona: Celebrating 100 years

2012-01-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

On Saturday 7, January, 6-10pm Art Intersection opened, Arizona Re-Viewed, an exhibition in celebration of Arizona’s centennial year. The exhibition includes historic and contemporary images of Arizona to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Arizona statehood.

In this exhibition Arizona is re-viewed by nine contemporary photographers who currently live in Arizona in addition to many historical photographers. Each contemporary artist brings a unique vision that is informed by their connection with living and working in Arizona whether by going out into the Sonoran Desert, walking the streets of mining towns at night, exploring the urban landscape or pointing their lens on friends and family. Some of the artists were born and raised in Arizona while others came here for unique opportunities including school and work.

The historical pieces, including images by Timothy O'Sullivan dating back to ca 1871, are among the many cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards, boudoir cabinet cards, stereographs, mounted albumen prints, cyanotypes and panoramic silver prints all courtesy of Jeremy Rowe Vintage Photography.

The exhibition runs through February 25th, 2012.

Happy Holidays from Art Intersection

2011-12-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Art Intersection's first Silent Auction

2011-12-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

The zeitgeist surrounding the silent auction was definitely to pay it forward. We could not have done it without the generosity of artists who see the value in donating a piece to benefit another artist who may need some assistance in helping them progress to the next level.

We also couldn't have pulled this off without the support of the bidders. Their excitement and willingness to take that financial leap of faith, knowing they not only get to go home with an original piece of art but they also help finance someone's growth as an artist.

At Art Intersection we'd like to think we are part of the pay it forward equation, deciding to show the work for a month prior to the auction to give the artists some exposure and offering them 25% of the highest bid to help them pay for framing costs.

We would say that is a WIN WIN situation!

Write Now: A Writer's Community is Launched

2011-12-06T14:15:00.000-08:00

On December 2nd, 2011, Art Intersection hosted a reading introducing the community to our new writing program.
Writers, Laura Cruser, Mark Haunschild, Beth Staples, Fernando Perez, Allyson Boggess and Rosemarie Dombrowski will start the new year with six introductory workshops designed for all levels of writers.
Poetry, memoir & fiction workshops are scheduled from mid-January to mid-April.
Each workshop meets for 4 hours, 2 hours on 2 Saturday mornings, with the first meeting about form and content and the next meeting to share student's work.
Here's the workshops:
They are all $40.00
To reserve a space in any of the workshops- email us at info@artintersection.com

Creative Writing Course Offerings

Spring 2012

Course Schedule and Descriptions:

Course 1: How to Give Your Story Liftoff: Keep Your Feet on the Ground

Session I: Saturday, 28 January, 9-11am

Session II: Saturday, 4 February, 11:15-1:15pm

Location: Art Intersection

Instructor: Laura Cruser

We all want our stories to soar, but sometimes it's easy to forget that to fly a kite well, we must hold onto the string. This workshop will offer strategies for staying grounded throughout the writing process: for starting a story and for seeing it through, for freshening the creative palate and for finding help when your kite does, indeed, get tangled in the trees. Plan to exit the class with a new short story in-hand.

Course 2: Bringing Characters to Life

Session I: Saturday, 4 February, 9-11am

Session II: Saturday, 11 February, 11:15-1:15pm

Location: Art Intersection

Instructor: Beth Staples

Using portrait photography as inspiration, this class will help students create, develop and bring a character to life on the page. Students will spend time studying examples of memorable characters, learning techniques for building and crafting character through writing, and then developing their own character as the basis for a story.

Course 3: Gleaning Poetry from Art: Writing Poetry Inspired by Visual Works of Art

Session I: Saturday, 11 February, 9-11am

Session II: Saturday, 18 February, 11:15-1:15pm

Location: Art Intersection

Instructor: Allyson Boggess

This course explores the practice of writing poetry ekphrastically--that is, the writing of poetry in response to, and inspired by, works of visual art. We'll look at examples of ekphrastic poetry from literature together and discuss the techniques we can use to generate new writing from observing works in other mediums. Ultimately, we’ll try these strategies out by viewing art on exhibit at the Art Intersection Gallery and producing new poems in response. The goal is to experience and reflect on the power of translating this intersection of art forms.

Course 4: Looking Glass: Where You Stand Makes a Difference

Session I: Saturday, 31 March, 9-11am

Session II: Saturday, 7 April, 11:15-1:15pm

Location: Art Intersection

Instructor: Fernando Pérez

As writers, what we choose to look at and what we choose to reveal are up to us. Either way, in poetry, details make the difference. If writing is like holding a camera to your eye, and breathing slowly and deeply, either waiting patiently for the right moment or taking a risk and shooting, then the details matter. We will consider the details of a poem in the same way that light lends itself to the perfect photograph. Using photos as inspiration, we will assemble words that leave an impact on the eye and on the brain.

Course 5: Haibun: The Poetry of Walking

Session I: Saturday, 7 April, 9-11am

Session II: Saturday, 14 April, 11:15-1:15pm

Location: Art Intersection

Instructor: Mark Haunschild

Popularized by Matsuo Basho in the 17^th century, haibun is a classical Japanese form of travel writing that combines prose and poetry. In this class we will practice the art of “walking meditation” as we reflect on the mundane aspects of moving through our day-to-day lives. Working from these observations, students will draft a lyric essay that reflects extra-ordinary insights drawn from ordinary occurrences. We will discuss ways to convey our travels with concrete, descriptive, and evocative prose, and will practice writing haiku poems that crystallize the insights that arise from the world in and around us.

Course 6: Personal Fragments: Using Collage to Create Memoir

Session I: Saturday, 14 April, 9-11am

Session II: Saturday, 21 April, 11:15-1:15pm

Location: Art Intersection

Instructor: Rosemarie Dombrowski

The task of writing a full-length memoir is daunting even for a seasoned writer. Thus, through the technique of collage, we’ll begin crafting sections of what could potentially become a long(er) memoir, ultimately unifying sections with the subtle repetition and interweaving of sensory imagery, phrases, people, and objects. The technique of threading sections together allows us to focus on the subtleties, nuances, and sounds of narrative as well as the gaps, spaces, silences, on the page, and within the memoir itself.

Faculty:

Allyson Boggess teaches poetry at Chandler-Gilbert Community College and writing at Arizona State University. She is a graduate of ASU's creative writing MFA program and currently lives in Phoenix.

Laura Cruser co-coordinates the literary programming at Art Intersection and has taught writing to elementary, middle, and high school students through grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and Arizona State University's Young Writers Program and Programs for Talented Youth. She is currently an instructor of English at ASU, where she received an MFA in Creative Writing. She lives in Tempe.

Rosemarie Dombrowski is the founder and editor of the poetry journal merge and is the co-founder and host of the Phoenix Poetry Series, now in its fourth year. She received a PhD in American Literature from Arizona State University, where she has been teaching the past thirteen years. She lives in Scottsdale.

Mark Haunschild is the faculty advisor of poetry for The Superstition Review and co-coordinates the literary programming at Art Intersection. He received an MFA in poetry from Arizona State University and an MA in English Literature from California State University, Chico. He lives in Tempe.

Fernando Pérez discovered the impact writing could have at an early age. When he was five, his family dog ran away and Fernando’s father recalls that he grabbed a pencil and wrote: “Bif es gon.” For Fernando, writing is like reaching for a camera, a paintbrush, or a butterfly net and capturing life. He received an MFA in poetry from Arizona State University. He lives in Tempe.

Beth Staples works at the Piper Center For Creative Writing as Managing Editor of the literary journal Hayden’s Ferry Review. She teaches fiction writing at Arizona State University and Mesa Community College. She received her MFA in fiction writing from ASU and currently lives in Phoenix.

The dynamic duo, Scully & Osterman visit Art Intersection

2011-11-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

France Scully Osterman, artist and educator, christened the wet darkrooms this past weekend as she

taught 16 participants how to create tintypes using the 19th century process of wet plate collodion.

On Thursday, Mark Osterman and France lectured at Art Intersection about their most recent body of work, The Light at Lacock. This work was produced at Lacock Abbey http://www.collodion.org/gallery.html the estate where William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the founding fathers of photography, produced his experiments in early photographic processes.

The work of France and Mark can be seen both at Art Intersection (on display through December 23) and Tilt gallery (on display through November 18). http://www.tiltgallery.com/

Lectures on Exploring the Roots of Photography

2011-10-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

We had two very interesting lectures the past few months that further educated the community about the world of photography and the processes that make up the rich history of the medium.
We were fortunate enough to have both Jeremy Rowe and James Hajicek, both scholars in the field of photography to share their knowledge with us.

A look at our new space

2011-10-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

Black & White Darkroom

Digital Lab

Classroom

Alternative Photographic Processes Lab

Best New Gallery 2011

2011-10-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Phoenix New Times released their Best Of Phoenix 2011 edition and we are proud to announce that Art Intersection has been recognized as Best New Gallery. We are honored to be recognized and would like to thank everyone who made it possible.

©jeffsmith2011

If you build it, they will come.

2011-09-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

In the movie,Field of Dreams, farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice, "If you build it, he will come”. Ray built his baseball field and they did indeed come.
Art Intersection has built its Photographic Arts Lab and we opened our doors this past weekend to a record crowd. It was a grand celebration that coincided with the opening of our current exhibition, “Exploring the Roots of Photography”.
We, at Art Intersection, thank everyone who came out to support us. We hope you will continue to come to our exciting programming including lectures, seminars, workshops, classes and exhibitions.
If you couldn’t make the opening, we would love to give you a tour of both the facilities and the exhibition.

It's Time!

2011-09-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

Come one, come all, to Art Intersection on Saturday for the open house of our new Photographic Arts Lab! Visit the information desk to talk with a staff member and pick up fliers about our upcoming classes and workshops, a membership brochure and much more!

The original idea was a space for artists of all levels to come Learn, Create, and Exhibit.

The opening of this space completes the original vision.

Now, after eight months, it’s finally complete.

Once you have taken a tour of the darkrooms, walk across the courtyard and visit the new historical exhibition.

Photographic Arts Lab Open House
10am-2pm

"Exploring the Roots of Photography" Opening Reception
7-10pm

5 men, 1 truck and 3 sinks

2011-09-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

It took five men and one truck but the three shiny new sinks arrived last week. All three have safely made it to their home in the Photographic Arts Lab. Stop by on Saturday, September 17 from 10am-2pm to say, “Hello” to the sinks and the staff!

What would you take?

2011-08-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

House on Fire, a series of photographs by Robert Ellis, has been on exhibit in one of Art Intersection's galleries during the months of July and August. The series includes portraits of a cross section of people, both young and old, mostly subjects that Ellis knows. He asks them if he can take their portrait but when he arrives he asks them to participate in an experiment. He gives them three minutes to collect objects (excluding children & pets) that they would carry out of their home in the event of a fire. He then asks them to bring the objects to the sitting while they write about their experience. The actual written response is framed along side the image of the person, giving the written word equality with the photograph.

On Saturday, August 27th, Bob gave a lecture on his work. He opened the talk with slides of his most recent exhibition in Ireland but after only a brief description of his House on Fire project, the talk became more of a discourse about how the project has changed as a result of feedback from his audience and most importantly a reflection on human nature when faced with a life or death situation. It was a lively hour of conversation that left us all thinking about what we would take with us if we were faced with the dilemma:
Your house is on fire and you have three minutes to take what is most meaningful to you.
What would you take?

Save the Date!

2011-08-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

On September 17, bring your curiosity and questions to the opening celebration of the new workspace at Art Intersection! AI staff will be available to give guided tours of the darkroom, alternative processes lab and the digital lab and to answer questions about the space, membership and enrollment in future workshops.

Later that night, be sure to stop by the opening reception of the exhibition “Exploring the Roots of Photography” from 7-10pm. The exhibition will feature historic and contemporary work from daguerreotypes to silver gelatin prints by world-class artists including Alfred Stieglitz and Harry Callahan to Dick Arentz and Linda Connor.

Art & Youth

2011-07-31T11:44:00.001-07:00

As we wind down to the dog days of summer, we wanted to share some of the magical moments during the Art & Youth programs.

It was so great to hear the sounds of children and young adult voices coming from the galleries but the best part of the experience is witnessing young people in the process of discovering their creative side.

Thank you to all our talented students!

First graduating class at Art Intersection

2011-07-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

A very fun week at Art Intersection

Homespun Crafts for kids was a huge success. The kids made a frame using metal repair tape, a bunch of jewelry and a wide assortment of cards, notes and envelopes.

Next week is Art For the Heart and after that we have photography classes and silkscreen classes for kids. Check it out:http://artintersection.com/edyouth.html

Sneak Preview

2011-07-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

The Art Intersection darkroom, digital lab, artist lounge and workshop are well underway. Construction, sinks, workstations, furniture, and equipment are all scheduled for completion for the Art and Photography Space grand opening in September. Shortly we will send out a "save the date" for the opening.

Tilt Gallery – Change and Continuity

2011-06-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

Tilt Gallery – Change and Continuity

Art Intersection: Italy 2011

2011-06-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

With full hearts, minds reactivated and stomachs that are molto contento, we returned to USA after a beautiful sojourn in the remote village of Vitiana, Italy where we conducted a 9-day workshop.
Fourteen students and three instructors, we laughed, cried, created, experienced and connected as a community to learn from each other about living more artfully, simply and fully.
Here are some of the highlights in pictures.

For more information on Art Intersection:Italy visit http://artintersection.com/italy.html

Losing Ground

2011-05-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

An excellent essay by Tamarra Kaida from Andrew Phelps book, HIGLEY:

Higley/ Losing Ground

All photographs, no matter what their maker’s intent, possess the presence of absence.

It is this barely sensed awareness of absence, of people and things already receded into an irretrievable past that makes viewing family snap shots both a sentimental and poignant experience.

Photography is the most appropriate medium to express the sense of loss that time and change foist upon us. These photographs are more than a documentary record of farmland turning into a housing subdivision. It is a personal testament to the loss of a ‘sense of place’ as the photographer knew it while growing up. But more than mere nostalgia, Andrew Phelps is exposing a greater loss which many of us are feeling as homogenized global culture continues to swallow our uniqueness.

We sense it as a loss of soul and we don’t know what to do about it.

There is something intuitively unnatural and thus psychically disturbing as we witness the transformation of food producing earth into manicured lawns and block walls designating private yards. Space itself seems to be vanishing. In the contemporary American West, ‘Manifest Destiny” has merged with corporate capitalism and nature is getting trampled in the stampede for fast real estate bucks. Mans’ dominance over the land is relentless and seemingly unstoppable.

And, there is always a good reason.

People need housing. The land is worth more as sellable property than as citrus groves or alfalfa fields. Property taxes have escalated. Farming isn’t profitable. Circumstances have conspired to produce what feels inevitable.

The grandsons of Higley dairy farmers are now computer technicians hacking out a living in air-conditioned offices developing computer programs, video games and satellite tracking systems. The information age is everywhere. Cows, crows and coyotes are anachronistic in the day-to-day lives of most people who live in the greater Phoenix area today. No one, not even the maker of these photographs, wants to live in the past. We are innately adaptable and forward-looking creatures.

Still, there is a nagging ‘something’ to be reckoned with.

At one time or another, we all face a personal and collective psychic loss that casts us out of childhood’s paradise into the pragmatic present. I think this allusive loss is an especially American phenomenon as the American West is still the last mythical frontier. It is a collective unconscious space cluttered with tales of heroism and folly. It remains a symbol of freedom and individuality and has been milked for movie and television dramas that draw millions of viewers worldwide.

Today’s West is a contemporary convenience store offering us fast, action-packed video games and hundreds of channels of information and entertainment at the push of a button. We have come to prefer simulacrum to the real thing. What is the real thing? Count the number of times paintings of nature appear in the photographs. They are all idealized, comforting or exotic landscapes void of human presence.

The photograph that stays in my mind is the one that shows a painting of a fresh mountain stream running through a pristine winter landscape. The picture falls into visual alignment with the screened doorframe through which the bland out-doors waits.

In our contemporary urban and suburban life styles we tend to not think of what is just outside as nature. The image succeeds in getting us to consider it’s meaning precisely because it is a photograph. It relies on photography’s casual, quick, mundane attitude to help us re-see what is always there and yet is invisible to our everyday consciousness.

These photographs don’t preach. They present the invisible.

Imagine this book as a series of paintings. It feels ludicrous,

doesn’t it?

Who would make a painting of a bedroom wall with a stuffed antelope head perched above a tilted lamp shade which competes for night table space with a package of over-the-counter medications, a discarded black elastic pony tail band and a tall glass of ice tea next to four plastic bottles of drinking water? Objects speak silently but convey meaning never the less. We read the photograph for clues. The evidence points to a very thirsty inhabitant residing in a hot part of an overdeveloped Western country where fields and animals get out of the way of bulldozers. Somehow, the over sized mirror propped against the newly painted white wall and stuck next to a disassembled wooden table base pushed into the corner, attests to the not yet fully moved in status of the present resident. All the signs point to a space in flux, a room already in use but still not settled into, an undecided condition waiting for the next thing to happen.

It is in a state of becoming… What?

A bedroom in a newly constructed 2 or 3-bed room house in a subdivision that is conveniently located within 30 minutes of work and shopping. On a primal level the modern subdivision house is still shelter. But somewhere in the post Second World War years home as shelter morphed into real estate, an investment, a possible source of future monetary gain that often will exceed the homeowners actual job earning capacity.

Subdivisions have become bedroom communities for the busy, “first time home owner” who will sell in 3.5 years and move to another site as the breadwinners’ financial status improves. This is acceptable, even desirable. There is something wrong with a world in which places change so much that they cease to resemble themselves. It feels like a crime against nature and yet we all accept it. It can’t be stopped. It has a force all its own. Progress.

We come into the world in medias res, ‘the Play’ has been going on before we joined in and we know it will go on after we exit the stage. Some of us get to make a big difference. Most of us get by as best we can and are grateful to be able to exert some influence on others who may wield enough power to create a better future. Photographers, artists of all kinds and teachers fall into this category.

This is a true story.

When I moved to Arizona in the 1980’s. My family and I rented a three-bedroom tract house in a subdivision called ‘Park Place’. The house had one car garage, three bathrooms and an automatic sprinkler system that watered the back yard everyday precisely at five p.m. Two white plastic lawn chairs sat side by side on the cement pad called ‘the patio’ and stared at a six-foot high gray cinderblock wall, which enclosed our yard.

During the day I could see the words ‘ Dry Cleaners’ peeping over the wall several backyards away. At night a traffic light blinked red, yellow, green through our bedroom drapes. The kitchen had polished generic wood cabinetry and the desert sand colored tile floor was easy to clean. The living room looked like all the other living rooms in our cul-de-sac, brown and beige.

It was in the mornings that this nice carefree house bothered me the most. As I brushed my teeth in the hotel style master bedroom with his and her sinks situated discretely outside the toilet stall, I couldn’t help feeling that everyone else in Park Place were also brushing their teeth at the same sink and looking into the same wall to wall mirror. The only thing that distinguished me from the other brushers was our individual brand of toothpaste.

Admittedly, this is not a big deal in itself. But coupled with all the other erosions on our individuality that we all willingly endure on a daily basis, this numbing sense of anonymity slowly damages our souls and makes us angry. We have been told that each and every one of us is a unique person, a rare one of a kind entity. If we are so unique, so

creative, so special why do all of our cities, cars, clothes, tattoos, and even our desires look pretty much all the same? How has this endless sameness come to dominate the urban landscape? Why does this sameness make us lonely?

These photographs have goaded me into asking these questions.

Something in us rails against this destruction of the past. So much so that we have constructed institutions to preserve the past. But when the place is small, unimpressive, and politically powerless like Higley, then it is bought up, sold off, bulldozed over and replanted with a cash crop far heartier than alfalfa or citrus groves.

Irrationally, we insist that our childhood homes should hold their place on earth as they do in our memories. The past needs to remain in the background barely visible, unobtrusive, and yet available for visits like pink cheeked grandparents in Norman Rockwell illustrations.

This is one reading.

Another version might perceive the antelope’s head intruding through the wall of the bedroom like a symbol in a dream demanding the dreamer’s attention. The in-flux state of the bedroom and the large mirror take on powerful personal connotations. Is the mirror a symbolic reference to the notion of reflection on transition itself? Is this image a waking dream of the photographer, who states that he is interested in the Higley, which is rapidly losing ground to an undifferentiated sense of progress’?

Human beings are symbol-making creatures who are in transition from our animal state to our civilized technologically driven future selves.

Evolution is an on-going process with no guarantee of success.

Our capacity to observe our own consciousness urges us to create, to try and make sense of things. Photographers work with signs and symbols that are part and parcel of our daily environment. They construct meaning from the split seconds of our daily lives. The cozy paintings of idealized nature and the peculiar presence of wild animals either screwed to walls, painted into corners or propped up next to hamster cages makes me wonder, why do humans do this?

Taxidermy and photography have more in common then meets the unsuspecting eye. Consider how both ‘capture’ a specific slice of life and freeze it solid. The antelope’s gaze, the brown bear’s stare preserve the moment of attention in the forest when there was a noise in the bushes or a sudden scent in the air. That attentive look of life is captured, chopped off at the neck and displayed among the paraphernalia of middle class domesticity. Beautiful and dead. Life is a ceaseless flow of change. We find this constant change, this knowledge of certain death unbearable. We deny it, forget about it. Photography and taxidermy make time hold still. They are good at preserving the illusion of permanence.

Irony is a sophisticated form of humor. We often use it to buffer ourselves from an over whelming sense of helplessness about the state of the world. In these photographs, irony is used as a visual trope that encourages the viewer to be on the side of the photographer. We are all in cahoots with the absurd. We live in the Age of Irony, skeptical of any belief system and weary of all myths and heroes of all kinds. Irony allows us to keep a certain emotional distance. It borders on cynicism but holds back just enough punch to allow hope to remain within reach. While writers employ it to make points too awkward or dangerous spoken plainly, these photographs use it as a way to portray the homogenizing effects of globalization and growth.

Though once a citrus-growers empire, there are no citrus trees in the new backyards of Higley. With modern efficiency, quantity overcomes character. Irony wields a double-edged sword.

There is something disarming about these photographs. They are sly, smart, and political as hell and endearing all at the same time. Love and bewilderment haunt these pages. Is it possible to not notice that photographs represent the sense of family? At the beginning of the book we see an old bulletin board filled with tattered family photographs. The board is propped against a wall in an empty room waiting to be discarded. The snap shots and studio portraits depict a history of family weddings, anniversaries, first and second babies, and the missing pictures retain their presence, making us ask, “ Who is missing?”

Time has her fingerprints all over that plain brown board. It is a tired thing, worn out by memories but still insisting on being recognized. This has to be an important image for the photographer even if it is presented as a mere fact. Who were these people we ask ourselves? It doesn’t matter they are history now. Even that word is ironic and ambiguous in current usage, as it has come to mean done, finished over, dead.

The last photograph in the book is also of a family photograph only it isn’t a photograph. It resembles a pixilated, digitized computer enhanced photograph. But it is a hand-made quilted, stitched jigsaw configuration of scraps of cloth of varied colors arranged to depict an elderly couple in a traditional portrait pose. Grandparents.

It seems to be a craft project picture incorporating photography and quilting. A merging of the domestic handwork of the past and a referential bow to technological picture making of today. Something old and something new carried over to make a new family. The adjoining image shows us a potential room with a lone baby in a portable baby carrier left on the floor not far from a discarded empty plastic gallon sized water bottle. Both images create a sense of apprehension. Where are the parents of the baby? Who are the people in the portrait? Everything is so generic it is hard to find individuality or identity and yet, hope and ingenuity are also present in these closing images. The grand parents and the baby are figuratively in the new home which once was family homestead.

Life goes on.

We know that real people find a way to make these generic houses into homes. The creative impulse embedded in the quilted portrait reminds us that people adapt and re-invent their lives. The questions in this book are about the quality of life we are currently creating and what we are losing in the process. Andrew Phelps suggests that in the New West we have lost soul and that this loss is experienced as the presence of absence.

– Tamarra Kaida.

The "T" word

2011-05-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today, at the award ceremony for Gilbert High School’s juried exhibition, Re-visioning the American Dream, a proud parent of one of the award recipients asked if he could purchase his daughter’s photograph. He said he couldn’t bear to think of it being bought by someone else. We had an interesting conversation about how selling ones art is like letting your children go into the world with the hope that they will somehow make a difference.

We also talked about talent. TALENT, the “T” word.

He mentioned to me that he had no talent when I asked him if he participated in any form of art making.

Sadly, too many people believe the myth that some people (i.e. artists) just possess this nebulous and elusive gift that they were mysteriously born with.

So, okay, yes, there is Mozart and Picasso and Di Vinci and a handful of geniuses throughout history that seemed to come out of the womb gifted but what about the rest of us?

Hard work. Yes. That’s right. Oh, and passion…

Anyone of you can be great at art with that magic combination.

Art Intersection = a magical place.

Art Intersection's 1st Ephemera Crawl

2011-04-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

A kin to the pub crawl (minus the booze), an ephemera crawl is an opportunity to explore specific areas dense with STUFF. You know, the kind of stuff you just have to have but don’t really know exactly what the end use will be. This past Saturday, ten enthusiastic participants fueled with caffeine and sugar hit Main Street in downtown Mesa to search for ephemera. The group, lead expertly by Josie Circincione, did well with everyone bringing home many treasures. There are so many interesting places on Main street to get authentic vintage goods. Included in the trip were the following:

Antique Plaza
114 & 120 West Main Street
(480) 833-4844
www.antiqueplazamesa.com

Book Gallery of Mesa
50 West Main Street
(480) 835-0757

Mystic Paper
123 West Main Street
(480) 834-0286
www.mysticpaper.com

Domestic Bliss
166 West Main Street
(480) 733-0552
www.DomesticBlissDesign.com

Mesa Typewriter Exchange
30 S. Macdonald St.
(480) 964-3603

There’s so much more, but that’s another trip.
Keep checking in on the Art Intersection website for the next crawl coming up in September!
www.artintersection.com

Tania Katan: Interview-Part 2

2011-04-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Tania Katan at Art Intersection April 15, 16 and 17th

Polonius said it:

“…brevity is the soul of wit…”

Here’s what brevity looks like in the hands of Ms. Katan:

What or who makes you laugh?

People who think they can cut in front of me in line.

What or who makes you cry?

Waiting in line.

To register:

http://www.artintersection.com/edtania.html

Tania Katan: She ain't no Oprah

2011-03-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

Tania Katan at Art Intersection April 15, 16 and 17th

Tania Katan is one of the funniest people I know. When you are privileged to spend a few hours with her you will laugh, no doubt about it, but the other magic is that you will feel like one of the most important people on the planet. Good listening skills are an art form Tania has in spades. No kidding.
So here’s a few excerpts from our conversation:

You are presenting a writing workshop at Art Intersection that focuses on laughter as a healing agent? What if your interested in taking the workshop but you don’t think you’re funny and worse, you don’t think you can write?
Mark Twain said, “Humor is tragedy plus time.” The fact that humor springs from a place of fear, discomfort and otherness and yet somehow allows us to feel less fear, discomfort and otherness feels like magic. Humor is magic. Who doesn’t like magic?

What can people coming to your lecture and or workshop expect to walk away with?
At some point during every workshop, I give all the participants gourmet cupcakes, which they are encouraged to eat while I personally roam around the room, giving each person a back-rub, unless they are uncomfortable with touch, in which case I just sing to them, something that makes them remember a happy time in their lives. Oh, and one lucky workshop participants always wins a car. I’m sorry, what was the question? OH…The only thing that people will walk away with is a sense that they have an opportunity to live their lives with more urgency, humor and love. But that’s all. Don’t expect an SUV. This ain’t Oprah.

To register or find our more about the events: http://www.artintersection.com/edtania.html

Art & Healing-March/April

2011-03-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

"Art is a wound turned into light." -- Georges Braque

We are very excited about the new block of programming at Art Intersection, Art & Healing. We begin the 2 month series with three very special exhibitions:
Self: An Intimate Look at Personal Narrative is a group invitational of artists who are exploring an aspect of their life through visual language.
Ballerina: Bob Carey's whimsical and poignant self portraits where he goes out into the world dressed only in a pink tutu.
My life in Art: Sam Irving, a 21 year old artist with autism, is exhibiting his current paintings along with a selection of drawings he did when he was only 8-11 years old.
Our opening reception on March 5th was attended by over 200 people from every city in the valley.
If you haven't seen the exhibitions yet, you won't want to miss them. Stop by Art Intersection Tuesday through Saturday from 10am-6pm.

All three exhibitions run through April 23rd.

Bob Carey: The Prodigal Son

2011-02-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

I've known Bob for over 10 years and the photo community was sad to see him leave Phoenix for the big city lights of New York City.
He's coming for a weekend, March 4-6th at Art Intersection where his Ballerina series will be exhibited.
Join us for an opportunity to hear Bob speak about his career and his long love affair with self portraiture.
He'll also be showing off his technical chops with a workshop on simple table top photography using simple but effective ways of photographing small works.

To register for Bob's workshops visit: http://www.artintersection.com/edbobcarey.html
To learn more about Bob read this great article by Kathleen Vanesian:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2010/02/bob_carey_ballerina_photograph.php

Love Fest this weekend

2011-02-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

Let's face it. Is there anything more important to celebrate than love?

Art Intersection wanted to commemorate this holiday on February 12th by offering four workshops devoted to spreading the love all around. Visit our website to check them out and to register: http://www.artintersection.com/edlovefest.html

No time for a workshop? Stop by from 10am to 5pm to make a card for someone you love. The first one is free.

Before and After

2011-01-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

The calm before the storm

2011-01-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

Wish from the series, Snowbound by Lisa M. Robinson currently showing at Art Intersection

I'm sitting in Liberty Market (a great restaurant right across the street from Art Intersection) , sipping tea, nibbling on the best bread pudding I've ever had and waiting for the doors to officially open tonight.
It's hard to believe that Alan Fitzgerald's dream of opening an art space devoted to the preservation of photography and its roots will soon be a reality.
This weekend Art Intersection will begin a journey. Growing, evolving, building and making a home for the arts to thrive.
It's pretty exciting stuff.
We're ready for you!
Welcome.

Installing the first exhibition at Art Intersection

2011-01-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

After several months of constructing, visiting, planning, designing and hoping
(and praying) the exhibition space at Art Intersection is coming together.
We installed the exhibits yesterday and… well, you’ll just have to see for yourself on Saturday, January 22(yikes, that’s THIS Saturday)by stopping in to say hello-7-10pm.

Out of the Blue

2011-01-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

Diane Silver

Out of the Blue, the title for the inaugural exhibition opening this month is an opportunity to showcase some of the work that is being made as a result of the resurgence of antiquarian processes in the last few decades by contemporary practitioners in the photographic arts.

The question often asked is, why bother with finicky, “old fashioned” techniques in the 21st century? Would the same questions be asked of the musician using a piano or a dancer practicing ballet?

Cyanotypes, also known as blueprints, are one of the very first photographic processes. The English inventor, Sir John W.F. Herschel, discovered the process nearly 160 years ago. Herschel, in fact, invented the very term "photography”.

The use of cyanotype as a means of documenting the world around us can be evidenced by a long and rich history of individuals, the most distinguished, Anna Atkins, (1799-1871), a botanist who in 1843 produced an illustrated book "British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions". http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?col_id=188

In the Exhibition, Out of the Blue: A Contemporary Cyanotype Invitational, you’ll see how 21^st century artists are using the medium.

Mary Virginia Swanson and Darius Himes at Art Intersection, January 21-23, 2011

2010-12-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

We are very excited to have presenting in the first of our programming at Art Intersection, none other than marketing guru, Mary Virginia Swanson and co-founder of Radius Books, Darius Himes.
We'll be their first stop in a series of seminars they are presenting around the country that address the timely issue of publishing a book,
There will be three opportunities to fit every level of artist.
Friday evening is a 2 1/2 hour presentation that will give you an overview of whether to be published or self publish. Special guests, Mark Klett and Lisa Robinson, both who have had experience bringing their artwork to publication will take part in the conversation.
Saturday, is a day long seminar that will go into detail, giving participants an in depth overview from concept through production and on to marketing the printed title.
Sunday you can meet with both Mary and Darius for one on one consultations.
You can visit: http://www.artintersection.com/workshops.html
for more information.

A peek at the gallery space at Art Intersection

2010-12-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

Construction is well underway and we wanted to show you the space in progress....

very exciting! Remember to save the date: January 22 for the opening of "Out of the Blue: Contemporary Cyanotype"

Art Intersection Opening Party!

2010-10-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to announce the opening of the new space for Art Intersection. Come celebrate with us Saturday January 22, 2011!