Wasn't That a Mighty Storm

 

This morning the July 2012 edition of National Geographic officially hit newsstands, and I promptly headed to Meijer to pick up a copy for myself.  "Why the rush," you ask?  Featured inside is a ten page spread highlighting the awe-inspiring storm photographs of Mitch Dobrowner.  (You may remember some such images from a previous post).

Apparently the stock team at Meijer had yet to update the magazine section, and I had to search out an employee to ask where the newest issue was.

Me: Hi, could you help me find the new National Geographic that came out today?

Sassy Lady: Um, those are still packed up in the back.

Me: So… … … then I'll just wait here while you go get one or would you prefer I come with?

Sassy Lady: *sigh + eye roll* One moment, sir.

 

 

I'm like a kid in a really windy candy store!

 

The full "Epic Storms" article may be found on NG's website here and I've taken a couple of quotes from Jeremy Berlin's article for your convenience.  Do yourself a favor, though, and splurge the four dollars and get your own copy! 

Rope Out, Regan, North Dakota

To document these awe-inspiring tempests, Mitch Dobrowner, a landscape photographer inspired by Ansel Adams and Minor White, teamed with renowned storm chaser Roger Hill, a witness to more than 600 tornadoes. Over the past three years, aided by mobile satellite data, radar imaging, and more, the pair have stalked some 45 weather systems over 16 states and 40,000 miles, sometimes driving 900 miles in a day to capture a moment. “With storms,” says Dobrowner, “it’s like shooting a sporting event. Things happen so quickly, I really have to adapt.”

 

Vapor Cloud, Near Clayton, New Mexico

Indeed, both Dobrowner and Hill see supercells as living things: born under the right conditions, gaining strength as they grow, changing shape and form, fighting for their life, eventually dying. Not that personifying them removes the danger. In the still wild West, says Hill, storms demand admiration and respect. “I feel honored to be shooting them,” says Dobrowner. “If I’m going to go, let me go like this.”

 

As always, we at the John Cleary Gallery would just LOVE to facilitate purchasing one of you very own Mitch Dobrowner prints… just tell 'em Joseph sent ya!

 

Artist: James Taylor / Album: Other Covers

Move Closer

 

Spring has already done sprung at the John Cleary Gallery and for our last show Catherine and I decided to put up a "Masters of Photography" wall that is appropriately nature themed.  You've got your Ansel Adams, Robert Mapplethorpe, Henry Gilpin and finally Brett Weston:

For only $130,000 all this can be yours!

 

Now, Catherine (@clearygallery) is really quite Twitter savvy and has been known rub tweets with the best of them, including Emmy© award winning actress, Holland Taylor (@hollandtaylor).  My fellow Texans should note that, in addition to her stint on Two and a Half Men, she has also crossed the country in recent years portraying former Texas governor Ann Richards to fabulous reviews.  Click here to watch a clip and here to read more about the play itself!

Many people may not know it, but the inspiration for one of Brett Weston's most famous works is la diva herself and we got a hold of his first artist proof.  Don't believe me? Let's take a closer look, shall we:

You betta WORK that bridge, Holland!!!

 

Oh and also, as a bit of Twitter self-promotion myself… you may now follow me at @ub_sessed :)

 

Artist: Tom Jones / Album: The Complete Tom Jones

Tutto è Tranquillo e Placido

 

This past weekend at the John Cleary Gallery we had our first exhibition opening of the year, featuring the work of San Diego photographer, David Fokos.  

David Fokos on Plum TV from clifford reese on Vimeo.

 

Though I deal with our photographers through email and over the phone on a daily basis it is often a bit nerve-wracking actually meeting the artists (especially during an opening) for no other reason than I want to make sure that they are pleased with the hanging, lighting, labeling, etc.  -- it is kinda my job after all.

 

Morning Rings, Study #3, Boston, Massachusetts, 1997

 

Catherine had forewarned me that David emerged out of an engineering background, and I would have been a bit more surprised had his first comment, after the requisite introductory small talk mind you, not been something along the lines of:  “Okay, everything looks great and now I’m going to make small tweaks to just about everything.”  But that’s the thing: I welcome the criticism because A.) who better to perfect it than the artist himself and B.) it allows me to do a better job next time. 

 

Foggy Night, Stafford, Texas, 2005   Taken near Catherine’s home when David was visiting for a past exhibition

 

Especially instructive was the lighting process, and if you come to the gallery then you can see how fabulous these pieces look in the right light… for as lovely as they look here on the interwebs, no pixilation can properly compare to the real thing.

 

Fresh Snow, Chilmark, Massachusetts, 2007 – something Houston, TX (currently at 78 degrees) will not be seeing for quite some time

 

Just as we change the front of the gallery for every new exhibition, so do we try to rotate the photographs throughout the rest of the gallery as well.  When Catherine told me the large Renate Aller piece was coming down behind my desk in favor of three of David’s smaller pieces I requested that perhaps I could chose one of them, for selfish reasons only, natch.  Regular blog followers might remember seeing David’s work in a previous post from last year where I talked of first seeing his work, and I now have the opportunity to live with this piece behind me for the next month!  I LOVE THIS JOB!

 

“Nightwatch, Port Townsend, Washington, 2002"”  I miss you, my dear Mason!

 

David was also accompanied by his wife, Barbarella (@divabarbarella), AKA: my newest favorite person ever in the whole world. Typically I have about two “new favorite people ever in the whole world” per year… looks like the rest of y’all are going to have to try an awfully lot harder during 2012. Barbarella, a long time columnist for the San Diego Reader, regular NBC/KNSD “News in the Morning” contributor, socialite and TEDx emcee extraordinaire—among other fabulously not-so-hidden talents—is basically a San Diego (and now Houston) celebrity.  Check out her most recent piece, “The Pointy Ball Game” from The Reader about being in Houston during a Texans game and enjoy this interview with Maestro Jahja Ling of the San Diego Symphony from her “5 Questions With Barbarella” series:

 

Needless to say, David and Barbarella, Catherine and the rest of the after-opening gang were the perfect antidote to a stressful day – oh, by the way I got profanity spewed at me for the first time by a client earlier in the afternoon and spent the entire evening with what I think might have been a migraine– and though the time was brief it was quite the extraordinary evening and one I shant forget for some time. “Shant”’s a word, right?

As you can tell from the lack of personal shots, in all of the tizzy of the evening I forgot to take one single picture with anyone.  Looks like I’ll be heading to San Diego sometime soon!!

 

Artist: W.A. Mozart / Album: Le Nozze di Figaro

Rainy Days and Mondays

 

I was awoken yesterday morning at the crack of dawn (9:00 am—it was my day off) by the perpetual booming of thunder and offhandedly checked the weather report for Houston to discover a GIANT RED DOT headed right for Houston.  Now, mind you, I love nothing more than staying in, wrapped up in a blanket, to watch movies in the rain.  That was… until I got this text message from Catherine:

Catherine: Uh, this is Robert’s Carpet.  If you go out, will you swing by the gallery?  If you don’t, no worries. If it floods, then it does.  Ugh.

No relation, btw

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the vicinity of Robert’s Carpet to the gallery… let’s have Senor GoogleMaps help us out a bit, shall we?

Yup, that would be 358 feet

 

Being five minutes away from the gallery means that it’s easy easy to get there if need be, and when I got to the parking lot I was greeted by what I am affectionately referring to as the “Tiny Charybdis of Richmont Square”:

If you listen you can hear it’s twin on the other side of the lot!

 

 

Luckily everything was dry as a bone in the gallery and no last minute art saving had to be done. I later read in an article on cnn.com that over 7,000 people (that would be the entire population of my hometown, Crockett, mind you) were without power in Fort Bend County alone and that the rain came so quickly that in just ten minutes 1.6 inches of water fell, leading to a total of 6.3 inches in 12 hours.  This picture I saw floating around on facebook just about sums it up.

Artist: The Carpenters / Album: Classics, Volume 1

Photograph

 

This Christmas, with the generous financial support of a variety of holiday benefactors, will be known heretofore as “A Ruth Orkin Christmas”* throughout the land (or at least in my apartment). I took one more step towards what I envision is adulthood and purchased my very first piece of art—and from the John Cleary Gallery, no less!!!

Ruth Orkin: Couple in an MG, Florence, 1951

 

Now first a bit of exposition:  For those of you who aren’t aware, I had the privilege of studying abroad in Florence, Italy the first semester of my junior year at Baylor.  As one might imagine I had an absolutely astounding time—however, I never came away with that ONE memento that I knew I would have forever and make me think of the experience as a whole.  (Don’t get me wrong, I did plenty of great shopping, traveling, eating, etc.)

Joseph on moped, Florence, 2004

 

Even before I began working at the gallery, when I used to come visit Catherine I would sometimes rifle through the drawers of pieces and I came across this one.  I mean seriously… the goggles, the ecstatic grin, the cap, the car, the city, the EVERYTHING!!  How could I not love it, right?  Immediately I had one of those dramatic soap opera moments: *shakes fist into the air* “One day, you WILL be mine!!” … … …

… … … AND NOW IT IS!!! I get to wake up to that crazy grin every morning now!

 

In reading up on both the photographer and the photograph I can easily say that I am in love with this woman!!  Now, I could wax on and on and on about how fascinating her life was and show you picture after picture after stunning picture but who really has time for that.  So instead, I’m just going to wax on and on about how fascinating her life was and show you picture after stunning picture from her catalogue.  You’re welcome. (Information and photographs primarily from www.orkinphoto.com)

Born the child of a silent film actress and a toy boat maker in Los Angeles, California, Ruth Orkin began taking photographs at the age of 10. While living in Hollywood she became the first ever messenger hired by MGM studios.   At the age of 17 she took off on a bike ride across America to New York to see the 1939 World’s Fair, stopping stopping to take photographs along the way (often making sure to include her bicycle as proof of the trip.

 

El, 1939 / Washington Monument

 

Moving to New York in the early 1940’s, Ruth began photographing for various magazines around the city, particularly focusing on street photography of the city.

 

 

White Stoops / Tired Little Boy / Man in Rain / Central Park

 

Concomitant to her work in New York she also spent many summers at the Tanglewood festival, shooting rehearsals with many of the major musicians of the day—an introduction to the photographing of celebrities she would continue to do throughout her career.

 

Bernstein and Marion Anderson / Woody Allen

 

In 1951 LIFE magazine assigned Ruth to travel with the Israeli Philharmonic on its first American tour, later leading to her shooting in Israel for a period of about two and a half months.

 

Jewish Refugees at Lydda Airport, Tel Aviv, 1951 / Sea Wall

 

Following her travels to Israel she headed northwest towards Europe and it was in Florence, Italy that she met a fellow American, Jinx Allen (now Ninalee Craig), who shared her fascination with art and travel.  Immediately they head out among the city to document what it was like for a single woman to travel alone in Europe after the war, leading to what is now considered her most iconic image:

American Girl in Italy, 1951 (Which just recently celebrated it’s 60th anniversary. Read the article and an interview with Jinx, still alive at 83, here)

 

   

Jinx, Beads / Jinx, Goggles / Jinx, Staring a the Statue

 

Upon her arrival back to New York she married fellow photographer and filmmaker Morris Engel, a union that produced two short films, “Little Fugitive” and “Lovers and Lollipops”, the former of which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1953.

With the advent of color photography, Ruth Orkin was one of the pioneers of the genre, looking once again towards the streets of New York City for inspiration.

 

Ladies Home Journal cover, circa 1950 / Mother and Child in Water, 1950

 

Until her death from cancer in 1985 Ruth lived the remainder of her life in an apartment overlooking central park, continuously photographing the world and people around her.

Muted Autumn

 

As many of you know, once I’m interested in something I am oft found devouring as much information as I can possibly find on each respective subject (See: “In Praise of Cultural Omnivores”.  [See also: the title of my blog]).  That being said I received a couple of Barnes and Noble (r.i.p. Borders) gift cards and immediately bought a couple of books on Ruth Orkin:

      

 

So finally, thank you thank you every one for helping my “Ruth Orkin Christmas” come true… I honestly couldn’t be more thrilled!

“Being a photographer is making people look at what I want them to look at. […] My life’s work was determined by four passions which I had as a kid:  Film, photography, music and travel.  And eventually, I realize now they all fell together in photography.  Today it seems to me a lot of young people go out and say ‘I’m going to become an “art photographer.”  That to me is a joke.  What’s important is, to me, what you’re shooting… what it means to you. And if somebody else sometime eventually calls it art then alright, it’s art photography.”

- Ruth Orkin

 

Artist: Jamie Cullum / Album: Catching Tales

*As well as the year I got a ginormous television (but I’m not allowed to post pictures as it might entice the inner-thieves amongst you to do bad things)

My Grown Up Christmas List

 

Much in the same vein as my 2012 New Apartment Housewarming Gift Registry Extravaganza, I present to those of you who have not yet crossed my name off your list (I’m talkin’ to you Senor Kringle) my Christmas 2012 White Wonderland of a Wishlist—let everyone cheer!!!!!!!

 

Bespoke British Baggage: As BoingBoing put it, this “gloriously impractical” luggage from Williams British Handmade is sure to draw attention at the baggage claim turnstyle.  (You know… because I’m sure people who can afford to even consider buying this stuff take care of their own bags.)

 

 

Booze Books!!: These sneaky little things from BenderBound are an alcoholic bibliophile’s wet-bar dream come true.  My only complaint—what… no Barenreiter?!?

 

 

Doctor Who goodies from ThinkGeek: I mentioned last year how the nerd inside me looks forward to the annual Doctor Who Christmas special every year.  Why not celebrate with a Tardis mug and Weeping Angels t-shirt!!

  

 

 

Sugru polymer clay and LEGOs: Just so you know, Catherine, this is how I will now be hanging all of the shows in the gallery!

 

 

SodaStream Water Carbonation Machine: Ever since I was quite young I have always loved sparkling water.  One of my favorite things about going to Europe is that, as opposed to in America, it’s quite ubiquitous over there.  My host family in Minden even had one of these machines and I probably went through a whole CO2 cartridge just on myself.

 

 

Look, I Made a Hat: Stephen Sondheim’s follow-up to last year’s Finishing the Hat, the combination of the two offering his entire collection of lyrics as well as anecdotes for his entire body of work.  Somebody puh-LEASE Sondheimize me this year!! (The video below explains it all if you aren’t familiar with Modern Family)

  

 

 

Stealth Toothbrush Sanitizer: Because let’s be honest, it’s the perfect companion to the fancy pantsy toothpaste squeezer I mentioned in the last registry.

 

 

And FINALLY, for a bit of a laugh… if you think this list is a bit hodge-podge then check out the holiday shopping list these guys came up with (as seen on BoingBoing):

I’m pretty sure a gallery just down the street would probably sell an oil painting of circus clowns storming Normandy Beach.

 

Artist: Aretha Franklin / Album: This Christmas

Hello, Goodbye

 

The beginning of June is bringing about lots of changes here at the John Cleary Gallery.  Henry Horenstein’s Show photos have come down to make way for Mitch Dobrowner’s Storm Series.  (Even though the opening has passed you can still catch the exhibit until the end of August!

You don’t have to go but you can’t stay here! (No seriously, we don’t have the storage)

 

At the close of tonight’s opening my tenure as assistant director of the gallery will officially come to a close.  I have enjoyed coming into this building every single day and being surrounded by such a fascinating range of photography for three months has been more than an amazing experience. 

Let’s take a quick look back at the fun times, shall we?

My FIIIIRST gallery opening… look how young we all were back then! Keliy Anderson-Staley, Catherine and I.

 

Picnic day with Betsy from the gallery two doors over!

 

 

With the help of Andre we celebrated both Easter and Mother’s Day

 

   

Getting a little silly with Henry Horenstein’s SHOW pictures

 

Celebrating the anniversary of Catherine owning the gallery (with margaritas OF COURSE!)

 

My last opening :(

 

Most of all, though, I am beyond appreciative to Catherine for the opportunity and the highlight of my experience was making such a fantastic friend in the process.  Now DO IT!!!!!!

 

Artist: The Beatles/ Album: Magical Mystery Tour