A woman in Jamaica by Paul Corbit Brown

Go see the Paul Corbit Brown show up through Feb 29 at the Cultural Center in the state Capitol Complex! We’ve been meaning to review it for a couple of weeks now, but major traumatic events in our own lives got in the way. The harsher and more cruel sides of life came visiting. There are people who seem to sail through life barely touched by trauma, disease, depression, and the litany of other horrors this life can offer — are these people lucky? Or blessed? Or simply stupid, blind and willingly numb? Then there are those whom the fates have decreed must experience the most horrible and darkest aspects of life: war, famine, mental and physical illness, natural disasters, abuse, and the rest.

Some of the subjects of Paul Corbit Brown’s photographs are enduring extremely traumatic circumstances. You know, the kind that makes even believers question if there is a God and if so what kind of sick, sadistic pervert is he? Like wild, starving orphaned kids who sniff gasoline just to dull the pain of starving to death (One of PCB’s best series on display there). Like the culturally dispossessed in a variety of horrible global hot spots. Like the mentally ravaged and shut down. (more…)

SWEET and SOUR WEIGH IN:
First, praising the youngsters’ rollicking and wild efforts at Hansford Street in the last blog was certainly not intended as a diss to Sherry Lovett and the recent swan song of her era at the Art Store (as one or two commentators opined). Nor to the new owner Lisa Fischer Casto, and her new staff including Mimi Dinsmore in Ellie Schaul’s role. We were just simply remarking on two openings in one weekend that indicated two changing of the guards in this town’s art scene.

The Hansford Street show marked a new effort by mostly very new names — a breaking show of some of the newest voices. It’s a welcome new space with a welcome new vibe. And a mostly brand new new guard. Sure, other places have done similar things for some time but not here, with this much press and interest. Nice to see it happening. Look forward to what happens next on Hansford Street and watching how some of these new talents develop.

Plus, several posts ago, we gave Sherry Lovett, Elie Schaul and their staff a lifetime achievement for what they have done for the arts. To quote from that post:

“Hope the new administration does as well as Sherry Lovett and Ellie and gang have done over the years… We all owe copious thanks to them for bringing into being a lot of the arts experiences we regularly enjoy today. (more…)

Work that referenced graffiti taggers was one theme among many at the “Beating Art” show at Hansford ArtWorks on Charleston’s East End, like this piece by a contributor who prefers to go by just ‘Preston.’ Photo by Walker DeVille. NOTE: See other shots from the opening at the DowntownWV photoblog

Sour: “Given Sweet’s post below, let’s focus on some more positive things in the arts world, before you slit your wrists. I’m calling it — with a nod to Dickens — “A Tale of Two Openings.” There were two big openings of note this past weekend, both a sign of the times. The Art Store opening (under new management) and the “Beating Art” group show at Joe Mullins’s arts colony complex and long-time arts/party center on Hansford Street. This was quite the “other side of the tracks” from the tony Art Store opening in exclusive South Hills. The “Beating Art” show is the opposite of exclusive and that’s a great thing.
Sweet: “This weekend marked a changing of the guard. Lisa -Fischer-Casto is taking over from legendary local art divas Sherry Lovett and Ellie Schaul at the Arts Store as the most powerful gallery director in town (since Callen McJunkin hasn’t gotten her new space together yet).”
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Sour: “The ‘Beating Art’ show is unabashedly proud of being the newest breaking art scene in town.
Sweet: “You couldn’t have had two more different openings.. The old guard changing hands at the Art Store and the chaotic, nascent sign of what will be the new guard on Hansford Street. Two very different sides of the coin in terms of the local arts world.” NOTE: See more photos of art in the show after the jump. (more…)

SWEET: Well, we were working on the promised blog on young women artists exploring intense or difficult subjects. AND a post about painting with cadaver hands as a medium (yes, cadaver hands.) Plus, we were going to acknowledging area arts figures who passed away last year, some of whose passing brings a tear to the eye. But then a variety of personal and professional tragedies struck. These included an unexpected and painful death in the family for Sweet and having to be a guest artist in middle schools for Sour (who also had a horrible cold — oh, the horror, the horror, of teaching middle school students: abandon hope all ye who enter there sometimes. And people say teachers don’t deserve a raise. Frankly, they should get hazard pay).

This series of events along with the rash of tornadoes in the Midwest, fires killing families or orphaning little girls in our area, and more dark events of late has left us a little to traumatized to tackle that particular blog — for the moment. Yet, it will come in time, our pretties. But watch out when it comes, it might get you and your little dog, too.