Come on out to Lotta Art, School 33 Art Center's annual fundraiser, where you can see one of my photographs and maybe even take it home!

From the School 33 website:

Lotta Art 2009
At Silo Point
1700 Beason Street
Saturday, April 25, 2009

Attend an evening of art, food and fun!  Meet and mingle with the contributing artists!  Lotta Art features juried art by more than 120 local artists who have generously donated their work to benefit School 33 Art Center. Each art ticket holder is guaranteed a work of art in this lottery-style drawing.  

Continuous Cocktail Buffet and Art Viewing begins at 6:00pm
Drawing begins promptly at 7:30pm.
Catering by The Pantry

Tickets
Art ticket - $175 each
Art ticket - $150 for members, participating artists, and tickets purchased through March 31, 2009
Guest ticket - $50, not eligible to select art work

Buy tickets online here.


Okay, okay -- can't shell out almost 200 bucks for a ticket?  You can preview the work online April 11-25 or in person at Silo Point April 18-24.

I feel like this week has driven me crazy.  I can hardly believe it's Thursday.

• 1000 Words Photography, an online contemporary photo magazine, came out with a new "issue" this week and it's got some interesting work.
• I've been saying I'm going to get out more, and I think I'll really have to visit the Contemporary Museum to check out Dawoud Bey's portraits of teenagers.  The portraits are big (30 x 40 inch) and accompanied by autobiographical writing by the subjects.  How can I pass that up?
• The National Portrait Gallery has an online exhibition up.  The current showing didn't strike me immediately, but it's well-presented and seems to be welcoming me back for a second and third look to digest the work.   
• When I first arrived in Baltimore, a coworker told me I'd probably enjoy the quirky art and culture scene in our little city.  In the Station North Arts District, the Charles Theatre is apparently dedicating a big wall to a regular display of employees' art work, which I think is pretty cool.
  

Today I participated in a press conference for the public launch of the Baker Artist Awards. Thanks to my copious blogging about the Baker Awards, the executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance invited me to say a few words on a live webcast. I had a great time despite going against my typically introverted character and putting a minor kink in the trainings I was doing for new VISTAs at the office.

Overall, I feel like I was given a great opportunity to be part of this process. Rather than writing about it at length, though, I will just make sure to post a link and a few more words when the recorded version of the press conference comes online.

In other news, I tried out a few new ideas over the weekend. I have often thought about but never tried to represent my exceedingly poor vision. Continuing with my current work, I took several images of the scene I see when I wake up in the morning.  Unfortunately, I don't think this one came out quite blurry enough...

[The upstairs railing, as seen through the bedroom door when I wake up in the morning.]

Combining my past work around lights at night with my current domesticity images, I finally got around to capturing an image that catches my eye every time I sit in our reading room at night. I may eventually go back and retake it from the couch with a longer zoom lens to represent my vantage point a little more authentically.

[Streetlight outside second floor window, looking into the back alley.]