Douglas Witmer
Friday, August 08, 2008
arsenal
I'm looking forward to putting these bad boys into action. Check out the prices on the handles. Got 'em at the Townline Unlimited Bargain Barn in Manistee Michigan a few weeks ago. (for scale: the big one is 6" wide.) I'll be making a visit there again next year.
Labels: miscellany
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
chinapainting package design
As it's obvious by now, I'm in a phase of musical involvement. My close friend (and high school band collaborator) Daryl's project Chinapainting has a new record. I did the package design. It was released yesterday. I think it's a terrific album, it rewards an open, slow listen. You can sample and order it here.
They're an interesting duo and you should read the story of their collaboration on their site. But essentially, Daryl met and exclusively performed with his bandmate Jim for more than a year over the internet. Their first album was recorded with a piece of internet software that allows musicians to play live together from remote sites. The new record was their first recorded live with them both in the same room, in this case a studio in Woodstock, NY, where during the course of the sessions, the night blooming cereus in the studio opened for it's one appearance each year. The cover art features the image of the cereus, layered with long-exposure photos of Juan illuminated by the light of those glowsticks you often see at street festivals.
Labels: design, miscellany, music
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
snapshots : apple creek
At Uncle Mahlon's farm near Wooster, OH there's always something interesting to see.
Labels: miscellany, photographs
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Monday, March 03, 2008
homage a la html
It wouldn't feel right to screengrab an image from Chris Ashley's fun new series of html drawings. But I laughed out loud when I saw the first one. Awesome, dude!Labels: artists, miscellany
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Sunday, February 24, 2008
serpent emergency
Salena saw this on the side of an ambulance and said: "that means if a snake is sick those guys will always take it to the hospital."
Labels: children, miscellany, salena
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Friday, February 22, 2008
pair this with elk
Watch this and tell me if YOU think it's funny, too. I'm beginning to take my wine drinking more seriously (still not breaking the $20 barrier), so I go and check this out, but I have to just laugh. It kicks off with this throwback corny latin music at the beginning, then the female host looks like she herself is working hard trying not to crack up, and then the wine expert describes the one cabernet as "balanced and lush, with a lot of graphite..." I'm not making fun of it exactly. I mean, secretly I fancy talking about wine this way, sorta...but graphite? Gotta luv it! I watched it a bunch of times already and I'm gonna watch it again right now.
Labels: miscellany, video
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
video : thomas nozkowski
When I was doing my graduate work back in 2000, Thomas Nozkowski came to the Academy as a visiting artist. His studio visit with me was a highlight of my time there. I've always admired the way he thinks and talks about painting. (Thanks, Chris Ashley, for the heads up on these!)Part 1: "A short talk with the painter, Thomas Nozkowski, in his studio." by Casimir Nozkowski
Part 2: "The painter Thomas Nozkowski talks about art while on a hike." by Casimir Nozkowski
Labels: artists, miscellany, Thomas Nozkowski, video
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Monday, December 10, 2007
BEAT, by lynne harlow at minus space
Over the weekend I had the privilege to be a participant in Lynne Harlow's performance/painting/installation BEAT at Minus Space in Brooklyn.
The all white drum kit was the nicest I've ever played. Having not performed on the drums in a few years (and always as the drummer in a band), I felt rusty and nervous. Plus, before I started playing I didn't think to take the time to adjust the kit to my body the way my personal kit is. Describing this to someone later, they said "you felt like you were trying to drive a car but your feet couldn't reach the pedals." Exactly. Nevertheless it was very fun. And it was terrific to see all the different kinds of approaches people take to a fixed set of instruments and the broad sonic variation that was produced.
Afterwards I remembered a dream I had when I was in high school: sitting behind a drum set in a painting studio drumming and looking at large paintings on the wall.
(cue the sappy string music)
Wow, I guess dreams really DO come true!
Labels: exhibitions, Minus Space, miscellany, music
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Saturday, December 08, 2007
songs on the green line
Here's news about a project (two projects, really) that I've been working hard on. The fifth anniversary of my cafe is coming up in January. Over the years we've had a lot of incredible musicians play at the cafe, and I thought it would be great to celebrate the anniversary with a compilation album. I collaborated with Rich Wexler from Sherman Arts, who books our shows. In the end we were able to get a terrific group of nationally-recognized artists and local up-and-comers to lend their songs to the CD. We named it, simply, Songs on the Green Line.
While we were at it, we thought it only fitting to make the CD a fundraiser, so 100% of the profits from the sale of Songs on the Green Line will benefit Cooperativa San Fernando, a worker-owned coffee cooperative located high in the Andes Mountains of Peru, where the Green Line's house coffee is grown.
The 13-song folk-rock compilation features songs by local and nationally known independent musicians: The Innocence Mission, Denison Witmer, Birdie Busch, Soltero, Red Heart the Ticker, Jack Ohly, The Corndawg, The Weeds, Fan of Friends, Devin Greenwood, Circles, Bird and the Buffalo, and Little Ocean. Cover art by West Philly's own John Overmyer. I'm biased, of course, but I think it's a terrific listen.
The album is due December 13.
Preview and pre-order the album HERE.
Then there's the other project. (I won't toot my horn too loudly on this one...but it was a big project and it is finally finished! ) If you want some terrific coffee, or an interesting T-shirt, or need a new insulated travel mug, you might like clicking HERE.
If you're in Philadelphia, come to one of the CD release shows this week at the cafe:
Thursday December 13
Soltero
The Corndawg
special guest Amy Pickard
Friday December 14
Birdie Busch
Jack Ohly
Circles
Saturday December 15
Fan of Friends
The Weeds
Little Ocean
www.greenlinecafe.com
Labels: Green Line Cafe, miscellany, music
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Thursday, December 06, 2007
one of my alter-egos
...since I've been on the sports tip of late...
Labels: miscellany
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
the other pumpkin
This guy hasn't gotten much air time here. Ruben's adoption was finalized yesterday!
Labels: children, miscellany, ruben
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Monday, October 29, 2007
snapshot : autumn
Labels: miscellany, photographs
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Sunday, September 23, 2007
the last day of summer
Some of you know that my job is being the co-owner of The Green Line Cafe, located a few doors down the street from where I live. In late August, I found myself with a small open period of time between exhibits I had scheduled for the cafe. So I decided to fill it by hanging a few of my pieces there. It was the first time I displayed my own work at the cafe. It wasn't really a show. Just a place for a few of my paintings to be for a time. Work like mine is often displayed in fairly pristine environs. So it was good to see these paintings existing in a heavily trafficked public space, in the mix of a lot of other visual information, music, conversation, activity. To me they felt "domesticated"...what I wish for them...to be in relationship to places where people (not viewers) live.
One of the things I was particularly interested in seeing was the paintings with the stained glass windows in the space. When we renovated the cafe space just over five years ago, we restored the uppper set of windows, adding color. I chose and arranged the colors. You might say these windows have become another one of my favorite things. The ideas of transparency and clarity have been prominent in my color and they probably come in part from looking at the light coming through these windows.
Something about taking this work down on Friday afternoon, in the golden light of late September, I felt the summer end for me.
Labels: Green Line Cafe, miscellany, my favorite things, my work, paintings
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Friday, July 20, 2007
Where is dgls?
Labels: miscellany
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Wednesday, July 04, 2007
the flag of my country
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Thursday, June 28, 2007
lost & found in the studio
I've done some major reorganizing in the studio over the past weeks. This is a little...I don't know what to call it...that I made in the third grade. It surfaces from time to time when I least seem to expect it.
"Anything can be Something"...a kind of mantra...my own voice speaking to me from the past.
Labels: children's art, miscellany, my work
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
this way to the coffee
...snapped this two weeks ago at MoMA...
Labels: miscellany
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Monday, December 18, 2006
last minute gift (for yourself & others)
I've plugged my younger brother Denison before. He's my musician brother, and, having myself nearly chosen to make my way in music rather than art, we've always been close. In fact, I often tell people that he's making the records I would have liked to have made had I continued with my music. But better of course. I'm happy to have been involved, giving a lot of critical listens, and also adding bits here and there over the years.
Denison turned 30 back in November, and came up with the brilliant idea to record 30 songs to give away from his website as a vehicle to raise money for two important charities. [UPDATE: Denison plays live Wednesday night in Philadelphia at World Cafe Live for the "Musicians On Call" benefit...more details here] The songs were recorded live, just him and his guitar, in a studio utilizing only one extremely sensitive microphone. He re-documents material from the last 8-10 years of his albums and there are also a few covers including a fantastic version of Nick Drake's "Northern Sky."
It's all here at: happybirthdaydenison.com
You can just listen, or download as well.
There are two things about these recordings--first, there are Denison's performances--his singing in particular is about the best I've heard him in recorded form. Second, there's a wonderful sense of intimacy--simultaneously you feel Denison playing these songs only for himself, and only for you.
Denison has also started to do some podcasts, and they're becoming available. The first one, about the impact of Nick Drake's music in his life, is excellent.
Give yourself a great gift: visit the site, download the songs, make a donation, and feel great.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Labels: miscellany, music
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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
the end of the family farm
Last week I attended the public sale of my family's greenhouse business in Lancaster, PA (image above is the forklifts being auctioned off). My great-great grandfather started the greenhouses in 1898 and passed it along to his son-in-law, my great grandfather, who in the 1920s or 30s moved the operation to its current and final location. I didn't grow up on a farm, but always joked that my family did "indoor farming." Below are some photos I took during the sale, interspersed with some writing I did about the greenhouses in 2001 as part of my master's thesis.
Just a memory that I hold dear; my first memory of drawing:
I am with Great-grandpa in the greenhouse. We're spending the day together. Maybe I'm just tagging along behind him. I am four or five years old. Great-grandpa lets me put a quarter into the honor box in the lunchroom refrigerator for a carton of Pensupreme iced tea. The lunchroom stairs lead down into the wholesale office. The wholesale office is just off greenhouse Number 4, one of the older houses the Great-grandpa built himself. It has cement growing beds that are raised off the floor.
It's a sunny day in springtime and the greenhouse is busy. Great-grandpa sets me up in Number 4 with a Sharpie marker and an old order-form pad. I look around and draw.
I don't think I tried to draw flowers. For all I know, I probably drew trucks since they were equally fascinating to me at the time. What I remember from that day is the color--the blocks of saturated colors made by large groups of pansies--the color so alive in daylight. I remember the warmth of the greenhouse; its damp smell, red rubber hoses coiled up at intervals under the beds. I remember the crisp shape of the house made up of a grid of hundreds of panes of glass: four straight walls and a plain pitched roof.
This memory reminds me that looking has always been my form of devotion. I remember it, especially in times of uncertainty, because it contains almost all of my visual interests. It's a way I connect myself with myself.
Labels: drawing, miscellany
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