review of
the Sheila Ali edited "Pittsburgh Avant-Garde - 60 Years Inside the Underground Art Scene"
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- credited to: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
- written from November 13-25, 2025
- uploaded to my Critic website November 26, 2025
- http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticPittsburgh.html
review of
the Sheila Ali edited "Pittsburgh Avant-Garde - 60 years Inside the Underground Art Scene"
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 13-25, 2025
The complete review is here:
http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticPittsburgh.html
the truncated review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8099981994
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243304586-pittsburgh-s-avant-garde
1st off, I have to say that I doubt that there'll ever be another bk about PGH art better than this one. There are, of course, people left out - the community is just too big for one bk, even one as large as this. It seems a shame that Ben Grubb isn't here - just to give an example off the top of my head. That sd, as a picture bk, something to leave laying around to look thru for visual stimulation from time-to-time, this is hard to beat.
As of August, 2025, this is the 125th bk that I'm either mentioned in (the smallest level of presence) or have something more substantial published in (sometimes also a fairly low level of presence) or have something definitely substantial in (this bk being an example of that) or a bk entirely by me (the most substantial of them all). I'm very grateful for all of these bks, even the 'lowliest' of them, but this is one of the 1st ones to qualify as a 'coffee table' bk & I'm very excited about that!
The production values on this are high, "Pittsburgh's Avant-Garde" has a jacket w/ an image on the outside front of a PGH street scene & a photo on its flip side, only revealed if one takes the jacket off, of a toy (pin-hole?) camera panorama of a PGH street scene taken by a student of Sheila's (1998). The back cover has a 1958 (thusly making it earlier than the time covered by the bk) photo of Andy Warhol w/ his mother in the foreground (photo by Duane Michals) + some complimentary reviews. Warhol & Michals are both from PGH, hence their inclusion. The actual cover of the bk has slightly embossed lettering & there's a built-in bkmark. I love that sort of thing. The endpapers on both the front & back have images that stretch across both pages.
What I'm getting at here is that I'm deeply honored & delighted to be included in this bk. I've known, & been friends w/, many of the people included & it's truly fantastic to see us all represented in one place. Alas, as people get older, we draw apart & in some cases (mine, certainly) we rarely see each other any more. This bk reminds me how much I like these folks & how much pleasure I've gotten out of their work. This bk heavily features older people, wch I'm thankful for b/c it's my feeling & observation that older people are generally ignored & underappreciated.
Alas, as a sidenote here I may as well comment on the apparent fact that spelling the 2 words "tentatively" & "convenience" is a feat beyond many people, including university educated ones. It's extremely common for my name to be misspelled. The Table of Contents here has it as "tENTATIVELY, a cONVIENCE". For those of you who're spelling-challenged, the last word shd be "cONVENIENCE": the 1st "EN" is missing. At least the tOGGLE cASE & the punctuation are correct.
Working my way thru this bk cover-to-cover (&, YES, I read the entire thing), I made a reviewer's note to myself about liking Sheila's "PREFACE" - finding it to be a good memoir. I'm happy that SA mentioned the 'zine that etta cetera & I edited called Street Ratbag (7 issues, 1999-2004). If you're interested in a sample issue of that, there's a redacted pdf of Street Ratbag 6 uploaded by someone I don't know on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/street-ratbag-6/mode/2up . On page 12 Sheila writes:
"At Carlow College I was introduced to one of my most influencial teachers since studying anarchism with Jim Merod at Brandeis: I met the feminist artist and teacher Faith Wilding. I followed her to an MFA program at Vermont College, where I was blessed to have the best teachers of my student career, including the magnificent and brilliant Steve Kurtz" - p 12
Reading this, for me, was a reminder of one connection after another. I modelled for Wilding at CMU & collaborated w/ her fellow SubRosa member Hyla Willis. I guest lectured in Kurtz's film class. Both of them have bks published by Autonomedia. The mention of anarchism is one of the things that gives this bk some street cred.
When I moved to PGH in January, 1996, I was somewhat astounded & dismayed to find that hiring practices were, as far as I cd tell, heavily based in nepotism & croneyism. One had to be a friend or a relative of someone already in place to get a job. At one point, Human Resources Depts seemed little more than fronts-for-respectability rather than places that actually performed their supposed functions. W/ this in mind, it's no surprise that this bk heavily advertises Sheila's gallery, The Irma Freeman Center for the Imagination, & her relatives (her sister, aunt, uncle, & grandmother (& herself)). So, yes, there is a heavy bias here in favor of people whose work has exhibited at the Freeman Center - regardless of whether it's avant-garde or underground. That sd, that doesn't mean that most of the work isn't excellent. If the title of the bk had simply been something like: "Pittsburgh Artists" it wd've been fine, there's no need to hype it as something that it's not. It's to be expected that there's PR involved such as this:
"When we first came to Garfield, we were pioneers surrounded by empty lots, abandoned buildings, and boarded up windows. Over the years , we not only transformed our own space, but we were also part of a radical community transformation. When we started, the neighborhood was a place where crime, drugs, and graffiti tagging were rampant. Now, besides the many art studios and galleries that form the heart of the thriving Penn Avenue cultural corridor, there are shops, vegan restaurants, community organizations, hair salons, yoga studios, vintage clothing stores, sanctioned graffiti spaces, and a wellness center." - p 14
What's wrong w/ this picture?! Pre-existing the Freeman Center there were, more or less directly across the street, Garfield Artworks, Modern Formations (2 galleries where I gave many performances), The Thomas Merton Center wch housed Book 'Em, a bks-to-prisoners anarchist project (as well as a political center w/ an associated thrift store), Kraynick's (a bike shop), People's (a popular Indian restaurant). In other words, the Freeman Center was NOT the pioneer, those other places were. What Ali is describing is gentrification: things like "vegan restaurants", "hair salons", "yoga studios", & "a wellness center" tend to cater to more prosperous clients than the pizza places that were already there. As far as "sanctioned graffiti spaces" go: graffiti is generally a truly underground activity that exists in defiance of the law. Sanctioning it turns the painter into a muralist. I, personally, only support graffiti done on community spaces, like buttresses for bridges, but sanctioning it takes the freedom out of it & turns it into something that Big Brother can control.
In the "RATIONALE" section Sheila gets to the heart of why she calls the work & people presented in this bk "avant-garde" & "underground":
"Most of the artists here are colleagues, friends, or are friends of friends. There's such a solid intersectionality that if you read this book cover to cover, you will discover a tight-knit community. Yes, everyone knows everyone in our little city. And so, even without my personal connections, these individuals would remain a cohesive sinuous line of the advancing avant-garde, from the depths of what was underground. Emerging from the abyss we see individuals trying to reach a place in the sun. Here from a once dynamic industrial past, the predominant world supplier of steel and glass, and a leader in philanthropic culture, this city has been seen as declining into decay for so long that maybe the rest of the country has forgotten, or never even knew, the art, dance, music, writing, and dramatic arts that have originated here. Pittsburgh artists made a scene outside of the officialdom, one that grew out of an independence from the establishment, molded by its anti-establishment character. This was a whole different reality, far from the hallmarks of the traditional art world, where artists created subversive, subterrain trail markings, virtually disconnected from the mainstream public and cultural institutions at large. This is what I call avant-garde and underground, and these are my people." - p 15
Whew! That's a passionate & loving manifesto of sorts & I quite like it! I find it both agrees w/ & differs from the usual definitions of "avant-garde" & "underground". Let's get into a little history: In the chapbk entitled "Cervantes in Madrid & Other Texts" by Alphonse Brot & translated & explained & (re)published in the 21st century by Olchar Lindsann of mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press Lindsann makes the (to me believable & scholarly) claim that Brot was "the earliest writer on record to declare himself a member of the creative "avant-garde"" (back cover).
"In 1829 Brot became among the first of them to publish a book"
[..]
"in his preface to the book (included here) Brot became the first poet on record to associate himself with the term "avant-garde", taking it from Saint-Simonian Socialism where it had been coined a few years earlier to describe a hypothetical radical artistic paradigm." - p 7
"Prior to its use in Saint-Simonian socialism, where it took on its current cultural meaning, "avant-garde" referred to the foremost troops in an army engaging in combat - those who explored the enemies positions and were first in line of attack, where chances of death were highest; in English, it was called the Forlorn Hope. French culture was drenched in militarism at this time, and much of Romanticist theoretical language and slang (the two blended together) can be seen to détourne this vocabulary into the creative domain - thus not only the Romanticist avant-garde (most extreme partisans of the movement), but the "Romanticist Army" (i.e., underground subculture in general)" - p 16
Lindsann also published another chapbk by another French Romanticist radical named Petrus Borel. In it, Lindsann expounds further on the early days of the term "avant-garde" used culturally:
"Borel was among the first to systematically articulate and implement many of the fundamental postulates of the avant-garde: the convergence of art and life, personality as artistic material, the equation of creative with political activity, defiant resistance to intellectual norms as such, incessant reinvention and formal freedom, the embrace of artistic and personal idiosyncrasy and experimentation, models of intellectual exchange based in friendship rather than institutional validation." - p 1, "Lyncanthropy - Shreds Torn from Rhapsodies"
"The term 'avant-garde' was first used in its modern sense in 1825 by the socialist writer Olinde Rodrigues, who called for the creation of a network of interdisciplinary artists and intellectuals to experiment with new forms of art and new ways of living. By 1830 the extremist fringe of French Romanticist subculture were calling themselves the "Avant-Garde of Romanticism," and proclaiming the rejection of normative culture by donning new hairstyles, beards, and clothing, developing their own slang, dances, and games." - p 2, ibid
"The term 'Camaraderie' denoted, for them, a creative practice explicitly rooted in friendship. Creative praxis was an extension of friendship, a medium through which direct human relationships were molded. Though seldom afterward so explicitly emphasized within the avant-garde, the ethic denoted by the term Camaraderie remains central to Mail Art, Fluxus, DIY Performance practices, and the avant-garde community generally." - p 4, ibid
Keep in mind that this was a time in France when revolutionaries were trying to prevent the recuperation of the revolution by monarchical & liberal forces both. Creative work resisting the recuperation was literally outlawed. What I want to emphasize in the above quotes is that the creative avant-garde was intended to be "a network of interdisciplinary artists and intellectuals" [who] "experiment"[ed] "with new forms of art and new ways of living" as a way of resistance to the destruction of some of the egalitarian gains of the French Revolution.
For me, the "experiment"[s] "with new forms of art and new ways of living" are central to the avant-garde of the last 60 yrs as much as they were in the time of 1830s France. During this same time, the "underground" has been an outlaw form of resistance to the death trip of mainstream culture. Groups like Earth First & the Animal Liberation Front are underground b/c much of their activity has to be done clandestinely in order to avoid prosecution & persecution. Much of this activity is anarchist. I'm an anarchist & I've been involved w/ anarchist political activism for many decades.
From the 'INTRODUCTION":
"The IFCI has had a series of exhibitions known as Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh Artists. After the first one, we put out a book of the same name, in 2010." - p 16
Perhaps the name of this bk is to distinguish it from the earlier bk. It seems to me that the earlier bk's title wd've served better as a title for this bk. Anyway, regardless of whether the majority of the art here is "avant-garde" &/or "underground" it's still lovingly crafted & interesting to look at. It doesn't need to be "avant-garde" OR "underground" to justify itself. It's cool just the way it is. It might seem overly persnickety of me to dwell on the meanings of these words but it's my feeling that my life has been heavily invested in such things, not just in the us@ but over large portions of the world, & it's important to me to not be uncaring about what it all means.
ONTO THE ARTISTS: Many of these people have been friends of mine or at least aquaintances so I can relate to Sheila's "Most of the artists here are colleagues, friends, or are friends of friends. There's such a solid intersectionality that if you read this book cover to cover, you will discover a tight-knit community. Yes, everyone knows everyone in our little city." - although it's not THAT little of a city.
Sue Abramson is a photographer I've known since 1977 when she routinely photographed performances in Baltimore (mostly or entirely connected w/ Merzaum & Desire Productions' "FDA"s (Festivals of Disappearing Arts)), including my "t he Phantom of t he Opera". In Pittsburgh, she was a photography teacher at the very-much-missed Pittsburgh Filmmakers (RIP). Given that she's experimented w/ new forms & techniques I'd call some or most of her work avant-garde, I wdn't call her underground. She's an excellent photographer.
Rick Bach: "2020s - A 62-year journey It has been one hell of a ride from the early days in Cranberry to the Southside, which was like the wild west back then, to the swamp in DC. I never thought I'd say this, but sobriety has been ok too." - p 31
I'd probably seen one or more paintings by Rick Bach & liked them before I met him at what might've been a Brew House event on the South Side. I was being friendly toward him, as I often am to people, & might've told him something about wanting to get to know him better. He tried to discourage me, 1st by telling me he had ebola, 2nd by telling me he used drugs. Neither of those things particularly put me off but I got the message that he didn't want to be friends so I moved on. His paintings on metal are wildly cartoonish. Coincidentally, I went out to a Mad Mex restaurant on Highland St in PGH last night & realized that there was a very impressive quantity of Bach's artwork decorating the place. It was truly fantastic! Making it even better, the bar played Dr. John's version of "Junko Partner" over the sound system.
The sub-heading for Chuck Barr's section is "Self-Taught Pittsburgh Artist Gets First Solo Exhibit At Age 89". I'd call him more of an Outsider Artist. Since I have a deep interest in & respect for Outsider Art that's a compliment, not derogatory.
Kenneth Batista's main technique as presented here is to take realistic imagery & abstract it by rendering the imagery in large pixels that change representationalism into areas of non-representational color. I enjoy the effect.
Romare Bearden is a fairly well-known artist. As such, he gets 6 pages instead of the usual 4 allotted. One of his main pieces presented is a large mural called "Pittsburgh Recollections" from 1984 that's a handpainted tile mural at the Gateway Center T-station.
I love quilts & pre-20th century needlework often presents an abstraction that significantly predates the more famous Abstract Art of Modernism. Ruth Bedeian makes quilts. I'd have to see the actual quilts to truly appreciate them but the images of them here are point-blank amazing as far as quilting craft goes. They'd be very intense to have spread on a bed if one were to choose to not have them on a wall.
More quilts from Christine Bethea. She defines herself as "Self-taught, I am not bound by academic dogma whch can sometimes stifle creative contemplation. As a young girl, I once nailed Jell-O to a wall considering it a plausible creative concept, so today, I celebrate the disruption of traditional artistic practice in favor of exploration and experimentation.["]" - p 52
I much prefer autodidacts, being one myself. I love that she says "I am not bound by academic dogma" & I particularly love that she "nailed Jell-O to a wall".
"Bethea would become an executive with the former African-American Heritage Quilters, and later be archived as a Western PA Historic Quilter by the Senator John Heinz History Center, a Smithsonian Affiliate." - p 53
Now, I think that's great.. but as a former employee of the Heinz History Center i feel that it's important to mention that it was named after Senator John Heinz somewhat in the hope of getting funds as a result. That didn't work. As for its association w/ the Smithsonian? Well, that's something that they bought - not that they didn't deserve it w/o buying it but that's the way these things roll.
"Emory Biko (1958-2024) was born in Pittsburgh and was raised in the Hill District in the 1960s and 1970s." [..] "Biko made art from his collection of materials found mostly in Pittsburgh. From the beginning, he made collages and paintings of musicians, sports figures, activists, and entertainers, including influential people who lived and worked in the Hill. Biko has been a working artist all his life. Biko's style of art has evolved over many years. He used many forms of media to create unqiue mixed media art objects. He says he makes art about the trials that you go through living in the hood, but he also honors and celebrates the rich world history of African Americans.
" S. Ali, Irma Freeman Center" - p 56
An image of an installation stretches across 2 pages to the right of the above text. The room is painted purple, on its right wall are many paintings, in the middle are 3 sculpted figures: a man playing guitar, a woman perhaps washing, & one that's hard for me to make out, perhaps a mother tending to a child. On the back wall is a photograph of a black man in a suit, perhaps a musician. On the left wall is something that may be a shrine. The whole atmosphere has a presence. The next 2 pages show a spread of smaller images & sculptures, including an image shaped like Africa & made of portraits of people w/ a clock in the middle. The colors red, green, & yellow dominate, Pan-African colors signifying black liberation struggles & a resistance to colonialism.
"THE BREW HOUSE & THE BLACK SHEEP FESTIVAL" gets into territory dear to me. The Brew House is a huge former brewery that was taken over by artists & turned into studios, performance space, & a gallery. I've performed there at least 3 times. The subtitle of this section is "Tom Sarver Remembers the Black Sheep Puppet Festival". That puppet festival was utterly fantastic. This is where the bk gets into what I have no problem considering to be both avant-garde & underground. The images are paintings of Sarver's of the space & the festival. There are photos of some of the puppets too. At one point Tom lived near The Mattress Factory & he essentially declared his house a museum that one cd visit. That was truly wonderful, his place was transformed to the fullest. He was also a volunteer puppeteer for my move "Robopaths". The puppet festival was so full of life, so vibrant, so much fun, & it took so much energy. It's amazing & a credit to the people involved that it lasted 10 yrs - such things are hard to keep going. Even having a chance to be in the audience was something to be cherished. Is there anything equivalent to it now?!
Mike Bonello's up next, he's a person who's been a major presence in positive things that've happened in my PGH life. When I 1st moved here in 1996 I didn't know that many people & I was lonely (now it might be even worse). Mike was living in a nearby house called the "Rickety House" where he regularly hosted dance parties that were very open. Once I discovered those & started attending them & dancing my life improved immensely. Mike's a musician & a filmmaker. His films have been some of my local favorites. We went to NYC together to participate in a show at MoMA, films projected w/ one or more analysis projectors, often (or entirely?) w/ live soundtracks. It was called "Pop Rally" & it was sold out. That, in itself, was amazing. During the last film, one that Mike made w/ drummer Sam Pace, a MoMA security guard 'accidentally' leaned against the theater's light switch & turned the lights on to end the show b/c he was annoyed that the performance was going on 'too long'. How arrogant.
Joan Brindle is one of the many artists who I wasn't previously familiar w/. I'm very thankful to Sheila & this bk for the exposure. As w/ most of the work, it's intricate & fascinating to look at. I imagine Brindle dedicated to her craft, working on these pieces day-in & day-out, shaping them w/ an incredible attn to detail. It seems that many of PGH's artists are inspired by the biomorphic forms of nature. Brindle exemplifies this. Pittsburghers are fortunate to live in such a green city, so many trees everywhere!
Eric Calfo is part of the skateboarding scene here. He makes movies of skateboarding tricks that're tantamount to flying. The father of Sheila's son is a skateboarder & his house is a locus for skating activity. It's great to see skateboarding treated as an art form here. I've made a couple of movies in a local skateboarding bowl. Here's a link to one of them, "Inverse Psychology Experiment: "The Environment""
- shot at the Witamy Do Bowl on July 16, '000: on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/inverse-psychology-experiment .
Here's where the community aspect of much of the work presented in this bk is made manifest again: Cheryl Capezzuti makes large puppets for parades & other social occasions (as well as other work). They're delightful & I'm sure that seeing them in action wd be a treat, something especially cheerful.
Next we come to Etta Cetera, a person very dear to me. Her work is varied and consistently original & inspired. Perhaps most importantly, she's very devoted to anarchist political activism. We were both part of the What?! Collective & we were editors of the Street Ratbag 'zine. A redacted copy of issue 6 has been uploaded to the Internet Archive by people unknown to me here: https://archive.org/details/street-ratbag-6/mode/2up . She's been the founder &/or cofounder of more prisoner-support groups than a policeman can shake a baton at: Book 'Em (a bks-to-prisoners program) & Fed Up! (a group for direct prisoner support) being just 2 of these. Ali interviewed her & the following is an excerpt:
"etc: Yeah. The struggle to end mass incarceration goes hand in hand to end white supremacy. And as a white person, I feel responsible to participate in unlearning racism and supporting other white people in the journey. It's not solely about responsibility-I also know that "No one is free until we are all free," physically and spiritually. This is for my freedom too." - p 81
Pictures include her miniature bk library & her standing next to one of the many banners she's made. Her interview concludes w/:
"etc: I think that art is my organizing tool, and that is how I do everything, even the way I send mail. We're doing a mail art project now to our lawmakers about bills we want passed, right? I feel like I'm doing the same things that I've done for the past 20 years, just on a bigger scale." - p 85
Dennis Childers is someone I've only known about, I don't recall if I've ever met him. Once again, the work presented is impressive: some photographs, an assemblage, a fish-eye photo from above of him in his studio, 2 more photos. The wide-angle photo is particularly appealing to me, the walls covered w/ images & media. The assemblage is full of cubbyholes populated by cigarette butts & coffee cups.
My section is next. Since my article was written my onesownthoughts YouTube channel has been TERMINATED (w/ extreme prejudice) making over 740 works, made in 50 yrs & uploaded in 18 yrs, no longer publicly accessible & removing them from my access as well. I've spent the last 3 mnths uploading the ones I cd salvage to the Internet Archive. Most of them are (M)Usic movies, many are of anarchist IMP ACTIVISM. I appear to have lost 16 movies of mine permanently b/c of this. Also b/c of this, the links presented for YouTube are no longer any good. As such, I'll give you the revised links here: "Triple-S Variety Show @ Orgone Cinema": on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/592.-triple-s-orgone ; "UNDERAPPRECIATED MOVIEMAKERS FESTIVAL": on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/567.-underappreciated-final-highest-128k ; "HiTEC": the playlist is no more but the following is a good place to start: the complete 1st gig is on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/HiTEC051full .
I feel compelled to defend myself by pointing out that the caption mistake did not originate w/ me. I was one of the 1st people to contribute to this bk. Alas, this was at a time when Sheila's vision was that everyone wd only be allowed 4 images. I wanted more & provided more but my section only has the restricted 4 - while almost everyone else has many more. I like my 4 images but they give a pretty narrow view of my enormous output. Still, WOW, thank you Sheila, you & I didn't see eye-to-eye very often but I'm still honored & delighted to be included here.
I installed one of Doug Cooper's murals of PGH at the Heinz History Center. As charcoal drawings they're very spectacular. Large w/ deliberate distortions that enable seeing more distance detail than one might see if the perspective were more realist. Like many of the artists in this bk he's an arts professor, in his case at CMU. As w/ so many other artists here the work is extremely meticulous, it looks great in the bk but seeing the work in actual size is beyond impressive. Sheila must've considered him to be another art star b/c he got 6pp, like Romare Bearden, rather than the basic 4.
One of Katy Dement's sculptures has graced some of the advertising for this bk. It's a humanoid body w/ 8 arms & a horse's head. The arms are mostly holding tools. It's called She's got Skills. I can imagine it used in a Surrealist animation by Jan Svankmajer. He's one of my favorite filmmakers. One paragraph about Dement says this:
"Her work is widely collected, from Christchurch Botanic Gardens, New Zealand, to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, and is for sale in Art-o-Mat machines all over the world." - p 98
"We're very excited about the shiny new Art-O-Mat that arrived in the Luce Foundation Center this week. Now you can start your very own collection of American Art right here in the museum-becoming a collector has never been so convenient!
"In the late 1990s, artist Clark Whittington took advantage of the recent ban on cigarette vending machines and re-purposed one to sell his cigarette-packet-sized photographs. The idea took off and Whittington now oversees 83 active Art-O-Mat machines, including our new addition to the Luce Foundation Center.
"The machines are more art installations than they are vending machines, but each one is fully-functioning and sells original art for just $5. Our Art-O-Mat is a late 1950s National Consoline Vending machine that was discovered on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. Check out this Flickr set to see photos of this 60-year-old machine being transformed.
"Over 400 artists from ten different countries currently participate in the Art-O-Mat project, contributing paintings, jewelry, prints, sculptures, collages, and mixed-media creations. Each work is the same size as a packet of cigarettes and comes wrapped in acetate. You see a small description of the content on the machine, but you don't know exactly what you will get until you make a choice and pull the handle. The mystery is half the fun! So, what are you waiting for? Come along to the Luce Foundation Center and start your collection today."
- https://americanart.si.edu/blog/eye-level/2010/26/906/american-art-o-mat
The next article is about Jim Dugas & is written by his friend Ross Kronenbitter. Ross was my supervisor at the Heinz History Center before he moved on from there. Anyone who's been around the arts in PGH has probably met Ross's very affable self at some point or another. Dugas died in 2022. Ross describes Dugas's painting process:
"He was dedicated to the exploration of the unimaginable consequences of brushstroke upon brushstroke and paint on paint, day after day. He would build surfaces of acrylic paint, often simply painting on a glass defined by a taped border, over the course of years and even decades. The resulting works of thick acrylics were as dazzling from the underside as they were from their "finished" surface. Then, as if not to become too enamored with the beauty of the colors or mesmerized by the complexity of the surface, Dugas would sometimes paint over the piece with white or some other monochromatic color, hiding the intricate, decades-long accretion of labor and aesthetic microbiological decision making." - p 102
Only 2 paintings are reproduced but the 2nd of these is absolutely monumental even tho it's a somewhat modest 38" X 19&1/2". That painting, Untitled (ca. 2002), is something that I can easily imagine never getting tired of looking at, it's so ALIVE & colorful & multi-directional.
John Eastman's next, another artist I wasn't previously familiar w/ Only 2 images are shown. "The Industrial Animal", an acrylic painting, is neither here 'nor there for me. Contrarily, a photo of an installation called "The Bunker Room" has quite a presence for me. It's a rm I imagine contemplating Armageddon in. I don't mean to say that it's a cliché of Apocalypse Culture, I just mean that it seems like a place where one might be introspective. Then again, it wd probably be a fun place to play wallball in.
Edward Eberle. I've met his son, Jonathan, & screened 16mm films of mine at his ceramacist studio. The picture of a 1995 porcelain piece called "Sentinal" is so intricate & beautifully crafted it's almost impossible. The images on the following pages get across the variety of his work. Eberle, like most of the artists hereby presented, was so damned good at what he did that it's shocking.
Samir Elsabee is an exception to the above, he's a primitive. That doesn't make me dislike his paintings, there's a directness to them, a love for the subject matters, that comes across. It's interesting to see him included b/c it speaks of criteria beyond craft. Of course, it helps that his work has been exhibited at the Irma Freeman Center.
Now, Irma Freeman was Sheila Ali's grandmother. It's obvious that Sheila loved her. The opening image is a photo of Freeman drawing or painting a portrait of a boy. They're seated outside on a sidewalk, a big American car pulled up on the sidewalk nearby. I wd call Freeman a primitive too, I imagine Sheila wd object. 3 paintings are shown, one an interior, one an exterior, & one a landscape mostly consisting of clouds. The colors are slightly exaggerated, the figuration is somewhat generalized. It must've been great growing up around someone producing such work. My stepfather, "Pop" Byrne, considered himself to be a "commercial artist', he was an art school graduate & made his living as a sign painter. I think of him more as a folk artist. He made painted carvings of birds that he mounted on driftwood & had work exhibited at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art on the Eastern Shore of MD. Anyway, in the 7 yrs we lived together I, truthfully, never had much interest in his work but now that he's passed & I inherited some of it I quite like it.
Vanessa German seems to be an artist who's attained quite a reputation, at least in PGH if not elsewhere. She had an exhibit at the Frick Fine Arts Museum, e.g..There're only 2 images but I find both to be very 'arresting", i.e.: utterly intrigueing. Sheila interviewed her:
"vg: I think the most certain way that I can impact any community I'm in living proximity with is to be honest, just after everything that I've learned. I just had a birthday. I'm almost 50. I think that the most potent ways that my life and work can be impactful is by me actually being myself and living inside the liberty of my being, defining liberty as the soul's right to breathe." - p 123
Ryder Henry: WOW. He makes miniature architectural models & paintings. The work is so fantastically detailed that I just absolutely love it. I've always had a love for train gardens & his work is like a futuristic version of those, w/o the trains. There's a model city, I'd love to see creatures animated w/in it - maybe grasshoppers w/ spacesuits on. This work is almost too good to be true, it seems OBSESSIVE, the type of obsessive that doesn't stop until it's made a 'masterpiece'.
INDUSTRIAL ARTS CO-OP: I made a short documentary about their deer head sculpture at an abandoned steel mill: "I.A.C. Deer Head Sculpture @ former Rankin Steel Mill" - on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/252.-iac-deer-head . If they had never done anything else I wd still hold them in the highest esteem.. but they have produced other works. The article about them was written by Karen Lillis. Karen manages Caliban boosktore, probably my favorite bookstore in PGH. There're great photos, including one of George Davis working on the "Walking Stick Rocket". The "Walking Stick" is huge, roughly 22 feet high & 40 feet long. The IAC has a huge space to work in, a plus for people competent to take advantage of it, as the IAC is. They use industrial discards, of wch PGH has plenty, to make giant sculptures evocative of nature. There's a section later about Tim Kaulen, an IAC member, so I'll embellish a bit there. PGH's being an industrial city w/ its original industry, steel mills, in decay is perfect for artists who know how to grow out of the detritus. IAC & the Brew House have been at the center of such possibilities.
Chris Ivey: I've know Chris for what seems like decades now. I've always found him to be very personable, I've always been glad to see him. I've only seen one of his documentaries, one about gentrification in the East Liberty area. I liked it - even though I don't remember it having any particularly innovative qualities. SO, was I unpleasantly surprised by what I consider to be a completely conceited statement:
"I know my work is way more radical and even being a pioneer of certain works that...I think a lot of the work that people do is good. But they would never go as far as I will. Just bluntly saying what's going on, saying "This is the deal. This is what's going on."" - p 134
Whew, really Chris? How well do you know the documentaries of yr fellow PGH political documentary makers? My 1st thing along those lines was shot at the 3 Mile Island Visitor Center during its nuclear crisis on April 3, 1979. Since then, I've made MANY (hundreds?) such documentaries. I suggest that he check this one out: "The Struggle to End Death by Incarceration" - on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/506.-the-struggle-to-end-death-by-incarceration . If he thinks this doesn't say "what's going on" I'd have to strongly disagree. Oh, well.
ASHLEY A. JONES: Perhaps the thing that caught my eye the most is the opening image of a display of portraits hung on a wall all done on brown paper bags. While the portraits themselves are conventional the drawing of them on brown paper bags isn't. The large type text insert 2 pages later states: "Ultimately, Jones's art is about creating a space for voices that have been overlooked and dismissed." (p 138)
WILLIAM A. KARAFA: "Each piece challenges each viewer to ask themselves how traditions, norms, and other doxa have influenced their current perspective of the many issues our civilization faces. It further asks them to free themselves from the bindings of these influences thus expanding their thoughts more openly to uncover their own unrestrained truths.["]" - p 142
I sometimes comment that what artists think they're putting into their work & what viewers of it get out of it are often very different. I think it's usually too much for the artist to expect the perceivers of their work "to ask themselves how traditions, norms, and other doxa have influenced their current perspective of the many issues our civilization faces" as a result of seeing a painting, e.g.. That doesn't mean that I don't think these paintings are excellent, painted in a highly skilled manner. I see them as allegories, as intended, if only b/c there's a tradition of having central figures surrounded by symbolic objects. One painting is called "Refined Hunger, The Unhealthy Truths". It shows a woman who to me, looks fit rather than too thin, w/ a text panel behind her headed "Nutrition Facts". This text panel strikes me as painted like a tombstone on wch are listed foods, fruits, vegetables, meat, & bread. The food looks fresh. &, yet, there seems to be an implication that the woman is unhealthy, perhaps anorexic. She's clutching a pieve of bread over her stomach & is holding something between her legs above wch there are red stains on her white dressing gown or slip. While I see it as an allegory I don't see it as evocative of a fixed meaning that I place on it. Ultimately, it's just an image to me. I don't think it "free[s myself] from the bindings of these influences thus expanding" [my] "thoughts more openly to uncover" [my] "own unrestrained truths" b/c I think such a process is already permanently in progress w/o the painting & that the painting doesn't really contribute to this.
TIM KAULEN: Tim's the person I interviewed for the movie I made about the IAC's deer head sculpture. I liked him very much as a person & absolutely loved & respected the sculpture. It was made out of materials found at the former steel mill site & constructed by a group of people over a span of mnths. Later I learned about the geese profiles painted on the top of the 10th St bridge. Tim told me that while he was on top of the bridge making the painting a police car stopped below & he had to lay flat & stay still for something like 20 minutes until they left. That must've been more than a little frightening. The section in this bk recounts how after some finagling many yrs later the city agreed to repaint the geese rather than paint over them. Such stories are utterly essential to me as examples of guerrilla artmaking & rare triumphs against narrow-mindedness.
I had a photographer friend in BalTimOre, John Ellsberry, who was arrested by Officer Hamer for climbing the Howard Street Bridge to take a photograph. The same officer arrested me on false charges & threatened that I wd "hang myself in my cell". Those charges were thrown out of court & the judge actually humiliated the prosecutor. That was another rare triumph.
"TK: My art practice has changed within the past fifteen years. My focus and interests have shifted from my own personal and public displays to teaching the youth of Pittsburgh welding as an interest and passion, as well as a trade. Although my interests have not surrounded my own public art as of recently, my idea for a feature in your book are the paintings of the Geese (more locally known by the public as "Dino-Geese"), I made on the 10th Street Bridge in the early '90s." - p 144
This was hilarious to me b/c I always thought the paintings were of dinosaurs, probably brontosauruses. I didn't realize they were intended to look like geese. This, for me, is underground art - art that's underground b/c it's made illegally in defiance of safer & less imaginative artistic norms. An artist just working on a picture at home may be "underground" in the sense of unknown but not necessarily "underground" in the sense of evading represssion.
DIANE KEANE: Another artist producing work that I find fascinating to look at - fantastically detailed & evocative.
"De Chirico noted that 'every object has two aspects: one...which we see nearly always and the other, which is spectral and metaphysical...' Regardless of subject matter, my goal is to capture that aspect of the mundane transfigured, of a moment in an imaginary time and place, to entice the viewer to enter and respond." - p 148
Excellent! A great description for me that jives completely w/ the way I perceive her assemblage boxes. It's inevitable too that Joseph Cornell's work is evoked. But, then:
"Mystery is central to art-making and I feel it is also at the heart of the experience, in spite of our patriarchal culture's attempts to define, judge, conquer, control, and exploit." (p 148) As an anarchist I'm against ALL "archies": patriarchy, hierarchy, oligarchy, & MATRIARCHY. In my own life I've been just as much oppressed by matriarchy, wch most women seem to deny exists in any negative form. If you're looking for women who've recognized corruption from women claiming to represent freedom, look to Dora Marsden & Lucy Stone.
LAVERN KEMP: "When I was a child growing up in Cecil, PA, I had uncles who were 'junk dealers' and I would shop with them when I was bored. Uncle Chuck had old school buses in the back of his house filled with collectibles and antiques and possibilities, I found some of the coolest treasures in those buses." - p 152
Another quilter, textile artist, assemblage box maker, repurposing artist. There's at least one current of recycling running thru this bk. I love the work, I love that it involves mixed media. Don't get me wrong, I love 'plain old painting' too but when artists take things from around their environment & recontextualize them in a sortof personal mythos it touches me.
RUTH KLAWANSKY: was, if I understand correctly, Sheila Ali's aunt.
"Ruth Freeman Klawansky (1940-2023) was named after her mother's favorite cousin and childhood playmate, Ruth Poritsky, who sadly perished in Auschwitz. Ruth was profoundly affected by the Holocaust, and the stories about the loss of relatives and millions of others. Like her mother, Ruth found art to be a kind of spiritual liberation. As a way of coping with life's adversities, Ruth always expressed herself through art."
Some of the artwork shown is commercial, one reminds me of her mother Irma Freeman's style, in a photograph of her she looks like Sheila to me, the remaining 3 paintings are wood & linoleum cuts, characterized by broad outlines & an interweaving common to block cuts.
EVAN KNAUER: I had the pleasure of seeing some of Knauer's underground punk movies at Jonathan Eberle's studios. It's nice to be able to see the paintings here.
"Organization and efficiency are important to me. I hate wasting paint. Working on multiple paintings simultaneously helps me conserve paint and rarely reauires cleaning my brushes. From 1981 to 2014, I kept my oil paint costs down by buying student grade paint from Pearl Paints in Manhattan. Every May they had a sale. Tubes were 75% cheaper than anywhere else. Student-grade is lower quality but the polyurethane stops any oxidization, so my colors don't fade. I still have a stock of unopened tubes from my last NY trip. That was in 2014. I took an Amtrak and bought an extra seat just for paint. In the year 2000, I switched from toxic turpentine and polyurethane to water based products. Today, I still paint the same way. It takes me about two years to finish a painting and if I'm successful the painting looks like I did it in a day." - p 160
The paintings shown are mostly oil on masonite. Strangely? They look like batiks to me. His writing about his efficiency of paint use appeals to me. I think of my early days as a filmmaker when I tried to use everything I shot, regardless of whether it was overexposed or underexposed or otherwise rendered undesirable. Film was too expensive to waste.
MICHAEL "FIG" MANGIAFICO: More depictions of nature, more advanced craft. There's an enlargement of a glass sculpture of a scorpion. The actual work is only 2 inches long. Even in enlargement the details seem almost impossibly exact. Every one of the works is like that: tiny nuances sculpted w/ an exceptional precision. These are point-blank amazing.
LAURA JEAN MCLAUGHLIN: Laura & her friend Bob Ziller had a used bkstore in the front of Laura's bldg in Garfield. Her studio was in the back. The few times I went exhibit-hopping on First Friday there my biggest pleasure was to visit the store & chat w/ Laura. She was sooooooo nice & friendly. I particularly love the picture of the "South Side Schlumpy Funk": "77 mosaic steps collaboratively created with the Southside Slopes community". This work is so full of joy, she must be an incredibly positive person to be around & her work gets that across.
TERESA MARTUCCIO: W/in 2 wks of Teresa's moving here she acted in a collaborative movie I was involved w/ the making of called "START" (on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/START_201810 ). Teresa, aka "Tree", fit right in w/ the silliness. Later, she had me act in a movie of hers called "Strange Noodle" ( https://youtu.be/f37pcRE35bs?si=iqBgFc-mnb8MAp8D ). She's a great costumer & moving force of theater - usually presented at the Glitter Box Theater wch she cofounded. Believe or not, it took me awhile to realize that Glitter Box was a take-off of Litter Box. She's also another person I have no problem thinking of as both avant-garde & underground: I hearken back to what Olchar Lindsann wrote: "the fundamental postulates of the avant-garde: the convergence of art and life, personality as artistic material, the equation of creative with political activity". That's Tree all over.
JEAN MCCLUNG: All 4 of the images are lush, lucious, fluid, sensual & "non-objective" w/ the exception of the 1st two wch include paintbrushes. For those of us who never get tired of watching moving water, clouds, rain, snow, wind blowing branches, etc, these paintings are also something you'd never be bored by. I tend to like artwork that gives the eye no resting point, I like it when my eye roams over the surface noticing & following the various currents. These are astonishing in that respect.
BEKEZELA MGUNI: Another artist I've known, although I haven't seen her for many yrs. I associate her mostly w/ political activism, w/ queer activism, w/ black women activism. Honestly, tho, I don't really have any strong take on her artwork. One photo is of a person's arm reaching out w/ a bouquet of flowers to a field. Plants seem to play a large part in her imagery.
DUANE MICHALS: doesn't live in PGH. He's another gay artist, like Andy Warhol, who grew up in PGH & then moved to NYC where being gay was less of an isolated thing. As such, one might think that his enthusiasm for PGH wd be minimal but, nooo:
"DM: I'm addicted to Pittsburgh. There's something wrong with me. I love that area. I think it's beautiful. It's rich in history and art, and the scale is perfect. Pittsburgh people are absolutely lovely. They are full of energy, they're brave, and I think the people are beautiful too." - p 184
I have a small bk of his called "Take One and See Mt.Fujiyama and other stories". It's typical of his schtick: rectangular black & white photos w/ cursive writing underneath them creating a somewhat absurd narrative.
There's a photo in "Pittsburgh's Avant-Garde" of a street scene w/ graffiti w/ block lettering on the top: "I REMEMBER PITTSBURGH". Michals, being a somewhat famous artist who doesn't live in PGH, gets 8 pages.
BILL MILLER: When I 1st looked at the images I saw them as more figurative & landscape art done w/ an interesting colorful clarity. In other words, I found them ok to look at but they didn't stimulate me much otherwise. THEN I realized that they're linoleum collages & there came the HOLY FUCK! moment. That made all the difference. Once again, the craft is phenomenal. His artwork has been used on a couple of Frank Zappa releases, I love Zappa's music, I'd never heard of the releases, I'd never heard of Miller. AMAZING. The work is AMAZING. There are so many great artists living in PGH & I know many of them but far from all of them. It's incredible that I'd never heard of Miller until now. Maybe I shd actually go to art shows more often. SHEESH.
JOHN MORRIS: "John Morris's subtle, sensitive, and intuitive drawings are influenced by natural patterns and polyphonic music. Organic shapes and forms interact within and between drawings, enticing the viewer to carefully observe and remember earlier works as if listening to a musical composition." I don't see a credit given for the origin of this text so I deduce that it's the artist talking about himself in the 3rd person.
THADDEUS MOSLEY: Another artist who's well-known who gets 6 pages. Sheila Ali interviewed him. He's been making art since the 1940s. He carves big pieces of wood.
"SA: I was wondering, you've been in the game for so long and you've done so much, is there anything that you would like to see that you'd like to do that you haven't done?
"TM: No. I'm just glad that I can do what I'm doing at my age because I wish that I would have had the exposure 40 years ago. It would have changed my habitat, where I live and where I work. It would be different now. But I have no regrets about things because that thing is to me, makes people bitter. You meet people who feel they've been cheated in their life and victimized. That gnaws at the spirit. I just feel that I'm fortunate that at almost 97, I can still work." - p 205
I knew KARL MULLEN long ago, mainly as a musician & political activist. I always found him very likeable & friendly. An article about him by Cassandra J. Cleghorn starts off w/:
"Karl Mullen's palette is the larder: red wine, walnut oil and ink, Barry's teas, pastes in silver tins, powder like exotic spices. To watch Mullen paint is to watch a weird amalgam of line chef, body-worker, bartender, and day laborer, each having sworn off the traditional tools of the trade." - p 206
The works shown are painterly, very much about, to me, gestures & fluorishes. I imagine them as quite pleasurable to make.
ED PARRISH JR.: lives in my neighborhood, we've met each other & talked a bit but I've never gotten to know him. I got interested in him b/c he's accomplished at iron pouring wch strikes me as an ambitious activity to engage in. I checked out an interview w/ him online wch contains this:
"I imagine most people around here get into metal arts through, like, they're from here and this is history and the heritage around here. But it seems like you were already interested in metal arts and moved here because this was the logical place for that.
"Yeah, I was into metalworking from college and Pittsburgh seemed like a good spot-although, when I moved here, no one was casting iron here. Carnegie Mellon, at that point, still had a foundry for bronze and aluminum, but that also got eliminated at some point after that. I was actually the first person to ever cast iron in Pittsburgh for artmaking purposes. We poured the first metal, at Carrie Furnaces, that had ever been poured there since the mills closed-which was kinda' cool."
- https://riversofsteel.com/profiles-in-steel-ed-parrish/
DAVID POHL: A very friendly guy I met working at the Heinz History Center. He's the only person I've ever known who makes his living doing illustration. His work is fun & playful, I can see why it might be in demand. The 1st image, "Oh Paris" shows a street background w/ a small spotted dog sitting on its ass wearing a beret, holding a palette in its front left paw & a brush in its right. In front of it there's an easel w/ a canvas on it w/ a dog's face.
ROBERT QUALTERS: Another interview conducted by Sheila Ali, she really made this bk happen at many levels. Qualters gets 6 pages, the interview takes up most of the space. There's a picture of him in front of his favorite painting "The Orangutan Dreams". Technically, it reminds me of a painter that taught at MICA In BalTimOre, Raoul Middleman. I recall Middleman being popular w/ the students I knew in the 1970s. He made big figurative paintings w/ a kind of brashness to them. "The Orangutan Dreams" shows a naked woman in profile w/ reddish-orangeish hair. The simian is next to her. They seem to be behind a fence w/ a business district behind them, possibly Squirrel Hill. The sky is somewhat reminiscent of Van Gogh's "Starry Night".
CURTIS REAVES: Another artist I wasn't previously familiar w/. There's a 5pp photo layout w/ this caption: "John & Sarah, 1998, Installation, 16 x 36 ft. A traveling museum installation of my great, great, great, grandparents 1879 homestead in North Carolina, and how they endured slavery. Photo credit: Curtis Reaves" (p 223)
LARRY RIPPEL: was in the band The Cardboards who I've read about elsewhere. "He opened a Mail Art Gallery in Bloomfield where local and international mail artists' work was displayed." (p 226) Now that's truly exciting for me. I've been engaged w/ Mail Art since 1978, I still exchange it but very rarely. Participation in Mail Art is something that defines underground for me. I didn't move to PGH until 1996, I've met very few Mail Artists here since then & exchanged mail to even fewer. I live right near Bloomfield but I imagine the gallery was before my time.
SAMUEL ROSENBERG: The only painting shown here I find quite captivating, it borders on a Chagall. There's a church on a hill w/ a valley & a bridge & more hills beyond in the background. In the foreground, the parishioners, dressed in their Sunday best, are standing & climbing on the hilly street. It captures the feel wonderfully. I wonder if he was working off an easel or if he took a photo 1st or made sketches. I assume he was painting on the spot & that wd've been quite hard.
DIANE SAMUELS: "She has made drawings by writing out the texts of entire novels in micro-handwriting, and converted a two-story glass pedestrian bridge into an anthology of phrases about looking at the world closely." (p 234) More obsessiveness (of the positive kind). The "micro-handwriting" is point-blank amazing. I hope to see this work up close & personal someday.
TOM SARVER: I already mentioned Tom in connection w/ the Black Sheep Puppet Festival. Here there're 2 drawings presented, one of a cleaner in McKees Rocks & one of some bars on the South Side. It seems to me that anyone who wd go to the trouble of making such meticulous studies of these places has a real love for the urban environment. So many of the artists in this bk seem to love PGH - both as a semi-post-industrial city & as an exceptionally green place.
"RICHARD SCHNAP - A conversation with Richard Schnap and Alice Winn, April 2000": It's interesting to me that some of these articles are from awhile back. "My inspiration comes from many sources and my goal is to make commentaries on 21st century society, focusing at times on the plight of the individual." (p 240)
BILL SHANNON: "(b 1970) is an interdisciplinary artist, inventor and maker who explores body-centric work through video installation, sculpture, drawing, linguistics, sociology, choreography and dance. Bill's interdisciplinary works have been performed and exhibited globally and include the multi-year street performance Regarding the Fall, and the correlated line art series Notes on Performance" - p 244
Does "street performance" mean that it was done as a guerrilla action or that it was simply a performance in an urban environment w/ the safety nets of legality & an art context (+ grants?)? It's the former that I respect.
JAMES SHIPMAN: "(1953-2020) was a versatile Pittsburgh artist utilizing materials like clay, metal, wood, and various unusual objects. His artwork includes large round ceramic pieces he called "earth discs."" (p 246) I was born in 1953 too, I'm still alive. Where did I go right? Artists often work w/ toxic materials, is that what happened to Shipman?
JAMES SIMON: Simon has a roomy home & studio in Uptown, PGH. I've been there for at least one reading, at least one concert, & at least one screening. Robert Ashley's "The Living Room" was performed there & I made a somewhat impromptu movie of that: "Keeping up with the iJoneses #2: Varispeed performing Robert Ashley's "The Living Room"" - a rather casually shot quasi-documentary of Varispeed at James Simon's studio, Thursday, May 22, 2014 performing as part of the Pittsburgh Festival of New Music - on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/409.-the-living-room .
As a fellow world-traveller, I found Simon's autobiography impressive: "Starting at age 15, he began exploring the world, from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, and Eugene, Oregon, to the tip of Baja, Cilfornia, Mexico. He then ventured to Europe, rode the Orient Express from Istanbul through Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, and spent a year living in Australia." (p 250) His artworks have a similar large scale impressiveness, I'm particularly fond of his "Liberty Avenue Musicians": three fifteen foot tall concrete sculptures. I've also seen a small mosaic in a food bank in PGH.
"SPAHR - Max Gonzales speaks to Matt Spahr, December 16, 2023": "My first experience with spray paint was in the seventies. My uncle Jimmy moved in with us; he was a biker dude. He used to keep his pellet gun out on the porch... we'd sit there and he'd be smoking Kools, and firing his pellet gun at trash cans. One day we saw this spider web and it was huge. It was really big and beautiful. He was like, "Check this out... let's see if your dad's got any spray paint in the garage, I want to show you something." So he came out with a can of spray paint and he misted the spider web and it caught the paint and it was very visible and red" (p 254) After starting out as a graffitist Spahr makes his living as a muralist now. The picture of one, "Louder than Bombs", from 2017 seems likely to put anyone passing it by in a cheerful mood.
SPAZ: ""cheerleaderologist," and former front man of all drag queen punk band Paul Lynde 451. Originally from Greensburg, PA, at age 14 he invented a cartoon character named Spaz and did a strip for the school newspaper, which later became his graffiti tag and alter ego. After moving to Pittsburgh, he became involved in grassroots politics, a street flier project called Public Enema, and the zine scene, as well as producing his own art and minicomics. He also participated in the mail art scene and had artwork in many shows including the only mail-art show to be in a national museum of art, the Cuban National Museum in Havana, Cuba." (p 258)
Drag queen! Graffiti! Fliering! Zines! Mail Art! Now, we're in the underground, thank clod. I don't know about "the only mail-art show to be in a national museum of art": I was in a few Mail Art shows in museums (1983 AUDIO, Moderna Museet - Stockholm, Sweden; 1985.04.25 Mail Art, Postmuseum - Stockholm, Sweden; 1985 The Scroll Unrolls, Janco Dada Museum - Ein-Hod, Israel; 1991.12 1990-2000 The Decade of Disillusionism, Whitney Museum - Brooklyn, US@; 1995.01-03 International Mail Art Show, National Museum of Beaux-Arts - Havana, Cuba (Ha ha! I was in the same Cuba show! I'd forgotten about that!) - http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Museums.html ) but none of them other than the Cuban one were National Museums so maybe Spaz is right!
Ok, I admit, I'm more than a little burnt-out even trying to somewhat fairly represent all the folks who're presented here. As such, I worry that the quality of any commentary I make might swoop too low. That leaves me w/ just quoting. Here's a bit from the Christina Springer section: "Various poetry open mics led to her meeting the band Bucky and the Surf Weevils with whom she collaborated on Mary Magdalene & The Apostles. In this metaphysical rock opera, Mary Magdalene and Jesus argue about Christianity's role in world-wide atrocities including pedophilia, slavery, and international religious and cultural destruction." (p 262) On the page facing that text there's an image that looks like a combination large nut or circular fruit & a hand-grenade. It's entitled "High Priestess Karifuna's Genetic Compatability for Soul Union Completion, Device, Mo'n Love Motherboard, Late Renewal Period". I have a soft spot for long names.
& then there's SubRosa. Hyla Willis, a long-time member of SubRosa, is someone I've known & collaborated w/ since 1997. Thanks to her I have some videos of SubRosa's wch I remember finding very interesting. There's also their bk published by Autonomedia called "Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices" (2002). Their section starts out w/ a quote from Abigail Adams in a letter to John Adams of 1776:
"If perticular care is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation." - p 266
Andres Tapia-Urzua is an ex-pat Chilean. In 1997 I organized a thing at Chatham College called LatinAmeriMIX!can. It was a 2 day event in wch I presented work relevant to Latin American. This led to my including video work by Tapia-Urzua & his partner of the time Carolina Loyola-Garcia who I didn't know but who I'd heard about. Carolina later told me that this was their 1st video show in PGH! I was surprised. Tapia-Urzua is represented by 6 video stills.
"Andres Tapia-Urzua / ATU is a filmmaker, composer, and multimedia artist practicing in video, music, performance, and installation. Fusing aesthetics, theory, and political issues, his work frequently explores the liminality of an identity in constant intersection between culture and technology." - p 268
Then there's Mary Tremonte, some of us call her "Mary Mac" as a way of distinguishing her from all the other Marys (etta cetera probably came up w/ that one). Last I heard, she was running the PGH branch of Just Seeds, an anarchist image-making collective. She also worked for the Andy Warhol Museum Education Dept at the same time that I worked for the Film & Video Dept there.
Her 1st image stretches panorama collage style across 2 pages. It's called "Queer Ecology Hanky Dance Party", a mob scene. 4 more images cover the next 2 pages, one of them of an artist's bk of hers called "Exuberant Resilience - A Swatch Book", some screen printing of a bird w/ its neck thrown back against a pink background w/ the words "throw-back display".
4pp of Scott Turri's acrylic paintings: "Speak to Me", "The Poem Zone", "Glare of Love", "Business of Living" - all constructed out of circles & lozenges: "This intentional choice of using an industrial design, typically made and used for its functionality, as opposed to its beauty, behaves like a ready-made for me and indicates a distancing from the self." (p 278) Remember when I wrote earlier that "I sometimes comment that what artists think they're putting into their work & what viewers of it get out of it are often very different."? I doubt that many viewers of these paintings wd perceive any deeper level than fairly simple abstract design. That doesn't mean that I can't get any pleasure from looking at them.
Edgar Um Bucholtz was one of the 1st people I worked w/ when I arrived in PGH to stay in Jan 1996. He was a DJ on CMU's WRCT back in the day when there seems to've been more of an inclination for Free Form. He had me on to play a guitar solo of mine called "Past Life Regression" & to have DJs spin my "Usic - -1" 12" LP according to my instructions. Both recording sessions resulted in releases. He was one of the 1st people to invite me to perform as part of one of his events: "High Evil" (you can witness my short movie of that here: https://archive.org/details/226.-high-evil ). Ed has consistently been one of the best avant-garde underground event organizers in PGH as well as an imaginative free improvisor.
Andy Warhol gets 6pp. You've probably heard of him. There's no need for me to add to the publicity any more here.
WOMEN OF VISIONS: "Mentored by international sculptor Selma Burke at its inception, Women of Visions, Inc., a non-profit, has sustained 40 years in the city of Pittsburgh, and as many years nationwide as the country's longest running women's collective of African American visual artists." (p 290) 17 members are shown in one photo from 2021.
BOB ZILLER: Unsanctioned collage: "A Blues for the Block was inspired by the artist Romare Bearden, who spent his youthful summers in Pittsburgh, Bearden's long collage, The Block, was the inspiration to do something about an abandoned block of storefronts on Penn Avenue in Wilkinsburg, where I live and would pass by everyday. On New Year's Day of 2015, I took dozens of painted panels to an empty storefront on the 800 block of Penn Avenue. Not having a preconceived composition, I improvised, screwing the panels with a screw gun onto the existing bare plywood over the storefront window. It took about an hour to complete. In total, I did similar artworks on nine abandoned storefronts on this block (this one" [pictured on Ziller's 1st page] "was the first). Some of the buildings, including this one, have since fallen down, or have been demolished. A few are still standing. I'd like to think that these pieces are a logical extension of Bearden's artwork: where he made a collage of a city block, I literally collaged a city block. Artists who do public art, whether sanctioned or not, are contemporary landscape painters." (p 292)
Ziller has a portrait of Jimmy Cvetic on page 294. Cvetic was a poet that Ziller published. He ran a reading series at a popular bar on Forbes Ave in Oakland, PGH. He was also an undercover cop. After he was retired, & public about his undercover activities, I worked for a couple of his events at the Warhol Museum. For one of them he used one or more clothed pole dancers. After that one was over I told him it was one of the most punk poetry readings I've ever witnessed.
Does anyone remember the movie "I was a Communist for the FBI" about undercover infiltration of the Communist Party in the steel mills in PGH? Well, the undercover agent's name was Matt Cvetic. One of the things that I hated about that movie is that they portrayed the Communist Party as tricking black people into joining in the 1940s. I think it's more likely that they treated the blacks more decently than the anti-communist society did, certainly better than the FBI did given that the FBI has a particularly murderous history toward blacks at that time & for decades after.
Section 2 is entitled "PITTSBURGH VISTAS". "Artists featured in this section: Abira Ali, R.Ali, S.Ali, Karen Antonelli, Anonymous, Church Barr, Ron Baraff, Jim Brindle, Joan Brindle, Jaime Bird, Doug Cooper. Ron Donoughe, Samir Elsabee, Cara Gaetano, Till Hartman, David Harris, Ryder Henry, Ruth Klawansky, Joelle Levitt Killebrew, Rob Long, Chris McGinnis, Duane Michals, Bill Miller, Heather Mull, Mark Perrott, Dan Peindl, Sherry Rusinack, Richard Schnap, Bob Solitaire, Imani Springer, Sarah Zeffiro" (p 296)
Full page photos & a drawing follow. On page 301 there's a photograph by Mark Perrott called "Car, Parkway West" (1980) of a car pulled off the road that looks like it's been in an accident that's smashed in its driver's side front, the car is lightly covered in snow. When I 1st saw it I thought of stories I'd read or heard about cars parked near the steel mills that wd have their exterior eaten away by pollution w/in 6 mnths.
Then, on pages 304-305 there's a 2pp color spread photo taken by Pittsburgh City Paper photographer Heather Mull of a member of the Zany Umbrella Circus riding a unicycle on the edge of a roof on the South Side. Amazing! More of Heather's photos follow, including one of 2 members of the Bull Seal Collective, one of PGH's primo bands of performing weirdos. Hidden under the floor of the PGH Ballet space there's even a signature of Big Daddy Bullseal AND tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE. Whatever cd it mean?!
On page 312 there's another linoleum cut collage from Bill Miller, this time of a steel mill. Once again, the technique is absolutely incredible. It appears that in the forground a woman is mourning her recently decerased husband, presumably a steel mill worker.
On page 327 there's a digital photo of the "Andy Warhol Bridge on the Allegheny River" (2021) by Rahim Ali. According to AI Overview, it's the only bridge in the United States named after an artist. Once again, according to AI Overview: "In Dublin, Ireland, there is the James Joyce Bridge, the Samuel Beckett Bridge, and the Seán O'Casey Bridge, celebrating prominent Irish literary figures (writers/playwrights are considered artists in this context)." It's interesting, isn't it? Some cultures actually value their creative members. I've always opined that in the US artists are mainly valued if they're rich. Warhol was rich.
Pp 320-321 feature a color image by Bob Solitaire stretching across both pages, oil on canvas, roughly 1 foot high by 4 feet wide, called "Untitled" of a steel mill. Nice! So many artists have made works of the mills. The cover of the bk is by Jim Brindle & is reproduced on page 322 w/o the cover text. It's pen & ink on paper. Lovely. When I look at the female figure in the forefront whose skirt is an ink blot I keep seeing her as Betty Boop. Pp 326-327 feature 9 smaller images by Abira Ali including a "miniature copy of a copy by Irma Freeman", Gouache on cardboard with plastic frame. I love miniatures. On pp 328-329 there're 4 photos from Sheila, mostly of kids. This whole section gives a very community-oriented look at Pittsburgh. On p 344 there're pictures of 2 models made by Sherry Rusinack. Sherry, if I remember correctly, was a local museum guard. She was always extremely nice. I'm very glad to see her work presented here. Flanking Sherry's page is a model bldg w/ cars from Ryder Henry. As usual, the detail & care w/ wch his models are made is astounding.
Part 3 begins on page 348 & is on the theme of "Art Organizers, Organizations, Galleries & Collectors". This bk is THOROUGH.
Alice Winn's "Home is Where the Art is: Pittsburgh Remembrances":
"Some galleries first appeared on Pittsburgh's South Side. At View from Zenith Gallery, works in all media by regional artists were featured in its cafe, lit by delicate chandeliers and gothic candelabras, and also appeared like unexpected dreams among the antiques in adjoining rooms where bed frames and chairs soared to the ceiling. Other early galleries on the South Side included Studio Z, Blue Ruin, Brew House Space 101, Springboard, Carson Street Gallery, with local art and poetry, and Blatant Image Gallery with works from photographers and filmmakers. The space upstairs at 1113 E. Carson Street was the site of a series of three sequential galleries: Lascaux, run by Bob Ziller; Last Call, by Brian Dean Richmond; and Occupant, by Rick Bach." - p 351
I've never known the South Side that well. When I 1st moved to PGH I had trouble getting a job, the 1st yr I was here, 1996, I earned $3,000 - that was the cost of my very cheap rent. For the 1st 6 mnths I split that cost w/ my girlfriend, after that I was on my own until October of 1997 when etta cetera moved in w/ me. As such, when I went to the South Side I usually walked, that took about an hr & 20 minutes each way. ANYWAY, despite that, I've performed at the Brew House twice; eaten at Zenith's truly fabulous Sunday brunch; & performed at Lascaux once - I remember being invited by BDR so maybe he'd taken it over from Ziller & not changed the name yet.
I'm grateful to Alice Winn for her memories, she fills in quite a few gaps in mine. E.G.: she writes about Lauri Mancuso's journey as curator from Garfield Artworks (another place where I exhibited & performed) then opened Arrow Gallery (I missed that one) "then continued further still to Ray Appleby's Wilkinsburg studio Paint and Body, then to Dorothy 6 in Braddock and finally into Bloomfield's The Shop" (p 352). In 2009, Lauri & Ed-Um had a gallery called The Nerve where my chamber orchestra played: https://archive.org/details/HiTEC059full . I always liked Lauri, alas, I've lost touch w/ her since The Nerve.
"Another early site had been on Pittsburgh's North Side. Over time, an old once abandoned mattress warehouse there was developed into a sleek, contemporary art museum, shape-shifting into the visions of a multitude of artists both from Pittsburgh and worldwide. There remained the sense that this place was itself a living art form-a way of life for the extended family who ran it, and whose focus was as much on excellence as it was on making compromises to suit each member's nature. The site had been a raw, unheated cavern, a surprising gem down an alley that held sublime installations. Artists recognized in its founders, Barbara Luderowski and Michael Olijnyk, kindred spirits who shared their passion for essential truths expressed in art." - p 352
I can't praise the Mattress Factory enuf, it's possibly my favorite & most respected art museum in the world. I performed there at least 4 times. Here're links to 2 of those: "CircumSubstantial Playing & Blindfolded Tourism": https://archive.org/details/circum-substantial-playing-blindfolded-tourism ; & "Street Ratbag No5 Release Event": https://archive.org/details/600.-street-ratbag-no-5 .
An article starts on page 356 about A.I.R., Artists Image Resource. In the early days of my arrival in PGH I walked everywhere, often walking the 2 miles from my rental house to the main public library. En route, I'd see posters that I liked, they were mysterious to me, I didn't know what they referred to. As it turned out, they were for the Foreland Street space, later to become A.I.R. I liked the posters, presumably silk-screened, so much that I removed one or two of them from poles to keep at home. It wasn't until later that I discovered its incarnation as AIR, a place where people cd use the substantial silkscreen studios for making their own work. I had previously made my silkscreens at home but space limitations made AIR's facilities alluring. Perhaps the best silkscreen I ever made, an ad for the HiTEC End of Television performance, was made there. That image can be seen in the Friday, June 12, 2009 entry here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOutline2009.html . Are other cities as full of great art spaces as PGH is?! I'd like to think that PGH's very substantial labor history has fostered an attitude of mutual aid that then delivers such community-minded spaces as AIR.
"Robert Beckman and Ian Short were the so-founders of the space but as they would tell you, there have been numerous people involved in building and maintaining the project. As an installation artist, Beckman started his time in Pittsburgh doing construction work on projects at the Mattress Factory on Pittsburgh's North Side. Beckman and his crew were involved with construction on the first iterations of the 1414 annex space, the Taylor Street resident space, and the small buildings on Sampsonia Way that have housed work by Ann Hamilton, the Tom Museum, and others. They constructed the James Turrell cube and the Yayoi Kusama mirrored room and were involved on projects with Kiki Smith, John Cage, Christian Boltanski, and numerous other artists." - p 356
Boom Concepts is represented on pp 358-359. My friend etta cetera held her annual auction there at least 2 yrs in a row. The auction sells donated artwork, much of it from prisoners, to benefit her Fed-Up group, a prisoners's support group & part of her considerable network of prison activism.
Boxheart Gallery is on pp 360-361. If I remember correctly, Jefferson presents... held screenings there for awhile. I had one there. Back in my early PGH days I modelled freelance there too. The reason why I mention these things is b/c I'm trying to get across what Sheila says in her "RATIONALE" section: "There's such a solid intersectionality that if you read this book cover to cover, you will discover a tight-knit community."
Now, I don't necessarily lllloooovvvvvee every gallery. Concept Art Gallery is on pages 364-365. I reckon that I cd say that I've always had a bad attitude toward them b/c I like works of Henry Flynt who coined & copyrighted the term "Concept Art" in 1963. As far as I can tell, the Concept Art Gallery doesn't exhibit Concept Art in Flynt's sense wch is a shame b/c Flynt's ideas were & are absolutely brilliant. It's a shame to see the term reduced to typical Art World thoughtlessness.
"Concept Art Gellery began operations in the spring of 1972."
[..]
"We are proud to represent and exhibit many of the region's most established contemporary artists, along with artists of national and international reputation, including vanessa german, Felix de la Concha, Clayton Merrell, Michael Morrill, Douglas Cooper, and many others. We focus on contemporary realist painting and historic and industiral images of Pittsburgh, including the work of George Hetzel, Roy Hilton, Aaron Gorson, Samuel Rosenberg, and Henry Koener. The vintage work of Western PA photographers Luke Swank, Selden Davis, and Ross Altwater is another specialty for the gallery." - p 364
Alas, the above description of the gallery's work exhibited is about as far from Concept Art as it can get. To people like myself who consider Concept Art (& Conceptual Art) & the Avant-Garde to be important, such misuse of terminology is highly annoying.
CONTEMPORARY CRAFT: "Beginning in 1971, Contemporary Craft (CC) has supported and showcased the field of craft art at local, national, and international levels. Originally a craft retail outlet named The Store for Art in Crafts, CC was founded by Betty Raphael in Verona, PA, and sponsored by the Oakmont Community Action Corporation. Raphael had previously opened Pittsburgh's Outlines Gallery, which featured numerous popular modern artists and closed its doors in the fall of 1947." - p 366
Incredibly enuf, considering the long-lastingness of CC, I've only been there ONCE. I do, at least, have a copy of a bk called "Outlines" assembled by Cayce Mell in 2014 in Raphael's honor. That bk got me very interested in Outlines wch seems to've been pioneering. Unfortunately, the bk seems to've been low-budget & the binding was already falling apart when I got a copy almost immediately after it came out. My truncated review of that is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1552132279 .
"DIGGING PITT GALLERY by Jean McClung
"In late 2004, a coffee shop habitué, sometime artist and writer and all-around eccentric Victor Navarro (1948-2014) rushed up to me to share some exciting but improbable sounding news. "There's this guy, he's a well-known artist in New York City. He's in museums, he has a gallery in Chelsea [representing him]. He moved here to start an art gallery. He's going to give me a big show and make me famous." It turned out that all of this, except the last part, was true. Digging Pitt Gallery which opened in Jan 2005 went on to have a profound impact on the Pittsburgh art scene and the revitalization of Lawrenceville." - p 368
Oh, yeah? I don't think I'd ever heard of the Digging Pitt until I read this article. I don't think I ever went there. Maybe I'm forgetting. I DID know Victor, I'd see him & talk to him at Crazy Mocha in Bloomfield, I imagine he lived near there. He might've had a poetry chapbk &/or a CD-R of him reading. Maybe I have a copy of the latter. Victor exemplifies people who give themselves in to the 'dream' offered by the Art World: someday they'll be discovered & everything bad in their life will be washed away in glory. For every artist that's rich, famous, & glamorous there're MANY more who're barely surviving. The situation is even more extreme for poets. Many of the people at the bottom of this pyramid of suffering don't really know much or anything about art or poetry, they don't look at other people's work & see how it compares to their own, they have no standards to live up to. A very common type is the person who spends more time getting stoned & drunk & daydreaming about their greatness than they do actually working on making themselves great. They delude themselves into thinking that they're inately great & that people will realize it any minute & elevate them. Needless to say, that rarely, or, more likely, never happens.
GALLERIE CHIZ:
"I have discovered, in these over 50 years as a painter, mark-maker, color enthusiast, and social animal, that I need to express myself with paint. I studied and taught piano (played since age 4) and theater. I was a musical director. I built stage sets at Syracuse University, 20 hours a week, as a theater student and learned to love the physicality of the arts, as well as the beauty and emotions they encourage. I received a BA in psychology at Chatham College and interned in art and music therapy at Western Psychiatric Hospital in Pittsburgh. I also did art therapy at Presbyterian Unversity Hospital with transplant patients.
"I owned and operated GalleriE CHIZ in Shadyside for 22 years." - p 370
Ok, I've never heard of GalleriE CHIZ either - but that doesn't mean much, I rarely go to art galleries, Shadyside's a somewhat wealthy neighborhood so I'm even less likely to go to a gallery there. The galleries I know best are ones I either performed at or screened at. My not knowing about the Digging Pitt or GalleriE CHIZ is more of an indication of my distance from the Art World than it is about any worth or lack thereof of the places. The person who wrote the above was Ellen Chisdes Neuberg (1949-2024). I find her text & images very personable, I wish I'd known her. She probably went to Syracuse at the same time as my sister.. I wonder if they knew each other?
"GARFIELD ARTWORKS: SO IT BEGINS by Adrienne Wehr"
[..]
"Susan Spier, founder of the Garfield Artworks, was a pioneer. In 1996, my thirty-something self described her as a "quiet giant... always tolerant, always present in the most important ways-in the ways of support and caring" and as having "great wisdom for a woman her age." These praises sung were not from a theater playbill nor artist bio at a gallery show. They were among the testimonies included in her obiturary. At the time of her leaving on November 16, 1996, she was only 32." - p 374
SHEESH, I moved to PGH in Jan, 1996. I never knew Susan Spier. I presented things there, it looks like the 1st one might've been the "Stickerthrow! International Sticker Art" 2005; then "booed usic & group armageddon" on Saturday, November 19, 2005. Then there was "Improvised Sound / Improvised Film" organized by Jefferson Presents, on Saturday, January 27, 2007. Then "Formalist 8mm Film from 1978-1998" made possible by Jefferson Presents on Saturday, March 31, 2007. Then "Last Man on Earth" (triple projection version) on July 27, 2007. Then the Premier of "Reductionism (#6)" + "Interpretive Duncing" + "Artifacts" on July 25, 2011. During almost all of that time, Manny Theiner was living in the basement & being the gatekeeper for shows. It's hard to believe that that fertile time was only 6 yrs. & I have Susan Spier to thank for it w/o ever even knowing about her until I read this article. Garfield Artworks opened in 1993, Spier died of ovarian cancer in 1996. What a loss.
Now the bk introduces an art collector, Eric Holmes:
"I moved from Shadyside to the South Side in the mid 1980s and shortly thereafter discovered the Brew House. Originally opened in 1899 under control of the Duquesne Brewing Company, it had closed in 1972 and sat dormant for over a decade. Slowly, inexorably, the abandoned monolith was revitalized by an intrepid coterie of nonconformists who breathed life back into it using the language of creativity and imagination. My interest in the joy and wonder of art had just been sparked; the proximity of The Brew House was a happy accident. Back then, it was truly a bohemian artist colony. A co-op, of sorts, managed and/or mismanaged by the Magnificent Ship of Fools that set their sail to the heart of their respective crafts." - p 376
Pages 380-393 bring us back to Lauri Mancuso in an interview w/ Sheila Ali. One of the fascinating things about the Underground is that there're hundreds of people working feverishly, usually for minimal financial reward, just to make things happen, to keep life vital & interesting & fun - & we can't all be everywhere at once so we miss some things. This whole bk misses The Boat Kids & Babyland.. but, thank the holy ceiling light, it doesn't miss Lauri.
"I felt the Garfield Artworks was worth keeping. I'd open a new exhibit every two weeks, then monthly. Opening receptions at the beginning of the month combined with live music, projections, or performance, and a closing reception at the end of the month. Local booking agent Manny Theiner's reply when I asked him to book a show was "No way, I'll get robbed." Years later as new galleries and Sprout Fund came to the street, he did. In 2004, when he started living in the storage room and filled the gallery with folding chairs, I moved on." - p 380
More about the Mattress Factory, this time in a full article by David Bernabo. I've had the pleasure of playing w/ David & of being in a movie of his. He's one of the most meticulous creatives I know here: musician, moviemaker, dancer.
""Well, I never did want to start a museum. It was an evolution." This is what Mattress Factory founder Barbara Luderowski told me when I first interviewed her and Michael Olijnyk for what turned into the documentary film Site-Specific: A History of the Mattress Factory. I made the film on occasion of the museum's 40th anniversary in 2017, and was granted access to the museum's archives, founders, staff, and exhibiting artists. And indeed, over those decades, the Mattress Factory did evolve." - p 384
"In 1982, the museum's first proper site-specific exhibition opened with three artists-Michael Olijynk, Dianne Samuels, and Athena Tacha. Olijynk's piece was a delicately balanced, room-sized installation of co-dependent wood, string, and 2 x 3 foot glass panels. (A camera person did knock into the sculpture, triggering a cascading crash of glass.)" - pp 384-485
I've known Michael since 2001 & this is the 1st I've learned that he's an artist, I've thought of him as a collector & a curator. Now, I'm very curious about what work he's made.
"In 1991, Mattress Factory collaborated with Carnegie Museum of Art on the 51st International, housing four installations within the Mattress Factory's galleries, including works by John Cage, Ann Hamilton, Tatsua Miyajima, and Christian Boltanski. These works required a good bit of daily maintenance. Hamilton's installation required staff to feed 30 canaries, while Cage's piece required Olijnyk, on a daily basis, to rearrange objects like chairs and artworks, and take a precise photograph, all in accordance to a written score." - p 385
Given that Cage is by far one of my favorite composers my interest perked right up at that one. I won't call explicit attn to the glaring cut'n'paste mistake that follows, I'll just say that I doubt that David, in his typical attn to detail, is responsible for it. Bernabo is one of the local creatives whose efforts to document Pittsburgh musicians & artists has preceded the making of this bk. Check out his work if you haven't already!
"PAT MCARDLE - A conversation with Pat McArdle and S. Ali. May 11, 2023"
Thank the Holy Ceiling Light for all the work Sheila Ali put into this. Look at how many people she personally interviewed. Wd they have slipped between the cracks otherwise?
"SA: Let's just start with your interest in art in Pittsburgh. Did you meet some people that were not recognized by the fine art world? I know you're interested in Outsider Art.
"PM: Well, that's part of it. I'm from Ford City, Pennsylvania, which is about 40 miles from Pittsburgh. I came to Pittsburgh in 1966 to go to school. I went to Robert Morris College, downtown. The '60s were a very interesting time in Pittsburgh, as in most places. I was an ironworker. I worked on the US Steel Gateway 6 Building, the Westinghouse Building. I drove a tractor trailer. I also hung out with people who went to art school and made art. As the years went by, I started to collect some pieces. I also had an interest in music. I went to many concerts. That was one facet of my life that was very enjoyable." - p 386
He was an ironworker. That's a difficult & dangerous job. It seems to me that the typical attitude toward such working class folks is that we're stupid & have no intellectual interests. That makes it easier for ruling class people to shrug off on-the-job deaths: 'Oh, they were probably drunk', that sort of thing. 'No great loss, y'know?' Hence, IMO, working class creatives are "not recognized by the fine art world" b/c we're considered too 'low-life'. I was a hard-wood floor finisher, e.g.. Even other artists tend to debase me b/c of that. One member of a local arts guild made a snide comment about brain damage, implying that I was only half-there. That's odd, I've written 30 bks, what has that creep done? Anyway, I'm impressed by McArdle, he's more living proof that a worker can appreciate the 'finer things in life'.
An aside here on this what-I-consider to be class struggle issue: in PGH there's a classical music stn called WQED. They shd more appropriately be called "Classical Muzak", they advertise what they play as being soothing for when one is running errands or at the office. They seem to avoid atonal music as outside the "comfort zone". Gee, it's only been a major force in classical music for 100 yrs! They make a big deal of how much they support the local arts - but wd they ever play something of mine? NO fucking way! They'd lose funding & listeners. Just stay comatose, folks, don't let yrselves be woken up.
ANYWAY, I've had 2 friends who were Ironworkers, in Ironworkers unions. One of them is also a junk sculptor. The other dropped out of the union b/c he felt it was too racist. Both of them are anarchists.
"STEVE MENDELSON - A conversation with Steve Mendelson and S. Ali. March 17, 2023"
"SM: Well, there was always Concept, but that was always commercial. I just played golf with Sam in the Dominican Republic... For me, it's a lifestyle. I'm in it because my artists are my friends. I'm an artist so I could relate to an artist. And when I put up a show and don't sell anything, it hurts me because I want that artist to have money, to be able to keep working." - p 391
When I read a bk I keep what I call "reviewer notes" that refer to specific pages. I didn't want to mark this bk so I didn't put pencil marks next to things I wanted to quote. Instead I wrote, on a separate piece of paper, "391 last paragraph right column underground". The directions are clear, I went to the relevant paragraph, but "underground"?! I reckon I was being sarcastic.
"E. MURRAY FINKELSTEIN - A conversation with Elizabeth Murray Finkelstein (Life-work partner and archivist for photographer Nat Finkelstein) and S. Ali. February 1, 2024"
The 1st page has a photo of Brian Jones (of the Rolling Stones) & Andy Warhol. The next page has a photo of Warhol sitting on a couch in the Factory. The next page has Warhol on the payphone in the Factory & the last page has a color ad for Finkelstein at the Irma Freeman.
"SA: I guess, as a sort of vantage point of talking about Nat Finkelstein, we can talk about your position as an archivist of Nat's work, but also I was just curious about where he came from and where he grew up and went to school.
"EM: Nat grew up in Brooklyn. He was very much a Brooklyn native, born in Coney Island and grew up in Flatbush. He went to Brooklyn College but did not graduate. He was expelled in his last semester, as I recall from his story, for throwing a filing cabinet through a window.
"SA: Was he on psychedelics?
"EM: Oh, no. He was upset about a censorship in a school arts magazine that he was working on. Just a quick note, though: Prior to going to Brooklyn College, he intended to go to Cornell, had a scholarhip to Cornell to study pre-law. What he wanted to do was to be a labor lawyer and to defend workers in labor disputes. His grandfather had lived in Western Pennsylvania for a time, working here as a labor organizer and union activist in Western Pennsylvania with the Wobblies (IWW). Nat shared this sensibility of protecting workers." - p 394
I think that that latter makes Finklestein an honorary Pittsburgher.
Pp 398-399 is ORGONE CINEMA's section. Orgone are the ones that brought me to PGH in 1995. I had an excellent time during that visit. I even made a 16mm Fastex film called "How Orgone Cinema Treats Its Visiting Filmmakers" (shot by Michael Johnsen) ( https://archive.org/details/166.-how-orgone ). The film is an extreme slow motion shot of fertilized duck eggs being thrown at the back of my head. Given that I asked them to make this film & they did so, the title is accurate. Nonetheless, one might misinterpret it to be casting aspersions on Orgone for being abusive. That was just my sense of humor.
The Orgone entry has an ad for them written in telegraph style that starts: "INTRODUCING ORGONE CINEMA AND ARCHIVE STOP. PURPOSE TO SHOW MOVIES AND NEVER STOP STOP." (P 398) Alas, Orgone did stop. On the facing page there's a Third Termite poster for an Orgone show featuring Roger Jacoby Auricon films at the Silver Eye Gallery when it was on Carson St in the South Side. Jacoby was lovers w/ Warhol superstar Pope Ondine who lived w/ Jacoby for awhile in PGH. Jacoby is championed as a gay filmmaker in the 1960s. I, personally, think he's one of the worst filmmakers ever & that championing him b/c of his sexuality is completely stupid. NONETHELESS, Orgone was absolutely great. I have a collection of their posters (printed by Alisa Dix, the 3rd wheel of Orgone w/ Michael Johnsen & Greg Pierce).
RICHARD PARSAKIAN, interviewed, once again, by Sheila. I knew of Parsakian b/c I'd frequently seen him at Andy Warhol Museum events & b/c I'd been in his store, Eons. I always thought he seemed like an interesting guy. As such, I was glad to learn more.
"SA: I wanted to just start with how you got to Pittsburgh and how you got started in the fashion business.
"RP: I'm originally from upstate New York, around Albany. I was born in Troy, New York, which is on the Hudson River. And I lived across the river in an old Dutch town called Watervliet, which is Dutch for "city by the river." And then I grew up in Latham, which is just a little suburb from there. I was in this old textile town that was originally known for making all the collars for shirts before shirts had collars attached to them. So this goes back hundreds of years. Anytime you see a shirt from the '20s or older. It was from Troy. Troy was known as a Collar City, like Pittsburgh would be known as the Steel City. Obviously, when the textile industry didn't quite work out, the economy of the city diminished. I went to school for architecture there, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I have a degree in architecture. I went there from 1966 to 1971. It was a five-year course. Those years were some of the most explosive years in our history, very much connecting history with culture and now with fashion. I protested against the Vietnam War. I marched in DC against the war.
"During my time in RPI, Kent State hapened, the Kent State murders; the Jackson State murders happened. This is the first time that, as a student you thought just by going to school, you could be murdered for expressing you constitutional rights of free speech." - p 400
This political reminiscence goes on for another few paragraphs. I loved it. It was great to read someone's personal testimony about a time I also lived thru. I resisted the Vietnam War in 1971 by refusing to even register for the draft. I was so moved by his memories that I went to his store after reading it just to stop in & say hi & introduce myself.
"PITTSBURGH FILMMAKERS - by Brady Lewis"
When I came to PGH in Jan, 1995, to present 2 screenings under the auspices of Orgone Cinema one of the things that my hosts did was take me to a Pittsburgh Filmmakers screening at their old location on Oakland Ave. When I moved to PGH in Jan, 1996, I was lucky enuf to find a cheap rental house a mere 15 minute walk away from their new location. This was fortuitous beyond belief.
"Pittsburgh Filmmakers got its start in 1970 as an obscure equipment access facility for artists working in filmmaking and photography. It grew to become the country's most well-developed and successful independent media arts centers, with a nationally accredited School for Film, Photography and Digital Media and an extensive exhibitions component that included three movie theaters, two photographic galleries, and the long-tenured and respected Three Rivers Film Festival which ran for two weeks every November." - p 404
Indeed, Filmmakers (as it was popularly known) was an incredible place, a paradise of sorts for people such as myself. I had at least 28 screenings w/ them ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/tENTScreenings.html ) until their demise in 2018. No other place has ever been so supportive of me as a moviemaker. I even made a rather sloppy & spontaneous movie of their last days called "FILMMAKERS don't let it be Dead at 47" ( https://archive.org/details/DeadAt47 ). The loss of filmmakers is a loss that we still haven't recuperated from.
The Pittsburgh Glass Center gets 2pp from 410-411. "Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) has grown to be one of the premiere glass facilities in the US. The largest arts organization on Penn Avenue, PGC had been vital to the redevlopment of the city's rapidly growing East End and connecting the region's history as a major producer of glass" (p 410) My reviewer's note to myself reads: "Join?!" That's how impressed I was. Still, it's not going to happen b/c I can barely afford to eat let alone join an arts organization. I cdn't afford to buy this bk, e.g., at the $120 I was to be charged (I was to receive NO contributor's discount let alone a contributor's copy!).
"RIVERS OF STEEL - by Ron Baraff": "From the ashes of deindustrialization, Rivers of Steel (ROS) was born. What began as a local effort in 1988 to preserve portions of the former USS Homestead Works (including the Carrie Furnaces) has grown to become an eight county National Heritage Area coalesced around the notion of the preservation and promotion of the history and culture of the region, much of which is driven by the arts." - p 412
PGH's heritage was built both by industrialism & the heroic struggles of the labor organizers & other people working for the general good beyond the greed of the Robber Barons. Let's not forget anarchist Alexander Berkman & his daring attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick.
JEN SAFFRON: "I did play in the Carnegie Mellon Orchestra for a year, and then I started improvising and playing music, and I saw so many visual artists that play music. There was a lot of crossover between genres. After my freshman year, I transferred into the art department and it really opened up a whole new conversation for expression and made me see that I didn't have to be quite so rigid about what I was picking, what I was making, that it was all related. I continued playing music and continued writing things and continued making visual art and then learned lithography and went into the printmaking program." - p 414
In other words, she's a polymath. Das ist gut. We're friends on LinkedIn wch means that we barely know each other but I was so excited by what she wrote above that I messaged her asking if she'd like to play music w/ me. I hope I can get her involved w/ the Telepathic Chronicles project ( https://archive.org/details/774c.-telepathic-chronicles-157-pgh ).
SILVER EYE CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY: I'll always have a soft spot for this space b/c my 1st shows in PGH, under the auspices of Orgone Cinema, were at their site on E. Carson St. I presented there on Jan. 12 & 14, 1995; July 26, 1996; September 28, 1996; November 9, 1996; March 28, 1998; August 1, 1998; & May 8, 1999; all thanks to Orgone. Those were the days!!
&, finally, THE TURMOIL ROOM: Ed-Um took me here, probably in 1997 or, at the latest?, 1998. I very vaguely remember it as an archetypal DIY space, in a home/former-store in an apparently tolerant neighborhood. Alas, I never went back. I think that was b/c I didn't have a car or a bike & it was a fairly long walk from my house. I was still new enuf to PGH to not really know my way around so finding it again wdn't've been easy.
SO, that's that. I've mainly written about personal connections to all this but I don't mean to downplay the fabulous talents of most of the people represented. To me, this is a very important bk & I hope that people outside of PGH can & will appreciate it as such.
idioideo at gmail dot com
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