.chicken bone.

7th Annual Artist Row: 09/18/11

2011-08-29T15:25:00.013-04:00

7th Annual Artist Row
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 18
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
ROCHESTER PUBLIC MARKET

Artist Row is a project presented and promoted by the Friends of the Rochester Public Market with support from the City of Rochester. The juried show has enjoyed generous support from corporate sponsors, as well as support from many local small businesses. The annual event showcases live performances by local and regional musicians, dancers and singers. The event also features booths from local community organizations.

It is FREE to the public.

To encourage participation by emerging artist and artisans, the entry fee is deliberately kept to a minimum. This year the fee to exhibit is $40 - $60 after 7/15/2010. Booth Space is free.

Artist Row Public Market Art Fair began in 2005, with over 5000 people attending an exhibit that featured 68 local and regional artists.

2011 promises to draw more applicants and larger crowds. So, save the date -- and if you're an artist, APPLY EARLY!

For more information about Artist Row 2011, go here.

Specimens of the New Growth: 09/09/2011

2011-08-28T15:37:00.012-04:00

Visit Robert Frank Abplanalp here.

RIPROC presents, Laissez-Faire at .one.

2011-01-18T17:14:00.003-05:00

One Restaurant & Lounge

1 Ryan Alley

Rochester, NY

3.00 featured wine glasses all night.
15.00 select champagne bottles all night.

It's RIPROC, properly chilled.

...Laissez-Faire.
Every Friday night starting 1/21 in the downstairs lounge @ One.

Hosted by RIPROC.

Featuring the musical selections of Papi Chulo -

Cueing the absolute finest in future jazz, bossa, sexy lounge, chillout, and atmospheric sounds of the city. The perfectly picturesque soundtrack to your life. Think along the lines of Air, Bebel Gilberto, Bonobo, Nightmares On Wax, Telefon Tel Aviv, Thievery Corporation, Tosca...

And reintroducing Rochester icon DJ Jon Herbert in the upstairs dance club.

Featuring the gallery showcase of fine artist
.chicken bone. early in the evening.

Also added! Featuring Rochester premiere boudoir photographer Teri Fiske of Ciao Bella Boudoir. Portfolio showcased throughout the evening on One's amazing projection screen.
http://www.ciaobellaboudoir.com/

Promotional photography by Mike Hanlon. Layout by RIPROC.
http://www.hanlonweddings.com/
http://bit.ly/ibg3Aj

3.00 cover before midnight, 5.00 after.

One Restaurant & Lounge (downstairs)
1 Ryan Alley, in Rochester's East End District
11:00p - 02:00a

Strictly 21+, dress for the venue.

Join us for an alluring evening that only Rochester Insider's 2010 Party Of The Year and Party Starters Of The Year winners can create.

CINEMONSTRUM! - A Celebration of Movie Monster Mythology

2010-09-29T12:56:00.007-04:00

1975 Gallery at Surface Salon

658 South Ave

Rochester, NY

"Cleopatra, Peacock of the Air".
from the film, "Freaks".
.chicken bone.

CINEMONSTRUM!
A Celebration of Movie Monster Mythology
1975 & Surface Salon Two-year
Anniversary

Oct. 1 - Nov. 12 2010
...
Opening reception
Friday, October 1, 2010
7-10PM

In honor of 1975's and Surface Salon's two year anniversary, we are teaming up with the Little theatre to put on CINEMONSTRUM!, A Celebration of Movie Monster Mythology. The opening will occur on October 1 at 1975's Surface Salon location. Then, the best works from CINEMONSTRUM! will move to the Little on October 30th for a special display during their 25 Hour Horror Fest.

Come join us for the celebration! Monster/Halloween attire is completely welcome and acceptable!

The show will feature tributes to their favorite movie monsters by artists Joe Guy Allard, Paul ]BLOKT[ Beresniewicz, Hannah Betts, Angie Carter, Chicken Bone, Jennifer Cichello, Sean Chilson, Amanda Clarke, Garrick Dorsett, Jeni Gray, Chris Hargrave, Christopher Herndon, Austin Keppeler, Peter Lazarski, Erich Lehman, Mike Loveless, St. Monci, Mr. Prvrt, Eric Saner, Mike Turzanski, Lea Rizzo, Matthew Roberts, Sarah Rutherford, Geoff Schweigert, and Beth Sumner.

RSVP to this event on Facebook, here.

Artist Row 2010

2010-09-12T14:07:00.003-04:00

I will be participating in Artist Row again this year!
New prints, buttons, and original paintings.
You can find my wares and I in Shed A, Booth 17.
Sunday, September, 19th from 10-4.
I hope to see you there.

You may view the event, and RSVP on Facebook, here.

Last Days of Summer: 08/05 - 08/07

2010-08-02T08:44:00.006-04:00

To RSVP via Facebook, click here.

Visit St. Fortune Productions.

City Review: Wind of Change

2010-08-02T08:21:00.016-04:00

ART REVIEW
"Wind of Change" at 1975 Gallery
Rebecca Rafferty, July 21, 2010

"Do Unto Others" by Eric Saner, part of the "Wind of Change" exhibit featuring the artists of Tattoo Kamikaze, now on display at 1975 Gallery.
[PHOTO BY MATT DETURCK]

"I've had so many friends over the years who became or were tattoo artists, and I've always been amazed at what they can do with the canvas of human skin," says genuine ink-virgin Erich Lehman, director of 1975 Gallery @ Surface Salon and member of the newish art collective Sweet Meat Co.

But Lehman also felt that the artists' non-flesh artwork deserved more exposure: "Even though tattoos are far more acceptable in the mainstream and far less shocking than they once were, the skill and talent that these folks possess seems to escape a lot of people, and I wanted to put bring that out to the floor for discussion."

The current show at 1975 is the second annual exhibition of the work of a local tattoo shop; last year Lehman showcased LoveHate, this time the walls went to Tattoo Kamikaze, which is located behind the Cinema on South Clinton and South Goodman.

"Wind of Change" has a word-play connection with the Japanese term Kamikaze, but is also the title of a song by The Scorpions, as well as the title of the shop's logo, by owner Mike Deuce, which features a skull with an aviator helmet and goggles. All of the works in the show were intended to be named for or inspired by 1980's metal and rock songs, though in the end, only a portion of them were, says Lehman.

If this group show was to be taken as representative of the shop's aesthetic, you'd think the artists worked almost exclusively within the traditional tattoo style. The exhibition abounds with decade-specific vixens with button noses, pouty lips, finger-waved hair, and heavy lashes and is spangled with emblems of American glory and arcane symbolism. But one perusal through the shop's blog proves that this team is as versatile as they come.

Eric Saner works with fierce, heavily outlined, popular Americana tats of eagles, stars, wolves, Liberty raising her torch, as well as fast and lovely ladies. "Girls, Girls, Girls" shows a sword-wielding lady pirate surrounded by two pinup beauties, and flanked by two more women, each wrapped in a huge snake, looking like they don't mind one bit. Mike Deuce's work is very boldly colorful, with a frequent use of jarring neon colors. In "Dirty Women," the petals of a rose part to sprout stockinged and heeled legs, in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," a green, scaly, and bearded merman emerges from the waves. The finely executed rose he recently planted on one male client's throat made me consider the beauty of that location before I recalled my own arms-and-legs-only tattoo rule.

Sara Purr excels at symbol-heavy, esoteric themes.
Represented in the show are tarot and palmistry paraphernalia, and the recurring all-seeing eye, as seen in the intense and vixen-y "Mrs. Crowley." "I never intended to be a traditional tattooer," she says, "I always saw myself as becoming a student of the Japanese style." But Purr fell in love with tattooing roses, "which led to a closer look at the classic style, which led to...the ladies! I've always drawn women's faces, ever since I can remember. Everyone likes to look at a pretty face." Also present are two photoreal pencil portraits, including "Mother," which has a 1970's look emphasized by a surrounding halo of colorful blossoms.

The traditional style is evident in Josh Wright's work, but most impressive is his back-piece-sized work on the right-hand wall: Asian-inspired designs of demon warriors in colorful and elementally kinetic settings, and a fiery dragon coiling upward through gray clouds or waves. "Purgatory" is a Buddha figure meditating on a huge pink lotus, impassive, and with a radiating golden halo all set against a gray, wavering background; calm in a chaotic world.

Besides the obvious connection of being ink-covered lady artists, guest artists Chickenbone and Angela Bianchi, who both work part-time at the shop, were invited by the tat crew based on their own artistic talent. Bianchi's contributions are a mere three in number, but fierce enough to hold their own. Two works' titles allude to mythic tales: "Tension Awaiting Imminent Collapse" is a colorfully swathed and gasping geisha, positioned next to "A Shaving of the Horn that Speared You," a toothy and leering demon with green horns and a violent spray of red hair.

Fans will recognize painter, Eastman House exhibit preparator, and framer Chicken Bone's dark-humor portraiture, now shining through in the new medium of watercolor, which she transitioned to "on a whim" after years of painting in acrylic. Chicken Bone pairs lyrics and phrases with intriguing, up-close countenances, creating private associations that allow the viewer to "create their own narrative," she says.

The subjects confront the viewer with a hard intensity, but she's used the medium's watery quality to maximize vulnerability as well, in her typical mastery of nuanced and passing expressions. The two most striking to me were "Don't Be a Good Neighbor Anymore to Her" and "Words," which are also among the artist's favorites. She describes the former as "a bit broken down," but with a "subtle strength" and either defiance or complacence; the former as "far more bawdy," the tilt of her chin "almost dismissive."

It's always difficult to walk away from a talent showcase without giving into covetousness, and in this case viewers have their choice of artwork for the home, the body, or both.

"Wind of Change"
The Artists of Tattoo Kamikaze
with guests Chicken Bone & Angela Bianchi
Through September 24
1975 Gallery @ Surface Salon, 658 South Ave
360-4446, 1975ish.com
Tue-Thu noon-8 p.m., Fri 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m

"Wind of Change" Photos.

2010-07-12T20:19:00.013-04:00

All work displayed here is copyrighted by its respective artists:
.chicken bone., Eric Saner, Josh Wright, Mike Deuce, and Sara Purr.

New Work: "Don't Be a Good Neighbor Anymore to Her."

2010-06-15T11:11:00.005-04:00

"don't be a good neighbor anymore to her."
15 x 20.
watercolor.
available.

New Work: "Words"

2010-06-15T10:55:00.013-04:00

"words."
15 x 20.
watercolor.
available.

"Wind of Change: New Works by the Artists of Tattoo Kamikaze"; 1975 Gallery, 07-09-10.

2010-06-15T10:44:00.007-04:00

To respond to this event on Facebook, click here.

"The Return of Ludachrist" Pearl Nightclub, 06/18/10.

2010-06-15T10:39:00.006-04:00

To respond to this event on Facebook, click here.

"All the Awful Songs We Don't Even Hear"

2010-03-09T14:12:00.006-05:00

16 x 21 1/2

acrylic on vinyl on board

Hot Pink Delorean [03-12-10]

2010-03-09T14:07:00.005-05:00

Friday, March 12th
Pearl Nightclub - 349 East Avenue, Rochester

♥ RIPROC & Pearl present... ♥

HOT PINK DELOREAN [Boston]
http://www.myspace.com/thehotpinkdelorean

ESKEI83 - audio & video DJ set [Berlin, Germany]

THE COMMUNIST PARTY [Buffalo]

SUBSOIL
MOSAIC FOUNDATION
MANHATTAN PROJECT
Rochester

Peter Pizzutelli
Naps (Biggie Tribute)
Sita!
Skanntron
Bizmuth
Attikka & A-KO
Rainbow Kandicaine

hosted by Gillateen & HRVI Who?

"Zinful Pleasures" wine tasting by Ryan Evans.
"Mad Dough" cookie cake tasting by Oh My Cookies.
"I'm With Cocoa" chocolate tasting by Hedonist Artisan.

Live art demonstration by John Bertolone.

Art Gallery Reception featuring...
Rags
Rheytchul .chicken bone.
Chandra Baker
Chris Platt
Christina Nitche
Kathleen Hope
Dewey Rice
Stephen Dorobiala
Melissa Saner
Igor Sobolevsky
John Bertolone

Pearl Nightclub
349 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14604

For more details, visit http://www.riproc.com

things we did.

2010-01-13T11:18:00.004-05:00

12 x 32

acrylic on braided cotton and board

[for sale]

12-03-09: Art Show.

2009-12-02T15:54:00.004-05:00

Do it.

3rd Annual Monster Mash-Up.

2009-10-27T10:24:00.007-04:00

Artists: .chicken bone., Christina Nitche, Chandra Baker, Jennifer Cichello, Hanlon Photography, Tom DeBlase, GON, PRVRT, Nikki Graziano, e moore, Kellie Cox, Fairy Magik, Shawn Hooper, Michael Rivera, Matt Calabrese, Adam Hanlon, & Chris Platt.

Wine & Champagne Tastings: Ryan Evans
Chocolate Tastings: Hedonist Artisan Chocolates.

Full Photobooth: Lukasaurus
Visuals: The NGB.

ONE Restaurant & Lounge
1 Ryan Alley (down the alley alongside Pearl / Anchor Bar)
Rochester, NY 14607

Doors open at 6:00PM with an enchanting art gallery reception and assorted tastings. Party goes until 2:00AM with an afterparty to follow. Ask Around.

21+, proper government-issued ID required without exception.

$10 presale tickets available for a LIMITED time and in limited quantity. MUCH MORE AT THE DOOR. Ticket prices will also increase leading up to the event!

Unholy Three

2009-10-26T16:03:00.011-04:00

The Unholy Three
.Chicken Bone.
Steve Dorobiala
Allie Hartley

Opening Reception
10/27, 6-9 p.m.
Muddy Waters
752 S. Goodman St.
Rochester, NY
Show runs 10/27 - 11/22

New prints for sale.

2009-09-28T13:44:00.004-04:00

"Just Enough to Turn Over the Deed"

[16 x 20: $20+s/h]
[11 x 14: $15+s/h]

[8 x 10: $10+s/h]

"Take This Waltz"

[16 x 20: $20+s/h]
[11 x 14: $15+s/h]
[8 x 10: $10+s/h]

"Reno Dakota"

[16 x 20: $20+s/h]

[11 x 14: $15+s/h]
[8 x 10: $10+s/h]

"Dreams of Truckasaurus"

[16 x 20: $20+s/h]

[11 x 14: $15+s/h]
[8 x 10: $10+s/h]

Upcoming Show: 10/08/09.

2009-09-27T15:10:00.002-04:00

$3.00 presale tickets, $5.00 at the door.
Add $3.00 more if you are under 21. Ticket outlets below.

Live art, gallery art, wine & champagne tastings, and of course live DJ sets.

Doors at 6PM. Goes until 3.

Featuring...
EASE & The NYAC DJ Crew performing a RocRaida tribute
OXFORD COLLECTIVE
AUDIOWRIGHT
PARALLAX (Minneapolis)

Wine & Champagne tastings by Ryan Evans.
Art gallery with Rheytchul .chicken bone. & Antonio Aresco.
Live mural art by Gon & PRVRT.

"WERD PLAY" @ 6:00PM, hosted by Act:Live. Open to all emcees.
Contact dublandunderground@gmail.com for sign-ups.
Recorded by Elektrobank.

Ticket Outlets: $3 Presale!

All performers
Thread
Dub Land Underground
Krudco
Skyehigh

Artist Row: 09-20-09.

2009-09-17T21:38:00.001-04:00

From http://www.marketfriends.org/artistrow.html...

5th Annual Artist Row

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

ROCHESTER PUBLIC MARKET

Artist Row is a project presented and promoted by the Friends of the Rochester Public Market with support from the City of Rochester. The juried show has enjoyed generous support from corporate sponsors, such as Preferred Care, Canandaigua National Bank, as well as support from many local small businesses. The annual event showcases live performances by local and regional musicians, dancers and singers. The event also features booths from local community organizations.

It is FREE to the public.

Artist Row Public Market Art Fair began in 2005, with over 5000 people attending an exhibit that featured 68 local and regional artists. It has grown each year, attracting larger crowds and over 160 local and regional artists and artisans.

For more information about Artist Row 2009, to volunteer to assist in planning or to contribute and sponsor Artist Row 2009, contact the Friends of the Public Market at: mailto:marketfriends@rochester.rr.com

Interview with Act:Live, 11-08.

2009-09-16T21:49:00.007-04:00

ACT:LIVE ON ART:
Introducing .chickenbone.
werd: james niche

ACT:LIVE: My first question is did you go to school for art and have you always lived in Rochester?

I’ve moved about, but lived in Brooklyn while going to school. I went to Pratt, but I don’t like to credit school with my talent. Out of all the schools I’ve been to, MCC has the best art program. I have one high school teacher who will always be solely responsible for my interest in art and pushing me in the right direction.

ACT:LIVE: How do you view your art? I mean, what’s the vibe you send out?

I think I have a sense of humor that other people may not see or don’t know how to react to. I think that comes through with the titles.

ACT:LIVE: You paint a lot of face portraits, are these models in front of you while you paint?

I paint from a lot of photographs. I have a lot of these old journals and magazines and they have the greatest photographs of people. I use those for a basis, and then turn it into whatever it ends up as.

ACT:LIVE: What drove you to portraits?

I’ve always been drawn to people; even as a kid I would do portraits of Garth Brooks and New Kids On The Block. It’s hilarious to look at now.

ACT:LIVE: How long have you been involved in the Rochester art community, and what has your involvement been?

Last year I kind of decided to use it or lose it, if you know what I mean.

ACT:LIVE: Meaning, get involved or stop doing it?

Yeah, I never really showed my art before.

ACT:LIVE: Have you found many opportunities to get your work out there?

Yeah, especially working with Pat (Gaffney), he helped me out a lot and gave me my first big push. He threw the ‘Sunglasses Only’ party at Tilt and that got me back into it.

ACT:LIVE: So you won the award for best painter at Artist’s Row, tell me more about that.

This group of people came into my tent and began scrutinizing and asking what everything was, so at that point I thought I was in trouble because of my tent size. I didn’t know if they were asking me all these questions because I am a painter and I had prints…I just thought I was in trouble. So, then they left. Then, they came back and told me I was best in show for painting!

ACT:LIVE: Is there any sort of support that comes along with winning the award or is it just a pat on the back?

Honestly, I’m not really sure. I was just really interested to find out that my demographic is broader than I had imagined. People that I would have never guessed to be interested in my art were approaching me all day. It’s much nicer when a total stranger compliments your work than someone who may feel obligated.

ACT:LIVE: I have had many people tell me that the artists in this town desperately need more resources to help get their art sold and into the hands of the marketplace…what are your feelings on what can be done about that and is that important to you?

Well, selling things and making money is all well and good, but if you’re not doing it if you have to do it, then you shouldn’t be doing it. I love all these alternative art spaces we have like Lux, Bug Jar, salons and Laundromats that want to hang our work. I mean, that’s great, but we also have places like Rochester Contemporary, too. I can’t tell you the last time they had a big solo show for a Rochester artist. I say represent the people that are here in Rochester, the people who are really working. I just think Rochester Contemporary could do a lot more to represent.

ACT:LIVE: What are some of your other favorite art venues…and what is this place, Café Vas?

Café Vas is a cool little place over on Merchants, Mike Hanlon from Hanlon Photographic and Beth Sumner were both showing some work there. It’s a fun little coffee shop in the Merchants neighborhood. The Potential Life Gallery is a really awesome space, too. They have been bringing in a lot of fantastic art and music. Every Sunday they do like, a noise music jam night. It’s really cool.

ACT:LIVE: So, where is your next showing?

December 5th, The High Falls Gallery. They’re doing a show called ‘Portraits: Our City, Our People’. I actually met Sally Winslow, the lady who runs The High Falls Gallery at Artists Row and she invited me into the show, so, big thumbs up to Artists Row, all the way around.

Auxillary Magazine, February 2009.

2009-02-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

Potential Life Studios
by Kaci Smith

You will not find generic landscape paintings at Potential Life Studios. This avant-garde arts space is Rochester, New York’s answer to its lack of places to exhibit and view experimental art and music. When Jeremy Dziedic and Colleen Guthrie returned to Rochester in July 2007, they brought with them Potential Life Studios, a solution to what they saw as an absence in the Rochester arts scene.

While other galleries in Rochester tend to cater to hobbyists or non-local artists, Potential Life Studio’s mission is to showcase local alternative and experimental artists. Rochester, like many medium-sized cities in the United States, is not lacking in creative people, but instead is lacking galleries that highlight off-beat and non-traditional art. The name of the gallery was adopted from the moniker Jeremy’s father used while screen printing band shirts in the 1980s. For those looking for something that runs against the grain, something that is less cookie-cutter and more raw, Potential Life Studios is the place to go.

Potential Life Studios is tucked away at 34 Elton Street. Unlike most galleries in the area, Potential Life Studios caters to the extraordinary artist. This studio is at the cutting-edge of the art scene and brings out some of the best of what the area has to offer. Most of the shows revolve around a particular theme, whether it be a sequential arts comic book show or photographs that incorporate origami elephants. Currently, the showing of “reMIXED Media” features the work of Chicken Bone, Kurt Ketchum, R. Scott Oliver, and Jeremy Dziedic. Many of the pieces are hung in antique frames, giving the gallery a more nostalgic feel. The gallery itself has a very DIY pathos and ethic. Each piece on display maintains a high level of quality and craftsmanship. The studio’s layout encourages people to interact and experience the artwork in a communal setting with many comfortable chairs and has music playing at all times. Such a design encourages the viewers to stay for a while and chat, rather than just look and leave. There is also an abundance of merchandise for sale, including t-shirts and smaller prints from local artists.

Potential Life Studios operates for the love of art, not for the paycheck. Other galleries in the area tend to capitalize on artists who are eager to display their artwork. Many galleries, regardless of location, will charge artists a hanging fee to use their space and are often not very selective in the quality of work that is exhibited. A typical trend in the art scene celebrates names rather than talent. This tends to lead to mediocre, run-of-the-mill scene galleries. This is the antithesis of Potential Life Studios. Funding for the gallery comes from donation, as well as the pockets of Jeremy and Colleen. An attitude found in some medium to smaller sized cities is that their city is devoid of a notable art scene. This apathy needs to stop and people need to start attending events. Art enthusiasts need support their community with attendance and patronage to keep places like Potential Life Studios alive and multiplying.

The experimental noise and music scene is fairly large in Rochester, but one wouldn’t know it if they opened any of the weekly events papers. Potential Life Studios not only provides a venue for local alternative and experimental artist but also encourages musicians to collaborate in their weekly event Output: Noise. Every Sunday, musicians can come into the gallery and collaborate and experiment with music in a different way than just in their normal practice. This collaboration is then recorded and released monthly on a compilation. Listeners can subscribe to the compilation at $50 for six months. Every cent of sale goes towards keeping the studio open and bringing in new music. This multi-faceted venue is not unlike spaces you would find in major cities around the world. The collaborative and innovative music coming out of Potential Life Studios is similar to artist collective, The Kitchen, that was founded in the 70s. the Kitchen helped launch the careers of John Cage and Philip Glass. This is the only place in town where you can hear classically a trained saxophonist freestyle over the sounds of a sampler that someone drilled into a suitcase. This is the audiophile’s dream for listening to live music. The acoustics in the building create a resonance that adds to the experience. Along with local musicians, Potential Life Studios has also featured national acts such as Sunburned Hand of the Man, CJ Boyd, and Tom Carter from Charalambides.

Flying below the radar, for now, Potential Life Studios is Rochester’s best kept secret. As a Rochester native, I have always been saddened when innovative and exciting places have closed down (Analog Shock, A/V Space, and The Night Gallery), so it was inspiring to meet Jeremy and Colleen. Since graduating from art school in 2006, I had been trying to find a place that could fill the niche I was craving. Potential Life Studios is that place. If you’re in the area, I encourage you to check out one of their upcoming events and see for yourself. www.potentiallifestudios.com

from the February Issue of Auxiliary Magazine

City Newspaper, December 2008; "ReMixed."

2008-12-17T11:36:00.006-05:00

ART REVIEW: "ReMixed"

By Rebecca Rafferty on December 17, 2008

I'm all about the blending of artistic media, and the people who run Potential Life Studios know that visual art and music are a great mix. This tiny, seriously hip gallery and music venue is co-owned by husband and wife team Jeremy and Colleen Dziedzic, who host both local experimental musical endeavors and local visual artists. Four mixed media artists are currently showing their stuff at the gallery.

The owners decorated the lofty space sparingly with dried flowers and mismatched furniture to lend a sweetly dark bohemian feel. Colleen informed me that every Sunday evening the gallery holds improvised musical collaborations. You can follow artist links on the gallery's site to check out music hosted in the past. Some of the clips are industrial flavored; others are slower and moody/eerie. Fans can subscribe to receive the monthly recordings of the shows, or buy them individually online or at the gallery.

My viewing of the visual art show left me with a bunch of questions, so I harassed a couple of the mixed-media artists, who kindly offered some insight into their inspiration and work.

Rheytchul Chicken Bone's salon-style positioning of her paintings resembles a wall of family portraits in a medley of frames. Her art is as enigmatically named as she is (her best friend coined the nickname, which stuck), and I had been oscillating between whether the titles were non-sequiturs or some private association. Turns out the latter is true. "A lot of my titles come from lines of songs, lines of poems, movie quotes, inside jokes," says the painter, picture-framer, and counter-girl at Ultimate Tattoo and Piercing.

Of her mixed-media surface for the paintings, she explains, "I like to use fabric and texture to help build a narrative of the subject, to almost give them a setting, without actually doing so. Just enough to evoke a feeling in the viewer, albeit one that is unsettling, comedic, bland, or assertive." The tones that I lifted from many of them were haunting (the figure in "It Tastes Better than the Truth" has a ghostly countenance and unsettling stare enhanced by pinpoint highlights in the eyes), or cheeky ("Coney Island Baby"), or forlorn ("Dreams of Truckasaurus," a large image of a sad young girl with big eyes).

But Chicken Bone says that she sees a comedic quality in her work, despite the darkness. "A few I intentionally painted a bit moodier, a bit prettier, a bit more tragic, hopeful, etc." Her subjects vary from "old photographs and magazines as a starting reference point" to "Bob Flanagan, Charles Bukowski, and my grandfather."

You can see more of her work in "Portraits: Our Town and Our People" at the Center at High Falls.

Metal artist R. Scott Oliver contributed three minimalist pieces to the group show: rusted, yet smooth, metal surfaces stained with paint to give them an urban, silenced-industrial feel. The center of "Green Square" is dominated by the simple dark green form. This sparseness is atypical of his other wall sculptures (see more at rscottoliver.com), which are characterized by little reliquary-like shelves, complete with objects, or script scrawled allover.

Owner Jeremy Dziedzic shows you what can be done with only recycled book pages, white paint, and black ink. His nightmares-for-sale "Sketchbook" series (001-005) are old, faded pages with tables and charts, superimposed by Dziedzic's highly detailed grotesque anatomy sketches of beasties and truncated body parts ("Sketchbook 001" is dominated by a long-necked human skeleton that seems about to turn to face the viewer), topped off with obsessive scribbling of words in a dark-thought rush.

Kurt Ketchum, of SMUV (single-minded-urban-vision) Brand, creates art of spray-painted stenciling, drawing, and painting on corrugated cardboard or plywood. The pieces are black and white with brightly colored accents, and mostly abstractions of mechanical things and animals. Part L337 ("g33k-speak"; numbers stand in for letters) and part graffiti, they are a bit cartoony and skater-esque. The self-described "garden variety visual junkie" pulls inspiration from found objects, old graphics, paintings, album covers, new graphics, old buildings, nature, color, numbers, and letters.

"AFRO-AM" resembles a saber-tooth whale, and evokes Pacific Native American art. "3TRN54MR5" looked at first like linked pod houses, but translate the name to ‘three transformers' and you can detect them. The subject of "1AM-W" is little more than a helmet and feet.

Ketchum's unique style has caught the attention of some rather big clients; his two favorite commercial projects were for EXPN X-Games and Gravis, of which he says, "the boardsport and the lifestyle industries that evolved from that culture have always provided a great canvas for artists to express themselves."

Despite success, the commercial work, "leaves more to be desired" for Ketchum. "I have always had a burning desire to make stuff on my own. I guess I like the process of experimenting with materials and bringing order to chaos in a sense." He names "constant evolution" as his artistic goal: "I have just recently been able to use the gallery as a way to study my own work and make decisions and adjustments to improve it to fit my inner vision."

All of the artists' work plays nice with one another, though Ketchum's playful work lacks the ominous tone that the others' conveyed so strongly. Which is why I wasn't surprised when he answered my questions like an enthusiastic wonderer: "I am using my work to document and further my limited personal understandings of the ways of the universe and the power of the human spirit. If nothing else I am guaranteed a good lesson in patience and humility." You can see more of Ketchum's work at smuvcentral.com and altpick.com/kurtketchum.

ReMixed

Through January 3

Potential Life Studios, 34 Elton St

770-0149, potentiallifestudios.com

Thu 3-5 p.m., Fri & Sun 6-9 p.m., by appointment

Cultural Imbibation, 06/25/08.

2008-06-25T11:33:00.001-04:00

Cultural Imbibation
by Rebecca Rafferty
June 25, 2008

Lux Lounge is known as much for its eclectic and outlandish decor as it is for its mixed and open community. Oh, those lady leg tables, the disco ball, the skulls bearing flowers in their teeth, the themed nights, that address! Like many other "alternative art spaces" (read: the main biz is not an art gallery), Lux also hosts art shows and provides a bit of cultural backdrop for your boozin'. Hey, if there's alcohol at art venues, why not the other way around? The current show, up through the end of July, exhibits three painters with very different styles, who are all more or less concerned with the human form, whether legendary, ordinary, or grotesque.

The bar actually works well as a gallery despite uneven lighting (gallery spotlights are installed in dim areas) because each painting gets lots of breathing room, even in the seating nooks. High ceilings accommodate large-scale paintings, and the largely open set up of Lux allows viewers to step back a take it all in. Picking up a title and price list up at the door, I began making my way around the room, sort of bopping to the mix of mostly hip-hop and trip-hop, occasionally peppered with The Beatles' "I am the Walrus" and The Cardigans' "Lovefool." I definitely earned some strange and curious stares from regulars...I guess it's uncommon to find a young woman at a bar not drinking, but taking notes.

Most captivating were Sarah Rutherford's enormous depictions of a familiar face with a twist: Wonder Woman as an aging hero, rendered in a realist style that also hints at comic book covers. All four paintings are titled "Wonder Woman Series," and have a genuine presence to them. In No. 1, we are met with her calm, confident gaze - she is at once grandmotherly, delicate, and strong, with fierce, proud eyes. With a nod to sequential art, she is rendered three times in a seeming suburban scene in which a plane hovers close above a house with a well manicured lawn. Rutherford's palette is heavily red, white, blue, and gold: heroic and all-American.

Wonder Woman seems to take pride in the peace of the scene, but other paintings speak of more emotional complexity. In No. 4, a younger Wonder Woman kneels on the seashore at night, backed up to a dollhouse. Teasing the audience with a partially exposed, toned thigh, she embraces a headless and limbless mannequin torso swathed in Superman's uniform, her cheek pressed to his chest emblem. Though lost in longing, the woman is a wall - while we can guess at the meaning of the scene, Rutherford refrains from the use of highly dramatic gesture, and our hero is as mysterious as the miniature house next to her.

In No. 3, again elderly, WW still sports her costume. Do superheroes retire? Staring off and up into an open sky, her expression reminds me of a poised, dignified first lady, or a queen. Dramatic light and shadow on her face and in her eyes lend the look of a determined woman who will not relinquish the burden of duty.

The "hey, I'm officially disturbed" award goes to Robert Frank Abplanalp, whose works get its freak on disturbing your inebriated mind. Some are grotesque, others are silly, and he seems to have had fun making all of them. Near the pool table, "Prehistoric Cloud People" is alien and dreamlike, with a softly flowing sherbet landscape of creamy neons, Seuss-y trees, and highly detailed weirdo creatures. In "Mentally Incompetent," a leering, toothy guy points to his bald head and looks at us like we're sharing a secret. "The Pet" offers a splatter-y, disturbed looking man peeping up from bottom of the canvas, with a rat or small dog scrabbling precariously about on his matted hair.

From here on out, Abplanalp's works become increasingly sinister. "Mommy Loves Her Baby" is a mammoth, messy square with two figures and an infant, all barely discernible from the rest of the complex scene. Distorted, twisted, and dancing features appear and disappear in apparently rotting space. On the wall shielding the restroom doors (identified by a peach and a banana) from the bar is "Birds in the Forest," which resembles a darker version of Alice's encounters in the woods of Wonderland. But there's no absurdity here, only menacing creepies.

Rheytchul Chicken Bone's medium-sized canvases speak of madness and isolation. All are depressive heads in vague and dingy environments. With subtly varied tones of paint over canvas and scraps of material, facial forms begin to take shape, and the rest of the information is given to us in a few quick swipes of black sharpie.

"Bob Flanagan II" presents the infamous masochist (perhaps known best for his role in the oft-banned Nine Inch Nails video "Happiness in Slavery"), his image floating above a patched-texture surface, complete with drips where his neck should be. My brain insisted that I was looking at a severed head. In "Her Roots Were Sweet But They Were So Shallow," a woman meets your gaze with a sleepy and disillusioned, half-lidded expression. One breast is barely visible at the bottom of the canvas. The "Designer of the Neutron Bomb" has a gaping mouth and rolling eyes, a vision of complete drooling madness. Tell us how you really feel...

A small murder of ravens atop a wall seem to approve of the misery found below in three paintings entitled "Interpersonal Relationships," which house two aging couples. The two outer paintings form a diptych; the right hand is an eye-rolling, disgusted man, the left is his estranged partner who is equally unenthused. In the center, the canvas holds another cheerless duo: a man stubbornly avoiding eye contact with the woman who suspiciously stares at him. We seem to have caught them in the midst of their confrontation and evasion game. Their muddy mugs are close in proximity but the two couldn't be less connected. Congrats, Chicken Bone, you have manifested exactly the thing that terrifies me about growing old with someone. Between this and reading Miranda July all day, I'm ready for a drink.