The Final opening party at Zahra's Studio, Aug 15 6-10pm

Zahra's Studio is hosting an opening party - the last opening party - for a show of Matt Simone's work.

The exhibit and the tattoo studio/gallery are closing at the end of this month.

Stop in, have a drink and bid adieu to Keith and crew.

Lee Harvey Roswell opening Pahhty at Zahra's Studio, March 14, 6-10pm

The work of Lee Harvey Roswell exhibit Soup N' Crackers has been on view at Zahra's since the beginning of March, and there they will stay through March 31. The reception will be taking place on Saturday from 8-10pm.

Social Pariah Fest update

I previously mentioned the call to vendors made by the organizers of the Hudson Valley Social Pariah Festival which is being held on Feb 28th at the Holiday Inn in Fishkill, NY. Vendors are still welcome to sign on. Below is the current entertainment and vendor lineup for the event.

2:00-2:30-Intros, welcome done by dj danielle http://www.djdanielle.com/
2:30-3:00- Guitar Bomb http://www.myspace.com/guitarbomb
4:00-4:30- Belly Dancers http://www.myspace.com/barushka_dancer & www.redmuise.com
4:30-5:00- The Von Ghouls http://www.myspace.com/vonghouls
5:30-6:00- John Shaw WWW.UNDERWORLDENT.COM
6:30-7:00- Sugar Red Drive http://www.sugarreddrive.com/
7:30-8:00- God's Green Earth http://www.myspace.com/godsgreenearthnyc
8:30-9:00- Face Down http://www.myspace.com/facedownitg
9:30-10:00- The Gentling http://www.myspace.com/thegentling

http://www.myspace.com/socialpariahfestival
At The Holiday Inn, Fishkill, N.Y. Saturday, February 28th 2pm – 10pm
542 Rt9 Fishkill, N.Y. 12524 (Rt9 just north of I84 exit 13)

Music and Art Festival Featuring Unique Local and Regional Talent
Live Music, Performers, Vendors, Artisans of all Genres and Tattoos
Sorry Kiddies Must Be 18 Years or Older to Get In
All Proceeds benefit The Pitch for Kids Fund


Sponsored by: Zahra Studio Gallery, More Sugar Publication
Hudson Valley Renegades Pitch for Kids Fund

Bands and Live Performers
John Shaw
Sugar Red Drive
The Gentling
Guitar Bomb
Face Down
The Vonghouls
God's Green Earth
Tribal Burlesque Belly Dancing by Barushka and Elizabeth
all being led by The Mistress of Ceremonies DJ Dannielle

Raffles
50/50

TATTOO STUDIOS
Zahra's Studio
Skin City
The Inkwell

VENDORS
Zahra's Studio Gallery
Tina Maravelis- reiki healer
Damage Incorporated
Tanya Kukucka Ceramics
Notions n Potions
Duffy's Biker Barn
The Groovy Baker
Black Star Clothing Co
Luulay
Hudson Valley Horrors Roller Derby
Suburbia Roller Derby
Romano Custom Design
Micheal Colonna Design
Chris Machin Kustom Kulture
Barushka Belly Dancing
E- BOmb
Pulp Sushi
Brown Bag Party (Sex Toys)
Heteric Wear
and more

Booths still available- 10x10' $75
go to
http://www.myspace.com/socialpariahfestival for all info or contact Vanessa at tellez

Jeramy Turner opening reception @ Zahra's Studio, Feb 7, 6-10pm

Shanghai, 48"x70", oil on canvas
Zahra's Studio's current exhibit "Blood and Oil Paintings" opened on Feb 1st, but the opening reception will be held on Saturday, Feb 7. The exhibit of paintings by Jeramy Turner will be on view through Feb 28. I haven't been in to check out the show yet, but I checked out some paintings on Turner's website. They're trippy post industrial Boschian visions of a world peopled with pale pudgy Gerard Depardieu looking slug people. I'm very interested to see what these look like in person.
The reception is taking place from 6-10pm.

Vendors sought for the 1st Annual Social Pariah Festival to benefit the Hudson Valley Pitch for Kids Fund in February

Vanessa Tellez, the gallery director over at Zahra's Studio, is organizing The First Annual Hudson Valley Social Pariah Festival to benefit the Hudson Valley Pitch for Kids Fund at the Holiday Inn in Fishkill on Saturday Feb 28th from 2-10pm.
The event will include live music and other entertainment, tattoo artists, alternative vendors, an an all around good time.
The event is seeking vendors to rent booth spaces for the event. The fee for a 10'x10' booth space is $75. Larger spaces are available as well.
All proceeds will to the Pitch for Kids Fund which funds several social organizations that benefit the health and welfare of children in the Hudson Valley region.
The event will have a $5 admission fee and persons must be at least 18 years old to enter. For More information, email Vanessa at tellesvanessa[at]aol.com.

Learning from losing and moving in tribes

It was a largely out of town audience that benefited from the Howland Center's refreshingly cool geothermic climate control for Sunday evening's screening of Beautiful Losers. The film was presented by Open Space and follows the circle of artists embodying the DIY ethic (one to which I fully subscribe) who congregated at the Alleged Gallery in NY's East Village in the early 1990's.

The film traces the history of the group through to the development of the exhibit of the same name that travelled about the country in 2004-05.

The film is fun, interesting and for me, as Kalene Rivers said in her pre-screening introduction, inspiring.

In casting about on the net for Beautiful Losers info, I discovered that Beautiful Losers is also the title of a novel from the '60's by Leonard Cohen. From the book's listing on Amazon:

One of the best-known experimental novels of the 1960s, Beautiful Losers is
Cohen’s most defiant and uninhibited work. The novel centres upon the hapless
members of a love triangle united by their sexual obsessions and by their
fascination with Catherine Tekakwitha, the 17th-century Mohawk saint.
By turns vulgar, rhapsodic, and viciously witty, Beautiful Losers explores
each character’s attainment of a state of self-abandonment, in which the
sensualist cannot be distinguished from the saint.

Although I'm not sure about the whole love triangle bit (although you know what happens with close knit circles of creative types, or any types for that matter), the last sentence could easily apply the youngish artists depicted in the film. The manner in which their work is carved from and wallpapered onto every surface of their physical and psychic environment and, consequently, ours blurs the borders of high and low, real and fake, random act and polished intention. Much of this is done in the public domain, as it were, whether it's obvious or not, and irritating a desire for Asserting their vision on the street scape, and vice-versa are utterly immersed.A wonderful aspect of this genre of street art is its marriage of personal expression and personal preservation in that it is both out on the fringe in method, but it's also enveloped in a raw form of marketing and merchandising necessary for the survival of the young, impoverished artist. It's a way of life, and at least at some level, it doesn't carry so much of the stigma of selling out one's vision for financial gain, as in other corners of the art world, because it's not based on a pretense of higher purpose. I know this is not absolute, and that there are rifts along this line within this world, which is discussed by Barry McGee in the film, but there is an inherent relationship between creating and consuming a form of culture of one's choosing which is not being provided elsewhere which translates easily to commerce as that is a form cultural missionary work. How else are you going to remake the world in your vision, if the world is not providing you with what you want to see, wear and represent. That's a pretty central tenet of the whole street art phenom. Eventually, homemade becomes prefab. Mike Mills discusses this in the film when he says that these artists and their peers have reached the upper levels of art departments in advertising and merchandising firms, and have thereby influenced the tone in which the rest of society is entreated to consume. Where once they defiled the billboards, some are now designing them - awaiting defilement from a new generation. It's a beautiful circle of life.
Waiting for the film to begin, Keith Zahra was telling me of upcoming plans at the gallery., Keith said that he's continually learning something new from the exhibits that have been coming through the space, including the current exhibit. The Native American Lowbrow exhibit on view now with work by Chris Pappan includes, in addition to the painted portraits of Native American porn stars, several drawings on ledger paper. The significance of these ledger drawings goes far beyond one artist utilizing available material, but invokes a tradition that hearkens back to the Plains Indians attaining paper in the Nineteenth Century, in the form of ledger books carried by soldiers, missionaries and traders. The presence of this newly available material influenced the manner Native Americans transmitted their visual culture:

In the mid-nineteenth century, warrior-artists developed a new genre of
figurative arts using bound ledger books and paper to depict heraldic images of
life on the Plains-both before and during this tumultuous period of history.
While these nineteenth century warrior-artists documented the impact of
conflict, captivity, and cultural domination in their ledger drawings, their
twentieth century descendants continued to use visual narratives on paper as a
stepping stone into mainstream American fine arts practices. Today, many
contemporary artists look back to the ledger drawings of their forefathers to
create art that critiques America's contested histories while also reconciling
themselves with the cultural genocide of a past that has left severe scars in
the lives and memories of many Plains peoples.

Excerpt from wall text in the exhibit Picturing Change: The Impact of Ledger Drawings on Native American Art at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2004

Fast forward 150 years and still flowing is that current of of creative inventiveness, continually forging fresh means in which to transpose visual expression, piggy-back like, onto the hulk of society's continual walk to work.

One Final Note, Dan Weise, of Open Space has been down in the Dominican Republic teaching a class on street art, murals, and, it seems, a bit of web/graphic design. Check out the diary of his trip here.
So, imagine a case where a lowered brow, constricting the aperture through which knowledge and ideas are received by the consciousness, increases the pressure of that flow to the level of a powerful jet, thereby severely expanding the mind. And permanently so.

Second Saturday, Jun 14 revisited

We were at Bard for the opening of the new exhibits at The Hessel Museum, and a bbq afterwards. We returned to Beacon late with just enough time to check in at Go North, Open Space and Van Brunt, after which, we headed over to Will Walker's and Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner's apartment for grilled watermelon and pineapple at the after opening party the pair hosted for Go North's current exhbiting artist, Ketta Ioannidou.

Ladies Ladies Ladies at Go North.

"I love you man. Give Me a hug."
"You're not getting my Bud Light."

Peter Iannarelli's beautiful mess at Van Brunt Gallery.

Dan Weise at Open Space.

cloud . [ the exclusive ] at Open Space.

Portraits by Temre Stanchfield in the window of Fire Lotus.

Goings on outside the City Folk opening at Zahra's.

On the walk home.

May 10: Second Saturday openings in Beacon NY

@ Pearldaddy: "The Best Medicine" - Paintings and Sculpture by Edie Nadelhaft. Also for the evening, Ron Raymond & Andy Gabrys will be providing music on upright bass and guitar. The reception will be held from 6-9pm and the exhibit will run through July 6.


@Fovea Exhibitions Beacon Gallery: Free screening of Vanishing Giants at 5pm. There will a Q&A session with filmmaker Jennifer Hile and National Geographic Adventure photo editor Sabine Meyer. There is limited space for the screening and reservations are highly recommented, call 845.765.2199. The screening is in conjunction with the Palani Mohan Exhibit of the same name currently on view in the gallery. The exhibit has been extended through June 1.

In Thailand, wild elephants have it good: They're legally protected. Tame
elephants, on the other hand, live with a more uncertain fate. Considered
livestock, they have no protection from being maimed or killed by cruel
handlers. Activist Sangduen "Lek" Chailert is changing that with the creation of
the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary north of Chiang Mai where rescued
elephants can heal and thrive.

@Hermitage: "Awake at Night," work by Christian Toscano
"Stars Eat Your Body"Detail. mixed media on paper. 2008

@Zahra's Studio: "Taboo" - photography and painting by Kaylynn Tucker. Opening Reception from 6-10pm. Don't forget the pin up girls that will be circulating through the gallery, passing out goodies, so plan accordingly-whatever that means for you.

@ Go North: "AfterMath" - abstract paintings by Erik Hanson. The reception if from 6-9pm, and the exhibit will run through June 1.

Flash of Blue Streaming, 2008, oil on canvas
@Open Space: "Electric Walls" an exhibit of work by the artists that are participating in the Electric Windows project on May 17. The exhibit runs through June 7 and the reception is from 6-9pm.

May 17-18, 2008: Beacon's unSitely afFair

So the Sitelines Art Fair has been cancelled, but you really had your heart set on making it up to Beacon for the day or for the weekend. What's a body to do? Come what may, come mid-May, we're here for you, and you're welcome. There's plenty of other stuff on tap for the weekend. Here's the shakes on, hopefully most, of what's happening.


View Larger Map>
Here's a map showing what's going on where. Green pins indicate what's happening on Saturday, Red pins represent Sunday.
Saturday May 17th:

Dia:Beacon
10:30am - 2pm Dia:Beacon will be closing at 2pm for its annual benefit.
Two new installations are opening
Kamp Maykr
10:00am-5pm. Welcome to Kamp Maykr, we're hosting a pot luck brunch in the morning and an exhibit of yardwork at 1172 North Ave. Start your day off right, bring a dish, hang out for a while, and build your strength for the adventure ahead. Work on view by the likes of Michael Natiello, Steve Rossi, Kathy Feighery, me. The brunch will run til noon or so, but the artwork will be on view both Sat and Sun 12-5pm. Stay tuned right here for further details
Beekman Banner Project
noon - There will be a ceremony featuring Mayor Steve Gold and Dutchess County Art Council President Benjamin Krevolin to inaugurate a series of banners featuring work of local artists lining Beekman St.
Electric Windows
12:30-through the day. Electric Windows is bringing together 24 artists near and far to create
Artists will be painting through the day while accompanied the entire day by music provided by a range a selection of bands and DJ's. Check the above link for line up and schedule info.
Beacon Studios
1-5pm The many artists of Beacon Studios will be hosting an open house.
In addition, in the building's library gallery, there will be a preview of The Media Church, an installation by a guy named Russell, which will officially be opening on May 31.
Habitat for Artists


1-5pm Habitat for Artists will be celebrating the launch of the studio cum sculpture (or sculpture cum studio) project which has been taking shape in the parking lot of Spire Studios for the last several weeks. Participating artist will be on hand in their temporary digs, working and hanging out.
Donald Kimmel of Flying Swine will doing performance piece at some point in the afternoon.
Spire Studios
6pm - on. Spire Studios will be hosting open studios.

If have some yawing need to hang with an artist, this is the day. I can't say that I'm much good for company, but given the multitude of them roaming about on this day, you're bound to meet one with some charm.
Hermitage
7:30 Allan Kaplan reads from his new book "Like On Of Us."

Next Step
10:30pm - on. The Piggy Bank, Open Space, Burlock, and Break Beats will be bringing us this NonSecondSaturday Edition of Next Step complete with DJ's, dancing, and live painting at the Piggy Bank, 448 Main St. (I still owe Tom Moore $5 from the Next Step of a couple months back. I ain't forgotten ya Tommy.)

And that's just Saturday.
On Sunday:
Dia:Beacon
Dia's got several things going on this day in conjunction with the two sold out performances being presented by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. There's a family day kicking off at noon that includes a movement based tour of artwork. A selection of items relating to the work of John Cage will be on view. There might be a few other things going on, but I can't quite decipher them, and they may be applicable to members only, like a reception for a Tacita Dean projection based on footage of Merce Cunningham performing.

Electric Windows
The pieces that were created through the day Saturday will be installed in the windows of the Electric Blanket Factory at 1 E. Main St. I don't know what time.

Country Folk @ Zahra's Studio
noon - on. If you simply can't get enough live painting, stop by Zahra's at 496 Main St. and catch the Country Folk crew creating a wall piece that will be part of their June exhibit at the gallery.

Kamp Maykr
12-5pm. Someone will still be hanging out, so stop by and check out what's been done in our yard.

That's what I know at the moment. Check back for updates.

Rakin' it in

December is here and along it comes the annual program of a multitude of small work group shows cooked up to serve art in buyit sized portions meant to tease some attention from your wallet.

It's a fanciful idea. It's an idea that entices one covet a little more that low hanging fruiart just within the reach of a little coin. And it's an idea whose ubiquitousness just softens my stool. Please, do go to a mall for crying out loud.
It's not a big deal, but each December, I'd really like to hear more about shows that may very well be unattainable or unaffordable and at the very least unpandering to one's panicky sense of purchasing before a deadline. That's why, at least on the face of it, this exhibit feels particularly refreshing and timely. I haven't seen it yet, but I will do so when I finally make it back home....Here's Jerry Saltz's giddy review of Urs Fischer at Gavin Brown's Enterprise.

So, anyway. Next weekend is Second Saturday, and I'll miss it as I expect to be somewhere in the Central Time Zone traveling in an easterly direction. But here is what I know now:


Ann Polashenksi, Japanese Interior Obliteration.
Go North will be having an opening for a group exhibit called Evolve/Dissolve. Although this is a group show, in December, the press release contains neither the word "gift" or "affordable." The press release does include the words "Fallujah, " "underpinnings" and "debris stream." Happy Holidays. The artists included in the exhibit are: Jonathan Allen, Aaron Sing Fox, Julie Anne Mann, Sarah Moran, Anne Polashenski and Stacy Seiler. Go North is located at 469 Main St. The reception will be happening from 6-9pm.

Jennifer Ruell-Huckell, Spellbound, mixed media.
Also opening on Saturday: The Cult of True Womanhood: Reliquaries, Rituals, and Remedies by Jennifer Ruell-Huckell at Zahra Studio, 496 Main St. Regarding the piece Spellbound:

This piece is a play on old wife's tales and witchcraft and the desperation felt to find a man and keep him. The largest box is filled with three vials containing, hair, fingernail clippings, and blood. It is to be
believed that an actual piece of a person's body is the most potent ingredient in spells of the heart. The four other containers have actual love spells written on them including, To Get A Man, To Keep A Man, Arousing His Lust, and To Make Him Come Back To You. The containers are filled with objects to aid in the casting of the spells.

In the event that you don't get what you want from Santa, you ladies, and some
men too, have another course open to you.

Dec 2007 Beacon Open Studio Map.

The Beacon Art Salon is sponsoring city wide Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday from 1-5pm. Beacon Studios (specifically the artist studios housed in the old high school, not to be confused with the general notion of artist studios located in Beacon) will be holding their Holiday Open House from 1-5pm on Saturday.

On Sunday from 1-2pm the Chthonic Clash (460 Main St.) will be hosting a booksigning/music event. Beacon illustrator and artist, Sharon Watts will be reading selections from her recently published book, "Miss You, Pat: Collected Memories of NY's Bravest of the Brave, Captain Patrick J. Brown," and Kathleen Pemble will sing songs from her CD, "Learning To Listen Again. " More information on the event can be found here.

By the way, I do have a selection of reasonably priced porn-based paintings in an array of festive colors well suited for the Season. What better way to experience the splendor of sharing by giving your loved one a bit of subliminal smut.

Catching up and things i missed

Daniel Spitzer, Diorama #2, 2007, Sculpted glass, wood, paper, charcoal.

Jill Reynolds and Dan Spitzer are among the NY glass artists included in the Ann St. Gallery's current exhibit "Handle with Care: Glass Works." The other artists featured in the exhibit are: Glenn Able, Suzan Etkin, Brenden Fitzgerald, Nick London and Michiko Sakano.

Jill Reynolds, Revision, 2005, Blown and flameworked glass, brick, water, corks, monofilament.

The exhibit opened this past Saturday. On December 16 at 2pm, the gallery will host an illustrated talk where the artists will discuss their work and processes.

The Ann Street Gallery is located at 104 Ann Street in Newburgh, and it's open Thurs-Sat, from 11-5pm and by appt. For more info, call (845) 562-6940 x 8 or (845) 656-1132.

Albert Shahinian Fine Art in Poughkeepsie is exhibiting work by photographer Billy Name and painter Margaret Crensen. This show also opened on Saturday. Kathleen interviewed Name for her write up in last weekend's Enjoy section. The gallery is located at 196 Main St. in Poughkeepsie.

Finally, back in Beacon at Zahra Studio, Jennifer Ruell-Huckle is exhibiting what sounds like a multitude of items in various media for her show, "The Cult of True Womanhood , Reliquaries, Rituals, and Remedies." The exhibit will be on view through January 30.

Michael Zansky at Sandy Carson Gallery in Denver.

Almost finally, I'm in Denver still for another two weeks. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Michael Zansky, from the Hudson's other shore, is currently exhibiting at the Sandy Carson Gallery in Denver. Here is a write up on Zansky's show by Michael Paglia in Westword.

Absolutely finally, another recent NY in Denver item; Michele Mosko, who I met via our mutual activities at HVCCA in Peekskill, is a fellow Denver native. She just recently moved back out here, opening her gallery, Michele Mosko Fine Art, around the corner from my old pad. This weekend's Denver Post featured a write up of Michele's space by Kyle MacMillan.

I'm a bit behind right now, but I have been posting on things that I've been seeing over at my personal blog.

Zahra Studio in the news and the news according to Zahra Studio

photo by Keith Zahra

Retrogression, the exhibit on view at the Gallery at Zahra Studio was featured in Kathleen Murray's column in POJO's Friday, October 19 edition.

Keith Zahra has recently added to his website his account of his drawn out and personally expensive fight with the City of Beacon to secure his ability to lawfully operate his tatoo studio on Main St.

In his narrative, Keith mentions a law passed in December 2000 that was intended to do an end run around his business' grandfathered status for a previous regulation limiting the approved locations for tattoo parlors to industrial areas. The cited law is from Chapter 223, Article III relating to General Regulations regarding zoning in the City's code.

Below is the text of the regulation:

K. Discontinuance of existing tattoo and body-piercing
parlors. [Added 12-4-2000 by L.L. No. 18-2000]
(1) Legislative intent. The
City Council hereby finds that certain business activities, in this case tattoo and body-piercing parlors, by their nature have seriously objectionable operational characteristics which can lead to significant impacts on the surrounding community. The City Council further finds that the establishment of such uses would be inconsistent with the existing development and future plans for the City of Beacon in that such uses often result in influences on the community which undermine its economic, physical and social welfare. Further, such uses have been found to contribute to the blighting of surrounding residential and commercial areas as a result of the deterring of investment in and improvement of surrounding properties. For these reasons, such uses can adversely impact the general health, safety and economic well-being of the entire community. In addition, the location of these uses may be in areas where youth may regularly assemble, and the general atmosphere encompassing their operation is of great concern to the City Council.
Prohibiting the establishment of tattoo and body-piercing parlors in the City will eliminate their potential accessibility to children and ensure that the effects of such businesses will not adversely affect the health, safety and economic well-being of the community. Further, it has been the experience of other municipalities, including the City of New York, that tattooing has led to increased cases of serum hepatitis. It has also been their experience that regulatory measures have proved ineffective in eliminating this health risk because of the inability to supervise tattooing establishments at all times. The City of Beacon also lacks the resources and personnel to supervise tattooing establishments on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, the City Council finds that in this City, as in other communities, a ban on tattooing
establishments under the City Code, except for medical purposes, is the only
feasible means of protecting the public against disease from this source.

(2) Discontinuance. The following provisions pertain to tattoo and body-piercing parlors which are in existence on the effective date of this section. Said tattoo and body-piercing parlors shall be discontinued for the reasons stated in Subsection K(1) above, in accordance with the following schedule which is based upon the amount of
capital investment involved in the conversion of a subject premises into a tattoo and/or body-piercing parlor. The owner of each building or the operator of each establishment to which this section pertains shall provide capital investment information, which has been certified by a registered architect or engineer, to the Building Department, and the Building Department shall have the authority to make the final determination as to the amount of capital investment which has occurred.
Capital Investment as of Effective Date of this Section
Date on or Before Which Use Shall Terminate
$0 to 25,000 June 30, 2001
$25,001 to $50,000 June 30, 2002
More than $50,000 June 30, 2003

The section I highlighted in red sounds more indicative of the kind of activity you're likely to find outside of our Main St. gas stations than what you'd ever see happening at Zahra's.

Keith has been touting October 15 of this year as the Lucky 7 Year Anniversary of when his struggle began.

It seems like this issue is still very much open, and so is Zahra Studio, but Keith wants this regulation stricken from the books so that he can operate lawfully and without fear of any capricious action of enforcement.

Second Saturday revisited

I bagged my plans to head down to the city on Saturday. I wasn't feeling the passion, and I had stuff to do in preparation for my exhibit in Denver in two weeks.

So staying home allowed me to catch the conversation between Open Space Beacon's Dan Weise and Michael De Feo whose work is currently on exhibit at the gallery. I appreciated the format of the two guys sitting and talking. De Feo spoke about his development in the Street art scene, and the different artists that inspired him. De Feo also spoke about his full time career of teaching at a school in Connecticut, and the fine line he must walk between the expectations set for him as a teacher, and the process of practicing his art which can bring him in conflict with the law.

DJ Bobby Collins at Open Space.

Retrogression at Zahra's Studio.

After the discussion, I stopped into the exhibit at Zahra's Studio, and met the new gallery curator, Vanessa. The exhibit documents several derilict locations in the area. Each location photographed was accompanied by a small timeline of the site's former use and demise. Dennings Point is among the locations included. The trippiest of the buildings was a 50's era hotel near Albany, I believe. The condition of the space was just any other decrepit, neglected building. The bizarre part, for me, was this veneer of decay overlaid not on to an Industrial Age environment, but on a mid-century, modern interior. The building I was musing about previously is known at Bennett College, and it's located in Millbrook.

Megan Maloy at Go North.

After Zahra's, I bought a couple of artbooks discounted in the moving sale at World's End Books as Deb moves the business from brick and mortar to the internet exclusively. The idea of not having a book store in town to peruse and fondle the books sucks a bit. There's alway the Beacon Reads bookstore, if you can catch when it's open.

Then on to Go North where Megan Maloy's Harford Fair photographs are on exhibit.

Those are all the openings I made it to. I ran back home to work for another couple of hours in the studio before heading back for the After Party at the Piggy Bank. Of Course there were several other openings happening, and Cafe Chronogram was happening at the Muddy Cup, but there's only so much you can see and do in one night.

One of the liquid chalk sidewalk tags that raised the hackles of various shopkeepers and landlords.

El Jef(f)e and DJ Bobby C at the Next Step at the Piggy Bank.

As there is still very little night life in Beacon to speak of (although, there is more to do, and more venues sporting live music) any dance night at the Piggy Bank has the feel of a post hibernation thaw when all the woolly critters come out and sniff each other - even now as we're heading into that frigid season.
It's a party, and because it doesn't happen very often, it feels special. This Next Step Party was put on by the folks at the Beacon Art Supply, Open Space and the Piggy Bank. It was fun, the music was great and a lot of folks blew off some steam.

Dan Weise and Jim Darling doing a little live painting.

"Retrogression" at Zahra Studio Gallery

The Gallery at Zahra's Studio at 496 Main St. is coming out of hiatus. If I'm not mistaken, the last exhibit at the gallery was this graffitti show in August 2006, which was excellent. Keith Zahra has announced that the gallery is back, with a new gallery curator, Vanessa Tellez.

The exhibit "Retrogression" features the photographs of Andrew Sorkin and Tony Alves. The exhibit opened on Oct 6 and will run through Oct 30. There will be an opening party from 6-10pm on Saturday, Oct 13.

Here's a statement from the photographers.

Abandoned... Decaying... Forgotten...

All around us are the remains of buildings and structure where generations of
people lived, worked, played and were cared for. What were
once important parts of our society have been left unattended and
crumbling. Everyday more of these sites are destroyed by fires and strip
malls, by condos and golf courses.
retrogression photography was started to document this part of our history before they are reclaimed by man or by nature. What began as a trip to shoot an abandoned steel mill before it is torn down to make room for a casino has become the main focus of our photographic activities. Many times these locations are remote
and difficult to find and just as often they are right in front of us, places we all pass everyday but seldom see. Our focus is on trying to convey the dark and derelict nature of the subjects we photograph. There are a lot more to many of these places than the visual elements. Smells and sounds are amplified by the stillness of areas
that were once the center great activity. Although many of these places are bright and colorful the mood there is not. Through the use of muted colors and black and white photography the somber reality of what these discarded relics have now become is translated to the observer.
Photographers Tony Alves and Andrew Sorkin are both long time residents of
Dutchess County, NY. We are both musicians, currently working together on
several projects. Tony has also worked as a tattoo artist. Andrew is a website designer and graphic artist. We own and maintain photographic websites http://photo.gazzmik.com/ , http://aveteva.com/ and http://retrogression.us/.

I was doing a job recently outside of Dover Plains. Everyday, I passed by this giant ruin at the junction of rt 44 and 343, not knowing what it was. I still don't know what it is, but there is an image of this joint on the retrogression website. It's the black and white image, third thumbnail down on the left. It must be an old asylum or resort. I'll be sure to find out now.

I'm pleased to see the gallery back on task and showing the type of stuff you won't, and probably shouldn't see anywhere else.