{"id":2362,"date":"2011-02-03T09:04:58","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T17:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2362"},"modified":"2012-11-20T14:17:23","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:17:23","slug":"shades-of-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/03\/shades-of-gray-2362\/","title":{"rendered":"Shades of Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on February 3, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Zsuzsanna Laszlo, Memories of a Glacier (detail), 2010. Gesso, oil paint, board, wire.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBlack-and-white\u201d works of art often aren\u2019t. As the statement for the exhibit at Rhythmix Cultural Works explains, \u201cblack-and-white\u201d is often used to describe any monochromatic work, including those rendered in sepia or shades of gray. The irony is that \u201cblack-and-white\u201d metaphorically suggests something that is straightforward and unambiguous, while \u201cshades of gray\u201d implies the opposite.<\/p>\n

Today there is no black or white
\nOnly shades of gray.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The Monkees, \u201cShades of Gray\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zsuzsanna Laszlo<\/strong> was awarded the Toki and Mona Froyland awards by Cal State University, East Bay for her mixed-media installation piece, \u201cMemories of a Glacier,\u201d which \u201ctries to analyze the notion of \u2018disappearance\u2019 in nature and especially glaciers.\u201d Her skeletal framework masterfully uses negative space to preserve the image of a glacier for posterity and at the same time is a haunting silhouette, a ghostly after-image of another great natural wonder which may soon be extinct.<\/p>\n

Laszlo writes: \u201cWhat remains after the glacier is gone? \u2026 Sometimes I wonder if it is too late and if future generations might only know of glaciers by looking at pictures. My thin lines try to mimic the cracking sounds a glacier makes when it falls apart. Through my work, I try to raise a mirror before society in which nature is reflected, so we may notice and listen to the sounds nature makes as it disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

Philip Long, Original Two Banger, 2010. Leather, thread, and wood.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

According to leather artist Philip Long<\/strong>, every piece he creates is a self-portrait. His black-and-white \u201cOriginal Two Banger\u201d compares his human heart to a two-cylinder combustion engine.<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a runner. The heart pounding is something in my blood,\u201d Long said. \u201cAnd the two-banger is one of those gear-head things I love. It\u2019s the very first one we\u2019re all born with.\u201d<\/p>\n

His choice of material emphasizes the work\u2019s organic subject, yet the lub-dub<\/em> of the heart leaves the eye craving blood red. Long has completed a color painting of this image as well, and is working on a color version of the leather piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show came up and I thought it would be interesting to do a value study of it,\u201d Long explains.<\/p>\n

Poetic surrealist works like Long\u2019s \u201cTribute to an Idiot\u201d \u2014 a portrait of a neglectful waiter he encountered at an Italian restaurant in Hawaii \u2014 begin as a type of automatic drawing, a technique he learned in kindergarten.<\/p>\n

\u201cI borrow a ball point pen from somebody, and close my eyes and scribble on a piece of junk mail or a napkin, then glance at the scribble,\u201d Long said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s a face or a drum set. When you glance at the scribble looking at the crossing lines, you\u2019re looking for things that your brain recognizes. That\u2019s when I start adding to and omitting lines.\u201d In the case of \u201cTribute to an Idiot,\u201d he borrowed the waiter\u2019s pen.<\/p>\n

Most of the leather Long uses is recycled. He went to fashion design school and has been sewing leather for 22 years; whenever he does an alteration he holds on to the scraps. He also takes the sides and back off of couches he finds. And when he created a portrait to honor three fallen Oakland police officers, the leather was donated by their families.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

Brendan Clunn, Bull. Steel.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Artist\/Welder Brendan Clunn<\/strong> of Apocalypse Ironworking in Oakland portrays \u201cliving and dying expressed through the body language of animals.\u201d<\/div>\n

Scattered about the gallery, a steel pelican fans its wings, a deer forages, and a bull founders. While not black-and-white, Clunn\u2019s sculptures are monochromatic, and complement Long\u2019s organic\/mechanical hybrid piece and Laszlo\u2019s meditation on death in and of nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack & White\u201d also includes drawings by David Peniston<\/strong> and Angie Martorana<\/strong>, mixed-media paintings by Kate Kosmos<\/strong>, and a \u201cwearable sculpture\u201d by TonyaMarie<\/strong>. The exhibit runs through March 5, with a reception on February 11\u00a0in conjunction with Estuary Art Attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack & White\u201d is in the K Gallery at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Avenue, Alameda. (510) 865-5060.<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on February 3, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. \u201cBlack-and-white\u201d works of art often aren\u2019t. As the statement for the exhibit at Rhythmix Cultural Works explains, \u201cblack-and-white\u201d is often used to describe any monochromatic work, including those rendered in sepia or shades of gray. The irony is that \u201cblack-and-white\u201d metaphorically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[73,263,261,262,264,260,94,72,265,259],"class_list":["post-2362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-raves","tag-alameda","tag-angie-martorana","tag-brendan-clunn","tag-david-peniston","tag-kate-kosmos","tag-philip-long","tag-rhythmix-cultural-works","tag-the-island","tag-tonyamarie","tag-zsuzsanna-laszlo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-C6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3872,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362\/revisions\/3872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}