Benefit Exhibition at Maryland Art Place

I am honored to be included in the 11th Annual Benefit Exhibition at Maryland Art Place (MAP) this Friday, November 17th from 6pm-10pm.

This will be the second year I have been invited by MAP to exhibit my work in this festive show in which 50% of the sales benefit MAP and their mission to provide thought provoking, contemporary art and other cool things.

At last year's benefit I contributed a larger print (13 x 19") and two smaller prints (9 x 12"). But this year I wanted to submit three works that were more cohesive as a whole and all the same size (13 x 19" which includes the maple frame). My cohesion philosophy was based on a few things: 1) the concept of a beginning, middle and end, 2) the color blue, and 3) confident horizontals and strong verticals.

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The First Time We Met | Baltimore, MD | 2023

The beginning, middle and end, like all good stories, is the structure of my triptych. The beginning suggests an encounter (The First Time We Met), the middle hints at the good days, bad days (Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm), and the end alludes to closure, Act III (Curtains).

Is this a happy ending?

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Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm | Baltimore, MD | 2023

On another level, The First Time We Met, was captured in Pigtown and was literally the first time I walked this wonderful neighborhood in March, 2023. Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm was taken in Old Gaucher in July, 2023 and was the second time I shot this location, so I knew what I was getting into, and of course, the weather was as reported—mostly sunny skies with an occasional thunderstorm. Curtains was taken downtown in May, 2023 and is probably a five minute walk from MAP with the title character of the photo being a wide swatch of curtain seen through a window looking up to: nothing but blue.

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Curtains | Baltimore, MD | 2023

When all three images are lined up side-by-side, there is a through line of horizontals and verticals. For example: The First Time We Met (Act I) has confident horizontals by way of the glass bricks which pair nicely with the third string of red-white-and-blue streamers in Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm (Act II) and continues through the building reflected in the window of Curtains (Act III). And the vertical line in the middle of Act I flirts with the confident flagpole in Act II and foreshadows the climax of the vertical blues in Act III.

And yes, it’s a happy ending.

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The House

I love the concept of an alternative gallery space. 

When I visited the Storehouse dispensary in Mount Washington back in March, I was inspired to see some art on the walls by several local artists. It wasn't always like this—art on the walls—but I was stoked about the new direction. Paintings and digital illustrations, very cool, but I didn't notice any photography. This felt like an opportunity, so I decided to track down the manager to see if they'd be interested in supporting a Woodberry photographer.

I had the perfect photo in mind, a mash-up of two images that I captured in the neighborhood of Locust Point and wrote about here. I thought the work—if displayed in a sweet maple frame—would compliment the rainbow signage in the lobby, which also had a stylish wood frame. And the thin white line separating my two photos would play nicely with the horizontal lines that underscored the sativa, the hybrid and the indica, which are varying strains of the cannabis flower. And for bonus points, a mash-up and a hybrid are kinda the same thing, the hybrid being a blend of sativa and indica.

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Hybrid | Baltimore, MD | 2023

The manager was excited, I was excited, everybody was excited. I only had one deadline to meet; make sure the mash-up was hanging in the lobby by July 1st, which was the first day recreational cannabis would be legal in Maryland.

Done. We hung that badboy on June 1st. 

The mash-up will live in The House indefinitely, or until it sells, or until I decide to replace it with something new. It's basically an ALT exhibition that I can have fun with, keep it funky, mix it up. 

There is a t-shirt you can buy at Atomic Books in Hampden that says, "Baltimore: Actually I like it." I'm digging that. But maybe an ALT tee would go something like, "Be: Art, Love & Trees."

Find your happy home.

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Red Bows and BBQ

I grew up smelling BBQ, mostly on the weekends, always with friends. The laughter was honest and the games were competitive. This was family life.

Weekends. I love them. The streets are quiet and empty. So I throw on my backpack and jump on a train. Just me and the camera and some sleepy—on the verge. This was a Saturday afternoon and I was headed to the Maryland Art Place (MAP) on West Saratoga Street in downtown Baltimore. The night before was the opening of a holiday inspired exhibition that I wrote about here. I had taken some casual photos of the merriment on Friday, but I wanted to capture the space when it was deserted and calm, which is my aesthetic-du-jour.

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Maryland Art Place | Baltimore, MD | 2022

Red bows indicate a sale. I had three photographs displayed on the wall behind the stage; two of them sold. I got me a bow, yo. When I first moved to Baltimore I visited an art gallery in Hampden. While walking around the space the owner inquired if I was looking for something in particular. I asked if they had any photography. No, photos don't sell, was the answer. I was like, dang. Most of the art exhibited at the MAP holiday sale was also—not photography. Out of the 70+ artists represented, I think there were two photographers. I was lucky to be included in the exhibition and super grateful that my work appealed to someone else. But who was that mysterious someone? I wish I knew who purchased my work. Where did they live? Was it for them, or was it a gift? Yes, I could have done a better job while I was at the party paying attention to the elves, who were the festive folks assigned to manage the sale between patron and artwork. I could have lurked behind a pillar and spied on any activity buzzing around my photos; but I didn't. I was looking at the other work and awkwardly speaking with artists and basically snooping around MAP since I hadn't been there before, especially in such a privileged capacity.

Living in retrospect.

After taking a few pictures of the gallery and silently reminiscing, I left MAP and headed uptown via Tyson Street, which is basically a back alley. My plan was to walk home and take a bunch of photos along the way (I ended up taking 160 pics over the course of 4 miles). But I needed to eat first. I was in the mood for a falafel, something I could hold in my hand and tear up. I was getting weak. Then I smelled it: BBQ.

Trevor was grilling chicken and ribs in the parking lot at the Downtown Cultural Arts Center. I told him I was a vegetarian and asked if he could make me something good. He said he could make me one of them Beyond Burgers. I said, ok, and started rubbing my hands together, excited as I watched him expertly tend to the meats, smoke all in my face, remembering the swimming pool on Kittridge Street in Canoga Park, CA where something was always sizzling on the grill. Trevor said he could put cheese on it: lettuce, tomato, onion. I said, yes sir.

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View From the Curb on Tyson Street | Baltimore, MD | 2022

So there I was, sitting on the curb, eating my cheeseburger. Trevor gave me a water on the house which I used to clean my hands after devouring the drippy deliciousness. I took a nice, long chug and looked up; nothing but blue skies and puffy clouds.

The perfect day for taking a picture.

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