Dave Alsobrooks

New Neighbors & Pepsi Refresh Project.

// July 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Art, Design, Life

I received an email at 12:23 am this morning informing me that the New Neighbors project made it into the Pepsi Refresh Everything project.

What does that mean? Well, it’s only the first hurdle that needed to be cleared.

I’ve asked for a $5,000 grant to blow out the project rather proper-like. This will help promote the launch event that will coincide with Preservation North Carolina’s annual conference. It will also purchase the supplies needed to build frames and stretch canvases for the post-installation auction.

So what happens next?

The project has a page on the Pepsi Refresh Everything website. You can go there and vote for it once every single day until midnight on July 31st. Please do go and vote as manytimes as possible between now and July 31st! You can actually vote for up to 10 projects a day, and there are lotsa great ideas. That’s it — come August 1st Pepsi will award funding to up to ten of the $5K ideas (there are other money categories).

So once more, please visit the New Neighbors page on the Pepsi Refresh Everything site everyday in July and cast a vote!

Nd now… you can text your vote from your phone! Just text 100120 to 73774… daily! Thanks so much!

I want YOU.

// June 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Art, Design, Life

*** UPDATE*** I’m taking photos of Durham folk at the next Third Friday open house at Golden Belt (807 East Main in Durham) on June 18th from 6 – 9 pm. I’m in Studio 138 in Building 3. I’ll have props! This coincides with the Indy’s big Best Of party, so come on out!

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That’s right — I need you to help in the completion of my New Neighbors project. Why should you help? I can tempt you with a few reasons:

+ ultimately this means you will be part of an art installation in east Durham, NC
+ once the installation is over, paintings will be auctioned to benefit Project RED & local arts orgs
+ a launch event is tentatively scheduled to coincide with Preservation NC’s annual conference
+ it’s fun and definitely easy (at least your part will be!)

So what is it I need you to do? Simply pose for a photograph of yourself doing something completely mundane, such as:

+ ironing a shirt
+ changing a light bulb
+ sautéing a side dish
+ peering out with binoculars
+ jumping on a bed
+ teaching a class

I’ll provide the props if you’ll visit me in my studio on a Third Friday at Golden Belt in Durham, NC. The next Third Friday is June 18 and our open studio times are scheduled from 6-9 pm. Come on by. If you want to schedule another time to come by, we can work that out, too.

Heck, you can even send me a photo you already have. I’ll take it! Just make sure you are clearly defined (against a light-colored wall, for example). So let’s say you wanted to illustrate sautéing dinner. All you really need is the pan and you can “sauté” balls of paper or socks or potato chips. That part doesn’t really matter. The photos will become line drawings so I can fudge the missing parts later. Shoot me a note if that doesn’t make sense, or if you want to come by my studio sometime.

Sea Booty.

// June 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Art, Design

Arrrrrggggghhhhh. I painted this used bowling pin to benefit the upcoming Troika Music Festival. It was auctioned off at an event put on by 307 Knox Records, who also puts on the festival. The auction was held at The Pinhook in Durham, NC. It’s pretty basic: I added an aquarium display of pirate treasure and collaged water and fish onto the pin. In the end I landed on “Sea Booty” as the name. I think that part is obvious.

Annemarie Gugelmann at Durham Arts Council.

// September 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Art, Picks

Annemarie’s work is up in the Allenton Gallery at the Durham Arts Council until November 1. Here’s a bit from Annemarie…

In my current work, I combine my interest in political science with art and investigate how cities and communities form and change. Just as a family is bound by the house they live in, a city ties its people together through common spaces. I am interested in the public domain and how people create an atmosphere and commonality within it. In my art, I want to capture a city’s unique atmosphere and how it separates itself from other urban landscapes.

The series of paintings and prints completed in October 2008 explores the public square of Munich, Vienna, and Zurich. After spending the summer of 2008 in Philadelphia, I completed a group of paintings focusing on New York City and Philadelphia. I just finished a series of work inspired by a trip to San Francisco. Right now, I’m focusing on Durham and NYC.

If you love Durham, then you’ll love you some of these paintings. And an example of her latest work:

Brad Williams at Durham Arts Council.

// September 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Art, Life, Picks

Brad’s work is up in the Semans Gallery at the Durham Arts Council until November 1. There’s a lot more to these pieces than their visual impact and juxtaposition of animals, landscapes, abstraction and big tents. The surfaces of the paintings display a variety of sheen and texture. Their scale adds to their presence as well. If you enjoy paint — I mean really enjoy paint — stop in for a viewing.

Here’s a bit from Brad:

In my paintings, I insert representational images into abstract distorted and agitated environments. The effect is a tactile surface – my immersion in painterly improvisation – set into an uneasy alliance with the more delicately rendered objects of metaphor. The resulting juxtaposition, of the representational and the abstract, is full of conflict and contradiction, generating a space in which everything competes for rational comprehension because there is too much to take in. And an example of his work:

2009 Pin Project.

// May 30th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Art

The Pin Project is in its fifth year. It’s a fundraiser for the Troika Music Festival which occurs in November. I dropped off my pin, “Finagle’s Law of Dynamic Negatives” last night at Pinhook in Durham. The poo, or paint, was still drying.