BANANA FACTORY FIRST FRIDAY IN BETHLEHEM
10-2-09 POST KEYWORDS: artquest, ben marcune, plein air painting, photography, olaf starorypinski, banana factory, bethlehem, steve tobin, john choi, south side, experimental artists, international society, 18th annual juried exhibition, time out ny, monsoon gallery, first friday, art walk, live music, larry homes, sculpture, easton, pennsylvania, glass blowing, glass foundry, cojo art juggernaut, artsucks.com, cojo
Last week when I picked up my canvas' in Bethlehem Pennsylvania from my canvas guy Gary he mentioned that Bethlehem's big First Friday was on October 2nd and I should swing back into town and check it out.
When Friday rolled around I finished one last once-over of the lines with my girlfriend Molly for the children's play she's going to be starting in a few weeks and then dropped her off at Skirball to house manage the last weekend of the Philip Seymour Hoffman fronted OTHELLO. She is as busy as I am.
I grabbed my friend and poet Chris "Inkspot" Caruso. . . "Ink" for short (who is back on the East coast for his Masters) and we drove out to PA. I tested out the new GPS system Molly got for the car and I gotta say, I usually hate robots, but this thing is pretty kickass. Obeying the commands of an electronic girlish voiced roboto takes a little getting used to, but it really lets you shut your brain off and still get to your destination on time.
The main event of the Bethlehem art scene is Pennsylvania's cultural arts & education center The Banana Factory. Canvas Gary had given me a brief tour of the place a few weeks earlier and it's pretty amazing. A gallery and gift shop on the main floor, as well as dance studios, presentation rooms, an acting wing, and a full glass foundry called Glass Works (More on this later).
The second and third floors are sectioned off into 28 individual artist studios where artists work and exhibit on First Friday's, all of which were open and the artists were there to meet and talk about their work.
I met artist Ben Marcune, plein air painter, and sculptor.
Above he displays the concept sketch for a proposed 8 foot tall Larry Holmes sculpture for the city of Easton, PA.
We also got to see some amazingly bold photography by Olaf Starorpinski. A lot of the other galleries were either too abstract, or too photo realistic for my taste. Apparently Bethlehem isn't a very line-art oriented art scene.
The exhibit in the main gallery was The International Society of Experimental Artists 18th Annual Juried Exhibition. Well, from the average .5 second duration of my own eyes wanting to escape from each piece. . . the jury is in, it sucked.
On top of that they had a really good three piece band playing really slow tempo music. I was tired to begin with and this was like a knockout punch. We escaped to the street in search of more galleries and brisk air.
Monsoon Gallery had some interesting work including a lot of local artists, by local I mean a lot of the artists who have studios in The Banana Factory.
We walked down the street further another block or so but there really isn't much else art related minus the art hanging in a frozen yogurt shop, or in the back of the hipster bar Your Welcome Inn.
Back to Banana factory we went into Glass works where it was hot with glowing cauldrons of molten liquefied glass.
I've never been in a glass foundry before but I was just reading about it a few weeks ago in the Time Out NY. When you are entering the vicinity of a glass foundry the air changes. It's not just a smell, but a feeling as well.
Ink and I were trying to figure out how to describe it to someone because he was texting his girlfriend about it and it was hard to put into words.
I would say it's sort of like the feeling of being in a sauna, like breathing in a dense hot wood, but in this case you are breathing in a dense hot glass. Smells sort of like an old TV or a light bulb that was overheated, but overwhelmingly so. It's very unique.
John Choi, studio manager of Glass Works is also artistic advisor to artist / sculptor Steve Tobin
, who is probably one of the area's most famous internationally renowned PA artists. I'm familiar with his work because editorial cartoonist Jorgy (who happens to be my father), plays ping pong with Tobin at his studio every so often.
Watching John and his crew put together a large glass pot from scratch in three hours is quite a work of performance art in and of itself. (Below: John Choi at work).
On the same level as the bleachers there are two stations where glass artist work with torches on smaller pieces. Bright white flames are fun to watch and photograph as well, but probably not great for the naked eye.
According to the Glass Works web page John and crew do a 6PM - 9PM demo for the public on the first Friday of every month, totally worth the trip to PA for the experience. They even have bleachers and protective glass for the audience, spring water for the glass parched throats, as well as a jumpin' band of their own.
