Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Thomas Shepherd

.Like Danielle Correll, I know Thomas Shepherd from Soulard Art Market. This is Shepherd's third appearance on STL DPB, which may be a record (see the previous posts here and here). He is working on a web site but there is an interesting display of his work on the SAM site. Shepherd is primarily a photographer but some of his creations involve sculpture and collage. I have one of his photos in my office, a square-cropped picture of the head of a man with wild hair and beard, gazing up and out of the frame, shot with a Holga. It's really cool. Not familiar with Holgas? Have a look here.

Thursday Arch Series

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Not what you were expecting, perhaps. Because the Arch is so monolithic, we don't think much about the details of the surface but here's one. What holds those huge stainless steel plates together? It ain't superglue. This is is a close-up shot with a Lensbaby of the welds at the juncture of four plates at a corner of the structure.

WHAT FELT REALLY GOOD: a few days ago, I received the following message in a comment to one of my photos on Flickr. The writer and I got in touch and some prints will be on their way shortly. Photography really can have an impact.

I just found your blogs on the Internet today and you have no idea what your photos mean to me personally. I am a native of St. Louis (40 year old litigation paralegal) who is currently recovering from a nearly fatal car accident on June 3, 2009. Unfortunately, I am recovering in Atlanta and I am so terribly homesick for STL. I miss my hometown more than you can even imagine and your wonderful photos really made me feel "close to St. Louis" again. I would love to have a copy of your photos in a book that I could keep by my hospital bed for those times when I am feeling truly homesick and missing my friends and family and beautiful St. Louis. You have truly captured STL in all of its magnificent glory in so many of your photos. Thank you.

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Danielle Correll

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I've known Danielle Correll from the Soulard Art Market, the only gallery where I've shown my stuff. She works in many media but I had no idea how many and how successfully until I checked her web site. She paints, draws, photographs and does a variety of graphics. If you are in St. Louis, you should go bt SAM and check it out.

I'm particularly happy with this portrait for the light, color range and sense of a competent, confident woman.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series, then a return to artists' portraits on Friday.

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Scott Ernst

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The summer St. Louis artists series continues with Scott Ernst, who comes here from Oakland, California. His work that I saw included scenes of both the Bay Area and St. Louis, photos that were not so much site-specific as the impressions of a moment. The long composite in the right of this picture shows details of a weathered statue. Three detailed observations say more than a glance at the whole.

Portraits Of St. Louis Artists: Sandra Marchewa

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Whimsy. Sandra Marchewa stands in a little cloud of her own making, buzzing with bug-like elves, mini-monsters and flying pigs. I can imagine a huge array of these critters hanging from a ceiling for a viewer's disorientation, drifting from peripheral vision to central focus and out again. You might need some Dramamine.

SPECIAL NOTE TO THATONEGIRL: thank you for your notes and comments in Flickr yesterday. I wrote you back at the address you gave me but the message bounced - Yahoo said there wasn't a user by that name. Can you email me directly? There is a link to do that on my blog profile.

There is a new Arch photo
today on GATEWAY.

Portraits of St. Louis Artists: Amanda Verbeck

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I spent Saturday afternoon beginning my tour of the St. Louis artists open studio weekend. First up in this year's series of portraits of St. Louis artists is Amanda Verbeck. Her irresistible smile swept her into the lead off spot but her work will keep your attention. She makes works on paper based on things like grains of pollen (lower right in this picture) . Sometimes part of her process is to leave objects on photosensitive plates, resulting in a printable negative on metal. It's a little like the photograms made by Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy decades ago, but much more graphically sophisticated. Her web site is Pele Prints and you can find her on Facebook.

Hail, Hail Rock And Roll

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Native St. Louisan and legend, 82 year old Chuck Berry performed last night at the Missouri Botanical Garden. John Lennon said, "If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'." In a sense, Chuck invented it. He entertained the audience with many of his favorites, including Maybeline, Johnnie B. Good, No Particular Place To Go, Roll Over Beethoven and, of course, Rock And Roll Music. This guy still has what it takes. The crowd went wild.

WHAT'S ON IN ST. LOUIS THIS WEEKEND: on a midsummer weekend, St. Louis artists open their studios to the public. There are 151 participants this year. It's a wonderful opportunity to see original art and talk to its creators. For the third year in a row, I'm going from one to another, asking the artists if I can take candid portraits of them with their work. (Everyone says yes.) If you're interested, look in the archives of July 2007 and 2008 for "portraits of St. Louis artists." Got some great pix today. The first portrait will be up tomorrow but I haven't decided who yet.