Archive for the Art category
It seems my earlier prognosis about rod brakes has come true. Yielding to the demands of the times, Open is clearing its stock of fixed gear bikes to make room for some shiny new (or rather, crusty, old) roadsters.
Well, maybe I exaggerate again; the fixed gears are staying. But the roadsters are coming too. If you attended Spoke Count, you are probably acquainted with the 1936 Raleigh Lady’s Tourist that hung suspended from the ceiling. And if that wasn’t enough, Open is collaborating with the newly formed Boston Retro Wheelmen to develop a programme of workshops aimed at vintage IGH bikes.
Why? Because vintage three speeds are good. Built like tanks, they withstand pretty much anything the city throws at you. They are easy to ride and easy to maintain. They love you and they want you to love them back. So if you live in the neighborhood and have an old, forlorn 3-speed that needs resuscitating, bring it to Open and it shall be cared for in the manner it deserves. Restored vintage 3-speeds are also occasionally available for sale.
[pictured above: Somervillain and Biking In Heels tend to their steeds during a Boston Retro Wheelmen meeting.]
Spoke Count is a Chorus Gallery-hosted collaborative installation featuring 100+ small works about bikes by various artists from the community. The show is open submission- that means you, dear reader! Your work can be on any type of media and in any genre or format- we only ask that there be some reference to bicycles in the piece and the finished work be 8″x8″ and able to be hung. It is estimated that there currently exist over one billion bicycles in the world- this show will attempt to visualize this (growing) mass of our favorite revolutionary transport.
Submissions are open to anyone- complete the form at the Chorus Gallery website to participate. Deadline for work is 5p January 7th- show reception is 7p, January 9th 2010.
It’s time again for the International Film Festival to roll through our fair city, and this year we’re putting out an open call for volunteers. Below is the Google form that we’re using to track volunteer interest and get folks signed up, pleae consider filling it out if you’d like to participate!
More info on BFF Boston:
The official page
The Twitter page
The Facebook page
The Volunteer form:
Thursday, Nov 12th, 2009
Categories: Art, Boston
Boston-based ex-courier and painter Clark Filio is opening his new show, OATH, at Chorus Gallery on Saturday, November 14th. The reception commences at 7p and will feature the usual coterie of wonderful people, cold drinks, and smooth vinyl sounds from Coatti Mondi. Clark’s work evokes a broad exploration of the human spirit and the multiplicity of shapes it takes through our forms and bodies. Bring friends who love art, bring some coin to purchase his paintings and drawings, and join us to celebrate life and appreciate the wonder and complexity we swim in.
Jahn from Cambridge Street Press just dropped off some of the first issues of the Inman Review, a homegrown literary quarterly featuring Cambridge and Somerville writers and photographers. I’ve been speaking with him over the last few months as he and his partners have been gearing up for the inaugural release and I was thrilled to see him come through the door with a bag of copies for us. Literary magazines live and die by the quality of their content and an engaged readership, and after paging though Volume 1, I’m sure that we can look forward to many years of this fine collection of new and established works gracing the coffee tables and cafe lounges of the area. If you creatives out there have submissions for these fine folk, direct them to inmanreview@gmail.com, and be sure drop by Open to pick up your copy- the first run was only 250 so they will disappear quickly…
Last Saturday, we good folk here at Open were granted the pleasure of producing the screenings and events for the Boston appearance of the ever-growing Bicycle Film Festival. The fest hits Beantown on what will hopefully be a clement fall weekend with a slew of events, parties, sociable gatherings, and of course, evocative films featuring bicycles and the people who love them. Details are still getting locked down- we’ll be posting things here as they become more concrete- check in often and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
In the book, The Creative Habit, written by Twyla Tharp, there is an entire chapter on Where’s Your “Pencil”? The question refers to our American Express, Don’t Leave Home Without It, tools that fuel our creativity. In our everyday lives, there exists a metaphorical pencil, which is the necessary puzzle piece that drives our creative hustles.
Every time I visit OPEN, Joshua’s hands are perpetually covered in bike grease. When I see him, we dance through our customary social greeting which habitually begins with him saying, “Sorry man, my hands are dirty…” — followed by a hand slap that tightens into a tug-of-war style embrace, which leads into a shoulder-to-shoulder connect for the finish.
The fact that Joshua’s hands are always grimy is comforting to me. His greasy hands are symbolic of Joshua’s creative passion for what he and Zack, both, hope to bring to the familial and collaborative space they have created with OPEN.
For Joshua’s hands, gloved in filth, hardened and sometimes scarred from a day spent repairing and building bikes, the grease represents his pencil and is the one tool that feeds [your] creativity and is so essential that without it [you] feel naked and unprepared (Tharp, The Creative Habit).
What is the pencil for your creative habit? For me, quite literally, it is a pencil. True to my hustle, it is called the perfect pencil. As a writer, my pencil helps capture the world around me through finished narratives, or by sharing the fractured elements of stories without a voice.
Where’s your pencil? What creative spark to your habit will it bring to keep your fire burning? I suspect that once you discover the tool, the only thing left to pursue is your passion. Like Joshua, with his hands perpetually covered in bike grease, this is one habit you will never have a need to apologize.
