We Can't Paint

wecantpaint.com/log

noelrv — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:26:41 +0000

We Can’t Paint has moved permanently to its new space at http://wecantpaint.com/log. I’ll leave this version of the blog up but it may be deleted considering I’ve also exported the entire archive, photos and all, to We Can’t Paint’s new location.

The first issue of the We Can’t Paint Magazine (ISSN 1916-8462) will be online in September and keep an eye out for the We Can’t Paint Online Gallery to open soon.

I’m still looking for submissions for all of these projects:

Send all submissions to: submission@wecantpaint.com and be sure to specify what you are submitting for (blog, gallery or magazine).

Deadlines

Blog: Always looking for material!

Gallery: May 20, 2008

Magazine: July 20, 2008

All work should include a very brief bio (one or two sentences). Let me know who you are!

Photographs/Images

Send a selection of 5 – 8 images:

- All images should be 72 dpi

- Sized to 10 inches on the longest side

- Saved as a .jpg file and labeled with no spaces or punctuation like this:

your_name_here_1.jpg

- In the body of the email you may list the titles but only if they are absolutely relevant.

- No image should be over 5mb

Note: A link to your work is also accepted but strongly discouraged.

Writing

All articles and/or essays should be 500 – 1000 words in length but can be longer:

- Send a brief summery and intent of your article/essay in the body of the e-mail with the actual article/essay formatted for Microsoft Word.

Books and Zines

If you would like We Can’t Paint Magazine to review your publication, please contact noel@nrodo-vankeulen.com for more information on where to send your “review copy”.

WE CAN’T PAINT EXPANDS!!

noelrv — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:33:18 +0000

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been super busy. Half of my time was divided between work, school, and this blog, the other half was focused on something quite special. You may have noticed a change here at We Can’t Paint, specifically the adjustment of the blog address from wecantpaint.wordpress.com to wecantpaint.com. This marks the start of We Can’t Paint’s evolution into a more comprehensive experience.

By September 2008 We Can’t Paint will no longer simply exist as a blog, but it will also be an online magazine and online gallery. Before I get into the specifics surrounding content and such I want to explain the rational behind this decision.

In the context of the “blogosphere” We Can’t Paint is still a relatively new undertaking, in fact I have been authoring it for a little under five months. In this very short period of time We Can’t Paint’s readership has grown tremendously and I will say with great admiration that I truly feel privileged to have participated in the collective discourse.

However, I’ve often felt that (for myself) the format of a blog is limiting. This is particularly evident when one rakes through the huge proliferation of posts, archived material that seems to be swallowed by its own process. This facet of an otherwise engaging tool is the motivation behind We Can’t Paint Magazine, and We Can’t Paint Gallery.

We Can’t Paint Magazine will be a place where in depth content (interviews, artist features, book and exhibition reviews, critical essays, etc) can viewed for a lengthier period of time. It will allow myself to collaborate with individuals who submit content (writing, images, and ideas) in such a way as to offer you the viewer a more comprehensive experience of emerging photography. Similarly, We Can’t Paint Gallery will be an online space where photographs and photo-based media can be experienced without the connection to a blog, again, a more contemplative and lengthy experience with the image.

The blog will not be discarded, in fact, you can expect the We Can’t Paint experience to be business as usual; with the exception of the usual Friday post (I need sometime to eat and sleep).

So where do I go from here and how can you contribute? I will be taking the next week off to setup and design these online spaces as well as contacting and responding to individuals for inclusion. I have temporarily set up a hotmail account specifically for submissions:

Send all work and writing to wecantpaint@hotmail.com

All work should include a very brief bio (one or two sentences).

Photographs

Send a selection of 5 – 8 images:

- All images should be 72 dpi

- Sized to10 inches on the longest side

- Saved as a .jpg file and labeled with no spaces or punctuation like this:

your_name_here_1.jpg
- In the body of the email you may list the titles but only if they are absolutely relevant
- No image should be over 5mb

Note: A link to your work is also accepted but strongly discouraged.

Writing

All articles and/or essays should be 500 – 1000 words in length:

- Send a brief summery and intent of your article/essay in the body of the e-mail with the actual article/essay formatted for Microsoft Word.

Books and Zines

If you would like We Can’t Paint Magazine to review your publication, please contact noelrodo@hotmail.com for more information on where to send your “review copy”.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to receiving your submissions.

Museums used as marketing tools

noelrv — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:33:10 +0000

Not really a new argument for those aware of how museums work, but the article is interesting nonetheless. Check it out here.

5B4 Photobook Exchange

noelrv — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:33:00 +0000

Jeff, author of the ever so great blog 5B4, is lightening his bookshelf and offering deals on some tasty books. Act fast, these titles are going quick!

CONTACT 2008

noelrv — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:05:02 +0000

The annual Toronto CONTACT photography festival is on the horizon (May 2nd) and like so many others, I’m super excited. More info from CONTACT’s website:

CONTACT is an annual month long festival of photography with over 500 local, national and international artists at more than 200 venues across the Greater Toronto Area in May. Founded as a not-for-profit organization 12 years ago, CONTACT is devoted to celebrating, and fostering an appreciation of the art and profession of photography. As the largest photography event in the world, and a premiere cultural event in Toronto, CONTACT stimulates excitement and discussion among a diverse audience that has grown to over 1,000,000 and is focused on cultivating even greater interest and participation this year.

Each year CONTACT announces a theme that supposedly structures the entire festival. The 2008 CONTACT theme is “Between Memory and History”. Like Heather, I also agree that these themes often feel obscure and vague, in fact, I’ll go right ahead and add obvious as another descriptor:

CONTACT 2008 examines how photography shapes our understanding of the world around us and the enduring role it plays in the preservation of individual and collective memories. A wide range of images – from the epic to the everyday – look beyond the headlines to explore private and social histories.

Hmm…maybe it’s just me but doesn’t that describe the role of almost ALL photography? Where CONTACT’s 2007 theme of “The Constructed Image” seemed to fit within the current trends of image production, the 2008 theme seems to only want to rework many of the tedious “digital” questions, most of which end up coming across as completely irrelevant:

Photography has been associated with memory since its invention and memory has long been described as a continuous exchange of images. As we experience the global shift from film to digital technology, will photographic images merely become “memories made easy”?

Aside from the theme, CONTACT is usually great and includes a plethora of events and exhibitions to check out. Here are some of the ones I’m looking forward to.

Lectures

Bert Teunissen May 4, 2pm at MOCCA:

Photographer Bert Teunissen captures light and atmosphere reminiscent of his childhood home in The Netherlands and records a way of life that is quickly disappearing. He will speak about this ongoing 10-year project documenting hundreds of pre-World War homes throughout Europe. Teunissen’s use of available daylight recalls paintings by great Dutch masters such as Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch.

Alessandra Sanguinetti May 4, 3pm at MOCCA:

Alessandra Sanguinetti has been documenting the dream-like adventures of two pre-adolescent Argentinean cousins since 1998. Focusing on their desires, fantasies and imaginations, her images are both staged and spontaneous. Sanguinetti will discuss this ongoing project, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams, within the context of the exhibition at MOCCA.

Robert Burley May 25, 2pm at MOCCA:

Robert Burley is creating a photographic record of a rapidly disappearing manufacturing infrastructure dedicated to the production and use of photochemical materials. His series, Disappearance of Darkness, includes the demolition of photographic production plants around the world. Join him for a lively discussion centered on the notion that photography, as we have known it, is passing into history.

Exhibitions

Confabulation / Shanghai Dragon
- Toni Hafkenscheid, Louise Noguchi
- @ Birch Libralato

Drawn From Memory
- Evan Lee
- @ Monte Clark Gallery

Sommes-Nous? Tendance Floue
- Pascal Aimar, Thierry Ardouin, Denis Bourges, Gilles Coulon, Olivier Culmann, Mat Jacob, Caty Jan, Philippe Lopparelli, Bertrand Meunier, Meyer, Flore-aël Surun, and Patrick Tourneboeuf
- @ Alliance Francaise

Family Album
- Tim Roda
- @ Angell Gallery

Modern Homes
- Thomas Blanchard
- @ Deleon White Gallery

As The Sun Rises
- Jessica Craig-Martin, Bernhard Ingimundarson, The Icelandic Love Corp, and Sascha Weidner
- @ The Drake Hotel

Lady Things
- Robyn Cumming
- @ XEXE Gallery

Public Installations

Landlocked and Aerials
- Eamon Mac Mahon
- @ Toronto Pearson International Airport

Tree Portraits
- Rodney Graham
- @ The Gardiner Expressway Columns

Pause, to Begin Finalists Announced

noelrv — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:02:38 +0000

The results are in for the Pause, to Begin book project. The selected artists are as follows:

Colin Blakely; Ann Arbor, Michigan

Timothy Briner; Boonville, California

Alejandro Cartagena; Monterrey, Mexico

Hin Chua; London, England

Tealia Ellis-Ritter; Barrington, Illinois

Matt Eich; Athens, Ohio

Matthew Gamber; Savannah, Georgia

Shawn Gust; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Shannon Johnstone; Cary, North Carolina

Erika Larsen; Hoboken, New Jersey

John Mann; Tallahassee, Florida

Thomas Prior; Brooklyn, New York

Brea Souders; New York, New York
Sonja Thomsen; Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Shawn Records; Portland, Oregon

A huge We Can’t Paint congratulations to all the photographers selected, specifically the We Can’t Paint favourite Timothy Briner. I’ve already seen some photographs from Tim’s Boonville project and they are fantastic. Well deserved!

You can visit Pause, to Begin’s website and view a sample of photographs from each selected photographer:

Starting May 1, 2008, David and Ethan will depart the state of Maine with documentary filmmaker Bruno Toré for 1 month to meet the aforementioned photographers. Upon returning in June, 2008, Pause, to Begin will begin to unveil one photographer’s complete series of work per day at www.pausetobegin.com.

George Steeves

noelrv — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:47:12 +0000

George Steeves is the type of Canadian photographer, like Fred Herzog (previously mentioned here), who is relatively anonymous in Canada. In fact, his last major exhibition, before the 2007 show at the Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery, was in 1989 at the NSCAD’s (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) Anna Leonowens Gallery. Steeves’ portraits are intimate studies of his subjects and often include a trace or even a full exposure of Steeves in his role as photographer. Before I show the small selection of his work (only a few of the small selection of images I could find on the internet) I want to discuss very briefly some of my thoughts on this continuing issue of anonymity in Canadian art.

I understand that limited exhibition opportunities or lack of funding can hinder a specific artist’s exposure. These are perhaps some of the most frequent reasons that artists remain unknown. However, with the relative democratic position that the internet takes on images, and even content, I find it surprising that many of these “unknowns” have decided not to utilize this powerful tool.

There may be more to this topic than I can touch on in this blog, but nonetheless photographers like Herzog and Steeves, and even their peers, need to wake up and start spreading the word. This is the exact reason I started We Can’t Paint, a tool to showcase artists who I believe are not only great, but need to be seen within a medium that has been relatively unexposed and unexplored itself. Oh, and the best part…none of it cost me a thing.

Here is a brief selection of Steeves work: