Being and being seen...

Oct 22, 2025

Studio entrance decked out and partyfied…

I’m just getting around to writing anything about my open studio weekend on 10/11 and 10/12, not to mention anything else that’s been going on because I haven’t had the mental bandwidth nor really the time to do so. I was determined today, so here’s something, I hope it makes some sense coming from a somewhat sleep-deprived brain.

I hadn’t participated in the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST) in about ten years, but had done so for eleven years prior to that. I stopped then because I’d had my fill of doing it partly because of the rising cost of participating. By the time I’d stopped, it was about $100 to be an official participant for two days. This meant that you and your studio were listed in the brochure and online, along with other perks. I should also mention that POST is a city-wide event that runs over two weekends. So, of course, there are going to be costs involved, but everything is relative. By the time I stopped, I wasn’t bringing in enough money to justify covering the costs at that time. Other than that, POST has always been a good way for artists to get people into their studios and a great way to highlight the creative talent here in Philly.

Anyway, this year POST had a big sponsor in PNC Bank, which made it possible for at least 200 artists to be able to participate for free. That’s what reeled me back in. Plus, since I hadn’t been in it for so long, there were potentially going to be new people who might discover my work for the first time. In addition, my studio is in a big, well-known arts building which makes a big difference. The number of visitors was pretty good: I had about 56 people come through my space over the two days, one of which was slightly rainy most of the time. I had some great conversations and saw a number of people I hadn’t seen in person in a long time. That alone, made it worth the time.

Views of works installed for open studio weekend

I was determined to keep things as easy as possible when it came to setting up the studio for visitors. I swept and vacuumed the floor and made sure no random cords or tools would be in any walking path through the space. I put a few things away that are going to be in an upcoming show that I didn’t want people seeing beforehand, but that was the extent of it. Visitors in public events like POST should experience a studio in as close to it’s authentic working condition as possible, but avoiding potential hazards is key.

I chose to make a salon-style installation of various works from the past four years that haven’t been exhibited, including some fabric-based pieces I’ve been making recently. I tried to limit the number of paintings I had to unwrap for this, also and kept everything in the small to relatively medium sized works. Part of what initiated this arrangement was me wanting to see how works from different series conversed with one another. Most of the time, I flow between at least two bodies of work at the same time, so there’s bound to be some crossover of ideas from one to the other. This was a great chance to see what overlapped and what didn’t.

I was worried that something was going to make me late opening up on the first day and I was late, but only by a few minutes. From past experience, I know that most people don’t start arriving to spaces until about 30 minutes or more into the first hour. Also, I’d gotten all of my set up done the night before, so there was nothing to panic about. Slowly, but surely, people started popping in. I’d promoted an artist talk at 2pm on both days and did that on Saturday, but not on Sunday since no one was around during the 2pm hour that day. Not a surprise considering the mostly overcast skies. It didn’t matter since I was talking to people about the work most of the time, anyway.

There was a lot of interest in the new, fabric-based pieces made from my studio rags. There was genuine surprise when I showed the “backs” of those pieces that had all of the paint on them that had been wiped from my palette knives and brushes. I had a fun moment when a longtime artist friend, Caroline Santa (third photo above), visited on Sunday and pretty much matched one of my new fabric pieces.

Overall, it was a pretty successful weekend. I didn’t sell anything, but the conversations were great and it was nice to be able to talk to people about some of the new work. Doing so gave me some clarity about what I’ve been making lately and I enjoy getting outside thoughts about the work, in general. There’s no way I can be objective about any of this, so getting other perspectives is usually a plus.

Immortalized

Portrait by Mark Loughney. Pretty damned good for 20 minutes of work.

Yesterday(Mon. 10.20.25), I had an appointment with artist, Mark Loughney (log-nee) to be a sitter for the second part of his “Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study of Mass Incarceration” portrait series. Mark is a formerly incarcerated artist who is best known for his series of 771 portraits of fellow inmates, begun in 2014 while Loughney was still imprisoned. Through his artwork, Mark has been determined to bring a different view of the incarcerated to those outside of the system. He’d always had a knack for art previous to being locked up, but it wasn’t until 2014 that he faced a choice to continue towards a dark future or make changes in his life to make things better for himself and others. He made the better choice and began making portraits of fellow inmates as a way to humanize them and bring attention to reforms that need to be made in the US prison system.

Since being released, Mark Loughney has made Philadelphia his home base and has had his work featured in a variety of art publications and exhibitions all over the country. He has also begun a companion drawing series to the inmate portraits, this time focusing on people who are active in the prison reform community and those, like myself, who believe in the need for such reform. His plan is to make 800 portraits for this part of the series.

Here’s a profile of Mark by Philly’s local Fox affiliate from 2024:

So, for this portrait, I had to sit still for most of it and also had to keep my eyes in a fixed position so Mark could capture them as accurately as possible. I had to keep my mouth shut, as well. After that initial ten minutes, I could talk, but still had to keep my head in the same position. Oh, wait, did I mention that the drawing only took twenty minutes? No? Well, not only that, but Mark is also largely self-taught. He told me during our conversation after he’d finished my portrait, that he’d just developed a lot of discipline with portraiture through repetition. He had dedicated time (no pun intended) and a built-in population of models, so it makes sense that he’d have gotten pretty good at what he does.

As you can see in the photos above, Mark Loughney’s works span both realist, to surreal-like to more Pop oriented, cartoonish ways of making. I particularly liked his “Botfly” skate decks (third photo above). If you’re in the Philadelphia area and want to be a part of Mark’s portrait series, you can schedule a sitting on his website.