EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a cross-post from the DowntownWV photoblog

FestivALL Charleston has loaded up downtown venues with art where you don’t normally find it, as in this window beside the entrance to TSG Consulting at 118 Capitol St. Photo by Douglas Imbrogno. Click to enlarge

West Virginia State University student Ashley White’s digitally enhanced oil painting is one of the many original artworks passerby encounter in storefronts and window displays as part of the citywide FestivALL Charleston. White’s work can also be seen hanging out in alleys, as part of FestivALL’s “Drive Thru Art Show.” To be specific, in the alley between Capital and Hale streets on Thursday through Sunday, June 26-29.

Dane Klingaman’s “West Virginia Baseball” hanging at Taylor Books Art Annex. Click to enlarge.
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Sour: (Parodying “The Twelve Days of Christmas”) : “On the first day of FestivALL the artists sent to us … “
Sweet: Finishing with, “A whole lot of very great stuff.”
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Sour: Off the top of your head, what is one of the very best things hanging now during the FestivALL art onslaught?
Sweet: Glad to have an art onslaught in our city. This third year of FestivALL looks to be shaping up to be even better than the first two, if the early visual art events are any indication. Well, I have to say one of the best and most visually arresting things hanging is a small piece by up-and-coming artist Dane Klingaman hanging at Taylor Annex. It is really thoughtful and well done, and the image stays with you. There is so much talent and enthusiasm from the younger artists. We asked Dane to send a remark about the piece depicted above and how he did it:

DANE KLINGAMAN: “West Virginia Baseball” an image taken while I was on the disabled list for my U.C. baseball team with a broken thumb and is at old Watt Powell Park. Its depicting Roger Dicks, one of the few African American baseball players to play in the WVIAC, and he was a pitcher. Read the rest of this entry »

Patience and Zion Vanover and Seamus and Clare Higgins spray paint “human” as part of FestivALL’s “Press 2 for Spanish” workshop.

On Thursday, June 26, two local artists will be promoting art along with mutual understanding at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

If you want to learn Spanish, help Habitat for Humanity and use some spray paint, come to the workshop from 5 to 7 p.m. Artist Amy Williams, who along with Chris Dutch, made the FestivALL Charleston installation “Press 2 for Spanish” will expand the exhibit to the ReStore. Workshop participants (children and adults) will learn the Spanish words for all things home and construction. “We’ll be making signs from recycled cardboard with the translation for things like wood, sinks, furniture,” says Williams.

Mark Wolfe, who photographed the installation “Fringe,” will also be giving an artist talk. Read the rest of this entry »

Mystery of the Missing WV State Museum, Part 2: “Get R’ Done”
Subplot: Just Because It’s Expensive Doesn’t Mean It’s Good

Sweet: “I see in the papers where a Virginia company was hired for $6 million to do the fabrication and design of “The Missing WV State Museum” (see previous blogpost here).
Sour: “You mean the ‘whiz bang gizmo Disney-esque showpath’ museum we’ve been hearing was on its way for years? I wish I could have just one of the millions they have wasted on that project.”
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Sweet: “A lot of arts people wish they could have had just one of the millions they wasted on that project. A number of organizations would be thriving today instead of dying on the vine if they had been given just a fraction of the money they flushed down the toilet these several years on this disaster.”
Sour: “The administration then was ‘fiddling while Rome burned’ with the rest of the arts world. Well, it had better be good. They better get it right this time. We are not going to be able to redo it again in my lifetime at this price tag.” Read the rest of this entry »