Frank Bette Center for the Arts
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  • Home
  • About
    • The Frank Bette Center
    • The Frank Bette Legacy
    • Board of Directors
    • News
    • Newsletters
    • Press & Media
    • Contact Us
    • Site Map
  • Classes
  • Exhibits
    • Orange Crate Art
    • Current Call for Art
    • Signature Gallery
    • Satellite Galleries
    • Alameda On Camera >
      • Call for Alameda On Camera
      • 2020 AOC Video Tour & Awards
      • Alameda On Camera Review
      • AOC Artists' statements
    • Plein Air Paintout 2020 >
      • 2020 Plein Air Artists
      • Artists Choice Awards
      • 2019 PAPo Winners
  • Programs
    • Alameda Island Poets
    • Poetry at the Bette
    • Alameda Island Poets Workshop
    • Music: Acoustic Jam
  • Membership
    • Artists Members
    • Opportunities
  • Donate
    • Sponsors & Donors
    • Electrical Rewire Project
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
    • P22 Volunteers
  • NEWS
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  • Gift Cards
  • Special Events

ALAMEDA 2020 IS STILL and ONCE AGAIN ON CAMERA

by Karen Braun Malpas

Just before the novel corona virus struck, 48 photographers were loosed upon the face of  Alameda to record what they hoped would be a novel view of what they saw in the 1/48th of the island to which they were assigned.

The virus was called novel because it was believed to be new to human experience. In this photo-based show, I looked for novel images of Alameda—Sites I’d never seen before or facets I suddenly SAW as if for the first time. This is the ultimate purpose of art.

Todd Higashi toyed with us by showing a blue vase in the way of a street view in such a way that we can’t see the vase or the view “Through the Glass”.

Michele Bock shows a tour de force of sequential imagination. First she took photos of flowers in her area. She transcribed them onto fabric  squares of uniform  size. As she worked at her sewing machine and ironing board to combine these squares into a quilt, she took a photo of her work area with the flowered fabric squares arrayed on the floor. This photograph of her “Process” hangs beside the resulting quilt.  The strong lights and darks in this photo evoke an old Flemish painting.
While it is true a photo can be made in the moment of a shutter click, Bocks image represents photos being employed toward a sustained and complex creative end.

Every now and then, we pass a light post where  tennis shoes have been thrown up high to deliberately snarl around the wire, prompting us to shake our heads, “those kids!” Mike Gifford, however, saw a light post with a huge knotted stalagmite of shoes “Hanging Around” it. He altered the photo in a way that resembles thin watercolor in early or late light. High jinx made nearly poetic.

In fulfillment of the directive to Be Here Now, both Alisha Laborico and Susan Hillyard saw their subjects at an instant which appeared to be a celestial message.  Laborico saw a “Beam of Light” virtually pointing at the yacht harbor. Similarly, Hillyard saw the sky converging with apparent intention at the departure gate of “Bay Ferry #2”. Were these sights messages or photo ops?  

Correspondence often closes with “love” before a comma and the signature and so shall we here. Chris Adamson spied some “Hearts” crudely scrawled on the sidewalk in chalk. Apparently the romantic gesture was not universally well-received for there is evidence of someone blasting the heart with a hose. David Selders passed a house with a red and white sign in the front window reading “Love” surrounded by a flurry of little paper hearts apparently cut out by kids showing us they had an abundance and wanted to give us some, for free.

This show hangs until Oct. 3 with the gallery open only weekends, 11-5 with safety guidelines.

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