Saturday, August 25, 2007

Further Dispatches from NC


Here's a picture of Kim, myself and the facilities guy (or as I like to say "the guy who I'd be if I worked there") getting everything set up for the portraits that Alyssa shot of the Art*o*Mat-ers.

The image was shot by Mary K, the web designer for Art*o*Mat and you can view her other pictures from the swap meet here.

Elin, an artist from upstate NY has some good coverage of Art*o*Mat goings-on at her blog will.love.logic

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

More from North Carolina

It's true.


This is also true-- she smiles when she sleeps.



True too that this is the biggest comb I've ever found.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Art*o*Mat 10th Anniversary Swap Meet!


I was Alyssa Salomon's assistant while she shot portraits of almost all the Art*o*Mat artists who came to the 10th Year Anniversary Swap Meet at SECCA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

What an incredible, positive success is Clark Whittington's Art*o*Mat. What an incredible, positive success is Clark Whittington.

Don't know it? Check it out here. Make a prototype, send it in and begin your career as a vended artist. Who knows, you might make it into the Whitney.

I'll write more soon.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

What I Know

Stephen and Susan are good friends...(*)

Jon Felton got married...

Kristin and Todd moved to Korea...

and Josh will join them in a month, or so.

* Picture by Susan or Stephen

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Makin' Me Proud

Ed, a former student of mine, a staunch believer in western Maryland and especially Frostburg, and (although he won't admit its inevitability) future mayor of his hometown. Some of my fondest memories of teaching involve arguments between Ed and spoiled kids from Montgomery County who hated Frostburg. I would allow the arguments to become heated, to last as long as they needed to, secretly waiting for Ed to deliver the zinger that would send the pretentious pricks reeling and feeling out of place. Standing next to Ed in this picture are Wade and Debbie Clark-- two excellent people who became friends, and sometime confidants of mine when I'd shop for my photo supplies.

DeWitt buys camera store

From the Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Edward DeWitt of Frostburg has purchased Clark’s Camera Centre from owner Wade Clark and plans to open the store as DeWitt Camera Centre in mid-August.

The business began more than 70 years ago as the hobby of original owner S. Louis Curl, who with his wife began making black and white prints from their own film in the early 1930s. There were no full-time photo stores, and having quality prints made was not easy.

Using the basement of their home as a darkroom, the Curls’ operation grew, and a few outlets were established elsewhere in Cumberland. They had two fixed locations before purchasing the vacant former First Federal Savings and Loan building in 1955 at 56 N. Centre St., which still is the site of the camera shop.

In 1972, Frank “Spike” Clark and two of his four children moved to Cumberland from Pearl River, N.Y., and bought the shop from the Curls. Their son Wade took over the business in 1990, bought it in 1993 and has run it with his wife, Debby.

DeWitt is a native of Frostburg and has been involved with photography since 2001, when he took his first class at Frostburg State University. He graduated from FSU in 2003 and attended the Ohio Institute of Photography in Dayton.

Clark’s stocks cameras, lenses, accessories and darkroom supplies, and film processing and printing is done on site. It offers repairs on all cameras and accessories and accepts special orders for equipment.

DeWitt plans to add an upstairs photography studio, a gallery for local photographers and photography classes for novices and experts. Business hours will be extended and the store will be open on weekends. For more information, call (301) 724-0393.