Archive for October, 2009
Smoka Hooka
Monday, October 12th, 2009Amers
Monday, October 12th, 2009
Amer’s uses products and foods of the highest quality and strives to serve our customers with grace and speed. All of our products from the coffee, tea, chocolate, pastries, breads, meats, cheeses and over 30 freshly made salads to the finest produce have been tested and perfected over our 18 year lifespan. Ultimately, we are not a coffee house with food choices or a delicatessen with coffee choices. We are Amer’s!
Amer’s has been the forefather of many unique coffee house items and is proud to be the originator of many trends in the Ann Arbor area. Some of these items include the use of soy products, chai teas, loose teas, fair trade coffee, raw juices, Snapple drinks, Orangina and gourmet powdered chocolate.
With our combination of an exceptional menu, quality products, generous portions, and competitive prices and friendly service, Amer’s has won numerous awards in the Ann Arbor and greater Metro Detroit areas. We have been voted “Best Sandwich”, “Best Deli”, “Best Coffee”,”Best Restaurant”, and “Best Juice Bar” and are consistently mentioned by publications such as the Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor Observer, Ann Arbor News, Metro Times and Oakland Jewish News. We’ve also received national recognition by Menus Today Magazine and Restaurant Magazine. Amer’s has become an Ann Arbor destination point, a place to visit and revisit again and again.
Larry & Rebecca Brockman - Beaver, AR
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
All of our items at Brockman Leather are handcrafted of the finest, buttery soft, select top grain cowhide available.
They are carefully designed, cut, glued, hammered and stitched to make a beautiful functional piece that will endure for many years.
Mira Raman - Tel-Aviv, Israel
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
Israeli artist Mira Raman creates works of handmade paper and acrylic with a zen-like innocence that appeal to adults and children, men and women. Her paintings, both large and small, touch something special in each of us.
Raman quotes in her personal biography, “A wise man once said, ‘Every morning an artist should wake up and forget everything he has ever done before.’” This is exactly what Raman reaches for in all of her works of art. After graduation from the State Art Teacher’s Training College in Ramat Hasharon, Israel, Raman taught painting and art history and also designed exhibitions. Eventually, she came to a point where merely teaching art was not exciting enough as it did not allow her to express her inner feelings or tap her creativity. This lack of fulfillment cause her to search in a new direction. Her breakthrough happened after she took a course in Japanese art, concentrating on calligraphy and papermaking. These mediums enabled Raman to express herself through a more personal kind of creativity and to start painting large canvasses. The real change, however, came unexpectedly, as she was practicing drawing a “kanji” - Japanese calligraphy - depicting “clearness” (the sun and the moon, combined). Raman was intrigued by the beauty and nuance in the small shape. This, in turn inspired her to paint a series of small brightly colored, minimalist pictures, pastoral and full optimism: a blue, balloon-dotted sky, with kites and small boats below and flowers and sheep. Her small pictures are full of fun, yet peaceful and childlike. The innocence in the world they present brings a smile to the lips of their beholder. Mira Raman has shown her work throughout Israel in the United States. Her work is in collections as diverse as New York, Chicago, California and Pennsylvania. She meets with critical acclaim wherever she goes.
Jonathon Stopper - Sarasota, FL
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
Laura Junge & Chris Jackson - Chicago, IL
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
ABOUT THE GALLERY
The Jackson Junge Gallery adds to the growing arts community in Chicago’s Wicker Park / Bucktown neighborhood. Co-owned by Chicago artist Laura Lee Junge and partner Chris Jackson, the gallery provides an exclusive local venue for Junge’s paintings and other works.
Prior to the fall 2009 gallery opening, Junge’s work received limited viewing at her studio, seasonal art fairs and through distributors outside Chicago. The signature gallery has introduced Chicagoans to a dynamic home-town talent who has earned praise from art lovers and critics alike.
While the spotlight shines on Junge, the gallery presents work by other contemporary artists from Chicago and elsewhere. Guest artist exhibits are hosted throughout the year.
Located on a busy section of Milwaukee Ave. just north of Division St. and south of North Ave., the Jackson Junge Gallery attracts a diverse clientele. Everyone from the ardent art aficionado to the casual admirer, delight in the comfortable ambiance they find inside.
In an effort to make art widely accessible, superior giclee reproductions and prints are available for purchase alongside original pieces. Today’s sophisticated technology allows for exceptional quality prints. All of Junge giclees are produced in-house at the Jackson Junge Gallery and are subject to the artists’ personal inspection.
The Jackson Junge Gallery provides a full range of custom framing services on site. Under the guidance of skilled craftsman and gallery co-owner Chris Jackson, customers find the perfect mount, protection and frame for their art, photography and other treasures.
OUR MISSION
The Jackson Junge Gallery goal is to generate a cultural center encompassing a compilation of the arts, by combining all the services associated with an art gallery presented in an innovative artistic environment.
Exhibiting both emerging and established artists in a wide range of mediums, the gallery is identified by its atmosphere, function, and energy. It is our ambition to showcase an array of contemporary art and hand made non-functional crafts, making it an extraordinary destination for all individuals interested in the arts looking for unique gifts or coveting to build a personal collection.
With the belief that art should be accessible to everyone, the Jackson Junge Gallery offers a wide range of price points to accommodate any budget. We are a service company, dedicated to long term relationships with our collectors and artists.
Kathleen Kalinowski - Comstock Park, MI
Saturday, October 10th, 2009“Whether working on-site or in my studio, the pattern of light and shadow is the first thing that draws me to a subject. My intent is to capture the sense of the place. The relationship of elements, quality of light, atmosphere, and color harmonies create a visual poetry that I seek to express in my work. My hope is that the viewer will be left with a feeling of pleasure and another understanding of how beautiful our world can be.”
http://www.kalinowskifineart.com/
Tom Laudenslager - Coopersburg, PA
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
I have taught Art, primarily Ceramics and Photography, for over 25 years, and have been exhibiting and selling my work for most of that time. The job of sharing and nurturing the creative process in others has allowed my own work to remain fresh, experimental and continually evolving, and I embrace the overlap between my roles as art maker and art teacher. I am happiest, and I believe my work is at its best when the barriers between approaches, processes, materials and even function become a bit blurred.
I did my Bachelor’s and Master’s work at Kutztown University, and have done course work at numerous other institutions. I live in a relatively quiet spot in Southeastern Pennsylvania with my wife of 21 years, and our 2 children (one is currently a junior in art school, and the other is leaning toward his passion in theater and music).
Scott Matyjaszek - Rochester, NY
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and moved to Rochester, New York in 1971. In 1983 I studied Audiovisual Technology at Monroe Community College graduating in 1985 with honors. During my college years, I developed a keen sense for a different kind of photography.
I began to photograph subjects without using tricks, filters or special lighting techniques. Natural available light source is used for nearly all images. After shooting and composing my subjects, 35mm negatives (unless I have used a digital camera) are scanned into a “digital darkroom” using an ultra-high resolution film scanner. Photo manipulation software is used to color correct, change density, edit and/or modify the image. Digital editing gives more control than I had been able to achieve using traditional techniques.
My photography has been called “painterly” in that it transcends the limitations of regular photography through the composition of color, texture, shape and design of objects in their natural state. Some images have been described as “urban landscapes which transform what might be viewed as the dullest subjects imaginable — old walls — into elegant deductive composition”. I have been described as having a “sensitive eye for abstract beauty in mundane places, and it has been noted that the use of sumptuous, penetrating color turns the smallest images into urban spice boxes”. My work has also been referred to as a kind of trompe d’oeil.
What makes my 3-dimensional photography uniquely different is that all photographs are hand-cut and layered to create a technique I describe as photo-relief. The images are digitally printed two or three times. Then the photographs are hand-cut with an exacto-blade, assembled, layered and glued together again to create depth and perspective.
In addition to my photography work, I am also the maker of Artephax Photographic Jewelry which, adding a new twist to an old theme, is a montage of original photographs transformed into 3-dimensional miniature sculptures in the form of earrings and pins.
My work was shown at the 1985, 1988 and 1996 Regional Finger Lakes Exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery (Rochester, New York) and was twice selected for the “Best of Photography Annual” sponsored by Photographer’s Forum Magazine. Also, my photography has been featured in a number of galleries, most recently at 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning, New York. It is also a part of a private collection owned by Corning Inc./SCC plant.
Michael McKee - Wheaton, IL
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Growing up outside of Cleveland Ohio in a musical family, my Mom and Dad provided my 3 sisters and myself with a strong appreciation for the joy of creative effort, and the value of art and music in the human experience. For this, and much more I will always be grateful.
A National Scholastics Art Scholarship winner, and Honors graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I have spent my professional life as a portrait artist, illustrator, graphic designer/art director and for 15 years as co-founder and creative director of Successories Inc.
Having accomplished all I wanted to in the commercial art world, it was time for me to embark on a new journey…the journey of an artist whose expressions are more personal, and directed only from within. Over the last 12 years, my wife and I had traveled often to New Mexico, and during these trips, I became inspired by the range and density of color found in the texture of the high desert landscape. For me, it was like seeing the world through new eyes, and helped inspire my new use of color.
In the last 6 years I have been enjoying much success exhibiting in art shows, galleries and art festivals around the country, showing and selling my ‘abstract impressionist’ landscapes. This success and the face to face relationships I am able to develop with my collectors’ inspires me to paint even more enthusiastically than before. The connection I have developed with the medium of soft pastels is a connection I get from no other medium, and when I am working, I feel as if I am painting with the earth itself. My landscape and still life impressions all come from simple memories of moments and places, and are all created with a spirit of joy.
On a more personal note, I am the proud father of a warm-hearted 17 year old girl named Taylor whose passion is anything having to do with animals. Cassandra my wife, creative companion, and best friend has been my inspiration since 1989, and we live in Wheaton Illinois with our 2 dogs ‘Winston and Titleist. Our Black Pug ‘Waldo’ passed away this year leaving us with 14 years of fond memories.
