Kevin's garden

new work from Juliana Peloso

Jack Leigh

The late Jack Leigh was best known for his photograph of the Bird Girl - a ubiquitous image here in Savannah and possibly one of the most powerful book cover photos in history. His careful and sensitive eye chronicled the American Southeast in a way that defied popular conception and cliché.

I was sad to see that the Jack Leigh Gallery closed a few months back, but it still maintains an online presence.

Imke Lass Photography

John Nash

Imke Lass is a friend here in Savannah and a freelance photographer with a wonderful talent and a compassionate eye. I just love her work and envy her for her globetrotting assignments. If you've opened a magazine in the last five or ten years or so, there's a good chance you'll have seen one of her photos. The very fact alone that she had the opportunity to photograph John Nash sufficiently blows my mind.

Take the time and check out her website. The stories she tells are touching and amazing - and I'm not blowing smoke because she's a friend, this is top drawer stuff.

take a bow

Juliana Peloso

From Mother to Son

from the found photo collection of Juliana Peloso

Rough sea and Pier

The Hollidays. "It seems so long ago... we were happy then..."
















Dear Sir; --
You are hereby notified that Richard Holiday eloped from this institution April 30 1903.


















The unfortunate therapy.
















As to the escape of Richard Holliday, from the Columbus State Hospital for the Insane.


















State Hospital, a memento; mixed media by Juliana Peloso

Juliana Peloso - Caw vs Claw

"Caw vs Claw"
12" x 16"
oil on panel
2008


Lost and Found Fine Art

(can't wait for the next show, Jules)
(prev) (prev)

The Menace

I am the proud owner of this painting now.

She makes some nice jewelry, too.

Juliana Peloso

River Street, Savannah

River Street
















Chart House

images by smccard
found on Savannah Current

Ian Aleksander Adams - Israel By Land at The Sentient Bean

If you're in Savannah this weekend, check out Ian Aleksander Adams's new show at The Sentient Bean, which is about four blocks from my house. See you there!

via We Can't Paint

Button Gwinnett

Button Gwinnett was one of three Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Gwinnett was born in April 1735 in Gloucestershire, he arrived in Savannah in 1765 and became a merchant. After this venture failed, he purchased St. Catherines Island and set himself up as a planter. He became active in local politics, winning election to the Commons House of Assembly in 1769. By 1773 Gwinnett was again in financial straits; he sold most of his personal property and possessions and withdrew from the political scene.

The Revolutionary crisis brought him back into politics. After rallying rural and coastal dissidents and creating controversy with the dominant Whig party in Savannah, he stepped aside and accepted an appointment to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia, Gwinnett served on a number of committees and supported separation from England. He voted for independence in July, signed the Declaration of Independence in August (along with other Georgians George Walton and Lyman Hall), and soon afterward returned to Georgia, where he became embroiled in more political controversy.

After an abortive expedition into British East Florida, pushed forward at Gwinnett's initiative, his longtime rival and enemy, Lachlan McIntosh publicly denounce him. Gwinnett challenged him to a duel. Both men sustained wounds. McIntosh recovered. Button Gwinnett did not. He died on May 19, 1777. He is buried in Savannah's Colonial Park Cemetery, though the exact location of his grave is unknown.

Gwinnett's signature is one of the rarest and most valuable of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1979 a letter signed by Gwinnett brought $100,000 at a New York auction; its value was estimated in 1983 to be up to $250,000.

For more
5 Forgotten Founding Fathers
Leonard Bernstein on the Declaration of Independence

Explosive Art

image District

Matthew Stromberg uses a wide variety of powerful and volatile substances, including rocket fuel, explosives, gunpowder, propellants and bullets, aka energetic materials, in order to create art rather than destroy. The Savannah College of Art and Design professor utilizes these forceful methods to apply his mark to wood, metal and paper. The results are quite visceral and evocative of the violent patterns of nature-- images seared and impressed in high-energy events. They kick ass, too.

Some might draw comparisons to the work of Cai Guo-Qiang and others, but few, maybe none use such a wide variety of materials and processes. I'm partial to the machine gun work.

Connect Savannah:

Stromberg first began experimenting with energetic materials last year. It’s not something for the faint of heart. “I would say it’s very dangerous,” Stromberg says....

At times, Stromberg must get permission from the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to do a project. “No hazardous waste can be associated with my work,” he says....

Stromberg plans to keep doing even more training and research. “I’ll be stepping up the magnitude of the explosives,” he says. “There are so many different types of energetic materials. There is always something else to research and try.”

Here he is at work with an M11/9 submachine gun:



Here he is drawing with solid rocket fuel:



and drawing with some highly explosive ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate/Fuel Oil) With this example you get a small taste of what could go wrong:



mstrombe on YouTube
you can find more images here

Stay tuned...

Roadside Architecture

Paradise Gardens, Summerville, GA

Debra Jane Seltzer:

I have been passionate about commercial architecture and roadside related things all my life. I grew up in California but New York City has been my home since 1980. I started this website in 2000 simply as a way to organize my own photos. Since then, it has become a bit of an obsession and grown to well over 1,000 pages.

I could spend hours going through all this stuff. She gives nice write-ups on the subjects, from drive-ins, giant things, diners and restaurants, motels, Tiki and all sorts of other strange and fascinating places.

Debra has a weblog, too, but hasn't been updated for a couple of months. It's seems he only posts while she's traveling. I'm subscribed and looking forward to her next road trip.

I was happy to see that she caught the Thunderbird Inn, here in Savannah, as well as the giant cow at Keller's Flea Market.

via MonkeyFilter

Duffy Street Garden Studio

Temple of Forgiveness

Eric Wooddell:

These are the paintings from my show at The Sentient Bean. The show was called "Sacred Geography", and influenced by my Love of Mandalas and maps. The wood frames are built from mostly recycled materials, layered in paper, leaves and other natural materials, and painted in acrylic and ink.


















Mandala 6


















Mandala 11

Karen Williams Photography

It's always nice to see local artists showing up in the blogosphere.

Karen Williams is a student here in Savannah working toward her MFA in SCAD's excellent photography department. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work in the future.

via It's Nice That

In Memoriam: Sergeant William Jasper

Sergeant Jasper Monument, Savannah GA

Wherever you stand on the issue of war, take a moment to remember the fallen Americans that died in conflicts both just and questionable. Regardless of the situations, these men and women were someone's son or daughter, father or mother, wife or husband, boyfriend or girlfriend, best friend or favorite student. They were the customer that the clerk enjoyed greeting every day and the person that helped them change a flat in the rain. Their loss left an emptiness in the lives of those that cherished them. These were people, like you and me, and they were sent off into awful circumstances, never to return to their homes.

The human potential lost in warfare must give us pause to remember what we fight for and the hope to end all war, forever.

On this Memorial Day, please take the time to read the story of Sergeant William Jasper, a man of humble origins whose determination and bravery helped change the world.

Jasper's actions at Fort Moultrie earned him the confidence of his commander. With Moultrie's blessing, Jasper led a series of daring, small guerrilla raids on British forces in coastal Georgia during the period between 1776 and 1779. As Moultrie later recalled in his Memoirs of the American Revolution, "I had such confidence in [Jasper] that when I was in the field I gave him a roving commission and liberty to pick out his men from my brigade. He seldom would take more than six; he went out often and would return with prisoners before I knew he was gone."

Peace, out.

(note to my international readers: Thank you for your indulgence. We'll be back to our usual Uncertainty presently.)

Bonaventure Cemetery

Right down the road from here.

It's worth checking out if you're in the area.

Lynn (WHAAAAT?)'s Flickr

Lots more Bonaventure Cemetery

More on the GTA-Drunk Driving Foofaraw

This one originates here in Savannah.

From Kotaku:

A TV station in Savannah, Ga. is out doing what Crecente and I commonly referred to as the "gratuitous local." In other words, it's a national story that doesn't have any impact specific to your locality, but you sure can dream up some because it's the kind of story that's real easy to assign. The Grand Theft Auto IV Drunk Driving story fits perfectly, and we will see versions of this for two months, if not more.

Now, you stick a camera on a cop and ask him about drunk driving, real or virtual, and what the hell do you think he's gonna say? WSAV-TV does just that and the results are predictable.

It's just a frickin' game.

If I ran around town actuating Madden, FaceBreaker or Medal of Honor, I'd surely get arrested. What's the difference?

I'll say it again: Those inclined to flip out on something like GTA IV would find something else to flip out on in its absence.

To paraphrase Robert Anton Wilson: Some, but not all, people are idiots.

WSAV

Thanks, Nick

Sunday Excursions: Sunday Gumbo

Let's hit the ground running...

The Man is keeping me down, pt. 1













WebПарк.ру: Котейки (39 фотографий)
via not enough memory
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The Man is keeping me down, pt. 2












Article: Gas to Hit $7 a Gallon
thanks, Joanne
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4. Amorphophallus: means, literally, "shapeless penis." The name comes from the shape of the erect black spadix.

from Eight of the World's Most Unusual Plants (1-4) (5-8)
via Vitamin Briefcase
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Humanzee















From The Scotsman:

A LEADING scientist has warned a new species of "humanzee," created from breeding apes with humans, could become a reality unless the government acts to stop scientists experimenting.

"If you put human sperm into a frog it would probably create an embryo, but it probably wouldn't go very far," he said.

"But if you do it with a non-human primate it's not beyond the realms of possibility that it could be born alive."

RUMINT has it that humans have been "experimenting" with chimps for some time, though this has never been verified. A few beers, a lonely night, some local fauna...

Some even maintain that chimps are human.

For those of you that missed it, meet Oliver. Many thought he was a humanzee, but genetic tests showed that he was a "normal" chimp.

There's more here.



via Delicious Ghost
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Why do ghosts wear clothes?

Four nights a week, I give ghost tours.

To be honest, I have minimal interest in ghosts. I'm more into the folklore and history, but hauntings are a big part of life in Savannah. I have talked to over a hundred people in this town who have had ghost experiences. These are largely professional or salt-of-the-earth types and they're very matter-of-fact, almost bored, with it. (And let's forestall the "were they drunk?" quips. None that I know have ever seen anything of the sort while intoxicated.)

I usually don't tell people this, even on my tour, but I have seen many things here that I cannot explain. Not ambiguous maybes, but real, often 3-D, actualities. Fifteen years in New Orleans and I never had a single experience. Nearly eight years in Savannah, I've had at least two dozen. I won't go into too much detail here, but if you want to know more, contact me.

I do not believe that there is such a thing as paranormal. It's not that I don't feel that these phenomena are real, they are. I just strongly suspect that they are quite natural, normal and scientifically explainable. We merely lack the perceptual tools to measure them. Whether they are the spirits of the departed, psychic residue, time warps/loops, the product of a geomagnetic anomaly, some other type of entity or any combination of, or all of the above, the ones that are real are real and therefore, knowable. If it is merely some sort of sensory or psychological event or state, this should not dismiss anything. Even so, it warrants serious study.

But back to the matter at hand. One thing that has always puzzled me is, why do they wear clothes? This has always been a bullet point for skeptics. I'm not sure if any of the explanations in this article are sufficient, but it begs pondering. (One that I saw in a downtown cemetery was fully clothed in his authentic 19th century Sunday finest. He disappeared while I was standing about ten feet away from him. I saw another dressed in a Confederate uniform outside of the Bonaventure Cemetery. He walked behind a tree and when I went to look, he was nowhere to be found.)

via Mysterious Universe
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Hut, hut, hut, hut!













from TIME
via FFFFOUND!
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In brief:

The U.S. Civil War almost became an Iraq-style insurgency

Worry about the Daemon not Grand Theft Auto
via Danger Room

Weird Story of the Week: Con Man Reality TV
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Serve with a little...

Gotan Project - Triptico (live)


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Enjoy your week. Y'all come back now.

The Art of Juliana Peloso

Juliana Peloso is a truly fine artist living and working here in Savannah. Her paintings and mixed media pieces are outstanding.

Check out her website. It's interesting to see how her work has evolved over the years.