Shame on the Met

Shame on the Met, last Sunday five of us drove up to New York to see the Alexander McQueen show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We saw that there was a two hour wait and were informed that if we joined we could skip the line. Not a really big deal since we go to the museum at least four times a year anyway; we joined, two individual memberships plus a "donation" for our guests came to the best part of $200.

The we saw the line, OMG as they say, it went on and on, I could not believe it. When we got to the front of the line, yup, you guessed it, there was another line for members. To be fair we only had to wait a few minutes and we were in.

That was the beginning of the worst experience I have ever had in a museum or for that matter a rock concert. The halls were jammed packed, like a Tokyo subway at rush hour, once in you could not move neither forward nor back just bodies packed in like sardines. I am lucky because I am relatively tall and could see the tops of the exhibits but since I was carrying my four week old daughter I decided I would get the hell out (and get buy catalogue. But. . . leaving was not that simple as the crowds were so intense that it took me a good 15 minutes to get out!

While attempting to leave as politely as possible I found myself wondering what would happen if there was any kind of panic, someone fainting or worse, if the Fire Marshall was there it would surely have been closed - a disaster waiting to happen.

Why the museum could not issue timed tickets - like the rest of the museums in the world - is beyond me but then again their membership has doubled as a result of the show (skip the line) in the same period as last year, even at the basic level that's $700,000 of extra income not to mention the 55,000 copies of the catalogue!

Posted by Rick

National Hot Dog Day - Big Success

Despite it being about 200 degrees in the shade outside of Silicon on Saturday tons of people braved the heat either for Scott's gourmet hot dogs or to drop off clothes and sample Rick's rather less special dog's.

Some guests were lucky enough to sample our unique Margaritas using fresh watermelon juice (made by our own Katie Tackman) skillfully blended with limes and 1800 Tequila. As you can see from the picture about we managed to collect a ton of stuff for Cradles to Crayons and many very generous cash donations. Among the donations were a box of new shoes, books, toys, and new and used clothes (some of which came in bags from other old city establishments.

Hawk Krall also sold a lot of hot dogs prints.

Thanks to help of Louis Zimmer, a Cradles to Crayons volunteer, we managed to get a bunch of press with articles appearing in  City Paper, Metro, Weekly Press and nine other places.



The tank of helium was a big hit with a kids that came in (some adults also had too much fun).

There is still time to donate, just visit Cradles to Crayons or drop off during normal hours at Silicon.

Thanks again to all those who took part and donated.

Posted by Rick

Hot Diggedy Dog Press Release - this Saturday 23rd.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For information, contact: Rick De Coyte, Silicon 215-238-6062/rick@fineartprint.com Old City Business to Offer Food for Good Thoughts On National Hot Dog Day, Saturday, July 23 OLD CITY, July 15 – Calling it our civic duty, Rick De Coyte is asking local residents to help Philadelphia move to number one among the top hot dog-consuming cities in the United States* by celebrating National Hot Dog Day, Saturday, July 23, from 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. , with a free hot dog** and beverage. The event will take place in front of Silicon (fineartprint.com), the fine art print studio at 139 N. Third Street, in Old City. * Philadelphia is currently ranked sixth according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, based on total retail sales in the United States, excluding Walmart, for the 2010 calendar year. Treat’s on him…as long as the diner-in-waiting brings some new or gently used clothes or any of a wide range of goods used by children, from infants through preteens. It will be donated to Cradles to Crayons, the area organization that served more than 25,000 low-income and/or homeless children in the five-county southeastern Pennsylvania region last year. If you don’t bring any clothes or donations, it could mean no free hot dog, but Rick says “not to worry. You’ll be able to buy the best dog in town from "Scott Dogs," a food cart from Scott Schroeder (acooknamedscott@hotmail.com), chef of the South Philadelphia Taproom, featuring homemade hot dogs and topping, including a chili dog and homemade mustard-relish dog, that will be premiering at the National Hot Dog Day event. In addition to getting a free hot dog for the children’s clothes donation or buying one of Scott Schroeder’s new edible hot dog creations, hot dog prints to purchase and take home will be on display at Silicon. The prints are created by local Illustrator, cartoonist (graphic below) and food writer Hawk Krall (hawkkrall.net/prints), who writes and illustrates a "Hot Dog Of The Week" column for Serious Eats, and wrote and illustrated an article, "America's Best Hot Dogs," for Rachel Ray magazine. De Coyte, Silicon’s proprietor, has enlisted some fellow members of the Old City Business Collective to join him on July 23 by complementing his offer of free eats by taking a 10 percent bite off the sale price of products through July 31. Bring more than 20 pounds of the children’s clothes items and the 10 percent discount at Silicon will be extended to all purchases through August 31. Bring in the most clothes that day between the event hours of 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. and receive a $100.00 Silicon gift certificate. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce officially designated July as National Hot Dog Month in 1957; The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council encourages all Americans to join in celebrating this national icon. About Cradles to Crayons Cradles to Crayons collects new and gently used essential items for children in low-income and homeless situations from birth to age 12 in the five-county southeastern Pennsylvania area. The items are contributed by families, corporations, schools and community partners who conduct local product collections and deliver them to Cradles to Crayons’ West Conshohocken warehouse. Volunteers inspect and sort the donated clothing, shoes, toys, books, and school supplies, and fill orders from social service agencies for individual KidPacks – a week’s worth of everyday essentials for a child. In 2010, more than 15,000 KidPacks, 10,000 backpacks, and 8,000 new coats were provided, free of charge, to needy children. www.cradlestocrayons.org. **While supplies last.	HELP US HELP LESS FORTUNATE KIDS
	Copyright Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints Ltd 1995 - 2011 All rights reserved copyright notice

CFEVA at the Icebox

©Tim Portlock copyright notice

Tonight we went to the opening of "Construct" an Exhibition by CFEVA Career Development Fellows, curated by CFEVA's Amie Postic. The show was well worth going to with sculpture, paintings and digital images of a very high standard.

I say digital images because Tim Portlock's work is neither painting nor photograph, they are renderings of urban spaces that are vaguely recognisable as real places but only truly exist in Tim's computer. Such is the complexity of the 3 dimensional images that to render them at the size and resolution they are printed at he has to send the files to a supercomputer where they render them at off peak times and then send the huge files back.

We have been working with Tim on his images for some years now and they get better and better. I am sure that at some moment in the near future some fancy New York gallery will pick him up and they will suddenly attain stratospheric prices and he fame and fortune - you heard it here first!

©KImberly Witham - Still Life with Fox and Steak

On the photography side Noah Addis has some really nice images, as did Kimberly Witham - seen here Still Life with Steak and Fox whose work is whimsical and slightly sinister. On a professional note I have to wonder why she have them printed as digital C prints, this is where photographic paper is exposed using lasers, this used to be the way to print color glossy images but inkjet printing, especially Epson's have caught up and overtaken the quality in the last few years. Of course I may be just a little biased :)

The show is up at the Icebox until June 29th.

Posted by Rick

Art Institute Schmooze

©Corey Palmer 2011 see copyright notice Copyright Notice

 Tonight Michal Smith - ex Silicon and the Print Center, now doing good things at www.cradlestocrayons.com, visited the Sketch Club at 235 South Camac St., for the Art Institutes spring photography Schmooze, sponsored by the Art Institutes Photography department.

The event is designed for local photographers, designers and the like to get together, have a drink and generally mingle. Jill Sherman, another ex Silicon person, teaches as AI and was there along with a bunch of seniors showing off their final projects, very impressive, especially a series of images by Corey Palmer, which were beautifully presented and fabulously printed but I am too modest to say by whoom.

I took some pictures of the event with my fabulous and trusty Sony NEX-5 but forgot to put in the "film" (read memory stick)  . . .

Posted by Rick

First Friday June 2011 - Part 2

The second best show in town was at our own Katie Tackman's new gallery / work space in Fishtown; GRAVY.  Showing at Gravy fabulous prints (by Silicon, natch) all the more amazing because they are from the cell phone of Silicon Alum Kaitlin Mosley.

Left to right Kaitlin Mosley and Katie Tackman

This is the second show we have printed recently from cell phone images. The first was Tristin Lowe's highly erotic images at Fleisher Ollman Gallery.

It was quite a scene at GRAVY and the renowned Philly artist Rachel Bliss turned up with her kids. If you know Rachel's work you probably covet it, so the good news is that Rachel will be at Art For the Cash Poor this weekend, June 11 - 12 at the Crane Arts Building in Kensington, with stupendous prints of her work. The rule is everything must be under $200 so there are bargains to be had!

Left to right Freda, Rachel Bliss and Rosalie

Posted by Rick

First Friday June 2011

Busy, busy, busy First Friday in June, loads of shows around with prints by Silicon but I have to mention the two best shows in town. The first by our own Colleen Rudolf at Hollandia in Old City. Yes, yes, I know Hollandia is a place that sells high end beds but Stefan at Hollandia is committed to showing new work every month and I must day that he has had some pretty good shows so far. But, of course, none as good as Colleen's paintings of rescue dogs.



















And. . . not be be outdone she brought along a couple of her friends who came complete with wonderful dogs desperately in need of adoption. Below you can see the adorable Woolfgang with the equally adorable Kate - Woolgang's foster Mum - with Colleen in the background. No . . . that's Colleen behind the guy.





We are happy to report that Woolfgang was adopted on Saturday!
If you are interested in a fabulous loyal dog, or slightly less loyal stinking cat, just around the corner from Silicon is PAWS  Philadelphia's Animal Welfare Society. If you become a member of PAWS you get discounts at Silicon (don't tell anyone!)

Posted By Rick