The Latest Stuff - Page 24 of 42

May 30, 2015 Bill Swislow

Stanley Szwarc Portrait Gallery

Stanley Szwarc’s most typical creations are marvels of decoration, stainless steel boxes lathered in abstract ornamentation. But he also applied his geometric talent to creating faces, some ominous, some cartoony, some robotic, and some quite dressy. When the book keeper turned metal worker took up representational imagery, his imagination was stunning. Recently acquired early work Visit the Stanley Szwarc visionary cross gallery View Stanley Szwarc’s vases The Stanley Szwarc boxes Stanley Szwarc in color 2016 show at Intuit in Chicago Read The Stanley Szwarc story

May 29, 2015 Bill Swislow

Short Review: A New American Picture

This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that” books, or more accurately, “I kind of thought of that but never got around to doing it” books. Doug Rickard travels the country via Google Street View and creates a virtual street photography from the massive library of automatically generated images. Rickard gravitates to images of more or less distressed locations that include people, which means he is drawing from a small percentage of available pictures. I’m impressed with the patience this must require. As the book notes, his approach lets him show places he’s never been and would

May 29, 2015 Bill Swislow

Short Review: What Is Happening to News

Jack Fuller is a member of that unlucky generation of journalists who were in charge when the online flood started to swamp the newspaper industry. Contrary to some popular cliches, Fuller and many of his colleagues were well aware of the challenges posed by the Internet and tried very hard to turn them into opportunities. The Chicago Tribune, where Fuller was editor and then publisher, invested heavily in digital publishing and brought some great ideas to fruition, many quite successful. Unfortunately, the circumstances undermining the economics of the newspaper business were beyond control. In this book Fuller goes beyond the

May 13, 2015 Bill Swislow

Short Review: David Plowden’s A Handful of Dust: Disappearing America

David Plowden’s photos in A Handful of Dust: Disappearing America are marvelously evocative as always. His introductory text moves them to a dimension beyond ruin porn. Usually when you see pictures of rural decay you respond to that evocativeness and to the formal beauty of the scenes. Plowdwn connects you to the stories behind these mostly Midwestern images in the same way that he’s connected, by talking about what these places (and the people who once populated them) were like when he first photographed them years ago. There really is a narrative behind almost every ruined farmhouse or boarded-up store.

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April 20, 2015 Bill Swislow

Stanley Szwarc’s Visionary Cross Purposes

Stanley Szwarc (1928-2011), a Polish book keeper turned metal worker and then artist after arriving in the United States, gave no indication of being particularly religious, but he did like making crosses. A prolific creator of objects from scrap stainless steel, always demonstrating over-the-top imagination, Szwarc made hundreds of crosses, if not thousands. He produced jewelry, he made crosses to be hung on the wall, and he crafted cruciform objects with no apparent use other than to be carriers of his endless combinations of geometric shapes. Szwarc liked to say that no two of his objects, be they crosses, vases, key fobs or boxes, were alike. The evidence plainly supports that contention while demonstrating a virtuosic artistic vision

Skaters by Thomas Penn, DuSable High School

March 24, 2015 Bill Swislow

Vernacular Art Spectacular, DuSable High School

This group of drawings turned up at Maxwell Street some years ago. With the possible exception of “Take your cross and follow me,” which is an earlier piece, they were executed by students of Ethel Nolan, an artist and art teacher at DuSable High School on Chicago’s South Side. I’m guessing she might have saved the best of her students’ work, as represented here. Super fine vernacular art.

March 19, 2015 Bill Swislow

Crazy Store Names: Funereal Splendor

Some names are perfect for business, some not so much. Check out these.

March 15, 2015 Bill Swislow

Inside the Fireworks: A July 4 Light Show

Interesting things become visible if you get really up close to a July 4 fireworks display.

March 8, 2015 Bill Swislow

Business Name Failures

Perhaps you don’t really want to name these businesses after yourself: Sam N Ella’s River Club Bar & Grill, Kankakee; Bates Motel, Coeur d’Alene. More weird business names.

March 4, 2015 Bill Swislow

Wall Art: Generations of Jessica’s

Three generations of great roadside art signage on the wall at Jessica’s Western Wear, Clark near Lunt, Chicago. The art continues to deteriorate, and the store is now called Jessica’s Fashion, but there is still some cowboy gear in the window. What I really want to know, however, is where the Jetsons came in.