Obscurae News

Origin, events, and outlook

2010-07-20T14:19:47-05:00

New to Obscurae and wondering what this site is all about? Back in 2008 two Braddock residents had a crazy idea about collecting photographs of Braddock from a wide variety of photographers and displaying them in frames built from reclaimed materials in the local gallery. We chose obscure details as the theme, and so Obscurae was born.

Photographer Mary Beth Miller, curator jodi morrison, and Dana Bishop-Root adjust a photo before the 2008 exhibition opens.

Our initial goal was to have the first show in mid-December, 2008. But the gallery space was available December 5th and 6th, and we were encouraged to push it up to tap into the other events in Braddock scheduled for that weekend. We decided to take on the challenge: Six weeks to design and build 100 frames, contact photographers, collect or print the donated pieces, match each piece to a unique frame, mat and mount them, prepare them to hang, set up the gallery, get up the show, and throw a party. No problem!

It sounds like a reality tv show. And like one we were faced with additional challenges, both related to the show and personal, thrown our way throughout the process. There were sleepless nights, early mornings, and many pots of coffee. Yet somehow we enjoyed it so much we decided to do it all again in 2009.

In addition to art lottery shows, Obscurae offers the chance to purchase frames and prints from both exhibitions in the online gallery. We’ve also had booths at SouthSide Works Exposed and the I Made It! Market. Proceeds from the gallery support grassroots projects in Braddock as well as the photographers. Read more about one local project funded from online gallery sales: Delicious Donations.

Although we are not planning a show for 2010, we are still offering prints through this site and in our Etsy shop. We’d also love to hear from you if you are a photographer, collector, Braddock enthusiast ... this project is a labor of love. We’ve met many great people and strengthened our printing, matting, and framing techniques in the mad dashes to make the shows as fun and enlightening as possible. If you have ideas on where you’d like to see Obscurae prints, how we can help other photographers in Braddock, or just want to get in touch—please do! Contact information is on the About Us page.

Photo Show & Lottery September 19!

2009-09-18T13:29:20-05:00

The countdown has begun!

~~Tomorrow night~~ Tonight starting at 7pm come out to UnSmoke Systems Artspace and join us as we support some of the amazing activities taking place in Braddock. Explore the hidden beauty of the town in its details as you try to choose your favorite photographs paired with one-of-a-kind, handmade frames. Trust us—it will not be a simple decision! There are so many amazing photographs in this year’s show, our heads are spinning.

Or maybe that feeling stems from all of the frame building, matting, photo printing, and other set up leading up to the show. Here’s a peak behind the scenes at some of the frames in progress:

A variety of frames stacking up as they awaited pairing with photographs—photo by Jenny Whittemore Fremlin

Where did these frames come from? Former window frames, window panes, kitchen doors, fan blades, tables, chairs, garage doors, door frames, wall paper, cabinet doors, tin ceiling tiles, metal bits, old handles, molding, and more collected from sources all over town went together to form the frames you will see in the show.

The bakers are prepping, the coffee bar is being set up, the beer ready to be tapped ...

We also stopped into Golden Treasures, one of Braddock’s hidden gems, yesterday where Anna Golden let us wander around scouting for photo booth props. Thanks to their eclectic collection and generous support, you’ll have some fun and unique props to pose with in the Polaroid portrait booth installation. Be stoic, be goofy, be yourself ... and capture it all on film.

Everything begins tomorrow—Saturday, September 19—at 7pm in UnSmoke Systems Artspace, 1137 Braddock Ave, Braddock PA. The Art Lottery starts at 8:30pm. If you have a ticket to participate in the lottery, make sure to get there with enough time to make a list of your favorite pieces before the lottery starts. (Details on how the Art Lottery works) The photography exhibition and watching the craziness of the Art Lottery are FREE and open to everyone. Participating in the Art Lottery will require you to dig into your wallet. (Or your paypal account.)

Secure your ticket now for the 2009 Obscurae Art Lottery: $45 in advance. $55 at the door. A ticket guarantees you go home with a piece of artwork from the exhibition.

Directions by Jennifer Schlieper

Check out some more of the great pieces that will be in this year’s show in our 2009 Sneak Peak page!

Food, Fun, and Photography

2009-09-11T20:53:54-05:00

What could be better than exploring Braddock’s hidden beauty through the eyes of amazing photographers? Doing it while sipping on coffee (or beer and wine), sampling fresh-baked sweet and savory goodies from the community oven, and getting your own photo taken of course!

Portrait Booth Project by John Ryan Brubaker

That’s right, not only is Obscurae’s photography exhibition FREE and open to the public, it’s also lots of fun thanks to so many great collaborators! Jake Liefer of the Pittsburgh Area Coffee Association will be setting up a coffee bar at the event. John Ryan Brubaker will be installing a traveling version of his Portrait Booth Project where you can travel back in time with your very own quirky portrait shot with a 1968 Polaroid on instant black and white film. Brillobox donated beer for the event. And don’t forget the fresh wood-fired treats from Braddock’s own community oven.

Obscurae will be housed once again in Braddock at UnSmoke Systems Artspace. Everything kicks off Saturday, September 19 at 7pm. The Art Lottery is set to begin at 8:30pm. If you have a ticket to participate in the lottery, make sure to get there with enough time to make a list of your favorite pieces before the lottery starts. (Details on how the Art Lottery works.) The photography exhibition and watching the craziness of the Art Lottery are free and open to everyone. Participating in the Art Lottery will require you to dig into your wallet. (Or your paypal account.)

Secure your ticket now for the 2009 Obscurae Art Lottery: $45 in advance. $55 at the door. A ticket guarantees you go home with a piece of artwork from the exhibition.

Sidewalk Palms by Shannon Gustafson

Check out some more of the great pieces that will be in this year’s show in our 2009 Sneak Peak page!

2009 Art Lottery Announced!

2009-08-19T16:33:10-05:00

Yes, it’s true!!—There will be another Art Lottery this year because, well, we *heart* Braddock (Don’t you?) and we’re just crazy enough to take on all of the work involved, again. So mark your calendars with “Obscurae: Photography Exhibition & Art Lottery” on Saturday September 19, 2009. 7pm-??

Obscurae will be housed once again in the UnSmoke Artspace gallery. We will be sharing a night of great music, delicious food baked in our community wood-burning oven, and stunning photographs of our small town, with good people who, like you, *heart* Braddock too. Join us!!

Everything kicks-off at 7pm. The Art Lottery is set to begin at 8:30pm. If you have a ticket to participate in the lottery, make sure to get there with enough time to make a list of your favorite pieces before the lottery starts. The photography exhibition and watching the craziness of the Art Lottery are free and open to everyone. Participating in the Art Lottery will require you to dig into your wallet. (Or your paypal account.)

What’s the Art Lottery, you ask? Well it is your opportunity to take home one of the framed photographs of Braddock, PA, donated by more than 25 photographers. And it is your opportunity to show Braddock the love, since proceeds from the ticket sales will go to support Braddock’s many art and community projects; current and future. The only questions are “when will your number be called?” and “what pieces will be left when it is?” Answers to these questions and more are on our What IS an art lottery? page.

Secure your ticket now for the 2009 Obscurae Art Lottery! $45 in advance. $55 at the door. A ticket guarantees you go home with a piece of artwork that night.

Make sure to keep an eye out for our 2009 Art Lottery Sneak Peak page, also available August 24. We’ll be adding photographs that will be in this year’s lottery over the next four weeks. You can also sign up for our update/newsletter list and subscribe to RSS news updates to be kept in the know.

Not able to make it to the show on September 19 but still *heart* Braddock? We’ll really miss having you there!! No worries though, you can still show Braddock the love!! Prints from our 2008 Art Lottery are available through our online gallery. And our Etsy shop has a variety of sized prints, frames made of reclaimed materials, and even some prints on canvas!! All proceeds from our online sales are split between the photographer and our dear Braddock.

We’ll also be at the Union Project with prints, frames, and Art Lottery tickets on September 5th for the Pittsburgh Craft Collective’s “Crafts N’at” Fair.

Interested in submitting work for the 2009 show?? Know someone who might?? Our submissions page has the info you need. We can’t do this without the amazing generosity and brilliant work of our collaborating photographers. Obscurae *hearts* you, photographers!!

We hope to see you in September!!

SouthSide Works Exposed Was a Hit

2009-07-25T13:21:54-05:00

We had a blast people watching, talking to everyone who stopped by, and ... hanging with Elvis at SouthSide Works Exposed.

Thanks to Jeanine Hall for these great photos!

The King visits—taken by Jeanine Hall

Obscurae’s booth at SouthSide Works Exposed in July—taken by Jeanine Hall

We’re at SouthSide Works Exposed this weekend!

2009-07-10T15:32:22-05:00

Our latest event is SouthSide Works Exposed starting tonight at 5pm. Please stop by booth 51 to look through our expanding offerings. We’ve recently added stretched canvas prints to the selection and a variety of new print sizes. You can check out some of them at our Etsy shop, but the newest frames and canvas prints will be premiering at SouthSide Works Exposed this weekend!

Obscurae’s table at I Made It! Cozy in June—taken by Jenny Whittemore Fremlin

And now for a blurb about the event:

SouthSide Works Exposed is an amazing mix of a music festival, artist’s market, and sidewalk sales … but most of all a celebration of art in life. The setting for the event is in and around the Town Square of SouthSide Works. More than 70 local artists and craftspeople will be selling their amazing wares including ceramics, paintings, jewelry, clothing and more.

Within the music festival you may get to see local, semi-national, national, and cultural performances. Gathered in the Artist’s Market you will get to see some of Pittsburgh’s newest exciting artists, along with some old favorites who have supported the Pittsburgh arts for years. This Market is a partnership with the I Made It! Market. To learn more about the event and vendors participating throughout the weekend, visit http://www.exposedartistsmarket.org.

Networking Obscurae

2009-05-30T18:15:41-05:00

Obscurae will be at the upcoming I Made It! Market in Squirrel Hill. Here’s the official blurb:

I Made It! Cozy
More than 40 I Made It! Market artists join with the American Jewish Museum at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday, June 7 from 2 - 6 pm to celebrate the AJM’s current exhibit, Nests, and to offer handmade objects for your own nest. Artist Anna Divinsky will give demonstrations about her techniques and conduct workshops with visitors at the I Made It! Cozy Market. For more information, visit http://www.imadeitmarket.com or http://www.jccpgh.org.
The JCC is located at 5738 Forbes Avenue (enter from Darlington Road) in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

Also, we have been asked to do the Art Lottery again this year—Our tentative date is September 19, we’ll keep you posted!

To raise funds to offset the cost of putting on the show we set up a project on Kickstarter. If you haven’t heard of Kickstarter, it’s time to check it out!

They connect artistic, creative, inventive individuals with pledges of support to get their projects started. Once you read about the amazing set up they’ve created (and forward on the Obscurae project to friends and family) stop over to donate $1 to their cause.

In other social media news, Obscurae Gallery is now on Facebook. Become a fan of Obscurae!

If you have yet to check it out—two of our photographers, Dan Buczynski and Todd Hryckowian, have created an amazing new magazine, STRONGBOX. We highly recommend that you download the first issue!!

And if you tweet, you can keep up on events in Braddock by following BraddockNews. Jenny started this social media news feed for Braddock and has been able to get the Braddock Youth Project involved in coverage through their summer program.

Online Gallery Sales Funded Local Project

2009-05-30T17:51:52-05:00

We are happy to say that some proceeds from the online gallery have gone to start Delicious Donations, a mini-grant by Jeanine Hall, the director of UnSmoke Art Space Gallery. Delicious Donations is a monthly, community-created mini grant with an open-to-all application process. We are very excited that Obscurae helped to fund another project whose purpose is to help fund even more projects that will create new work in the Pittsburgh area. Small ripples….

Vegan waffle at the brunch—taken by Jenny Whittemore Fremlin

The first official Delicious Donations was a Belgian Waffle Brunch in Braddock on Saturday May 9. There were a variety of projects submitted for this round—a victory garden/ guerrilla gardening project for abandoned buildings – a bi-monthly film screening series called “one take on super eight”—a textile sculpture project – a philosophical documentary style book of the changes the recent economic decline has created in the US—an online social media project—… and more. For $8 participants voted on the project they wanted to fund and enjoyed a waffle brunch as a thank you for supporting the projects. All of the money raised during the day went to support the project with the most votes. The winner was “Avant-Savant Micro-Cinema” One Take Super 8 PGH event. Artists: Cody Darling, James Rowell & Brett Kashmere.

If you are interested in submitting a project for the next round, the deadline is June 16. http://deliciousdonations.wordpress.com/

Online Gallery

2009-02-26T02:34:37-05:00

Photography Gallery of Braddock, PA

The Obscuræ gallery is a fundraiser supporting projects in Braddock. We started with an art photography show and lottery in December at UnSmoke Galleries. Now the project continues with online sales of all of the photographs featured in the show plus more.

We really enjoyed working with all of the photographers who were so generous with their time and work. All online sales profits will be split with them and Braddock Redux to support both existing and future interest in Braddock. Please take a look through the photographers gallery and contact us if you are interested in any special orders! Handmade frames are still available and can be paired with any photograph.

Art Photography Lottery

2008-12-09T01:16:06-05:00

The Art Photography Lottery at Unsmoke Systems

The Art Lottery Fundraiser was a resounding success. We had a solid showing on Friday night, and despite the snow on Saturday the lottery was a lot of fun. We met some great people and shared some of the small beautiful details found around Braddock.

After the lottery we offered the remaining pieces for sale and by the end of the night we'd sold out the entire show. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help!

The Back Wall of the Gallery

The next phase of the Obscurae Gallery project is the Print Gallery. The gallery contains all the images from the show, but will also be expanding over time. Signed archival prints of the images are now available for most images, with more being added frequently. Print sales will be split between Obscurae and the photographer, making them a great gift that supports both the arts and the important work taking place in Braddock.

Jodi and Ryan - taken by Sam Miller, Age 2