McLuhan on Art

I stumbled upon this quote while writing tonight,

‎"Art is whatever you can get away with.“-Marshall Mcluhan- The Medium is the Massage (1967) 

The man had a way with words and remains eerily poignant, even today.

Alone Together

This is an image of a lone figure, half emerged from the mist of an ambiguous crowd. The figure embodies some of the fundamental paradoxes of social media; it is unique yet vague, specific but indiscernible. This is a person trying to lay claim to identity through a technology that denies it.

“Alone Together”

Acceptance into Perkins’ Works on Paper show

That’s right! A recent work of Ben’s has been accepted into a show! This is in the well-known Perkins Center for the Arts which is located in Moorestown, NJ. This particular work is a long, vertical print- NOT a photograph. And the exhibition is entitled Works on Paper. More information (dates, photos, etc) to be forthcoming.

[by] melissa

praise God who holds in his hand our life and all our ways

Ben is Google-able!

If you forget the url to Ben’s site, you can now google “ben panter photographer” and it will be the first result! “Ben panter photography” will give you the site as the second result, and “ben panter art” as the fourth.

Many of the other links will be about Ben as well, though of course there are many other Ben Panters in the world, too. Some of the links that apply are: the Inquirer’s article, DonBrewerMultimedia’s blog about both my and Ben’s inclusion in Photo Op Op Op at the Hopkins House of Contemporary Art, Ben’s acceptance into the Center for Fine Art Photography’s ‘Low Tech’ exhibition, and our presentation at the Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity after being recipients of the Dean’s Undergraduate Research grants.

[by] melissa

praise God who holds in his hand our life and all our ways

Open Studio Tonight; 1st Year Review

If you happen to be in Philly tonight around 5, come and stop by Moore (its next to the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Franklin Institute). Ben and the four other graduate students are hosting an Open Studio, which means you can go in and look at what they’ve been working on this summer. They’re on the 5th floor- once you get cleared by security they should be able to point you to the elevators.

Before the Open Studio, the first-year graduate students in studio art are being reviewed by several artists/professors, including the artist/Graduate Program Manager Paul Hubbard (official site). This is the ‘qualifying review’ that takes place now that the first semester is complete. It is in preparation for the important mid-program review that will happen next summer, when students will be evaluated on their work and whether or not they are creating art at a level worthy of an MFA degree.

Tomorrow Ben will bring his work home and set up a space for himself in the loft, which will be his studio until next July. At that time, he will go to Ireland for a four-week residency at Burren College of Art.

But for now, Ben will have a break until the weekend classes begin in September!

[by] melissa

praise God who holds in his hand our life and all our ways

Publication in Best of Photography 2010

I just got the mail… and Ben has been selected as a finalist in Photographer’s Forum’s 30th Annual Spring Photography Contest! This means that his work will be published in the hardcover book, Best of Photography 2010 this December. He also received this honor last year: Best of Photography 2009 is still available for purchase for $65.

[by] melissa

praise God who holds in his hand our life and all our ways

A Peek Inside the Studio

Here’s just a little peek into the studio space that Ben works in at Moore. You can see previous work hanging up, along with current projects. If you’re interested in what he’s working on in this picture, I can only point out the small “book” standing at the edge of the table, at the bottom right-center or the picture. This is a miniature of a display idea Ben has been thinking about. Instead of that 6" contraption, it would be much taller- think: to the ceiling. Of course to the left is the coffee mug I made for him that was mentioned in the Philadelphia Inquirer. 🙂

His schedule is 5 days a week from about 8:30 to 6pm, but Wednesdays are until 9pm. That time is split up into the “Visual Culture and Contemporary Aesthetics” class, taught by Ian Verstegan, PhD., time to work in the studio, during which Ben has been guided by 3 different artists, and studio seminars. This will continue for another 2 weeks (6 weeks total), and then he will have all-day Saturday courses during the rest of the year. This will repeat until graduation in the August of 2012.

Ben finds the Aesthetics class a welcome and expected challenge as he studies current trends in art at the Masters level. The three artists with whom Ben has worked are: Moe Brooker, Alice Oh (official site), and Veronica Ryan. The studio seminar is taught by Jennie Shanker (official site). Thanks to all of these artists, he’s been pushed so much already: we’re excited to see how his work will grow in the next two years.

[by melissa]

praise God who holds in his hand our life and all our ways

I’m in the News

A couple weeks ago the Philadelphia Inquirer interviewed me and Brad (a Masters in Art Education student) for being the first males to attend Moore. The article is an interesting read and it was great to be seen in the paper (some guy in the parking garage even recognized me!). The funny thing is that the reporter seemed to be searching for some underlying conflict about our presence at a school with an all female undergrad, which as far as anyone can tell, just doesn’t exist. He kept asking me why I would choose Moore (seemingly fishing for an angle), but I just told him that it is a school with a great reputation and that it offered exactly what I was looking for in an MFA program. Personal, International, Lots of Resources, Great Facilities… and Moore. haha

[by] ben