·:[ Stephen Vincent ]:·
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Driftwood on beach near the mouth of the Russian River. If you look close there is an anthropomorphic den of animal family seeming faces within this piece! I won’t delve there. It is 6 in the evening as the sun makes its descent down the Northwest Pacific horizon. I like the wash of the light, the smooth, stripped-down worked skin of what is left of this trunk, its ‘curl and nub’ roots and hollows. The bare-bone clarity charms.

Will return soon. I have been out ill with everyone’s, it seems,interminable cough-cough cold. And a hard, sudden passing of one of my oldest friends, Dan Legant, an actor by profession, at 80 while playing golf on a course near Santa Monica. Way to go, Dan, with your shoes on, club in hand!

Dan Leegant & Stephen Vincent at the September, 2008 wedding of his daughter Ava to Fred,
Napa Valley.

The First 100 Days of Obama, artwork by Stephen Vincent, Steven Wolf Gallery, San Francisco, April 29, 2009; One panel per day; (each panel, 7 x 10″ (vertical), 6 x 8.5′. Ink on various etching papers.

Book cover. (200 pages, 100 drawings with facing texts; 7 3/8 x 9 5/8″ ).

What follows here is a series of photos from the opening day the exhibit of my work, The First 100 Days of Obama, on April 29 at Steven Wolf Fine Arts, an all day show which included (photo above) 100 drawings mounted as a grid on one wall.

Photo by Michele Praeger.
From the event opening at 11 o’clock in the morning into evening reception, I sat at a table facing the installation - on the opposite side of the room - and made drawings and texts on the volume’s final two pages as part of a limited edition of 25 copies. (Since the book arrived on the 100th Day, the last two pages were blank.) Rather astonishingly - in terms of traditional book printing schedules - the book design was sent to a Print on Demand site in New York at 3 0′clock on Tuesday morning and arrived back printed and bound at the Gallery at 10 o’clock on the morning of the show.

Steven Wolf, Director of the Gallery, wanted to create this kind of situation where the literal art work on the wall would be conjoined with a simultaneous book with the artist/writer completing the work for the last date within the book itself. Earlier in the morning I had finished the last haptic drawing that Andrew Sorenson, the Gallery associate glued to the wall just prior to the opening of the show at 11. For the whole day, I continued to make art for the book and texts, most of which were apologetic notes from the President’s spokes regretting his absence at the show, but looking forward to a future meeting in which mutual issues facing the country could be addressed.

Indeed, to go back the installation of the entire wall piece, we were delighted by the various, and some said “marvelous” way the drawings played off each other. A few samples:

Detail

Detail

Unfortunately, in what follows, we have no crowd photos - but all day, I had fun meeting mixes of students, art patrons, friends and family, as folks variously gathered around the temporary site. The haptic drawing process naturally fed on all that energy. But nothing can quite equal having a visit from my grandson, Lucas!

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The final part of The First 100 Days of Obama will be printed this week in a complete, signed edition of 75 copies. This edition will include all 100 drawings and texts. Price: $25, postage and handling included. Ten copies of the limited edition (including drawing, text and signature) remain at $100 each.
Please email orders directly to Steven Wolf Fine Arts: info@stevenwolffinearts.com

Steven Wolf Fine Arts
49 Geary Street, Suite 411
San Francisco, CA 94108
415-263-3677
www.stevenwolffinearts.com

Meanwhile, if you are close, I will read poetry this evening with David Lau at Small Press Traffic, 7:30, Timken Auditorium, CCA on Eighth off 16th to the North. (San Francisco)