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Kurt Ketchum show at Axom Gallery
Kurt Ketchum show at Axom Gallery

Axom’s parking lot was full on Saturday, not with cars parked for the gallery but with vendors selling locally handmade goods. It was a Second Saturday and Rick and Robin Muto let them use the lot each month for the event. We had seen them the night before at an art opening on the ninth floor of the Bank of America building. Rick and Robin had taken one of the artists in that show under their wing years ago. Dan Armbruster from Joywave was up there too. I told him how much we liked his band. Rick told us he wasn’t able to make the opening of my father’s show because he had an opening at his own gallery, Axom, a show that features new work by Kurt Ketchum. We made a point to stop up there the next day and we really enjoyed the show. Kurt puts his own stamp on everything he touches. He brings a new kind of order to objects by interacting with them.

We met my aunt and uncle up at the Geisel Gallery. They live in Niagara Falls and were former traveling partners with my parents. They came into town to see the Leo Dodd show there. My cousin was driving and she called to say they were at Main and Clinton and they couldn’t find the building. My cousin refuses to get a smart phone so it was verbal instructions that were going land this ship. They were only two blocks away but Clinton is one way, the wrong way. And they we pointed west on Main so we had to turn them around. Stone Street, their first left would take them right to the entrance but you can’t turn onto it from Main. We had look for South Avenue and told them to turn left. South Ave. is labeled “”Saint Paul” when goes north and that’s all they saws they called back form Washington Street! They were on the other side of the river. A half hour later they came up Court Street where the Dachshund Parade was happening in Washington Square Park. They unwound in the elevator and they loved the show.

My mother has been gone a year but we still get some mail for her, things like “Better Homes & Gardens.” I took a look at this one on Mother’s Day and found some cool stuff, a simple recipe for grilling Kale, Radicchio and Bok Choy along with high heat, non-stick steel grill fry pan with holes in it for the small stuff. And a feature on house numbers in various colors, fonts and materials. The aluminum Neutra numbers would look good on our house.

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Primitive XXIst Century

Francesca Lalanne show at Axom Gallery in Rochester, New York
Francesca Lalanne show at Axom Gallery in Rochester, New York

Francesca Lalanne had just finished hanging her “Metropoliticoncious II” show at Axom Gallery when we arrived last night. We were a day early. Galleries are moving their openings to avoid the First Friday crush and her opening is tomorrow. It worked out for us because we had a chance to chat with the artist and see her show in the rather intimate space without the crowds. Francesca grew up in Haiti and her artwork carries mysterious subject matter into the primitive twenty first century.

Every ten years or so we stop by the Clothesline Show on the grounds of the Memorial Art Gallery. This time we rode our bikes and chained them to the gallery gates. We signed up up for Fred Lipp’s painting class in the Creative Workshop and then circled the gallery. Peggi bought a neckless from Boo Poulin, we heard a few songs by Woody Dodge, saw a bit of the belly dancers and ate a five dollar ice cream cookie sandwich from Pittsford Dairy. It was nice to see Patricia Wilder doing a bang-up business with her abstract photos.

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Across From The Barrel O’ Dolls

Judd Williams charcoal/graphite drawings at Axom Gallery in Rochester, NY
Judd Williams charcoal/graphite drawings at Axom Gallery in Rochester, NY

Jim Thomas ran a gallery on Prince Street about ten years ago. It was a beautiful space for art. One of the more memorable shows we saw there was Judd Williams. I feel in love with his charcoal drawings. Judd taught painting, printmaking, sculpture and figure drawing at Rochester Institute of Technology and Jim taught there as well. The Axom Gallery on Anderson, run by Rick and Robin Muto with their daughter Margot is one of the finest spaces for art in the city now and and they are currently featuring Judd Williams. Boo Poulin, a student of Judd’s, and I were drooling over these charcoal and granite drawings at the opening, wondering how Judd got such even tones of grey and Boo went directly to the source. Judd explained how he masked areas and layers graphite by rubbing and manipulating and then drawing with rich black on the grey. They are really wondrous.

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