My Students: please click here for course materials.
CONTRATULATIONS! to my friend Alberto Rey on being named State University of New York's Distinguished Professor in Research / Creative Activity. A more deserving guy, I do not know. See his work: albertorey.com
Jan. 6, 2007 I just returned from Thailand, Cambodia, and Japan. It was an incredible few weeks. In addition to attending "Hyper-Traditions," the conference of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments hosted by Thammasat University, Bangkok, we traveled to Angkor Wat and other temple sites in the area, spent a few days in Phnom Penh, traveled back to Bangkok for another week, and then flew to Tokyo to spend a few days celebrating the arrival of the New Year Japanese style. I shot about seven hours of video and hope to be able to translate that into several project including one on Tuol Sleng, the infamous Khmer Rouge Security Prison known as S-21, and another based on footage shot at Wat Pho, the home of the 40 meters long by 15 meters high "reclining Buddha."
I traveled with Tricia Stuth and Ted Shelton, professors of architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Tricia presented a paper at the conference about a research project she conducted with her students on the relocation of the Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia and Ted and I managed to have some fabulous suits tailored for us Raja's Fashions -- a very cool experience (added bonus: Ted is also my nephew and it was a blast to get to spend that much time with him).
It was an amazing trip that I will always remember. I shot a few hundred still images, but because they were shot with my video camera while in video mode, they are low resolution. However, if you'd like to see them, they can be accessed at www.homepage.mac.com/danrtalley.
 |
 |
 |
(Photos: me with GE Smith; David Lindley rocking with banjo; students and faculty in front of the performance hall. More FPR photos.
|
June, 2006 I attended G.E. Smith's Blues Workshop at the Fur Peace Ranch, Pomeroy, Ohio, and it was all I had hoped for and more -- wonderful facilities, extraordinary faculty and staff, amazing food, and my fellow students were great. In addition to G.E.'s workshop, David Lindley lead a multi-style acoustic workshop and Fareed Haque conducted jazz guitar sessions. The three presented a highly memorable concert Saturday evening at the facility's performance hall, the Fur Peace Station. Their encore also featured camp master Jorma Kaukonen on acoustic guitar. Wow!
If you have any interest in improving your musical skills and having a great time doing it, I highly recommend that you check out this fantastic institution. Without a doubt, I will be attending again -- definitely a peek experience.
Update: February, 2007 My friend Roger Dalrymple (Oxford, England), has created a video about his experience at the workshop. I was flattered that Roger choose to use a few of my images in his piece. You can see it on YouTube.
• March, 2006 - I talked with David Lee in Atlanta regarding the development of the Stan Sharshal Archive. Sharshal was a vital force in the Atlanta Arts Community in the '70 and '80 — he died in 1992, at the age of 42, the result of an undiagnosed aneurysm. In many ways, Sharshal's work defined the "edge" aesthetic in Atlanta and he could have easily been a force in the national scene had he been a more willing candidate.
Although the Tula Foundation presented an exhibition of his work shortly after his death, and the Museum of Contemporary of Georgia has many of his pieces and some archival material in their collection, much of Sharshal's video and installation work is in jeopardy of being forgotten. It is my hope, that with the support and cooperation of the many people who were impacted and influenced by Sharshal's work, that we can build an electronic archive that will preserve his work and ideas for future generations — a "virtual catalogue raisonné." If you have photographs, artworks, documentation, information, or suggestions for this project, please get in touch. I'm also interested in collecting written remembrances and eventually, possibly recording some oral histories that document Sharshal's relationships and connections in the arts community. talley@kutztown.edu
• I'm in my eleventh year of service at Kutztown University and was recently promoted to the rank of full professor. The gallery is closing for a year-and-a-half during our renovation/construction project. Our new gallery will open September, 2008. At that time, I will resume my responsibilities as director, but in the interim, I'm teaching Electronic Media for Artists, Digital Photography and Business of Art.
• January, 2005 - I curated another exhibition for the Museum of Contemporary
of Georgia (Atlanta). The project was called Accelerating Sequence:
Artists Explore Time and Aging (information is available on the MoCA GA website). Also, copies of the catalog are still available from my first project at MoCA GA — Color, Culture, Complexity — an exhibition co-curated with Ed Spriggs, Spring, 2002.
• I recently contributed articles on Terry Adkins, Benny Andrews, Amalia Amaki, and Clarissa Sligh to the upcoming Encyclopedia of African American Art and Architecture. Publication is behind schedule with a possible 2006 press date.
• Several people have commented on the new look of this site — especially the cool "lightbox" image viewer feature used on my Artworks page (it's also being added to many of the pages in my writings section). The script was designed and written by Lokesh Dhakar and is available through Dynamic Drive. Lokesh's website is huddletogether.com. It's a great script and I'm very pleased to be able to incorporate it into my site.
• I continue as Contributing Editor in the Philadelphia area for Art Papers.
The new editor, Sylvie Fortin, has done a wonderful job with the publication and the Jan/Feb '06 redesign is fabulous (unfortunately, not pictured here). Please visit Art Papers' web site for news on the current and future issues.
For more information on contents of this page contact: talley@kutztown.edu