Word Up

I'm not sure how familiar all of you are with Richard Avedon, but regardless of whether you sit at your computer on Friday nights Google imaging his portraits and drooling over them instead of going out with friends and getting shithoused... or have never heard of his glorious name before (which I am assuming is the case, or at least is the case more often than the former) GO TO THIS SHOW.

It opened at The Corcoran Gallery in D.C on the September 13th and it runs through January 25th. Tickets are on $10.00 for students and you can buy them online at Ticketmaster or at the gallery.

It is an incredible curation of his work, I'm sure. I know I'll be going at some point.

And in the case that you are too lazy to look the show up yourself here's a link.

Ashley Snyder
Untitled
Digital Photograph

Cinder block walls enclose me.

Friends, both old and new, encircle me.

Scents of stale smoke engulf me.

Feelings of addiction enslave me.

As I absorb these familiar features

I feel just two words

Slowly slip from my mouth:

"Carpe Diem"

Vincent DeBenedictis

Untitled

Linda Matheus
Self Portrait
Painting (Oil)

Mold makes itself at home in used drinking glasses.
Underneath, the untreated wood table wears murky rings,
a Venn-diagram: dust wavers before sticking.

Chicken bones pile into pyramids on plates;
a centerpiece, a masterpiece, the dog marvels.

Crouching legs
of a chair scuffle square tiles
joining crumbs in crevices.
A child cheats at chess, sneaking ahead a space.
Shadows from blinds stripe its’ leather back.

Cold spots rattle the fridge,
a wet dog shaking.

A clock’s face soaks into sponge-
painted walls along which petite hands
point proudly to scribbled crayon numbers.
Dark shuffles with light

shedding through crumbled napkin clouds;
accordion blind panels contract.
Thump, clunk, ice drops into glass,
filling the silence like a prescription.
Thump, thump, the dog is a metronome, shedding.

Skewed through water and glass,
stomachs magnify.

Samantha Nickey
Grumbles

Stephanie Shade
'Katia' (from the Car Graveyard Series)
Digital Photograph

If we were bigger
The size of mountains, snow capped and foggy
Maybe we would be able to see
The horizon wouldn't seem so far away
And the sky would be our neighbor
Topping us off with snowflakes
From time to time
Maybe we would be heard
Our stomachs grumbling with the earth
We would be of the earth
We would be the earth
If we were smaller
The size of ants, maybe less
Maybe we would be able to survive
Hunting for food when food is everywhere
Beneath our feet, under our noses
Maybe we could stay hidden
From all the wild beasts
Who wouldn't look like beasts to us
Just mountains roaming
Or giants orbiting
We would be of the earth
We would be the earth
If I am the size you say I am
Then the mountains are the giants
Staying put in their thrones on the earth
Then the ants are that small
So much farther from the sun
Then I do hear
The earth grumbling
When it rises
Waking up to cater another long day
If I am on the earth
Then the earth ages the same as I
Only one side sleeps as the other wakes
If I am the size you say I am
Then I am of the earth
Then I am the earth

Andrea Racine
Free to Roam

Steve Clancy
Above the Universe
Digital Illustration

Tanner Medding
Untitled
Mixed Media Collage

Madeleine Jansen (Violin II)

Dvorak Piano Quintet 1st Movement