Photos Shown In Butler Museum Exhibit Opening

"Coming Up the Cuyahoga" All Photos Copyright Stuart Pearl 2008

Each year The Butler Institute of American Art holds its Midyear Exhibition. This competition is a national juried show. Painter, print makers, and photographers from around the country submit their work. The show opened today at the Youngstown cultural institution.

This is the first year I've entered the Butler show. To my great satisfaction, all three of my submissions were accepted. The black and white print "Coming Up the Cuyahoga" won Best In Show which comes with a monetary award.

Stuart Pearl

It was additionally purchased by the museum for its permanent collection as well as by a private individual. It shows the bulk carrier Algoway being guided up the Cuyahoga by a river tug, at the Lorain Carnegie Bridge.

"Girders and Stacks"

This bridge and portions of the old Powerhouse Complex are part of my Cleveland Flats series. It shows the twin brick stacks of the Powerhouse framed by the rusting ironwork of the decommissioned B&O railroad bridge near Settlers Landing. Hidden amidst the girders you can just make out part of the Nautica Stage tent.

"Memorial Glow"

This photograph of the Veterans Memorial Bridge (Detroit Superior) was shot last winter from the old Superior Viaduct. The temperature was about six degrees as the sun rose over a crystal clear morning. Golden light illuminated the inner girders of the trusses, and I had only seconds to make the shot before the glow faded.

The picture above of the snow covered Superior Viaduct was not a show entry. But this was the vantage point for "Memorial Glow."

Our family has a tradition of involvement with the Butler Museum. My sister Sharlene Green is a very talented painter as well as college art professor and has been accepted to the Midyear Show in the past. Our father Moses Pearl had paintings shown in Butler exhibits and competitions four times since 1957. His water color painting "The Pass Over" is part of their permanent collection.

Over 800 entries were submitted for the 2008 competition. Of those, 104 pieces were selected for display from over 60 artists. The show runs from July 13 - August 24 at the Youngstown museum.

Rosewood Gallery Accepts “Steel Sunrise”

This year has been very successful for juried photo competitions. In Spring I was notified that “Steel Sunrise” had been accepted by the Rosewood Gallery for their 2008 Dayton, Ohio Show.

“Steel Sunrise” Photos Copyright Stuart Pearl 2008 (Click Picture to Enlarge)

The above photo is my black and white interpretation of the Arcelor Mital Steel Mill located in Cleveland’s Flats. I felt this image was best respresented with a complete absence of color. The cubes of scrap iron, battered rail cars and smoking stacks impart a sense of grittiness that are best conveyed in shades of gray.

Between wedding and Bar Mitzvah work I love to explore Cleveland’s urban landscape. Wandering this area is very relaxing. The range of exposures provide an opportunity to hone my digital skills. This industrial zone has proven to be a fertile area for many satisfying images. Some of these have been submitted to local shows.

Morning and evening, as well as sunny or overcast woll result in totally different representations of the same landscape. I will often scout an area for weeks, experimenting with various exposures and angles before settling upon the desired image.

The above photo of Mital was shot several days prior to the black and white phot, during heavy overcast. The sunlight was spotty and my timing was all wrong for the type of shot I was seeking.

Lacking the desired impact, this print was not submitted to Rosewood. It has a pleasant painterly aspect to it, but lacks the contrast and drama of the image that ended up being accepted. I feel the success of black and white photo owes much to the sunlight which had just broken through the clouds.

Taken within minutes of that first sunlit shot is a similar view in color. It focuses on Mittal’s scrap loading rail yard.

Had it not been for my sister Sharlene Green , I never would have found out about the Rosewood competition. She is a very talented painter in her own right, has had gallery shows of her paintings, and has been accepted to various competitions over the years. She is also a college professor at Tri-C.

Sharlene had two oil paintings accepted by Rosewood this year. Her work “Foliage And Falls at Brandywine “ is one of those and can be seen below. It had previously been displayed at her Tri-C East Show in 2006.

“Foliage And Falls at Brandywine “ by Sharlene Green