LAST WEEK! Cynthia Beth Rubin exhibits “Layered Histories” and “Memories & Wanderings” 2/5-3/6, 2010, Workshop 3/6

Archives , Exhibitions

Cynthia Beth Rubin, a renowned digital media artist, will be showing digital paintings/collages and an interactive sound and image installation in a show titled “Memories & Wanderings” at the PHOTOSTOP Gallery from February 5 through March 6, 2010. An opening reception for the artist will be held on February 5th from 6-9 pm with a gallery talk by Rubin at 7:30 pm.

Rubin’s exhibition will include a variety of electronically based artworks, including an installation called “Layered Histories: The Wandering Bible of Marseilles” created in collaboration with Bob Gluck. This interactive installation combines moving images and sounds triggered by a visitor’s use of a stylus moved across a digital tablet, illustrating the imaginary story of an actual 13th century Spanish illuminated Hebrew Bible. Fleeing Spain with the 1492 Expulsion, the Bible was known to be in Safed until the mid-16th century, but then apparently disappeared until it was discovered around 1888 in the Bibliothèque Municipale in Marseilles. “Layered Histories” has been shown at Yale University, in major cities in the U.S., and at the Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic. For more information, visit: http://www.cbrubin.net/layered_histories/index.html. Prague installation photograph on homepage by Dana Cabanova, Jewish Museum, Prague.

In addition, Cynthia Rubin will be exhibiting works from several series combining digital drawings and photography. Her “ Glen Memories: 40 Years of Wandering” series is based on pen and ink drawings and photographs taken over a forty-year period in the same locations. She will also be showing selected works from her career, including digital paintings and collages based on themes from Eastern European history.

Rubin’s work has been written about in publications throughout the world and she is a frequent lecturer at national and international graphic and digital art conferences. She is currently affiliated with the Rhode Island School of Design and is involved in the boards of ISEA, the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts and SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques). She is a three-time recipient of an individual artist grant in New Media from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and has received numerous other grants and awards. Cynthia has exhibited in Brazil, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands and her work is found in many public and private collections.

The workshop, “Rivers of Pixels: Fluid Animations from Still Images”, will be held in conjunction with the exhibit on March 6th. Think of your pixels as wet paint on a sheet of glass.  Imagine pushing parts of the image across the surface, stretching the forms and merging the colors as you go.  This is what morphing really is all about!  Morphing applications are mostly known for transforming faces, but creative artists can use morphing to create wonderfully complex and subtle movement out of abstract images, photographs, and anything in between.  Make your images dance, make your images breathe! Resulting animations can be posted on YouTube or on your personal web site, or become the start of a DVD animation.   Participants in this workshop will need to bring a portable computer (laptop or easy to carry desktop). Trial copies of Morpheus Software will be available.  An additional recommended materials list will be sent upon registration. If you do not have a laptop computer, come watch! Participants will need basic computer skills but do not need  knowledge of other digital-editing programs in order to participate. Call PHOTOSTOP for more information, 802.698.0320.

Image: Stepping Stones; Glen Memories Series