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In The Event That...

You've Got the Blues


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Published: Apr 2, 2008

(CLICK IMAGES FOR LARGER VERSIONS)

Out of the BlueOpen call begins Sun., April 6, noon, Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave.; exhibit runs through April 20, Photo West Gallery, 3625 Lancaster Ave., 215-779-4566, photowestgallery.com

The color blue evokes melancholy as much as purity. It can be haunting or it can be heavenly. For Randy Dalton, it represents potential. The Mount Airy-based conceptual artist has spent 10 years running the Do Blue campaign, encouraging Philadelphians to incorporate the color blue — whether it's into their artwork or their lives in general — to help brand the city as an arts capital.

"Out of the Blue," an interactive exhibit on display at Photo West Gallery, is the latest outgrowth of this campaign. The main show collects the work of two dozen photographers, all interpreting the color a different way. W. Keith McManus finds blue in an inflatable pool on an NYC roof, while blue is a natural byproduct of the gum bichromate process used by John Schlesinger. The blue in Amie Potsic's Tropicalia is derived from the rows of vinyl flags strung between power lines at a Brazilian street festival, as well as the sky behind them; the scene is abstracted down to a striking crosshatching of shapes and lines. Eric Mencher studies the metaphoric blue in And Then He Came ..., an image of a crestfallen old man being pushed on a wheelchair through a bustling crowd.

The exhibit's opening was held last weekend; this weekend brings its participatory portion. An open call begins on April 6, and Dalton is asking students, other artists and the public at large to donate blue pictures of their own for an outdoor showing that will hang from the chain-link fence adjacent to the Community Education Center. After seeing the blue of possibility stretch across a city block, don't be surprised if you start seeing blue everywhere you look.