Seth Clark is the artist behind the poster for the 2011 festival. A print designer, Seth’s work is primarily in mixed media and illustration.

Seth grew up in Seekonk, Massachusetts, and studied close to home in at the Rhode Island School of Design. He earned his BFA in Graphic Design, focusing primarily on print design and alternative typography. During this time, he discovered collage. This method of hands-on, spacial development took a major role in his digital work as well as his physical works on paper.

It was about three years ago, after graduating from college, that Seth traveled the country looking for the best city in which to begin his career as an artist and designer. The endless row-houses and rich architecture of Pittsburgh could serve as a valuable inspiration for his drawings and the affordability of the Steel City could allow for a large studio space and ample free time for productivity.

Seth is interested in exploring fragmentation and deconstruction in his art, and is fascinated by the aesthetics of houses and buildings and the personality of a place. On his website, you can find a plethora of drawings of broken down houses and decaying buildings. The festival blocks explore the structural composition of the city and reference the beauty of hand-painted signage.  The windows and patterns that appear on the blocks are, in a way, not far from what you’d see hidden in his drawings of abandoned houses and collapsing structures.

This architectural flair is prominent in Seth’s design for 2011 Three Rivers Arts Festival poster. Seth hand-painted the tiny details on hundreds of blocks, to assemble them to create a compact version of the Pittsburgh skyline. Seth photographed his installation and the colorful, playful image for the poster was the result. The three dimensional fragmentation of the blocks forms a whole and complete image. The many pieces of Pittsburgh fit together to form a colorful and exciting image for the festival.

You can see the actual hand-painted block sculpture during Festival hours at Three Gateway Center. Seth also had a piece accepted in the Juried Visual Art Exhibition.

The complexity of human nature has been explored through art for thousands of years. Ryan Woodring is a young artist who was raised in a generation that saw war and strife every day on television and the Internet. The conflict spills over into his art, he paints a series of images that depict the last moments of a soldier’s life. These paintings are snippets of war that stretch back through history, each one has a specific date of a battle or moment in time. Ryan’s work explores the ‘improbability of being alive.’ His soldiers are overwhelmed by an immense landscape that surrounds their small figures. Ryan says he is attached to landscapes and understanding how one human being interacts with the world around them.

Ryan also works in mixed media and collage work that becomes incorporated into the painting process. His series called ‘Self Mapping Lands’ are akin to topographical maps in earthly colors, created with wax and paint. These large-scale images command attention as the viewer feels they could step into this landscape that reaches out to meet them.

Ryan works primarily as an animator, having graduated from Carnegie Mellon University last year with a degree in Electronic and Time-Based art. A fresh face on the Pittsburgh art scene, Ryan brings his many talents to the Three Rivers Arts Festival in June.

Ryan Woodring
Plaza Booth 84
June 3-7

The surrealist nature of Alexis Covato’s work makes me feel like I am in a brightly colored dream. Playful images have an odd twist to them, making the viewer slightly uneasy when they see an image like clowns in a car, holding knives and chains, or the mug shot of Alice after she has left Wonderland. However it is hard to look away from these images, and the longer I look, the more I can appreciate the skill put into them.

Covato says that ever since she was little she has been interested in fitting together pieces of the world around her. This jigsaw quality is evident in the fragmentation of her work. Her abstractions are like mosaics, with transparent layers of paint fitting together to convey otherworldly images. Inspired by oddity and iconography, many of her paintings have a theatrical quality.

The artist, who goes by the name Lex, says that she is primarily interested in “the emotional quality of what the body can convey.” She is currently working on a series of tattooed deities, in a convergence of spiritual and psychological exploration.

Pop culture itself is Lex’s medium and she explores the many facets of society through the canvas upon which she paints. Constantly at work on upwards of six paintings at a time, she has worked as an artist for eight years. Having displayed in several local galleries and arts shows, she is excited to display her work at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in June. Stop by her booth and see for yourself the oddity and wonder of Lex Covato.

Lex Covato
Plaza Booth 84
June 3-7

In the basement of his home in Forest Hills, mixed-media artist Mark Stein diligently crafts his wire sculptures. Seated at a worktable, he focuses his attention on soldering thin pieces of metal into an elaborate structure. Above his head, hundreds of pieces glint in shades of copper and bronze.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Stein has been making his wire sculptures for many years. Art was a hobby for him until he was injured on the job several years ago, and turned back to his art as therapy. He started out making jewelry for his beloved wife, Joan. His wire sculptures, he says, are his true passion.

Mark turns materials that would otherwise be discarded into art, an practice known in artistic and environmental circles as “upcycling.” With a delicate precision, he crafts elaborate 3-dimensional sculptures on a wire frame. Working with local Pittsburgh landscapes, he has crafted metal bridges and homes, as well as the familiar incline going up the mountain. Currently he is working on a representation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, which will be ready in time for the Festival in June.

Stein’s work is both beautiful and functional: wire hangings that can be used as coat racks, metal trees that can be used to hang jewelry or keys. His largest works are metal trees that stand three feet high. He views these with a touch of respect, calling them his ‘Trees of Life.’ This reverence for life is well earned, after his years of health issues and struggle. Stein has started his career as an artist late in life, but his craftsmanship is impeccable and the level of detail in his work is astonishing, as evidenced in my slideshow below.

Mark Stein
Plaza Booth 29
June 3-7

This collaborative activity took place on-site so that the public could join in by creating signature blocks or helping the local quilt artists to hand stitch nine-patch blocks.  Pittsburghers of all ages and skill levels participated in the first step of the creation of this unique quilt top.  Children too young to sew were provided with fabric markers for coloring on muslin squares, so that they, too, could take part in the project.

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, 91.3 WYEP and Three Rivers
Arts Festival are pleased to announce CD Live! presents Cowboy Junkies
at 8 pm, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, at the Byham Theater in downtown
Pittsburgh. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 7.

Cowboy Junkies formed in 1985 when Michael Timmins (guitar), Peter
Timmins (drums) and bassist Alan Anton, one of Michael’s oldest
friends, began jamming in a garage. Joined shortly thereafter by
Michael and Pete’s sister, Margo Timmins, the band released its debut, Whites Off Earth Now!!,
in 1986 on their own Latent Recordings label. The band toured the
Southern and Southwestern US in support of the record, soaking up the
music of Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers along the
way, which, in turn, inspired their second album, The Trinity Session, self-released in 1988.

Recorded with a single microphone in Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity in one 14-hour session – at a cost of $250 – The Trinity Session
featured spare, lilting originals alongside Jennings, Williams and
Patsy Cline covers, as well as a haunting version of the Velvet
Underground classic “Sweet Jane.” With “Sweet Jane” getting
considerable airplay on college and commercial radio and reviewers
lauding the band’s fresh sound, word soon began to spread and before
long, the Junkies had signed to RCA Records, which reissued The Trinity
Session to a wider audience and platinum sales. The band’s subsequent
albums chronicle the band’s evolution, a process Michael describes as
gradual and organic.

Cowboy Junkies returned to
Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity for a day in November 2006, joined
by Ryan Adams, Natalie Merchant and Vic Chesnutt to revisit the
repertoire of The Trinity Session
in celebration of the original recording’s 20th anniversary. Captured
by filmmakers, Pierre and Francois Lamoureux, the resulting
documentary, Trinity Session Revisited, was released as a DVD/CD in January 2008.

Cowboy Junkies are joined by special guest Lee Harvey Osmond. Tickets
($35) go on sale Friday, August 7, 2009, at 9 a.m. at the Box Office at
Theater Square, by phone at 412.456.6666, and online at pgharts.org.

Calendar Listing
CD Live! presents Cowboy Junkies with special guest Lee Harvey Osmond.
8 pm, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, at the Byham Theater. Doors open at 7
pm. Tickets: $35; online at pgharts.org, by phone 412.456.6666 or the
Box Office at Theater Square. CD Live! is a project of Three Rivers
Arts Festival, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and 91.3 WYEP.

About CD Live!
CD Live! widens the creative expression of the Pittsburgh music scene
while advancing the artistry of musicians from around the world. This
collaborative project of Three Rivers Arts Festival, The Pittsburgh
Cultural Trust, and WYEP-FM was formed to build new music audiences and
to welcome these listeners to the Cultural District.

Click on the image at left to download a full-size, print-quality version of this promotional photo.

Contact: Lauren Bracey
Manager of Communications & External Affairs
Three Rivers Arts Festival
Office: 412-281-8723 x27
Email: lbracey@artsfestival.net

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, 91.3 WYEP and the Three Rivers Arts Festival are pleased to announce CD Live! presents Joan Baez at 8 pm, Thursday, March 5, 2009, at the Byham Theater in downtown Pittsburgh. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 19, 2008.

2008 is a landmark year for Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Joan Baez, marking 50 years since she began her legendary residency at Boston’s famed Club 47. She remains a musical force of nature whose influence is incalculable: in addition to her own recordings, Baez unselfconsciously introduced Bob Dylan to the world in 1963 and focused awareness on songwriters ranging from Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Phil Ochs, Richard Fariña, and Tim Hardin, to Kris Kristofferson and Mickey Newbury, Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, Steve Earle and many more.

Baez’s latest record, Day After Tomorrow, was released in September 2008. According the artist, the album “speaks to the essence of who I am in the same way as the songs that have been the enduring backbone of my repertoire for the past 50 years.” Day After Tomorrow is nominated for the Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album Grammy Award, marking Baez’s seventh Grammy nomination and her first in 15 years.

Tickets for the March 5 performance will be $34.50 – $49.50. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 19, 2008. To purchase tickets, visit the Theater Square Box Office, call 412.456.6666 or buy online at www.pgharts.org.

Calendar Listing
CD Live! presents Joan Baez: The 50th Anniversary Tour. 8 pm, Thursday, March 5, 2009, at the Byham Theater. Doors open at 7 pm. Tickets $34.50 – $49.50. To purchase tickets, go online at www.pgharts.org, call 412.456.6666 or visit the Theater Square Box Office. CD Live! is a project of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and WYEP-FM.

About CD Live!
CD Live! widens the creative expression of the Pittsburgh music scene while advancing the artistry of musicians from around the world. This collaborative project of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and WYEP-FM was formed to build new music audiences and to welcome these listeners to the Cultural District.