My show at Sanchez, I am one of 4 artists

[Roger Thoms]

I'm happy to announce my show at Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica CA. www.sanchezartcenter.org It is part of the Art Guild of Pacifica Members show. Each year four winners of Awards of Excellence are given a group show the following year in the East Wing Gallery. And believe it or not, I won!!!

I am exhibiting 13 photographs from Gladding McBean and New York. With the exception of two, the images were taken with either my 4x5 Sinar or Speed Graphic.

Roger

[srbphoto]

Congrats!!!

My studio used to be at the Sanchez Art Center. I had a 4 person show in the West Wing and we had a great turnout. It should be fun. Good luck!

[B.S.Kumar]

Congratulations, Roger!

Kumar

[Vaughn]

Congrats, Roger!!!

Have fun at the opening!

Vaughn

[Jon Shiu]

Congrats on your show!

Jon

[Kirk Gittings]

Way to go. I wish I was in the area.

[Bill Burk]

Congrats Roger!

I'll be there around 8

Bill

[srbphoto]

Nancy Hall says you guys had a great turnout. Awesome.

[Drew Bedo]

Congratulations on being selected for this show!

[Bill Burk]

The turnout really was great. Took about 5 minutes to get from the door to refreshments because the hallways were jammed with local Miss Pacifica contingent, guild members and local art aficionados.

I made my way down the hall, appreciating that some paintings were traditional while others were snidely and devilish. Usually I like day-of-the-dead retablos but there was one truly awful, though its sea-life theme was a refreshing idea it wasn't well executed. It was about there that I saw Roger and introduced myself.

We talked for a long time at the end of the hall, a few friends joined in. Some of them had works on the wall that I had seen on the way in. Something about meeting artists gets one's blood going.

In this main hall was about one piece from each artist, four of whom were selected for next year's highlight show like Roger's. While heading to the East Wing, I ran into a local photographer friend of mine, Kyle, who was selected for his piece 9 dots. So I'll look forward to his show next year, he's a color photographer with an eye for surprising splashes of color.

Roger had a whole wall to himself, "Wheeler Avenue" was in the room with the quartet (the print in the flyer), the only print on that wall. The Gladding McBean sequence takes you through a "Drying Room" with a richly black ceiling over old dusty wooden interior. "Beehive Kiln" reminded me of a kiva. The patterns of pipes give a limitless subject to explore and put these odd rooms in context.

We talked about the difficulty of producing 13 prints under a tight deadline. He produced an outstanding series of selenium toned prints, about 8x10, dry mounted, with off-white mats and black frames.

His winning piece from last year, #62, stands out as an excellent shot. What at first looks to be a front porch of a building has so many pillars that it doesn't make sense. But that is some of the magic of this location, where pipes and pillars are laid out everywhere in endless seas.

The next series from New York, were snapshots from the Speed Graphic. His girlfriend guided him on a tour of the backlots and it made New York seem uninhabited. Except in the windows of "High Rise at High Bend" where you can almost see evidence of inhabitants in the dissheveled curtains of hundreds of sliding glass doors.

You can just walk in anytime they're open, admission is free. Great show.

[Roger Thoms]

Bill, thank you so much for the great review. It is always fun to meet people from the forum and I enjoyed our conversation. We did have a great turnout for the reception and I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process printing and hanging my work.

Roger