We’re pleased to present Imitation Of Life , a selection of recent drawings from Pennsylvania-born San Francisco-based artist Timothy Buckwalter. The show will be on view March 12-May 2, 2010 at The Green Line Cafe | Locust. An opening reception for the exhibition is March 12 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

Chosen from Buckwalter’s archive of more than 800 works on paper, Imitation Of Life features some 80 highlights from Buckwalter’s last five years of ink drawings. To produce his word-based drawings, Buckwalter sorts through old comic strips, hacking out bits of dialogue that offer insight, often in a humorous vein, into universal- or self-understanding. The phrases are abbreviated and edited on a computer, resized, and then hand-painted onto sheets of paper. The resulting expressions hover somewhere in the grey area between self-loathing, self-loving, anger, and despair.

For his installation at The Green Line Cafe, the artist intends to cover the walls top to bottom with ink-drawn statements and declarations, freezing what might be fragments of coffee-shop conversation, heard or imagined, onto the permanence of the page.

A longtime believer in creating affordable art, Buckwalter will make the works in Imitation Of Life available for $25-$30, and will donate a portion of the sales from the exhibition to the West Philly Tool Library. The Tool Library loans tools to community members so they can perform basic home maintenance, tend their yards and gardens, build furniture, start projects, and learn new skills in a safe and affordable manner.

In 2005, Buckwalter was evicted from his warehouse studio in West Berkeley to make way for live-works that were never built. Along with his space of 12 years, he abruptly lost the psychic ability to paint. Fortuitously, one evening while reading through a compilation of comic strips, Buckwalter noticed that a particular phrase removed from its context sounded and looked really funny. Soon he was cranking out ink drawings. A year later, Buckwalter started posting a weekly online exhibition of the previous week’s efforts. As the show began to grow more successful (at its height more than 900 people subscribed to it) and more labor-intensive, he came up with the idea of inviting his friends to curate the shows. Among the list of guest curators are a number of Philadelphians: Artblog’s Libby Rosof and Roberta Fallon, artist Tim McFarlane and Dead Milkmen drummer Dean Sabatino.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Timothy Buckwalter (born 1966) now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He graduated from Tyler School of Art. Buckwalter has been included in the Linz Biennale and exhibited in New York, Portland, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco. In Philadelphia, he has shown at Momenta Art and Vox Populi. He has written about art for The East Bay Monthly, KQED TV9, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Supporters came out in the aftermath of Philly's historic blizzard to place bids in our Haiti Benefit art show.

Utilizing our contacts in Philadelphia’s art community and beyond, plus the newer social mediums of Twitter and Facebook, we were able to receive donations from nearly two dozen artists from around the country within a matter of a week-and-a-half. The opening reception and silent auction was a festive event that featured free pizza donated by neighboring Powelton Pizza.

Green Line co-owner Douglas Witmer, himself and artist and contributor to the show, said the idea for the event came from Ketch Wehr, also an artist and a member of the Green Line staff. “When Ketch suggested it, I knew immediately it was something we could get behind and pull off quickly. We started working our contacts and a few hours later we already had commitments of artwork from artists in Philly, New York, and San Francisco.

A few days before the event we displayed a gallery of the available work on its Facebook fan page and began to collect advance proxy bids via email. Witmer said the winning bids received online accounted for just under half of the proceeds raised.

When the bidding closed at 4pm, each of the 34 donated artworks had been sold for prices ranging from $5-$100. Witmer said, “we’re incredibly grateful to the people who lent their support and creative energy to the effort.”

The artworks will be on display at the Green Line | Powelton Village, 3649 Lancaster Avenue, until the first week of March.

Bringing you the finest in locally roasted Fair Trade and Organic coffees! We just received Burlap and Bean Coffee’s (Newtown Sq, PA) Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Papua New Guinea, and Black & Tan blend.

Starting Feb. 3rd, there will be a guided discussion of the Philadelphia Free Library’s annual selection of Persepolis for the One Book, One Philadelphia initiative. The group will meet weekly on every Wednesday of February.

Originally published in France in two volumes, The Complete Persepolis is Satrapi’s poignant, humorous, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during a time of political revolution and repression. An outspoken and imaginative child, Satrapi grappled with understanding the ruling power in her country as she witnessed the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the Islamic Revolution’s triumph, and the chilling impact of war with Iraq. Detailed in black-and-white graphic images and accompanied by brief text, Satrapi’s story continues through her years as a young adult, as she finds her way as an expatriate student in Austria. Her first-person point of view presents readers with a unique glimpse into Iran’s political repression, the inner-workings of a family, and one woman’s experience as an outsider both at home and abroad.

For more information about Persepolis and the program, click on the linked image above!

Tell and Show–a group exhibition of Philadelphia comic artists

Curated by Pete Stathis
In conjunction with The Free Library of Philadelphia’s One Book One Philadelphia 2010 series of events.

In recent years, the once sidelined subculture of comics has rocketed to a center-stage position in our bookstores, movie theaters, and popular consciousness. Come explore the power of this immediate and entertaining art form as some of Philadelphia’s finest cartoonists put their comics on display.

February 8–April 11, 2010
Reception, Friday Feb 12, 6-9pm
Green Line Cafe
4239 Baltimore Ave
Philadelphia PA 19104

Featuring works by:

Pat Aulisio
Art Baxter
Aaron Beatty
Jason Clarke
Jesse Moynihan
Jamar Nicholas
Pete Stathis
Raphael Tiberino

So get your cookies at these locations:
Sat Jan 23: 1-5pm at Locust
Sat Feb 6: 1-5pm at Baltimore
Sat Feb 20: 1-5pm at Powelton

P.S. – Did you know that the first Girl Scout cookies were baked and sold in Philly?