The Spirit of the Blues
"The Spirit of the Blues," created by Easton artist and Lafayette professor, Curlee Raven Holton, has been designated the official image of the Easton Blues Jam 2005. Last year's poster featured "The Quilt," also by Holton.
Professor Holton is director of Lafayette's Experimental Printmaking Institute, which he founded in 1996. EPI provides an open and creative environment in which professional artists and students create new bodies of work while investigating and experimenting with a wide variety of approaches to the print medium. Its artist-in-residence and visiting artist programs have featured more than 50 residencies, many involving artists with international reputations such as Faith Ringgold, Al Loving, and Sam Gilliam.
Holton has mounted more than 30 one-person shows and participated in more than 75 group exhibitions, including the Seventh International Biennale at the National Center of Fine Arts, Cairo, and shows at Centro de Cultura Casa Lamm Gallery, Mexico City. In 2001, he received a commission to create the awards for the Pennsylvania Governor's Awards for the Arts. His works are in the collections of universities, foundations, and corporations, including Cleveland Museum of Art, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Allentown Art Museum, Villanova University, and Morehouse College.
Holton will create forty limited edition silk-screened serigraph prints of "The Spirit of the Blues," as a fund-raiser for the Blues Jam. Print size 22" x 30", image size 18" x 26". They are available for $200.00 (two hundred dollars) before May 31, 2005, and $275.00 after May 31. They will be signed by Professor Holton and a letter of authenticity will be included. Shipping is included.
The Easton Blues Jam, presented by the Express-Times, will run from June 3rd to the Grand Finale in Riverside Park in Downtown Easton on Sunday June 12th. The Finale will be free and open to the public. For more information about the Easton Blues Jam 2005 and "The Spirit of the Blues," visit www.eastonbluesjam.com or call Oli at 610-515-1190.
