"The Neighborhood"

"Northside"
On this lovely Monday, we'd like to take a few moments to recognize the most important member of our team. Without the overwhelming support of the community of Northside, we wouldn't be able to build our dream. Many organizations have helped us throughout the last year, so we'd like to recognize them as collaborators, mentors and friends.

The Northside Business Association and Northside Community Council dramatically effected our ability to continue our artistic role in the community. Both have helped transition our gallery experience into a project much bigger than us ...so we are extremely grateful to say the least.

Not only have these organizations allowed us to access the community's resources, to bring public programming to the public (i.e. Jacob Hoffner Park), they've also connected us with local business leaders and collaborating partners.

A few other mentors, that have helped along the way, include Happen Inc., Prairie and Thundersky Inc. With their project collaborations, we've found great strength in Northside. The advise and support from these generous people has been essential to our growth, so for this we owe them a great bit of gratitude.



Still, one of our greatest champions, and noted supporter of the arts, is Bloomfield / Schon + Partners. With their partnership and commitment, we've been introduced to city officials able to progress the creation of our arts center in Northside. And with their collaboration, we will continue our mission of sustainable design in the building's architecture and the organization.

We also have to mention some of the fantastic organizations that we have met along the way. We also look forward to collaborations with them in the future. They are...
Arche (Arts Restoring Culture for Healing the Earth),
Chase Public,
Fabricate,
HazelGlas,
Gotoff Studios,
Take the Cake,
The Comet,
Building Value,
Art on All Floors, and
Visionary and Voices.

Thanks Northside,
 parProjects 

Why JerryTodd?

One of our work-horses from the start has been custom carpenter and educational tutor Michael Schottelkotte. To say the least, Mike's dedication to helping make our events happen has been crucial ...especially when constructing stairs, bridges, soffits, railings, etc. For example, the above image was taken during a late night work session for our last major event The State of Matter -- a glass exhibition we held throughout Northside. With Mike's help, we customized 30+ wooden pedestals and pulled off the multi-venue exhibition ...and introduced our shipping-container-gallery ideas to Cincinnati.

Thanks Mike.

 parProjects 

Mentioned curation...

As briefly mentioned last post, co-founder Jonathan Sears also takes on curating roles from time to time.

After finishing grad school (MFA from UM, College Park), but before relocating to Cincinnati, Jonathan hosted a number of art related events in the Washington, DC metro area. His passion for innovation eventually led him to co-find and help run the independent/renegade art space formerly known as Woodman Studios of Silver Spring ...that oddly enough hosted exhibitions on the first floor of the group's residence.

And while the shows he helped put together back then were of a much more temporary and experimental nature, this experience is what started his initial curating/collaborating momentum. Images from his most recent exhibition can be found below. For this event, Jonathan collaborated with the SolSource Group of Washington, DC to bring together eight up-and-coming DC artists and two notable fashion designers (including Artistic AYA / ARTAYA) to create a four-floor exhibition and rooftop fashion show.

Please enjoy...



Opening image from:
http://www.dallasartsrevue.com/d-archives/profiles-tm.shtml

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

Jonathan Sears...

Fun-loving, fine artist, animator, curator and graphic designer Jonathan Sears is a self-proclaimed artist's artist ...and the other co-founder of parProjects.

For the most part, Jonathan handles the design work and promotional side of all things related to parProjects. But, he too has his hand in the curation, when he's not encompassed by the planning and programming of a lot of the group's events.

Jonathan, like Chris, has also enjoyed the benefit of teaching at the University level ...most recently upper-level design (computer-imaging/illustration and package design) at The University of Maryland, College Park. And while he looks forward to getting back into the professor circuit, he's currently enjoying the freedom that freelancing as a graphic artist is giving him ...as he takes on daily tasks related to getting parProjects off the ground.

For a little more information about Jonathan, you can visit one of his websites or send him an email to parProjects1@gmail.com.

His online facets include:

+ http://www.justJonathan.com
   (personal online hub)

+ http://www.LangurMedia.com
   (graphic and web design)

+ http://www.reCollectCreative.blogSpot.com
   (creativity-related discourse)

He also heads up the parProjects website, located at:

+ http://www.parProjects.com

...Oh & Jonathan also feels it necessary to note that he's originally from "the wonderful city of Virginia Beach ...part of the Hampton Roads community." And while he hasn't quite found a life-guard stand or been able to see the waves crash against the shore from here, he's enjoying the "work hard and people may actually pay attention" mentality he's found in the Midwest ...so, he thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

 parProjects 

About Chris...

Chris Hoeting is one of our two founding members. He hails from the great Queen City and is happy to contribute his knowledge and skill sets to the mission of parProjects.

Chris is an artist as well as an educator who started his professional education at University of Dayton, where he earned his BFA in sculpture and painting back in 2002. He received a number of awards while at UD, including the Mary Dunsky Award -- based on artistic merit -- which helped encourage him to continue his artistic pursuits. The University of Maryland, College Park was the next stop on his educational journey, where he earned his Masters of Fine Arts degree (painting) in 2004.

Since finishing his University studies, Chris has taught fine arts at Montgomery College, The University of Maryland, Xavier University, and The University of Dayton where he's currently a guest lecturer. This skill and passion to teach is why Chris leads the way (working with other teammates) in the development of parProjects' educational programming. Plus, his clear goals, and familiarity with Cincinnati help him fine tune ideas so they'll work well within the city.

In concert with these points, its important to understand that Mr. Hoeting is a practicing artist as well. He uses one of a kind painting techniques to create sculptural images that you have to see in person to truly appreciate. He's exhibited his work in galleries throughout the US and abroad -- having shown in places such as Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Dundee, Scotland -- and looks forward to where his work will take him. His most recent exhibition was at the Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati, OH and he's been enjoying the creative momentum that show provided since.

Beyond this, Chris stays tuned to public radio and enjoys watching films in his free time. Plus, you can catch him in & out of galleries/museums day and night. He also enjoys the occasional Unicorn Bloodbath soccer game.

Surely,
 parProjects 

A bit about Chris... Curator.

The curating side of parProject's has been developing over the years. One of the early projects that Chris curated at the University of Dayton (Rike Center Gallery) was called, "North of U Street." The exhibition was a pairing of two artist and friends; Billy Colbert and Michael Platt.

The two artists drew from experiences in the historic U Street corridor of Washington, DC. The images featured in the exhibition are unique blend of photography and printmaking, focussing on themes of african american identity through the subject of the figure and focussing on geographic influence.

Thanks,

 parProjects parProjects 

Meet Brian...

Brian Sykes joins The Road To Refresh team from Washington, DC as an architectural consultant. So, for the most part, all of the polished renderings, section drawings, elevation drawings and floor plans we post here from this point on will be compliments of Mr. Sykes' diligence.

Like most of the people who have teamed with parProjects for this venture, Brian is a bit of a rare breed. We say that because unlike most in the field of architecture, he holds master-level degrees in both fine arts -- where he focussed in sculpture -- and architecture -- where he dedicated a great deal of energy toward sustainable design and interiors  ...from The University of Maryland, College Park (where we first met him circa 2005) and Virginia Tech respectively.

To say the least, Brian's enthusiasm and dedication to the project are greatly appreciated. But more importantly, his creative approaches to architecture have already started influencing our center's original design. For example, the tented area that first showed up on THIS POST (link) was compliments of Brian and his creative problem solving.

Like everyone else on the team, we trust him to make certain judgements; and in turn, he trusts us to keep the ball rolling. He's a good friend and dedicated teammate who is donating countless hours of his personal-time (away from the internationally recognized architecture firm he currently works for) in order to help make this project happen. He believes this a great project/idea ...and we believe he'll continue doing everything within his power to help see it to fruition.

Thanks again,
 parProjects 

Thanks Steve...

Today, through suggestion and lengthy conversation, it was agreed that it's finally time to add a little more structure to this blog/journal. We're proud of ourselves for not missing a day of posting since we started getting into the meat of things; but at the same time, we realized we aren't sure what'll be next from time to time.

If you remember, a while back we added the category "Weekend Inspiration," so we'd know what to search for & reserve for Saturdays and Sundays and now we're expanding on that.

Our new daily structure (that we'll follow to the best of our ability) is:

Mondays -> The Team: Highlighting specifics about parProjects and the people we've been working with and will be working with

Tuesdays -> Curating Notes: Focussing on some of the exhibition specifics of parProjects

Wednesdays -> Education Projects: Detailing educational aspects parProjects is currently focussing on

Thursdays -> Independent Feature: Highlighting specific artists/creatives in the area

Fridays -> Weekly Summary: Giving a detailed breakdown of what we were up to during the week

Saturdays & Sundays -> Weekend Inspiration: Simple images and videos that are simply posted for your enjoyment

Of course this new structure gives us a bit more work (as far as blogging goes), but that's fine with us. The work and research is and has always been taking place. Now we just have a more efficient way of sharing everything with you.

Thanks for your continued interest,
 parProjects 

Diversity & A Dream

At parProjects, we truly believe our ethnic diversity is just as important as our diversity in skill-sets ...and our ability to dream. Being able to help one another better understand, communicate with, and approach our surroundings without offense is extremely important to our mission. And being that we truly are dreamers, this translated ability to communicate our ideas within various cultures and communities is invaluable.

So on this great day of celebration, we'd like to leave you with a song of inspiration. Happy MLK Day...



Believing in dreams,
 parProjects 

A little about us: parProjects

As we researched color schemes that Andy Warhol has used over the years, it dawned on us that we've never really introduced ourselves on this blog/daily-business journal.

So speaking in the third person...

parProjects is comprised of Chris Hoeting and Jonathan Sears.

Chris is a professionally trained painter and mixed media artist who attended UD (Ohio) for his undergraduate studies ...earning a dual-concentration BFA in painting and sculpture.

Jonathan is a professionally trained graphic artist who attended Barton College (North Carolina) for his undergraduate studies ...earning a dual-concentration BFA in graphic design and photography.

Both artists attended the UM (College Park) for graduate school ...and "equally" hold Master of Fine Arts degrees from the university in Studio Arts ...though Jonathan likes to tote being part of UM's first three-year fine art graduating class ...while Chris enjoys touting his perfect GPA through his two years of study.

By profession, both artists have held university-level teaching gigs ranging from the 100 to 300 level (teaching or having previously taught at The University of Maryland [College Park & Shady Grove campuses], The University of Dayton, Xavier University ...and a few community colleges along the way).

If interested, more is after the break...
 parProjects