Dave Klemencic

Sketch for the day #1

I’m going to try to feature a new sketch with a brief description each day. Check back often to see if I manage to keep up with it. Full versions and archives are available in the gallery.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO during the summer of 2005. While there I took two week-long courses, one in screenprinting, the other in monoprinting.
The screenprinting course, taught by Brad Shanks of the University of South Florida, explained a number of techniques involving manipulating images in Photoshop, then using them to create multi-layered screen prints. In this way, you can make multicolored and even full color images in virtually unlimited quantity in a relatively short time. The process is fairly straightforward, and materials to get started can be acquired relatively inexpensively.

The monoprinting class, taught by San Francisco-based artist Kathryn Kaine covered quite a few simple methods by which highly unique prints can be generated. Using a printing press, it was possible to permanently affix multiple layers of paper and prints to each other, and various ways to use solvent to transfer the ink from one printed image to another. Most importantly to me, she explained how to treat a regular black-and-white photocopy so that it can be used as a lithographic matrix, meaning you can wet a xerox with water, roll ink onto it and print the xerox image onto another surface.
Additionally, she gave some tips on book-making and I was able to create two accordion-books illustrated with images I had drawn and then printed during the trip.

The Ranch features top-notch art facilities and living areas all situated in a valley surrounded by woods and mountains. Aspen is a short drive away, and the trip allowed for a great deal of exploration and adventure.

The way of the Samurai.

Down to the Crossroads

Hope to see everyone at the Crossroads Art Center on Friday, September 21. The Boulevard Duo- Dave Decker on drums and myself on organ and piano, will be performing for the opening of this month’s shows. The gallery has a new featured artist and a group exhibition each month, as well as displays from dozens of resident artists. Plenty of hip new art, wine, snacks and funky music to keep you entertained from 6-9. Admission is free, and the gallery is located at the corner of Staples Mill Road and Broad St. in Richmond, behind the Holiday Inn.

After-party at the Side Pocket! Richmond’s seediest pool hall. It can’t get any seedier. If it does, I’m leaving.

Down to the Crossroads…

Don’t miss your chance to check out the show at Crossroads Art Center. Dave Decker and myself are showing twenty paintings each in a large gallery space at Crossroads, which features many other artists, studio spaces and a frame shop.
Dave and I had the privilege of performing musically at the opening, sharing the stage that evening with the James River Singers. The openings at Crossroads were attended by several hundred that evening, and I would like to extend my thanks to friends and family that managed to make it out.
The show will be on display until June 16, and the gallery is opened daily from 10-6. Crossroads Art Center is located at 2012 Staples Mill Road, at the NW corner of Staples Mill and Broad St. in the shopping center behind Holiday Inn.

Eymarel invades Richmond…

Last week saw two very special performances in Richmond with Wilmington, NC based duo Eymarel. Monday evening, I had the pleasure of performing with Lee Allen at Cafe Diem. Lee is an exceptional drummer, and incorporates a wide variety of electronic effects into his playing via a sampler and V-Drum pad. Mary Francis, the other half of the Eymarel duo added vocals to our rendition of the Bill Withers tune “Use Me”. The first set included several of my original tunes, some Robert Walter and MMW tracks and some open-ended improv. Mary took to the keys for the opening of the second set, performing three Eymarel originals with Lee and really blowing away everyone in the crowd. The evening wrapped up with me back on the Rhodes and organ belting out Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”, an original track that melted into MMW’s “Bubblehouse” and closed off with a speedy turn through Eric Clapton’s “Layla”.

Wednesday evening, Dave Decker and myself performed an opening set for Eymarel at Emilio’s, running through our own material and several covers that closed off with Led Zeppelin’s “What is and what ever should be”. Eymarel then put together a dazzling performance, thoroughly impressing everyone present.

The band, with the help of their tour manager/booking partner Travis MacDaniel pulled off over 180 concerts in 2006, and is looking to keep pace with that for 2007. They are quite accomplished and bring an incredible set-up to each concert, including a Hammond organ, Rhodes, Motif piano, several synthesizers, the afformentioned samplers and a first-class drum kit. The amount of sound they generate is pretty wild, layering bass and rhythm, background synth effects and Mary’s chording and lead lines with some in-your-face drumming, they are really something worth checking out.

Last year saw the release of Eymarel’s debut CD “Groovin’ a Little Each Day”. I was fortunate to draw and design the artwork for the cd, the cover of which is seen here:

Nice Hat!

Today marks the first day of a month long exhibition of my art at Nesbit, 2311 W. Main St. in the Fan neighborhood of Richmond, VA. A very classy establishment, Nesbit offers upscale salon and spa facilities and a coffee bar in a hip environment. The work is a selection of 13 works, paintings and lithographs completed over the last two years. Some of the work is very new, and was just wrapped up Sunday in time to be installed in the show. Images of the much of the work is visible at www.daveklemencic.com/gallery and the remainder you’ll just have to go see in person.

Specifically, the paintings featured include “Starr Hill Bass”, an image of Chris Stillwell of the Greyboy Allstars from a performance in Charlottesville last winter, “Whether we exist or…”, a take on local jamband drum-and-bass act Existor from a past collaborative performance at Alley Katz in Richmond and “Swallow’s Nest”, a painting that uses the little known Black Sea lookout as its inspiration. An example of “folly” architecture, the Swallow’s Nest is a castle-like structure perched high on a cliffside overlooking the sea. The building has been renovated over the years, rendered more and less usable by its precarious position and potential for collapsing into the water below. The painting itself expands on the image of the building by incorporating such fanciful elements as a stairway from the perch to the water and a dock at which a small vessel is making landfall.

“Revolution”, an image of Robert Walter’s 20th Congress performing in Ft. Lauderdale Florida is also included in the show. This painting adorned the walls of Cafe Diem for the last year or so, and it’s nice to bring it out again as a testement to Robert Walter’s high-energy funk that’s been very inspiring for me over the last few years.

“Out Louder” is a take on the recent performances of Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood, a collaborative jazz/funk ensemble that toured through the area last fall. The MMW trio suplemented with John Scofield’s virtuousic guitar skills is worth checking out, even if you have to drive a ways to see them.

Also included in the show are an image of the Savannah Bridge and lower downtown neighborhood at night, a small piece of a girl smoking outside the art building at VCU and a painting of willow trees at Maymont Park. In a separate space within the salon are four sketches of musicians that were carried out during concert performances and later reworked in the studio, adding layers of watercolor, marker and acrylic paint, then sealed, matted and framed in matching gun-metal gray frames. These are part of a series that was originally shown together at Richmond Frame, where they served as the bulk of a solo showing. Many others in the series have been sold, and I recommend taking a long as these are one-of-a-kind and surprisingly affordable.

The folks at Nesbit can help you out, and they’ll probably let you take a look even if you’re not interested in going blonde, getting a facial or a wax, but they do claim to be quite proficient at those things as well.

The show will be up through the last weekend of April.

For hours or directions, check www.nesbitsalon.net

Thanks!