Category Archives: Artists

Soup N’at: Eat Soup & Support Pittsburgh Artists

[tl;dr: $10 gets you some soup from awesome Pittsburgh chefs and the $ goes to local artists.]

Soup N’At is back! Great to see this event continue. Soup N’at is the Pittsburgh version of the Sunday Soup crowdfunding. Check out some of our past posts on Soup N’at here.

How does Soup N’at work?

Each guest donates $10 in cash at the door
Guests eat soup donated by Pittsburgh restaurants, usually accompanied by delicious bread
Local artists present their projects
Each guest casts a vote for their favorite project.
The winning project takes home all of the $ that was collected at the door.

Soup N’at – Sunday, February 25, 2018

Location: The Union Project

Time: 6-8pm

Menu:

For soup:
– Bar Marco (gluten-free)
– Black Radish Kitchen (vegan)
– Park Bruges
– Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance and the East End Food Co-op will be providing vegetables that will be made into soup
Dessert from Ace Hotel Pittsburgh‘s Whitfield
Bread from Allegro Hearth Bakery
Flowers from Trader Joes

For more information about the dinner and the artists check out the Soup N’at Facebook event here and the Soup N’at website.

Paul’s Print Store Grand Opening

I just learned about this event from a friend who were kind enough to spread the word. I love event posters. I love printed things. Screen printing, digital printing, woodcut printing. I have long been wanting to start a series of blog posts about events with beautiful posters.

Paul’s Print Store is having a grand opening in Lawrenceville on Friday. The Paul of Paul’s Print Store is Paul Roden, one half of the duo that founded Tugboat Printshop. Tugboat Printshop makes hand carved woodcut prints. You may have seen their work hanging around Pittsburgh, or some of the posters they have created for events in Pittsburgh (here is one we wrote about in 2010) or possibly Washington, DC. (The photos on the internet and Instagram do not do their work justice, their work must be seen in person).

“Homestead” Paul Roden, 2017. Available online here.

Paul is a super nice person and I am sure the Grand Opening for Paul’s Print Store will be a swell event. Art, beer, wine and some dance hall music. And I am not just saying this because I am secretly a huge fan of dance hall music.

Earlier today I was chatting with some other bloggers on Facebook. I was asking for advice on sponsored tweets and pondering the idea of posting sponsored content. I have been thinking about how to connect more Pittsburghers to local businesses. The Facebook thread has me thinking out load about how this blog has been more of a community creator than a money maker and trying to explain that the connections that have come from writing about Pittsburgh have been more valuable than ad dollars.

Paul is one of those people who I have met through a friend of a friend and through the blog. Tugboat Printshop is a great example of Pittsburgh business that has been thriving, not thriving like Uber or Google, but quietly contributing to the fabric of Pittsburgh.

If you are in Lawrenceville tomorrow, stop by and visit Paul’s Print Store to toast their grand opening. If you are a lover of posters and Pittsburgh artists and just nice people be sure to follow @Prints_paul on Instagram.

Paul’s Print Store Grand Opening
Friday, October 19, 2017
6-9pm
3534 1/2 Butler Street, Lawrenceville

Stunning artworks from Tugboat Print Shop (communicationsrecruitmentbrisbane.wordpress.com)

Pitt-starter – Meet Pittsburgh Artist Robert Qualters

Pitt-starter is our occasional series of posts about Kickstarer and other crowdfunding projects that are of interest to the Pittsburgh community. You can check out previous Pitt-starter posts here.

I am very excited to share this Kickstarter project with you. First, because I think this is a great chance to learn about a Pittsburgh artist who has been painting this city for decades. And second, because I had the opportunity to meet Robert Qualters earlier this year and I think he is one of the many Pittsburghers that should be on your radar.

Robert Qualters - Penn Station Rotunda, 2006, acrylic and collage on canvas, 42x48"

Robert Qualters – Penn Station Rotunda, 2006, acrylic and collage on canvas, 42×48″

Robert Qualters is one of those artists where you have probably seen his work around town but you might not have known much about the artist. His paintings are hanging in some of the offices and restaurants and he has painted several murals for Mercy Hospital and Pittsburgh public schools.

I hope you will take a moment to visit the Kickstarter page for “Robert Qualters: A Life in Film” to check out the video and some of the paintings of Pittsburgh. The Kickstarter trailer gives you a glimpse into his studio which is located in Homestead. I’ve had the chance to visit another artist in this building and you would have never guessed this old school was home to a wealth of Pittsburgh talent.

Another fun fact about this project is that one of the filmmakers, Elizabeth Seamans, was Mrs. McFeely on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

This Kickstarter project is to fund a film about his work which will debut in 2014. A retrospective of his paintings will be on display at Pittsburgh center for the arts starting February 7, 2014.

The Qualter’s Kickstarter project also offers some unique rewards and the chance to pick up a signed and numbered print from the artist or an original painting from Qualters.

Follow Robert Qualters on Facebook – facebook.com/qualtersart and Twitter @qualtersart