Thu 9/21 @ 8:30AM
Thu 9/28 @ 5:30PM
Michael Weil’s Foothill Gallery in Cleveland Heights, which shows fine art photography, may not have a lot of shows, but it’s displayed some outstanding bodies of work by area artists.
Weil himself is fine art photographer and currently, he’s filled the gallery with his own work in The Queen’s Suite. He says that they were inspired by Duke Ellington’s “The Queen’s Suite,” which he wrote in 1959 after meeting Great Britain’s then-young Queen Elizabeth. He relates how, while on vacation in New England last year, he heard of the Queen’s death at the age of 96 and learned about Ellington’s suite.
He says, “In that moment, I felt the urge to make photographs—there on the pitted and textured green floorboards of that Truro porch. Why I pictured Weston’s studies of green peppers, I am not certain. I thought of a simple bowl and imagined a gnarled rock the size of a pepper placed in it beneath the screen-filtered Cape light. I found a worn wooden bowl on the kitchen shelf. As we walked the shoreline of Longnook beach, I gathered a few of many distinct rocks. Some scallop shells appeared eager to be part of the performance, and a single shorebird feather fell into my sight. Back at the house, I recommissioned an egg slicer that had the rhythmic lines and shadows of the shells and the broken strings of a neglected instrument. Didn’t Ansel Adams photograph an egg slicer? Did Weston? Yes! Or Man Ray? An egg and a shell. I was on my way.”
Come hear Weil talk more about the images and their genesis on Thursday September 21 at 8:30am and Thursday September 28 at 5:30pm. He’s also in the gallery Tuesday and Wednesday mornings or by appointment; call 216.287.3064.
