Tag Archives: melissa k. smith

Fotografo | Pictorialist | Raconteur

Posted on September 14, 2014 by rorydean

My photos are part Blow Salon’s group Fall Art Show 2014, available from August through November in Berkeley, California. Prints of varying sizes, framed and unframed are available. Please contact me directly for further information. My photographs are inherently exploitative, a mélange of traditional and contemporary techniques based on the transformational principles of pictorialism. In this way my images bridge the chasm between personal expression and collective observation, melding the shifting social and cultural attitudes of today. Continue reading →

Posted in Essays on art, Online, Speak-Freely | Tagged above the line, Bay Area, berkeley, blow salon, dissave pictures, el cerrito, Fall Art Show 2014, Fotografo, from the everywhere, melissa k. smith, photographer, pictorialism, Pictorialist, Raconteur, rory dean, San Francisco | Leave a comment

Movie Review Blogging is about Momentum (2014)

Posted on August 31, 2014 by rorydean

Why do we watch films at all if not to escape, sometimes gingerly, almost all together brazenly into places familiar and not-so familiar to our own for minutes if not hours at a time of peaceful disinterest? Are we not consumed with the validating principle of our own misery as seen through the misery of others – or perhaps it is best thought of in slices at a time of confrontation, the way we live vicariously through close contact sports with the lives of others similarly distressed or otherwise purposefully impressed with pride, prejudice and privilege? It’s not about idealism or even happy endings but an ending that fits the mood and tone of the story and gives us a place to land and take off from… Continue reading →

Posted in Essays on art, Essays on Film, Movie I've Seen, Movies You Should or Should Not See, philosophy and film, Rants & Raves, Speak-Freely | Tagged above the line, blogger, Coney Island hot dog, crazy heart, dissave pictures, entertainment news, film critic, filmmaker movie critic, i melt with you, inconsolable human tragedies, independent productions, Life is a multi colored, many splendid thing, melissa k. smith, negative reviews, once beautiful past, practical movie reviews, rampart, rory dean, sometimes we hear the bullet, student film, The best stories, The cumulative power of doing things, the wrestler, verisimilitude, warrior | 2 Comments

Blow Salon ‘Spring Art Show’ features Melissa K. Smith

Posted on April 16, 2014 by rorydean

Blow Salon’s Spring Art Show features the acrylic painting “Veilbreaker” by Bay Area native and multi-disciplinarian Melissa K. Smith. Melissa lives and works in the Bay Area as a fine artist, photographer and independent film and video producer with ties throughout Northern California. Her works include original art and multi-media creations that are available for sale, commission and exhibition. She is also the blogger in charge of content for From The Everywhere, co-owner and contributing editor of Dissave Pictures – an independent production company by artists and for artists, serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and she is also available by appointment for one-on-one and group instruction of photography and art lessons. In addition she is the artist, creator and publisher of the graphic novel series Blood Roses in its fifth print edition. Continue reading →

Posted in Essays on art, Online, Speak-Freely | Tagged acrylic painting, artist, Bay Area, berkeley, bleuravyn, blood roses, blow salon, California, dissave pictures, from the everywhere, graphic novel, jfk university, melissa k. smith, never cry wolf rescue & adoptions, painter, photographer, seventhwolf, spring art show, vampire comics | 5 Comments

Melissa K. Smith’s New Gallery Show: Threshold of Transformation

Posted on November 4, 2012 by rorydean

Prolific artist and multi-disciplinarian Melissa K. Smith’s (Dean) acrylic painting “No Woman’s Land” (not shown) was chosen by jury selection for this year’s Arts & Consciousness Alumni Exhibition at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, California. The exhibition “Art as Liminal Space: Threshold of Transformation” runs from November 5th – December 13th. Melissa will attend the reception on Saturday, November 10th, 6 – 9 p.m Continue reading →

Posted in Essays on art, Movie Makers & Shakers, Online, Speak-Freely | Tagged "No Woman's Land", above the line, alumni exhibit, dissavepictures, east bay, Holga, John F. Kennedy University, liminal space, Liminality, melissa dean, melissa k. smith, northern california, painting, rory dean, San Francisco Bay Area, threshold of transformation | 7 Comments

Melissa K. Smith: Honey Hunter

Posted on October 2, 2012 by rorydean

Melissa K. Smith’s imagery and expressions reveal an exacting attention to the nether-spaces in color and form where layered, complex spatial formalities meet the intangible, often illusory places between destinations. These structured juxtapositions of space and imagined space tell us that the subjects of her worlds must first begin with their own command of comfortableness before being allowed to exist entirely on their own. “Honey Hunter is me returning to the paint and canvas shapes I love,” Melissa explains about the painting that was accepted for Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program exhibit “Honeycomb 2012”. Continue reading →