TOOLS to Host Digital Photography Show
By Editor at July 13, 2024 | 10:30 am | Print
Part of the inspiration for New Britain artist Craig Frederick’s sculpture “Home” at the intersection of Main and Chestnut Streets in downtown New Britain was jazz. When asked to help develop the live music program for TOOLS Bar & Grill, located just behind his sculpture, Frederick helped steer the program to high quality jazz. Inspired by the jazz music he gets to experience regularly at TOOLS, Frederick is producing and curating a digital photography show in the space.
Titled “Four Perspectives-The Human Experience,” this digitally-presented group photography show features the work of photographic artists J. Cris Yarborough, Jessica Somers, Florin Firimita, and Dan Saunders. The reception to meet the artists is scheduled for Thursday, July 19, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. The reception is appropriately followed by the night’s jazz performance by “The Alvin Carter Project” starting at 8:30 p.m. with Alvin Carter Jr. on Drums, Steve Davis on trombone, Warren Byrd on keyboard/piano, and Stephen Porter on bass. There is no cover charge for the reception or the music.
Artist Cris Yarborough has always been fascinated with people and the “ordinary” daily lives of individuals. From Yarborough’s perspective, “The closer one looks at these lives the more one realizes that the term “ordinary” does not apply. From pig farmers to motel owners to young beauty pageant contestants, each one has their loves and hates, hopes and dreams and fears.” Yarborough helps the viewer to take a second look and notice things (and people) our eyes might otherwise miss. In addition to his work as a photographic artist, Yarborough has worked as a photojournalist for numerous newspapers and the Associated Press.
In a series of self-portraits, Jessica Somers explores the effect on her of her new circumstances as wife and part-time homemaker. Somers remarks: “Each photograph acts as a weigh station; a place to stop and evaluate, to measure and understand as I continue on my journey. These photographs reference my struggles, my reflections and my fears. I am challenged by where I am in this moment in time, in this home, married to this man, supporting the walls of our house and the life within them.”
Florin Ion Firimita’s work both recognizes the cacophony of life and the ability of beauty to put order into chaos. According to Firimita, his work “. is a reflection of my interest in philosophy, music, photography, literature, film, nature, and history. I am interested in exploring universal themes through private questions. I am preoccupied with the issues of identity, love, death, and loss, reality versus fiction, dreams and memories.” Firimita traces his interest in art back to his father’s modest amateur photo lab, in Bucharest, Romania, where he was entrusted with mixing chemicals, developing film, and printing black-and-white photos, at the age of six.
Daniel Saunders is from Norwalk, Connecticut, and this is his first non-scholastic art exhibit. He relates, “I knew I was good with a camera, but never thought about it as a career option until attending Central Connecticut State University where I was working with the on-campus newspaper, The Recorder, as the Photo Editor.” After taking a photography class he decided to focus his attention on photography by moving on to a photography program. In the fall, Saunders will be attending Tunxis Community College in the Fine Arts Department with a concentration in photography. It is exciting to be a part of an aspiring new artist developing his craft. Frederick selected Saunders precisely for this reason.
The photography exhibition continues on view at TOOLS through August 25. Restaurant hours are Monday through Friday 11 a.m.-Midnight, Saturday & Sunday 4 p.m.-Close. Parking on the street & in the City Garages is free after 5 p.m. and on weekends. Metered parking in the private lot next to the restaurant is free after 8 p.m. TOOLS Bar & Grill is located at 136 Main Street in downtown New Britain and on the Web at www.toolsbarandgrill.com. Telephone is 860-505-7226. For more information please contact the Greater New Britain Arts Alliance that is coordinating the show at 860-832-8299, [email protected], or on the Web at www.NewBritainArts.org.
