With all the local color and excitement that one would expect from a Halloween event in Baltimore, Baltimonster delivered with artistic merit and a display of Baltimore pride and spirit.
Last Friday, in the Echo, a venue next to the Windup Space on North Avenue, Baltimonster featured works from many of Baltimore's most prominent young artists and musicians, all with emphasis on the eerie and macabre.
Peter Goode, who focuses mostly on oil painting, contributed works with a palette highly reflective of graffiti colors which he often blended into muddy, murky patterns. His works tend to feature amorphous clouds of mixed color with many hidden images. His largest and most noticed work featured at Baltimonster was an oil painting entitled "Goodbye Kitty," featuring an image of Hello Kitty with skull exposed.
Brady Starr, a painter who has received attention throughout Baltimore as an incredibly talented artist, presented works with emphasis on ghostly, ethereal images. One of Starr's paintings at the show, "The Watcher," was composed mostly of androgynous shapes and color play. This work featured a ghostly, incomplete woman standing in front of and partly blending into what appears to be a still life with a bottle behind her. Starr presents a masterful color use and amazing technical skill in creating these ghostly, otherworldly beings.
James D. Eichelberger, an artist with clear exceptional technique and vision, presented a small number of works at the show, but these works spoke volumes of his skill. In "Báb??tko v Zrkadle," Eichelberger depicts conjoined fetuses suspended in a color scheme of bloody, natural hues, reminiscent of child birth and the body. In his graphite drawing of "Poopkins the Monster," Eichelberger presents a single image of a grotesque face emerging from a textured background.
Artist Alex Fine focused on political messages slighting Sarah Palin. In "One of these is just like the others," Fine presents a series of illustrations of famous movie monsters including Freddy Krueger and Jason, with Sarah Palin represented as the last image in the group. He also displayed a popular poster with imagery highly reminiscent of communist propaganda. Sarah Palin appears on a red background with the word "Regress" printed beneath her.
Mike Riley's creations occupied a large volume of the display space and featured works with emphasis on city life. With pieces done in spray paint on canvases of unusual material like door frames and wood, Riley uses a vibrant palette to capture the feel of graffiti art. In "Septapus," an image is presented of a long, neon pink octopus on a vibrant, electric blue background mixed with shots of white and black.
While the early part of the show featured a DJ and a series of horror movies projected on a white wall, the stage was eventually given to Mr. Moccasin featuring vocalist Hanna Badalova. With focus on indie rock and folk rock influence, Mr. Moccasin collected a small crowd before the stage was given to We Are the Seahorses, a band with a heavier punk influence. The final performance featured Survivors of Camp Crystal Lake, a heavy metal band whose name alone displays the heavy influence of gore and horror films in their work.
A live mural was done during the course of the show in which contributing artists to Baltimonster created an elaborate illustration with monstrous figures and complex arrangement.
Most of the patrons of Baltimonster arrived in costume. While many focused on gore and fake wounds, there was a wide variety of creative costumes from a man dressed as a tea bag to a Hunter Thompson look-alike to the traditional ghost made of sheets with eyeholes.
With all the character and creativity that one would expect from a Baltimore art show, Baltimonster delivered an artistic spectacle and party that summarizes Baltimore's culture and artistic taste.
