Suzanne Stone Doin’ It!!

14k and Blue Topaz Pendant

Beautiful people of Manayunk. Just a quick update. This is a nice new pendant Suzanne Stone dropped off to the gallery this week. We’ve had Sue’s work since 1981 and she never fails to delight us with the new directions jewelry can take! Enjoy more info to follow later this week!  We’re late for the bar, gotta go, it’s an alcohol emergency! 

Baby It’s Cold Outside!

Beautiful people of Manayunk!
It’s been while since my last posting and there’s ton of stuff to catch up on First off Happy Thanksgiving to all the little art monsters out there. I hope everyone is well! Holidays always weird me out but it is great time to catch up with old freinds, crazy uncles and forgotten loves!
The next blog-in will be accompanied by photos and video images so stay tuned. A great young cat we met named Garett Elwood is going to help us with the leap into the 21st century
In the mean time it’s going to be my clever word play that paints the big picture for you!
First off we’re super excited to have Andrea Panico’s work in the gallery for the first time. Her work is based heavily on the building designs of several prominent Latin American architects. Great geometric forms in in her jewelry. In fact Andrea has great form in all departments! Her jewelry makes for an excellent gift for that someone special. Go to http://www.manayunk.com and sort under Orbit to see her work. I love ranting at young kids who come into the gallery. I tell them that when you buy something from Orbit it’s still there the next day unlike beer buzzes and cell phone calls! You actually own something unique and special after you fork over that hard earned cash!
OK, enough lecturing! As always we have an amazing array of Christmas ornaments at Orbit, all hand made and worth exploring! This of course is on top of the other cool stuff we brought in for the holidays, guaranteed to be different from all the chain store, mass produced monotony you’ve already OD’d on! We’ll be here every day until Chrsitmas and I’m thinking of bringing in mattresses to the gallery, it would just be easier! Happy Holidays and don’t forget to come visit us at 4312 Main Steet in Manayunk. We’ll be waiting…
David Decca

Could This Be It?

Dateline: Manayunk Sunday March 21st
It’s 72 degees and the side walks on Main Street are jammed; nice people: young couples with technically advanced strollers, newly minted doe eyed lovers, little old biddies happpy they made it through another winter & just people of all ages soaking in a brief glimpse of summer.
This week briings new works by Suaznne Stone. Lost wax castings of silver rings, “chased” sterling silver pins and just a lot of cool designs. We will sell them out in the next six weeks so please stop by Orbit 4312 Main Street in Manayunk soon. We also have a line on a great painter who has a studio up near Stockton N.J. Sandy and I are going up to New Hope this week to visit his studio. I will reveal all when the deal is closed! While up there look for us at John and Peters or at The Logan Inn. Steve Geiger plays there every Wednesday Night and I hope he’ll be kind enough to let me jam with him! Nothing on this good earth like live blues, good food, cold beer and a beautiful woman.
Too nice a day to stay on line but if you’re in the neighborhood stop by any time. There are lots of great new pieces in the gallery and don’t forget we have 30 new pieces from Suzanne Stone one the great unsung artists of the Deleware Valley

Here Comes The Sun

Date line Manayunk:
For those out there who don’t me I serve on the Manayunk Development Copr Board of Directors. One of my duties is helpin toproduce the Manayunk Arts Festival.
With the help of Jane Lipton, Howard Mosely and Joan Deneberg we’ve set out to make it a first rate show again. This means no ” buy sell’, no bird houses, T-shirts or crafts using soda bottles, decals or styrafoam balls! Succinctly we want artists who are talented and do this professionally. My apologies to the dude last year selling wool hats from Peru. I’m just not buyin’ it that you made all three thousand hats you had in your booth!
We’ve received close to 450 applications and the competition is very intense lot sof cool work!
I think people forget that Manayunk took off in the early eighties partly as a refuge for artists, musicians, students architects and a vast array of social pioneers looking for nice place to live. So there is long traditon of supporting the arts. We need to keep that tradition and remember to run the show not just as a venue for making money but as an event that reflects tha artistic spirit of Manayunk and show case all the wonderful artists drawn to this area. Some of the applicants were from as far away as Alabama!
We jury next week and will be posting who is exhibiting on http://www.manayunk.com
So, it’s Saturday and the sun is shining go out there and enjoy it because you know it never lasts!

Heart Beat

Dateline: Manayunk, PA 3 /01 /2010
The good news is the sun has come out two days in row: no white outs, snow drifts or ice valleys to stop people from coming out!! If you thought selling and making a living from art was difficult, this latest set of challenges will really seperate out the wheat from the chafe!
The good news is all of our artists have been super supportive and worked wiith the gallery during very challenging times. Charels Cushing has really showed what it means to be a total painter. Also a shout out to Suzanne Stone and Julie Chan for really being there for Orbit
We ran across a lot of really cool news artists at the NYGF. A lot of these kids are going the design route and who can blame them (Bad choice of words) They’re doing their thing while trying to keep the price close to something the millenium generation can afford. Sandy and I spoke with a number of exhibitors who were telling us about the growth of manaufacuring in Brooklyn. It seems a lot of artists just can’t afford TriBeCa and are moving acoss the river. Many of them are chosing to have their designs manufactured and thus the growth of small cottage level industry in NYC! Who’d have thought Americans are going back to making things again?
We were fortunate enough to consign in a whole new order of fused glass jewelry from Jessica Liddel before all the snow bullshit started. If you come by the gallery she has a lot of great new colors and designs. Jessica is a local artsit and each year her jewelry gets better. She aso dropped by three mirrors totally hand made. Jessica used all nand made glass tiles to decorate. They’re tremendous, trust me & you won’t find these at Wal-Mart!
So three weeks to spring and if you’re still alive it could be a great time for art and design. I have great respect for any one both on the gallery and the artistic side who survived the last 18 months! Stop by lots of new pieces some old favorites and a few surprises to boot.
Aufwiedersein fur jetz mine kinder! See you again when it goes above 70 degrees.
David Decca

October 10th brings Phladelphia painter Cushing back to the gallery. CHarles will be in front of the gallery from12:30 PM to 4:30 PM working on his newest painting titled “Citizens Bank Park.” This is the second in a series of paintings depicting famous Philadephia sports arenas. There will be light refrshments and a bare knuckles fight out back of the gallery to round out the day!

Custom Framing Now Available

Orbit Art is now pleased to offer professional quality custom framing.  After hearing of the exorbitant prices one of our clients was quoted by other frame shops, we decided to do some investigating.  After all, what good is a piece of art or precious photo if it can’t be displayed properly and enjoyed daily?  After some digging, we were able to find a vendor who offers great quality frames at reasonable prices!  So refreshing!  Come on down to the shop and get a framing quote for your artwork, photographs or new purchase from Orbit Art.

“Amphibious” Phil Singer, Birch Frame

“The Power of One” Phil Singer, Black Frame

Notes from the Art World Wilderness

If you are in the art business (both artist & dealer) you know it is tough out there. There’s the often quoted mantra of “What is a recession for you is a depression for the arts.” Well brother the bad news is this time the soppy aphoriem is correct. We just got back from the New York Art Expo and you could bowl down the aisles! Artists who had made living from their art are now not only waiting tables but working at everything from Wal-Mart to PathMark!  The good news is the beat still goes on and the need to create can’t be supressed by the dollars or lack of them!! We saw a lot of really strong and emotionally complex work at the show. For an Expo that was once a place to get prints for Holiday Inns, the level of painters we came acros was very impressive. We have just made contact with an very cool, young gal named Megu Fukuda. Although her heritage is very much Far East, she herself is obssesed with the blues. Her paintings look like posters for a Friday night juke joint Bar- B-Q. Look for an opening this June at Orbit Gallery complete with live music and real blluesman to round out the evening. Well the clock on the wall says it’s time to go and it’s Friday; time to drink heavily (but responsibly). In a closing thought think about this, the original “dogs on velvet” playing poker sold for $500,000 each at a recent auction. Who say there’s no money left for the finer things in life?

Because we love you…

Planning on dining out with your sweetie for Valentine’s Day? Why not stop by Orbit Art afterwards to pick out a gift together?  Support local artists and economies – dine and shop in Manayunk this Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Handmade art, like love, is eternal.

(click for larger image)