The Adam Blai Art Gallery
Photographer Adam Blai visited a lot his first year here, capturing incredible signature photographs of everyone within the mythology of this hotel. An evening of a party often Adam was not seen most of the night as he was upstairs in one of the rooms taking splendid photographs in his unique light painting style. He takes these photographs completel in the dark, with the lens open, painting light on the subject over a period of a few minutes with tiny flashlights.
Originally we were introduced to these photographs, and to Adam, by works of Sarah Ireland. Adam started visiting on his own, always photographing while here. For a while he became sort of the official hotel photographer. By year's end we had such a collection of different Adam photographs built up, we started losing track of them. I can remember many a night emailing Adam, or even others, with requests like, "Do you have a copy of the photo of that girl that visited who Adam photographed with the ax and the fake blood on her head in the kitchen?"
There were a lot of great ones but two stood out to represent the two subcultures chruning within the builkding, one gothic and one Beat. First, I had a few thousand postcards made up from these two light paintings.
It was Jerry Cimino at the typewriter with the lightening bolts coming out of his head and the other photo was of Aimee Kast and I with the skull in my hand.
The bothers TJ and Joe Myers started their own take-off of a light painting company, creating their own light paintings in Pittsburgh, having been introduced to and taught initial light paintings by Adam, and even been subjects within his works as well.
Next, I put together about a dozen of Adam's photos and created the hotel calanders last Spring, some 200 calanders which went out to visitors and particpants.
Then, the Beat Museum in California requested a set of Adam's light painting photos because they included Jerry Cimino, John Cassady, and Baird Bryant and other Beat-related personalities.
(Adam Blai in self-portrait)
Here within the hotel, for one of the last Kerouac Fests, I had several posters made of Adam's light paintings and we spread them up and down the second and third floor hotel halls. We removed all the lights and put out flashlights in a basket. WHAT A NIGHT! It was one enchanting garden to have to walk through the spooky dark halls and discover Adam's beautiful portraits of all of us one after another in the pitch black. Some people even used lanterns. Perfect.
So, finally finally finally, we consolodated all of these works down into the little secret back hall beside the hotel kitchen. There was a sign up: The Adam Blair Art Gallery. If you read this and remembered it while visiting the hotel, you could sneak back there and turn on the lights. It was a permanent fixture here in the buildng, and we still were adding works here and there as Adam created more.
Call it a Dream...
Oct 31, 2006
Over last weekend I started the moving in process (well, annexing almost half of the third floor). I had a dream that morning that really impacted me and felt important.
Here is part of Boris' Story:
My great grandfather, Boris Blai, was an artist of some note in his time. I don't like to talk about him or the family because it sounds like bragging or trying to get attention for things I didn't do. So, understand I'm doing this under duress. My great grandfather was a friend of the court of Nicholas, the last Czar of Russia. He tutored the Czar's son, who was the hemophiliac. Through that and other events he became very aware of the power of art therapy for illness. Before the revolution the friends of the family were sent out of the country. He moved slowly across Europe, lost his family in the wars, fought as an officer and studied with Rodin and other old world masters. Eventually he married Baba, a famous opera singer and performer of the day and they had their time in Paris.
Coming to the States he made a strong impression on socialite Philadelphia befriending Frank Lloyd Wright and having a hand in the design of the Guggenheim in New York. There was a woman who was ill that lived near Philadelphia and my great grandfather worked with her doing art therapy. She was so impressed with him and the effect on her wellness that she left part of her estate to him to start his own art school. This became the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where my Great Grandfather was dean for 30+ years. During that time he also founded the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences. A cool side effect of all this was that one of the statues that flanks the Philadelphia Art Museum was his piece and the woman in it is my grandmother when she was 19. That piece has moved since as they are rotated every 50 years I think.
Ok...so Boris Blai was an interesting character, and yes I knew him.
So the morning that I was starting the move into the hotel I had a dream where I was in a house or some location and was told he was there to see me. He had something to talk to me about, something he was going to teach me. He wouldn't come see me face to face until I stopped all of my art related pursuits and just focused on the art, not trading photos for modeling time, not commercial aspects, just get in the studio and develop. In addition to these thoughts I had a strong emotional feeling in my heart of him being near and wanting me to be as free and happy as possible and to develop my art as far as I could. I woke knowing that if I got my act together he would come back to see me or help me in my artistic life.
I'm uncomfortable sharing this but Blair thought it would be cool and contribute to the flow of the hotel as an artist refuge and gathering space. I'm going to put what I can behind the hotel to support the arts this year and spend as much time there as I can while making ends meet elsewhere.
So here's to the Old World artists, their memory and maybe even their prescence amongst us.
-Adam
THE SKULL PAINTING
This is a signature photo by Adam Blai of the painter Andrew Turner.
A few year's ago, during a particularly cold bleak winter season, Andrew visited me with a painting of a skull painting gift he'd created for me. I loved it and hung it in the bar.
Later, for the film Coolsville, Adam photographed Andrew here in the bar standing beside his painting. I absolutely love this photograph. It seems to have taken on a new significance too as time has gone on and will probably become the third official hotel postcard.