30 Days + 24 Hours

The Hera Gallery Presents:

July 19th - August 30th Opening: Saturday, July 19th , from 6:00 - 8:00pm

Hera Gallery is please to present 30 Days + 24 Hours: An all Rhode Island Comic Book Exhibition, Challenge, and Marketplace. This show will feature Rhode Island based artists working in the styles based or originating in the comic book format. This show will not only give the public a chance to view these creative and unique works of art, but will also provide an opportunity to purchase copies of locally made comic books.

Exhibition poster created by Mickey Zacchilli and Mike Taylor.

24 Hour Comic Book Challenge

Artists will be challenging themselves, individually or as part of a team, to create a soul stirring, heart thumping, thought provoking, mind bending comic book/graphic novel in just 24 hours. The gallery will be open from Noon, Saturday, July 19 to Noon, Sunday, July 20 for a concentrated blast of extreme drawing, painting, cutting and pasting. Coffee will be served. Sugar will be available in a variety of forms. Models will flex and bend and stretch and strut. Music will be performed. Movies will be shown. Artists will read from their graphic novels. Cots will be available for napping. Above all, ink will flow! Given this level of sleep deprivation, caffeine buzz, rock and roll, and collaborative energy, what will they come up with? Results of the 24-hour challenge will also go up on the gallery walls.

4:30 to 6:00 Comic Book Reading Alec Thibodeau reads from Dead in Desemboque: Historias de Amor y Sangre! Alec Thibodeau lives on plants and gleefully toils in Providence, Rhode Island. His drawing and printmaking work includes a history of fashioning posters for various events. He is one of three illustrators of Dead in Desemboque. His presentation will include photos of a research trip he made to the dessert.

6:00 to 8:00 Opening Reception for 30 Days + 24 Hours Zack Geaber and other Musicians will kick off the opening reception with African drumming from 6:00 to 6:30. Listen to the music and maybe dance a little.

8:00 to 10:00 Film Screening Jon B. Cooke will present his documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist The full-length feature film documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist is the culmination of a five-year mission by two South Kingstown High School graduates, Andrew D. and Jon B. Cooke, brothers who grew up in the 1970s buying comics at Healey's news store and making amateur Super-8 movies on the front yard of their Wakefield home. The motion picture, which debuted to acclaim at the Tribecca Film Festival, tells the story of the great Will Eisner (1917-2005), one of the founding fathers of the American comic book and perhaps its greatest practitioner. Eisner coined the term "sequential art," composed the medium's first textbook, taught generations of artists, and even created the graphic novel form, and served as the art form's elder statesman as well as mentor to countless aspiring cartoonists. The artist's remarkable life is covered in loving detail in this 96-minute film with particular emphasis on his beloved creation The Spirit in the 1940s (which has been adapted as a Hollywood movie to be released this upcoming Christmas Day, directed by Frank Miller, director of "Sin City" and creator of "300") and his later graphic novels, including the seminal "A Contract With God." Among those featured in the documentary are Kurt Vonnegut, Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Michael Chabon, Jack Kirby, Milton Caniff, and many others, including the participation of Eisner himself (who died during the film's production). Jeffrey Lyons, of NBC's Reel Talk called the film, "Fascinating... A valuable record of this unique form of American art, and the iconic characters it spawned." The filmmakers will attend this special "homecoming" screening.

Support and food for the artists is being supplied by a number of local businesses including Sweet Cakes Bakery, The Alternative Food Cooperative, Belmont Market, and DiVozzi Italian Bakery.

Music at the Project Space

"oscillator cabinets" by ben fino-radin

Rainbro, James Amoeba, and Global Credit Squeeze

SUNDAY JUNE 15 // 7pm sharp//FREE

intimate evening of sweet rumbles & electric purrs +maybe more special guest performers

Providence Art Windows

Seeking proposals for Providence Art Windows, Providence, RI.

Art will be installed by selected artists in windows downtown. Work may be pre-existing or site specific; 2D or 3D. Jury includes Diana Gaston, Associate Curator, Fidelity Investments. Two rounds of installations: opening 9/18/8 and 12/6/8. Deadline for both: postmarked 6/15/8. $100 stipend available. Send 10 jpegs on disk, proposal, resume and SASE to: 205 Kenyon Ave., E. Greenwich, RI, 02818. No email entries. Information: Liz Keithline, keithlineri@cox.net, (put 'Windows' in subject line), or 401/578-4313