Philadelphia

 

Ben and I went to Philly this weekend for Southern Graphics Council and we had a blast! It was a little chilly for us deep south folk, but we zipped up our jackets and walked until our legs almost fell off. Here are some photos from our trip. We picked up this lovely card from Art Star by Melanie Linder. 

We flew in Thursday and were so exhausted when we got to the hotel. The only thing open was some room service diner so we ordered a fantastic TURKEY DINNER! That's right, they had turkey and the fixins. It wasn't bad for a late night Turkey dinner in March.

 

First thing in the morning we went to the hotel where SGC was held and got registration out of the way. The doorman there recommended this great place called Down Home Diner in the Reading Terminal Market. I had poached eggs and ham on a biscuit with this cooked apple thing. So Good. Ben had hash browns with a fried egg—what a treat!

 

We actually ran into Molly and Jay from Atlanta at the Reading Terminal Market and we all went over to the Fabric Workshop Museum together. Heads up: you have to schedule an appointment to see the work room. We didn't know that, so no workroom tour for us.

After Fabric Workshop we parted ways with Molly and Jay and headed over to Space 1026. It was great to finally see it in person. They apparently had a party the night before, hence the keg.

ONWARD! Ben and I tried to squeeze in as much as we could, so on we went to the brick and mortar of Art in the Age. The store was so cool and well merchandised. We met a great girl there named Meg who talked to us about Philly. It was great to see a place like this in person after looking at its website for so long.

Lots of folks recommended we go to Art Star, so we did! This place was great! It was like a Philly version of shopSCAD. All handmade, limited edition items, we bought some magnets, gifts, and of course, Melanie's great little postcard. The owners here were working the front counter, and recommended we go to Honey's for lunch.

Talk about GOOD FOOD. Ben and split a cheeseburger here with a yummy side of mac and cheese and a green bean casserole. This was one of my favorite places in Philly to eat. Yum! You can't put milkshake on a chalkboard menu and expect me not to get one. Ben and I wrapped lunch up with a really rad chocolate milkshake. They also had this really pretty wallpaper at their entrance I had to snap a shot of to share for you pattern lovers out there.

We hopped around Second Street for a while and then came time to go to one of the SGC panels at Tyler School of Art. It was called fst_media/Slow Knowledge. There weren't very many appealing discussions lined up this year for SGC, but I am glad we went to this one. My favorite speaker went last, Nigel Rolfe and really made some great points about information and our capacity to absorb (or not absorb) information.

From Tyler we took a shuttle (an elementary school bus, thanks Philadelphia!) to Moore College of Art and Design and were able to see some great installations. The first room was by Regina Silveira and was breathtaking. The entire room was plastered with larger than life insects, and there was also a centerpiece of the room with bug covered ceramics. Thank you Regina Silveira for making Creepy crawlies something beautiful. The next room was Virgil Marti's work which was also soo amazing. You could see this shiny disco ball room from the outside through a window, and it made you feel like a kid in front of a toy store—you just wanted to get in that room!

Few! We took the shuttle to the Crane Arts building where there was some really great work. These were two of my favorites. We met up with my friend Shawn Hileman, who runs Masthead Print Studio. He showed us the studio and took us out for a few beers. It was a great way to end our first full day in Philly.

 Saturday morning, what's for breakfast?! Ben and I walked around until we found this place, The Continental Mid-town. Who could pass up a restaurant with a giant martini olive on it? Not us. This place had sunny, vintage-modern feel  to it, and not only was the atmosphere great, the food was delicious, and the server was very nice. I had a crab and havarti omlette and Ben had salmon hash which was unexpected and delightful.
 

There were five sessions of "full contact" portfolio reviews, at least that's what we called it, and they were all as crowded as this! It was nice running into friends we had not seen in a while, and there were some outstanding gems within the chaos but not a lot to write home about. Or blog about for that matter.

In between portfolio reviews, we went to the Print Center and saw this great tent-like structure by Space 1026. None of my interior shots came out, but it was true-to-form eclectic in there.

We did some shopping (H&M!) and then crashed. At this point we were fighting some serious waves of tired, so we crashed for a little bit and then came the big question: DINNER. Our friend Katie recommended this place, Jones. GO EAT THERE. It was my favorite place we ate, and it was so tasty. We split a mac and cheese appetizer, and then Ben and I launched into a medium rare filet mignon with whipped potatoes and carrots. And of course we couldn't resist apple pie dessert. Unfortunately the lighting was dim so I took very few shots, but I am so glad this little back lit landscape placed at our table turned out. This was the cherry on top of our Philadelphia ice cream sundae. Figuratively. We already had the pie! Thanks for the recommendation Katie!