The Gavin Show

I met Matt Kraft (known in some circles as Krafty, K-Box, K-Rock, Kraft-o-mattic, Kraftmattic, and sometimes Matt) at Salisbury University’s variety show in the fall of 1998. He, along with our good buddy Josh, played in a band called Release, and I had somehow been convinced to act as one of the shows emcees.

A couple weeks later I replaced the guitar player in Release. By the spring, Krafty, Josh and I had re-formed as local legends of late-nineties rock, Three Track Mind. We released one full-length album called Throws Like a Girl (which you can still find on iTunes).

I’ve known this guy for just a shade over a decade. We’ve been through a lot, and he’s one of my best friends. So I was thrilled that he recently started a photo blog called, fittingly, Kraftmattic.

His daily photos are really fun, and his accompanying posts just crack me right the hell up. Recently, he had a photo of portable toilets dangling above a construction site, and in another entry he turned a well-known piece of art into a Kids in the Hall reference. I love him, so go subscribe to his feed!

Yesterday, the Maryland-based Gazette newspaper ran a great article about my dad. He has photos on display at the Visions Exhibition Space of the Bethesda North Marriott until April 24th, and there will be a reception on Friday, February 27th.

St. Ours’ art has not been confined to a single medium; within his 35-plus year career, he has produced hand-carved marble sculpture as well as large-format prints of his digital images and panoramic photography. The art forms have at least one major aspect in common.

“All art and design, including photography, is best taught through the exercise of drawing,” St. Ours observes. “There is a vocabulary in the visual language of drawing, a vocabulary that includes line, form and structure, all of which can be read for meaning, and the correct study of drawing in a well-taught art class can exercise this vocabulary so as to strengthen and increase the brain’s ability to creatively solve problems.”

Damn, he’s a smarter guy than I’ve given him credit for all these years! (Just kidding, Dad.) Read the article here.

If you’re in the area, I encourage you to stop by and check out his amazing work! You can get a preview on his site. Oh, and if you’re a fan of Lost, you’ll especially dig the photo he took when he visited the set in Hawaii. See if you can spot it. I want a copy of that one for my apartment.