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.

Today, the entire collection of Adam Blai Art Gallery hangs in Room #22. It is wonderful. If you have read this, and visit, it is worth the climb into the depths of the building to seek out.