Nekkid pics

In a brilliant attempt to drive traffic to his new art Blog, Bailey is posting nekkid pictures of his ex-girlfriends.

See them here.

CNN on Seven

I am told that the CNN spots on Seven will be running this week; I'm on the road again this morning, so if anyone sees them, please let me know.

New BLOG

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Blogsphere, Bailey has a new daily art Blog.

And he's already stirring the art pot by jumping into the MFA Boston debate.

Visit Black Cat Bone often.

Fair

Away all day today at an art fair, and again tomorrow; more later.

Bailey on BORF

Bailey, Bailey, Bailey...

The following article was intended for publication in the Washington Post upon the arrest of its anonymous writer, James W. Bailey, on charges of aiding and abetting the graffiti artist known as Borf. The article was leaked by a confidential source within the White House (Karl Rove) to DC Art News and is being published in advance of the arrest of Mr. Bailey. DC Art News does not have a confidentiality agreement with Mr. Bailey to preserve his anonymity as the writer of this special contribution to the Washington Post and is therefore publishing it in its entirety.

"For Those Too Young to Die (Yet Too Old to Tag), We Salute You!"
by James W. Bailey

(Washington, D.C.) Minutes after the once-elusive graffiti artist known as Borf was transferred from Metropolitan D.C. police to the U. S. Marshall’s Service for extradition to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo, Cuba, several hundred of his young angry disgruntled disciples had a message for those outraged by Borf’s graffiti.

"This is just the beginning!" chanted the mob as it hurled empty spray paint cans toward a frightened Mayor Anthony Williams who was standing linked arm-in-arm with shell-shocked federal officials outside the Municipal Courts Building. "Now even more rich suburban kids from Northern Virginia are going to invade your city and come out in protest, so this isn't the end!”

If the mob’s intent was to intimidate the nattily dressed mayor by raising the specter of in his words "spoiled prep school elitist Starbucks latte-sipping adolescent anarchist jackasses from across the Potomac" descending on every blank wall in the city until Borf, aka Michael Tsmobikos, is freed, it didn't work.

"You wanna-be punk artists are going down the wrong path," Williams frantically screamed while dogging cardboard stencils tossed like Frisbees his way. "Don’t you disrespectful jerks realize you're destroying private property?! Don’t any of you aesthetically lacking idiots understand the value of the free enterprise capitalist system and its importance to furthering a graffiti-free environment that is safe for tourists?! Is there even one suburban brat among you who has ever read any Ayn Rand?! Don’t any of you untalented fools realize that your so-called ‘tags’ aren’t really art in the first place?!"

As laughter erupted from the swarming gang of aggressive graffiti artists, a rancorous collective response of “Free Borf! Free Borf! Free Borf!” was also rudely hurled along with other accoutrements of the street graffiti trade at Williams and Vice-President Dick Cheney, who had agreed at the last minute to appear at the press conference announcing the federalization of Borf’s criminal case.

The gang of boys assembled from Great Falls, McLean, Reston and other high income zip codes in Virginia, met Williams's and Cheney’s paternal gaze with hard, unblinking stares of their own. Either it was the boldest of bluffs or the boys who confronted the representative powers of Washington, D.C. truly believed they could summon an army of graffiti artists/taggers who would swarm over the city's unprotected walls like rats in "Willard."

Recounting the confrontation 30 minutes later in the anteroom of his office at City Hall, Williams was still angrily shaking his head about the boys' "misplaced hero worship of this punk crap artist Borf."

"Borf and those rich white boys from Virginia who helped him and who support him declared war on the city," said Williams nervously shaking his fist. Asked what he was going to do about a possible resurgence of wide-spread anti-capitalist graffiti in the city, Williams angrily waved a copy of an ordinance he first proposed to Washington, D.C. City Council two years ago, only to see it narrowly defeated.

"We're reintroducing this emergency legislation next week that will make it a felony crime for white minors who are non-residents of the City of Washington, D.C. to buy or possess spray paint, indelible markers or etching acids, as well as all the other tools these graffiti terrorists use, including cardboard for their stencils," he said. "This thing, whether it's a fad or an art form, which every sane person knows it’s not art by the way, or just plain vandalism created to incite terrorist insurrection, as I believe it is, has got to stop. And this Mayor is damned determined to stop people like Bork dead in their tracks."

Vice-President Cheney, who joined Williams in his hurriedly relocated press conference, echoed Williams sentiments and explained the federal government’s role in the Borf case: "The outstanding investigative work of the joint city and federal task force that tracked down and arrested this so-called graffiti artist has at last put an end to the terroristic actions of Borf and has effectively ended the deluded notion that Borf’s tags were a respectable form of art. Borf’s tags were clearly not art. They were coded terrorist messages that were designed to encourage intellectually gullible and emotionally susceptible children to murder their parents while asleep in their beds. Tags like “Grown Ups Are Obsolete”. Any rational American knows what that message is attempting to communicate to the youth of America. It’s also quite clear to the government that Borf’s campaign of terror against the people of Washington, D.C. was being financed by Al Qaeda. Borf himself has confessed to traveling to Europe to protest the G-8 conference. As is quite clear from recent CIA reports, Al Qaeda financed most of those protestors. Borf has therefore been declared an enemy combatant and has been transferred to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo, Cuba, for further torture, uh, a torturous, that is a very thorough interrogation."

When asked if he had agreed to the federalization of Borf’s crimes in order to placate White House demands that were tied to an impending announcement of Presidential support of the Mayor’s efforts to secure statehood for the district, Williams bristled: "That is pure B.S.! The Mayor of Washington, D.C. does not do the quid pro quo biding of the White House when it comes to protecting the citizens of this city from terrorists like Borf. This Mayor does the right thing. And the right thing was to allow the federal government to handle Borf."

Cheney offered a similarly stern response: "Look, Mayor Williams is a hero in the effort to defeat terrorism and to secure the apprehension of this terrorist thug Borf. As we all know, federal legislation has long allowed the RICO statue to be used to federalize the cases of young African-American gang members who engage in acts of graffiti terrorism. There was a loophole in the law. No one ever really saw the day when rich white kids would be bold enough to leave their comfortable suburban stomping ground to wage a terrorizing campaign against the City of Washington, D.C. with their Al Qaeda funded messages of anarchy and anti-consumerism. Obviously, we need to have Congress immediately beef-up the current anti-gang laws that are on the books. But the allegation that President Bush somehow suggested to the Mayor that if he didn’t support the government’s position on Borf that that action would threaten future support of DC statehood is ridiculous and is blog generated propaganda being spread by Borf’s anti-American supporters to increase the mythology of Borf among extremists."

Though Williams remains an implacable foe of anti-capitalistic graffiti, he isn't without a small degree of sympathy for young men like Borf. He insists that he understands their alienation, but he's more offended that people feel they have the right to assert their identity at the expense of property owners and taxpayers who'd rather not provide their walls for someone's therapy.

"Look, I’m a human being and understand the pain of other people. Borf’s mother came to me after his arrest to say her son was innocent," Williams said. "I told her that I felt sorry for her, but that she shouldn't hold her son in awe because there's nothing exciting about that punk. Let’s get real. Borf’s not even that charismatic. And worse, he doesn't even have a single original idea he can call his own. ‘For God sakes’, I told her, ‘he reads stupid French books on B.S. philosophy by some dead guy who committed suicide named Guy Debord!’"

In a highly emotional state, with his lips quivering as he spoke, Williams continued: "Look, it’s not like Borf's protesting the War in Iraq with his graffiti. He's not doing anything to advance society or politics. And he’s especially not doing anything to advance the concept of art! Sure, some graffiti is at least interesting to look at, but not Borf’s. His stuff is all crap! And it’s certainly not real art. To Borf’s supporting art critics, I ask this: what’s Borf’s original aesthetic message? What the lasting impact of his art? Where do you really feel Borf’s place will be in the future pantheon of great artists? Borf is a gutter punk wannabe artist and that’s where he’ll always be."

When questioned about the critical legitimacy of street graffiti as a respected art form, Williams nervously continued his defensive tirade: "Look, we have all kinds of real galleries and museums in the city where you can go and see some real art. Real art has no place out on the streets anyway. Real art ought not to be out in the real world where it’s exposed to the elements and can be rained on. Any person with half a brain that knows anything about real art knows that. The Washington Post’s chief art critic Blake Gopnik doesn’t like street art. He didn’t think those Party Animals were real art, did he? So I’m in respectable company with this opinion because I don’t either. Street art is for untalented artists who don’t merit gallery representation. My advice to people like Borf is to keep your so-called art off outdoor public property and spend more time in your studio learning how to paint pictures of the Washington Monument that you can sell to tourists at the Torpedo Factory."

In an extraordinary related development, President Bush deviated from the script of his weekly press conference on Iraq, also held on the same day, to comment on the Borf situation. The following is a transcript of Bush’s remarks:

"I’m reminded that today that this young fella Borf who’s been painting these evil statements about kids killing their parents, has finally been arrested.

Terrible kid. And make no mistake here, he's a terrorist. This kid Borf.

It’s a sad day in some ways this day that’s today, with Borf being arrested. This Culture of Death thing that I’m always talking about has infected Borf and his supporters.

And some of these elitist academic art idiots... uh intellectuals call Borf’s bagging [sic tagging] art! Well, that’s just plain dumb. Bagging [sic tagging] death slogans around town is not art! Every real American knows that! You can’t spray paint a sign that says 'Kill Me Mommy' and call that art!

What’s wrong with the youth of today?

And what about that big Borf head painted over there on the bridge by the river? That was an act of terrorism. Somebody could have been killed looking at that awful thing. Could have gotten distracted and driven their car into the Potomac. We can’t have stuff like that going on in the nation’s capital.

The federal government, this President of the United States of America, has a solemn obligation to protect the people of this country from evil merchants of death like Borf.

Your President knows what good art is. I think good thoughts about good art all the time.

And good American people of good conscience know what really good art is all about too.

Borf, well, that’s not really good real art. We all know that.

It really hurts me at a very personal level that some have suggested that this President doesn’t like art. George W. Bush loves art. Laura and I have more Thomas Kindkade paintings at home in Crawford than we’ve got heads of cattle.

Your President loves art. Let me repeat it: George W. Bush Loves art. Real art that is. But Borf’s not a real artist.

Look, this President ordered his State Department to approve the selection of that great American artist Eduardo Rusario [sic Ed Ruscha] to appear at the Venice Benfoldsfive Finale [sic Venice Biennale] over there in Italy. This exhibition features some really good rock solid thought provoking contemporaneous art [sic contemporary art].

Eduardo now is a real American artist. Works with a style called Mini-anti-female-materialism [sic minimalism]. Real cutting edge stuff, man! I don’t pretend to understand it, but I just know this: Eduardo’s art ain’t telling people to go out and burn an American flag like Borf’s so-called art is doing. Eduardo’s art is not encouraging children to kill their parents.

And Eduardo’s art, well, I just think that his art is the kind of condom-draineous art [sic contemporary art] this country needs more of. We need more artists like Eduardo making more of that mini-van-ballistic [sic minimalist] stuff. That stuff makes you think, man! But it don’t make you think about things Americans ought not to be thinking too much about. You understand what I’m saying?

The American people need to know that their President loves really good contempt-for-paineous art [sic contemporary art] like the minimum-wage-unrealism [sic minimalism] stuff that Eduardo makes.

But let me also emphasize that really good American art, know matter what style it is, even good graffiti art if there is such a thing, also needs to be confined to what I call the 'WWW – white-walled world.'

A legacy of presumed guilt levied by the President of the United States of America is certainly too heavy a public burden for anyone with common sense to bear willingly. Since his arrest in Washington, D.C., many of Borf’s friends, and even some of his most outspoken critics, have raised the possibility that Borf may be the unluckiest of patsies – a Lee Harvey Oswald, if you will, of the contemporary art world. Some wonder whether the true culprits are, indeed, the growing legion of disaffected educated suburban white kids now threatening to scrawl their defiance of the law on walls in the hearts of metropolitan cities all over America in Borf's name.

James W. Bailey

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Art from Arlington opens at the new Arlington Art Center tonight with an opening reception from 6-9PM.

See ya there!

Artrain USA

Artrain USA, an art museum housed on a train, addresses the shortage of and lack of value placed on cultural programming in American communities by introducing the arts to individual residents while helping communities build their capacity to grow and sustain cultural programs.

Artrain USA provides quality art exhibitions complemented by strong art education programs and community outreach activities. For 34 years, Artrain USA has traveled to as many as 35 communities and reached 100,000 people annually. Since 1971, approximately 3 million people in 750 communities across 44 states have visited Artrain USA.

Artrain USA hosts the contemporary Native American art exhibition, Native Views: Influences of Modern Culture.

This exhibit will stop in Manassas, Virginia from July 28-31, 2005. Artrain USA is looking for artists to make art work on site during its stop in Manassas and they are looking for volunteers. If anyone is interested, they can send contact Philip Barlow at philipbarlow@msn.com and he will pass it along to the appropriate people. Artists do not have to be Native American to participate, just willing to help support this worthy project.

More work

I'll be curating a show for a small Virginia museum in the near future; details later.

WaPo on Seven

Jessica Dawson has a mini review of Seven in today's Washington Post's Galleries column. Read it here.

Scotty is dead

James Doohan, the Canadian chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died Wednesday. He was 85.

Fair winds and following seas, Scotty.

Airport run-in

It's an odd application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but I am always amazed at how chaos and order seem to cease to exist at airports.

I've had some interesting airport experiences in my life (none weirder than this one), such as sitting next to Darth Vader and selling him a drawing, or meeting Ana Mendieta when she was a graduate student (and getting a drawing from her).

But tonight, when I arrived at Dulles, I ran into Vance.

Vance is an American of Chinese ancestry, who happens to be an ex-Army Ranger, and one of the most lethal people on this planet. This is the kind of a guy who can kill you in a dozen different ways before you even know he's killing you.

Me: "Vance! What are you doing here?"

Vance [stares until he recognizes me]: "Lenny! I didn't recognize you... you're wearing a suit!" [Vance's imagery of me is in other style clothing].

Vance: "What's with the hair?" [I've been growing my hair]

Me: "What have you been up to?" [actually sounded like "What'cha bin up ta?"]

Vance: "Been training for a big fight in Argentina." [Vance is part of an "under-the-noise" circuit that fights for big money in freestyle fighting all over the world - a few years ago he actually lost an eye in a fight].

Me: "Mmmm.."

Vance: "I think a broke my clavicle in training though..."

Me: "Ahh..."

Vance: "I've been on travel though... so I haven't had time to see a doctor."

Me: "You should before you enter that tournament..."

Vance: [looking at me like that "here's your sign" comedian from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour] "yeah..."

Me: "see ya Vance..."

Vance: "Take care Lenny..."

Airports...

BORF vs The WaPo

We all know that street artist/graffitist/vandal BORF was arrested recently and that WaPo reporter Libby Copeland wrote this piece on the subject.

And then, several of the below have turned up on the sidewalks near the WaPo building...



and...



A little trivia for you (don't ever play Trivia Pursuit against me)... Vandalism is from the word Vandal. The Vandals were a German tribe that, at the fall of the Roman Empire, swept across Europe leaving behind a trail of destruction, wreckage and... uh... vandalism.

They eventually settled in southern Spain as a people. The land that they settled in is today known as Andalusia... the word Andalusia is a derivative of the Arabic Var Andalus which borrows from the Latin Vandalus... or The Land of the Vandals.

Airborne today...........

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: July 28, 2005

New York Hall of Science Juried Exhibition - DIGITAL'05: "EXQUISITE" is the 7th Annual International Digital Print Competition & Exhibition organized by Art & Science Collaborations; Oct. 1, 2005 - Jan. 15, 2006 at The New York Hall of Science, NYC. Digital'05 invites an examination of the nature of "exquisite" in all of its ramifications. This year's juror is Lynn Gamwell, Director of the Binghamton University Art Museum, Binghamton, New York, and Curator of the Gallery of Art and Science at the New York Academy of Sciences, New York City. $5/per image submission. See Prospectus for full details & Online Entry Form here

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Deadline: July 31, 2005

Thousands of photographers compete in the annual International Photography Awards (IPA) competition. Fifteen finalists (eight professionals and seven non-professionals) are nominated for IPA's top award: The International Photographer of the Year Award, and invited to the Lucie Awards (October 17 at the American Airlines Theatre), where one winner will be announced, earning the coveted Lucie and $10,000. Visit their Web site for a competition entry form: www.photoawards.com.

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Deadline: August 12, 2005

Texas Erotic Art Show - An erotic art theme exhibition open to all interpretation of erotic art, on all forms of medium. This is a commission free exibit. Deadline for entry is September 5, 2005. Handling fee of $20 per piece on all work sold The Exhibition will be held Oct. 21-22, 2005 in Austin, Texas. Early Submission Fee $30 for 1-4 slides, prints or images on CD. Please include $5 for each additional slide, print or image on CD. Late Submission Fee $40 for 1-4 slides, prints, or images on CD. Please include $10 for each additional slide, print or image on CD, deadline Sept. 16th. Online entry form at this website or e-mail: info@mavericksunarts.com or send SASE to:
Maverick Sun Arts,
2900 W Anderson LN C-200-#351
Austin TX 78757

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Deadline: Feb 28, 2006

Yavapai College is seeking contemporary
work in all media for 4-5 week display, 2006-07 school year. Insurance. Please send 15 slides, list, resume, statement, SASE, etc to:
Edie Dillon
Yavapai College
Visual & Performing Arts
1100 E Sheldon St
Box 6850
Prescott AZ 86301 or call 928-776-2031 or email edie_dillon@yc.edu

Mark Jenkins Strikes Again

This time in Baltimore. See the small plastic tape bird atop the sign?

Opportunity for Artists

The Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) is requesting proposals for exhibitions for its main gallery space for periods of approximately 4-6 weeks. Proposals will be accepted from artists, independent curators, or arts organizations.

Visit this website for more details.

Frank's Back!

Frank Van Riper's award-winning photography column in the Washington Post has been re-launched!

Frank Van Riper on Photography has appeared in the WaPo since 1992, first in the Friday Weekend section and for the past five years in the Camera Works section of Washingtonpost.com.

However, Van Riper has been absent from CameraWorks for more than a year. Principally, this hiatus allowed Frank and his wife and partner Judith Goodman to complete work on their six-year book project on Venice: Serenissima: Venice in Winter.

With that book now done, Van Riper has resumed his regular space in CameraWorks -- in a new incarnation that will allow even greater display of photography, as well as give Frank a chance to offer more timely reviews and recommendations of what is new and notable in the visual arts world, both in Washington and elsewhere.

This is a good thing for our area's cultural tapestry. Welcome back Frank!

Two Billion Dollars

Is what's needed urgently by the Smithsonian Institution in order to "maintain its 660 buildings and care for the millions of objects, documents, and photographs in its collections over the next decade."

Read it all here.

All day

I'll be lecturing and yapping all day here in San Diego... more later.

Drawings

Since yesterday I didn't spend all day at the International Comic Book Convention - because of the huge lines - I instead decided to go do some artwork.

Because I work in charcoal, I always bring some supplies with me while I travel: pencils, sticks, paper and erasers, plus a fixative spray can.

So I bought a six pack, packed it inside a plastic garbage can from my hotel room and covered it with ice and drove to Spanish Landing to do some drawings. And I found an empty bench, and set up to draw some small drawings...

This is my drawing bench - facing the water at Spanish Landing

I ended up doing a few small drawings overe the next few hours.


And below are some of the pieces that I did while enjoying the sun and a few beers:


Two Nuns


Two Nuns in a Window


A Pictish Witch

And I had done these two the night before in my hotel room; they are inspired by my interest in the legend of La Llorona:


La Llorona (from a photograph by the great Danny Conant.)



La Llorona Laughs