Top 6 mustaches in local arts

Can I just say Yay!

My mustache has just made the it to the "Top 6 mustaches in local arts"!

Check it out here.

My dear mustache is a "come and go" mustache these days... I keep growing it and then taking it off, then I grow it again, then I take it off...

I've had a mustache since I was like 16 or 17... and I hate shaving; especially my upper lip. Every time that I shave it this happens: I am well asleep and then I turn over and my naked lip hits the cold pillow and it wakes me up.

Arrrrgh!

Between somewhere in 1972-3 and 2009, the only time that I didn't have a mustache was when I was in Navy bootcamp.

And between 1974 and 1983 I had a full beard, which returned sporadically (such as when I served temporary exchange duties in the British Royal Navy in 1987-1989).

Then full again a beard from 1997-1999 when I sort of went Bohemian for a while again.

The Lenster in 1997
And then around 2004/5 the now classic waxed mustache made its initial appearance. And off and on from there on...

And it has had its payoff for me: I once got a free burrito at Chipotle because the lady making the yummy food really liked my bigote (Spanish for mustache) and gave me a free burro.

Congrats to fellow artists Adrian Parsons and Andrew Wodzianski, who also made the list... and BTW... please note how the "Arts" mustaches kick ass versus the politicians' mustaches.

Coolio Julio Jenny Rogers!

P.S. Emmett Burns (Clarence Thomas doppleganger at the bottom here), you need a new picture dude; a little smile would get a few thousand more votes next time!

There are those who build and those who destroy

(Via) Unfortunately, those that destroy remain in power in Cuba. Meanwhile, Cuban-Americans have just lost one of the greatest from those who build.

Last week, Ysrael A. Seinuk passed away in New York.

Seinuk, a worldwide authority on the design and construction of high-rise concrete and steel buildings, was a native of Cuba and a graduate of the University of Havana before going into exile in 1960.

Amongst his most notable New York projects are the Trump World Tower, Bear Stearns World Headquarters, Time Warner Centre at Columbus Circle, Trump's Riverside South apartments, the New York Mercantile Exchange, Four Time Square, 515 Park Avenue, the "Lipstick" Building, Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium in Flushing Meadows, 7 World Trade Center, The Galleria and the landmark 450 Lexington Avenue.

And those were just his New York projects. From Mexico City to Dubai, his work remains a testament to his unique talent. Yet, Cuba always remained prominently in his heart.

During a 2005 interview with the BBC, Seinuk was asked:

If you had the opportunity to return to Cuba tomorrow and were free to build something, what type of building would you erect and where?

His answer:

"Well, the key word in your question is freedom. Assuming things would take a normal path, towards democracy, I would go to Cuba even if it were to only build a small hut."

May he rest in peace.

The place to be tomorrow is...

First Campello gallery exhibition in DC area in 4 years!

Tomorrow is the opening for my first substantial exhibition in the DC area in four years. The show will be at the School of Art & Design at Montgomery College's King Street Gallery, located in the beautiful Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center at 930 King Street in the Montgomery College, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus.

There will be all new drawings in my constant exploration of using the human figure to deliver social, historical, satirical, mythological and political messages. The show also includes work by the immensely talented Johanna Mueller, who was one of my top picks from the last Artomatic and whom I predict will steal the show, as well as Leah Frankel and Leslie Shellow, both of whom are new artists to me.

The show is curated by Dr. Claudia Rousseau and is:

An exhibit of works on paper depicting mythical themes, or themes connoting transformations—mythical, magical or organic.

The exhibit will include prints, drawings and installation works employing paper with wax and other media.

The opening is tomorrow, Thursday, September 23, 5:00 – 7:30 pm. I hear there will be a TV crew at the opening, so it sounds like a fun night. There will also be an artists' panel on Monday, Sept. 27, at noon, for one hour. I will be available at the panel and after the panel to discuss and answer any questions that you may have about anything dealing with the visual arts, career, galleries, etc.

The Hirshhorn Bubble

The National Mall in Washington has seen all sorts of enterprises over the years, but who would build a translucent, inflatable bubble there, protruding from the doughnut-shaped Hirshhorn Museum and looking, from renderings, like a giant jellybean colored robin's egg blue? And why?

That would be Richard Koshalek, the Hirshhorn's voluble director, who when announcing the 145-foot-tall bubble last December uncharacteristically said little about its purpose other than that it would host four week-long international events, every spring and fall, about contemporary art and culture.

Judith H. Dobrzynski writes in the WSJ about Richard Koshalek's visions for the Hirshhorn. Read it here.