When everybody has a label

This is what happens when we try to put a label on everyone and everything...


Rice and beans; clear enough.
Mexican food; clear enough.
Chinese food; clear enough.

Latino food? Now you're losing me. Is that all Spanish speaking American countries' foods but Mexico?

Spanish food? Is that food from Spain? I didn't see any paellas, or cazon, or puntillitas, or gambas al ajillo in the aisle, so it must be another way for poor Giant to try to say Latino.

What it really is, is that poor Giant, just like me, is so confused by all the names that we keep inventing to label a certain segment of our population that they're trying to cover all bases.

Conspicuously absent is "Hispanic Foods." Is that out of vogue now?

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 15, 2010

Art in Hand™ is an arts publisher looking to bring their City Project Decks of cards to the city of Washington, DC. They are seeking 54 artists who are currently living and working in the Washington, DC area to participate in their next City Project Deck. Read more below:

The Washington, DC Project will be a deck of fully functional playing cards where each individual card in the deck (plus 2 jokers) is rendered in the typical style of the contributing artist. The project will create widespread exposure for participating artists while producing a unique, entertaining, functional and green product for the city of Washington, DC.

We are seeking artists of 2-dimensional art in any style or medium and from as many different neighborhoods and districts within Washington, DC area as possible.

Accepted artists will be assigned one card from the deck and asked to produce an original piece of work that clearly represents their designated card, that represents some aspect (be it overt or subtle) of Washington, DC and that is created in their own unique style.

There will be no fee for participation but accepted artists will be asked to sign a letter of commitment, a confidentiality agreement and a ‘right to reproduce’ agreement as well as submit a high res TIFF of the image in exchange for a one-time royalty payment in product. Artists are free to keep their original image.

Interested artists should submit an email before November 15th, 2010 to info@artinhandcards.com, include a short bio and a link to a website where their work can be easily viewed or 2-3 sample image files representative of their work. Please include the title: Washington, DC Project Artist in the subject line of your email.

If you are accepted to the project, we will contact you after November 22nd, 2010 and send you an information package that should answer all your questions.

For more information or to view other City Projects, please visit their website at www.artinhandcards.com.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: December 5, 2010

This is an international open call for artwork from the Adam Lister Gallery. They are "searching for innovative and thought provoking artwork of any medium, size and subject matter." This submission will be juried by a panel of gallery staff, curators and collectors.

The deadline for submission is Dec.5, 2010.

This juried group exhibition will run from Jan.14 to Feb.21, 2011.

For details on how to submit artwork visit this website.

A Postmodern Meditation on The Five Proofs of God

“The Five Proofs of God” is an installation proposal that addresses the quinque viae of Thomas Aquinas and the relationship of language to ways of “knowing.” In Summa Theologica, Aquinas introduced “Five Ways” the existence of God could be proved. 20th Century scholars have refuted these “Proofs” with various arguments about Aquinas’s concepts.

Mark Cameron Boyd uses both English translations of sections of Aquinas’ text of his “Five Proofs,” as well as text by his detractors, to introduce the idea of God’s existence in the perfect site-specific location of Catholic University's Salve Regina Hall.

“A Postmodern Meditation on the Five Proofs of God” is thus an exhibition of the artwork of Mark Cameron Boyd that features an installation addressing logical propositions by Thomas Aquinas to explore language and its putative conveyance of “reason” to “ways of knowing.” This exhibition runs from Nov. 11 to Dec. 17, 2010 and also features a mini-retrospective of selected artworks by Boyd from 2004 to 2010.

The opening, plus a panel discussion with Dr. Lisa Lipinski, curator, Mark Cameron Boyd, artist, and Patrick Beldio, MFA and PhD candidate, Religion and Culture on November 11, 6-8 pm.

Wanna go to an Embassy opening tomorrow?

The Embassy of Argentina will have an opening reception on Monday, November 8, 6 - 8:30 PM, for an exhibition premiering 20 photographs of Argentina's national parks by Diego Ortiz Mugica featured in the new book Parques Nacionales Argentinos (The National Parks of Argentina).

The exhibition, part of the celebration of Argentina's bicentennial, will be open to the public November 10-11, 1-5PM, and November 12, 1-3PM. Kaller Fine Arts (www.kallerfinearts.com) will have a large selection of Mugica's works available including images from The National Parks, Fly Fishing Moments, The Geography of the Body and other series.

In the book's prologue, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner celebrates "the extraordinary value and enormous richness of our land, our nature reserves, and our diversity." The artist's goal in the national parks project, on which he spent twelve years and traversed one third of Argentina's 36 parks, was to create "perfectly clear images where you can feel the stones, the sand, the trees and perceive the wind and the cold ... to show the natural beauty" of the parks. Among his favorite sites, the Iguazu Falls, Glaciares, and Patagonia North.

The Embassy of Argentina is located at 1600 New Hampshire Avenue, NW (corner of Q Street & New Hampshire Avenue, NW). Metro access via the Red Line, Dupont Circle stop, Q Street exit.