Guess what arrived via FEDEX this afternoon?

The 100 Washington, DC Artists' advance copy just got delivered to my home today and the book is gorgeous!

And the back cover has quite a few pieces of art; work by Rik Freeman, Alexa Meade, Melissa Ichiuji, David D'Orio, Adam Bradley and others - this was a pleasant surprise, as I didn't know that they had chosen art for the back cover!

The publisher also shipped a bottle of Stargazer 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon to celebrate the release of the book - I'm touched by this class act!

Those of you who ordered books should get them soon, as they arrive in the publisher's warehouse in a few weeks.

Later: news of the book release party!

Azucar Moreno

The words to this international megahit by Spain's Azucar Moreno (the Salazar sisters) is what makes me wish that everyone could understand the beauty of Spanish as a lover's language. The title of the song is "Devour me again..." Enjoy the marriage of Spanish classical music with a contemporary beat:

Planning Process at AAC

While I was in the UK I got the news that I had been selected by Helen Allen (former creator and Executive Director of PULSE Art Fairs; former Executive Director of Ramsay Art Fairs; and current partner for the upcoming (e)merge art fair in Washington, DC) to exhibit at the Arlington Art Center's "Planning Process" exhibition.

What's this exhibition about? From the prospectus:

PLANNING PROCESS is a juried drawing show with a difference: All of the drawings selected for inclusion must be studies created in preparation for finished artworks. Winning studies will be shown alongside finished pieces in a variety of media: A sculptor or a painter could show sketches alongside finished objects . . . a video artist could show storyboards alongside video . . . an installation artists could show plans alongside photos documenting a finished project—or a recreation of that project onsite.

So for this show I will be doing an installation of my Hotel Art Intervention Project.

As many of you know, since 1977 I have been conducting a one man crusade to add original artwork to hotel rooms. As part of this process, when I travel I often bring a minimal set of art supplies as well as tools. Once I check into a hotel room, I identify a piece of hotel wall décor to be “improved” by the addition or substitution of original art. I usually disassemble the piece, and sometimes add imagery to the original piece. In some cases, whenever I feel that I can “get away with it,” (which depends on what other images are hanging in the room) I do a complete substitution of the original hotel piece (most often substituting it with an original drawing or watercolor).

For PLANNING PROCESS: Drawings and Finished Works, I proposed re-creating the Hotel Art Intervention process itself by recreating an entire hotel room at the Arlington Art Center (or at least a subset of it). There would be a bed and other hotel paraphernalia, including some usual hotel wall décor hanging on the wall, and one disassembled piece laying on the bed and been “intervened” upon. At various times during the exhibition period, this piece would be worked on and added to (by me), and at the end of the show the “finished artwork” would be hung back on the wall.

The artists selected by Allen for this exhibit are:

John James Anderson

F. Lennox Campello

R. L. Croft

Craig Kraft

Magnolia Laure

Jessie Lehson

Ephraim Russell

Samuel Scharf

Dan Tulk

Jessica Van Brakle

Tom Wagner

Andrew Wodzianski