Bethesda Art Walk tomorrow

Tomorrow is the second Friday of the month and thus its time for the Bethesda Art Walk with 13 participating venues.

My picks are once again focused on the really interesting group show at the Neptune Gallery - look for Jody Mussoff to stand out, and then what looks to be one of the best landscape photography shows of the year at Fraser Gallery. The photo to the left, "In Vitro Complex No.V" by Anna Druzcz, is simply amazing.

Also check out "On Myth" - mixed-media work on canvas and paper by Rob Hauck at Waverly Street Gallery.

Next week look to the long-awaited opening of Amy Lin at Heineman Myers.

More DC area openings here.

Come again?

Minnesotan Ford W. Bell, a former Democratic candidate for the US Senate, is the new president of the American Association of Museums, replacing Edward H. Able, who retired last years after 20 years at the association. Able earned $249,794 in 2006, so it's a well-paid and important art position!

Bell was interviewed by Nicole Lewis for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Read that interview here.

One question's answer sort of caught me a little off guard:

What are your priorities?

How can we partner with other organizations around promoting diversity in the field. I'd like to set up a fellowship program with some of the historically black colleges and universities. Also, in 30 to 40 years, when 50 percent of the country is Hispanic, the halls of Congress are not going to look the way they do today. If the people in Congress then have had no experience with museums it's going to be hard to get support. And high on my list is collaborating more closely with other groups, including the Association of Art Museum Directors. We are not competing; if we succeed in strengthening museums, there is plenty of credit to go around.

Surely I am misreading this answer and Bell is not implying that the Congress people of the future, simply because they may be 50% Hispanic/Latino/Latina will have "no experience with museums"?

What does that mean anyway? Visiting a museum? Serving on a museum board?

Why would someone who has been elected to Congress in 2037 or 2047 have less "experience" than someone elected in 2007 simply because they are from a different ethnic group?

Am I misunderstanding Bell's answer? What "museum experience" do current Congress people have anyway that would be different in 30 years because of the ethnic demographic change being predicted?

Or is he saying that currently Hispanics have no "experience" with museums and thus the American Association of Museums needs to start working with Hispanics so that in 30-40 years...?

This gives me a headache. Surely I am misreading this answer in some way. I have sent the American Association of Museums an email asking for a clarification; let's see what response I get.

Art Jobs

11 art jobs and internships in DC.

Great deals

A really good art heads-up: There are some great deals to be had in this online auction of 124 lots by New York's Daniel Cooney Fine Arts.

Happy Anniversary!

The Maryland State Arts Council just celebrated its 40th anniversary with an exhibit of work by 40 Maryland artists, curated by Oletha DeVane, through December 19, 2007.

Check out the exhibition here.

The Blogger Show Opening Video

James Kalm posted the below video about The Blogger Show opening in New York a few days ago.

I have this drawing in the show at a steal for $100 which will be all donated to the galleries to help with the costs of the show. Call Agni Gallery at 917/683-0643 if you want to buy it or email them at agnizotis@yahoo.com.

In addition to showing the opening, the videographer talks to a lot of blogging artists about Charlie Finch's recent anti-blogger article.

Green

Like nearly everyone on the proper level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I am very interested and concerned about green issues in general.

My wife is an alumni of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC and because of that I am aware that all the construction going on there is on the leading edge of green architecture.

This is but one of many such projects going on around the nation. One of my cousins is one of 17 accredited "green" lawyers around the country, and she's now working with a task force to help counties and states "codify" the legal building codes of what makes a "green building."

I discussed with her that I thought that it would be ironic if "green buildings," once built, would then be filled with other enviromentally-colored objects, other than green, including art.

A green buildig full of possibly toxic objects? Does that muddy the "greenness" of the project?

I think so.

And thus a truly green project should whenever possible be then filled with green furniture, green appliances, etc.

Including green art.

In the Greater DC area, the only two green artists that I am familiar with are Erwin Timmers and Adam Bradley.

Both are exceptional sculptors who re-use artifacts, often discarded objects, to create works of art that are fresh and provocative. Both Timmers and Bradley have been doing this for years.

Timmers uses all kinds of objects, reuses common glass, etc. to deliver exceptionally intelligent sculptures which are so complex in character and materials that they are hard to label. See and hear Erwin discuss his work below:

Ever since he was an undergraduate student at GMU and then a graduate student at MICA, and now an Asst. Professor at a couple of DC area universities, Adam Bradley has been gathering metal and plastic car parts, rubber and other assorted junk and using them to create what can best be described as highly contemporary narrative works.

"Cast Iron" by Adam Bradley. Circa 2001
I am sure that there are other green artists out there - if so, drop me an email and a website address and I'll try to highlight some of you.

Be Green.

Update: NBC4 on Erwin Timmers

Job in the Arts

Howard County Arts Council is seeking a grants and program assistant. B.A., non-profit exp., strong computer & organization skills, able to handle multiple projects. Full-time, some evenings, salary mid-high 20s. No calls; send cover letter, resume, writing sample, and three refs by Nov. 16 to:

HCAC
8510 High Ridge Road
Ellicott City, MD 21043
Fax 410.313.2790
Email: coleen@hocoarts.org

Design the DC Arts Vanity Plate

Deadline: Friday, December 7, at 5:30 pm.

Design Fee: $5,000. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in collaboration with the District of Columbia, Department of Driver and Motor Vehicles is seeking an artist or artist team to design a specialty arts vanity license plate for the District of Columbia. The theme for the license plate is "Artistic License".

The design should inspire residents and visitors to support the arts and help bring attention to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This call is open to artists who live in District of Columbia. For more information, please visit their website. If you have further questions please email Deirdre Ehlen at Deirdre.Ehlen@dc.gov or call (202) 724-5613.

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: 28 December 2007

The Fraser Gallery (which I used to co-own) is hosting the 7th Annual International Photography Competition.

Details and entry forms here or call the gallery at 301/718-9651.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: January 15, 2008.

The 4th Annual National Painting, Drawing and Printmaking Competition at the Palm Beach Community College, Lake Worth Campus. Visiting Juror/Awards of $2000. For a prospectus, send SASE to the below address or download here:

Palm Beach Community College
Attn: Kristin Miller
Gallery Manager
Division of Humanities, MS15
4200 Congress Avenue
Lake Worth, FL 33461

Grants for Artists

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation offers funding to emerging American artists and craftspeople through a biennial award. Selection process is made through nomination by Foundation trustees, previous recipients, artists, critics, and museum professionals in the U.S. Awards are granted in the following media: painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video and crafts.

For more information contact:

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
c/o Artists Space
38 Greene St., 3rd Fl.
New York, NY 10013

Al Lerner

Abram "Al" Lerner, the first director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC has died at age 94.

Lerner was initially a painter who then became the art adviser to Latvian immigrant Joseph Hirshhorn. Hirshhorn opened the museum on the National Mall in 1974 and appointed Lerner as the museum's first director from 1974 - 1984.

Wishful Thinking...

"The fever for graffiti art continued last week at the opening of an exhibition of 130 original works by American street artist Shepard Fairey.

Within hours of the opening at the Stolen Space gallery in Brick Lane, east London, everything had been sold, with prices ranging from £1,500 to £30,000.

'Over the weekend, between 6,000 and 7,000 people came to see the show,' a spokesman for the gallery said."

I am not sure what to be more impressed about: the fact that Fairey's show sold out within hours, or that so many people came out to the exhibition. Details here.

Wanna go to a Baltimore opening on Thursday?

The The Rosenberg Gallery at Goucher College in Baltimore opens ID with the work of sculptors Anthony Cervino, Jason Ferguson, Ronald Gonzalez, Rob Neilson and Melissa Ichiuji - all challenging the conventions of representational self-portraiture.

The opening is Thursday, November 8, 2007 from 6-8 PM.

Jenny Holzer at SAAM

"For SAAM" by Jenny Holzer
The Smithsonian American Art Museum debuted a major site-specific light sculpture by Jenny Holzer last Saturday. Holzer is an internationally renowned artist best known for her work incorporating texts into light-based sculptures and projections. The sculpture, titled "For SAAM," is on public display in the museum's third floor Lincoln Gallery with other contemporary artworks from the permanent collection.

I've always liked Holzer's work, due mostly to my interest in text in art.

I am however, more a fan of Jim Sanborn and one of my favorite DC area works by Sanborn on public diplay is Lingua, which is perfectly located in the Grand Lobby of the new DC Convention Center, which by the way, was "supposed" to continue to add art to its vastness and (as far as I know) never has since its grand opening.

Shauna Lee Lange on Going West at The Renwick

By Shauna Lee Lange

We weren't the only ones who couldn't gain admission to the Corcoran's exhibits on a late Saturday afternoon, so if you're headed for the Leibovitz/Adams shows, get there early in the day!

All wasn't lost... the Renwick is a few short walking blocks away and we comfortably strolled through the Going West exhibit without any elbow bumping. The Renwick Gallery is a fine, first rate museum in its own right; it houses a diverse collection of American contemporary craft, art, and design spanning the 19th - 21st centuries.

Featured in the Going West exhibit are about 50 rare quilts from the first quarter of the 19th century to the 1930s. If you can imagine embarking on the journey out west, and having to bring along only a few cherished keepsakes, then your appreciation for the sentimentality of these items will be right on key. Or better yet, imagine the life of a woman newly established in her prairie home, and her need to create items not available at the local Target.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the Going West quilts prove that there was a deep focus on recording family history, using available objects (see the quilt made out of neckties), the irrefutable strength of the creative spirit, and the desire to commemorate important anniversaries in the lives of community members. It's interesting to consider how these quilts might have represented efforts in journaling or even fundraising. And from a crafts perspective, well... they are just inspiring.

If you plan to visit the gorgeously detailed quilts, we'd like to suggest a method of viewing. To really appreciate the work, materials, and time invested in the craftsmanship, the trick is to stand as close to the quilt as the museum curators will allow. Isolate a six inch square, or a series of six inch squares, to really see the art embedded in the various cloths and stitches.

A quilt is a collage, a composite whole of smaller unrelated parts. And although the whole can be quite stunning, the devil is in the detail with a careful examination of the pieces. Considering assemblage, construction, color selection, and composition help to transport one back to the Wild West. Quilts from this exhibition are a fine example of a continuum along the tradition of useful textiles. They provide insight to the essential role that quilts and the making of quilts played in the lives of women on the frontier. They are a testament (in my mind) to feminism even, in their own sort-of-quasi-political-way.

The Going West exhibit runs to Jan 21, 2008. The Renwick Gallery is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is located on 17 th Street & Pennsylvania Ave, NW. Admission is free. Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., closed December 25. Tours and General Info: 202-633-8550. Special event scheduling: 202-633-8534. Be sure to check the calendar, as the Renwick hosts a series of crafts demonstrations, lectures, receptions, and musical performances in its mission to collect and preserve the finest in American crafts.

Fellowship for Artists

Deadline: January 15, 2008

Hamiltonian Artists is currently seeking fellowship applications for the 2008-2009 season. Dedicated to support the professional development of emerging visual artists, Hamiltonian Artists is a new DC-area nonprofit organization offering an annual national competitive fellowship program for ten promising innovative artists. All So-Hamiltonian Fellows will be provided with: a stipend, representation by the Hamiltonian Gallery, an annual focused exhibition, seminars and mentorship programs led by arts and business leaders, and career placement assistance.

Hamiltonian Gallery will be a new, dynamic art space in the heart of the burgeoning 14th and U Street cultural district in Washington DC, home to many of the city's best contemporary art galleries. With an anticipated opening date of June 2008, the Hamiltonian Gallery will feature the So-Hamiltonian Fellows as well as other established Gallery artists.

Through innovative and groundbreaking programs, Hamiltonian Artists and Hamiltonian Gallery seek to create a new physical and institutional structure in Washington DC to support emerging artists, broaden cultural dialogue within the community and make visual art accessible to a diverse audience.

The fellowship program summary and online application are available at www.hamiltonianartists.org and iformation on the gallery is
available at www.hamiltoniangallery.com.

Hamiltonian Artists
P.O. Box 73975
Washington, DC 20056
t: (703) 549-9629
e: info@HamiltonianArtists.org

Voices

One of the cornerstones in the edifice of my criticism of art criticism is how much better the writing and public is served when difference voices opine on the same subject.

Case in point: the current Foon Sham’s solo joint exhibits at GRACE in Reston and Heineman-Myers in Bethesda.

- Dr. Claudia Rousseau’s excellent review appeared on Wednesday, October 31 in the The Gazette. Read it here.

- A typical piece by Jessica Dawson in The Washington Post's Galleries column on Friday, October, 26. Read it here.

- Joanna Shaw-Eagle’s feature article was published on the front page of the “Arts and Culture” section on Saturday, October 20 in the The Washington Times. Read it here.

- Eileen River’s fascinating profile on Foon Sham’s dialogue work was published on Tuesday, October 16 in the The Washington Post on the front page of the “Style” section, with great photos of the installation at GRACE. Read it here.

Why isn't anybody writing about art anymore?

Peter Plagens on "Why isn't anybody writing about art anymore?"

Today's art world is bigger and wealthier than it was half a century ago, a generation ago, or even a decade ago. In 2002, more than a quarter of the adult population in the U.S. visited an art gallery or museum, a rate of what the federal government calls "cultural participation" (movies are not included) behind only the number of people reading books and visiting historic sites, and ahead of attendance at concerts by double...

...Judging by the newspapers of many major American cities and some national magazines, the more straightforwardly journalistic popular press appears to be covering art with some thoroughness. Roberta Smith, Holland Cotter and Michael Kimmelman at the New York Times, Peter Schjeldahl at the New Yorker, Mark Stevens at New York magazine, Jerry Saltz at the Village Voice, Jed Perl at the New Republic, Arthur Danto at the Nation, Ken Johnson (now) at the Boston Globe, Edward Sozanski and Edith Newhall at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Christopher Knight and David Pagel at the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Baker at the San Francisco Chronicle, Robert L. Pincus at the San Diego Union-Tribune and several others produce a veritable mountain of words about art every month. And most if not all of their publications also print additional art writing by freelancers and stringers [my note: notice that the Washington newspapers are conspicuously absent from this list]...

...Nationwide, though, newspaper coverage of art is down... the trend, over the last five or 10 years, is downward everywhere except perhaps at the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times...

...The Greensboro News & Record's Robinson, however, sets a standard for candor regarding the matter of art coverage:

There are a variety of reasons we don't give art more respect. We perceive that the audience for such coverage is small. It could be a self-fulfilling prophecy--we don't write about it because it's not that much in demand, but it's not in demand because we don't write about it.... Advertising has nothing to do with these decisions. I suppose that if a gallery said it would purchase a premium-priced ad along the bottom of a page focusing on the world of art, we would leap at the opportunity to expand our coverage. To my knowledge that hasn't happened, and theaters and symphonies aren't big newspaper advertisers, but we find the money to write about their productions regularly.... Contemporary art is often hard to understand. I dare say that, if asked, most of the readers I know would subscribe to the Tom Wolfe school of [opinions about] contemporary art...

While noting that almost all newspapers have made cutbacks in the coverage of "the arts" at the same time coverage of the effluvia of popular culture has "exploded," the Monitor's Thomas says that visual art might have some specific drawbacks. First, there's what he calls "the snoot factor"--the perception that modern and contemporary art is intelligible only to a rich, initiated elite. Second, he says, "there's no Picasso," no dominant figure around to pique the general public's interest. The same might be said for critics...

Read this fascinating article, first published a while back in Art in America here.

1992 Redux?

In the early nineties, more than 70 New York galleries went out of business.

Could it happen again? No, say many observers—today’s art market is too global, too rich, even too smart to suffer such a wrenching setback. All the same, one shouldn’t forget that the art market’s biggest climb ever has been based in part on a growing pile of dealer debt. Dealers have borrowed against inventory to fuel bigger shows, art-fair exhibits, and satellite galleries all over the world...

There are now 360 galleries in Chelsea, up from 124 eight years ago. Already, Craigslist has seen a slight bump in its rental listings for gallery spaces in the area. A couple of them even read “Currently an art gallery.”

Read this very interesting piece by Alexandra Peers in New York Magazine here.

Seeing Double

El Greco painted several versions of "Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple," and in the process set the OK standards for generations of artists to re-visit the same theme or image over and over in their work.

"You are not seeing double. Sotheby’s and Christie’s both have mystical gray-and-black paintings by Mark Rothko, executed the same year and painted on the same size (60 by 68 inches) canvas. The sellers of Sotheby’s version, the Iowa collectors John and Mary Pappajohn, bought it at Christie’s for $800,000 in 1996. Christie’s Rothko was purchased from the John Weber Gallery by an unidentified collector. Why Sotheby’s Rothko is supposedly worth $2 million to $3 million more is anyone’s guess."

NYT's Carol Vogel discusses the fall auction season's star offerings as the millions continue to pour into the secondary art market. Read it here.

Good News

Last August, The Washington City Paper added a new writer to the DC area art scene, and Maura Judkis has been a refreshing new voice to the region's critical dialogue.

Thanks to the art gods that the CP understands the critical importance of having different voices delivering art criticism to a region. It amazes me that the CP understands and can afford to do this, but the WaPo doesn't and won't - neither the "new" Style nor the "Weekend" section editors!

If you don't get it, you don't get it.

Much Ado About Oil and Water

The Smithies have to return a $5M donation because of mixing oil and water. Read it here.

Feh!

Use the money to do some roof repairs instead.

Don't give it back.

Botero Opens Tuesday

"Fernando Botero: Abu Ghraib" opens Tuesday at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in DC.



Tomorrow's WaPo will have this article on the works by Erica Jong.

This will be one of the major exhibitions of 2007 for the entire Mid Atlantic and I bet that it will set new attendance records for the Katzen.

My own thoughts on Botero and his torture paintings are here.

AAC Survey

The Arlington Arts Center has an online survey here to help them fine tune their programming.

It only takes a few minutes; take it here.

Saturday Openings in DC

Loads of good shows are opening in DC tomorrow: Kathryn Cornelius at Curator's Office, Linn Meyers at G Fine Art, and James Huckenpahler & David Byrne at Hemphill. The openings are from 6pm-8pm.

Also catch Nicholas Khan & Richard Selesnick at Irvine Contemporary (till 8PM) and Lori Nix & Dane Picard at Randall Scott (till 7:30PM).

Trinity College

I am honored to announce that some of my Pictish Nation drawings are now part of the permanent collection of The University of Dublin's Trinity College in Ireland.

Below is "Minotaur Waiting for Theseus" my most recent drawing. It's about 17" x 14." Anyone interested in acquiring it, send me an email and I'll email you back details Sold!

Minotaur Waiting for Theseus
By F. Lennox Campello
circa 2007 - Charcoal and Conte on Paper

David Hickey on Selling Out

"The question of how to sell without selling out is especially relevant in the contemporary art world and there are few people better qualified to grapple with this thorny topic than Dave Hickey.

Not only is he Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Hickey is also one of America’s best known art and cultural critics, admired for his aversion to academicism and his robust analysis of the effects on art of the rough and tumble of the free market.

Last month he delivered a keynote speech at Frieze: 'Schoolyard art: playing fair without the referee.'"

The Art Newspaper has an edited transcript here or the lecture is available as a podcast here.

Fake Banksys on Ebay

"Unauthorised prints by the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy have been sold on eBay as limited edition, signed works, by employees of the company which publishes and authenticates the artist's works on paper, Pictures on Walls (POW).

These have been stamped with a replica of the POW blindstamp and some of them carry forged signatures.

The prices for the prints have then been raised by an illegal practice known as shill bidding in which sellers or their associates make offers for goods to inflate the price artificially."

Read the story here.

First Fridays in Baltimore too!

Tonight is First Fridays in Fell's Point in Baltimore too... and Lisa Egeli, one of Maryland's master painters has a solo show opening at Diliberto Gallery; make sure to check that show!

Corcoran News

The recent opening of the Ansel Adams exhibition at the Corcoran also saw the unveiling of the Photography Exploration Gallery. The multimedia room includes a camera obscura constructed by two BFA photography students, Natalie Cheung and Chris Gibson; a pictorial timeline of the history of photography designed by Adjunct Graphic Design Professor Antonio Álcala with student involvement; and an interactive digital photo booth that allows visitors to create and display self-portraits on the gallery’s walls. Be sure to stop by and add your photo to the digital album.

Go to jail card

Brit artist Michael Dickinson, who lives in Turkey, will be on trial next week accused of insulting the Turkish Prime Minister's dignity. Dickison was arrested for displaying a poster of his work entitled Good Boy.

It shows Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a dog on a leash made from the American flag.


Read the whole story here.

The Blogger Show opens in NYC



The first part of the Blogger Show opens at Agni Gallery (170 East 2nd Street, New York, NY 10009 412-389-0288) in New York City with an opening reception this coming Saturday, November 3, 6-9PM.

See the work online here.

Banksy Exposed?

So claims the BBC - check out the well-known street artist here.

Looks like Mark Jenkins to me.

Sometimes a good notion show

I am one of those annoying persons who's always complaining about anything and anyone that focuses on just and only on bad news, and yet it seems that I also spend a lot of words trying to discuss bad art news myself.

Feh! My bad.

Good news: Remember the Manon Cleary show at DCAC that I mentioned a while back?

Cleary is a DC artist collected worldwide and yet strangely semi-ignored by the DC area arts press (other than a fantastic multi page article in the CP a couple of years ago that seems to be unavailable online).

And her worldwide collectors came through in the DCAC show; all 34 works in the show sold, delivering a rarity for the Greater DC region art world: a sold out show.

Blogger Interrupted

The current issue of Art in America has an interesting roundtable on art blogs by Peter Plagens - It's not available online, but Capps has a good post on it here.

Mental Masturbation

A few years ago, a friend of mine who works with new experimental supercomputers told me about an exercise that they had done with some of the neural networks supercomputers that they were training.

They asked the computer to predict what events from the 20th century would be taught in history classes 5,000 years into the future. They expected a variety of historical points such as WWI, WWII, etc.

According to my friend, only two words came out of the computer's predictive cognition as to what would be the only marker for the 20th century:

Neil Armstrong.

And so...

Jeff Koons, whose collectors include billionaire Eli Broad, and Damien Hirst, whose shark is owned by hedge-fund manager Steven Cohen, failed to draw a vote from museum curators nominating artists who'll be famous in 105 years' time for U.S. magazine ARTnews.

Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Yoko Ono were chosen as some of 2112's renowned artists. ARTnews, now 105 years old, said it surveyed experts as a guide to which contemporary artists would be "embraced" by museums at its 210th anniversary, as part of a look at the art scene of the future.

Read the Bloomberg article by Linda Sandler here.

First Fridays

If you wanna do openings and gallery crawls, first Fridays is one of your key days in Philly and DC.

There are a lot of gallery openings tonight in Philadelphia, a city known for "legendary stinginess toward the arts" according to the Daily News' Tom DiNardo.

Details on the Philly area gallery openings here.

In DC, as usual, the Dupont Circle area galleries have their gallery crawl starting at 8PM. Check out Which Came First? Drawing Conclusions: Kilnformed Glass by Kari Minnick at Hillyer Art Space.

Viral Post

While I was away the WaPo did this viral piece on my good friend, the very talented Judy Jashinsky.

Read it here.

What Matters

Flying back home



Heading home after a couple of very fruitful days in Miami delivering artwork to a local power ubercollector couple; establishing some Miami area presence for a few DC area artists and some other work. Still unable to log in to my email account due to some "*.dll file corruption" which will have to wait until I get home for attention.

So, I am not ignoring your emails; I just can't get to them for now.

Finch peck

Artnet's art critic Charlie Finch takes a massive peck at the art blogsphere with an odd article in Artnet magazine.

More on that later, but do read the article here.

Dawson on Bethesda

Even while I was in gorgeous Niagara Falls, the anguished cries from DC's not-Brooklyn have followed me via emails from people emailing me "have you seen what Dawson wrote about Bethesda's galleries?"

Hey, it's her opinion and her style. She has a right to express it and an editor to guide it.

In my opinion, Dawson has developed over the years into a naturally snarky writer, and never too deep in her writing to explain away her snarkyness - mostly I suspect because of lack of proper newsprint space to address such a subject as a wander through Bethesda's art scene.

Dawson's anti-comparison of Bethesda to Brooklyn is just odd. I was raised in Brooklyn, and knew it well, so it's a waste of space to open up a article by taking a dig at the Bethesda Urban Partnership's efforts to create a gallery scene in Bethesda with an anti-comparison to Brooklyn.

Why does everything and everyone in the art world have to be compared to New York's art world?

It doesn't.

She seems baffled when she states that "declaring an arts district is a rare move in a post-gallery art world." It isn't - there are several art districts in Maryland alone; in fact I think that Silver Spring is also a recent arts district. Dawson declaration that we're already living in a "post-gallery art world," meaning that as fairs and and Internet grow, galleries are in a death spiral, may be the reason for the WaPo's tiny and ever reducing art gallery coverage - now we know: the WaPo's freelance art critic tasked with reviewing local area galleries thinks that we're in a "post-gallery art world."

I'm not so sure... and by the way, Peter Schjeldahl has already predicted the end of art fairs as well; let's see who time will prove right. So soon we will be in a "post art fair world."

But if Dawson says that we're already in a post-gallery world, and Schjeldahl predicts the end of art fairs - what do we have left for an art scene? The Internet only?

Campello does not think so. In fact it should be clear to the most casual observer of any art scene that the future is probably a combination of the three ingredients. Like it is now.

But getting back to Bethesda, what Dawson does not tell you, is how successful the Bethesda Urban Partnership has been in accomplishing their goals; that would somehow destroy her thesis - but I will try to tell you.

Around 2002, when the whole move started to have the county or state declare Bethesda as an official "arts district" (a move that brings special dispensations for cultural organizations and tax breaks for developers, etc.), there were but a couple of "real" art galleries and cultural spaces in restaurant-rich Bethesda.

To clarify: there were plenty of stores that sold pretty wall decor and had the word "gallery" in their business name, but other than Creative Partners, Marin-Price, and Sally Hansen's Glass Gallery (unless my memory here in airportland fails me) there were no other "real" galleries in the area.

Osuna earlier on had a space in the area, but this seasoned DC area "other Cuban" art dealer had closed up shop around that time frame and departed the area. He has done that a couple of times during his long illustrious gallerist career.

Since those seminal efforts began, Fraser Gallery, Neptune Gallery, Heineman-Myers Contemporary, the Washington Photography School, Orchard Gallery, the Imagination Stage, St. Elmo's Gallery, Landmark Theatre, Round House Theatre, Bethesda Theatre and others that I am surely forgetting have all opened up in Bethesda; and Osuna came back. Also in those years, a couple of other galleries opened and failed and one moved to NYC.

And the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival brings around 120 artists from all over the nation, and 40,000 people to the streets of Bethesda each May. And the very generous Carol Trawick has institutionalized the Trawick Prize and the Bethesda Painting Awards.

So it would appear to me that some sort of "art scene" is very successfully developing there, in spite of the article's announcement about the end of galleries.

And I leave you with this line from the freelance art critic to the world's second most influential newspaper, as she describes Bethesda's Neptune Gallery on her first and only visit there:

The gallery shows local glass artists, figurative sculpture and painting -- art that means well but rarely matters.

A lesson that Ms. Dawson should have picked up from her art history classes on the history of Ukiyo-e: Art always matters.

Airborne again



And heading to Miami this time... unable to log in to my email account due to some "*.dll file corruption" which will have to wait until I get home for attention. More from flower land later...

Celestine Accent

Niagara Falls is absolutely spectacular, and the millions of tourists who have flocked through here over the decades get their money's worth at the awesome spectacle of nature's raw power.

The tourists are a spectacle on their own! More on that later when I get home with some pictures.

On the flight here, I tried to read The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield, a book which spent countless weeks on the bestseller list and has spawned a whole industry and armies of followers.

A friend gave it to me and insisted that I should read it and learn from it.

Count me in the disillusioned. The book is badly written, and in dire needs of good editing. On page 53, the main character is by himself in a garden in the Peruvian mountains. He sees a stranger approach down the path.

When he was within ten feet he saw me with a start, which made me flinch also.
"Oh, hello," he said in a rich Brooklyn accent."

Uh?

Can a "rich Brooklyn accent" be detected from "Oh, hello"?

Any accent? I can only think of Russian, maybe Japanese.

And the book's good news story just escapes me, while the "Romancing the Stone" plot is just not interesting enough.

Airborne today

Gilbert Munger, Niagara Falls showing the Canadian and American Views,
1903, oil on canvas 72" x 120"
Collection of the Tweed Museum of Art.
Heading to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls! Coming back Saturday... more later.

Motion filed

If you haven't been following the whole mess with the trustees of Lynchburg’s Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, then read this first. Below is the latest news release:

In an effort to prevent the trustees of Lynchburg’s Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (R-MWC) — known as Randolph College since July — from auctioning four irreplaceable paintings to increase an already generous $153 million endowment, a motion for temporary injunction and a complaint requesting a temporary and permanent injunction has been filed before the Lynchburg Circuit Court, Preserve Educational Choice announced today.

“Judging by how hastily and secretively Randolph College officials took away the art, it is clear that the college fears a ruling from the Supreme Court against their actions and is moving to sell the pieces of art as quickly as possible,” said Anne Yastremski, Executive Director of Preserve Educational Choice, the alumnae group supporting the lawsuits.

“This motion for injunction seeks to stop the College from irreparably harming their reputation and their world-class American art collection until these lawsuits against Randolph College have been cleared by the Commonwealth of Virginia’s court system. We’ve been waiting for Attorney General Bob McDonnell to take action to stop the College, but since we know of no action thus far, the plaintiffs in this injunction suit and thousands of other alumnae, donors to the College and the Maier, and citizens of Lynchburg felt they needed to take action themselves.”

The plaintiffs that have filed the request for an injunction include all of the students, alumnae and donors of R-MWC involved in the charitable trust and breach of contract lawsuits that currently are being considered on appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia, as well as the eleven potential "intervenors" who have asked the Lynchburg Circuit Court to stop Randolph College's attempt to sell off the art purchased with funds from the Trust of Louise Jordan Smith.

Just last month, the Supreme Court of Virginia decided to hear appeals of two lawsuits challenging the College’s fall 2006 decision to become co-educational. The first suit, which involves “donor intent,” challenges the college on charitable trust grounds, arguing that the college should have to prove it cannot continue as a woman’s college before it can use the assets accumulated under the original charitable purpose – to “educate women in the liberal arts” – for the benefit of a coed college. The second suit, filed by a group of students, alleges breach of contract, saying that they had been promised four years of single-sex education. Both suits pending before the Supreme Court of Virginia include allegations that the protection of the art collection is vital to providing the relief sought by the student and donor plaintiffs.

In the Circuit Court case filed by the College, the College asked the courts for permission to break the Trust of Louise Jordan Smith. Relatives of Louise Jordan Smith, students, alumnae, former faculty and Maier Museum directors, donors, and Lynchburg citizens filed a Motion for Leave to Intervene in the suit, alleging that the money from Smith’s trust was used to purchase a large number of the most valuable paintings in Randolph’s Maier Museum collection. The intervenors contend that the entire art collection must be protected in order to honor the intentions of Smith, both through her trust and her efforts during her lifetime. A hearing on that motion to intervene is scheduled for November 15.

“The Court’s decisions in these cases could affect whether or not the College can or needs to sell the paintings now at Christie’s,” says Yastremski. “If the College is allowed to go forward with the Christie’s auction before our cases are finalized, the art—pieces like George Wesley Bellow’s 1912 “Men of the Docks” which constitute the cornerstone of the Maier—will be lost forever.”

Yastremski, pointing to the college’s $153 million endowment (one of the largest in Virginia), believes the College’s efforts to sell these paintings are “due to greed, not need.”

While the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) has put the College on financial warning, it was not due to the size of the endowment. The specific issues that SACS cited the college for – astronomical tuition discounting (nearly twice the national average), excessive deferred maintenance, and operating deficits – are all signs of fiscal mismanagement, not a too-small endowment.

“Randolph College officials will do anything to mask the real problems: out-of-control spending and poor management, neither of which will be fixed by selling portions of the school’s treasured art collection,” said Yastremski. “This collection was not assembled as a financial investment for future ‘hard times,’ but rather from public donations and funds allocated to benefit the college’s educational mission and to create a cultural resource for the community. Two of the four paintings in question were donations from private individuals to the permanent collection, one was purchased with fees paid by students (at their request) specifically for the purpose of buying art and supporting artistic events on campus, and the most valuable one – “Men of the Docks” – was purchased by a Lynchburg-based community group with the express purpose of forming a permanent collection for the benefit of the students and the citizens of Lynchburg.”

Even if an infusion of capital was necessary, which thousands of alumnae and donors don’t believe, the national art community has strict standards against the sale of art for general fund purposes. Nearly every major Virginia and national art association has condemned the College’s plans to sell the four paintings, including the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Art Museum Curators, the College Art Association, the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries and the Virginia Association of Museums.

“It is obvious that the current Randolph officials and Trustees care nothing for ethics or their donor’s wishes. Hopefully the Attorney General and the Commonwealth’s Courts will realize this, and act accordingly,” said Yastremski. “If not, donors may need to think twice about investing their hard earned resources with the state’s many nonprofits.”

Open Portfolios in Philly

The Print Center along with Philagrafika, InLiquid.com and the Philadelphia Center for the Book will host an Open Portfolio event with more than 40 printmakers and photographers as part of Philadelphia Open Studio Tours.

Free and open to the public - Saturday, October 27 & Sunday, October 28, 12:00 – 6:00pm at Philagrafika - 728 S. Broad Street in Philadelphia.

New Arlington gallery

Duality Contemporary Art is a new art gallery in Arlington, Virginia.

Coming November 10, 2007 they have "Natural Selection — Art Inspired By Nature," which is a group show featuring the work of several Washington D.C. area artists such as Lynden Cline, Joy Every, Sharon Fishel, Dirk Herrman, Lucy Herrman, Nancy Sausser, Jeff Smith and Paula Wachsstock

The Artists’ Reception is Saturday, November 10, 2007 from 5-7 pm.

Wanna go to a Virginia opening this Friday?

It's a new gallery to me, but it has been around for alomost 15 years, which in gallery years is a superb accomplishment by itself, and the Hermitage Design Gallery in McLean, Virginia has Estrella Dannon opening this coming Friday, October 26, 2007, with a reception from 6 PM to 9 PM.

Artists' Condos

Three condos available for purchase by artists only. The condos are located at 915 E St NW in DC's Penn Quarter, and are listed at $289,900 with the developer prepared to offer $15,000 in down payment assistance or other incentives. These 574 sq ft apartments include large open kitchens with gas cooking stainless steal appliances, maple cabinets and granite countertops. There is bamboo flooring over the whole studio space, large closet and roomy full bath.

Space also includes washer and dryer in each unit, 24/7 concierge, fitness room, and rooftop deck. Condo fee of $280/month includes gas, water, trash removal, snow removal, and building management and maintenance. Floorplans are available at www.artisancondo.com – Floorplan A1.

For more information, or to schedule a visit, please contact Kathy Olmstead at 202.253.2502 or kolmstead@mcwilliamsballard.com.

International Caribbean Art Fair

The first annual International Caribbean Art Fair will take place at The Puck Building, 295 Lafayette Street, in New York this coming November 1 - 4, 2007.

Miami's Cernuda Arte will be in Booths 18 through 21 showcasing a selection of over 45 Cuban artworks by established and emerging artists. Participating artists include: Wifredo Lam, Víctor Manuel García, Amelia Peláez, Mario Carreño, Roberto Diago, René Portocarrero, Mariano Rodríguez, Agustín Cárdenas, Agustín Fernández, Manuel Mendive, Tomás Sánchez, Flora Fong, Clara Morera, Vicente Hernández, Ismael Gómez Peralta, Miguel Florido, Ramón Vázquez, David Rodríguez, Gabriel Sánchez, Li Domínguez Fong, Giosvany Echevarría, Juan Miguel Suárez, Reynier Ferrer, César Santos, and Irina Elén González.

Other than some of the satellite fairs for Art Basel Miami Beach, this may become the key art fair for collectors and galleries showcasing Latin American art.

Fabbri on Mancini

There's a gorgeous exhibition at the PMA on Neapolitan artist Antonio Mancini (1852-1930).

This is the first exhibition in the United States devoted exclusively to an artist considered by many to be one of the most prominent Italian painters of the late nineteenth century.

And the Broad Street Review's Anne Fabbri has an equally interesting and intelligent review here.

Re-name?

As early readers know, this visual art blog started in October 2003 as "DC Art News." When I moved to the Philly area last year I re-named it "Mid Atlantic Art News."

A review of the site's stats reveals that I am now gathering regular readers from all over the nation and a significant number from overseas. Daily visits float between 1800 to 3000 a day - no idea why such wild stat swings.

And as I expand my own lifestyle to possibly include (in the future) some physical presence in the Southwest, I'm toying with the idea of one last name change for the blog.

The URL is dcartnews.blogspot.com - and so I'd like something to work with the "dc" part. So far I've come up with:

- Don Campello's Art News

- Da Campello Art News

- Drawing Campello Art News

- Direct Campello Art News

See my drift? Anyway, I need some ideas along this vein or some other catchy, creative name. Email me your ideas here.

Wanna go to an opening in DC Saturday?

Brooklyn photographer Lori Nix "creates meticulous dioramas handcrafted from plaster, cardboard, and styrofoam and detailed with found objects, such as, fur, plants, and cat whiskers. These scale models, which take upwards of 4 months to produce, are carefully photographed using an 8x10" large format camera. Eventually the models are broken apart and stuffed into garbage bags to be hauled away."

Her exhibition at the Randall Scott Gallery in DC opens this coming Saturday, Oct. 27 with a reception from 7-9PM. The show goes through Dec. 8, 2007.

Medal of Honor

A day of silence here in honor of Lt Michael Murphy, US Navy, who was awarded (posthumously) the Medal of Honor today for his extraordinary valor in Afghanistan.

Fair winds and following seas mate.

Blog B'day

October 16, 2003 was my first ever blog post as I began to learn the nuances of Blogger.com and began to gather readers for this effort.

The blog's anniversary passed and I forgot all about it until someone emailed me today to wish me a blogaversary - it's been four fruitful years and well over a million readers!

Loads more to come in the next forty years!

Two Princes

Two influential art critics review Richard Prince's retro at the Guggenheim and, as if often happens, come away with wildly different opinions.

Read the WaPo's Blake Gopnik here.

Read the New Yorker's Peter Schjeldahl here.

Guess Who?

Just back from the weekend fair and not only did I sell around 40 drawings, but also was awarded a nice four-figure Helen G. Gifford Foundation Best of Show award.

More later; I haven't checked email in three days and Hotmail seems to be having log-in issues this morning!

Heading South

Travelling today for an art fair this weekend. I'll try to post throughout, so keep coming back.

Deadline Approaching

The deadline for receiving applications for the 2008 Bethesda Fine Arts Festival is December 15, 2007. This festival draws around 30,000 to 40,000 people to the streets of Bethesda and has rapidly become one of the top fine arts outdoor festivals in the Mid Atlantic.

For more information and to download an application form, visit this website.

New Spaces

"The Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts, formerly Rockville Arts Place and now known as VisArts, has moved into its flashy new quarters in Rockville Town Center. The new galleries are spread across the second floor, including a large but divided main space, and two smaller spaces along the corridor. Filling these at the moment is the inaugural exhibit 'Zapp! Comic Books and the Arts,' created and curated by gallery director Harriet Lesser."

Read the entire review by Dr. Claudia Rousseau here.

John Blee & Marie Ringwald

Cowboys, the rich, and buying artwork

I was listening to the radio today and heard some amazing statistics from a recently released report on who pays what taxes on this country. A Wall Street Journal writer was discussing the stats from the latest release of Internal Revenue Service data on individual income taxes and (I think) a WSJ article will discuss them tomorrow in an editorial.

One of my pet peeves is the fact that in super wealthy areas such as Bethesda, Reston, Potomac, and generally most of the Greater DC area, it still takes a lot of work to get the same people who don't think twice about dropping a few grand for a sofa, to spend a couple of hundred bucks for a fine arts photograph.

There are nine million people in the United States who are classified as millionaires. If memory serves me right, there are around 125,000 of them living within the Greater Washington, DC area.

Don't believe everything that politicians tell you - from neither party! According to the WSJ reporter summarizing from the IRS report, the top 1% income earners in this nation pay 39.4% of all income taxes - an all-time high.

And they're not all the uberrich getting away with tax murder via offshore investments, blah, blah, blah, that politicians from both parties are always so fond of discussing.

The dirty little secret is that most of this 1% are folks who make $350K a year or higher and 2/3 of them are small business owners.

The top 5% (people who make $175K or higher) pay 59.5% of all income taxes. The bottom 50% of Americans, or half of all income tax payers below the median, pay 3% of all income taxes in this nation.

Those are hard, cold facts - not party-colored slogans burying the truth in search for votes.

And here's an idea for that top five percent of Americans carrying almost 60% of the American tax burden; specifically to the business owners in the bunch: support your local galleries and local artists! There's a tax benefit in there for you.

Instead of hanging motivational posters and pretty reproductions in your offices and factories and workplaces, buy original artwork from your local galleries and artists and that expense is not only a tax write-off, but also helps to kindle the local arts in your hometowns and neighborhoods.

Willie Nelson sings "Mama don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys; Don't let 'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks; Make 'em be doctors and lawyers and such..."

And then let them use their doctorin' and lawyerin' dough to buy some local artwork for their offices and support their local artists.

And cowboys can buy Western art.

WPA Membership Meeting

On Monday, October 29th at 6:30 PM the Washington Project for the Arts is having an important meeting - open and free to the public. The details are here. RSVP to info@wpadc.org.

The event will focus on membership, Art File Online, the WPA\C's separation from the CGA, and their new website.

Missa Pro Pace Forum

A forum discussion accompanying Prof. Chawky Frenn's solo show "Missa Pro Pace" exhibition at the Arlington Arts Center will take place tomorrow, Oct. 18th from 7 to 9 PM at the Arlington Art Center.

If you have not seen Frenn's brutal socio-political works, this is a good chance to see them and also listen to the GMU professor discuss them.

The forum also has uberprintmaker Rosemary Covey discussing her amazing "0 Project," the interactive cross-disciplinary project that she debuted at the AAC this month. Robert Parrish (Hoppervideo.net) will also screen his video documentary of Bosma Dance performing in front of what is undoubtedly The 0 Project’s most visible component: the 300 foot long, 15 foot high banner currently encircling the AAC’s historic Maury school building.

Impressionists by the Sea

On Saturday, The Phillips Collection' newest exhibition, Impressionists by the Sea, opens to the public. The exhibition explores the impact of the newly fashionable French seaside on the Impressionists, and traces the progression of the way the seaside is portrayed throughout the 1800s. It is a chance to see how masterpieces by Courbet, Manet, Monet, Renoir and others chartered the dramatic change in the French seaside as it became more and more popular to go the the beach. Through January 13, 2008.

Mark your calendars

Marc Pachter, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, and Thomas Lutz, Head of the Memorial Museums Department at Berlin’s Topography of Terror Foundation, will participate in a discussion on monuments, museums and the culture of memory at the Goethe-Institut Washington on Tuesday, October 30 at 6:30 pm.

Washington is a city of monuments and memorials – and so is Berlin, though by and large the purpose of the institutions in the two cities is quite different, given their vastly contrasting histories. The discussion will focus on why we build memorials, monuments, and museums, and who they are for. The purpose of memorials in the cultural and educational life of two capital cities looking both to the past and to the future will also be addressed.

Free and open to the public, but RSVP to 202-289-1200 ext. 169

Rivers on Foon Sham

I had never heard of her until this WaPo article came out, but whoever Eileen Rivers is at the WaPo, she really delivered a superbly written and intelligent article/review on sculptor Foon Sham, who is currently showing "Flow" (through Nov. 10 at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston - opening reception October 20th 6-8PM)and also exhibiting "Journey," through Nov. 11 at Heineman Myers Contemporary Art in Bethesda.

Read the article here.

Taking it to court

Banksy is pissed off at the Chapman Brothers for allegedly stealing his artistic idea; result: lawsuit! Read the Arifa Akbar article here.

The Power of the Web: Oz

When this opportunity presented itself a while back, I dug around for some doodles that I had done in the late 70s from a series that I titled "Unknown Events in the Wizard of Oz saga," back when all that I really wanted to be was a cartoonist. I showed them here.

Today I received an email notifying me that the below three pieces will be included in "Ozspiration: New Work Inspired by 100 Years of the Wizard of Oz." at the New England School of Art & Design, Suffolk University (NESAD/SU).

They are all pen and inks; one has a little red watercolor in Dorothy's shoes.

"Dorothy Gale, Witchslayer, 'North - you're next!'"


"The last thing that the Wicked Witch of the West said was 'Aw... shit!'"

"How Dorothy Gale really killed the Wicked Witch of the East"

Baltimore Open Studios

Mark your calendars - next weekend, Oct. 20-21, from 5-8PM is the 19th Annual Baltimore Open Studios.

Details here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: December 31, 2007

The Oregon College of Art & Craft has a call for artists' proposals for exhibitions for the 2008-09 season. Contact:

OCAC
8245 SW Barnes Rd
Portland, OR 97225

Or email edebow@ocac.edu.

Jobs in the Arts

Job Opening: Assistant Preparator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in DC.

BA/BFA degree and two to four years museum work experience in the technical aspects of museum standard art handling practices, storage, installation, and packing. The Assistant Preparator assists the Chief Preparator and Preparator in all technical aspects of art handling with regard to installation, packing/unpacking, and storage of objects under the direction of the Registrar, Conservator, and Curators. He/she assists with the maintenance of the Art Storage and Preparator's Studio and routine maintenance of museum galleries.

---

Managing Director at Guarisco Gallery - Washington, DC

Guarisco Gallery, a DC art gallery specializing in museum-quality 19th-century art, seeks an experienced Managing Director. The position entails two main areas of responsibility: Gallery Management and Sales. Gallery Management duties include: attending to bills and financials, management of staff, interaction with vendors, and general maintenance of the gallery. Sales responsibilities include cultivating and maintaining client relations, and organizing and participating in national fine arts shows and special events at the gallery. A minimum of five years experience in an art-related business management position is required. Email cover letter and resume to: jpanarelli@mindspring.com

That's what I'm talking about!

In spite of what some people may think, I am a big fan for art critics with a strong powerful opinion, either for or against, and I am, and have been for many years, sick and tired of lukewarm reviews and backhanded compliments.

A critic's opinion is the most powerful weapon in his/her arsenal, and diluting it by being afraid to piss someone off, or worse, by actually passionately liking something, is a sin in some alternative writers' universe.

Don't you wish that we had more art critics like the Seattle P-I's Regina Hackett, whose writing I like, even though I disagree with her opinions almost as much as I agree with them.

But the lady has cojones! She destroys Australian artist Patricia Piccinini in this review:

Her work is a cheap thrill, infantilizing audiences back to the time when they worried about who was under the bed. She makes monsters. Big deal. Her drawings are corny, her video portentous and her sculptures a classy form of carnival life. The fact that she represented Australia in the 2003 Venice Biennale is no reason to get excited.

Ouch!

Grants for Artists

Deadline: December 30, 2007

The Puffin Foundation makes grants to emerging artists in the fields of art, music, theater, dance, photography, and literature whose works due to their genre and/or social philosophy might have difficulty being aired.

Grants from the Puffin Foundation can only be awarded to permanent residents and citizens of the United States. U.S. citizens whose projects encompass work in other countries are still eligible to apply. Average grant awards are $1,000 to $2,500 each.

Visit the foundation's web site for information on requesting an application and for descriptions of funded projects.

Hopper landscape in extremis

I have been advised that, even as the Edward Hopper show is gathering the expected oohs and aahs at the National Gallery of Art, the Cape Cod landscape in front of his home that nourished his vision for many years and formed the backdrop of some of his most famous paintings, is under threat.

A controversy has developed in the town of Truro on Cape Cod where Hopper lived for many years and painted over a third of his work, over the plans to build a 6500 foot home, complete with 6-car garage, between the Hopper house, which has been preserved since his death virtually unchanged, and the sea.

According to the news release from a group of Massachusetts residents concerned about the fate of the artist’s summer house and studio in Truro, Massachusetts:

Plans for the two-story 6,500 square-foot house, with swimming pool, reflecting pools and wine cellar, have generated petitions from over 400 local residents and visitors calling attention to the imminent risk posed to what is known as the Hopper Landscape. The quiet and isolated landscape lured the American realist to build his summer home here where he created many of his most famous paintings, several of which will be on view at the National Gallery until WHEN. Among the famous works associated with the landscape are "Hills, South Truro," "Camel's Hump," "Rooms by the Sea," and "Cape Cod Evening."

Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine, first came to Truro in 1930. They built the Cape Cod-style house and studio four years later and spent six months of every year there until his death in 1967. The family that inherited it following Josephine’s death a year later has faithfully preserved the house. The artist’s easel still stands next to the large north-facing studio window, a kind of sentinel over the landscape he immortalized which old-timers in Truro refer to as the Hogsback.

Virtually unchanged since the construction of the Hopper residence itself, the Hopper Landscape also has great environmental significance. In addition to protecting nearly half mile of dune land and sandy beach, it is a classic example of the grassy heath community that has been disappearing on Cape Cod with the spread of building and landscaped development. Grassy heath is considered rare and is noteworthy for many distinct plant species and habitat for such endangered species as the spade foot toad, box turtle and northern harrier. Perhaps of most significance is the exceptional abundance and density of Broom crowberry in the area, which grows in very few locations in North America and is classified as rare by the Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program.

Thanks to the contributions of neighbors several years ago, the Truro Conservation Trust acquired a key parcel in the Hopper Landscape. In addition, the Trust was given a restriction on an adjoining property that prevents any future development of the site. One other parcel, while not presenting the same immediate threat, may also be slated for development. The entire area is located just outside the protective boundaries of the Cape Cod National Seashore where it crosses this narrow portion of the Outer Cape to span the wooded hillsides stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Cod Bay.

Recently, the Massachusetts Historical Commission declared the Hopper House and Landscape as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as a potential National Register historic district.

The Cape Cod Commission, a regional planning agency with oversight of development considered to have regional impact on the Cape’s historic and environmental resources, will be taking up the question of whether to study the proposed mansion as a Development of Regional Impact at its meeting on September 20.

The controversial project has been the subject of a front-page story in the Boston Globe and numerous articles in Cape newspapers over the past month. The Truro group, led by artist Nathalie Ferrier, hopes that the Hopper Show in Washington will call the nation’s attention to the imminent danger facing the site and subject so strongly linked to one of America’s greatest artists.

For further details contact Nathalie Ferrier at info@roomsbythesea.org.

According to the article in the Globe:

This is no battle between the haves and the have-nots, but rather a battle between the have and the have-mores. The neighbors do not fault Donald and Andrea Kline for spending millions to live in the Hopper landscape. After all, they themselves own expensive chunks of land nearby. The neighbors fault the Klines instead for what they believe is violating the code of the Cape, proposing what they call a monstrosity and a trophy house when a smaller house or the existing 191-year-old home already on the Klines' property would do just fine.

"It can only be a monument to themselves," said neighbor Joan Holt. "It says it's not about the neighborhood and what it's always been and what it's always meant to be. All it says is, 'Look at the money I have.' "

Donald Kline, a wealthy man with a home in Boca Raton, Fla., and a history of land battles in Truro, declined to comment for this story. But from the plans he has filed with the town of Truro, one thing is clear: He wants a view like the one Hopper once had. The plans call for his house to be built at the highest point of the property. And neighbors will have a hard time stopping it, said Nick Brown, chairman of the Truro Planning Board.

It appears that Mr. Kline doesn't need another monster house, and - since he's building it for the "view," it is ironic that he doesn't "see" the issue with his new home's impact on the whole Hopper environment.

One thing is clear: Apparently Kline does have the right to build, the money to fight it out, and if it meets code, and if it is his property, the legally he can do it. And so it simply becomes an ethical issue.

And since Mr. Kline is apparently a contributor to Barack Obama's campaign (and so is apparently Mrs. Kline), then one would assume that he is a Democrat and that his political, ethical and environmental views align with the breath of fresh air and new viewpoints that the Senator is trying to bring to American politics. But I suspect that the Kline Mansion's disruption of the Hopper environment, simply for the sake of a view, would not be something that either Democrats or Obama would endorse.

Mr. & Mrs Kline: There are a lot of open coast lines and still a lot of ocean viewpoints left in Maine: either build a reasonable house in Truro or build elsewhere - it's not just the right thing to do, but the Democratic thing to do; anything else would be hypocritical.

Somebody please...

Can someone please attend this next week and then email me a report?

Creative Conversations - An Emerging Arts Leader Dialogue

Co-hosted by Americans for the Arts' Creative Conversations Program

When: Monday, October 29, 2007 - 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Where: 600 Restaurant at the Watergate
(Event will be in the first banquet room as you enter the building)
600 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20037

More details: The Forum for Emerging Arts Professionals aims to provide unique professional development and networking opportunities for emerging arts professionals. This event is an informal and open discussion on topics pertinent to emerging arts leaders in the DC area. Bring with you the issues you face every day.

Note: This event is free. Attendees of the discussion session will receive a free drink ticket and appetizers.

To RSVP: Please visit Americans for the Arts Creative Conversations website or email them at theforum.mail@gmail.com.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: December 1, 2007

The International Artists Support Group invites artists to exhibit with them in New Delhi, India at the Lalit Kala Akademy (exact date to be determined). This is the 5th IASG Show at the Lalit Kala Akademy, New Delhi, India. This is India's prestigious National Academy of Art which was opened in 1954. They have hosted the Triennial-India International Exhibition in New Delhi every three years since 1968. The show is curated by Sushil Kalra, who is an accomplished artist, political cartoonist and newspaper columnist in India.

Fees: $75 for one entry, $110 for two. You may submit two pieces of work, no larger than 20 inches x 30 inches. Unframed, no stretchers, no mats are allowed. Make checks payable to IASG. This covers transportation, framing, hanging and cataloguing. Drop or mail your work by September 15 to: Doug and Margo Arnold, 3001 Veazey Terrace, NW #719, Washington, DC 20008. The reception desk has 24-hour service. Veazey Terrace is adjacent to the Van Ness/UDC Red line Metro Stop on the East side of Connecticut Avenue. If return mail required: Include $25.00 shipping & handling made out to IASG, plus return postage. Include insurance if desired.

Liability: Artists are responsible for insuring their own work. All work will be handled by IASG with extreme care. However, IASG assumes no responsibility for damage or theft. Shipped work must be insured. All claims for works damaged in shipment are the responsibility of the artist and the shipper.

Press Coverage: There will be extensive press coverage of the opening reception.

For additional information and entry form info, send e-mail to Margo Arnold at margo@ix.netcom.com

On TV

- The DC area's best-known artist (and in the lead by millions and millions) Frank Warren on the Today show. The new PostSecret book, which is titled A Lifetime of Secrets is currently available on Amazon.

- Heineman Myers Contemporary Art opens Foon Sham's “Journey” exhibition tonight, Saturday October 13th with a reception for the artist from 6 to 9pm. Foon Sham will speak about his recent work at 7pm. Foon Sham will be featured on the Maryland Public Television program “Artworks This Week” on Wednesday, October 17th at 7:30pm on channels 22 or 67, depending on where you live in Maryland. It will be shown again on Saturday, October 20 at 8am.

New Saint Sebastian

And again I return to one of my favorite subjects of all time: Saint Sebastian, said to have been martyred by the Roman Emperor Diocletian.

The below drawing is currently on hold was sold to a DC area collector.

"St. Sebastian." F. Lennox Campello. Circa 2007
Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 9" x 16"