Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Video Meet Drawing: Experiment II

Here is where you can read the process where last year I began the concept of marrying video technology with traditional drawing. And here is where you can read some of the initial reactions to the first piece during some of the art fairs in Miami.

Sanctus Guevarus Castrum Canis


SANCTUS GUEVARUS CASTRUM CANIS. Charcoal on paper, electronics, video player and video. 27.5 x 27 inches. Circa 2010 by F. Lennox Campello

So that was my first video drawing... a good success, if I may say so myself. I then asked several museum collectors and two of the top video collectors in the world: "Have you seen or know of anyone who is marrying drawing with video?"

The answer came back no. I'm not sure of this, but as far as I am concerned, if a few top notch museum curators have never heard of someone integrating video with drawing, and (more to my taste) two of the folks who regularly make it to art magazine lists of one sort or another concur, that makes me feel confident that I could be breaking new ground here and making Lennon and McCartney look bad.

So (in honor of Charlie Sheen... not really) here's Part Deux.

In a few weeks I will be in NYC at the AAFNYC art fair. The same folks who bring you Pulse. Over the years, I've had a spectacular sales record at this fair, and I wanted to show both Sanctus Guevarus and the new video piece there.

In my head, I've been playing with deciphering a series of these marriages of highly accomplished (what was it that Kriston Capps described me as... draughtsman? The first time that I read this Capps Police description of my work I thought of beer, which is a good thing) drawings together with videos related to the drawings' subjects.

The first series that came to my head was a series of video drawings on Latin American icons - each drawing showing them as an icon, with a little flavor of ancient Rome in the presentation of the iconic image with a few drops of human venom dropped in for good - in the video part.

With the serial murderer known as Che Guevara it was easy. That "historic first ever video drawing showed Che as a saint while the video exposed a documented firing squad ordered by that Argentinean psychopath.

For the second one, I wanted to approach the artistic love of my life, Austrian-Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (heh, heh... see what happens when we apply labels to people?)

Che and Frida are the two most iconic faces of the 20th century, and both seem to have very few degrees of separation from me; and both interest me tremendously.

Thus Frida Kahlo de Rivera is the second video drawing.

It all started with the drawing (note to self: next time start with the video).

Ave Frida, sans video
Then I inscribed it with a Latin inscription, as icons tend to have, which proclaims: "Ave Frida, Nulli Secunda."

"Hail Frida, Second to None."

That was finished about six weeks ago. Then I struggled with the technical aspects of the video part. I wanted to have a good-sized screen play a video relating to Kahlo.

One lesson learned from the first drawing was the size of the screen, so I shopped around for larger (and more affordable) screens which could play videos. Then I bought several of them, tried them all out, wasted precious hours trying to decipher their badly translated manuals so that I could learn how to actually play a video on their machines, and eventually settled on a model. Most of the wasted hours also related to the software that I was using to convert the native video format of my camera to the MPEG-1, 2 and 4 that the digital player said it could play. In the end, it was all the fault of the conversion software, which was a commercial software. I discarded it, tried a free version that I found online, and not only was it super-easy to use, but it also worked great.

The drawing was finished, the custom made, hand-carved frame was done, and I had a video machine screen ready to go. Now all I needed was the video.

Add tons of hours researching Frida Kahlo videos. Did I mention that I wanted to show a Kahlo "home movie" as the video? Did I mention that I wanted an eye-catching Kahlo video? Did I mention that I wanted a controversial movie playing in my drawing?

So then hours looking for reference materials, which soon led me to three sources. I then purchased copies of all three biographical documentaries on Kahlo, and the one done for Mexican television was the one that yielded copies of rare footage of Frida.

I shot the video, did a little basic editing and tried it out. I then realized that I would have to install the video screen upside down, otherwise the remote control wouldn't work as there was no space left on the drawing to cut out a little hole for the infrared sensor. So I had to re-shoot all the videos, this time upside down, and re-edit them all.

The venom in this video is this short clip of a very feral Kahlo about to devour an intensely scared young girl. Was this a set up? Was Rivera filming the young offering that he had brought his wife? At the end of the clip, Kahlo says something to the camera person:



There is a word for this in Spanish: "escalofriante" (chilling).

I then cut out Frida's heart out of the drawing. This will be the window into her soul and the window into the scant "moving pictures" references of her life. It is a feral heart, armed with sharp fangs that bite huge chunks of life out of life.

Here is the drawing with the shape of the heart window which has been cut out of it:

Frida Kahlo's heart
And here is the drawing with the video screen playing the video. This will be fitted behind the drawing.

Frida Kah

And here it is with the video aligned behind the feral heart window and playing in her heart.

Ave Frida, Nulli Secunda

And here is a close-up of the window in her heart:

Ave Frida Kahlo

And here is what the final piece will look like once matted, framed and assembled:

Ave Frida, Nulli Secunda

AVE FRIDA NULLI SECUNDA. Charcoal on paper, electronics, video player with remote control and video. 27.5 x 27 inches. Circa 2011 by F. Lennox Campello

Now to assemble it and frame it.

WaPo picks critic

The Post has selected a replacement for their art critic vacancy from "in-house" - did I call it or what?

Update: Stop emailing me asking who it is! The WaPo will announce it soon (there's already an internal memo) - my guess is that the chosen one is that guy who does all the "cultural" writing and architectural criticism... I can't think of his name now... ah... Philip Kennicott. My second guess, if "in-house" also means their new freelancers since Jessica Dawson left, is Kriston Capps.

Art and Taxes

You've just gotta read this.

(Thanks Mike)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Waiting for his Muffuletta

Anderson Campello at Mena's Palace in NOLA
Anderson waiting for his Muffuletta sandwich at Mena's Palace in New Orleans.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Locomotive

You should see the damned good video drawing that I finished today while listening to this song over and over and (in the process) driving my wife and Little Junes out of the house...


Free artwork

British artist Lando Jones is launching a program of giving away free art prints of his work. Jones lives in Bristol, England, but he tells me that he will post them anywhere!

You can see the details here.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

MPArtFest Call for Artists

Entries are now being accepted for the 5th annual MPAartfest, presented by McLean Project for the Arts, which will be held on Sunday, October 2, 2011 in McLean Central Park. Due date for submissions is June 1.

MPAartfest is a one-day juried fine art and craft festival that transforms McLean Central Park into a lively landscape of mini art galleries showcasing and selling the work of a diverse group of 40 juried artists from the mid-Atlantic region. MPAartfest includes activities to captivate art-lovers of all ages and draws thousands of people. Stroll through the Children’s ArtWalk to experience the work of young artists from McLean area schools. Budding artists may create their own works of art at the Children’s ArtTent and the Gazebo Stage will feature a variety of live performances throughout the day.

McLean Project for the Arts is located at 1234 Ingleside Avenue in the McLean Community Center. For more information and the MPAartfest Call for Entries form, please visit www.mpaart.org/artfest.php or call 703-790-1953.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Little Junes in New Orleans

Anderson Campello with New Orleans below him

Ooops!

A new "forever" stamp that was supposed to show the Statue of Liberty actually features a replica outside a Las Vegas casino...

Read all about it here.

Copyright Workshop

Do you have creative work that you'd like to copyright? Come learn about the basics of copyrights at this presentation and Q & A session from the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 7 pm
Copyright Basics Workshop at Finnegan

Registration required - so register here.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: April 30, 2011.

Call for Entries: The Graceful Envelope Contest - Artists everywhere are invited to participate in the 2011 Graceful Envelope Contest, conducted by the Washington (DC) Calligraphers Guild under the sponsorship of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

There is no entry fee.

This year's theme is "Time Flies," so design an envelope that explores good times, quality time, the times of our lives, time travel, or any other idea you have time to develop.

Address the envelope artistically to:
The Graceful Envelope Contest
Washington Calligraphers Guild
P.O. Box 3688
Merrifield, VA 22116.

This is the contest's 17th year. The Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum created and administered it until delegating responsibility to the Washington Calligraphers Guild in 2001. The National Association of Letter Carriers exhibits the winners, which are also exhibited online at www.calligraphersguild.org. The complete Call for Entries (including categories for children) is posted on the Washington Calligraphers Guild website or you may contact contest coordinator Lorraine Swerdloff at swerdloff@gmail.com.

Check's in the mail

Being one of the lucky 53% of Americans who actually gets the honor to pay federal income taxes, I mailed my check today and tip my hat to the 47% of you who actually pay no federal income tax.

Having paid income tax since my very first job ever at age 13 (after school vacuum cleaning several stores along Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn and also cleaning their bathrooms after they closed), I've managed to pay income taxes every year since that year and this past year was the most brutal tax year ever for me, even out-shocking last year's eye opener of a tax burden.

I'm one of those persons who is a social liberal and a fiscal conservative.

As such, it has also always escaped me the fairness of having about 1% of US households pay about 40% of all taxes collected in this nation and the other top 9% of US households combine to pay almost 75% of all taxes collected.

The reason that most European nations and especially the new democracies from the former Soviet empire adopted either a flat tax system or a Value Added Tax (VAT) system is simple: "It's simple!"

Every nation in Europe that I've lived in had a flat tax, except for the UK, which has a VAT (17.5%).

But here, the tax laws are so complex, and the loopholes so many, and the tax load so disparate and so huge, that we need an army of IRS folks to enforce them and an even bigger army of accountants and lawyers to interpret them.

Makes my head hurt; check's on the way.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Call to Latina Artists

Deadline: April 19, 2011, 5:00 PM PST.

The National Hispana Leadership Institute is having a call for Latina artists for their upcoming Art Contest. The National Hispana Leadership Institute (NHLI) invites Latina artists nationwide to submit artwork (in all media including paintings, sculptures, photography, etc.) that celebrates Latinas/Hispanic women.

NHLI – a national 501 (c)(3) organization based on Washington, DC – was established in 1987 to "address the under representation of Latinas in the corporate, non-profit and political arenas." NHLI will use the winning image to promote the 2011 Executive Leadership Training Conference and Mujer Awards Gala to be held November 3-4, 2011 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel 930 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90017. The Conference Theme is “Latinas Connecting Across Generations, Reaching New Heights”. NHLI will credit the artist in promotional materials during and after the conference included but not limited to: 2011 Mujer Award poster, award certificates, program cover, bags, mouse pads, annual report, and NHLI note cards. For any additional questions, please contact Victoria Morillo, Victoria@nhli.org, or please call: 703.527.6007.

Two Days Only: Sketchbook Project

Over 700 D.C. area artists participated in the Sketchbook Project (more on that number later) and it's coming to the DMV:

On April 15th & 16th, Hillyer Art Space is collaborating with Transformer and the Brooklyn based Art House Co-op to host The Sketchbook Project for two days in our gallery space. This exhibition is taking place in conjunction with Transformer's SKETCH exhibition (on view in April and May), which focuses on artistic development and the creative process and features the work of 16 Washington D.C. artists working in a variety of mediums.

The Sketchbook Project is a touring library and exhibition which features nearly 10,000 sketchbooks by artists from a variety of artistic backgrounds and nationalities. Each artist included in the project was given a brand new 5½" x 8½" moleskin sketchbook and requested to fill it with art demonstrating their own individual style and creative eccentricities.

The sketchbooks offer unique insight into the artistic process--echoing Process: Reaffirmation's focus--and work with one another to form a fascinating, fun exhibition. Audiences are invited to peruse over the inspiring books to their hearts' content!
I have something to confess. Back when I was first invited to participate in this, I thought that this was such a great idea that I couldn't resist adding my own twist to it and now there are 11 sketchbooks in that collection which have been created by yours truly as I took this brilliant opportunity to use the project as a means to explore the artists whom I could have been.

11 sketchbooks under newly minted names and personnas. A wide open opportunity to create 11 visually independent projects which are secretly tied to each other by a very simple clue in each work in the sketchbook.

And not all of them are DMV-based addresses, and the Three Faces of Eve become the Eleven Artists Within Lenny Project.

Go see this show! International Arts & Artists, 9 Hillyer Court NW, Washington, DC 20008.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Cell phone blues

I've left my cell phone very far away; it is being returned to me, so meanwhile, if any of you have been calling me... now you know.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Call for the Release of Ai WeiWei

Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
(Minister Mr. Cai Wu)

On April 3, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong, and his papers and computers were seized from his studio compound.

We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai’s freedom and disappointment in China’s reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought, the keys to “soft power” and cultural influence.

Our institutions have some of the largest online museum communities in the world. We have launched this online petition to our collective millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. By using Ai Weiwei’s favored medium of “social sculpture,” we hope to hasten the release of our visionary friend.
Sign the petition here.

Artists' Talk

Time: Thursday, April 14 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: National Museum of the American Indian
Rasmuson Theater
4th Street & Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC

Global Africa: Kehinde Wiley

The Global Africa series presents international artists who are engaging with Africa in their work. New York-based artist Kehinde Wiley talks about his portraits of contemporary urban African, African-American, and Afro-Brazilian men in heroic poses. Painted in the style of Old Master portraits, these works reveal aspects of urban identity around the world. Wiley focuses his discussion on his World Stage: Lagos-Dakar series and his recent portrait series of African footballers from the 2010 World Cup.

A conversation between Wiley and internationally renowned Washington D.C.-based Nigerian artist Victor Ekpuk follows the artist’s discussion.
Victor Ekpuk is one of the 100 artists in the 100 Washington, DC Artists book.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Brilliant Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: May 2, 2011

This has got to be one of the more interesting call for artists ever, and I think that my good bud "Oil Can" Cudlin had something to do with it:

So the very fair Helen Allen is jurying a show at AAC, and the deadline is less than 4 weeks away, so apply now.

Allen is the creator and former Executive Director of the Pulse Art Fairs and current partner with Leigh Conner and Jamie Smith for sure-to-be-amazing upcoming (e)merge art fair in Washington, DC.

The show she's jurying for AAC is titled "Planning Process," and it asks artists to submit images of studies or preliminary drawings alongside images of finished works.

The call is open to Mid-Atlantic artists working in any and all media, provided there are 2-D studies of some sort involved. Painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance, video (storyboards!)... all of it qualifies for this very clever and intelligent call.

Download an application form here. I've already submitted my proposal, and I think that I've got a pretty good one, so you better start using your brain before you apply... because you're competing with The Lenster...

Whoever came up with this concept idea: you did good!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sketchbook Project

Over 700 D.C. area artists participated in the Sketchbook Project (more on that number later) and it's coming to the DMV:

On April 15th & 16th, Hillyer Art Space is collaborating with Transformer and the Brooklyn based Art House Co-op to host The Sketchbook Project for two days in our gallery space. This exhibition is taking place in conjunction with Transformer's SKETCH exhibition (on view in April and May), which focuses on artistic development and the creative process and features the work of 16 Washington D.C. artists working in a variety of mediums.

The Sketchbook Project is a touring library and exhibition which features nearly 10,000 sketchbooks by artists from a variety of artistic backgrounds and nationalities. Each artist included in the project was given a brand new 5½" x 8½" moleskin sketchbook and requested to fill it with art demonstrating their own individual style and creative eccentricities.

The sketchbooks offer unique insight into the artistic process--echoing Process: Reaffirmation's focus--and work with one another to form a fascinating, fun exhibition. Audiences are invited to peruse over the inspiring books to their hearts' content!
I have something to confess. Back when I was first invited to participate in this, I thought that this was such a great idea that I couldn't resist adding my own twist to it and now there are 11 sketchbooks in that collection which have been created by yours truly as I took this brilliant opportunity to use the project as a means to explore the artists whom I could have been.

11 sketchbooks under newly minted names and personnas. A wide open opportunity to create 11 visually independent projects which are secretly tied to each other by a very simple clue in each work in the sketchbook.

And not all of them are DMV-based addresses, and the Three Faces of Eve become the Eleven Artists Within Lenny Project.

Go see this show! International Arts & Artists, 9 Hillyer Court NW, Washington, DC 20008.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Photogs at BlackRock

Since I had something to do in getting this show together, and these are some very talented camera wielders:

The three photographers exhibiting in the BlackRock Gallery this April give new perspectives to the everyday by layering images and creating intriguing multi-faceted art. The work of Alexandra Silverthorne, Erin Antognoli, and Beamie Young will be exhibited through April 30 with a free artists reception tomorrow, Saturday, April 9 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Alexandra Silverthorne uses the camera as a means to understand and explore spatial environments and encounters. As projects evolve, her photographs often move beyond the mat and the frame to become sculptural objects, projections, and installations. Current projects include the examination of conceived, perceived, and lived space, instinctual explorations of architectural structures, and nocturnal documentation of unfamiliar landscapes.


Her current project A Building In Which... is a photographic series that systematically explores the perceived physical structure of each room in a house. “Through the layering of multiple perspectives, the photographs create a visual record of the room while escaping singular concepts of time and space. Simultaneously, they mix the narrative of the house with the narrative of its residents to depict a unique, intertwined history,” said Silverthorne.

Originally from Washington, DC, Alexandra Silverthorne graduated from Connecticut College with a major in Government and minors in Art and Philosophy and from Maine College of Art (MECA) with a Master of Fine Arts. In 2003, Silverthorne co-founded Panorama Community Arts with the goal of providing art experiences to all residents of DC. Through this she taught workshops in photography, ceramics, and mural painting to youth and elderly in Washington. Since 2010, she has taught undergraduate darkroom photography courses at American University and the University of the District of Columbia as well as additional courses through MECA’s Continuing Studies program. In 2009, Silverthorne co-initiated the MFA Alumni Residency Program at MECA and currently serves as the Residency Coordinator.

Silverthorne received a fellowship to travel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan for the 2004 annual World Conference Against A&H Bombs. She has also received several grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities as well as one from the Puffin Foundation. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the John Wilson City Hall Building in Washington, DC and the Smithville Mansion Gallery in Eastampton, NJ. While she is based in Washington, DC, she can often be found zigzagging her way around the East Coast. For more information on Silverthorne visit: www.alexandrasilverthorne.com

Beamie Young embraces the technological advances of photography. “As an artist, I have been creating photographs for the past 36 years. My evolution as an artist parallels my professional development. In the past, I had darkrooms both at home and work. Today, I use my digital camera and Adobe Photoshop in both locations,” she said.

Young said she enjoys capturing unique colors, patterns, reflections, and light. “It is my hope that my images speak for themselves. I hope to share with the viewer a sense of wonder of the natural world and of the beauty that surrounds us, sometimes found in the most unexpected places,” she said.

Young has worked as a photographer and visual artist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the past 30 years. Recently, she said she has been working with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. “This technique allows me to create images with more detail in the highlights and shadows with almost surreal color saturation.”

Young is a member of the National Association of Photoshop Photographers and a Webmaster and Newsletter editor for The “Frederick Camera Clique” a photography club in Frederick MD. In 2010, she was awarded the Vincent Versace Award for Photographic Excellence. More information on her photography can be found at beamie.smugmug.com.

“By over overlapping multiple images in a single frame of film, I am unable to make connections that are not otherwise apparent, and was unable to uncover a spirit in a city that I initially viewed as cold, corporate, and soulless,” said Erin Antognoli. “I use my Holga camera as a way of digging deeper beneath the surface of my environment,” she said.

Upon moving to the Washington, D.C. area, Antognoli said she was challenged with taking photos in an environment that was completely foreign. She used her high tech camera with little success, and decided to go back to basics and use her Holga camera to take photos in the city. “The camera itself is incredibly simple – plastic, very few controls, and prone to irregularity. This method of making images placed much more of the emphasis on my own mind, for I have to decide what I want to say and how I want object to relate to each other, and then figure out how to translate that vision to film with minimal technical options,” she said.

“This process inevitably forced me to become more intertwined with my own environment, for I am taking the time to look for objects and shapes and textures that strike me, and might compliment each other well when overlapped in a frame. During all this. I found myself becoming more in tune to and comfortable with my surroundings while making my images,” she concluded. For more information on Antognoli visit: erinantognoli.org