Busy day tomorrow...

First I'll be at the third and final day of my conference and then in the late afternoon I'll be briefing the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities on the advisory panel's recommendations for the Individual Grant awards to DC artists. My advance congratulations to all of the DC artists who will be getting $5,000 each, and my stern request that more of you apply in the coming years.

I am always shocked as to how few artists apply each year.

After that I will be hanging the spectacular debut of Cuban artist Aimee Garcia Marrero at Fraser Georgetown.

Aimee Garcia Marrero is a very young Cuban painter whose solo US debut in Los Angeles sold out in 2002 (a third of our show has already pre-sold before the opening). She then participated in the VIII Bienal de La Habana and since then has been working furiously to create this show.

The Garcia Marrero opening is this coming Friday, from 6-9 PM. We will have Cuban music, Cuba Libres and catering by the Sea Catch Restaurant. It's part of the opening night for the five Canal Square Galleries.

Come and say hi and I'll buy you a Cuba Libre, or as I call them: "Cuba Presa."

Fred Ognibene's Top Ten Artomatic List

Fred Ognibene is a DC area contemporary art collector; below are his top ten Artomatic finds:

Joseph Barbaccia
Scott Brooks
Frank Day
Nina Ferre’
Mark Jenkins
Syl Mathis
Allison B. Miner
Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette
Ruza Spak
Kelly Towles
Rob Vanderzee

Again, today I'll be at a conference most of the day today, so check back later for more top ten lists and other stuff.

Sidney Lawrence, who recently retired as the PR person at the Hirshhorn Museum, and who also used to exhibit at the former Gallery K, now writes for Artnet.com, and has this excellent round-up of Washington area shows.

Catriona Fraser's Top 10 Artomatic List

Catriona Fraser, Director and the hardworking co-owner of our two Fraser Galleries walked Art-O-Matic a few days ago and the below list reflects her top ten picks:

BJ Anderson
John Bata
Chris Edmunds
Thomas Edwards
M. Rion Huffmann
Michal Hunter
Syl Mathis
Mary Beth Ramsey
Alison Sigethy
Ira Tattlemann
Denise Wolff

Sarah Finlay and Patrick Murcia's Top Ten Artomatic List

Sarah Finlay and Patrick Murcia, the two hardworking directors of Fusebox Gallery, one of the best galleries in town, send in their top 10 AOM list:

Chad Alan
Kathryn Cornelius
Richard Dana
Frank Day
Nina Ferre’
Mansoora Hassan
Allison Miner
John Olson
Michael Platt
Kelly Towles

I'll be at a conference most of the day today, so check back later for more top ten lists and other stuff.

Tonight at 7PM is the opening reception/party for the artists showing in the fine art glass rooms at Artomatic. Even Gopnik in his root canal of the show had this to say about the glass:

"There may just be a few decent things hidden in the mix -- with so many thousands of objects on display, the law of averages says there must be. But three hours' worth of looking didn't spot too many. Some of the glasswork looked all right. (Glass is such a gorgeous medium it's hard to screw it up, and you need some basic training even to begin to work in it.)"

Talking about glass, the James Renwick Alliance Gala/Auction will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2005 at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.

This is part of the Alliance's American Craft Masters Weekend 2005 which in addition to the Gala/Auction will feature a Sunday Brunch honoring William Morris/Glass; Judy Kensley McKie/Furniture; Robert Ebendorf/Jewelry; Lia Cook/Fiber and Wayne Higby/Ceramics at the Westin and a free fiber symposium at the Navy Auditorium in the morning of April 16th.

Tim Tate, whose work is represented by us and whose work is in the permanent collection at the Renwick Gallery, the nation's premier contemporary craft venue, will be a featured artist in the Live Auction.

His piece is titled "Nine Years.....Nine Memories" and consists of nine glass globes Tate calls "Reliquaries" which are his newest series. The pieces were acquired by the Renwick Alliance at the current Art-O-Matic and are currently on display at the glass rooms in that show.

"We are delighted to have such an important piece in our Live Auction" said Judith Weisman, James Renwick Alliance's Craft Weekend Chair. "Tim's work resonates with sophistication and meaning."

At the Art-O-Matic building, the glass rooms are at 32 Good Hope Road, Anacostia on your Art-O-Matic map.

Jean Lawlor Cohen's Top Ten Artomatic List

Jean Lawlor Cohen is the editor of Where DC Magazine. Below are her picks for the best from this year's Art-O-Matic.

Cardellino - A six-canvas group of dark landscapes/trees - for impact in small space.

Chris Edmunds — Sculptural heads (one on a spring!) — for irreverence.

Kathryn Cornelius — Audio installation in an ominous sinkroom with seeping water (a Tony Oursler confrontation without the dolls) — for mystery.

Nina Ferré — Bridge installation — for making do with difficult space.

Inga Frick — Couldn’t locate, but, according to her past work, merits hunting down — for whimsy.

Linda Hesh — A time travel alcove — for self-dramatization.

Judy Jashinsky — Cicada-coated homage to Noche Crist — for spirit of camaraderie.

Matt Sesow — Self-described “crumby art” that is Basquiat meets Golub — for fun.

Ruza Spak — Large skyscape paintings with dog / deer a flyin’, what Longo’s pets must dream — for disorientation.

Martha Olsson — Her bold, expressive canvases way up on the 5th floor — for daring.

And the Artomatic firestorm gathers more words!

James W. Bailey responds to Jamie Wimberly's posting:

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves," (Matthew 7:15).

It is unlikely that most will ever meet an artist who will say, "I am a false prophet, follow me."

A "spiritual" artist will present themselves as a true prophet; and they will indeed appear to be true. But when confronted by a false prophet artist, one must search deeper and examine the artistic, social, psychological and legal implications of their words and ideas. False prophet artists will speak their prophecies and teachings with a golden tongue that will seem true and desirable. The best method of discerning the truth of a false prophet artist is by subjecting their prophecies and teachings to a critical examination of the implications of their artistic vision. The truth will stand the strongest test; error will be exposed.

Mr. Wimberly would have us believe the art world has devolved and is corrupt; he is right. He would also have us believe that standards need to be implemented to salvage the concept of real art from the masses; he is wrong.

Mr. Wimberly laments the fact that too many non-real artists are polluting the universe with their un-real art through events such as Artomatic. If, in his world, we only had an Inter-Galactic Art Commission of learned art professionals who would design, develop and implement a legal code of professional art standards, enforced by a Federation Art Police, of course, then we could all safely enjoy the privilege of viewing, absorbing, contemplating, being inspired by and buying real art made by real artists.

No doubt, under Mr. Wimberly’s scheme for the rehabilitation and salvation of the art world, such an Inter-Galactic Art Commission would be legally empowered to issue Professional Art Licenses to real artists so that these licensed real artists would be legally permitted to ply their craft to a more culturally sensitive audience who would be protected by the knowledge that the artists who they are likely to buy from are safe, certified and state approved by an art regulatory agency that operates in everyone’s best interest.

No doubt Mr. Wimberly, because of his profound insight concerning the corruption of the definition, meaning and purpose of contemporary fine art, would also expect to be asked to serve in the capacity of Board Director of the Inter-Galatic Art Commission so that he could more effectively advocate for his art philosophy to be enshrined into a Felony Criminal Art Code that would be enforced against those unlicensed un-real artists who would dare to try to operate under the radar in the back alleys of the illegal art gallery districts around the world, including Artomatic.

Allow me to offer some down-home Mississippi no B.S. wisdom from the perspective of an artist who recognizes a false prophet when he sees one. What Mr. Wimberly is really concerned about is this: He and a bunch of "real" artists he knows ain’t makin’ enough money out there in the REAL world tryin’ to sell stuff they "create" that other people think is junk and just plain don’t wanna buy!

Do I believe the modern art world is corrupt? Let me put it this way: I basically believe that the modern art world has absolutely turned its back on the general population. It has for some time now been taken over and hijacked by an elitist element of art snobs and ethereal professionals who have done everything in their power to remove the context, purpose and vibrancy of art from the realm of the people and have placed it in the ivory tower cages of the museum and gallery structure.

The present art world system allows these self-anointed art gods, the Artfanistas as I call them, to build successful and well paid careers as museum directors, curators, art dealers, gallery owners, and yes, a handful of internationally celebrated artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, who Mr. Wimberly properly despises.

The modern art system is one with a historic parallel: Being from Mississippi, I know all about the share-cropping system. What exists today in the art world, especially in this country, is an art version of the post-Civil War Mississippi Delta plantation. The plantation owners are the so-called leading art museums. The plantation foremen are the museum curators. The sharecroppers are the emerging artists who strive to be "real" artists under the definition of what is “real” that is defined by god knows who. What you have to do as an artist sharecropper, and as a human being, to elevate your self through the plantation system to artistic independence, to that coveted position of celebrated international artist superstar, is almost unspeakable. Selling out doesn't even begin to describe it.

The results for the artistic health of this country are horrible. The average American is absolutely alienated from contemporary art. They are alienated because they have been treated with contempt by the modern art establishment. The thinking that prevails in New York is that the average American is a cultural idiot who is too unsophisticated to understand the secret language of modern art.

"Therefore, considering how stupid most art ignorant Americans are, especially those idiots down South in the Red States, it would be an incredible waste of our valuable time and resources to share our wealth of secret knowledge with them to help them understand what they don't know and will never appreciate," New York Artfanista.

The fact of the matter is that the average American is damned smart and can smell bullshit from a thousand miles away, all the way up to the top floor of The Whitney Museum of Art in New York and right down the road to their local frustrated suburban upper-middle class white talent-challenged semi-depressed I-want-to-suffer-the-life-of-the-real-urban-poor-people-so-I-can-sensitively-present-the-painful-imagery-of-their-miserable-lives artist who sits in his or her rented inner-city crack-house basement “studio” whining and crying about how the world sucks because the concept of real art has been lost and nobody will support them as an artist and buy their crap!

The Gospel According to St. James the Photographer of Experiments:

Littoral Art: The Art of the Gift - I believe that an ethical artist who lives a life of integrity has a responsibility to share their art in a way that intersects with and becomes part of the life of their community, society and nation. I believe in the principles of moral art as articulated by Bruce Barber in his work, “Sentences on Littoral Art”. This is a radical position for art because it has nothing to do with art objects within the modern art milieu where it's all about getting your 15 minutes and $15 million for a “created” object.

The present modern art super-structure works against the principles of Littoral Art. The current system is set up to further the careers, artistic and professional, of those on the inside who are obsessed with art objects. The rewards for success are fame and money. At the end of the day, what does the art created do to make the world a better, safer more peaceful place? Nothing...because that is not even the goal under this system.

I strongly believe that artists have the power to change the world. Not just interpret it or represent it or create art objects about it. What I mean by that is that artists can use an expanded definition of art to advocate, instruct, share and involve people in demanding reforms of corrupt systems of power, whether political, social or cultural.

I believe that Artomatic, whatever its failings may be, is a step in the right direction to an expanded definition of art.

Mr. Wimberly’s views reflect the endless obsessions of far too many artists who have been left behind on planet Earth who pine for the day when high quality hand-crafted artistic art objects were the definition of art and were sought after and fought over by sophisticated art collectors; indeed, a beautiful era when a handful of expert artisans were elevated to near god-like status and enjoyed the wealth bestowed upon them by the spiritually enlightened with access to unlimited funds in Swiss bank accounts.

Some of us less nostalgic and less ambitious artists took advantage of mid-20th century space flight opportunities and traveled to distant stars and galaxies and have seen the power of art removed from the object. We have for some time now been sending encoded messages about radical art practices we have discovered on other planets back home to Earth. Some of these messages have been received and decoded by artists you may know. Be warned: Some of the artists who have decoded these messages and shared them with others may in fact be false prophet artists; indeed, some may in fact be false artists profiting as real artists.

The WORD has been given: There is no excuse to not recognize such false prophet artists now... indeed, I may be one myself, but at least I’m willing to admit to the possibility that I am.

Sincerely,

James W. Bailey
Experimental Photographer

The Artomatic firestorm rages on!

Joseph Barbaccia responds to Jamie Wimberly's posting:

I wish someone would explain to me why people feel that art needs to be defined, ruled or standardized. WTF?! Doing so is the antithesis of art. Does requiring artistic standards allow people to feel secure? By setting up narrow path to creating art are they defining their own way of creating and trying to impose it on others?

I understand the need for structure. Our lives would be chaos without it. But art, at least in my life, is one of the few remaining areas that are free of standards and rules. I value that fact immeasurably. This one area of unlimited creativity is a rarity in today’s over-regulated world. It allows us total freedom of expression.

My work doesn't have to be labeled Art. I really don’t care what it is called. Call it crap, call it interesting, or call it great. A label does not deny art's existence or its effect. Look at the history. As forms of expression change they must break from "standards" and stand on new ground. Of course, in a matter of time these changes become the "standard" themselves and must be changed again. Look at the history.

Jamie's "standards" are wonderful; for HIM to work under. I believe that setting up a structure, or defining art with a set of rules on a personal level is OK. It’s part of the process. Bring out your scales! Artists do the same with every decision we make when creating a single piece. We define the work by our choices. But I see no reason to lay my creative structure on anyone else. I would no sooner tell a person how to create art than I’d tell them how to be happy. I don’t mind getting a license and taking a test to drive a car, but please, allow me the freedom to make my art the way I believe it should be done. Anything else smells of sour grapes.

Pat Goslee's Artomatic List

Area artist Pat Goslee is a well-known, talented and widely exhibited artist, and she has participated in several past Art-O-Matics, but is not involved in this year's show.

I first came across Goslee's work in 1995 or 1996 when I wrote this small review of her solo show for Visions Magazine for the Arts.

Below is her own unique list of finds and awards in the 2004 edition of Art-O-Matic (after several visits).

KARMA AWARD = Charles Sthresley

REGARDING BEAUTY AWARD = Linda Hesh + Ami Martin Wilber

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AWARD = Dylan Scholisnki

RECYCLING AWARD = Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette

BEST VAGINA AWARD = Elena Patiño

FLOP AWARD = Dave Savage

SYCOPHANT AWARD = Thomas Edwards

BEST TITS AWARD = Nicolas Syracuse

SAFETY AWARD = Bridget Vath

SCULPTURE AWARD = Stephon Senegal

CICADA AWARD = Betsy Packard

WELCOME HOME AWARD = Inga Frick

BERLIN AWARD = Marla McLean

BEST BARGAIN = Denise Juliano “Funny Farm” $45

RENWICK AWARD = Tim Tate

SOUL AWARD = Michael Platt

BEST USE OF SPACE AWARD = Ira Tattelman

PRIORITY MALE AWARD = Kelly Towles

PORTRAIT AWARD = Ian Jehle

VOWELESS NAME RECOGNITION AWARD = dns ynko

A friend emailed me a note about the Sunday NY Times article about JT LeRoy and LeRoy's words about the first time that he was reviewed:

"I cut the article out and put it on my stomach like it would heal me," Mr. LeRoy said in a twang left over from his West Virginia childhood. "But it didn't heal me. The thing about attention is it's like drinking. One drink is too many, and a million isn't enough."

My friend also adds that "as humans, we are responsible for tending to our own wounds. Is anyone really looking to Blake Gopnik to heal them? Art can heal, but one must do it for one's self. Now turn off the computer and go to the studio!"

Leigh Conner's Top Ten List

Leigh Conner, the hardworking gallery owner of Conner Contemporary, easily one of the best galleries in the region, walked Art-O-Matic last Wednesday and picked her top ten picks. She matched a few from mine and offers her own selections in alphabetical order:

Overall top pick: The Union Station Music Stage Room + Main Entrance

- JTW Black
- Alan Callander
- Richard Dana
- Liz Duarte
- Matt Dunn
- Linda Hesh
- Michael K. Ross
- Tim Tate
- Kelly Towles
- Ami Martin Wilber

Photographer James W. Bailey steps into the Artomatic firestorm with the following very inventive note:

Is Blake Gopnick possibly sending the art world a coded message about Artomatic 2004?

Anterograde Amnesia

Anterograde amnesia is a selective memory deficit, resulting from brain injury, in which the individual is severely impaired in learning new information. Memories for events that occurred before the injury may be largely spared, but events that occurred since the injury may be lost. In practice, this means that an individual with amnesia may have good memory for childhood and for the years before the injury, but may remember little or nothing from the years since. Short-term memory is generally spared, which means that the individual may be able to carry on a conversation; but as soon as he is distracted, the memory of the conversation fades.

It is now becoming apparent that while anterograde amnesia devastates memory for facts or events, it may spare memory for skills or habits. Thus, an individual with amnesia can be taught a new skill, such as how to play a game or how to write backwards. The next day, the amnesic individual will claim to have no memory of the prior session, but when asked to try executing the skill, can often perform quite well - indicating that some memories have been formed. It is an important area of current research to document exactly which kinds of memory can be formed in amnesia, and how this may be used to help rehabilitate amnesic individuals.

Is it possible that Mr. Gopnick suffered a severe trauma incident at Artomatic 2002 that has resulted in him being unable to form post Artomatic 2002 memories?

Is it also possible that Mr. Gopnick has formed the new ability to write backward and that his review on Artomatic 2004 was thus written backward?

I have taken the liberty, inspired by William S. Burroughs’ Word Cut-Ups method, and repositioned Mr. Gopnick’s paragraphs in what I believe to be their proper sequence.

I believe Mr. Gopnick may be trying to send us all a coded message.

Hanging Artomatic 2004 Is Good for It, Too
By Blake Gopnik
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004

Artomatic costs more than $100,000 to put on, drawing funds from the artists themselves as well as from the public and private sectors; it absorbs major gifts in kind and vast amounts of volunteer time; it gets plenty of media coverage and pulls in tens of thousands of visitors. And all the money and resources and attention that go Artomatic's way are, by definition, not going to serious art that needs a boost, and deserves a higher public profile. Artomatic isn't only good for nothing. It's bad for art that matters.

It's not as though we are a society that fiercely discourages the making of art, one that needs an Artomatic just to make sure anything gets made at all. More art schools turn out more trained artists every year, and they all have to compete for a slice of the same meager pie of patronage, funding and public attention.

What the District truly needs is more displays of carefully selected, quality contemporary art, so that local emerging artists -- and, just as importantly, their public -- would have more and better examples of how serious creativity can work. As things stand, too many local artists, as well as a few of our dealers, get attention they wouldn't get in any city where they faced some decent, savvy competition. The region needs its artistic bar raised another notch or two. Whereas Artomatic, of course, removes the bar entirely and invites anyone and everyone to stroll on in and strut their stuff.

Despite public perceptions, the art world isn't anything like a closed shop: Curators, dealers and critics are always on a desperate hunt for new makers of new kinds of art, and they'll take it absolutely anywhere they can get it. Well-known mid-career artists are the ones who tend to face neglect; the hot young things that no one's seen before are where the action is. I guarantee that anyone with talent who might be discovered at a show like Artomatic would have had a fine chance of being discovered anyway.

After all, there are already lots of institutions dedicated to finding and displaying novel talent in the arts. Several alternative and artist-run spaces in the Washington area -- DCAC, Flashpoint, Transformer and others -- consider almost anything that comes over the transom. Their organizers tell me that the problem isn't a surplus of submissions; programming tends to suffer because they have too few options to choose among.

There may be a remote chance that such a person has been laboring unrecognized in a garret somewhere in Washington and that only Artomatic could have coaxed him out of hiding. But it's about as likely as finding a genius cavity-filler lurking in our dental open house.

Real, worthwhile art, the kind that says something that hasn't been said a million times before, requires carefully honed, hard-to-acquire skills -- sometimes manual, always visual and intellectual. Almost all artists worth the time of day know what's come before them, understand what's being made around them, and then -- against the odds and with terrifically hard work -- manage, every now and then, to make an art object that can contribute to the larger cultural conversation.

But somehow, over several decades now, we've bought into the nutty idea that fine art matters so very little, and is such easy stuff, that everyone and anyone can make it. (Actually, the idea has disappeared almost entirely among the kind of art professionals and intellectuals who suggested it in the first place, around the turn of the last century. The idea of art-by-anyone at first met with stiff public opposition, even ridicule; I'm only sorry it finally managed to catch on.)

For almost the entire history of Western culture, art was not conceived as something just anyone could or should make. Imagine living in Renaissance Florence and telling one of your Medici pals that you were going to have the family altarpiece painted by Joe Blow the baker, who felt like giving it a try. It would have seemed a joke. An Artomatic would have seemed sheer lunacy. Ditto if you had lived in Rembrandt's Amsterdam, Gainsborough's London or the Paris of Monet. For most of the last 500 years, dentists have been seen as less professional a bunch than artists.

Or worse. A show like Artomatic, in theory organized and stocked by lovers and supporters of fine art, is actively insulting to all the genuinely talented artists who have managed the long slog to a professional career.

You'd think that the purpose of a public exhibition would be to give the public a fair chance of seeing interesting art. Or you might think that it could serve emerging artists, too, by giving them a chance to learn from the best work that's out there. But what useful purpose is served in showing work by anyone who wants to have it seen, however awful it may be? How can an art exhibition be counted as anything other than a dismal failure when it's so bad overall?

I don't blame the people who made this work, bad as it mostly is. This is, as they say, a free country, and if someone wants to mess around with art supplies at home, then only their nearest and dearest have the right to complain. It's the basic premise of this show that is so badly at fault.

There may just be a few decent things hidden in the mix -- with so many thousands of objects on display, the law of averages says there must be. But three hours' worth of looking didn't spot too many. Some of the glasswork looked all right. (Glass is such a gorgeous medium it's hard to screw it up, and you need some basic training even to begin to work in it.) There were a few political one-liners that had some heft. But with works hung pell-mell and cheek-by-jowl in every corner of five floors of shabby rooms and corridors -- lighted by fluorescent tubes and the cheapest clip-on floods -- anything good was bound to get obscured by mediocrity. There's not even an attempt to keep like works together, or to craft oases of somewhat more polished art.

I won't dwell on the art. And I certainly won't name names. No one needs to know who made the wallfuls of amateur watercolors, yards of incompetent oil paintings, acres of trite street photography and square miles of naive installation art that will be polluting this innocent old building for the next three weeks. There's something for everyone to hate. The rest are works only a mother could love.

The result is the second-worst display of art I've ever seen. The only one to beat it out, by the thinnest of split hairs, was the 2002 Artomatic, which was worse only by virtue of being even bigger and in an even more atrocious space, down by the waterfront in a vacant modern office building.

After all, it could hardly be more excruciating than this year's Artomatic, the fourth edition of the District's creative free-for-all, which opens tomorrow. Organizers have gotten about 600 local "artists" -- anyone who could ante up the $60 fee and 15 hours of his or her time, in fact -- to display their creations. They're on show in the sprawling, scruffy building in north Capitol Hill that once housed the Capital Children's Museum and several charter schools.

I'll be at the front of the line.

Here's a fine idea. Let's find an abandoned school and then invite local dentists to ply their trade, free of charge, in its crumbling classrooms, peeling corridors and dripping toilets. Okay, so maybe we won't get practicing dentists to come, but we might get some dental students, hygienists and retirees to join in our Happy Tooth festival. What the heck, let's not be elitists here: Why don't we just invite anyone with a yen for tooth work or some skill with drills to give it a go. Then we can all line up, open wide and see what happens.

MY [Bailey's] WORDS:

Let’s not be too rough on Mr. Gopnick. Antereograde Amnesia can be terribly debilitating and frequently leads to a great deal of confusion when communicating with a person who has lost the ability to form new memories.

Sincerely,

James W. Bailey

The Washington Post's online forum on Artomatic and Gopnik is finally accepting new comments. See them here.

J.T. Kirkland over at Thinking About Art steps into the Artomatic firestorm and gets an earful from his commenters. He also challenges Victoria McKernan's dismissal of Dan Flavin.

This is all a measure of Artomatic's success no matter what you think about the art. Both the BLOGsphere and the lamestream media are full of letters, comments, articles, etc. about the show.

This says that (regardless of how you feel about the art and the artists), this is the most important art event that happens in DC every couple of years.

And who knows whom the undiscovered jewels in this year's Artomatic are?

I have several top ten lists in the wings waiting to be published. Past Artomatics have given us people who are now well-known respected artists such as Dan Steinhilber, Tim Tate, Adam Bradley, Dumbacher Brothers, Richard Chartier, Scott Hutchison and many others.

Victoria McKernan jumps into the Artomatic debate:

Blake Gopnik's review of Artomatic was so sensitive and insightful.

I'm looking forward to more.

What is he planning to take on next? - handicapped greeting card art? Nursing home poetry collections?

Such Diogenic wit ought not to be wasted.

Of course this is a big, sloppy, mish-mash exhibit full of trite and naive dross.

Hello! - welcome to our species.

Overwhelming mediocrity punctuated with occasional genius is our pattern in everything from art to politics. The brilliant thing about art is that it is not a finite universe where bad work pre-empts or excludes good. The human brain is not some shoe rack in danger of being filled up by one giddy splurge at Payless.

"What is the useful purpose," Gopnik asks, "of showing work by anyone who wants to have it seen?" Oh gosh, maybe something like opening up a door to a world beyond homogenized drone existence; indulging in something called a creative spirit, and suggesting that spirit is present in each of us, and with some exercise, coaxing, or just play, could possibly flourish?

Could you run that one by your exhaled committee Comrade Gopnik?

Perhaps that flourishing will only ever produce lame paintings and bad collage but is that such a threat to fine art that it ought to be so vigorously repressed?

I envision troop storming the aisles of Michael's crafts, carpet bombing Towpath painters and raiding cubicles across America to snatch away Aunt Maggie's watercolor pansies!

Does he know about knitting clubs springing up all over town?

Joe Blow the baker was not painting during the Renaissance because paper and pencil, let alone paint and canvas, were largely unavailable to the unwashed masses. It could be that four years of Artomatic have not yielded a single brilliant artist, but 400 years of European civilization have given us only a handful.

I wonder how many Reubens or Raphaels could simply never get their hands out of the kneading trough?

This is not only a grudging and mean-spirited screed, it is fundamentally wrong to suggest that a dozen Michelangelos are starving now because of the diversion of public funds to support Artomatic. How much money did the National Gallery spend to mount the current Dan Flavin show, which, in my humble, plebian opinion could have been constructed by chimps raiding the lighting department at Home Depot?

It would be great if more "established" artists would participate in Artomatic, but for whatever reason they choose not to. It would be great if more people supported more artists in general, but they don't.

It would be great if everyone in the world were supremely enlightened and shared Mr. Gopnik's exalted artistic standards, but I'll settle for the glorious mess of artistic play that results in so many people participating in a show like this.

I sincerely hope Mr. Gopnik has no children, or at least no refrigerator.

For the record: Past and present Artomatics have yielded artists who have been subsequently selected for the Whitney Biennial, for the Corcoran Biennial, and for DC area galleries such as Alla Rogers, Conner, Fraser, Fusebox and Numark, as well as museums such as the Whitney, Hirshhorn and the Renwick.

Jesse Cohen from ArtDC delivers ArtDC's List of Top Artomatic artists:

In Franklin North Carolina, there is a historical tradition with roots in emerald mines. As a tourist, you can visit, view the real veins, and then buy a bucket of dirt. Hours are spent sifting your dirt at a sleuth to find sapphire chips, and ruby specs, “salted” by the local tourist industry. Occasionally, as I did, one lucky summer day, I found a 100 plus karat sapphire.

A trip to the ’04 Art-O-Matic lent the same feeling, sifting through, and recovering great beauty. It will take several passes through the water to uncover the wealth. Starting on the 5th floor, we ran into the Glass Attic, a group of fine glass artisans; full of colors, patterns, and appeal.

Half way through the bucket, we found Stephon Senegal. I was shocked by the mortality of his sculpture. His booth is worth a second visit.

Through the journey of the veins, more goodies were found, along with nice collections of photography. Such as, Gay Cioffi, and her Glass Quilts, an excellent study of form. Along with Frank Fiorentino who produced a collection of, well, Barbie Porn; dolls in suggestive poses. I’ve seen this by other photographers at Conner Contemporary art, but less suggestive.

And then there was Thomas Edwards, Sycophant Head, and School of Fish Pain installations. The annoying slum head that follows you around the room, and the fish dying out of water. Original: The one word sums it up.

Finally, as we were pushed out for closing, I entered John Aaron’s Congressional Confessional, brilliant, with a sense of humor. I cast my vote in the journal, and chatted with John and Andrea. I’m glad to see politics roll into AOM.

15 minutes into our trip, we found our 100-karat stone. The atmosphere, and environment created by piling 1000s of artists, spectators, collectors and friends in one space with a reason to be there made the show valuable. It was, a happening.

Far from a list of ten, six stood out from a 2-hour time period through the sleuth. With more time, there will be no problem uncovering many lists of 10.

Tracy Lee is a very, very good photographer who recently decided to go for her MFA at GWU.

She responds to Jamie Wimberly's posting as follows:

My two-cent quick and dirty reply to Jamie Wimberly - without having seen ArtOMatic but just commenting on his points (which I appreciate and mostly agree with -- It's refreshing to hear other artists also feel the same.):

1) I believe contemporary art is devalued because no one except the artist and the gallery elite are interested in it. This is not art that the masses can understand or appreciate. It's not art that even I - a person with an art degree and background - can always understand or appreciate. I believe that the lack of focus on technical and the complete focus on the concept is the downfall of contemporary art. "That's not art, I/my kid/my dog could do that" is a common response to contemporary art. For me and others there needs to be at least an appearance of skill behind the work. This puts me at odds with my professors.

2) Art schools & teaching art. I'm in a grad program and I'm being taught concept and no technical skills; the medium doesn't matter. My technical prowess doesn't matter. All that matters is the idea behind my work. I'm not being taught how to fine tune my skills to better get my message across, I'm being taught that I should feel free to drop my chosen medium and pick up anything else if I feel it can better represent what I'm trying to say - regardless of my familiarity or skill level with any other medium; this bothers me a lot. I can agree that I shouldn't feel restricted to only be a photographer, that I should use whatever is at my means and not feel restricted to try something new. But I also know that unless I invest the time and effort to learn the technical side of another medium that my crossover work would suffer from inexperience and look amateurish and sloppy.

4) Public apathy: See #1. I"m certainly not advocating creating art for the WallMart masses, but I feel that the pendulum has slipped so far to the elitist side. No one understands what they are looking at anymore, but there is a "the Emperor has no clothes!" attitude and most people are afraid to acknowledge (let alone voice out loud): Wow, that art really sucks! That's silly, that's just stupid, my dog could do that! I feel that the elitist art world needs a slap of reality and told to "get over yourself!" Also going along with #5

6 - Superstar artists. It's all about the message; doesn't matter who does the work, it's about who had the idea. My Old Skool traditional art background fights this but it is the present day attitude.

7 - Artists get laid? What a second!

And to his points about what she thinks The Art World Needs - I'd just like to say that the first two are things that I'm being taught *against* in school, especially Aesthetics. "Beauty" is a four-letter world. You aren't allowed to say that anything is "nice" or that, heavens forbid, you "like" it! The horrors! It must be visual interesting, stimulating, thought provoking, disturbing, disgusting or invoke any other such reaction but the word "Beautiful" must be avoided at all time. That Is Not Art. Too simplistic. Too easy.

P.S. About what is art and the idea that everything is art....

To quote from mainstream entertainment: "Everyone's special, Dash."

"Which is another way of saying that nobody is."

and

"And when everyone is super, no one will be." (From The Incredibles).

Also along the lines of the Kurt Vonnegut short story Harrison Bergeron - "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else."

And Ann Rynd's Fountainhead series: When everyone is special then no one is.

When everything is art then nothing is.

Give them hell Tracy!

I've received nearly 200 emails in the last two days or so dealing with Artomatic; either dealing with the Gopnik root canal of the show or with the diversification of "lists."

Loads of interesting postings will be coming in the next few days (time permitting)... keep checking, and please go visit Artomatic: the show.

Last night I made my third visit, and spent about five hours re-visiting the show together with Prof. Chawky Frenn from George Mason University. I managed to find quite a few artists that I had missed during my first three visits, although I still haven't found Colin Winterbottom!

By the way, those people who have emailed me bitching about Gopnik's review of Artomatic - please remember that it is his right as a critic to express his opinion, and as much as I disagree with it, I will defend his right to express it.

If you disagree with Blake, respect his right to write his opinion, and then send a letter to his boss to express yours!

Letters should be sent to:

Arts Editor
Style Section
The Washington Post
1150 15th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20071

Emails should be sent to Arts@washpost.com.

In your letter or email you need to include a daytime and nighttime phone number and an address, and the letters may be edited for length and clarity.