Since 2003... the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet! And with over SIX million visitors, F. Lennox Campello's art news, information, gallery openings, commentary, criticism, happenings, opportunities, and everything associated with the global visual arts scene with a special focus on the Greater Washington, DC area.
This drawing is "King Robert The Bruce." It is a charcoal and conte drawing that I did as an art assignment in 1980 while I was a student at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle.
The assignment was to do a drawing in the style of the great masters, and me, being me, chose the late great American master Frank Frazetta, and took one of his paintings and re-did it as a drawing with my visualization of the great Scottish king, who after a personal struggle (well documented in the great Mel Gibson film Braveheart) faced the great English armies, defeated them, and sent them back home to England, thus preserving an independent Scottish nation.
By the way, most of you are not aware of this, but next month the people of Scotland will be voting to secede from their union with England and once again become a separate nation.
In any event, this drawing was just purchased by an European collector, 34 years after it was created, and it is now heading to Sweden of all places.
Below are the finalists for the top painting prize in the region (thank you Carol Trawick!!! and congrats to the final eight!).
My nepotista side says that the DMV's own Joan Belmar should win it - he's an amazing artist and richly deserves this recognition... my instinct would guess that brilliant Baltimore artist Cara Ober also not only richly deserves the prize, but is also due the recognition afforded by this prize by all the stuff that she does to support and expand the Baltimore art scene. I also really, really like Christine Gray. And yet... being a pedantic Virgo (and batting about .800 in predicting both this prize and the Trawick Prize winners), I always look at the jurors, and then try to figure out who's the big mouth most persuasive voice in the jury panel and then try to guess who's gonna win based on that juror's own nepotism and ability to strong-arm the other jurors...
Everyone bring nepotism to the table when it comes to this sort of stuff... I've been in dozens and dozens of these panels and seen it surface every time. It's OK though... it is part of being human and a sincere mensch (if you admit that objectivity, when it comes to this sort of process, is only plausible for Vulcans). These are this year's jurors: Tim Doud, Duane Keiser and Christine Neill.
Both Doud and Keiser are brilliant painters - and great choices for jurors; I don't know the third juror (Christine Neill), but because she's a professor of painting at MICA, and because three of the final eight finalists actually work at MICA (including her boss)... cough, cough... and 50% of the finalists are from Baltimore, I'm just guessing that she was the big mouth most persuasive in the jury panel. Since I'm usually the big mouth in any art selection or art jury panel that I'm asked to be in, I think that I'm pretty good in figuring out my fellow big mouths persuasives. And yet, it takes some brass balls to keep a straight face while picking three painters who work with one of the jurors (including her boss) to be in the finalists.
Didn't someone in the panel think and then say: "What will the City Paper say once they find out that one of the juror's boss is one of the finalists? ... C'mon people!" Awright, awright... maybe I'm being too much of a Kriston-Capps-wannabe here... and we're all pretty sure that she would recuse herself from voting, or discussing, or even being present when her co-workers came up for jurying... right?... right?...[Update: I am told that Ms. Neill recused herself from the panel when her boss was selected], but, I'm just sayin' - it just doesn't look good; but maybe it's just me.
And I'm not even touching the issue that three of the other finalists are also grads of American University... cough, cough.
You are asking by now: "Who's gonna win Campello?"
Sooooooo... based on all of the above, and the angry denial emails or cool and collected clarification emails that I am about to get, I suspect that I may have just about hosed the MICA contingent for this year's prize. If that's the case, then I say that either Belmar or Ilchi get the prize. If no one gives a fuck about potential nepotism or potential conflict of interests (both of which I have been accused of... and both of which are rampant in the world at large)... then pick any of the MICA employees. Now you are asking: "Nice tap dance... Who's gonna win Campello?"
Let me split: Ober or Gray - and both would be great choices! Although I may have just tipped the scales in the favor of Belmar, who'd also be a terrific choice.
Here are the finalists:
Joan Belmar, Takoma Park, MD Joan Belmar was born in Santiago, Chile. He came to Washington, D.C. in 1999, and was granted permanent residency in the U.S. based on extraordinary artistic merit in 2003. Belmar's recent work uses a unique technique of 3-D painting, which produces changes in transparency as light and the viewer move in relation to the work.
Joan Belmar's work is in the permanent collections of the DCCAH Art Bank; the District of Columbia's Wilson Building; the Airport Art Collection in Ibiza, Spain and the Union of Concerned Scientists permanent collection in Washington D.C. His work has also been shown in national and international exhibits.
Belmar was a Mayor's Award Finalist in 2007 as an outstanding emerging artist in Washington, D.C. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities awarded him an artist fellowship grant in 2009. In 2010, the Maryland Arts Council awarded Belmar a 2010 Individual Artist grant in Visual Arts: Painting.
Dennis Farber, Lutherville, MD Dennis Farber has been a professor at Maryland Instutute College of Art since 1998. Prior to working at MICA, Farber taught at the University of New Mexico, New York University and Claremont Colleges in Claremont, CA. His work has been exhibited regularly in the United States and abroad. It was included in MoMA's millennial exhibition, OPEN ENDS, 1960- present, Innocence and Experience, and has been included in major museum exhibitions and traveled by both the Museum of Modern Art and the Jewish Museum in New York. Farber's work is in permanent collections of major museums, universities and corporations around the United States.
Christine Gray, Alexandria, VA Christine Gray received a Bachelor of FIne Arts from The University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Fine Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently a Visiting Artist at the George Washington University.
Gray has participated in numerous group exhibitions across the United States, most recently at Torrance Art Museum in Torrance, CA and Salisbury University Art Galleries in Salisbury, MD.Gray received Dean's Faculty Research Grant from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
She has also received the Jentel Foundation Residency Fellowshop, Golden Foundation Fellowshop, 7 Below Arts Initiative Residency Fellowship, and more.
Hedieh Ilchi, Rockville, MD Hedieh Ilchi was born in Tehran, Iran and draws her artistic intenstions directly from her dual cultural identity as an Iranian/American. Ilchi received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in 2006 and her Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the American University in 2011.
She has received many awards including Robyn Rafferty Mathias International Research Mellon Grant from the American University and the Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia American Art Essay Prize. Ilchi was recently selected as the semifinalist for the eighth annual Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. She is an active participant in the local art scene and is currently an artist in residence at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA.
Ilchi has shown her work in numerous group exhibitions in the Washington D.C. area including at the Corcoran Gallery of Art + Design, American University Museum at the Katzen Art Center, Irvine Contemporary gallery and Civilian Arts Project. She had a recent solo exhibition at the Contemporary Wing gallery.
Her work has been reviewed in a number of publications including the Washington Post and Art Papers magazine with a reproduction of her work on the front cover page. She is currently represented by Contemporary Wing gallery in Washington D.C. and Shirin Gallery in Tehran.
Barry Nemett, Chair of the Painting Department at Maryland Institute College of Art, studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute and his Masters of Fine Arts at Yale University. His awards include The Hugh Fraser Foundation, Ford Foundation Grant, MICA Trustee Grant for Excellence in Teaching, Maryland State Arts Council Individual Fellowship Grant, ITT International Travel Fellowship/Fulbright Hays Grant, Ely Harwood Schless Award for Excellence in Drawing and Painting at Yale University, Faculty Enrichment Grant and the Berkeley T. Rulon Miller Award. Prof. Nemett has curated numerous traveling exhibitions, and has exhibited his own work nationally and internationally.
His publications include: Images, Objects, and Ideas: Viewing the Visual Arts and Crooked Tracks. He has published articles in Arts Magazine, Museum & Arts: Washington, New Art Examiner, Washington Review, Baltimore magazine, Forays Review and many artist catalogue essays. Nemett has been a Visiting Artist at numerous colleges and universities in the United States, and has been Artist in Residence at Alfred and Trafford Klots Residency Program, Rochefort-en-Terre, France, Bates College, Glasgow School of Art, Keisho Art Association (Japan), Studio Art Centers International Florence and Summer Scholarship Program, Scotland.
A painter, teacher and writer, Cara Ober layers drawing, painting and printmaking into mixed media works that examine and reinterpret sentimental imagery.
Ober is commercially represented by Civilian Art Projects in Washington, D.C., with solo exhibits in 2012 and 2009. She has participated in numerous international art fairs, including Art Miami, Aqua Wynwood Miami and Bridge Fair in London. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Washingtonian Magazine, Hamptons Magazine and US News and World Report.
In 2009, Cara received a “Best Of Baltimore” award from Baltimore Magazine, calling her “practically an art scene unto herself.” In 2007, Cara took second prize in the Bethesda Painting Awards, after being a finalist in 2006. She is a 2006 Maryland Individual Artist Grant recipient for painting and received a Warhol Grant for Emerging Curators in 2006.
Cara Ober earned an Master of Fine Arts in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from American University. Cara writes art reviews for The Urbanite Magazine and ArtNews Magazine, and publishes her own award-winning art blog, BmoreArt.
Erin Raedeke, Gaithersburg, MD Erin Raedeke earned a Bachelor of Fine Art from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Art from American University. She has participated in exhibitions at many galleries in the United States and London.
Raedeke is a 2013 winner of the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. Past honors and awards include a Carnegie Melon research grant, William H. Calfee Foundation Painting Award, Merit Scholarship at American University, First Prize in Particular Places and a Creative Arts Research Grant at Indiana University.
Bill Schmidt studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME before moving to Baltimore in 1969. He received an Master of Fine Art from the Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art in 1971.
He has exhibited his painting, drawing and sculpture extensively in the Mid-Atlantic region. Schmidt has received numerous grants and awards including two Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards, one in Sculpture (1990) and one in Painting (2008). In 2004 he attended the Alfred and Trafford Klots Residency Program in Rochefort-en-Terre, France.
After teaching for a decade following graduate school, Schmidt began working in the field of restoration, first on gilded objects and then on furniture finishes. In 2001 he became the Interim Director of the Post-Baccalaureate Program at the Maryland Institute College of Art after being its Resident Artist since 1996. In 2007 he was appointed Director, a position he continues to hold.
Marketing
and PR Coordinator at de Cordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Interested
candidates should send their resumes with cover letters and salary
requirement, by email to hr@decordova.org . USA, MA, Lincoln. Deadline: asap. http://www.decordova.org
Das
Badische Landesmuseum, eines der bedeutendsten kunst- und
kulturgeschichtlichen Museen Deutschlands, sucht zum 1.1.2013 eine(n)
Mitarbeiter(in) für das Referat PR und Marketing in Vollzeit befristet
bis 31.12.2014. Germany. Deadline: November 12, 2012 http://www.landesmuseum.de/website/Deutsch/Museum/Freie_Stellen.htm
Lund
Humphries, long-established publishers of illustrated art books with a
particular reputation within Modern British Art, are seeking an
experienced Project Manager to join their Editorial and Production team.
UK. Deadline: November 16, 2012 https://www.ashgate.com/pdf/vacancies/Project-Manager-Lund-Humphries-Oct-2012.pdf
An
der Hochschule für Künste Bremen ist in direkter Anbindung zum Rektorat
zum nächstmőglichen Zeitpunkt die Stelle einer/eines wissenschaftlichen
Mitarbeiterin/Mitarbeiters für Forschungsfőrderung und
wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs (Kennziffer DL 12/06) mit der Hälfte der
regelmässigen wőchentlichen Arbeitszeit einer/eines Vollbeschäftigten
(zunächst) befristet bis zum 30.09.2014 zu besetzen. Germany. Deadline: November 16, 2012 http://jobs.zeit.de/jobs/bremen_wissenschaftlichen_mitarbeiterin_mitarbeiters_fuer_forschungsfoerderung_und_wissenschaftlichen_nachw_81461.html
The
Dacorum Heritage Trust is an Accredited Museum based at The Museum
Store in Berkhamsted, with collections covering the Borough of Dacorum.
The Curator will continue to run this small, but busy museum service,
assisted by an Assistant Curator and a large group of volunteers. A job
description and application form can be obtained by emailing: Finance
Manger finance@dacorumheritage.org.uk . UK. Deadline: November 16, 2012 http://www.dacorumheritage.org.uk
Cubitt
Gallery is looking for a manager. One of the UK’s most established
artist-run spaces, renowned for its programme of innovative and
challenging exhibitions. Please note that there is no curatorial element
within the role. UK. Deadline: November 19, 2012 http://cubittartists.org.uk/about/opportunities/
Das
Schweizerische Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (SIK-ISEA) sucht für
seinen Hauptsitz in Zürich ab Anfang Januar 2013 eine Praktikantin /
einen Praktikanten für das Schweizerische Kunstarchiv (6 Monate zu 50%).
CH. Deadline: November 20, 2012 http://sik-isea.ch/Aktuell/OffeneStellen/tabid/307/Default.aspx
Open
Eye Gallery is looking for a new Director to lead the organisation
through what promises to be one of the most exciting periods in its
history. UK. Deadline: November 22, 2012 http://www.openeye.org.uk/get-involved/opportunities/
Das Kunsthaus Zürich sucht sucht eine Ausstellungskuratorin / einen Ausstellungskurator. CH. Deadline: November 23, 2012 http://www.infoclio.ch/en/node/27854
Center
for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College (CCS
Bard) seeks Director of Graduate Program. Candidates must have an
advanced postgraduate degree (M.A., M.F.A, or Ph.D.) in a field
pertinent to the graduate program, close familiarity with the
contemporary visual arts and current curatorial and exhibition practice,
and significant experience teaching at the graduate level.Applicants
must submit a letter of interest including salary expectations and c.v.
by email only to hr12705@bard.edu. USA. Deadline: asap. http://www.bard.edu/ccs/study
Université
de Lausanne: la section d'histoire de l'art de la Faculté des Lettres
met au concours un poste de: Première assistante ou Premier assistant en
histoire de l'art de la période contemporaine (XIXe-XXIe siècle).
Référence no: 2723. CH. Deadline: November 30, 2012 https://applicationsw.unil.ch/adminpub/?MIval=PoIntHome&TypelC=811&PoId=2723
CCA Wattis seeks new Director: Screening begins immediately and will continue until the position is filled. USA. Deadline: asap. http://www.cca.edu/about/jobs/60075
The
School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track
position in the history of modern and/or contemporary art, at the rank
of assistant professor. USA. Deadline: December 2, 2012 http://jobs.illinois.edu
Mardin
Artuklu University is looking for an additional staff member to teach
classes in Turkish. Although a preference would be shown to applicants
with a background in Modern, Early Modern or Medieval European Art, all
specialisms will be considered. To apply, please send a CV with the
names and contact details of two referees to Dr. Elif Keser-Kayaalp
(Chair): ekayaalp@artuklu.edu.tr. Turkey. Deadline: December 31, 2012 http://sanattarihi.artuklu.edu.tr/en/
The
Department of Fine Arts and Art History at the American University of
Beirut (AUB), Lebanon, invites applications for the Mary Fox Whittlesey
Visiting Professorship in the fields of Art History, Art Theory, Studio
Arts, Performance Art and/or Music for a non-renewable period of one
year, starting September 1, 2013. Lebanon. Deadline: January 15, 2012 http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas
Das
Kunstmuseum Luzern bietet laufend Kunstwissenschaftliche Praktika
(80-100%). Geeignet sind Bewerberinnen und Bewerber mit abgeschlossenem
(oder, in Ausnahmefällen, sich im Abschluss befindlichem)
Kunstgeschichtsstudium an einer Schweizer Universität. Switzerland. Deadline: Anytime. http://www.museums.ch/assets/files/stellen/2012-02-02_Ausschreibung-Praktikum.pdf
With the political news flush with commentary about the opportunistic use of dialects, this is sad news for the language:
In a remote fishing town on the tip of Scotland's Black Isle, the last
native speaker of the Cromarty dialect has died, taking with him another
little piece of the English linguistic mosaic.
The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is a visual art prize produced by the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment
District (through the spectacular generosity of Ms. Carol Trawick) that honors artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C. and
Virginia. The annual juried competition awards $14,000 in prize monies
to selected artists and features the work of the finalists in a group
exhibition. The 2012 finalists and their bios are at the end of this posting.
The 2012 exhibition will be held September 1-29 at Gallery B, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, Bethesda, MD 20814 (the former space of the Fraser Gallery). Winners will be announced September 5.
The finalists were selected by:
Dawn Gavin
Dawn Gavin was born in Bellshill, Scotland, and currently lives and
works in Baltimore, Maryland. She has received a Bachelor of Arts (First
Class) in Drawing and Painting, a Master of Fine Art and a Master of
Science degree in Electronic Imaging from Duncan of Jordanstone College
of Art and Design, Dundee, Scotland. Her work investigates issues of
identity and displacement, employing a range of media from collage and
installed drawings to digital video. She has exhibited her work both
nationally and internationally, including the Baltimore Museum of Art,
The John Michael Kohler Art Centre (Sheboygen, MI), Maryland Institute
College of Art, Meyerhoff Gallery (Baltimore, MD), The DCA Visual
Research Centre (Dundee, Scotland), The Philadelphia Art Alliance and
The Washington Project for the Arts (Washington D.C.). She is an
Associate Professor in Drawing and Foundations at the University of
Maryland, College Park.
Barbara Kelly Gordon
Barbara Kelly Gordon is an Associate Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian where she focuses on contemporary
international art, and especially film, video and new media. She has
worked on major exhibitions ranging from a retrospective of Douglas
Gordon to Visual Music to The Cinema Effect, which completes a
three-city tour of Spain in 2012. During the 2011-2012 season her
exhibitions include Directions : Pipilotti Rist; Directions : Grazia
Toderi; EMPIRE3 (with Andy Warhol); Directions: Antonio Rovaldi and
Black Box shows with Hans Op de Beeck (Belgium), Larent Grasso (France),
Nira Pereg (Israel), and Ali Kazma (Turkey). Gordon, who was born and
raised in Washington D.C., has lectured widely on contemporary art and
recently served on the jury for Emerging Italian Artists at the Strozzi
Palace in Florence, Italy.
N. Elizabeth Schlatter
N. Elizabeth Schlatter is Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions at
the University of Richmond Museums, Virginia, where she has curated more
than 20 exhibitions, including recent exhibitions of art by Carl
Chiarenza, Andreas Feininger, Hans Friedrich Grohs, Sue Johnson, and
Fiona Ross, and the exhibitions “Art=Text=Art: Works by Contemporary
Artists,” “LEADED: the Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite” and
“Form & Story: Narration in Recent Painting.” Prior to working at
the University of Richmond, she was an exhibitions project director for
the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in
Washington, D.C. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history from Southwestern University in Texas, and a master’s in art history from George Washington University.
My picks from the finalists to win it all?: David D'Orio or Dean Kessman - both are intelligent conceptual artists who also have the rare talent to actually deliver a concrete and interesting product married to their conceptual ideas. However, usually the winner from any sort of allegedly objective art competition is determined by the biggest and most vociferous voice, and not personally knowing any of the three jurors, I don't know who's got the biggest mouth.
Another however: since five of the eight semifinalists come from the Baltimore area, I suspect that Scotland-born Dawn Gavin had the biggest and most vociferous voice over the two Sassenachsand the odds are (once again) stacked for a Baltimore-based artist to win the Trawick.
Who then? I'm betting Lillian Bayley Hoover, a brilliant and talented painter who now officially replaces Andrew Wodzianski as the "always the maid never the bride" of the major Bethesda Up! generous art prizes.
Lillian Bayley Hoover Lillian
Bayley Hoover earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of
North Carolina, Asheville and her Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland
Institute College of Art. Hoover’s work has been featured in the
Baltimore area and beyond, and recently appeared in the 94th edition of
New American Paintings and the Summer 2011 issue of the Little Patuxent
Review. She is the recipient of a grant from the Center for Emerging
Visual Artists, which enabled her to conduct research and make
photographs in Istanbul, Turkey. Hoover has received many awards,
including “Young Artist” for the Bethesda Painting Awards and two
Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, and she
has thrice been a semifinalist for both Baltimore’s Sondheim Prize and
Bethesda’s Trawick Prize.
David D’Orio David D’Orio is the
executive director of DC GlassWorks, a public access glass blowing
facility in Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C. He earned a
Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology
from the University of Hartford/Hartford Art School in Hartford, CT. His
work has been shown at Artomatic in Crystal City, the Marlboro Gallery
of Prince George’s Community College and as part of the Arlington Arts
Center Fall Solos. In his work, D’Orio explores “the ideology of
technology as the source of solutions for social problems (both real,
invented and imagined). … This work has the sense of a forgotten or
undiscovered manufacturer/inventor whose sole purpose is to create
objects that defy classification.”
Skye Gilkerson Skye Gilkerson grew up at
the edge of the known world, in the space that Thomas Jefferson thought
would take 1,000 years to populate. After her childhood on a farm in
South Dakota, she’s slowly migrated along the rust belt, landing in
Baltimore, where she has a studio at Current Space. Skye has been an
artist-in-residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Anderson
Ranch Arts Center, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and the
Philadelphia Art Hotel. Her work is in the Robert F. Pfannebecker
Collection, the Notre Dame of Maryland collection and numerous personal
collections in the U.S. and Germany. She received her Master of Fine
Arts in sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI,
and a Bachelor of Arts in studio art from Bethel University in St.
Paul, MN. Gilkerson was a finalist for the 2011 Trawick Prize.
Dean Kessmann Dean Kessmann lives
and works in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in solo exhibitions
at the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida and Conner Contemporary Art in
Washington, D.C. among numerous other locations across the United
States. His work has also been featured in many group shows, including
those at Strathmore in North Bethesda and Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland
Institute College of Art in Baltimore. He received a Master of Arts from
Sothern Illinois University, Carbondale and is currently the chair of
the Department of Fine Arts and Art History at The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C.
Nate Larson Nate Larson is
full-time faculty in the photography department at Maryland Institute
College of Art in Baltimore. His work with photographic media, artist
books and digital video has been widely shown across the U.S. and
internationally. He serves on the board of directors of the Society for
Photographic Education. His current project GEOLOCATION, in
collaboration with Marni Shindelman, tracks GPS coordinates associated
Twitter tweets and pairs the text with a photograph of the originating
site to mark the virtual information in the real world. Larson has a
master of fine Arts from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of
Arts from Purdue University.
Joshua Smith Joshua Wade Smith
was raised on the outskirts of a small border town in South Texas. He is
a nationally exhibited object-based performer and sculptor and
currently a fellow at Hamiltonian Artists in Washington, D.C. His work
has been featured in exhibitions at the Contemporary Museum-Baltimore
and the Arlington Arts Center, among others. He received a Master of
Fine Arts degree from the Mt. Royal School at MICA in 2010. In his
recent work, Smith explores themes of labor, masculinity and gymnastic
investigations of landscape. His installations and performances feature
contraptions and repetitious actions that emphasize the transfer of
value through absurd or thankless tasks; his work is often about making a
show of the “Work” itself through schematics, photo documentation and
endurance based on drawings.
Diane Szczepaniak Diane Szczepaniak
earned a Master’s degree in art education from the University of
Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Kentucky
University. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions including
SCULPTURE NOW 2012 at Pepco Edison Place Gallery in Washington, D.C.,
InLiquid Benefit Auction in Philadelphia, PA, among others and in many
solo exhibitions. She was named a semi-finalist for Baltimore’s Sondheim
Prize in 2011 and received an Individual Artist Award in Visual Arts:
Sculpture from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2009. About her work,
Szczepaniak says: “Colors naturally hold meaning for me and I have
painted in response to images from poems that I find mysterious,
feelings aroused by music, that familiar experience Wallace Stevens
calls ‘passions in rain, or moods in falling snow,’ and even meditations
on thoughts.”
Hannah Walsh Hannah Walsh earned
her Master of Fine Arts in sculpture and extended media from Virginia
Commonwealth University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Indiana
University. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions nationally
and abroad, including The Boiler, Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn; Little
Berlin in Philadelphia; The Wayfarers in Brooklyn; Nominimo Gallery in
Quito, Ecuador and the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond. Walsh explains her
interest in cheerleading as a subject: “All-star cheerleading squads are
not affiliated with any sports team. They only cheer competitively, in
other words, for themselves. These squads embody several of my
interests: the simultaneous occurrence of sincerity and extreme
artifice, skilled physicality, gender performance and American
identity.”
Callanish Stone Circle (Clachan Chalanais), Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
My favorite stone circle on the planet - even more spectacular than Stonehenge and a lot harder to get to... I took a million photos from all angles and have done about 100 drawings as well, like the one below... sort of.
"Cross Stitch" or "Claire Beauchamp at the stone circle" c. 1991, charcoal and conte on paper
The above 1991 drawing was done after I read a book titled "Cross Stitch" by Diana Gabaldon, which is about time travel and stone circles. At the time those were (and still are) two of my fave subjects! The circle is made up of a couple if real stone circles in Scotland, heavily influenced by Callanish.
You can probably tell that I've got a new gizmo that scans slides (remember slides) as digital files at the push of a button. Subsequently, I've begun the process to scan the thousands of slides that I have accumulated over the years.
The story so far: I lived in Scotland from 1989-1992 and while I was there, I was seduced by that ancient land and produced a lot of artwork focused on all the Scottish visual offerings around me.
Below are some watercolors (and one charcoal drawing) of some the birds which seemed to be constantly flying in formation all year round (especially the Canada geese). Most of these watercolors were rather large (30 x 40 inches) and all of them are in Scottish or American private collections, and a few have even shown up in British auction houses since they were done over 20 years ago.
When the farmers plowed the field, 100s of seagulls would fly from the North Sea and hover over the fields looking for insects to eat; as soon as the farmer was out of the way, they would land and start the buffet
Canada Geese, Montrose, Scotland, Charcoal and Conte, c. 1991
Queen Victoria, on her way to the Highlands, used to travel through the tiny Scottish village of Edzell, in the Angus region of Scotland. Thus, the locals built an arch to honor their English queen.
From 1989-1992, I lived a few minutes from the village of Edzell, and the arch was a much visited subject of my drawings back then. Below are some examples of those works from those years. These are all in multiple collections in Scotland and the US.
Edzell Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland - as seen from the village - c. 1989
Edzell Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland - as seen from the village - c. 1990
Edzell Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland - as seen from the Edzell to Fettercairn Road - c. 1991
This watercolor shows a winter snowfall on the road from the Scottish farmhouse (where I lived from 1989-1992 (Little Keithock Farmhouse)) that lead from the farmhouse to the the B966 (I think it was also called the Trinity Road) paved road. It was about a quarter of a mile from the farmhouse to the road, but at night in the winter you could not see your hand in front of your face because it was so dark out in brooding Angus.
Winter Road, near Brechin, Angus, Scotland, c. 1990
What the hell was that opening all about? Was I the only one who thought it was rather unintelligible? And that opinion is coming from someone who lived in the UK for a few years...
What were those guys (dressed like the Monopoly guy) in the top hats supposed to be?
Jitterbugging nurses and doctors?And the scary huge puppets being taken down by the dozens of Mary Poppins (who looked like giant flies coming down)... and what about that giant creepy baby!
Interesting that the Scottish kids sang an anti-English song (Flower of Scotland)... the ahh... National Anthem of England's pesky Celtic Northern neighbor...
Cool part: When the Olympic rings lit up and rained fire... did anyone notice that one of the rings was sort of "leaking" fire for a bit while all the others had stopped?
Awright... the Queen's entrance was cool too...and that bit with 007 eclipsed the robotic Chinese opening four years ago. And Mr. Bean (Blackadder!!!!) was really funny in that subtle English way
I am a big McCartney fan, but... has Sir Paul become the duty "closer" for anything British (or big name musical)? Didn't we just see him doing the same skit for the Queen's 1000th Jubilee?
Little Keithock Farmhouse, Near Brechin, Angus, Scotland
One of the most influential times of my life were the years that I lived in Scotland (1989-1992). Above is a drawing that I did in 1990 of the farmhouse where I used the live. This haunting (and haunted) place was built in 1681 and there was even an older dovecot right next to it. Its farm fields were adjacent to the Brechin Golf Club, which I think is the second or third oldest golf playing ground in the world.
In fact, the dovecot
next to it was so much older (built in 1534), that it merited an entry in
the Scottish Ordnance Map as an "antiquity," not an easy thing in
Europe's most ancient nation.
Anyway, the farmhouse had a beautiful garden, which was surrounded by a tall stone wall. One day, one of the trucks that used the dirt road that ran in front
of the house, and led to the nearby potato and turnip fields, lost
control, and slammed into the wall, destroying a couple of feet of wall.
A couple of days later, another truck dumped a small pile of new
rocks, and soon afterwards an elderly gent showed up, and using nothing
but a small hammer, began to rebuild the wall. He re-used the old rocks
that had been disturbed by the accident, as well as some of the new
ones.
Slowly but surely, over a few days, the wall was rebuilt before my
eyes. When it was done, other than the fact that the moss on the stones
had been re-arranged, it was impossible to tell that an accident had
happened. A year later, the moss was back everywhere and no visual
evidence that a chunk of the wall was "new" existed.
Winging It!-In Europe: An Empty Nester's Plan for Travel: Designed for Those Young at Heart but Older of Bodyby Linda Stringer and Jim Stringer
I did a ton of illustrations for this book back in 1991 when I was living in Scotland and the authors were traveling around Europe gathering data for their book, which has become an underground classic of European travel tips... get a copy here.
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Happy New Year's... and on this date:
Rodrigo Llançol de Borja was born on 1 January 1431 in the town of Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia, one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon, in present-day Spain.
He would become not only one of the most controversial Popes of all time, but also the man who would seed the legend known as the Borgias!
His parents were Jofré Llançol i Escrivá and the Aragonese Isabel de Borja. His family name is written Llançol in Valencian and Lanzol in Spanish.
Rodrigo adopted his mother's family name of Borja in 1455 following the elevation to the papacy of his maternal uncle Alonso de Borja as Calixtus III, the first Spanish-born Pope (and here you thought that until recent times all Popes were Italian!).
Even though for years Rodrigo was a Cardinal and eventually became Pope Alexander VI, he had multiple mistresses, and his children from one of them, Cesar (which was his name and how he signed documents, but known in Italian as Cesare) and Lucrezia, continued his seed and presence in a family destined to become one of western history's most nefarious names.
Via Alexander VI was known for his patronage of the arts, and in his days a new architectural era was initiated in Rome with the coming of Bramante. Raphael, Michelangelo and Pinturicchio all worked for him.[18] He commissioned Pinturicchio to lavishly paint a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, which are today known as the Borgia Apartment.
In addition to the arts, Alexander VI also encouraged the development of education. In 1495, he issued a papal bull at the request of William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, and King James IV of Scotland, founding King's College, Aberdeen. King's College now forms an integral element of the University of Aberdeen.
Alexander VI, allegedly a marrano according to papal rival Giuliano della Rovere, distinguished himself by his relatively benign treatment of Jews. After the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain, some 9,000 impoverished Iberian Jews arrived at the borders of the Papal States. Alexander welcomed them into Rome, declaring that they were "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges." He similarly allowed the immigration of Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Weekend duties
Tomorrow night: Meet the various artists selected for the Strathmore Fine Artist in Residence Program Mentorship. Those artists are:
Saturday & Sunday: Review the work by the 43 artists from all over the USA and Scotland who have applied to the Torpedo Factory Art Center's Visiting Artists Program of one, two, or three-month residencies between June 1 and August 31, 2011 - then select about a dozen for the residencies.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Kilt talking
Not only do I own (and wear quite often) a kilt, but unlike a lot of kilt-lovers out there, I am actually authorized to wear a kilt, which is an important thing in many kilt-wearing circles and useless elsewhere. And where it is important, it is ahhh... important. I've seen what happens when scotch and unauthorized kilt-wearing mix at the Celtic Games around here and in Braemar: drunk men rolling on the ground kicking and gouging.
I remember a few years ago when a tipsy Coast Guard dude told a very drunk retired Marine that he was wearing the Edzell tartan because he "liked the colors." Soon the two were rolling on the ground: the Coastie yelling blue murder and the jarhead (who had been stationed at RAF Edzell) trying to rip his kilt off.
That's the official US Navy Edzell tartan, an officially recognized and documented Scottish tartan (as opposed to plaids), which is authorized for wear to all personnel who were ever stationed or worked at the now closed Royal Air Force base in Edzell, Scotland, where I served from 1989-1992.
I have a US Navy Edzell tartan kilt (8 yards)... maybe I should post a pic of me wearing it.
And technically, I'm just saying, I could make claims to being entitled to wear also the Lennox tartan, as my mother's grandmother on her mother's side was from Clan Lennox and eventually ended in the Canary Islands during the Clearances.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
What's new Buenos Aires?
(The line is from this Evita song; you'll see why in a minute... sorta). And thus, I've decided to take the next step with my artwork.
For years and years, after I graduated from the University of Washington School of Art in beautiful Seattle, I painted. Because I was mostly living in Europe at the time (Spain and Scotland, with a long stint in between in Lebanon and postgraduate school in Monterey), my artwork focused on what was around me and I painted.
When I returned to the US for good in 1992, I also abandoned painting and returned to my love for drawing. A couple of thousand drawings later, I am ready to take my drawing to the next level.
In my heart, I am a storyteller. I like to use my drawing to push ideas, historical points, narrative, agendas, questions and even fantasies. My series of "Written on the Body" drawings, such as the one below (that's the piece selected by Mera Rubell for last year's WPA auction at the Katzen Museum), I told stories by figuratively decorating the bodies of people with writing anchored in current events, literature, history, etc.
"Age of Obama - Nobel Peace Prize" Charcoal on Paper. 16x12 inches.
I going to expand on that storytelling driving force and here's how I'm going to do it: I'm going to marry drawing with video imagery. First there will be baby steps. The initial idea is simple. I am going to do a drawing much like this one below, of the psychopath Che Guevara, sanctified of his sins by an adoring public who has little idea who the man really was.
San Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Lynch, known to most of the world as 'Ché' and to many Cubans as 'El Chacal de La Cabaña' F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on paper. 15 x 10 inches.
In his chest there will be heart much like the Sacred Heart of Jesus from Catholic imagery and tradition. There will be a cutout within this heart, a window into the heart if you will, and visible there, through the hole in his heart, will be a video, playing in a continuous loop showing newsreel video of Guevara reciting a poem, then the video ends with the public firing squad execution of one of the many Cubans that El Chacal de la Cabaña had killed in 1959.
A simple story about an immensely complex man, told in a video drawing.
Muchas gracias to my good friend Tim Tate, video sculptor extraordinaire for giving me the encouragement (and technical acumen) to proceed in this direction.
PS - If you don't get the Buenos Aires banner: Che was Argentinean, not Cuban. Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Lynch was born on May 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. An Argentine blue blood, Che was the son of Celia de la Serna, member of one of Argentina's high society families. His mother's lineage was of undiluted, pure Spaniard blood, and one of her ancestors was a Spanish viceroy of colonial South America for the crown of Spain. His father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch was the descendant of both Spanish and Irish nobility, and his parents Roberto Guevara Castro and Ana Lynch had been born in California, where their families had migrated from Argentina during the California Gold Rush. Yes, Che had American grandparents.