Saturday, June 14, 2014

Mayor's Arts Awards

The Mayor's Arts Awards and Mayor's Awards for Arts Teaching are the most prestigious honors conferred by the city on individual artists, teachers, nonprofit organizations and patrons of the arts. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities will present the 29th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards in the fall of 2014. In addition to revealing winners in five arts and three teaching categories, the program will celebrate the District's creative industries in the arts and entertainment community.

Artists and organizations will be recognized in five categories: Excellence in an Artistic Discipline; Excellence in Service to the Arts; Innovation in the Arts; Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education and Outstanding Emerging Artist. The awards are limited to individuals and nonprofit organizations that reside in the District of Columbia.

The Mayor's Awards for Arts Teaching are limited to full-time arts teachers who are employed by a District of Columbia elementary, middle or high school. The three categories for arts teaching are Excellence in Teaching Performing Arts, Excellence in Teaching Visual Arts and Excellence in Teaching Language Arts. Teachers in all artistic disciplines (visual arts, music, theatre, dance or humanities-based) are eligible for nomination.

Nominations are submitted only via online entry using the same application portal as its grants programs. The application portal is here.  Individuals and organizations may nominate themselves or another individual or organization.  All nominees must reside or have a street address in the District of Columbia to be considered eligible.  In addition to completing information about the nominee, work samples, support materials and a resume of bio of the nominee is required along with a 750-word support narrative are included with the online application.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, 11 July 2014 at 5:00 p.m.

For questions about the application or application portal, please contact Steven Scott Mazzola at T# 202.724.5613.

And then... I saw this


Thursday, June 12, 2014

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Monday, June 09, 2014

Congrats!

Dr. Sylvia L. Yount, Chief Curator and the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, will be joining the staff of New York’s The Metropolitan Museum of Art this September as the Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of The American Wing.

Sunday, June 08, 2014

Want a free sculpture?

My good friend and über talented DMV area artist Joe Barbaccia is offering the below sculpture at no cost to whoever claims it first. Drop him a note...


https://www.facebook.com/joseph.barbaccia?fref=photo


Saturday, June 07, 2014

Pan de Guineo y Chocolate con Cascaras de Naranja



Today I needed to come up with a quick new dessert and I decided to invent something new. Yesterday I had planned to make a Cuban dessert called Dulce de Naranja en Almibar (Candied Orange Rinds) but I only had two oranges and needed the dessert to cover more servings.

So I decided to incorporate it into something new and different... I think. In Spanish, the word for banana is banana, but in Cuban dialect, especially in Eastern Cuba, it is called by the Native American word for banana: Guineo.

So I made Banana bread with chocolate and candied orange rinds... Or "Pan de Guineo con Chocolate y Cascaras de Naranja."

You need oranges with a thick rind, as that makes it easier. Then you peel the yellow, acrid outer skin... That makes a great cleaner by the way. Peel it thinly, but make sure to get rid of all of it. Then cut the orange in half and remove the insides, so all that you have left is the orange rind shell.

Put them in water in the fridge overnight, and let it soak.

The next morning, throw away the water, put the rinds in a pot and boil in water for 10-15 minutes and then throw away the water again and repeat this 3-4 times. The rinds will become somewhat transparent.

Once they are somewhat transparent, throw the water away and let them cool off. Then press them between paper towels and remove as much water as you can.

Now to make the "almibar" or syrup.

Boil 4 cups of water and 4 cups of white sugar and 2 cups of brown sugar, a few lemon rind shavings and cinnamon to taste; And yeah, you gonna have to stir constantly.

Once it has boiled for 5 minutes, add the oranges. Keep on a very low fire until the syrup really thickens and sticks to your fingers or the spoon... It will be about two hours.

At the same time make banana bread with chocolate chips... There are a million recipes out there for banana bread... It is the substrate for the candied oranges, so feel free to add any kind of sweetened bread.

Once the rinds are done, let them cool off. Pour some of the syrup over sliced banana bread and then dress it with slides of candied oranges.

Bananas, chocolate and oranges... Yummy!

Nature's Arcade


Friday, June 06, 2014

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this mutant trying to rip off artists:
From:     Roosevelt Nunn (rseveltnunn@gmail.com)
Sent:    Fri 6/06/14 6:52 AM
Good Day,

How is everything with you? I picked interest in your artwork and
deemed it necessary to write you immediately. I will like to know if
you have shipped internationally before and if you have a merchant
that enables you to accept Visa Card or Master Card for payment?.
Could you please respond with your recently updated website so we can
proceed from there
Best Regards
Mrs Roosevelt Nunn

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Cuban Gothic


These are my paternal grandparents: Manuel Campello Comba and Rita Alonso Marcos.


They were both immigrants to Cuba from Galicia, the ancient Celtic kingdom in Northern Spain; he was from some village up in the mountains and she was from Lugo. He was a stowaway on a Spanish ship, and arrived in Cuba with his brother (both penniless) in the 1920s. They both started out as ditch diggers, saved money, bought a cow, sold milk, bought more cows, saved more money.

They started a milk farm and lost everything in the market crash of the 1930s and then started again from scratch... by 1959 he was one of the largest milk producers in the country, and then he lost everything again, this time to the Communists of Fidel Castro's Workers Paradise... within a few years, there was no milk available to anyone in the area. 

He had 11 children with my grandmother!

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

The Catcher in the Rye

Below is "The Catcher in the Rye," a brand new charcoal and conte drawing from my "Written on The Body" series.
The Catcher in the Rye - an Homage to JD Salinger - Charcoal on Paper, 2014 by F. Lennox Campello
The Catcher in the Rye
Charcoal and Conte on Paper.
Framed to 28x24 inches. 2014 by F. Lennox Campello
In a private collection in Virginia Beach, VA

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Lumen Prize

The Lumen Prize Exhibition, the global award and tour for digitally created art, opens its call for entries 1 April 2014 and closes 30 June 2014.

There are seven prizes to be won:

The Lumen Prize Winner - £3000
The Lumen Prize Silver - £1000
The Lumen Prize Bronze - £750
The Founder's Prize - £250
People's Choice Award - £250
The Lumen Animate Award - £250 (special award for animation, in Partnership with Animate Projects)
The Creative Coding Award - £250 (special award for Creative Coding & Programming, in partnership with Artists & Algorists)

The 25 exhibition works, including the 7 prize winners, will be part of a global exhibition tour that will visit Athens, Cardiff, Amsterdam, NYC and London.

Photo-montage, photo-manipulation, iPad art, iPhoneography, creative coding, interactive installation, glitch art, HTML/CSS art, web based art, animation, moving image, digital collage, app art, digital sculpture, 3D rendering… show us what you've got.

1 entry fee costs US$40 and allows the submission of 2 works. A percentage of each entry fee goes to our partner charity Peace Direct
Go to www.lumenprize.com to register.

Monday, June 02, 2014

Spark and Stubble

What: Spark and Stubble: A show of recent paintings by Tom Hill
When: Opening Reception: Friday, June 6, 2014, from 6:00-9:00 pm
(Exhibits runs through June 28, 2014)
Where: Hillyer Art Space
9 Hillyer Court NW Washington, DC 20008
202.938.0680

Tom Hill on his work:
For me, making art has always been a balance between expression and communication. As a proud gay man in long-term recovery from addiction, I have spent considerable time learning about and educating others on the connections between addiction, sexuality, and oppression. I have done this in simultaneous roles as activist, community organizer, and artist. In recent years, I have used my art to examine my life as it has been lifted from a foundation of marginalization, self-contempt, and shame. This process of healing and liberation has led towards a raised consciousness regarding the harmful and often traumatic effects that sexism and homophobia have had on my life, as well as the lives of others. It is in this spirit that I make work that directly addresses these as life and death issues. The work has yielded tremendous rewards, despite the costs and consequences of revealing truths that ultimately create discomfort in those who have secured a great investment in lies. A compelling insistence on honesty and authenticity ultimately erodes forces that are designed to control and deaden our bodies, our lives, and our souls.

These paintings are infused with a long personal history of an evolving feminist and queer sensibility and contain references and influences from a diverse variety of cultural sources. These influences include dada and surrealism, pop art, propaganda and political art, pulp fiction illustration, roadway signage, psychedelic and punk rock graphics, muscle car detailing, and vintage physique magazines. Over time, I have developed a visual vocabulary, formal skills, and working methods that are closely aligned with my chosen subject matter. My love of bold and lurid colors is infused with the restless throb of a masculine sex drive. For me, these colors evoke carnival amusement rides, seaside motels, and the recklessness of a drug-induced young manhood. I layer surfaces with candy and metalflake glazes, iridescent overlays, and crystalline veneers. These form skins of sugary sweetness that barely conceal the meat and gristle underneath, embedded with the coarse grit of testosterone, the unmistakable tang of male sweat, and the potent urgency of semen. These images are lifted and altered from advertising and gay erotica, combined with words and symbols to suggest poetic yearnings, amorous quests, and off-color urges. Magnetically drawn to the spark and stubble of sullen youth and rough men, my interest remains tied to developing and defining a queer masculinity that is sturdy, tough, and unwavering, while exuding a spirit of tenderness, grace, and utter fabulousness

Sunday, June 01, 2014

Pike Place Market Drawings

I was a full scholarship student at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle between 1977-1981. While I was there, I used to sell all my art school assignments (once they were graded) at the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle.

These sketches are a few out of dozens and dozens from my art journal and simply by age, have now become somewhat historical pieces about Seattle's wonderful market. I also used to draw these sort of drawings on the columns of the market (usually out of boredom).

I left Seattle in 1981, and while I was gone the Pike Place Market was refurbished and cleaned up. When I returned for a visit in 1992, I went to the market for a stroll. To my surprise, my drawings on the columns had been preserved and they had "painted" around them when the columns got their refurbishing coat of paint. I don't know if they are still there, but the ones below I did in my journal.

"Wino and Girl, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Wino and Girl, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Jewelry Craftsman, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979
"Jewelry Craftsman, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Market People, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979
"Market People, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Market People, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979
"Market People," Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Market People, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979
"Market People, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Market People, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979
"Market People, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Market Items, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.
"Market Items, Pike Place Market, Seattle." 8.5 x 11 inches. Pen and Ink. 1979.

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Scam Alert!

Beware of this scammer trying to rip off artists:
From: James Adam
Hello,
I am making enquiry if you sell and ship internationally, 
specifically to our location here in the Bahamas.
In addition, I will appreciate if you can get back to me with your price list.
I had a look on your website already and you have a very 
good collection on there.
Looking forward to your quick response.
James Adam.

Stone Lithos from Art School

These were all done in a printmaking class at the University of Washington School of Art in 1980. The assignment was portraiture; they are all stone lithographs.

"Bogey." Stone Litho. 1980. 5x5 inches. Edition of Five.

"Marylin Monroe." Stone Litho. 1980. Edition of 5

"Ernesto Guevara de La Serna Lynch." Stone Litho. 1980. Edition of 5
"Marylin Monroe." Stone Litho. 1980. Edition of 5

Friday, May 30, 2014

Cross MacKenzie Moves

Georgetown's Cross MacKenzie Gallery has moved to1675 Wisconsin Avenue NW and they're having a Grand Opening of their new space on June 6th from 6-8pm.
"We look forward to presenting our monthly exhibitions of exceptional emerging and established, local and nationally known artists, in this new space where the architecture creates a new context for the art we present. Architect William Teass designed a working space with every amenity from moving walls to an outdoor sculpture garden. Cross MacKenzie Gallery invites the community to join us for the inaugural exhibition."
 Their program for the 2014- 2015 Season:

July - August        Mary Armstrong & Angie To - Paintings
September -          Lyn Horton Drawings & Maren Kloppman clay sculpture
October -               Carole Bolsey Paintings, Sheryl Zacharia & StacySnyder ceramics
November -           GAS "Generic Art Solutions", photography interpreting art history
December -           Contemporary French Artists, with the Embassy of France
January   -             Hyun Kyung Yoon - Ceramics after Ai Wei Wei
March -                  Patrick Bermingham, "Bridges", Engineered and non-functional
June -                    Walter McConnell and Ferrin Contemporary's Jingdezhen potters

Thursday, May 29, 2014