Barack Obama as The Batman

Barack Obama as The Batman
2014 F. Lennox Campello
Charcoal and Conte on Paper. Framed to 10x10 inches.

Strathmore Fine Artists in Residence initiative (Fine AIR)

There is not enough that I can say to recommend The Strathmore Fine Artists in Residence initiative (Fine AIR) to all emerging artists.... I have been lucky enough to have been a mentor twice, and can therefore testify what a boost to an artist's career this program is... and it deals and teaches so many diverse areas.... there is nothing even close to it in the DMV, maybe even the nation.

It was established to help cultivate local visual arts talent by connecting established professionals in all aspects of the field with up-and-coming artists.  Emerging artists will be in residence in the Mansion at Strathmore from January – August 2015. During this time, each artist will have the opportunity to develop an audience in the DC metropolitan area, perfect their craft, create and implement an outreach, educational, or special event proposal for Strathmore’s consideration, and premiere a new body of artwork, including a collaborative piece with one’s mentor, commissioned by Strathmore in a culminating exhibition. 

The exhibition of new work will take place in August of 2015 and will reflect the artistic growth of the artist in residence.  Throughout the residency artists meet with a professional artist mentor for career guidance and artistic critique; attend career development workshops; and have the opportunity to teach, lecture, volunteer, exhibit or otherwise participate in Strathmore visual arts programming. Apply here: http://www.strathmore.org/education/series/view.asp?id=10102314

Eligibility:
The Strathmore Fine Artist in Residence Program is open to all emerging visual artists.  All media accepted.
Fine AIR Program Timeline
•             September 8, 2014   Deadline for application
•             September 15 – 18, 2014  Select applicants invited to interview
•             September 29, 2014   Notification of acceptance
•             October 2014   Fine AIR contracts finalized
•             November 2014  Incoming Fine AIR class announced to the public
•             January 2015   Official start of the Fine AIR program
•             August 2015   Exhibition of new work

A Residency at Strathmore includes:
•             An exhibition of new work at the Mansion at Strathmore, Summer 2015
•             Strathmore’s consideration of an outreach, educational, or special event proposal
•             A professional artist mentor throughout the residency
•             Career Development workshops and experiences provided by Strathmore
•             A stipend of $1,000 (Studio space and housing are not available with this residency)

Artist responsibilities include:
•             Mandatory attendance at a Fine AIR welcome event, scheduled meetings with artist mentor, and career development workshops provided by Strathmore.
•             Creation of a new body of saleable work, including a collaborative piece created with one’s mentor, to debut at the 2015 Fine AIR Exhibition at the Mansion at Strathmore.
•             Creation of an outreach, educational, or other visual arts event proposal for Strathmore’s consideration for future seasons.
•             Volunteering at “Discover Strathmore” and “Strathmore Arts Festival” events and by providing an artist demonstration, pop- up of artwork for exhibition and/or sale, or related artistic presence.
•             Volunteer to teach, lecture, and/or demo for the visual art department at least once during residency.  Strathmore charges admission for these programs and all proceeds go toward supporting the Fine AIR program.

We will be at (e)merge this year again...

We got accepted to the (e)merge art fair!

We will be once again showing in the DMV's only world-class fine arts fair.

We will be exhibiting the work of Judith Peck, Tim Vermeulen, Elissa Farrow-Savos and moi of course!

Details later...

Hidden Picasso found in Washington, DC

A hidden portrait has been unearthed beneath Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece “The Blue Room”.

Details here.

Pop Up in DC

Part Cindy Sherman, part Amélie (Audrey Tatou), and a little bit Phoebe Philo, our own "that girl" has just moved flats dans le ville (city) of political movers and shakers, and she's making some moves of her own in the art world. Our chic girl Laila, just got a new pad and is looking to meet some new friends in town and share the best art secrets of a native Washingtonian. But in between her job at International Arts & Artists examining the world of Fakes and Forgeries in the Art World and the Ebony Fashion Fair, Laila along with Adah Rose Gallery is excited to present the works of some our favorite D.C. area artists in her "petite maison."

On Saturday June 21, Laila is partnering with her friends at Adah Rose Gallery for a pop-up at  her new “petite maison” in Woodley Park. They've chosen some fab artists to hang on her walls and invite only the most happening crowd to stop by. Included in our pop-up are super chouette, et brilliante, works on paper, including photography, painting, graphite, prints and mixed media works—only the most daring and brilliant will be allowed.  Laila, along with her entourage from the gallery, will be creating a site specific installation, hanging art and hanging out all night long, so pop by.

The Petite Maison et Adah Rose Pop Up Gallery @ Laila's will be located at:
2401 Calvert Street NW, Apt. 812
Washington, DC 20008

The Opening is Saturday June 21 7:00-9:30..Be There or be L-7!

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

Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art Boardwalk Art Show

Virginia Beach, 4:15 pm

Pacific Ocean 6:40pm

Pacific Ocean at 6pm

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.

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

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

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

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!

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
Charcoal and Conte on Paper.
Framed to 28x24 inches. 2014 by F. Lennox Campello
In a private collection in Virginia Beach, VA

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.

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

www.hillyerartspace.org

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