On the way to NYC & Day One of the AAFNYC

4:30 AM: The van has been packed the day before, and it's ready for Steve Wanna to add his work as we head out to pick up Christina Helowicz in Pasadena. 

5:30 AM: Arrive at Pasadena, pick up Christina and head to New York. 

10:00ish AM: Arrival in Chelsea and check in at the Metropolitan Pavilion.  We get Doris Day parking by the side door, and unload, as our booth is really close to that door. Seth Fairweather is already there and his work is already hung.  I depart to check in to the Jane Hotel and drop luggage before heading back, dropping the van at the parking garage, where it will be until Friday at 6PM and then go inside the Pavilion to help with the hanging and preparation of the booth for tonight's VIP Preview. 

Steve Wanna setting up booth C1 at the Affordable Art Fair NYC

3:30PMish: The booth is pretty much done and hung with the work of Seth Fairweather,  Steve Wanna, Christina Helowicz,  Dora Patin,  Amanda Coelho,  Ally Morgan,  Jennifer Kahn Barlow,  Susan La Mont and mine. We head out to our respective hotels to clean up, be back by 5ish and be ready for the opening reception. 

Line outside the Metropolitan Pavilion waiting for the VIP Preview opening
of the Affordable Art Fair in New York 

 Preview Night of the 2023 Affordable Art Fair

A few minutes into the opening, a DMV area collector emails me in response to me sending him Dora Patin's new spectacular trompe l'oeil paintings, as he has begun collecting Patin during the previous fair; he says "I want the Cheshire cat."

Sometimes a Fair opening is so crowded that it actually begins to interfere with the visitors ability to actually see the artwork... my Bisque Graphite drawings move briskly.

9:00PM: It's been a long day and we're all exhausted as we head to our various hotels... the first day of the Affordable Art Fair New York City is done.

Lian Sever at AAFNYC

Lian Sever makes her Affordable Art Fair debut at the Affordable Art Fair NYC starting tomorrow at 6PM in Chelsea! We're in booth C1!

Frida Kahlo: Resilience by Lian Sever

Vote for Pippi!

Pippi, AKA the world's nicest dog, has been entered in the PAW photo contest for a chance to be on the 2024 calendar. Please vote for Pippi if you have a chance. It's a $1 per vote and a minimum of 5 votes. The money goes to a good cause to help these rescue dogs and cats. The contest ends today at 7:00 pm so please vote ASAP and apologies for the last minute notice. 

Vote here.

UPDATE: She won!!!!

Susan La Mont - Atlantic Ocean series

Susan La Mont's gorgeous Atlantic Ocean series will be showcased at the Affordable Art Fair New York City starting next Wednesday in Chelsea! Booth C1!

Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

And such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford

Slowin' down to take a look at me

Come on, baby, don't say maybe

I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me

We may lose and we may win

But we will never be here again

So open up, I'm climbin' in to take it easy

"Song of a Mad Minstrel" by Robert E. Howard. Allow me to share it with you (again):

I am the thorn in the foot, I am the blur in the sight;

I am the worm at the root, I am the thief in the night.

I am the rat in the wall, the leper that leers at the gate;

I am the ghost in the hall, herald of horror and hate.

I am the rust on the corn, I am the smut on the wheat,

Laughing man’s labor to scorn, weaving a web for his feet.

I am canker and mildew and blight, danger and death and decay;

The rot of the rain by night, the blast of the sun by day.

I warp and wither with drouth, I work in the swamp’s foul yeast;

I bring the black plague from the south and the leprosy in from the east.

I rend from the hemlock boughs wine steeped in the petals of dooms;

Where the fat black serpents drowse I gather the Upas blooms.

I have plumbed the northern ice for a spell like Frozen lead;

In lost grey fields of rice, I learned from Mongol dead.

Where a bleak black mountain stands I have looted grisly caves;

I have digged in the desert sands to plunder terrible graves.

Never the sun goes forth, never the moon glows red,

But out of the south or the north, I come with the slavering dead.

I come with hideous spells, black charms and ghastly tunes;

I have looted the hidden hells and plundered the lost black moons.

There was never a king or priest to cheer me by word or look,

There was never a man or beast in the blood-black ways I took.

There were crimson gulfs unplumbed, there were black wings over a sea;

There were pits where mad things drummed, and foaming blasphemy.

There were vast ungodly tombs where slimy monsters dreamed,

There were clouds like blood-drenched plumes where unborn demons screamed.

There were ages dead to Time, and lands lost out of Space;

There were adders in the slime, and a dim unholy Face.

Oh, the heart in my breast turned stone, and the brain froze in my skull-

But I won through, I alone, and I poured my chalice full

Of horrors and dooms and spells, black buds and bitter roots-

From the hells beneath the hells, I bring you my deathly fruits.

Celia Cruz as Barbie

This Barbie Inspiring Women doll honors the incomparable Celia Cruz, best known as “la Reina de la Salsa” (The Queen of Salsa).

 

Ballroom blitz

And the man in the back said, "Everyone attack"

And it turned into a ballroom blitz

And the girl in the corner said, "Boy I want to warn you"

It'll turn into a ballroom blitz

Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz

The curious case of upside down Klint

A Hilma af Klint fan who visited the recent af Klint and Piet Mondrian double header exhibition at Tate Modern in London noticed something off about one of the paintings. Was it accidentally hung…upside down?

Read the article by Jo Lawson-Tancred here.

Lest we forget

 

"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland