The Mother of All Rock Fights

At the risk of being vain, I've posted below something a little different.

For a couple of years now I've been working on writing down my memories of my early childhood in Cuba, which is where I was born and lived my early years before my family escaped to the United States in the 60s. I hope to one day pitch it to some publisher, and one of the reasons that I decided to do the whole PA move was to attempt to find the time to work on these memories. The below is an early peek at a chapter draft somewhere in the middle of the book. It is titled "The Mother of All Rock Fights," and feedback, suggestions and criticism is welcome!

The Mother of All Rock Fights

Depending on who you believe, the mother of all rock fights started with either a push, or a slip into the dirty, sewage waters of the Guaso River in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Even now, nearly forty years later, it stands out as vividly, as spectacular, as surreal and as immensely impossible, as on the day that it happened.

Sometimes in the early 1960’s a new baseball stadium was built in the outskirts of Guantanamo. At the time, to us local children, it was beautiful new place, a shrine to the love of baseball that all Cubans have. We didn’t notice or care, that all seats were made of cement, and that it was a grim, stark and bare bones space.

But at least to us boys it was a wonderful, beautiful place, where once in a while even the Orientales, the provincial team that represented our honor in the national baseball leagues (and always seemed to lose to the hated Havana teams), played.

My father also loved baseball, and he was the un-official baseball escort for all the boys in the neighborhood, and often he would lead a dozen of us ruffians to a game at the stadium, which was named Van Troi, in honor of a shadowy slain North Vietnamese guerrilla fighter who had been killed in the Viet Nam war.

Why name a baseball stadium after a man who probably never heard of baseball was also a mystery to us, especially since we all knew the names of all the real baseball gods, both Cuban and Americans. But more on baseball later.

As I said, Van Troi Stadium was a few miles outside of the city, and we all usually caught the bus that stopped at the bottom of Second Street, directly across from the side of our house that ran downhill through that street. We took that bus to the edge of the city and from there we all walked, usually with hundreds of other people, to the Stadium.

From Guantanamo the trek to the Stadium could be made via two different routes. The longer and safer route was through the metal bridge that spanned the Guaso River. Crossing this bridge was always a thrilling adventure to me. The bridge was a metal arch, and the walkways on either side were made of metal grilles that allowed you to see the river below you as one crossed the bridge.

Because the bridge was – at least in my eyes – just a few feet above the rushing water, there was always a sense of immediacy – and danger – from the fast flowing Guaso River rushing underneath your feet. It was also quite a wide crossing, as the Guaso was a rather wide river at that point and often, when augmented by tropical rains, as when the Flora hurricane passed through Oriente province in the early 60’s, would flood the city. In fact, the metal bridge of my memories may have been a "new" bridge built after Flora, which may have wiped out the older bridge.

Anyway, the bridge crossing was adventurous, and I would always plan it ahead at the beginning of the crossing. I always had a strategy in case I fell off the bridge or in case the bridge collapsed while I was in the middle of it. This always demanded knowing exactly where on the bridge I was, and which direction (backwards or forwards) was the shortest path to land.

Once we crossed the bridge, the road to the Stadium was through a slightly hilly unpaved street, almost a country road, and sometimes we would stop and rest at a house where my father was friends with the family who lived there.

There we would always buy a bottle of pru, which is a homemade Cuban soft drink. We would usually bring the drinks along the rest of the walk to the stadium and sometimes carry extra bottles with us to drink later.

Once, my cousin Cesar had the task of carrying all the extra bottles, and when we arrived at the Stadium, we discovered that he had drunk all of them on the way to the ballpark.

As pru is actually some kind of a fermented non-alcoholic drink, and being homemade, possibly not the purest of drinks, he immediately developed a tremendous case of diarrhea halfway through the game and never made it to the stadium’s bathroom, and managed to shit all over his pants, much to his embarrassment and our delight.

In any event, this route was the safer, but the longer of the two ways to get to Van Troi Stadium. The second route was a short cut that involved crossing the river though a series of rocks that had been strategically placed at a narrower portion of the river, about half a mile downriver from the bridge.

Now, these weren’t (by any stretch of the imagination), large, flat rocks, but a series of mossy, slippery rocks that sometimes even demanded a slight jump from rock to rock, rather than just steps. In fact sometimes, one could actually step from rock to rock, while other times you needed a synchronized ballet to jump to a small rock, and use it as a spring to the next, larger safer rock, as there was no room in the small rock to actually land and stabilize one’s body. It was a dangerous and almost incredible risk, and yet at the time it seemed as natural as crossing the bridge.

The choice was always based on the availability of the rocks themselves. If the river was too high, then we took the bridge, if the river was low and the rocks exposed, then we’d all cross the river at the rock crossing. Hundreds of people, usually all men and boys and all heading to the game through the river shortcut.

To add an ever greater sense of danger to this crossing, was the repugnant fact that the city’s raw sewer lines came out somewhere between the bridge and the rock crossing.

And this was completely untreated, raw sewage at its most luxuriant stage of smell and visibility. The river, which was clean and clear when we looked at it from the bridge, became shit brown and foul by the time it arrived at the rock crossing and turds floated like brown torpedoes all around you as you gingerly made your way across the rocks.

It never occurred to us why the rock crossing had been built after the sewage lines, rather than before it – who knows, perhaps it pre-dated the sewage lines, but the immense danger of crossing the river by skipping across slippery, mossy rocks was multiplied by a million when one considered what would happen if one had the misfortune to slip and fall into the shitwater.

And it did happen quite often! Someone would be a little too cavalier in the crossing, or sometimes someone too tipsy from drinking too much beer at the games, lose concentration, slip and fall, to the cheers and laughter and applause of the rest of us. And falling near the riverbed was the worst, as the shit tended to concentrate there, while the river current, although faster and more dangerous in the middle, tended to keep the middle of the river cleaner.

The edges were absolutely gross. A luxuriant, rich, thick mixture of shit and mud demanded strict attention and concentration. In response to this, whoever had originally placed the rocks to build the crossing, had thankfully placed larger rocks at the edges, some of which actually could accommodate several persons at once. This had an indirect cause in the overall accumulations of tiny events that all led to the greatest rock fight in history.

I always recall the crossing of the river at this point as a true adventure. Sometimes I was a pirate, usually Emilio Salgari's El Corsario Negro, getting away from the Spanish soldiers; at other times I was an astronaut discovering another planet. But I was always in a high state of concentration, always ensuring that I never slipped and always focusing on the next rock, especially when we neared the edges, and the river became a mass of mojones, which is what we called turds, and birds eating all the gross insect life that lived amongst it.

Sometimes a particularly spectacular mojon would float by, or a fleet of mojones, to the delight of us kids crossing the river. We would shout in unison and point to the mojones and exaggerate their sizes and speed. The word mojon is an interesting one, and I’m not sure where it comes from, or if it is a Cuban slang or a true Castilian word. It literally means someone or something that is wet, and has no relation that I can think of to the Spanish word for shit, which is mierda.

Regardless, the river at this point was full of mojones, and stinking of mierda and we would always be alert and I never recall any of our gang falling into the river.

Until the greatest rock fight in history. Truly the mother of all rock fights.

On that particular day, we had all trekked to the stadium not to watch a baseball game, but to watch something different in our perception of sports, at least to Cubans: a soccer match.

While soccer is a big thing in nearly all Latin American countries, in fact nearly a religion in most, it was and probably still is, a curiosity and ignored as a sport by most Cubans.

This arises from the fact that soccer – like bullfights – was a "Spanish sport" enjoyed by Spaniards in Cuba, and thus disliked immediately by Cubans, who wished to remove all things Spanish from the young republic. Spaniards like soccer and bullfights while Cubans preferred baseball and cockfights; Spaniards drank wine, Cubans drank beer and rum, etc.

Anyway, on the day of the greatest rock fight in history, there was a soccer match staged at Van Troi stadium, and as most of us had never seen a soccer match before, a curious crowd of several thousand local men and boys made the trip, either through the bridge or through the rock crossing, and congregated at the ballpark to watch the game.

It was a disaster.

One of the teams had traveled from Havana, and was on a nationwide tour to help spread soccer among Cubans. The second team was made up at the last minute from Guantanamo men from the Institute (the local junior college) or local baseball players who had not been selected for any of the national league teams. I bet that for some of the locals, it was the first time that they had ever actually played soccer.

It was the most boring sports spectacle that I recall ever witnessing, played on a baseball field, with the pitching mound still in place, and soccer lines marked at the last minute with white chalk lines.

I recall the entire game consisting of the ball being kicked from one extreme end of the field to the other, with little of the precision and foot skills that only experienced soccer players can display. One just can’t show up one day and decide to dribble with your feet – it just doesn’t happen, and it showed.

And Cubans are just not culturally designed to play soccer, which demands precise teamwork and strategy, as opposed to individualism on the field, which is what the inept soccer players on the soccer pitch, I mean baseball field turned soccer pitch for that day, attempted to do.

The crowd was bored and delighted us by hurling insults at the players, and booing throughout, and only applauding when a fight broke out on the field, which was practically every few minutes, when aggressive, inept Cuban men kicked each other’s shins in futile attempts to get to the ball.

The soccer experiment was a boring disaster, and when the game ended, scoreless as I recall, the crowd was in a dark mood as it left the Stadium and headed back to the city, most of us through the river rock crossing.

And this mood was the second ingredient in the recipe for the chain of events that led to the greatest rock fight in history.

Here is what happened.

I had just crossed the river, and along with my father behind me, begun the slight climb from the river slopes towards the streets above it. At that point, one had a great view of the river and I recall turning around to see the long line of people, like ants, crossing the river, jumping rocks and making their way back to the city.

And then it happened.

Monguito fell into the shitwater; not the middle, cleaner part of the river, with fast moving water and smaller rocks, but near the banks of the river, with turgid, stagnant mud and shit.

Whether he slipped or fell is a matter of debate. As I said before these bank rocks were larger and thus "safer" than the smaller, middle-of-the-river rocks, and Monguito claims that as he was standing on one of these rocks, Gustavito, who lived in the house directly below our house on Second Street, and who was a perennial enemy of the Monguito brothers, pushed him from behind.

Gustavito, who was a feisty (and always ready to pick a fight), scruffy, short bulldog of a boy, with a flat top blonde haircut, and he looked like a miniature of his father, who was a professional boxer, has always denied pushing Monguito, claiming that he was nowhere near Monguito when Monguito fell or was pushed in.

Anyway, Monguito emerged from the river completely covered in shit and mud and looking for revenge. The people who were still on the rocks were dying of laughter as he made his way up the banks of the river, and the crossing momentarily stopped as the elder of the two Monguito brothers emerged from the muck.

And he turned to face his laughing tormentors, and he was looking for revenge.

He then spotted Gustavito, still on a rock on the river, also laughing and in fact doubled over with laughter. And in Monguito’s mind, somehow, it became clear that his archenemy had some hand in his fall.

And he picked up a rock, and with the brilliant aim of someone with a thousand previous rock fights of experience, lobbed it in a long arch towards Gustavito, who was too lost in laughter to notice the incoming missile as it hit him and made him fall into the river.

Now the other river crossers really exploded in laughter – this was too much! Two falls in one crossing – this alone was worth the boring experience of the soccer game!

But Gustavito, who had not seen who had thrown the rock, emerged from the river also looking for revenge, and incredibly enough began picking up rocks from the river itself and pelting the crowd with shit covered missiles.

And suddenly pandemonium broke out as people began to fall into the river and more rock throwers were added to the battle. From our safe side on the land, we all joined in to try to nail those still clinging to the relative safety of the rocks.

Some tried to turn back and head to the other side, colliding with crossers coming over and more and more people fell into the water, creating several water battles as men fought each other in the water, on rocks and on the shore. And the people already on the banks of the rivers were also good targets for us, as we were higher above them on the streets that ran parallel to the river.

And thus, from the relative safety of those streets above the river, we were on a superior position to rain rocks on all of those unfortunate souls below us while being able to dodge all incoming rocks; all except Pepin, who as usual got his head cracked open by a rock, even though he was with us on the streets, desperately, from his superior position, trying to help his brother Monguito below.

And for a glorious ten minutes or so, the greatest rock fight in history went on along the shitty shores of the Guaso River, involving perhaps one hundred men and boys of all ages, with the distinct advantage to those on the shore, many of whom were covered in shit, having at one point been on rocks and knocked off either trying to avoid a rock, or being hit by one or pushed by another person attempting to cling to the rock.

If the latter was the case, then it was a matter of honor to get to the shore and attempt to knock off your pusher by nailing him with a rock.

At some point in the battle, even flying turds were being lobbed, to the horror of some of the participants, already covered in shit, who were now being pelted by flying turds and mud.

I cannot remember how and when the greatest rock fight in history ended, perhaps the militia or the cops showed up, but I do recall walking back all the way from the edge of the city to our neighborhood, because there were three in our group completely covered in shit: Monguito, Gustavito and Cesar, who somehow had ended up in the river as well, and Pepin covered in blood from his head wound.

Because of shit and blood, the bus driver would not allow them in, and my father couldn’t leave them to walk alone from that far. It was quite an interesting trek, and we made them walk downwind behind us, only stopping once in a while to break up the occasional fights between Monguito and Gustavito.

When we got home, my grandmother gave my father hell over his supervision of us, and Elba, Pepin’s mother, swore blue murder at my father for not taking Pepin directly to the hospital.

My grandmother then took Cesar to the back garden, where he was hosed down with the garden hose, while the rest of us, less the other two who had fallen in, and Pepin who was on his way to the hospital for his usual visit to stitch up his head, climbed to the roof of the house to watch Cesar being scrubbed clean from head to toe while we drank cold lemonade that my mother had just made.

Thus truly ended the greatest rock fight in history.

Sydney McGee Part IV

Rick Reedy is the superintendent of schools for the Frisco Independent School District in Frisco, Texas currently entangled in the whole mess with teacher Sydney McGee being dismissed allegedly over a parental complaint stemming from one of her students seeing a nude sculpture during a museum trip.

Mr. Reedy writes in the Dallas Morning News that the "art teacher issue goes deeper than a museum field trip" and insists that "The Dallas Museum of Art is a recommended venue for study trips, and our students regularly visit to enrich their learning. No teacher, including Ms. McGee, has ever been fired or reprimanded for taking students to the museum or for a student's incidental viewing of nude art. No teacher, including Ms. McGee, has ever been fired due to a parent complaint."

Reedy goes on to make a case that McGee may have played the "art card" in this mess. Read his opinions here.

Moving Update

Almost 80% unpacked, with unpacking seriously interrupted by the many required returns to the DC area. In the meantime, I've managed to sneak in some exploration of the area.

Went apple-picking at the Linvilla Orchards and picked half a bushel of apples and then they gave me another half for free. That's a lot of apples.

Went to Fellini's Cafe in Media, where not only do they serve some of the best Italian food that I've had in a while at really good prices, but also on Mondays the waitresses sing opera, and there's one who belts out an amazing "Habanera" from Bizet's "Carmen."

Went to the 4th Annual Fine Arts & Crafts Festival in Rosetree Park, I think organized by the Media Arts Council and had a nice time and saw some good work by the area's locals.

Went to the Brandywine Museum to see Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat and my review will be published later this month, and will also a review here.

Janis Goodman Opens in NYC

Congrats to well-known DC area artist Janis Goodman, whose paintings and drawings open in New York on Tuesday!

Art Scam Redux

So the Nigerian art scam has reached and touched me again. A couple of days ago I received the following email (all the e.e. cummings use of lower case letters is his):

From: michael gary
Sent : Thursday, October 5, 2006 11:35 AM
To: lennycampello@hotmail.com
Subject: Art Work..

Hello,
I will like to purchase some of your art works for my home in Middlesex (United Kingdom),and i will like you to get back to me with listings and costs of your works available.I will be able to choose the ones i want or need.Kindly get back to me asap.

Michael Gary
45 Kenton Lane,
Belmont Circle,
Belmont, Middlesex, HA3 8RY.

Michael Gary.........

And I responded

Dear Michael,
I am so honored that you like my artwork! Kindly email me your phone number and I will call you

And he, being the good scammer, responds:

Thanks for the reply.i would have love to call you but for now my phone is not working and i promise to call you as soon as my phone get working.Kindly get back to me with the list of the work that you have for sale in your studio.i look forward to read from you asap.
Michael Gary.........

And so I says to him:

Mike,
I am very particular as to who buys my artwork, please email me a jpg of you and your family as well as some of the artwork that you currently have in your home.

Let's see what happens next.

Sydney McGee Part III

I told you about Sydney McGee here and then a little more here. McGee is the teacher who allegedly was fired because of a complaint stemming from one of her students seeing a nude sculpture during a museum trip.

The Dallas Morning News now asks the question "was a Frisco art teacher pushed out of a job over a flap about nude art, or is the national media spotlight shining in the wrong place?"

Was she fired because of the nude sculpture complaint or because she was a bad teacher?

Ms. McGee says she never received a negative review or criticisms in Frisco until after she took the 89 fifth-graders to the museum in April.

Read the article here.

Sandberg Lecture at Salve Regina

One of the capital region's top painters, Erik Sandberg (and CUA guest professor) will offer an illustrated lecture for "Vice and Virtue: An Exhibition of Student Work" titled: "The Virtue of Vice: Inspiring Self-Reflection in Studio Art" commencing at 7 pm at Salve Regina Art Gallery in DC.

The exhibition itself features approximately 20 art objects by Arica Bahr, Kathryn Crabtree, Amanda Ince, Elizabeth Lutz, Teresa Mascia and Lindsay Rogers.

The exhibit includes a life-size painting of The Temptation of Saint Anthony. The painting was created as a collaborative effort between Sandberg, who painted the huge canvas, and his students, who "contributed design concepts for the portrayal of the aged ascetic’s temptations." Sandberg is represented by Conner Contemporary.

Zoe Strauss Art Talk

Philadelphia's own Zoe Strauss, whole powerful work was included in the last Whitney Biennial, will have an artist's talk (free and open to the public) on October 7, at 6 pm, at the Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine Street, South Philadelphia.

Two days later on Oct. 9, Zoe will have a slide lecture starting at 6:30 PM at 20th Street and The Parkway in Philadelphia.

Robert Brown Gallery Closes in DC

The building on R Street that housed the Robert Brown Gallery for 15 years has been sold and the gallery has closed. As they have been in business for over 25 years, the gallery intends to stay in business as a private entity and can still be reached online at www.robertbrowngallery.com.

Shirin Neshat in C'ville

Just like DC-based artist Aylene Fallah has been doing courageously for years (in spite of threats and insults), New York-based artist Shirin Neshat explores the role of women in Islamic society.

And now, in conjunction with the Virginia Film Festival’s theme Revelations: Finding God at the Movies, Charlottesville, VA Second Street Gallery will showcase Neshat’s video installation Passage (2001), a work that was commissioned by well-known composer Philip Glass.

This presentation of Passage represents Neshat’s Mid-Atlantic debut. It will run through October 28, 2006.

Update: Neshat and a couple of alert readers point out that Neshat had her video "Rapture" exhibited at the 2002 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' three-part video-art exhibition "Outer and Inner Space: A Video Exhibition in Three Parts," so the above is not her Mid-Atlantic debut.

Sculpture

The Arlington Art Center's Fall solos open on October 10, reception on October 13 from 6-9PM. In addition to showing artists from all over the Mid-Atlantic, they are also kicking off "Sculpture on the Grounds."

The first installment: "InSight Out," is curated by Twylene Moyer, the managing Editor of Sculpture Magazine. She has selected a group that features artists from Baltimore and environs.

Even more cool about "Sculpture on the Grounds" is that (as far as I know) the program will be the only dedicated temporary outdoor sculpture program in the Washington DC area. I am told that they’ll "rotate every six months and seek to show some really cutting edge work."

Opportunity for Artists – Mid-Atlantic Region

Deadline: October 31, 2006

The Open Studios Press is currently accepting entries for the 2006 Mid-Atlantic competition for painters. Competitions are conducted annually in each of six regions of the country and lead to publication in New American Paintings magazine.

Juried by curators from prominent museums. Painting, drawing, monoprints/types, mixed media, 2-D only (no photo or editions). Entry fee $30. Postmark deadline: Mid-Atlantic 10/31/06 ( DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV and Washington DC) other areas, contact below. The DC area curator will be my good friend Stephen Bennett Phillips, Curator, The Phillips Collection.

Send four 35mm slides, resume, entry fee and SASE to:

Open Studios Press
450 Harrison Ave #304
Boston, MA 02118

Questions: (617) 778-5265 or www.newamericanpaintings.com.

How is this art?

The Student Coalition at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, MN asks: How is this art?

McCabe on The Exhibitionists

"The Exhibitionists" is the title of the current three-person show in Baltimore's Gallery Imperato, and the City Paper's Brett McCabe does a nice job reviewing the exhibition here.

The exhibition includes work by the most recent Trawick Prize winner: James Rieck.

Mid Atlantic Openings

October 3

"Operation dogleg II" are landscape works and a video projection by Scottish artist Dana Hargrove that opens tonight at Philadelphia's Bridgette Mayer Gallery. The exhibition runs through Oct. 28 and tonight's reception is from 6-8:30pm.

Also tonight in Philly there's an opening at Vox Populi of an installation of alternate universes by Diana Al-Hadid. The universes exist through Oct. 27, and the opening tonight is from 6-11PM.

Photography by Keith Sharp also opens tonight in Philly at the Muse Gallery which is a Philly co-op. The show runs through Oct. 29. Opening reception is from 6-8pm.

October 4

Recent Acquisitions to the George Washington University Permanent Collection. This exhibition includes fifteen of the University's most recent aquisitions to the University's permanent collection, including works by Sam Gilliam and Jules Olitski. In addition, two works by Joan Miro and Giorgio de Chirico will be shown from a collection of promised gifts. At the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery through October 27, 2006.

October 5

Ellyn Weiss: Circular Reasoning opens at Nevin Kelly Gallery in Washington, DC through 29th. Opening Reception Thursday, October 5th, 6 - 9pm.

Migration: A Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia and Piedmont Virginia Community College join forces to present Georgia artist and art professor Tim Taunton on the evening of October 5th. The gallery will open its fall show "Insights" featuring Tim Taunton’s figurative clay sculptures with a reception on Thursday, October 5, 2006 from 6:30-8:30pm. Prior to the reception, the public is invited to see a slide show and hear the artist speak about his work at 5:00pm in the Black Box Theatre (Room 202) of the Dickinson Building at PVCC. Seating is limited in this wonderful venue, so plan to arrive early. The gallery is located at 119 5th Street SE in Charlottesville. PVCC is located at 501 College Drive. The show runs through November 30.

In downtown DC, Zenith Gallery has an opening tonight from 6-8PM for "Lightness of Being," and the exhibit features works by Gloria Cesal.

In Baltimore, "Cluck" is an exhibit by Raissa Contreras featuring chickens (I shit thee not) at the Craig Flinner Gallery and the opening reception is from 6-8 p.m.

Also in Baltimore, the Faculty Exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art features works by more than 40 current faculty members at MICA. Exhibition is at the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries and the opening reception is from 5-7PM. Look for the photographs of Gabriela Bulisova, the sculptures of Jeff Spaulding and the paintings of Raoul Middleman.

October 6

Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC has two joint exhibits opening tonight. First there's "Giants in the Earth," which are photographs by Holly Foss, former Fraser Gallery Georgetown gallerina and a most talented (and award winning) photographer. The second show is an exhibition titled "Let's Dance," and the exhibit features paintings by Roger Strassman. Reception from 6-8PM.

Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore, MD presents the Fourth Annual Curators’ Incubator program, featuring independent curator Fabian Goncalves Borrega and the curatorial team of Myra B. Greene and Bennie F. Johnson. On exhibition through October 21 will be "The Photograph as Representation and Reflection of Cultural Objects," Fabian Goncalves Borrega, curator (artists in the exhibition include: Luis Delgado Qualtrough, Kathryn Dunlevie, Katia Fuentes, Lucy Gray, Susannah Hays, Germán Herrera, Mary Daniel Hobson, Javier Manrique, Deborah L. O’Grady and Sharon Wickham) and "Conversations Most Intimate: The Lens of Myra Greene," Jeffreen M. Hayes and Bennie F. Johnson, curators. Gallery Talk starts at 6 pm and the opening reception from 7-9 pm.

Richmond, Virginia's The Gallery: Art & Design has an opening tonight at 6PM for Colombian-born artist Carlos Torres. RSVP to info@the-gallery.it.

The Woodbourne Collection in Kensington, MD has an opening tonight for Jason Douglas Griffin. The show runs through oct. 14. Details and info at 301/530-5832.

"Adjoining Lot," paintings, photographs and video by Franco Mueller opens at Pentimenti Gallery (Main Gallery & Project Room) in Philadelphia, while Noel Neri's solo sculpture exhibition "Sacred Windows" opens at the Annex Gallery. The reception to meet the artists is Friday, October 6 from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Mueller lives and works in Switzerland while Neri (who received an MFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore) lives in Philly.

Sabina Cabada opens an exhibition of her new work at Aaron Gallery in Washington, DC. Reception is from 6-9PM. Show runs through Nov. 2, 2006.

October 7

"Imagined Heritage" opens tonight at Falling Cow Gallery in Philadelphia with an opening reception from 6-8 pm and runs through October 28th. The exhibition features paintings, drawings and mixed media works by Alana Bograd, Caroline Falby and Fay Ku.

Project 4 in Washington, DC presents "Good Cop/Bad Cop," two solo exhibitions featuring the work of artists Daniel Davidson and Tricia Keightley. Both artists received a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Their work has been exhibited widely in both the United States and abroad. They live and work in Brooklyn, N.Y. Exhibition runs through November 11, 2006, and the opening reception is Saturday, October 7, from 6:00-8:30pm.

October 8

The Art League Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia opens "Echo in the Forest," which features sculptures by Tatyana Schremko. The Art League is probably the Mid Atlantic's largest artists' co-op. The reception is 2-4PM.

October 13

"Modern Art and Modern Furniture," which opens on October 5th at Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, Maryland has a public reception on the 13th from 6-9PM.

"Eyes on Baltimore, Charm City as Viewed by Area Artists and Photographers," opens at Light Street Gallery in Baltimore with an opening reception on Friday evening, October 13th, from 6-9 PM.

In DC, Touchstone Gallery on 7th Street, NW has an opening reception for Carole Lyles Shaw from 6-8:30PM.

Jean Hirons has a reception for her new show "Pure Color" at Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland. The reception is from 6-9PM. Hirons is the Vice President of the Maryland Pastel Society.

October 14

Heineman Myers in Bethesda, MD has an opening reception from 6-9PM for Nancy Scheinman. The show runs through November 25 and there's an artist's talk on Nov. 5 at 2PM.

October 17

"Between Worlds," a new installation by Philadelphia-based artist Candy Depew, which opened October 5 at the Physick House Museum in Philadelphia and runs through Nov. 26 has a free public reception with the artist tonight from 6-9pm. Curated by Robert Wuilfe, this is the first-ever exhibition of contemporary art at Physick House — the Federal-style home of Dr. Philip Syng Physick, the "Father of American Surgery," and the second exhibition of the new Landmarks Contemporary Projects program.

Experiment and Spontaneity: MFA Thesis Exhibition for Leanne Juliana. Juliana examines the interaction of human personalities using clay, grout, and wood as mediums. She explores the myriad of relationships different individuals participate in on a daily basis. Juliana's vases represent the human psyche and its responses to life, shown as the tiles, spikes, lines, and colors. Through October 27 at the George Washington University's Dimock Gallery.

If I'm missing your opening, email me.

Opportunity for Artists from the African Diaspora

Deadline: October 31, 2006.

The Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College seeks works for an exhibition, tentatively titled "Negotiating Identities in the African World," and scheduled in conjunction with the 13th Central Pennsylvania Consortium Africana Studies Conference, Interrogating issues of Citizenship, Identity, Ethnicity and Race in the African World, 150 years after the Dred Scott Decision.

Exhibition dates are March 30-April 22, 2007. The conference and exhibition will both be part of Gettysburg College's 175th Anniversary celebration and Africana Studies' 20-year celebration. Artists from the African Diaspora are invited to submit artworks engaging either the conference or exhibition themes. Works will be selected by an academic and curatorial committee. Please forward slides or jpegs, artist statement and vita to:

Molly Hutton
Director
Schmucker Art Gallery
Gettysburg College
300 N. Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325.

Electronic submissions may be sent to mhutton@gettysburg.edu.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 13, 2006

Rebooted: Life Ater E-Junk. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wis., invites artists to create a work of art for the upcoming exhibition, "Rebooted: Life After E-Junk."

They want you to create a two or three-dimensional work of art which incorporates at least one component of a computer, cell phone, handheld or other technological tool into something wholly new and unexpected. Create an assemblage about how your life has been changed by computers. There is no entry fee to participate in this exhibition. The exhibition runs Dec. 3, 2006 to Feb. 11, 2007.

Contact information: please call the John Michael Kohler Arts Center at 920/458-6144 for more information and to receive a registration form.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 6, 2006

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' Art Bank Program has a call for entries as they are purchasing artwork to be part of the District of Columbia's 2007 Art Bank Program.

Works in the collection are owned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and loaned to other District Government agencies for display in public areas. Deadline: October 6, 2006.

For more information and an application, please visit their website to download the Call for Entries application, or call 202-724-5613 to have one sent to you.

The City's Art Bank is a growing collection of moveable works funded through DC Creates Public Art, the District’s Art in Public Places Program.

Works in the collection are owned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and are loaned to other District government agencies for display in public areas of government buildings. This collection helps preserve the city’s past and is an important legacy for future generations. Currently, approximately 1,600 artworks are on display in more than 100 agencies.

This year the work will be chosen by Carl Cole, who is one of the DCCAH Commissioners; Judy A. Greenberg, Director of the Kreeger Museum; Karen Holtzman, who is a fine arts Appraiser; my good friend Alejandro Negrín, who is the Director of the Cultural Institute of Mexico and Paul Roth, Curator for Photography at the Corcoran.

Congratulations

To DC sculptor Dan Steinhilber, who gets a hip interview with Baltimore Sun art critic Glenn McNatt (of the kind the WaPo has never done for a DC artist), about Steinhilber's mini show at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Congratulations also to Steinhilber's next door neighbor on G street, NW, Tim Tate, and to Tate's partner at the Washington Glass School, Michael Janis, both of which will be included in the London-published 50 Distinguished Contemporary Artists in Glass edited by Lisa Hoftijzer and which will be out next month!

Congratulations to hard-working DC artist Sondra Arkin, whose solo show "Indian Summer" opens at the Blue Moon, 35 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on October 6 and runs through November 2, 2006.

More on remarkable confluence

"Remarkable confluence" is what I have decided to call the curious phenomenom of what happens when two artists, working in different cities and either at different times or same time frames, and completely unaware of each other's existance, seem to arrive at remarkably similar visual works.

A while back I noted how the Louis Cameron paintings currently at G Fine Art in Washington, DC were remarkably similar (in both idea, subject matter, and size) to the work that I did six years ago.

Over the weekend Virginia artist Andrew Devlin, winner of the 2004 Georgetown International Art Competition read this mini-mention of artist John Beech's exhibition (also at G Fine Art) and was also intrigued as to how Beech's current drawings are so similar, both in subject matter and presentation and delivery (with the whole "drawing under a swath of shiny acrylic paint" element) as Devlin's own work from a couple of years ago. See examples of both below.

I imagine that somewhere on the planet, at the same time that Pollock was dripping paint onto canvas, some other artist, blissfully unaware of Pollock's work, was possibly doing exactly the same thing is some smaller, less aware place.

"Remarkable confluence" also happens a lot in science, where inventors toil away at their inventions, and as soon as they are published they discover that someone else, a half world away, has been working and invented the same thing.

Sydney McGee Part II

A few days ago I discussed the issue of teacher Sydney McGee in Frisco, Texas getting fired from her teaching post after 28 years allegedly due to complaints that one of her students saw a nude sculpture during a museum trip. Read that here.

A reader from Frisco, Texas has responded to the report by offering the other side of the story. Angel writes:

I am very disappointed in the one-sided slant to the news stories regarding this Fisher Elementary Art Teacher who is being put on leave WITH pay with a recommended non-renewal of her contract next spring. Frisco, Texas citizens and one of its' largest employers - FISD - support the arts!

I do not want to have a debate on the subject of nude art at the DMA as I know very well that the district would never put a teacher on a growth plan solely for this reason. I know that the administrators, school board members, principals, and teachers support the visual arts in a very positive way.

Many districts have cut their art programs, but not FISD.

FISD’s art programs have received several award winning recognitions in the visual arts. Our district was honored for the Outstanding Youth Art Month Observance Award from the Texas Art Education Association for involvement on a state level. One can go to the district’s website at www. friscoisd.org and find several news articles on art endeavors and art student recognitions.

Each year the district puts on a district wide art show in honor of Youth Art Month which is celebrated in the spring. The district allows budget monies for the art program including not only supplies but fine art prints to share with students in the classroom. They support and allow field trips to such places as the Dallas Museum of Art, Hall Office Park’s outdoor sculptures, and the like.

Student artworks are continually displayed in our community. The City of Frisco voted to pass a proposition regarding public art being an integral part of our city. Our city has the highly regarded Hall Office Park collection of outdoor sculptures open to the public for ground tours. One can drive around various locations in Frisco and discover public works of art everywhere.

You cannot tell me that we are some culturally-insensitive group of citizens and that our school administrators are as well. It is simply not true!

I feel bad that the media attention (including forums like this, talk radio, newspapers, and television broadcasts) brought on our town has put us in such a negative light.

This is pure smoke and mirrors brought on by this teacher in an attempt to take the heat off of the real issues at hand. She was never fired, only asked to improve. Instead of trying to improve, she went straight to the media bad-mouthing her principal and her employer which is FISD. I think they have every right not to renew her contract at this point.

Thank you for hearing my opinion which is factually driven and personally driven for me to want to communicate.

By the way, her 28 year tenure was NOT all served in the FISD and not all of those years were as an ART teacher.

Some observations:

I'll agree that generally there are always two sides to most stories, but I still have some reservations with this story, the flavor of which comes to us strictly through what is published in the press. Either everyone in the printmedia is doing, as Angel alleges, "smoke and mirrors," or FISD is doing one of the worst information (lack thereof) campaigns of all times to address an obviously sensitive subject.

As a reader in Wordpress.com commented, "if Frisco ISD has been having a problem with this teacher it should have been put down in-writing on previous performance reviews. Where are they?" By the way, there are loads of good comments, both pro and con the issue at Wordpress.com.

I'd like to add that if the issue for not renewing the contract was NOT as a result of the parent complaint over the nude sculpture at the museum, then the board, or the school or FISD should have explained it immediately and come out and said "this award winning, experienced teacher's contract is not being renewed because "fill-in-the-blank" and not because of the complaints raised by a parent as a result of the museum trip."

Then we'd all know why she's being let go, and also know (at least officially) that it was not as a result of the parent's complaint over the museum trip.

Until that happens, the museum trip and the subsequent complaint, immediately followed by the events reported in the press, continue to shed a bad light on FISD.

Opportunity for Mid Atlantic Photographers

Deadline: Friday, October 6, 2006

PhotoGenesis: McLean Project for the Arts - All Mid-Atlantic artists (DC, VA, MD, PA, NJ, DE, WV) are invited to submit up to 20 slides or digital images of 2 or 3 dimensional, installation or video works completed within the last two years and not previously exhibited at MPA.

Works that spring from photographic images, ideas or techniques will be considered. Work may, but need not necessarily remain within the realm of photography to be included in the exhibit. Works that move beyond the traditional forms of the medium are encouraged.

The jurors will consider the first four images for exhibit. These four must be available. Works must fit through a 81” x 65” doorway.

Awards: Cash prizes totaling $1,500 will be awarded by the jurors.

Jurors: Stephen Bennett Phillips is currently curator at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Claudia Bohn-Spector is a freelance writer and curator specializing in American and European art and photography. Charles Brock is associate curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Entry Fee: $25. Fee waived for current MPA members. Fee includes one-year artist membership to MPA. Make checks payable to: McLean Project for the Arts.

Images: Artists may submit up to twenty 35 mm slides in a slide sheet or twenty digital images on a CD or up to 10 minutes of recorded material.

For further information, visit: www.mpaart.org, email Nancy Sausser: nsausser@mpaart.org, Phone: 703.790.1953, TDD 703.827.8255.

McLean Project for the Arts
1234 Ingleside Avenue
McLean, VA 22101

Tonite in Philly

Tonite, starting at 6PM at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Print Center is sponsoring a lecture by internationally renowned camera obscura artist Abelardo Morell.

He will discuss his career and the recent work he has made in conjunction with The Print Center and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. A book signing of his recent book, Abelardo Morell published by Phaidon Press, will immediately follow the lecture. Books will be available for purchase in the Museum Store.

Abelardo Morell transformed Gallery #171 in the Modern and Contemporary wing of The Philadelphia Museum of Art into a camera obscura. Through a small hole in one of the gallery’s windows the image of the museum’s East Entrance becomes a piece of art on display along with The Soothsayer’s Recompense (1913) by Surrealist artist Giorgio de Chirico.

When I lived in Scotland in the late 80s, one of my favorite places to visit when in Edinburgh was the 1850's Camera Obscura in the Outlook Tower, which shows constantly rotating panoramic views of one of Europe's most beautiful cities.

New DC gallery

Galerie Myrtis announces its grand opening with an exhibition featuring works by African-American and African artists including: Selma Burke, Ed Love, Folusho Akomlede, Sylvester Mubayi, Joseph Holston, William Tolliver, Edward Chiwara, Velphia Mzimba, Lois Mailou Jones, Danny Simmons, Ben Macala, Hargreaves Ntukwana, Viola Burley Leak, Charles Sebree, Thokozani Mathobela, Winston Saoli, Samella Lewis, Ellen Powell Tibernio, and David Mbele.

Date: October 20, 2006
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Galerie Myrtis
500 9th Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

RSVP: Phone: 202/548-7575
Email: collectors@creativeartisans.net

Please RSVP by October 10, 2006

Warren Craghead at GRACE

New work from Warren Craghead opens tomorrow, Friday Sept. 29 at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia, easy to find right off the Dulles Toll Road. The Opening Reception is tomorrow, Friday September 29, 6pm - 9pm with an Artist's Talk at 7PM.

Craghead likens his studio to "a bomb crater where pieces of notebook paper, cardboard, post-its, and foam lie in piles surrounded by scraps of pen and pencil drawings, string, plastic, old junk mail, and magazines."

Also showing is "The Suburban Excavation Project: Recent Work by Adam Grossi."

Kudos to GRACE, whose exhibition program this past year has been vigorously renovated and has certainly offered some exciting new work. Don't miss this show!

Miya Ando Stanoff at Ligne Roset

Bay area artist Miya Ando Stanoff's minimalist works on steel canvas make their DC area debut with an exhibition at Ligne Roset DC.

There will be a champagne reception for the artist on September 30, 2006 from 12-6PM. Ligne Roset is at 3306 M Street NW, Washington DC 20007.

Miya is a graduate of UC Berkeley and attended Yale University where she studied East Asian Buddhist Iconography. Half-Japanese and half-Russian, she was raised bilingually and in two cultures, living both in her family's Buddhist temple in Japan and in Northern California. She comes from a tradition of metalworking, as she is the descendant of Bizen sword maker Ando Yoshiro Masakatsu.

Freedom at Heliport

In an exhibition titled "Freedom," Gateway's Heliport Gallery in Silver Spring, Maryland, features the works of four artists that have left their respective countries due to socio-political strife. According to the news release, the exhibit is not overtly political, nor does it shout oppression. On the other hand, it shows four artists at different stages in their careers that have each used art and their new found freedom as a means for emotional release and chance to redefine themselves.

An example is Dr. Kyi May Kaung. While growing up in Burma, Dr. Kaung was only allowed to paint realistic images because the government could understand them. Abstract art was more or less forbidden. Conversely, now living here in the US, Dr. Kaung is now exploring the boundaries of abstract art for the first time.

The exhibit includes work by Machyar Gleunta, Dr. Kyi May Kaung, Win Pe and Hatim Eltayeb Mahmed Ali Elmaki.

The opening reception is Friday, October 6 fro 6-9 PM.

Ellyn Weiss at Nevin Kelly

The Nevin Kelly Gallery will host a solo exhibition of new works by Bethesda artist Ellyn Weiss from October 4 until October 29, 2006. The exhibition, titled "Circular Reasoning," includes two series of new works. The first is a series of oil bar paintings on wood that shares its title with the show itself. The second is a series of woodblock monoprints on paper called "Bioelectronics." An opening reception with the artist will be held on Thursday, October 5 from 6 until 9 o'clock p.m. The public is invited. The gallery is located at 1517 U Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Sydney McGee

I've spent all day in the DC area, and when I returned home tonight I had my inbox full of emails from readers asking if I had seen this.

Sydney McGee is an art teacher (with 28 years of experience) who has been fired by the Frisco, Texas school board because this Fisher Elementary School art teacher took 89 fifth-graders on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art last April and then some of the fifth graders reported to their parents that they had seen "a nude sculpture at the art museum."

Then the parents "raised concern..."

And then she was put on paid administrative leave...

And now the Frisco, Texas school board has voted not to renew her contract after 28 years.

[Anger]

Does the Frisco, Texas school board realize that these actions appear to put them a century or two ahead of the Islamofascists that I am sure they all abhor?

According to the Dallas Morning News:

Ms. McGee, who has taught in various Texas districts for 28 years, said she visited the museum and spoke with museum staffers before the trip to ensure that it was appropriate for the fifth-grade class. Ms. McGee said she does not know which piece of art offended the parent, and the district did not identify it.

Ms. McGee said principal Nancy Lawson called her into a meeting the day after the trip to admonish her about the parent's complaint. Shortly thereafter, she received a negative review and a series of directives about displaying student artwork and creating lesson plans.

"You have to start somewhere when you've seen things you don't believe are in the best interest of the students," Superintendent Rick Reedy said.

Quick to appear to shift the blame, "board members said there were other performance issues in question beyond the trip complaint."

Aw Texas... can't take you anywhere...

Options:

1. Frisco School Board immediately should prohibit any and all school trips to any museums or any other venues where any art nudity or nudity in any other form is present.

2. All Texas museums within school bus driving distance of Frisco, Texas should immediately (a) get rid of all nude artworks or (b) cover them up whenever the Frisco kids show up.

3. Frisco voters should fire all these Friscidiots on the Board.

Here's what we can do:

Email a note of support for Sydney McGee to Buddy Minett President of the Frisco School Board. Or write to him at:

Buddy Minett
President
8548 Scott Circle
Frisco, TX 75036

If you write, be courteous and intelligent.

Tapedude in Holland

Dutch television with a really good clip on DC's Mark Jenkins' street installation in the Netherlands .

See it here.

And see Jenkin's babies first words here. The installations were curated by Fleur Kolk in Rotterdam.

I wonder when DC museum curators will "discover" Jenkins.

I've said it before

Whatever you do, never piss off Bailey.

Bailey, who has spent (and documented) a ton of time in New Orleans, does a Bailey on Robert Polidori's After the Flood.

Read it here.

Art by Students

The AP's Joan Loviglio had an interesting article in the Philly Inquirer about art by students being the latest rage.

"If there's an art to collecting art, Susan Guill just might be considered an old master.

For about 15 years, she has been attending the annual student exhibition at the esteemed Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Nearly every wall in her Bala Cynwyd home is adorned with the work of an academy student; she purchased five student paintings at this year's show alone.

But in recent years, the crowds have become larger and the art gets snapped up even faster."

Buying student artwork has always been a great idea for young collectors and collectors on a limited budget. Savvy collectors and smart art dealers have always known that keeping an eye on what the art schools are delivering is a proven way to stay fresh and ahead of the game.

"Tilton Gallery in New York City has successfully brought the work of art students to its commercial gallery. Gallery director Janine Cirincione told The New Yorker that a show this year called "School Days" featuring art by 19 graduate students from Hunter College, Columbia and Yale University was 70 percent sold before the opening. Prices ranged from $2,000 to $16,000."

In the Greater DC area, over the last few years, Conner Contemporary, Fraser Gallery and Irvine Contemporary have all regularly had student shows and consistently included work by art students in their exhibition schedules. In the Greater Philly area, according to the article: "this year, the Pennsylvania Academy's 105th annual student show broke all previous sales records, raising $313,000 in its three-week run... and about 350 works of art were sold, some priced as high as $15,000."

I know of at least one major ubercollector, based in Maryland, who regularly attends students shows aroun the Mid Atlantic region, and happens to have an excellent eye (and one of the largest private art collections that I have ever seen - literally numbering in the thousands of paintings and sculptures (and lately even some videos) and who has been doing this "student art" practice for many years now.

For example, he started collecting Erik Sandberg and Andrew Wodzianski while they were both students, and has many, many paintings by Sandberg and a gigantic Wodzianski acquired while Andrew was a student at MICA.

Sandberg's latest is currently at Conner Contemporary until Oct. 28 and Wodzianski just recently had two very successful shows following his last solo at Fraser: one in Philadelphia at the Rodger Lapelle Galleries and one at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, and he has twice been a finalist for the Bethesda Painting Awards.

Needless to say, both those two young artists have gone on to bigger and better things and higher prices.

The fly in the ointment could be that:

"Some art school professors worry that early success could inappropriately influence students still defining their voice and their style to play it safe and commercial, so their works can easily sell.

"The danger is where you have critics coming into (students') studios looking for new talent; that's when it can be very disruptive," said Carol Becker, dean of faculty for The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. "You want students finding themselves, not trying to find what the market wants."

I would be curious to hear Dean Becker tell me and the rest of the world "what the market wants"?

Employment in the arts - Public Art Projects Curator

Closing Date: October 5, 2006.

Arlington County, Virginia Department of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources.

The Public Art Projects Curator structures and leads the implementation of public art and design enhancements of capital and infrastructure projects in support of the goals of the County's Public Art Master Plan and Policy.

The position entails communication and project-related activities to elevate the profile of public art and design enhancements in the County. Duties include: management of the public art design/enhancement component of capital projects; liaison to the Arlington Commission for the Arts Public Art Committee (PAC); caretaking of the Public Art Collection; education of County staff and residents; initiating/ supporting other visual arts projects such as temporary public art, exhibitions, publications and other projects. Strong organization, self-motivation and communication skills are essential. The position is located in the Cultural Affairs Division's Public Art Section, supervised by from the Public Art Administrator.

Online application required. Salary Range: $45,906 - $75,899 annually. Announcement No: 7102-7A-PRC-GW. Apply here.

The College Art Association

Deadline is ongoing

Assists artists financially in completion of MFA and Ph.D. programs. Grants of up to $5,000 are awarded to individual artists. For information, contact:
The College Art Association
Fellowship Program
275 7th Ave., New York, NY 10001
Phone: (212) 691-1051; or check website: www.collegeart.org

Art-O-Matic News

In 2004 Nils Henrik Sundqvist brought the DC area designers community into Art-O-Matic with AOM's first official poster show.

It was well received by the public, the artists and the designers, in fact, my good friend Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum, recognized the effort by adding the poster exhibit to her recommended viewing list for the 2004 show.

As we all know, this year's AOM is delayed to 2007, but they already have some amazing art contributions by 23 DC area designers and I wanted to share these with you; see them here. For more info email Nils at info@fiskdesign.net.

New PostSecret Book

The worldwide phenomenom that is Frank Warren's PostSecret project continues to grow.

A new book - My Secret: A PostSecret Book - which is a collection of secrets from young people in their teens and twenties is due out next November 1, 2006.

Order it online here and save $6.32!

And yet another new gallery

New to me anyway!

A Woman Story Gallery, is an arts venue in Alexandria, VA which primarily promotes immigrant women’s art and educates foreign-born and American artists in entrepreneurial skills for the arts market.

They're having an opening this coming Friday, Sept. 29, 2006 from 6-9PM. RSVP to Marga Fripp at cfripp@aol.com.

The featured artist of this month is Padma Prasad, an Indian-born artist whose collection depicts life, figures and the human spirit in bold and powerful colors. Her Figurative Moods exhibition runs through October 28, 2006.

New Galleries

Two new galleries will open soon or have opened in the Greater Washington, DC area:

The 9th Street Gallery, owned by Zeki Fendikoglu is located in the historic Shaw District of Washington, DC, in a circa 1880 historic brownstone building. Their website is here and their address is 1306 9th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. The gallery director is Ilknur Boray and their cuurent show is by two of the DC area's top magicians of the traditional darkroom and the digital darkroom: James Steele and Craig Sterling. The show runs through October 21, 2006.

After looking for a space for quite a while, the Randall Scott Gallery will open next November. The new gallery is located at 1326 14th street NW on the 2nd floor. That’s above Thai Tanic on the corner of 14th NW and Rhode Island in DC.

They will be working with Julia Fullerton-Batten, Larry Gipe, Margot Quan Knight, Lucy McLauchlan and Kelly Tunstall, and Josh Urso. They have also signed the super hot Amy Lin, whose minimalist work has been selling like gangbusters everywhere that she has exhibited in the last few months. Randall will also take his new gallery and artists to Art (212) in New York later this month.

They will also be developing a multiples division, Randall Scott Editions, which will publish editioned prints by various artists. Randall tells me that the first threee gallery shows will all be group shows.

Correction: Amy Lin has not signed with the Randall Scott Gallery, she was just taken to Art(21) in NYC.

Opportunity for Artists

Scrivener Creative Review welcomes submissions for art, photography, poetry, and prose. General submissions will be accepted throughout the year and considered alongside specified calls for submissions.

Email submission (in TIF format only) to scrivener.review@gmail.com. Artwork must be in black and white format and must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. The subject line must state the department to which the submission is directed. Submissions must be included as an attachment and will not be accepted if they appear in the body of an email.

Owning It

Malena Barnhart has an online blog project in which, using a scanner, she condenses everything that she owns into one tiny spot - contained at www.owningit.blogspot.com.

She says that "it deals with the nature of possession, equalizes all my 'stuff' so that my mess is on level grounds with my medicine. Originally I created this as part of a project for a visual thinking class taught by Colby Caldwell, but it has progressed since then."

Visit Owning It often!

Ideas

Just finished reading Kirkland's latest reviews of the shows at G Fine Art in Washington, DC, and my jaw dropped when I saw the paintings by Prof. Louis Cameron, an artist whose work I don't know and as far as I know, I've never met.

My jaw dropped because the paintings on exhibitions at the gallery are exactly the same subject and general size as paintings that I did in 1999-2000 from a series that I called "Digitalia" and which essentially were large paintings of my military ribbons earned while I was in the Navy.

My military ribbon paintings have an interesting story, first revealed here last year. I have also pasted it below.

It shows how two minds, apparently working apart, can come up with exact the same concept and idea. I still have perhaps 20 or so of these works, both paintings and drawings, that I did after the story below took place.

A Story That Must Be Told (Originally published Feb. 9, 2005)

As mentioned here, the McLean Center for the Arts sponsors a very good painting competition every couple of years called "Strictly Painting." It is now in its fifth iteration.

A few years ago, around 1999 or 2000, the juror for that year's version of "Strictly Painting" was Terrie Sultan, who back then was the Curator for Contemporary Art at the Corcoran. I thought that this choice was a little odd, as Ms. Sultan, in my opinion, was not "painting-friendly." In fact, with all due respect, I blame her for diminishing the Corcoran Biennials, which used to be known as the Corcoran Biennial of Painting.

As such, they were essentially the only well-known Biennial left in the nation that was strictly designed to get a look at the state of contemporary painting, which was somehow surviving its so called "death."

It was Ms. Sultan who decided to "expand" the Biennial and make it just like all other Biennials: Jack of all trades (genres) Biennials. In the process, depending on what side of this argument you're on, she (a) did a great service to the Corcoran by moving it into the center of the "genre of the moment" scene - like all other Biennials, or (b) gave away the uniqueness of the nation's top painting Biennial title.

I'm aligned with the minority who supports camp (b) but understand those who defend her decision to become just another player in camp (a). Most people think that her decision and drive were the right thing to do in order to bring the Corcoran to a world stage, and perhaps it was.

But I digress.

When she was announced as the juror, I decided to see if I could predict her painting selectivity, sensitivity, process and agenda. It was my thesis that I could predict what Ms. Sultan would pick.

So I made a bet, and decided to enter the exhibition with work created specifically to fit what I deduced would be agreeable to Ms. Sultan's tastes. I felt that I could guarantee that I would get into the show because of the transparency of the juror's personal artistic agenda. It is her right to have one; I have them, in fact, we all have them.

I was trained as a painter at the University of Washington School of Art, but around 1992 or so, I stopped painting and decided to devote myself strictly to my love for drawing. So I had not picked up a brush in several years when I decided to enter this competition, designed to survey the state of painting in our region.

It was my theory that Ms. Sultan would not be in the representational side of painting. It was also clear that she (like many curators) was seduced by technology in the form of videos, digital stuff and such trendy things.

And so I decided to see if I could marry digital stuff with painting.

And what I did was the following:

I took some of my old Navy ribbons, and scanned them in to get a digital file. I then blew them up so that the final image was quite pixilated. I then printed about five of them and took slides of the printed sheets of paper.

I then submitted these slides to the competition, but identified them as oil on canvas paintings. My plan was that if accepted, how hard could it be to whip up a couple of paintings after the fact? I titled them with such titles as Digitalism: National Defense and Digitalism: Expeditionary Medal and so on.

From what I was later told, several hundred painters submitted work. And Ms. Sultan selected about only about seven or eight painters in total. And not only was I one of them, but she picked two of my entries.

I was elated! I had hit the nail right on the head! I felt so superior in having such an insight into this intelligent woman's intellect that I (a painter no more) could create competition-specific work to get accepted into this highly regarded show.

And then I began the task of creating the two paintings, using the pixilated images as the guide.

And it turned out to be a lot harder than I thought.

For one thing, I had submitted the "paintings" in quite a large size; each painting was supposed to be six feet long.

And it didn't take me long to discover that there are a lot of color nuances and hues in an average pixilated image.

And I went through dozens and dozens of rolls of tape as I pulled off the old Washington Color School trick of taping stripes (in my case small one inch square boxes of individual colors - hundreds upon hundreds of them) in a precise sequence to prevent smudging and color peeling, etc.

I painted for at least six hours every day, switching off between paintings to allow the previous day's work to dry off enough to allow a new layer of tape to be applied. I did all the varnishing outside, which usually attracted all the small neighborhood ruffians.

It was incredibly hard work, and I was ever so sorry that I had even gotten this crazy idea. All my nights were consumed.

But eventually they were finished and delivered to MPA and Ms. Sultan even wrote some very nice things about them in the exhibition's catalog.

Me? I was in a mix of both vindication and guilt; exhausted but fired up with the often wrong sense of righteousness of the self-righteous.

After the show, I had no idea what to do with them, and they didn't fit my "body of works," but I ended up selling both of them through Sotheby's.

And today, some art collector in South Carolina and another one in Canada, each have one very large, exhausting and handsome oil painting of pixilated naval ribbons hanging in their home, in happy ignorance of the interesting story behind them.

I mentioned the adjective handsome in describing them, because a few years ago I was telling this story to Prof. John Winslow, who asked to see the images of the real paintings. When I showed him, he said that they were actually "quite handsome paintings."

I had never had my work described as "handsome" (although the Washington Post once described it as "irritating"), so it stuck in my head.

So there you have it: The story of a former painter with a point to prove about a local curator, the subsequent hard-labor punishment of the process, and a hidden story behind two handsome paintings.

Postcards from the Edge

Deadline is postmark Friday, November 10, 2006 (NO late entries)

Postcards from the Edge is an annual Visual AIDS benefit and this, its 9th year, it is being hosted and held at Sikkema, Jenkins & Co in New York City.

Postcards From the Edge is a show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks on paper by established and emerging artists. All artworks are $75 and sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The works are signed on the back and exhibited so that the artists' signatures cannot be seen. While buyers have a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until it is purchased and the signature is revealed. A collector might end up with a work by a famous artist or one they don't yet know. Either way, they walk away with a great piece of art while supporting Visual AIDS's important work. Last year Ida Applebroog acquired my art donation.

I have participated for several years and encourage all artists to join us and participate.

Hosted by Sikkema, Jenkins & Co.
530 West 22nd Street, NYC

Preview Party on World AIDS Day Friday, December 1, 2006
Benefit Sale December 2 –3, 2006.

For more information contact Visual AIDS at (212) 627-9855 or email them at info@visualaids.org.

See ya there!

Oh, Snap

Oh, Snap is a new (formerly Tubulosity) DC-based art blog by Greg Wasserstrom. Visit him often!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: October 25, 2006

Coker College's Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery is reviewing entries (all media) for solo shows in the 2007-2008 exhibition season. Send ten 35mm slides or jpeg files (they prefer 1024 x 768 pixels) on CD/DVD, list for images, statement, resume, and SASE to:

Larry Merriman
Coker College Art Dept
300 East College Av
Hartsville SC 29550.

Full prospectus here

Kirkland does DC

JT over at Thinking About Art has been hitting the key shows around the District and has several interesting reviews:

Five Shows at the Katzen.

Trawick Prize.

David FeBland at Fraser Gallery.

Robin Rose at Hemphill.

William Wegman at Adamson.

Robert Creamer at Heineman-Myers.

Nicholas and Sheila Pye at Curator's Office.

Conservative Berkeley and Rocky

Chris Gilbert, the former curator of art at the Baltimore Museum of Art (and a past Trawick Prize juror I believe), a while back resigned his position as a curator at the Berkeley Museum of Art & Pacific Film Archive and has now quit the "system."

Gilbert resigned over disagreements caused by the exhibition "Now-Time Venezuela: Media Along the Path of the Bolivarian Process".

In his statement Gilbert states:

"...they have said they wanted "neutrality" and "balance" whereas I have always said that instead my approach is about commitment, support, and alignment -- in brief, taking sides with and promoting revolution."

Gilbert then discusses

"...the fact that the museum, the bourgeois values it promotes via the institution of contemporary art (contemporary art of the past 30 years is really in most respects simply the cultural arm of upper-class power) are not really those of any class but its own. Importantly the museum and the bourgeoisie will always deny the role of class interests in this: they will always maintain that the kinds of cultural production they promote are more difficult, smarter, more sophisticated -- hence the lack of response to most contemporary art is, according to them, about differences in education and sophistication rather than class interest. That this kind of claim is obscurantist and absurd is something the present exhibitions make very clear: the work of Catia TVe, which is created by people in the popular (working-class) neighborhoods of Caracas, is far more sophisticated than what comes out of the contemporary art of the Global North."

So what this once "insider" offers to us is the opinion (backed by his experiences) that popular artwork is inherently better than most museum-level contemporary artwork, and that the reason that contemporary museum shows are not generally accepted by the public is then rationalized by the museums and art elitists as a result of the public not being educated and sophisticated enough to understand what the artwork is all about.

But this elitist operating mode of thinking will always be denied.

Interesting; Gilbert continues:

"...it is too weak to say that museums, like universities, are deeply corrupt. They are. (And in my view the key points to discuss regarding this corruption are (1) the museum's claim to represent the public's interests when in fact serving upper-class interests and parading a carefully constructed surrogate image of the public; (2) the presence of intra-institutional press and marketing departments that really operate to hold a political line through various control techniques, only one of which is censorship; finally (3) the presence of development departments that, in mostly hidden ways, favor and flatter rich funders, giving the lie to even the sham notion of public responsibility that the museum parades)."

Now take Rocky.

In the Greater Philadelphia area, and elsewhere through newscoverage and blogs, a lot of discussions and opinions have been aired about the public return of the Rocky Balboa statue to a new spot at the foot of Eakins Oval next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The statue, which re-creates one of the most famous scenes from the original Rocky movie (and was introduced in Rocky III), was installed initially many years ago at the top of the museum steps, but was removed just a few months later when "museum officials and art aficionados argued that it was merely a movie prop and that its 'exaggerated proportions and caricature' would sully the internationally renowned museum's image."

And now the Philadelphia Arts Commission recently voted 6-2 to move the 2,000-pound, 8 foot, six inches bronze out of storage and install it permanently at the foot of Eakins Oval.

This decision has divided public opinion faster than Mrs. Clinton.

On one side of the public opinion, there's... ah... the public, which seems to me to like having its Rocky statue back as sort of a visual and touristy symbol of this blue collar, working class city.

"We're thrilled," said city Commerce Director Stephanie Naidoff. "What more wonderful a symbol of hard work and dedication is there than Rocky?"

On the other side are art academics and elitists and some art bloggers.

The two "no" votes from the Arts Commission came from Prof. Moe Brooker, an abstract painter from the Moore College of Art and Design and from Miguel Angel Corzo, the President of the University of the Arts.

"It's not a work of art and ... it doesn't belong there," said Brooker.

Corzo has suggested that he might resign from the commission over the vote, saying that "placing the pugilist near the museum goes against the commission's desire to 'raise the standards of the city.'"

I wonder what side Chris Gilbert would take: the side shuddering at the thought of the Italian Stallion sullying the image of the museum, or the masses, rushing up the 72 steps to the museum only to find that the statue is not there and then having to ask where the Eakins Oval is.

By the way, according to Google, the words "Conservative Berkeley" have been used together only just over 100 times in the billions and billions of pages that make up the web.

Yo Adrian!

New writer at the CP

From Erik Wemple (WCP editor):

Dear Colleagues:

Allow me to announce that Washington City Paper has hired a columnist for our S&T column. Her name is Jessica Gould, and she comes to us from the Northwest/Dupont/Georgetown Current.

She has a wonderful and direct writing style and her passion is arts reporting [underlines are mine], which she's eager to do in a column format for Washington City Paper. She's used to writing up to five stories a week, so she can crank news copy like no one's biz.

She starts on Oct. 12.

We all welcome Jessica!

Looking Through a Lens

"The eruption in the media and on photo blogs last week over an image taken on 9/11 by the German photographer Thomas Hoepker--and the glib interpretation put upon it by Frank Rich in the New York Times--has proved once again that we don't need Photoshop to doctor the meaning of an image."

Art critic Richard Woodward discusses in the WSJ the war of words triggered in the blogsphere by this photograph depicting five young Brooklynites on the Brooklyn waterfront seemingly engaged in a fun and relaxed conversation while the WTC burns in the background.

As reported by David Friend in his book "Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11," Herr Hoepker, who never spoke to his subjects, saw the New Yorkers in the photograph as "totally relaxed like any normal afternoon. They were just chatting away. It's possible they lost people and cared, but they were not stirred by it. . . .I can only speculate [but they] didn't seem to care."

Read here what happened next.

In Latin America

Just finished doing a massive piece for a chain of Latin American newspapers covering the fine arts scene in the Greater Washington, DC region. I'm now hoping to sell them on doing the same thing for some of the other major art scenes in the Mid Atlantic.

More later...

Philly Art Falls Guide

...the town that birthed Thomas Eakins is pushing paint again this fall.

Roberta Fallon, writing in the Philadelphia Weekly, gives us a preview to the visual arts highlights coming this fall. Read it here.

In her superb co-blog, Roberta also visits the newest gallery in Philly.

Cerulean Arts is owned by Michael Kowbuz and Tina Rocha, and located at 1355 Ridge Avenue. Their grand opening show includes work by Astrid Bowlby, Pat Boyer, Eric Brown, John Bybee, Alexander Cheves, Michael Kowbuz, Nancy Lewis, Yuri Makoveychuk, Meg McDevitt, Hiro Sakaguchi, Mark Shetabi and Kevin Strickland.

According to Fallon, the gallery's "exhibition program is not locked down yet but the pair said they'd have six-week shows, not month-long. Artists who will be featured in upcoming solo or group shows are Sara Roche, Alexander Cheves, Jeffrey Tritt, Binod Shrestha, Hiro Sakaguchi and Yuri Makoveychuk."

Wyeths

Went to the Brandywine Museum to see Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat and will be writing a review for a couple of newspapers and also a review here. Stay tuned.

While there I was lucky enough to run into the fair Victoria Wyeth, grandaughter of Andrew and niece of Jamie, who gave us all a terrific tour of the museum with a lot of great personal insights into the Wyeth family.

Black Artists of DC

Black Artists of DC (BADC) is a community of artists formed in 1999 whose purpose is to "promote, develop and validate the cultural and artistic expressions of artists of African ancestry in the Washington, DC metropolitan area."

The exhibit "Convergence of Vision: The Power of Art," showing at the Prince George's Community College's (PGCC) Marlborough Gallery from September 18th through October 12th will be the group's first showing at a public venue and will feature the work of 34 of the group's artists.

"As a group, BADC seeks to engage and educate our community in the history and value of Black art," says Claudia Gibson-Hunter, BADC facilitator. "There is such a wealth of artistic talent in the Washington metropolitan area, and we want to expose our community to the hidden treasures they have right in their own backyards."

Details here.

Bummer

No Artomatic this year. The NOMA building that they were negotiating for has not come through, despite their best efforts. The AOM crew is working hard to make AOM happen in 2007.

Detail here.

Trashball

Chris Goodwin has started a blog called Trashball! that documents some of the stuff that he finds (much of it in his PT job driving a dump truck). Much of the trash that he finds will end up in one of his two Trashball! machines: One is currently at Warehouse on 7th Street and the other at Busboys and Poets on 14th street in DC.

Visit Trashball! often!

Survey

The Indianapolis Museum of Art announced today that it is planning the first full-scale survey of the critically acclaimed Afro-Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons.

New Baltimore Studios

A dozen artists or so have been renovating around 24,000 feet of the former Lombard Office Furniture spaces located at 122 West North Avenue (at Howard Street) just across the Howard Street bridge from MICA in Baltimore.

They're having their first event on Saturday, January 28th from noon to 4:00pm. RSVP to Daniel Stuelpnagel at danstuelpnagel@yahoo.com or call him at 415/203-7739.

Gordiany's Grille

A couple of nights ago I went out to a Widener University function, and afterwards we drove around looking for a place to eat.

We drove down Baltimore Pike, and eventually ended up in a little restaurant in Clifton Heights, PA called Gordiany's Grille.

Let me summarize this find in one word: WOW!

We expected to find a small, local place, with maybe some decent food. Located at 252 West Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights, PA, the place looks nice from the outside, but unassuming and like a regular neighborhood joint.

It is all that, but the food was amazing!

The chef is a beefy guy nicknamed "Zus" - "It's from Hay-Sus," explained Kelly the waitress. "It's Spanish for Jesus."

And the food was divine! And so affordable!

Imagine a place where you can can a huge plate of clams in a wine and onion and Italian sausage concoction for under nine bucks (and I mean huge). It's called "Drunken Clams" and it was great.

The table next to me ordered a steak, and Jesus came out with a slab of meat on a board to discuss how she wanted it cut with the lady who ordered it. They settled on a "butterfly" cut.

When the pasta dish that we ordered came to us, it brough "ooohs" and "aaahs" from the locals at the place, as it was a sight to see, as the crab legs had been arranged is such a fashion that the huge plate looked like a work of edible art.

Unlike the ritzy places that give you three strands of pasta, this dish was also massive, and I ended up taking half of it home.

This was a truly memorable discovery, everything on the meny is under $20, and I look forward to visiting this little jewel many times. They are located at 252 West Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights, PA, and their phone is 610/259-4060.

Stephen Wiltshire

I was first exposed to the amazing skills of Stephen Wiltshire when I was living in the United Kingdom in the late 80's.

His first words were "pencil" and "paper," first spoken when he was five. He is called "the living camera."

But this video is amazing.