Grants for Maryland Artists

2008 Individual Artist Awards Deadline: July 26, 2007

The Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards are grants awarded to Maryland artists through an anonymous, competitive process to encourage and sustain their pursuit of artistic excellence.

2008 Artistic Categories

* Dance: Solo Performance
* Fiction
* Media
* Music: Solo Instrumental Performance
* Music: Solo Vocal Performance
* Theater: Solo Performance
* Visual Arts: Computer Arts
* Visual Arts: Installation and other genre
* Visual Arts: Painting
* Visual Arts: Works on Paper

The MSAC Individual Artist Awards Program is administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. IAA applications will no longer be printed and mailed to you, you must read or download them from the Internet. All Individual Artist Award applicants now have the option to use eGRANT, an electronic grant application that allows you to submit your application via the Internet.

For information on the application and workshops, contact Adam Bernstein at the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation at adam@midatlanticarts.org or call 410-539-6656, ext. 114. TTY Maryland Relay at 711.

New Gallery Blog

DC's Randall Scott Gallery has a new blog! Visit it often here.

Tonight in DC

Wanna go to what has been called "the wildest monthly art event in the DC metro area?"

It's "X at Bebar - A 21st Century Live-Art Happening" from 6 - 10 pm ($5 cover charge).

Bebar is at 1318 9th St NW, Washington, DC. Curated by Andrea Pollan, this month's X will feature live PA performances from Calmer (Brooklyn, Poly Vibe) and Luseq (DC, grafq) as well as work by graphic artists Alex Gold, Amit Kumar and Jon Sexton, a Performance by Belladona, Projections from Peter Parker, fashion by Beth B., and live painting by Sheldon Drake.

Congrats

To Maryland photographer Denee Barr, whose mixed media photograph "Trees and Path, Centennial Lake, Columbia, Maryland" appears in the Washington Post's Best Bets Howard Extra.

The image is part of her mini-retrospective Denee Barr Photographs Columbia, Maryland 1999-2006 at the Columbia Foundation in the American City Building on Lake Kittamaquandi, Columbia, Maryland. The year long exhibit is part of Columbia's 40 Birthday Celebrations and the Columbia Festival of the Arts, and also features Ellicott City, Maryland based artist Alice Webb watercolors and etchings.

Denee's blog Denee Barr Art News and More is also on the blogroll.

Congratulations

To Baltimore painter Matthew Klos, winner of the $10,000 Bethesda Painting Award. Loads of photos here.


Above is Matthew Klos with the amazing and generous Carol Trawick, who sponsors the annual painting prize. The 2007 winners are:

Best in Show: Matthew Klos
Second Place: Cara Ober
Third Place: Maggie Michael
I have not seen the show, but the Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan did and he's written a terrific review of the exhibition which is due to be published tomorrow in the WaPo.

Read it here. O'Sullivan questions some of the award choices while lauding some of the artists and even throwing a pretty good jab at finalist David Krueger's painting.

O'Sullivan pick (I think) is Richmond artist Fiona Ross, and putting on a judge's hat, my pick would have been Baltimore artist Cara Ober. The jurors were Dr. Brandon Brame Fortune, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery, Professor W.C. Richardson, Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Maryland and Professor Tanja Softic’, who is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Richmond.

Regardless, any good art prize is always full of opinions and surprises, and this major painting prize is a good thing for area painters, for Bethesda, for the District and for art.

New DC Arts Blog

DC gallerina Rebecca Jones, who is the Assistant Director at Project 4, has just recently started a blog featuring both articles exploring the critical discourse of contemporary art, and posts promoting Project 4 events, shows and artists.

Visit Popcorn here.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

The WPAC's Site Projects DC curated by Welmoed Laanstra (who just got hired to work for Arlington County's Arts division) and consisting of (con)temporary art installations, performances, and interactions on 14th street between P & V opens tomorrow at the Black Cat in DC in one of many events. 7-9pm with a tour by the curator, Welmoed Laanstra at 8pm.

Participating artists are Linda Hesh, Janis Goodman, Peter Winant, Tom Ashcraft, Kathryn Cornelius, Roberto Bocci, Michael Cataldi, Tom Greaves, Caroline Mayorga, Matthew McGuiness, Eliza Newman Saul, Franz Jantzen, Piero Passacantando, Michael Lease, Mary Coble and Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette.

See them all here.

New Drawing

While I was away in Colorado hiking in Littleton, one night I did a few drawings in my hotel room at night. Below is "Y Chromosome Nude About to Face an Unexpected Light" which is a charcoal on paper with a little conte crayon, about 13 x 9 inches. Drop me a note if you want it.

"Y Chromosome Nude About to Face an Unexpected Light"
by F. Lennox Campello, Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 13 x 9 inches c. 2007

Another St. Sebastian

A pretty well-known DC area art collector saw my recent St. Sebastian drawing, and he emailed me and reminded me that a few years ago he bought the below pen and ink wash drawing on the same subject. As I recall I think that he bought it at a Sotheby's auction, or maybe at a late 90s gallery show in DC.

Anyway... it's a pretty large drawing, maybe 40 inches long. It is titled "Saint Sebastian in a Desintegrating Gene Davis Landscape." I had forgotten all about it, and had even lost the image (thanks to a close-by lighting strike a few years ago that nuked my computer and with it a few hundred digital images of my work). Click on the image for a larger view.

Transform/Nation

There's something magnetic about the artwork of nations and people who are just beyond the reach of the average gallery and collector - thus the hot interest in Cuban and Iranian art for example.

Transform/Nation: Contemporary Art of Iran and Its Disapora opens June 21st, 2007 at the Ellipse Arts Center in Arlington, Virginia while a simultaneous, sister exhibition will be held at the Nikzad Gallery in Tehran, Iran, which implies (I assume) that the exhibitions have been blessed (no pun intended) by the heavy handed nutcase who rules that amazing and beautiful country.

Curated by Narges Bajoghli, Nikoo Paydar, Maryam Ovissi, and Leyla Pope, the exhibition runs through August 4, 2007 and the exhibiting artists are: Samira Abbassy, USA, Haleh Anvari, Iran, Kaya Behkalam, Germany, Mina Ghaziani, Iran, Pantea Karimi, USA, Bani Khoshnoudi, France, Haleh Niazmand, USA, Amir Rad, Iran, Afarin Rahmanifar, USA, Jairan Sadeghi, USA, Samineh Sarvghad, Iran, Farideh Shahsavarani, Iran, Samira Yamin, USA and Siamak Nasiri Ziba, Iran.

WalMarting a museum for Arkansas

Lately, with a rare exception here and there, it has become very fashionable among art writers, bloggers and critics to demonize the efforts of Alice Walton’s no nonsense, robber-baroness approach to give the people of Bentonville, Arkansas a world class collection of art.

Regardless of how one feels about Ms. Walton’s wealth (she's the 20th richest person on the planet) and approach to buying art, Bentonville (population: 29,538) is not a place in which many people live, much less visit, and practically no one in the art world cares about.

But needless to say, flyover states deserve a look at America's art historical tradition, too.

But other than an infectious and personal dislike by these writers for Ms. Walton’s approach, the barely hidden implication in their written words is that metropolitan areas like Seattle, Washington, Forth Worth, Texas, and St. Louis, Missouri - places that people will visit - are more natural and deserving destinations for high art for our public American masses outside of New York.

This is elitist nonsense on a major scale.

There are very few places left in this nation where the reach of internationalism doesn’t touch. Early last year I was gallivanting all around the nation, and one of the places that I visited (for the first time in my case) was Arkansas. It’s rural OK, but it’s not what urbanites visualize.

Bentonville's next door neighbor, Fayetteville (population around 67,000) is the home to the 420-acre campus of the University of Arkansas (the only comprehensive, doctoral degree-granting institution in the state). Their enrollment has more than 14,600 students (more than 12,000 in undergraduate programs) and a diverse student population with 650 international students representing 86 countries.

And this place is rated by Money magazine as one of the top ten most desirable places in the nation in which to live or work.

There are several other towns in the area. Springdale is one where the impact of Wal Mart is amazing to see — luxury retailers and gargantuan homes; a real population and cultural explosion is happening there.

It doesn’t take a futurist to predict that this area will see a major urban growth in the next few decades, and when it does, it will be grateful to the vision of Alice Walton, which is perhaps a throwback to that of the moneyed folks who a century earlier built the collections that she now shops from.

And so I think that I will step aside from the rest of the art lemmings and applaud Ms. Walton’s Soviet-style approach to art politics in her effort to give the folks of Arkansas a world class collection of art.

Not only because she has billions of dollars to do so, but also because I think that she sees the location of this museum as something positive for an America that although politicians (and both leftwing and rightwing nuts) are often quoting as underserved Americans, they all perceive as a backwater populated by people who don’t care about art.

And yet, I hope that no one will disagree in that this coming exposure of the fine arts to this hard-working, modest segment of our population, who haven't generally had the opportunity to have it so close at hand, will be a good thing.

This is something to be applauded.

You go Alice Walton!

Update: Nikolas Schiller reacts to my thoughts with some really good points of his own. Read them here.

The Power of the web

Sunday I wrote about ARCO's "Expanded Box" project being curated by Claudia Giannetti, and asked for some of DC's illuminati to contact Ms. Gianetti in order to bring to her attention some of the area artists who are working with technology as part of their art.

Last night, amongst the hundreds of emails that I am still trying to read, there was a new one from Ms. Giannetti, and she's very interested!

I will discuss with her about the area artists that I am familiar with and who work with technology, but if there's other artists out there, from Philly down to Richmond, who are working with technology to deliver works of art, please contact me (hurry!).

Somebody pinch me

Will the aliens who kidnapped WaPo art critic Blake Gopnik and replaced him with an art critic who all of a sudden likes painting, please return him accept our thanks!

Writing from the Venice Biennale, Blake is shocked and surprised to discover that he likes the paintings of Mustafa Hulusi.

Together with other "painting is dead" acolytes, the Gopnikmeister suddenly discovers that disliking an entire form of the fine arts is never a good thing.

Barbara and Aaron Levine, Renée Van Halm and Blake Gopnik: welcome to the real world where minds are open to all art forms, rather than only to slogans and agendas and ideas.

Read his report here.

Airborne again today and heading to Denver. More later...

Claudia Giannetti, ARCO and DC curators

ARCO tells me that in 2008 they will have "Expanded Box," a project curated by Claudia Giannetti, which is a new section that "embraces happening tendencies exploring the influence and/or use of technology in art. It is basically conceived for works requiring a non-conventional exhibition space, and to encourage their acceptance in the contemporary art market."

Once again, if I was a power museum curator in Washington, DC, I would contact Ms. Gianetti and ask her if she would be interested in being exposed to the work of a group of DC area artists who are doing amazing things with the influence and/or use of technology in art.

I am referring to the artwork being produced and delivered by the artists and symbiots of the group known as Dorkbot DC. From the amazing techno-art of Thomas Edwards, or Phillip Kohn's collaborative video installations, or the sensory art of the Brain Wave Chick.

Also known as Paras Kaul, or the DC area electronic artist known in the art scene as the "Brain Wave Chick."

A reader who was present at the past Dorkbot meeting tells me that the stuff that Kaul does on computers "is totally over my head, but she said her father was a hypnotist and took her into altered states then he died when she was 14 — she said 'he programmed me.'

So at the age of 14 she started studying altered states and brain waves because she desperately wanted to get back to 'these places' that her father took her. She then met the dolphin man John Lilly and did work with him (the movie Altered States is about him). See what she's doing with all that and sensors and brainwaves here.

Or take Thomas Edwards' Talking Hosts project: A server sits in a colocation facility, every few seconds bothered by Web requests from viewing hosts around the world. The hostnames of the visitors are cryptic representations of where the viewers are and which ISP they are using. "Talking Hosts" uses voice synthesis to speak the hostnames of visitors as they hit the site. It is a stream of humanity, at once personal, yet scarily unending. How many hundreds of thousands have passed through? How many more will come?

Or that annoying Sycophant from a few years ago.

If I was Claudia Giannetti I would be a very ugly and hairy woman, but I may also be curious to discover what these DC area dorkartists are doing with computers, and robotics, and programming, and animation, and ahhh... brainwaves.

And were she to get a call (and I have her number) from say Anne Ellegood or Kerry Brougher from the Hirshhorn or Jonathan Binstock from the Corcoran, maybe, just maybe, Claudia may get interested enough to contact Dorkbot and seeing and hearing, and sensing what they're all about.

It's a long shot, but a shot that a hardworking DC area museum curator with some "humpf" behind his or her title, should take on behalf of an amazing group of dorks from his/her home city.

Congrats

To Philly area artist Frank Hyder and his mural projects in Merida, Venezuela. Frank was invited to do a collaborative mural with the students from the University of the Andes, a university of 30,000 students, together with a group of students from the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia and CEVAM, the bi-national center of Merida. In two intense weeks the students and the artist realized two dynamic murals.

The first, entitled "Return to Nature," involved a Mural Arts-style transformation of an ordinary 150 ft long by about 15 ft high city building from unsightly to a painted must-see sight. The goal of this project was to teach the techniques of mural painting as it is practiced in Philadelphia, one of the nation's most expansive and successful urban mural programs, and to introduce the concept of how impactful a mural can be in an urban setting.

Congrats to Frank, the students from Moore College of Art and Design and the University of the Andes and to all those involved behind the scenes.

Frank Hyder is represented in the Philly area by Projects Gallery.

Kate baby!

A set of six Kate Moss prints by Chuck Close printed and published by DC's own Adamson Editions, Washington, DC sold for four times their top estimate at a May 31st, 2007 auction by Christie's International. Close's prints made from daguerreotype studies of the model took $166,000, compared with a high valuation of $40,000.

Adamson Editions published the series of six pigment print images of model Kate Moss, in an edition of 25 prints in 2005. In recognition of this new auction record the remaining complete sets will be priced at $80,000 for the next three sets, increasing in $20,000 increments until all remaining sets are sold.

You can view the prints online here.

Changes in Museum Admissions Price

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced changes to its pricing structure, effective July 1, 2007. The Museum is increasing general (adult) admission and discounted fees while retaining free admission to children 12 years old and younger, free admission to Philadelphia public school groups, and the popular “pay what you wish” for all visitors on Sundays. Details here.

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow in Arlington, VA?

"New Art Examined III" and "Firewave" opens tomorrow at the Arlington Arts Center in VA.

"Firewave" is a collaborative installation by David Carlson and PiT Brussel with music by Ashraf Fouad.

"New Arts Examined III" has artists selected from submissions by recent Master of Fine Arts graduates who attended universities in Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware. They are: Milana Braslavsky, Kelly Egan, Ellen Ann Gallup, Steven, Michael Hadley II, Ronald J. Longsdorf, Richard Sawka, Nanda Soderberg, Chad States, David Waddell, and Elizabeth Wade.

Bethesda Artists Markets

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the next Bethesda Artist Market.

Bethesda Artist Markets are one-day events featuring 30 local and regional artists in the Bethesda Place Plaza. Applications can be downloaded from their website.

To request a hardcopy, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Bethesda Artist Market
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

The Bethesda Artist Market will be held from 10am – 5pm in the Bethesda Place Plaza located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. The Bethesda Artist Market is produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and is free to the public.

Artists must be 18 years of age or older. All fine art and fine craft are accepted including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media, clay, wearable fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, paper, ceramics and wood are accepted. Reproductions are accepted. All booth space are 10’x10’ and all artists must provide their own white 10’X10’ tent. No staking is allowed and artists must bring their own weights.

Each artist must submit five slides of their work and one slide of their booth, application, a non-refundable entry fee of $10 and a separate check of $50 for the booth fee. Please call 301/215-6660, Ext. 17 with any questions.

Anonymous III

Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran (WPA\C) returns to Flashpoint with ANONYMOUS III, showcasing "anonymous" artworks by 100 established and emerging area artists.

Ten established area artists were invited to create 2' x 2' pieces, and serve as curators by inviting nine more artists to do the same. The resulting 100 artworks will be hung without artist identification, with creators' names being revealed only after their pieces have been purchased, making ANONYMOUS III a playful survey of contemporary art in the greater DC area and a unique art buying experience.

EXHIBITION DATES: June 7 - 23, 2007
LOCATION: Gallery at Flashpoint, 916 G Street NW, Washington DC, 20001
GALLERY HOURS: 12 - 6 pm, Tuesday - Saturday

SPECIAL EVENTS:
* Opening Preview Reception*: Thursday, June 7, 6-8 pm (*no works will be sold at the Preview)

* First day to purchase artworks: Friday, June 8, 6-8 pm

CURATORS and ARTISTS:

Seth Adelsberger, Lauren Bender, Edward Fendley, Felipe Goncalves, Seth Goodman, Dale Ihnken, Ryan Jedlicka, Nicola Knight, D'Metrius Rice, Lu Zhang, Iona Rozeal Brown, Ken Ashton, Shante Bullock, Zoe Charlton, Dissident Display (Adrian Loving + Ayodamola Okunseinde), Torkwase Dyson, DJ Eurok, Antonio McAfee, Jefferson Pinder, Bill Warrell, Cynthia Connolly, Lely Constantinople, Ginger Farnham, Maureen George, Maremi Hooff, Elizabeth Morisette, Henrik Sundqvist, Lisa Marie Thalhammer, Antonia Tricarico, Jeff, Wilson, Travis Fullerton, George Allen, Maria Dubon, Suzanna Fields, Pamela Fox, Michael Lease, Ryan McLennan, Diego Sanchez, Rob Tarbell, Robert Walz, Ian Jehle, Alan Callander, Kathryn Cornelius, Nekisha Durrett, Kelly Egan, Jennifer Foley, Jiha Moon, Andy Moon Wilson, Sara Pomerance, Carrie Stubbs,, Ledelle Moe, Hannah Brancato, Zac Jackson, Peter Karis, Jackson Martin, Ben McKee, David Page, Neal Reinalda, Cory Wagner, May Wilson, Michael Platt, Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter, Gina Marie Lewis, Harlee Little, Alice Martin, Theresa Knight McFadden, Jessa McFarlane, Gwendalin Qi Aranya, Keven Reynolds, Stan Squirewell, Noelle Tan, Ina Archer, Lily Cox-Richard, Stephanie Kuykendal, Cara Ober, Athena Robles, Kirstyn Russell, Tracey, Peirce West, Michael West, Stefan Zaklin, the super-talented Alessandra Torres, Emily Barletta, Tim Devoe, Miriam Ewers, Janelle Iglesias, Kayo Nakamura, Diana Nowitzky, Tim Scofield, Annie Song, Robin Zwizanski, Heide Trepanier, Jamie Boling, Cece Cole, Madeline Hoch, Jack Lawrence, Matthew Lively, Adrian Meyer, Monica Palma, Bret Payne, and Bruce Wilhelm.

Funding For Professional Fine Artists And Their Families

Funding for fine artists is available during times of emergency, disability, or bereavement from the Artists' Fellowship.

The Fellowship does not accept requests from performance artists, filmmakers, craft artists, hobbyists, commercial artists, or commercial photographers. For more information, contact:

Artists' Fellowship, Inc.
47 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Or call them at 646.230.9833 or visit their website here.

Hang in there...

A couple of hundred emails behind the power curve... hang in there and come back soon...

Job in the Arts

How about a paid Internship opportunity?

The Washington Glass School is looking for an intern to work with a glass artist and studio. This is a wonderful opportunity for someone to learn the business of art while broadening the scope of their material knowledge. The intern will be making molds, cutting glass, and casting glass among other duties. Prior knowledge of these techniques are not neccesary.

The appropriate candidate will possess the following skills:

~ incredible attention to detail
~ a willingness to learn new techniques and to get dirty learning them
~ an ability to work unsupervised at times
~ self motivation to do a good job
~ punctuality and ability to meet deadlines

Hours are flexable but most work must take place between Monday and Friday between 10 and 5pm. They are looking for someone to do at least 2 or 3 days a week. The salary will depend on what skills the candidate can bring to the job. Experience in glass, electronics, computers are all helpful but not required.

Please contact Tim Tate at TimTateGlass@aol.com and list your qualifications for consideration.

Beaching

Heading to the beach for the weekend. More later...

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

My good friend José Ruiz has a new installation (Descendents of Ascension) from June 2 through July 7, 2007 with an opening reception, Saturday June 2, 6:30 - 8:30 pm at DC's G Fine Art. The opening also features Lisa Marie Thalhammer and Vesna Pavlovic.

I know a major DC area (soon moving) ubercollector who has over thirty Jose Ruiz originals in his collection. Ruiz was also the first ever winner of the Trawick "Young Artist" award a few years ago.

Grants for Artists

Deadline: June 30, 2007

The George Sugarman Foundation offers annual grants to painters and sculptors who are engaged in creating new works of fine art, whose work shows promise, and who are in need of financial assistance. Grants awarded in 2006 ranged from $500 to $3,600, with the vast majority being in the $1,000 range.

Details here.

Tomorrow: First Friday Gallery Openings

Both DC and Philly hold First Friday joint gallery openings and/or extended hours.

In Philly, the Old City area galleries (around forty galleries and art venues) are open from 5 till 9 p.m. Details here.

In DC, the Dupont Circle area galleries (around 15 venues or so) are usually open from 6-8PM. Details here.

Opportunity for Artists

The Arlington Arts Center is currently accepting submissions for their solo exhibitions 2008 occurring in the Fall and Spring 2008. The AAC has seven galleries with 525 combined running feet of wall space as well as two galleries dedicated to installation, technology or other works requiring a complete environment. The grounds surrounding the AAC can also accommodate outdoor sculpture.

Eligibility: Open to all artists in all media in the Mid Atlantic States (DE, PA, MD, DC, VA, WV)

Submission Guidelines: submit up to 20 slides or JPEGs (PC compatible, 300 dpi (or smaller) files, no larger than 4 x 6 inches), along with artist statement, resume, and description of exhibition proposal.

Deadline: All entries must be received by June 25, 2007

Entry Fee: $25 for non member, $15 for AAC members

Jurors: Selected by a panel of artists, arts professionals and collectors. Panelists for the 2008 Review are collector Philip Barlow (DC), Independent Curator Angela Jerardi (Philadelphia), Claire Huschle (AAC), Carol Lukitsch (AAC), Theresa McFadden (NVCC), and Anne Hancock (AAC Board President).

More Info: To download a prospectus and view floor plan, visit www.arlingtonartscenter.org, or send a SASE to:

Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201

Jim Brossy debuts at Projects Gallery in Philly

This Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts M.F.A. graduate delivers highly textured, mixed media assemblage paintings using art materials, construction and found objects. Tar, latex, cement, wax, string and steel all make appearances in his paintings, in addition to the more traditional acrylic, pastel, pencil and oil. Found objects such as newspaper and old clothes augment the richness and narrative of the work.

His debut show “Unentitled” opens Friday June 1st, with a First Friday artist reception from 5 to 9 p.m. at Projects Gallery in Philly. The exhibition continues through July 29th.

Broken

Yesterday I had a crew over to trim some trees in my front yard, and I was a little concerned because the front of my house has a huge stained glass piece next to the main door. According to our neighbors and postal lady, it was custom made in 1961 by a famed Pennsylvania glass artist who used to live in the house when it was built that year.

So they parked their truck right in front of it in order to block it from any flying debris.

As I once described in Tentacles, there are some instances on this planet, when the laws of gravity seem to take a couple of nanoseconds off. Like when one is walking down a path, and a rock, as if by magic, jumps from the ground and lands inside your shoe. How does that happen? Is it evidence of magic? Time travel? Even if one considers a viable explanation, the most common of which is that the other shoe kicks the rock into the partner shoe, it takes some extraordinary physics and flight acrobatics to imagine a rock being kicked by one shoe, flying sideways through the air as you walk on and sliding into the other shoe. I prefer to believe that the rocks jump straight up and floats into the shoe.

And yesterday a large tree branch was cut, fell about twenty feet to the center of the yard, and a small piece of wood broke off as it hit the ground, and defying the laws and vectors of physics, it somehow managed to teleport itself to the other side of the parked truck, and travel about 25 feet and smash a hole in the only stained glass window in the whole damned house.

The Licht idea for art for the Nats

Recap: Last week I told you about a call for art for the new Nats stadium.

Then yesterday I told you that Michael Neibauer in The Examiner revealed that "plans to decorate the new Washington Nationals’ new stadium with crafts, sculpture and bronze figures are in limbo after the D.C. Council eliminated money in next year’s budget for a public arts project."

Now D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission CEO Allen Lew says in this Nats' fan blog that he will go to bat for "some sort of Washington Baseball Hall of Fame in the Stadium."


But the best idea comes from Mike Licht in this comment:

When Allen Lew worked on the DC Convention Center, $4 Million was included in the basic agreement for sculpture, paintings, and other artwork to enhance the facility. On the baseball stadium project, art was an afterthought, and now the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities has been asked to fund it, with corresponding opportunity costs for art in our residential communities.

The DC Arts Commission has tried various ways to sneak the money under the stadium budget cap (borrowing the money rather than granting it, for example), and by claiming that the custom-made, site-specific art would just be "loaned" to the stadium but still owned by the commission. That is like saying your dental work is on loan from someone else.

Public art projects like this are normally funded by the developer or tenant, and the public arts agency gives technical assistance in the art project's execution. The Commission's "exhibition game" is a "shell-game" and exhibits poor public policy, poor judgment, and questionable ethics.

It is too late to include art in the basic agreement. Here's a solution: the Lerners establish a nonprofit corporation for stadium art, throw in some bucks, get their pals to do the same, and ask the DC Arts Commission to provide technical assistance in the art project's execution.

I'll be damned if that's not a great idea that may in the end deliver both more money and better artwork to the Nats' stadium.

If done right we may end up with the best art stadium in the nation.

Let me be the first one to endorse the Licht Plan, and the second one to call for the Lerners to establish a nonprofit corporation for stadium art, for our area's deep pocketed baseball fans cum art lovers to contribute some money to it and for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to provide technical assistance in executing the project itself.

On the latter aspect, personally I would hope that the Commission follows the model of how the highly successful City Art Collection was curated: hire a hard-working curator with deep knowledge of the DC art scene (Sondra Arkin are you reading this?), give her a budget, maybe let her hire an assistant or two, and let them loose on the Greater DC area's artists' studios, homes and slide repositories.

That way you have a good chance of ending up with a really good art collection in the stadium, rather than "airportism."

The 2007 Sondheim Prize finalists

The 2007 Sondheim Prize finalists are listed below. To me the surprises are some of the artists who didn't make this finalists' list:

Richard Cleaver (Baltimore MD)

Frank Hallam Day (Washington DC)

Eric Dyer (Baltimore MD)

Geoff Grace (Baltimore MD)

Gabriel Martinez (Washington DC)

Tony Shore (Baltimore MD)

Karen Yasinsky (Baltimore MD)

You may recall that Tony Shore also won last year's Bethesda Painting Award.

Opportunity for Artists and Curators

Deadline: June 15, 2007 (Postmark)

The Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) is requesting proposals for exhibitions for its main gallery space for periods of approximately 4-6 weeks. Proposals will be accepted from artists, independent curators, or arts organizations.

Visit this website for more details.

Talking About Drawing

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 30th, 2007, from 6-9 pm, DC's Civilian Art Projects will host "Draw In."

This open to all community drawing event is organized by artist and musician Reuben Breslar. About the project, Breslar says:

"The Draw-In project, as I have come to name it, is a community awareness happening composed loosely around art environments and the act of drawing.

It is in continuum and will occur as often as possible. It combines issues of personal sincerity and interaction in the public scenario. The idea has evolved from the crossroads of two major influences in my life. The first being the joy of drawing amongst friends over drinks, and the conversation and serendipitous moments that come about from social engagement based around drawing. The second stems from issues of cultural awareness and identity- subjects that need to be addressed in the artworld as well as the public sphere amongst the contemporary artmarket and other pressing insularly 'conversations.'

My end goal is to have the event serve as a reminder as to the potential of art and the need for wholesome human relations."

When: Wednesday, May 30th, 2007, 6-9 pm

Where: Civilian Art Projects (406 7th St., NW, Floor 3 WDC 20004, 202-347-0022)

The event itself is an after work affair, an evening of drawing, drinking, eating and having a good time. Some drinks will be provided, all you have to do is show up. Please come with your materials of choice.

Art for DC baseball stadium struck out of budget

Last week I told you about a call for art for the new Nats stadium.

Now Michael Neibauer in The Examiner tells us that "plans to decorate the new Washington Nationals’ new stadium with crafts, sculpture and bronze figures are in limbo after the D.C. Council eliminated money in next year’s budget for a public arts project."

Read the article here.

Drawing!

Because drawing is my preferred genre of art, "Three Part Harmony: Definition, Delicacy and Detail in Drawing," an exhibition co-curated by Dr. Fred Ognibene and Andrea Pollan, and opening this coming Saturday, June 2, 2007 from 6 - 8 pm at Curator's Office in DC, is one show that I am really looking forward to.

The show has a powerhouse of a list of artists from the USA, Canada, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Iran, Germany, Japan, Iceland, and England, including:

Gary Batty
Sandra Cinto
Marcel Dzama
Peter Feiler
Adam Fowler
Mary Judge
Avish Khebrehzadeh
Takehito Koganezawa
Ricardo Lanzarini
Kristofer Lee
Amy Lin
A.B. Miner
Beverly Ress
Frances Richardson
Eduardo Santiere
Chris Scarborough
James Siena
Sigga Björg Siggurdardóttir
Zach Storm
Daniel Zeller
Not that they need my help, but to this list I would have added Ben Tolman, whose drawings have to be seen to be believed. Read the 2005 City Paper profile on Tolman here.

New DC gallery

A while back I told you about a new DC area gallery that would be opening next year. The WaPo's Amy Joyce has a profile on the idea for this new space and the man behind it.

Read it here.

Lawrence on artDC

Writing for Artnet, Sidney Lawrence delivers a superb discussion and review of artDC, the District's first contemporary international art fair.

Read it here.

Bin Diving

In the past we've discussed the merits of bin diving, or the art of ahh... finding art in art schools' and artists' trash bins.

My own particular practice started in art school, where anytime that I needed some stretched canvas for a new assignment I would visit the large trash bins behind the art school and always come up with a few discarded canvasses. After that I would remove the canvas, turn it around to the unpainted side, re-stretch it and bingo! a new surface to paint on.

Anyway, this Guardian story describes the recent auction of the trash from artist Francis Bacon's studio in west London, which just made £965,490 (close to two million dollars) for the garbageman who bindived for it over the years.

Venice Biennale May Start Selling Again

Most art critics and some art bloggers have this Utopian sense of writing about art exhibitions where the commerce of art is often viewed as a bad thing.

Nevermind that galleries are the second most-likely-to-fail business in the US (restaurants are the first).

The Venice Biennale, which used to sell art openly from 1942 to 1968, may be doing it again. Read the Art Newspaper article by Anna Somers Cocks here.

Opportunity for Sculptors

Deadline: Thursday, June 14, 2007

Art League Sculptors at Washington Square
August 5 – November 3, 2007

This is an opportunity for artists to exhibit large-scale three-dimensional works in a beautiful atrium exhibition space in downtown Washington, DC. Members of The Art League, Art League instructors, and Torpedo Factory artists are encouraged to submit work for jurying. Washington Square is located at 1050 Connecticut Ave, NW near the Farragut North metro (red line). A maximum of 35 pieces will be selected. Please note: large works are encouraged; there is limited space for small pieces.

2007 Calendar

• Drop off for CD with digital images, or actual work: Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 10:00 am – 5:00 pm or 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

• Jurying - Friday, June 15, 2007

• Pick-up of actual work (Artists will find out at time of pick-up if their work was accepted) Saturday, June 16, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sunday, June 17, 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm - Work not picked-up by 5:00 pm on Sunday will be assessed a $5 per day per piece storage fee.

• Digital images of accepted work due to Art League Gallery - COB, Tuesday, June 26, 2007.

• Accepted Work delivered by artist to Washington Square - Sunday August 5, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon

• Artists' reception at Washington Square - Thursday, August 9, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

• Exhibition closes - Friday, November 2, 2007

• Pick-up of work from Washington Square - Saturday, November 3, 9:30 am – 12:00 noon

Eligibility: This exhibit is open to members of The Art League, Art League instructors, or Torpedo Factory artists. Any interested artists may join The Art League at any time. If you are not currently a member and wish to submit work for this exhibition opportunity, please contact the Gallery regarding pro-rated membership rates.

Juror: John Jayson Sonnier will jury this exhibit. Sonnier, a sculpture instructor at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, specializes in garden design. Continuing the stone carving tradition, Sonnier was taught by Master Sculptor Constantine Seferlis. Sonnier’s work is currently on display at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Library; Katzen Center of Art at American University; Creative Partners Gallery, Bethesda, Maryland; Arts and Humanities Council, Silver Spring, Maryland; Art Galleries of the National Institute of Health; and at his website.

Image Specifications

• Jurying will be done from digital images submitted on CD or from the actual work.

• Digital Submissions: Artists may submit images in .tif or .jpg format on a CD. Each image can be no larger than 4” X 6”, 300 dpi, with a file size of 2 MB or less. Label each image file with the artist’s last name and the number of the image, i.e. “Smith_1”. Please write artists last name on top of CD with black marker. CDs will not be returned. *Artists who submit CDs may call the gallery as early as Saturday, June 16 to find out if their work was accepted into the exhibit.

• CDs must be accompanied by a hard copy, typed image checklist with numbers corresponding to image numbers on the CD. The list must also include: title, medium, dimensions (h” x w” x d”), sale price or if Not for Sale (NFS) the insurance value. Please also include all of your contact information (name, address, phone, and email).

• CD submissions can be mailed to The Art League Gallery to arrive no later than June 14th or brought to gallery during drop off times on June 14th.

• All accepted artists must provide the gallery with digital images of their artwork by the close of business on Tuesday, June 26, 2007. This is required by the management of Washington Square. Please have images of your artwork ready ahead of time. Images should follow the above specifications.

Fees: The entry fee is $5 per sculpture. Maximum of three entries per artist. Artists bringing in actual artwork must attach an entry form to each submission.

Accepted Works: The artist must deliver accepted works in person to Washington Square, 1050 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036, on Sunday, August 6, 2007, between 10:00 am and 12:00 noon. If Washington Square management believes any works to be inappropriate for display, they retain the right to exclude or withdraw such works from the proposed exhibition. No accepted work may be withdrawn before the end of the show for any reason. Work not picked up between 9:30 am and 12:00 noon on Saturday, November 4, 2007, will be assessed an additional $25.00 per day fee. Individuals are responsible for transporting and installing their own works; the exhibit designer will determine locations for work.

Awards: Aaa awards, including cash awards, will be presented at the reception. Awards will be chosen at the discretion of the juror.

Sales: Work in this exhibit may or may not be for sale. Prices are to be determined by the artist. The Art League Gallery retains a commission of 40% from works sold from this exhibit or while the piece is being displayed at this exhibit. Payment to the artist will be mailed within 30 days after final completion of the sale. Prices should be an accurate reflection of the artist's sales history and should not be inflated.

Insurance: All reasonable care will be taken with the accepted artwork, but it is to be clearly understood by the artist that The Art League and Washington Square assume no responsibility and shall not be held responsible for any damage of any kind occurring during shipping, installation, de-installation or while on exhibit. All artists will sign a loan agreement and receipt form. Permission to photograph any work in the exhibition for publicity purposes or for documentation is considered granted.

About the Art League Gallery: The Art League Gallery is located at 105 N. Union Street in the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The Art League is a private non-profit membership organization, which provides continuous opportunities for artists to have their work judged by professionals in the visual arts.

Questions regarding the Art League Sculpures at Washington Square or The Art League may be directed to:

The Art League Gallery
105 N. Union Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-683-1780; or
email: gallery@theartleague.org

Cubans

Photographer Rachel Been has just completed a really good photo documentary addressing Miami's influential Cuban and Cuban-American population. See her photos here.

Cultural bragging follows: I think that one of the reasons for the spectacular success of the Miami-based art fairs is the economic and cultural power of Miami's Cuban ancestry population, which as anyone who has been to Miami knows, is the dominant ethnic group in that city.

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, we Cuban-Americans represent only about four percent of the 45 million or so Hispanics/Latinos that are living in the US, but unlike other Latinos, your average C-A is a Republican, disproportionally represented in Congress, and C-A average annual income is higher than that of Anglos and other non-Hispanic whites and Non-Hispanic blacks, and more than 50% of the top 100 wealthiest Hispanics in the US are Cubans as are more than 50% of the top Hispanic-owned businesses in the US.

So why do Miamians with disposable income, and New Yorkers of all ancestries with disposable income buy art, but Washingtonians and Philadelphians of the same wealth level do not?

A while back I submitted my theory for DC's case here; now working on Philly's case. More later...

Wanna go to a Virginia opening tomorrow?

Habatat Galleries

Wanna go to a Philly opening tonight?

Schmidt Dean Gallery has an opening reception for Susan Fenton: "Japan Series," and Wei Jia: "Made in China." Through June 30, 2007. Starts at 7:30PM.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow night?

"Industrials" opens this coming Saturday at Randall Scott Gallery in DC featuring works by Jackson Martin and Michael Sandstrom.


The opening reception is May 26th 6-9pm and the exhibition goes through June 16th, 2007.

Trawick Prize Semi-Finalists Announced

Thirty-two artists have been selected as semi-finalists for the fifth annual Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. The first place winner will be awarded $10,000, second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “young artist” whose birth date is after April 10, 1977 may also be awarded a $1,000 prize sponsored by the Fraser Gallery.

Travis Childers, Fairfax, VA
Mary Coble, Washington, D.C.
Eric Dyer, Baltimore, MD
Mary Early, Washington D.C.
Susan Eder & Craig Dennis, Falls Church, VA
Suzanna Fields, Richmond, VA
Inga Frick, Washington, D.C.
Eric Garner, Bethesda, MD
Jason M. Gottlieb, Potomac, MD
Jeannine Harkleroad, Chesapeake, Va
Maren Hassinger, Baltimore, MD
Linda Hesh, Alexandria, VA
Jason Horowitz, Arlington, VA
Ian Jehle, Washington D.C.
Lisa Kellner, Hanover, VA
Nathan A. Manuel, Washington, D.C.
Baby Martinez, Washington, D.C
Robert Mellor, Chatham, VA
Steve A, Prince, Hampton, VA
Beverly Ress, Silver Spring, MD
Christopher Saah, Washington, D.C.
Michael Sandstrom, Baltimore, MD
Kathleen Shafer, Washington, D.C.
Foon Sham, Springfield, VA
Jo Smail, Baltimore, MD
Judy Stone, Riverdale Park, MD
Matthew Sutton, Washington, D.C.
Rob Tarbell, Richmond, VA
Tim Tate, Washington, D.C.
JL Stewart Watson, Baltimore, MD
Bruce Wilhelm, Richmond, VA
Nicholas F. Wisniewski, Baltimore, MD
With some "new" names excepted, that list is essentially almost a "Who's Who" in the art scene of the Greater DC area - perhaps the toughest field in the Trawick's short history.

The jurors for the Trawick Prize are Rex R. Stevens, who is the Chair of the General Fine Arts & Drawing Departments at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland; Amy G. Moorefield, who is the Assistant Director and Curator of Collections for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Anderson Gallery as well as an Assistant Professor there; and the fair Anne Ellegood, who is the Associate Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden where her focus is contemporary art.

Opportunities for Artists

Call to Artists working on Women's Issues - Honfleur Gallery in DC is seeking artists working in two or more of the following themes for an upcoming project/exhibition; womens issues, feminism, nutrition, self/body image and race. Visual artists working in any media may apply. The chosen artist/team of artists will participate in programming including workshops and artist talks as a part of this project.

$4,000 of support is available to the artist or team of artists chosen. Further
inquiries should be addressed to Briony Evans, Creative Director, Honfleur Gallery, via email at bevans@archdc.org or telephone at 301-536-8994. Applications due June 4th, 2007 should include 10 slides, an artist's statement and a resume.

MICA Student Art Sale

We at Middie-A are big fans of student art sales and events.

Two annual, much-anticipated art sales take place at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) bringing together past and present students and their art. A longstanding tradition and one of Baltimore’s favorite sales exhibitions, 15x15: An Alumni Benefit Exhibition & Sale runs Saturday, June 2–Sunday, June 24 in Fox Building’s Meyerhoff Gallery at 1303 Mount Royal Avenue. A reception is held on Sunday, June 3 from 1–4 p.m. Coinciding with 15x15, the annual Graduate Art Sale takes place Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3 from noon–4 p.m. in MICA’s recently rededicated Mount Royal Station (1400 Cathedral Street); Studio Center, fourth floor (113-131 W. North Avenue); and the Fox Building.

15x15: An Alumni Benefit Exhibition & Sale features small artwork not exceeding 15 inches in any dimension (including framing, matting, and/or boxes) by more than 200 MICA alumni from across the United States and around the world. This exhibition and sale benefits the exhibiting artists, as well as current MICA students with 40% commission on the sale of any work going towards the College’s Alumni Scholarship Fund. Gallery hours for 15x15 are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday from noon–5 p.m.

MICA’s annual Graduate Art Sale provides an opportunity to see and buy outstanding contemporary art by the accomplished artists of the Hoffberger School of Painting, Mount Royal School of Art, Rinehart School of Sculpture, as well as the graduate photography and digital imaging and post-baccalaureate certificate programs. All proceeds raised benefit the artists.

"15x15: An Alumni Benefit Exhibition & Sale” runs Saturday, June 2 – Sunday, June 24, with a Reception on Sunday, June 3, 1–4 p.m.

“Graduate Art Sale” takes place Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3 from noon–4 p.m.

For more information, visit www.mica.edu or call 410-225-2300.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: June 25, 2007

The Arlington Arts Center is currently accepting submissions for Solo Exhibitions 2008 occurring in Fall and Spring 2008. The AAC has seven galleries with 525 combined running feet of wall space as well as 2 galleries dedicated to installation, technology or other works requiring a complete environment. The grounds surrounding the AAC can accommodate outdoor sculpture.

Eligibility: Open to all artists in all media in the Mid Atlantic States (DE, PA, MD, DC, VA, WV).

Submission Guidelines: submit up to 20 slides or JPEGs (PC compatible, 300 dpi (or smaller) files, no larger than 4 x 6 inches), along with artist statement, resume, and description of exhibition proposal.

Entry Fee: $25 for non member, $15 for AAC members.

Juror: selected by a panel of artists, arts professionals and collectors. Recent and/or current panelists include Stephen Phillips (Phillips Collection), Phyllis Rosenzweig (formerly of the Hirshhorn), Carole Garmon, Maria Karametou, Philip Barlow.

More Info: to download a prospectus and view floor plan, visit www.arlingtonartscenter.org, or send a SASE to 3550 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201.

NEA Bucks

The House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which sets the initial funding level for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), has just approved a $35 million increase for the NEA for its FY 2008 spending bill.

If this funding level is maintained by the Senate and signed into law by President Bush, it will represent the largest increase in NEA history.

Jury Duty

Next month I will be the juror for "Paint Alexandria," which will be on display from June 6 - July 2, 2007 at the Art League Gallery in the Torpedo Factory. I will be selecting pieces from both Art League School instructors and member artists.

Artists can join the Art League here.

Talking about the Torpedo Factory, I've been hearing good things about the Target Gallery's current exhibition, in which Target has teamed up with the Northern Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to join in the celebration of the AIA 150th Anniversary by presenting the exhibition Sense of Place. This exhibition showcases artists and architects from across the country portraying their perspective and personal interpretations on the idea of a sense of place. The exhibition goes through June 10, 2007.

DC Mural Looking for a home

DC artist Rita Elsner writes:

I'm sending out this general inquiry to some of you in the DC arts community to see if anyone may have information as to where I might be able to relocate a mural. I hope to find an organization, school, library, marketplace, etc, or possibly a grant opportunity, if one exists.

A mural that I produced for a local WholeFoods (72'w x 3'h, on 18 consecutive masonite panels), was recently removed for renovation purposes and I was fortunate to be able to retrieve it. The subject matter is a landscape depicting the four seasons and includes a small reference to the DC skyline. You can see it on my website (Go to Murals --> WholeFoodsMarket, Georgetown).

I would deliver the mural and advise/take part in its installation. In looking for a spot to relocate this painting, my priority of concerns are:

1) To find a location, in DC or w/in the beltway, that offers a "safe environment" for the piece (an indoor setting with an average amount of temperature/humidity control, away from the elements/direct sunlight) with the need to physically alter the mural for fitting/placement kept to a minimum, preferably zero.

2) To find an existing call for public art or grant that this piece may be applied to.

3) To find a recipient to accept this piece as a donation. If a recipient is found, depending on their profit status, a cash donation may be negotiated to be made to a charity of my choice in return for the mural.

If you have any suggestions/insight as to where a new home for this might be found, please let Rita know at info@ritaelsner.com.

For this Saturday in DC

Go see Robert Mellor’s opening, New Scenarios, this coming Saturday at Irvine Contemporary in DC. I am told that this Chatham, Virginia-based, Claremont MFA’s new body of work is an amazing leap forward in his multi-layered figural abstraction painting approach. He was also an awardee in last year's Trawick Prize.

The opening reception is Saturday, May 26, from 6-8 PM and the show goes through June 27, 2007.

Bethesda Painting Award Finalists

The Bethesda Painting Award finalists have been announced. They are:

Heidi Fowler, Reston, VA
Matthew Klos, Baltimore, MD
David Krueger, Hyattsville, MD
Maggie Michael, Washington, D.C.
Cara Ober, Baltimore, MD
Phyllis Plattner, Bethesda, MD
Fiona Ross, Richmond, VA

The jurors are Dr. Brandon Brame Fortune, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery; Professor W.C. Richardson, Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Maryland; Professor Tanja Softic’, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Richmond.

The finalists will be invited to display their work from June 6 - July 7, 2007 in downtown Bethesda at the Fraser Gallery. There will be an opening exhibition and announcement of the Bethesda Painting Awards winners on Friday, June 8 from 6-9pm at the gallery, held in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk.

Congratulations!

As far back as 2004 I have been telling you about this amazing young DC area artist named Jenny Davis, whom I consider to be wunderkind of an artist. When I first wrote about her, she was 15 years old, but already showing the signs of spectacular talent, and back then she was completely self-taught too.

Since then she has exhibited in several DC area art galleries, is now in college, and continues to grow as an artist at the ripe old age of 18.

And Jenny Davis just won first prize in the National Society of Arts and Letters Career Awards Competition May 19th in Tempe, Arizona.

Her watercolor painting titled Portrait of Tess was selected from a field of 19 finalists from across the country. The jurors were M. Stephen Doherty, Editor-in-Chief of American Artist Magazine; artists Robert and Louise McCall; and Dr. Mel Yoakum, Director of the F. Gilot Archives.

Before naming Jenny as the top national award winner, the NSAL presented Robert McCall with the 2007 National Gold Medallion Award for his lifetime achievements. Mr. McCall is well known for his six story tall mural in the National Air and Space Museum, among many other career highlights.

An exhibition featuring the work of the finalists is on display through June 8 in the City Hall Gallery in Tempe, Arizona.

Dawson on the Washington Body School

The WaPo's Jessica Dawson comes through with a really good review, in fact one of the better ones that she's ever delivered, of Meg Mitchell and Jeffry Cudlin's Ian and Jan: The Washington Body School at District of Columbia Arts Center.

Read Jessica's review here.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

The Nevin Kelly Gallery, located at 1517 U Street, NW, Washington, DC, will host a solo exhibition of works by Chilean-born, Washington, DC artist Joan Belmar from May 23 until June 17, 2007. The exhibition, titled Color Transparencies presents Belmar's recent work in paint, acetate and Mylar.

The gallery will host an opening reception with the artist on Thursday, May 24, from 6 until 9 o'clock p.m. The public is invited. Show runs May 23 – June 17, 2007. Opening Reception Thursday, May 24 from 6 – 9 pm.

Eve and The Lilith

In this charcoal drawing (which I also sold last week at Reston) I have tried to use all of my technical skills and creative schemes to deliver a drawing full of clues and information.

I have also used many psychological clues to deliver the full meaning of this work, at least as I intend it to be viewed. Click on it if you wish to see a larger version.


We see Eve to the left of the composition, an apple in the middle, and the mythical Lilith to the right.

According to biblical legend, after God created Adam from the dust, in response to Adam’s request for a mate, he then created Lilith from the same dust, which by then had been trod and made dirty by both Adam and the animals of Eden.

Adam and Lilith never found peace together; for when Adam wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent posture that the first man demanded.

"Why must I lie beneath you?" she asked. "I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal."

Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the forbidden and magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.

God then creates Eve from Adam’s rib and the biblical mother of the human race is thus born.

In the drawing Eve is to the left, while Lilith is to the right. The left side is closest to the heart and thus the preferred position.

Eve is solid and present, while the mythical Lilith is ephemeral and almost vanishing, as if predicting her dismissal from not only Adam’s side but from Genesis as well.

She is also covered in forbidden tattoos, as Lilith, after leaving Eden, had been living near the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore children known as “lilim,” as described by the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof.

The drawing is full of light as evidenced by the minimalist composition, and the light sources are blinding to Lilith, almost erasing her from the composition.

The light is also strong but from a different source to Eve, but this light is defining her as if the shadows have come to her life. Yet another source of light illuminates the apple.

The apple lies between Eve and Lilith, a little closer to Eve than to Lilith. We see Eve agonizing over the temptation of biting the forbidden fruit, while Lilith, quiet but resourceful, awaits the first Sin.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: June 30, 2007

McLean Project for the Arts has a Call for Entries for their MPA Artfest in McLean, Virginia.

This is a one day juried fine art and craft show and sale featuring the work of 40 local and regional visual artists. This is a brand new community festival focusing on fine art from around the mid-Atlantic region. To be held on Sunday, October 14, 2007 10 am - 5 pm in McLean Central Park, McLean, VA. (In the event of inclement weather, MPA artfest will be held in the McLean Community Center) For entry form and more information, visit this website or call 703-790-1953.

Art for the new DC baseball Stadium

Deadline: Monday, June 18, 2007 at 5 pm.

Suspended Installation. Total Budget: $200,000. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with the Washington Nationals, the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, and Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum, P.C., seeks an artist or artist team to design and create a suspended public art installation along the main concourse of the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. The goal of this public art project is to provide an exciting arts enhancement to the interior of the ballpark while celebrating the spirit of our national pastime. The work will be visible along the main concourse, across the field from Baseball Plaza, and from street level on the south side of the ballpark.

The total budget for the project is $200,000. Download the New Baseball Stadium: Suspended Installation Call for Artists here. For more information, contact Emily Blumenfeld or Meridith McKinley at art@viapartnership.com or call (314) 664-5902.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: July 6, 2007

"Driven" Call for Entries for emerging artists with disabilities. $60,000 in awards!Deadline: July 6, 2007 (midnight, MST). Sponsored by VSA arts and Volkswagen of America, Inc. Open to emerging artists with disabilities, ages 16 -25, living within the United States. No entry fee. "Driven" challenges artists to pinpoint the motivational force behind their artistic expression and to identify the catalyst that sustains their creative energy. Art must be an original work that has been completed in the last three (3) years. Eligible media includes: paintings, drawings, fine art prints, photography, computer-generated prints, and mixed media; must be presented in two dimensions. Artwork should not exceed 60 inches in either direction. Fifteen (15) finalists will be awarded a total of $60,000 in awards during an awards ceremony on Capitol Hill in September 2007, and artwork will be displayed in a nation-wide touring exhibition that debuts at the Smithsonian.

For additional information and to access the application, please visit this website. Phone 800.933.8721 x3885; Email: jenniferw@vsarts.org. Alternative formats of the application are available upon request.

Some comments on outdoor fine arts festivals

Video by the Right Reverend... to my left you can see both "St. Sebastian" and "Superman Flying Naked." They're both now in a private collection in Northern Virginia.

Superman Flying Naked

Below is "Superman Flying Naked," charcoal on paper with a little conte crayon. The same collector who last weekend bought "St. Sebastian," also picked up this drawing of the man of steel in the nude. Click on it for a larger image.

Two "new" collectors

New to me anyway.

This WaPo article by Allan Lengel discusses the fact that "an 11-story, 136,000-square-foot office building under construction at 10th and K streets NW in downtown Washington will include two art galleries.

The galleries, located in hallways on the lobby and the penthouse floor, will be lined with black-and-white pictures by the late Ezra Stoller, a renowned architectural photographer known for his use of light and space."

Good for the buildings and the people who will work there. But the key intelligence item in this article is that we also learn that the building is being developed by the Tower Cos. of North Bethesda and the Lenkin Company Management of Bethesda.

"Both owners are heavy art collectors," said Marnie L. Abramson, a principal at Tower.

Did all you gallerists and art dealers hear that?

Let the Googling of the owners of these two companies begin, let the invitations to openings begin to flow, and let's see if they're really "heavy art collectors."

I hope so... DC needs them.

Tuss on Weiss

Katie Tuss recently spoke with artist Ellyn Weiss at the Touchstone Gallery, where Weiss and fellow Touchstone artist Rima Schulkind are showing recent work in the main gallery space through June 3, 2007. Weiss’s Fortune Cookies series is comprised of 11 large panels and three sets of smaller panels, all brimming with striking colors and layers of additive and subtractive pigment, text, and ephemera.

Katie Tuss: You seem to be having a very busy spring with your current show at Touchstone, your involvement with Artomatic both as an artist and as a board member, and your role as an artist and curator for the current show No Representation at the Warehouse Gallery. As if this isn’t enough, what else do you have coming up?

Ellyn Weiss: It has been a very busy spring! All great, all fun experiences! Any time you can meet other people and see other people’s work, you have to do it. In June, I will also have 12 to 15 monoprints from my Time of War series in the back room at the Nevin Kelly Gallery. They are all one of a kind prints and use a reductive process. After June, my life is over!

KT: What was it like being on the curatorial side of No Representation?

EW: I had co-curated the Artomatic poster show at the Warehouse, but I was amazed by No Representation. We just got together and made lists of who we would love to have, paired it down and emailed everyone. I think everyone, except one person, was ready to participate. The show really demonstrates what’s happening in abstract art in DC, everyone really rose to the occasion. There are so many talented artists, we just need more people to buy.

KT: You have a JD from Boston University and previously practiced law. How did you come to be involved in the arts and specifically in the art scene in the DC area?

EW: I practiced law for 25 years, but I have always been involved in art. I made art on weekends, in the summer, and I took a lot of classes. I practiced law until I had enough money to quit and do this full time.

KT: How did quitting change things?

EW: Quitting and going full time was important. Art is like anything, the more you do it, the better you get. And things changed when I discovered these large 40 by 60 pieces of paper. The size allowed for my gestural movements. Then I discovered the pigment sticks—they have the consistency of butter. I don’t use brushes, haven’t used them in years. I found the pigment sticks on accident on R&F’s website.

KT: Your artist statement says that you admire art that speaks directly to the viewer without mediation or explanation. Do you think that art becomes more valid when the viewer understands the concepts behind the work, or should the visual experience speak for itself?

EW: I can not get myself interested in work that doesn’t capture me viscerally; if it doesn’t work in the first five seconds.

KT: Are you conscious of this when creating your own work?

EW: Yes. I’m conscious of the visceral as I work. Sometimes a work can get to a place that is seductive, yet unfinished, and I just keep going. It’s hard, but I know it can get better.

KT: Why is layering important? What do you learn about the paintings as you add and subtract?

EW: The paintings always start with words, words that have meaning. The letters inform the first shapes. The Fortune Cookie series is the first time I have used readable text.

KT: The Fortune Cookie series is bold and colorful, with wide marks and layers of mixed media, including hundreds of fortunes you have collected over the years printed on pattern paper and collaged into your paintings. In June, the Nevin Kelly Gallery will show some of your Time of War monoprints. These works seem very different. Are the two series or styles of work connected or influenced by the other?

EW: They are very different. The Time of War series comes from feeling frustrated with the war, with innocent people dying, people that we don’t even count. Michael Mazur, one of the founding spirits of the Fine Arts Work Center was teaching a print making workshop that I participated in and he said to do whatever moves you, and I started with wanting to use this reductive process, got into it, and he didn’t say anything to me for the week long duration of the workshop. At the end of the week, Mazur said that he wanted to talk to me. He told me that it was an impressive body of work and that he hadn’t said anything to me because he could tell I was so focused. The goal of the Time of War series was to convey strong emotion as simply as possible. They are dark, there isn’t a lot of happiness in that work. I don’t know if I will do it again.

All done

Done with two days of sunny and windy weather at the 16th Annual Greater Reston Arts Center Fine Arts Festival, where I had a great fair and sold over twenty drawings and an equal amount of prints. More later...

Heading to DC this weekend

I'll be in the DC area this whole weekend, as I will be hawking drawings at the 16th Annual Greater Reston Arts Center Fine Arts Festival on the streets of the Reston Town Center, May 19 and 20, 2007.

Around 60,000 people are expected to come to the fine arts festival, which features around 160 artists' booths from all over the country as well as several Chinese artists.

I'll be in booth 508.

The 0 Project

Rosemary Feit Covey is one of those wizard artists that when you see their work, you are left speechless by both the imagery and also by the technical skill. She is by far, my favorite printmaker in the DC region.

And as if this master printmaker wasn't accomplished or acclaimed enough, she has now undertaking the "The 0 Project."

Check it out here.

Selected from among hundreds of applicants in the mid-Atlantic region, the 0 project will premier as a printed piece wrapping the Arlington Arts Center in the fall of 2007. Printed on Tyvek on an HP 500 printer, upon installation it will be fifteen feet high, wrapping 300 feet around the outside of the art center.

The 0 Project is without a doubt the most ambitious outdoor project that the AAC has taken on. And they're asking for arts supporters to join them on Friday, May 18 from 6 to 8 pm to learn more about the 0 Project and ways in which you might be involved. They're looking for help with promotion, participation, some grass roots fundraising, and various other tasks. RSVP to 703.248.6800

Photography Superstars

The remainder of the tragic Joshua P. Smith collection is being auctioned off here starting on the 19th.

Every big name in photography is included in the auction, now working its way through the auction world food chain. If memory serves me right, a while back either Sotheby's or Christie's or maybe Phillip's disposed of a large number of them, but there are still 347 lots from some of the world's best-known photographers and collected by an amazing collector.

Two DC area masters are in this auction: the legendary Lida Moser and uberphotographer Chan Chao; Smith had a great eye for photographic talent.

I don't know how many of Chan's brilliant photos Smith had in his collection, but I do know that a few years ago he bought 120 of Lida Moser's best vintage photographs. Most of those were recently acquired via auction by a German gallery.

There are some deals to be had in this auction. Don't say that I didn't warn you!

And for you vastly overpriced emerging painters out there, get a hint from this really nice Gene Davis painting in a separate auction estimated to go between $4 - $5K which is less than some Washington Color School look-alikes get these days.

The Collector

The WaPo's Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts (the Reliable Source columnists) describe the hijinks involved in ransoming off a Tim Tate sculpture and their fleeting meeting of a new DC arts activist of sorts calling himself "The Collector."

A note from this new art entity stated:

"Only through the loss of art does society value its art," it began. "This is not the end but the beginning. Whenever art is undervalued the collector will appear to remind this city that one of its most valuable assets is the creative community that is so deeply ingrained in its fabric."

Read the story in today's WaPo here.

New Drawing

Below is "St. Sebastian," which is one of my recurring subjects. It is 8 x 21 inches, charcoal and conte on 300 weight paper. Click on it for a larger image.

"St Sebastian" by F. Lennox Campello

I am also working on a piece tentatively titled "Superman Flying Naked," but you'll have to wait to see the man of steel in the nude.

This Friday

One of my favorite (and damned few that I like in this genre) performance artists is Mary Coble, and she opens her new show "Aversion" this coming Friday, May 18. 2007 at Conner Contemporary in DC.

The exhibition goes through June 30, 2007 and the opening night reception is Friday, May 18th from 6:30 to 8:30pm with a performance at 7:30PM.


Also on Thursday, May 24th at 7pm, join Mary Coble in conversation with Andy Grundberg, Chair of Photography + Photojournalism at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.