Calling all curators

This is an opportunity to submit a group proposal for exhibition, workshops, programs, and lectures at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Here are the submission details for the galleries and black box theatre. They are especially interested in multi-cultural themes that would appeal to the diverse and global community in Howard County, Maryland.

Additional inquiries can also be directed to Coleen West, Executive Director Howard County Arts Council/Howard County Center for the Arts. email: coleen@hocoarts.org and phone: (410) 313-ARTS. They are always open to collaborative programming and partnership relationships as well at the Howard County Arts Council.

FotoWeek DC = Free Corcoran

In association with FotoWeek DC, the Corcoran Gallery of Art will be offering free admission, and will remain open on Monday, Nov. 7 and Tuesday, Nov 8 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. - usually the Corc would be closed those days.

The Corcoran will also host two of the FotoWeek launch parties. FotoWeek itself begins at 5 p.m. at 1800 L Street and then moves on to the Corcoran at 8:30 p.m., with a cocktails, food, and music party.

For photographers who would like a professional commentary of their work, Portfolio Review Sessions will be held at the Corcoran on Nov. 12 between 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.- 5 p.m. The reviews will be done by curators, professional photographers, and photo editors, each taking 20-minute sessions to review individual portfolios.

More info on the reviews here.

Tickets for the Portfolio Review Session are $75 (student discounts available)and tickets to the launch party are $55 and include admission to both the opening parties at FotoWeek Central and the Corcoran.

Aqua Art Fair

Pretty psyched that my video drawings will be at the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach this coming December - almost right across the street from ABMB.

Anybody who will be in Miami for the art fairs and wants a free pass, please drop me an email.

Kristy Simmons at ACP

Artist Reception:
5:30pm - 7:30pm, Monday, November 7th

Artist Talk - 6:30pm, November 7th
Show ends May 4, 2012

See it live at show or order online:here.

American Center for Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740

O'Sullivan on Artomatic

Read it in the WaPo here.

Illustrators at Montgomery College: Brad Holland Talk!





Brad Holland is one of the most influential illustrators of the 20th Century. The New York Times, in nominating him for a Pulitzer Prize, wrote that his work goes "beyond the moment to illuminate a general condition universal in space and time. The images are sometimes brutal, but the feeling is almost always compassionate." The Washington Post has called him "an undisputed star of American Illustration," and the editors of RSVP, the artists' directory, voted him "the one artist, who in our opinion, has had the single greatest impact on the illustration field during the last twenty five years." Writing in Print magazine, critic Steven Heller concluded, "as [Jackson] Pollock redefined plastic art, Holland has radically changed the perception of illustration."

In recent years, Brad Holland has emerged as the seminal voice illuminating the complex and shifting business landscape for illustrators and their diminishing control over their copyrights and businesses. He is one of the founders of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America (IPA), the first organization in the history of American visual authorship to seek to implement a rational collective rights clearance administration for illustrators’ copyrights.

WHEN: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011, 8 - 9 p.m.

WHERE: Montgomery College School of Art + Design (Takoma Park Campus)
The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center Auditorium
930 King Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Tomorrow night: Percy Martin

Georgetown's Parish Gallery will showcase one of the DMV's most venerable and influential printmakers, Percy Martin, whose exhibition entitled “Bushmen Dreams” will open with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, October 21st and will run through November 15, 2011.

Percy Martin is a printmaker and teacher of art who has lived in the Washington, DC area since 1947. For over 25 years, he has been quietly working on a series of lush and technically complex prints detailing the daily lives and rituals of the Bushmen, a mythological people and culture born of Martin’s imagination. He studied printmaking and graphic design at the Corcoran Gallery of Art where he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1966. In 1975 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him with an Artist-in-Residence.

Mr. Martin taught private classes in etching and has been the Director of the W.D. Printmaking Workshop in Washington, DC, since 1947. He taught at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center, University of Maryland, Corcoran School of Art, printmaking to inmates at Lorton Prison, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and finally the Sidwell Friends School, from which he is now retired.

Mr. Martin has shown his work widely in the U.S., Russia, the Ukraine, and Africa. His works have been in traveling exhibitions of the Smithsonian Institution and are found in numerous private collections and the collections of the Washington Post, University of Maryland, and the National Collection of American Art.

There are a lot of DMV area artists, mostly those who were schooled around here, who received the spark of creativity from this talented artist, and I know that no art collection with any sort of focus on DMV artists, is complete without a Percy Martin in the collection.

Don't miss this show.

Postcards from the Edge



The 14th Annual Postcards from the Edge: A benefit for Visual AIDS
January 6-8, 2012
Hosted by Cheim & Read

PREVIEW PARTY: Friday, January 6, 2012 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
The only opportunity to see the entire exhibition. No sales. $85 admission.

BENEFIT SALE: $85 each.
Saturday, January 7, 2012 from 10:00 - 6:00 (*Buy four and get a bonus fifth)
Sunday, January 8, 2012 from 12:00 - 4:00 (*Buy two and get a bonus thirdhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif)
Over 1500 anonymous displayed postcard-sized masterpieces.

Postcards From the Edge is a Visual AIDS benefit show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks by established and emerging artists. All artwork is exhibited anonymously. While buyers receive a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until after purchased. With the playing field leveled, all participants can take home a piece by a famous artist, or someone who is just making their debut. Nonetheless, collectors walk away with a piece of art they love, knowing that the money raised will support HIV prevention and AIDS awareness.

Click here for more info.

Visual AIDS invites artists to donate a 4" x 6" original work on paper for our Postcards From the Edge exhibition and benefit sale. Painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and mixed media are all welcome. Artists must be 18 years or older to participate. One entry per artist.

Click here for information how you can participate.

DEADLINE: Postmark Friday, December 9, 2011

At Gallery Har Shalom

Gallery Har Shalom announces the opening of the show titled "Abstract and Real, or Not." The show features the work of five artists--Felisa Federman, Potomac, MD; Amy Kincaid, Takoma Park, MD; Julia Latein-Kimmig, Potomac, MD; Nancy Pollack, Columbia, MD, and Joyce Zipperer, Springfield, VA.

The mixed media abstracts of Felisa Federman address the human struggle to understand the natural world around them. The work presents concepts including identity, classification and powerlessness. Her concern with “inventory control” of individuals resonates visibly throughout her work.

Collage abstracts created by Amy Kincaid are experiences in structured improvisation, influenced by and in the tradition of some forms of post-modern dance and performance. They also could be described as mixing or sampling, because they involve combining, reorienting, layering, and altering unrelated snips of existing images with paint and drawing, creating layers that are built, bit by bit, over time.
Julia Latein-Kimmig displays acrylic paintings that focus on a lively exchange of line and form, old and new, plain and color, starting off with a dialogue on canvas. She enjoys the process of introducing neglected, often discarded remnants of art and infusing them with new life by combining them with fresh new line work and brushstrokes.

Nancy Pollack crafts striking wearable necklaces with silver wire using crocheting and knitting techniques, including an antique tool for tube knitting. Her knitted wire work has been published in Belle Armoire magazine. Her current artistic challenge is to see how many different things she can make with a knitted wire tube.
As a sculptor, Joyce Zipperer presents work that focuses on women's shoes and adornments. Her work addresses how women, throughout history, have been lured and influenced by trends in fashion, often discounting comfort and health issues. Using metal to create the shoes underscores an uncomfortable fit of an alluring or humorous style that we simply must wear. The hats of metal and mixed media refer to styles from vintage to present day. Wearable they are not.

For further information and directions, please call the synagogue office at 301-299-7087.

Gallery Har Shalom, Har Shalom Congregation, 11510 Falls Road, Potomac, MD.

Did anybody?

Did anybody happened to take any photos of the three people who were climbing the USAF Memorial today?

I was driving by when I noticed that there were two bodies near the top of one of the three spires. About an hour later, when I was driving by on the return leg, there was a third body and all three were on a different spire.

I assumed that they were either cleaning it or inspecting it for earthquake damage? In any event, it looked really surreal and I wished that I had a camera at the time.

Mystery Painting

Can you help identify this painting?

Mark Jenkins

The last few weeks, at openings, at (e)merge and other artsy hangouts, I've noted that one interesting item of discussion has been the drastic and (I would add) positive change that Mark Jenkins' galleries writing in the Washington Post has brought to what had been not only mostly a negative view of nearly everything and anything that DMV galleries hung on their walls, but a very small universe of galleries covered by the former freelancer that used to write the Galleries column.

Jenkins has brought a refreshing set of new eyes (new but experienced, as this guy has been writing about DMV culture for years for the WCP) to the WaPo's visual arts coverage, and I for one, welcome this new byline to the Post's scant coverage of the DMV gallery scene.

And... this Mark Jenkins is not the same Mark Jenkins who is the famous street artist.

Keeping time...


(From the archives) Even the Man of Steel has to keep time somehow... and now we know where Clark Kent keeps his clothes after a quick changeover.

Some more

Sold several drawings at Bethesda Row today - gorgeous day! Come by tomorrow...

At gallery plan b

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Friday, October 28, 2011

The gorgeous BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for their October 2012 - August 2013 exhibit season.

You can download the prospectus here.

Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.

Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.

About the Gallery: BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space located in Germantown, Maryland. With its high neutral walls and beautiful windows strategically placed it allows in just the right amount of natural light. The windows are located above the walls which makes it an ideal space for fiber art. BlackRock Center for the Arts takes pride in the eclectic group of artists we have exhibited in the gallery since 2002.

Jurors: Jack Rasmussen: Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.

Jodi Walsh: mixed medium artist, curator, national speaker, owner and Gallery Director of Gallery 555 in Washington, DC.

Carol Brown Goldberg: professional fine artist and lecturer, Carol has been exhibtiing her work locally and internationally over the past 36 years.

O Project this Saturday

A full scale version of Rosemary Feit Covey's The 0 Project will be mounted for the MoveOn.org March this Saturday. 200 masks will be distributed and two full-sized banners will be a part of the march.

What is the 0 Project you ask?

The 0 Project is an interactive participatory political art project from the mind of Rosemary Feit Covey, involving both local and global participation. The project has wrapped buildings, been projected on walls, and acted as creative catalyst for dancers, poets, musicians, and social activists. The 0 Project expresses voicelessness but also the inverse, a howl of protest. The project is designed to demonstrate that when art acts as a catalyst and invites responses, the ensuing dialogue becomes a form of art in itself. The 0 Project is collaborative by nature and open to all who wish to participate.

This weekend!


Bethesda Row Arts Festival

October 15 from 11am - 6pm and October 16 from 11am - 5pm

The 14th annual Bethesda Row Arts Festival will be held October 15th and 16th. This year the festival features the work of 185 leading fine artists and crafters from around the country. Media includes ceramics, drawings, fabrics, glass, graphics, jewelry, metalwork, paintings, pastels, photography, printmaking, sculpture, wood and 2D and 3D mixed media. The streets around Around 7200 Woodmont Ave. in Bethesda within walking distance of the Metro.

You've just gotta read this!

Paula Cleggett, the Associate Director for Policy of The Curb Center for Arts, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University, recently spent some time looking around the Greater Washington, DC area art scene and has just published one of the best articles, from the perspective of an outsider looking in, about the Greater DMV art scene that I've ever read:

Like most cities, artists, gallery owners, critics, curators, collectors and the curious weave a nebulous network to sustain a creative community. Unlike most cities, the DC art scene operates in the shadows of national monuments, free national art museums and internationally recognized art centers. Cities across the U.S. battle against the pervading myth that you can only make it as an artist in a culture-rich metropolis like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. True, DC has distinct offerings and challenges…but clear indications show that emerging artists don’t settle for DC, they choose DC.

This article explores:

How well does the region nurture emerging visual artists?
What efforts lead the way in opening new markets for local artists?
Are public and private support structures in place to attract and retain talented visual artists?
What does a Washington-based artist have to do to get noticed?

Read the whole article here.

New art gallery to open in DC

Lauren Gentile, longtime art professional and former director of Irvine Contemporary, sets up shop in Washington, D.C. After serving as the Director of Irvine Contemporary and working in the art profession for 13 years, heading to New York or Los Angeles, might be the conventional wisdom. Instead, inspired by Washington’s promise of becoming a major national platform for emerging and contemporary art, Gentile is committing her considerable talent, energy, and creativity to opening her own gallery, Contemporary Wing.

“For awhile now, there have been rumblings about the Washington’s burgeoning arts community breaking through and becoming a force for contemporary art, and I want to be a part of that change. The Rubell’s plan to open a contemporary art museum in the nation’s capitol, the recent success of the (e)merge art fair, and a committed art community, all convince me that the time is now,” according to Ms. Gentile, “Washington is an ideal destination for contemporary art, and I am prepared to invest in that vision.”

With the rounding support of her colleagues, artists and collectors, Gentile will launch Contemporary Wing on November 1. While Gentile is in the process of finalizing her Northwest Washington location, Contemporary Wing will be open for sales and appraisals, at www.contemporarywing.com.

The first exhibition, a multi-work video installation designed to run concurrently with Art Basel, Miami Beach, will take place on December 1-4, 2011 in Miami, Florida. For “Ivory Tower” artist Tiffany Carbonneau will project an original art work onto the exterior of the Marquis Miami, where the exhibit will be held. Her site specific projection will be visible from the surrounding area as well as from I-95 North and South bound, I-395, I-195, and the Venetian Causeway. Once inside the exhibit, viewers will be immersed in a conceptual and humorous feast of sight and sound. Gentile is co-curating the exhibit with New York curator Ginger Shulick, of Big Deal Arts. Participating artists include: Nia Burks, Sean Capone, Tiffany Carbonneau, Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), Paul Moakley, Phillip David Stearns and Alex Villar.

For more information about the gallery and exhibitions, please visit contemporarywing.com or contact info@contemporarywing.com

New Arts Commissioner

Congrats to Lionell Thomas, who has just been appointed as the new Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Thomas' considerable experience and deep insider knowledge of the DC art scene are alone a great qualifier for this job, but what I like best is that this new Commissioner worked his way up from the bottom to the top.

Congrats!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 7, 2011

The State University of New York at Cortland announces a call to artists for a group exhibition at the Dowd Gallery, January 18–March 2, 2012. Open to all artists nationally and internationally, to submit work for consideration that represents innovation in concept, subject or media use. All work must be the original work of the applicant, suitable for gallery installation. Full color publication produced.

Juried by committee of 5-9 professional artists. No entrance fee.

Artists are responsible for shipping fees. Selected artists may be invited for a subsequent short term visiting artist program with undergraduate studio art students including presentation of work, discussion and studio visit. The selected artist will receive a stipend of $1000 for his/her time and travel expenses. For more information contact Bryan Thomas at dowd.gallery@cortland.edu or visit the gallery website here.

On Columbus Day

If you think that you know early American history (I thought I did), then read A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz and prepare to be left not only open-mouthed but well informed and armed with a spectacular knowledge of early American history seldom discussed in school.

"By the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal"

- Michael Gannon
Prof. of History
University of Florida

Bad Art Destruction Party

Time: Thursday, October 13 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Warehouse Theater
1017 7th St NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Facebook details and RSVP here.

Tsk... tsk...

Billions of dollars in arts funding is serving a mostly wealthy, white audience that is shrinking while only a small chunk of money goes to emerging art groups that serve poorer communities that are more ethnically diverse, according to a report being released Monday.

Read the AP story here.

Two will be heading for Miami

The Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series has teamed up with Russell Simmons’ Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation to search for a new generation of cutting-edge visual artists and the show now at International Visions Gallery, showcases winning work by Washington semi-finalists.

Across all markets, a total of twenty artists will advance to the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Finale Competition exhibition, held during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2011. From that group, two finalists will be invited to exhibit at Rush Arts Gallery in New York City in February 2012.

Artists in this DC exhibition include Michael Anthony Brown, Zoma Wallace, Shaunté Gates, Julian Lytle, Farah Ahmed, Rob Chester, Edward Savwoir, Miles Burrell, Osereime J. Aimua, David Allen Harris, Cheryl Edwards, Jay Coleman, S. Ross Brown, Al Burts, Nicole Marshall, Ann Marie Williams, Victor Ekpuk, George Kochev, Eusebio Choque, Cedric Baker, Jesi Pace-Berkeley, Larry Cook, Michael Singletary, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Leonard Harris, Lawrence Charity, Helina Metaferia, Stephen Evans, Keah Fryar, Richard Thompson, Donivan York, W. James Taylor, and Tanekeya Word.

The cool thing for me is that I'm only familiar with the work of 3-4 of those named above. For information, visit the gallery’s Web site.

Percy Martin coming to Parish Gallery

Georgetown's Parish Gallery will showcase one of the DMV's most venerable and influential printmakers, Percy Martin, whose exhibition entitled “Bushmen Dreams” will open with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, October 21st and will run through November 15, 2011.

Percy Martin is a printmaker and teacher of art who has lived in the Washington, DC area since 1947. For over 25 years, he has been quietly working on a series of lush and technically complex prints detailing the daily lives and rituals of the Bushmen, a mythological people and culture born of Martin’s imagination. He studied printmaking and graphic design at the Corcoran Gallery of Art where he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1966. In 1975 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him with an Artist-in-Residence.

Mr. Martin taught private classes in etching and has been the Director of the W.D. Printmaking Workshop in Washington, DC, since 1947. He taught at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center, University of Maryland, Corcoran School of Art, printmaking to inmates at Lorton Prison, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and finally the Sidwell Friends School, from which he is now retired.

Mr. Martin has shown his work widely in the U.S., Russia, the Ukraine, and Africa. His works have been in traveling exhibitions of the Smithsonian Institution and are found in numerous private collections and the collections of the Washington Post, University of Maryland, and the National Collection of American Art.

There are a lot of DMV area artists, mostly those who were schooled around here, who received the spark of creativity from this talented artist, and I know that no art collection with any sort of focus on DMV artists, is complete without a Percy Martin in the collection.

Don't miss this show.

Heard on Univision

There are as many Americans from Latin American ancestry who despise the term "Hispanic" (my Dad is one of them) or "Latino" (he doesn't even know what that means and neither do I) as those who like that Nixonian label.

I think that Univision newscasters have begun a semantic revenge upon Non Hispanic Americans of European ancestry; lately I've noticed that they refer to this group as "Anglo-Saxons".

That ought to piss off Scots, Italians, Spaniards, French, Russians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Welsh, Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, Estonians, Finns, Laplanders, Andorrans, Belgians, Poles, Danes, and all the other folks who live from Portugal to Russia, etc. as much as being labeled under one label pisses me (and a lot of other gente) off...

You describe a Scot as an Anglo-anything; you better be ready to fight...

Heh, heh... makes my head hurt.

Airborne

Heading back home today, and almost finished with the almost 1,000 page-long A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five by the "American Tolkien" George R.R. Martin.

I told you before that I could never stomach Tolkien, but absolutely devour this guy's writing and that in my eyes Tolkien is the British G.R.R. Martin. Part of his genius is how his made-up world and characters are so human while being fantastical... and how he traps you into rooting for a character which he then kills -- because in the "real world" of savagery where they live, they would be killed.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 15, 2011

The College of Southern Maryland is seeking proposals for exhibition opportunities at the Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery. All proposals received by November 15, 2011, will be placed into consideration for the 2012 / 2013 exhibition season. They welcome proposals for solo, group, and small curated exhibitions, and encourage submissions in all media.

More information is available, and current exhibits may be previewed, at the gallery’s website here.

To submit a proposal, please send a CD containing 20 images in a single PDF format; an identifying list with titles, sizes, and media; a CV; and artist’s statement to:

Dr. H.Christian Carr
College of Southern Maryland
PO Box 810
8730 Mitchell Rd.
La Plata, MD, 20646

Applicants wishing return of their submission may include a SASE with their materials. For further information, contact ccarr@csmd.edu.

Kennicott on 30 Americans

I've been digesting Philip Kennicott's ‘30 Americans’: A challenging study of identity, currently on exhibit at the Corcoran.

As Kennicott is not the easiest writer to read, this digesting process has taken me a few days and at least one trip to the dictionary, an odd thing, I think, for someone with three degrees and a MENSA-qualifying perfect SAT score many years ago.

My thoughts on the article start with the issue that I think that because nearly every writer in this town, including art writers, are somehow cast in the shadow of Woodward and Bernstein, almost every writer in this town approaches nearly every story in this town as a possible Watergate. I like the way that I managed to sneak "in this town" multiple times in that sentence.

Because the DMV is a "town" in the smallish sense of that word; no Gotham or Metropolis like word will be used ever to describe the DMV, where everybody and everyone knows your name... right? Cheers...

But I meander.

It was sooooo predictable to see the mouth-watering effect upon art writers such as Kennicott (and others to come), to try to find a less than ethical reason for this exhibition.

And thus we get:

And that raises the issue of the second problem with “30 Americans,” the appearance of a conflict of interest in presenting a private collection at a prominent museum, especially when a financial transaction has happened between the parties. Is this a quid pro quo between the Corcoran and the Rubells that serves to boost the value of a private collection?

Never mind that:

The Rubells have categorically denied any quid pro quo, and Kristin Guiter, spokeswoman for the Corcoran, says “the two are completely unrelated.” Discussion of the “30 Americans” show began well before any plans to sell the Randall School, she says.

But Lenny, some of you are probably saying, he also admits that

A few things militate against a cynical view of the question. First, the work on display is important and needs to be seen. Second, the Rubells probably bring more prestige to the relationship than the Corcoran, which has been damaged by financial and institutional mismanagement over the past decade. Third, museums would hardly exist without courting the favor of private collectors.

Militate? ahem...

This is such a challenge for so many people around here: to write an art review about the art or artists, without a need for militation (ahem, ahem) of any sort. And if one militates (ahem, ahem, ahem) against this particular writer's cynicism, what else is there?

Envy, elitism, rancor?

See where this led? Now I need to militate my own nastiness, which is the result of a visceral reaction that screams: Not everything has a hidden, unethical root! (Note to PK: Observe how I avoided the temptation to use "Raison d'être" - in other words, I militated the temptation to sound like a cultural egghead.

Not every story is a potential Watergate.

Read PK's article here.

Airborne

Heading to the Left Coast today, and armed with the almost 1,000 page-long A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five by the "American Tolkien" George R.R. Martin.

Funny thing is that I could never stomach Tolkien, but absolutely devour this guy's writing. In my eyes Tolkien is the British G.R.R. Martin.

At the Arlington Arts Center

First and foremost, a warm welcome to Stefanie Fedor, the new Executive Director of the Arlington Arts Center. Ms. Fedor comes from the Katzen, where she was an Asst. Curator, and now takes the helm of one of the leading non profit art venues around the DMV.

And AAC's annual call for entries gave 14 emerging artists the opportunity to have solo exhibitions at the Center. This year's crop was selected by DC collector and curator Michael Pollack and independent international curator Melissa Keys, formerly of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. All of the artists will be on hand at the opening reception, which is Thursday, October 6, 2011, 6-9 pm. The artists are:

Chloe Watson: Chairmen's Gallery
Stephanie Elaine Robbins: Experimental Gallery
Arden Bendler Browning: Meyer Gallery A
Jason Irla: Truland Gallery
David D'Orio: Meyer Gallery B
Matt Dunn: Tiffany Gallery

I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the work of the three artists in this group whom are new to me, as well as the always fascinating photography of Matt Dunn (whose "bearded dude riding the chicken" photo at (e)merge was - in my opinion - the defining image for that terrific art fair).

Rough day

As some of you know, I had a small accident recently, but which aggregated to larger proportions this morning, as I headed towards McLean for their ArtFest. It seems the impact points caused an inner portion of the body metal to rub against the passenger side tires with the expected result of flat tires, which essentially wrecked my day (pun intended).

Van is in the body shop for the next two weeks.

Tomorrow: MPAartfest!

This Sunday is MPAarfest in McLean - I did it last year and it was amazing, so I'm back this Sunday.

Thus, on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 MPAartfest will transform McLean Central Park into a lively landscape of mini art galleries showcasing and offering for sale the work of a diverse group of 46 juried artists, including The Lenster.

MPAartfest includes activities to captivate art-lovers of all ages. Stroll through the Children's ArtWalk, sponsored by McLean Community Foundation and coordinated by New Dominion Women's Club, to experience the work of young artists from McLean area schools. Budding artists may create their own works of art at Innovation Station sponsored by TTR/Sotheby's International Realty.

Live model drawing, courtesy of MPA's Open Studio, will give all ages a chance to draw and an "en plein air" demonstration will help round out the festival.

The Gazebo Stage will feature a variety of live performances throughout the day. Click here for the schedule

And their food vendors will offer a wonderful selection of food and beverages for your discerning palate.

See ya there!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Wednesday, November 1, 2011 at 5 PM

The Alexandria Office of the Arts and Alexandria Commission for the Arts invite artists to submit proposals for two and three dimensional, original exhibits to be shown in one of fifteen gallery spaces during 2012-2014. Individual artists or consortia of artists, who work, study or live in the City of Alexandria are eligible. There is no entry fee to apply but a 10 percent commission will apply to all artwork sold. Each of the exhibitions will run for six months.

To be considered, each proposal must consist of:

- Completed application form
- A resume
- PC-compatible CD or a DVD with a maximum of 12 number images representing the work, each labeled with artist’s name and the title of the work
- An artist’s statement of no more than one page containing a description of the artist(s), consortium, or organizations involved in the exhibition.

Proposals (solo exhibition, consortium, or organization) must be received by Wednesday, November 1, 2011 at 5 PM by the Durant Arts Center at 1605 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, with attention to: Call for Entries 2012-2014.

Artists selected are required to sign a Loan Agreement and will be responsible for the shipping/delivery, pick-up, preparation, and installation of works to be exhibited.

More information is available at this website or contact the Office of the Arts at (703) 746-5588 or by e-mail at aca@alexandriava.gov. In the subject line, please mention “Call for Entries 2012-2014.”

This weekend: MPAartfest!

This Sunday is MPAarfest in McLean - I did it last year and it was amazing, so I'm back this Sunday.

Thus, on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 MPAartfest will transform McLean Central Park into a lively landscape of mini art galleries showcasing and offering for sale the work of a diverse group of 46 juried artists, including The Lenster.

MPAartfest includes activities to captivate art-lovers of all ages. Stroll through the Children's ArtWalk, sponsored by McLean Community Foundation and coordinated by New Dominion Women's Club, to experience the work of young artists from McLean area schools. Budding artists may create their own works of art at Innovation Station sponsored by TTR/Sotheby's International Realty.

Live model drawing, courtesy of MPA's Open Studio, will give all ages a chance to draw and an "en plein air" demonstration will help round out the festival.

The Gazebo Stage will feature a variety of live performances throughout the day. Click here for the schedule

And their food vendors will offer a wonderful selection of food and beverages for your discerning palate.

See ya there!

Tolman creatures

I am hearing all kinds of great things about Ben Tolman's show "a few more drawings..."? at The Fridge.

Wonder how he does it? Come on Sunday, October 2nd from 2-4 and learn how to design a creature with him. All ages and skill levels welcomed. Supplies are included for a suggested $20 donation

Details here.

Tonight: Contrasts at Arlington Artisphere

Artisphere presents an exhibition of large format black and white photographs by Arlington, VA based photographer Andrew Zimmermann.

The artist uses an 8 x 10 camera and traditional darkroom processes to reveal the changing forms of light, perception, and landscape. This series of images, made half in winter and half in summer in Colorado’s Front Range, presents a particular geographic place as a set of dynamic contrasts. The series shows the natural world is constantly in flux, rather than fixed and unchanging.

Andrew Zimmermann lives and works in Arlington, Virginia. His work has been influenced not only by photographers, but also by old masters such as Titian and Cezanne, and 17th century Chinese ink painters Dong Qichang and Bada Shanren.

Artisphere is located at 1101 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia. The general hours are 11AM – 11PM Monday – Friday, 11AM – 2AM Saturday, and 11AM – 9PM Sunday. The opening reception and artist talk are free and open to all.

Opening Reception: Thursday September 29, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Artist Talk at 5:30

Me in the Med


That's me and my second-born (Elise) floating in the Mediterranean around 1992... Check out that tan line! And below is a pic of her now as an actress and model...

Elise Lenna Campello

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Friday, October 28, 2011

The gorgeous BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for their October 2012 - August 2013 exhibit season.

You can download the prospectus here.

Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.

Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.

About the Gallery: BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space located in Germantown, Maryland. With its high neutral walls and beautiful windows strategically placed it allows in just the right amount of natural light. The windows are located above the walls which makes it an ideal space for fiber art. BlackRock Center for the Arts takes pride in the eclectic group of artists we have exhibited in the gallery since 2002.

Jurors: Jack Rasmussen: Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.

Jodi Walsh: mixed medium artist, curator, national speaker, owner and Gallery Director of Gallery 555 in Washington, DC.

Carol Brown Goldberg: professional fine artist and lecturer, Carol has been exhibiting her work locally and internationally over the past 36 years.

Artomatic baby!

Now that the Big Bang of (e)merge and 30 Americans has taken the DMV by storm and following in the footsteps of the DMV's amazing Artomatic's footsteps, Artomatic @ Frederick opens its doors on September 28 and runs through November 6.

Artists are occupying 27,000 sq ft in the former Frederick County Public School Central Office Building at 115 E. Church St. in historic downtown Frederick. This mega, mega, mega arts event includes 300+ visual artists and 100+ performing artists.

Did you get that performance art lovers?....... 100+ performing artists!

A ribbon cutting ceremony and "Meet the Artists" night is being held on Saturday, October 1, starting at 5 PM. More information: www.artomaticfrederick.org!

Five gets you ten that the WaPo ignores this...

Artinfo on (e)merge

So, will (e)merge return? The nation's capital, according to the fair organizers, has youth, vitality, a "tremendous interest in culture," and, perhaps most importantly of all, wealth (the suburbs of Washington include many of the wealthiest communities in the nation). All that is left is convincing the D.C. upper crust that they should be spending their money on art.

That, it seems, might prove to be harder to do than to say. As Mayer Fine Art's Lenny Campello said during a Friday lull, "A curator here would rather take a cab to Dulles to see an emerging artist in Berlin than take a cab to Georgetown to see an emerging artist at a local gallery." Still, (e)merge was a step in the right direction.

Read the whole article here.

Anne Marchand at King Street Gallery





Anne Marchand will give a short talk about her work in the show, "Of Shining Worlds: Recent Paintings by Anne Marchand" curated by Claudia Rousseau. Artist Tom Block, a scholar of medieval literature, will do a reading of poems by Rumi, the great early thirteenth century Persian mystical poet. Maurice Sedacca, a musician and composer from New York, will play a prelude and accompanying music on the the guitar and the oud, a middle eastern instrument that is the forerunner of the lute.

Location: The King Street Gallery is located on the ground floor of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center on the west side of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus off Georgia Avenue at 930 King Street. Parking is available in the West Garage, which is located immediately behind the Arts Center.

RSVP Facebook Event Page here

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center
The King Street Gallery
930 King Street
Silver Spring, MD 20910
240-567-5821

DC in American Contemporary Art magazine

Read it online here.

until every shape has found its city

Reston, VA: GRACE (Greater Reston Arts Center) is pleased to present until every shape has found its city with Evan Reed from September 29 through November 12, 2011. The exhibition explores the intersection of art, literature, and architecture through complex sculptures and drawings that transcend literal interpretations.

Using commonplace materials – lumber, plaster, wall board, and nails – Evan Reed creates fantastical sculptures that reference reality but travel beyond into the realm of imagination. His “impossible buildings” with skewed framing, walled-off rooms, and disappearing passages invite the viewer to slip through reality and enter an alternative space where architectural forms become departure points for dreams.

Reed’s diverse influences range from poetry and literature to sacred geometry and visionary architecture. His title, until every shape has found its city, is borrowed from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, a novel featuring imaginary conversations between Marco Polo and The Kublai Khan. In the book, the explorer describes his travels to the emperor through a series of evocative stories. In a similar manner, Reed invites his audience to discover his works through multiple viewpoints. By building sculpture as Calvino organized his novel through complex interlocking sections, Reed draws the viewer deeper into the mystical meanings of his work.

until every shape has found its city (all in lower case) features six large-scale sculptures and twelve drawings which incorporate diverse, multi-cultural sources. Visitors entering the gallery are met by the soaring, thirteen foot “Burj al-Shawq” (Tower of Desire) growing and evolving from its solid, spiral base into a tower of cluttered construction cranes. Drawing on a trip to Dubai during its building boom, Reed explores the conflicts between the old and the new Middle East in architecture, culture, and political upheaval.

Towards the rear of the gallery “October Hive” hangs in space just as its name implies – like a beehive suspended from a tree. In an unplanned coincidence, the sculpture’s eight interconnected chambers precisely mirror the hexagonal architecture of the GRACE gallery space. Although “October Hive’s” eight peaks resemble dormers on a traditional Cape Cod home, Reed is also referencing the round Hakka houses in

Fujian, China and eighteenth century Panopticon architecture designed so that prison guards could secretly observe inmates from a central tower.

Filling the gallery’s main front window “A Corner for Gaston and Gonzalo” extends over a built-in bench and five feet into the gallery. The sculpture’s simple, overall form is based on Reston’s nineteenth century Bowman distillery building while its center niche (the corner referred to in the title) references Reston’s more recent architecture – in particular the built-in planting boxes on Heron House balconies and the decorative sculpture and niches designed by Gonzalo Fonseca in Lake Anne. Reed made several exploratory trips around Reston gathering ideas for this site-specific work including visits to the Reston Museum and a meeting with Reston’s founder, Robert E. Simon, who discussed his intentions for the community.

The niche in “A Corner for Gaston and Gonzalo” also holds a surprise – an etched glass panel which reveals a street scene projected by a hidden camera obscura. Here Reed has brought the outside cityscape into his sculpture and given form to his title while alluding to the community’s history and hopes.

“Using architectural forms has given me a way to create a dialogue between many distinct impulses. The viewer can move through time and location. Memories of familiar forms yield to frameworks that describe a potential future or reveal a desertion of plans.” Reed’s beautifully crafted, intricate sculptures and drawings offer a rare opportunity for dialogue about our complex relationship to structures

A twenty-four page catalog accompanies the exhibition and includes an essay by Vesela Sretenovic, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.

What's the next big art event in town?

"30 Americans showcases works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades. This provocative exhibition focuses on issues of racial, sexual, and historical identity in contemporary culture while exploring the powerful influence of artistic legacy and community across generations."

Check it out online here.

(e)merge day three


That somewhat odd pic of me was taken at (e)merge by Tim Tate.

Today was the last day, and even though people traffic was a little slower, towards the 4PM hour, it increased and then suddenly there were five good sales at once: one of the very cool self contained video installations by the very young John Miles Runner (who I think was the hit of the MFA room), two paintings by Sheila Giolitti and three more drawings by yours truly.... yeah buddy!

The hot wire known as Mera Rubell dropped by the space during the day (she'd also come by the day before to chat), bringing in some of her friends and colleagues, and said some very nice things about both my work and Giolitti's paintings. Several of them stayed behind after she left, chatting and asking for business cards. That dynamo of a woman is something else, and her presence in the DC art scene is electric; I also met her gigantic husband, who is also a very nice guy.

Who was the (e)merging star from (e)merge? I predict that it will be Wilmer Wilson IV. The kid was on fire and I am told that some key collectors were picking up the photographs of his performances. Get him now (I've already have and plan to get some more).

Was (e)merge a success? Only time and 2012 will tell, but as an experienced art gallery participant (as critic, artist and dealer), I can tell you that (e)merge's success can be best measured by the fact that in its first year, it felt like an established art fair. I know, I know... were people buying art? That's the key question and the main one that gallerists use to measure a fair's success, especially in these times of financial austerity.

However, and lacking any empirical financial/sales data, it certainly "felt" like most other successful art fairs: some galleries appeared to do well, some appeared to have broken even (always a "success") and some appeared to have sold nothing. That's what happens at every art fair on the planet.

However Number Two: (e)merge is more (at least for the DMV) that just a fair:

(a) It sparked a satellite fair which in turn gestated a couple more satellites of its own; this is good for our art scene.

(b) It brought a small number of art collectors from New York and other places to DC instead of the other way around and I think they were pleased.

(c) It broke through the art apathy of the Washington Post, even if it was the typical snarkellitist diatribe of Philip Kennicott (did you notice that I've just invented a new word?) Note to the WaPo: Next time send Michael O'Sullivan please.

(d) It brought cool, new (and even snarkier) art bloggers to DC.

(e) It was a key element in getting the immensely talented Victoria F. Gaitán hooked up with Conner Contemporary.

(f) It will prove to be the launching pad for Wilmer Wilson IV's art career and I'm betting that several other unrepresented artists will be picked up by galleries.

(g) It got semi-naked people into the Skyline Hotel's pool - that's tame by Miami standards, but a first for a Washington art event.

(e)merge 2012 coming up...

(e)merge day two

Whatever ends up happening with (e)merge - and I think that good things will happen - one issue is clear: they have brought in the crowds.

People were constantly streaming in throughout the day, and very heavy at night. It is clear the buzz of (e)merge has worked in bringing in people to the Skyline Hotel, and the question now is: "is anyone selling artwork?"

I can only discuss what's happening on the third floor, since I haven't had the time or opportunity to escape room 313 and visit the other galleries on the second floor, but today was the first day that red dots began to show up in the rarified upper floor of the fair, as most of the spaces there were selling work today.

My dealer sold a massive 7 feet by 7 feet woodcut by Virginia artist John Miles Runner (currently living in Japan - see image above) to a Baltimore collector. She also sold one of my video drawings (yay!) to a well-known DC art collecting couple who have recently re-located as well as a couple of loose drawings.

That's Tim Tate below reversing the process on art paparazzi and uberartcollector Steve Krensky.



And that's someone checking out two of my video drawings. The one on the left is the one that sold.



Tomorrow is the last day - let's hope it doesn't rain when we all have to compete for the elevators to take the art to the street and reload all the vans and trucks... come see some artwork!

(e)merge day one

I never got to the pool deck last night, but I was told by reliable sources that at one time about 1500 people were jamming the Skyline's famed pool area for (e)merge's opening party.

"Some folks were jumping in the pool and swimming around in their clothes or their underwear," reported the very young reporter from one of the newspapers' covering DC's cool new art fair.

"Was anyone naked?" asked you-know-who.

"Naw..."

OK, so maybe next year.

The pre-opening party night was packed, as I reported yesterday, and (as an astute observer of the DC art scene) I can tell you that there were a lot of new faces, in addition to the usual suspects; this is a good thing... and I've never seen so many gigantic women in one place in my life. Where are all these Amazons coming from all of a sudden?

Meander: Did I mention that I was involved in a car (actually van) crash on the way to the fair? Don't ask.

I have my work in room 313, as I am being represented by MFA, my hardworking Virginia dealer.

I have three video drawings there; this is the one (which is hanging in the bathroom... oh yeah - The Lenster tricked out the head into a cool mini gallery), which has been gathering the most commentary:

Obama Agonistes. Charcoal on 300 weight paper with embedded video player and continuous loop video. Matted and framed under glass to 16 x 32 inches. Circa 2011 by F. Lennox Campello

On Thursday night, I managed to piss off members of both the vast left wing nuthouse and the even vaster right wing conspiracy.

"How dare you show our President looking so vulnerable and desperate?" questions the LWNH card-carrying member. I try to explain a little, but get interrupted: "There have been NO failures!" he almost shouts and stomps off.

Later on I catch it from the right. "I don't like the way that you pretend that this guy even cares about anything but his political agenda," notes the card-carrying member of the VRWC; I start to explain, "He's not worth the paper on this drawing," ha adds (I think) as he walks off.

Interesting how in Washington, politics even come seeping into narrative artwork; but we all knew this, right?

But that was all last night.

Tonight, after I arrived I aimed for Flashpoint and bought one of Kenny George's art slot machines; I had my eye on them last night and didn't want to become one of those "I'll be backs" who comes back and the piece is gone.

Essentially, Kenny George buys discarded slot machines, early table sized video games, pin ball machines, etc. and re-designs them so that they are each an individual work of Kenny George art. At $400 each, the fully functional slot machines (he rebuilds them) are the best deal in the entire art fair. There are two left, go buy them now.



That's me (on the left) and Kenny below, flanking my new art acquisition:



Later on the night, the amazing Mera Rubell dropped by and we spent quite a while chatting about DC and our art scene. Rubell is an amazing magnet - that's the best way that I can describe her. Before she left room 313, Sheila Giolitti's work caught her attention (always a good thing, uh?) and she popped back in and discussed it with the artist.

I had been hearing a lot of buzz about Wilmer Wilson IV's performance from various people ("His performance was amazing," noted Prof. Chawky Frenn), and later on I ran into him in the halls and Wilson was still buzzing, as he had just finished it. He looked both exhausted and primed for more action - if that's even possible.

I predict that Wilson will be offered representation this weekend: this is sort of what (e)merge is all about - at least in part - right?

Tomorrow: Back for the whole day this time.

(e)merge

(e)merge opened tonight and the joint was packed to the gills... saw lots of familiar faces, many of whom were greeted by Kristina Bilonick's crew of cheerleaders.

I didn't have much time to look at the artwork in most of the galleries, but I've already picked an amazing piece of artwork to buy from one of the galleries on the third deck - I think I'll get it tomorrow. The very quick walk-through through the ground floor revealed a lot of really good work from the individual artists showcased there.

Opening Tonight

Zenith Gallery hosts "Visual Voices" - an exhibition of DC area artists profiled in the new book "100 Artists of the Mid-Atlantic" by E. Ashley Rooney. The show at Zenith Gallery will open with a Book-signing Party with the author and artists, tonight, September 21, 6:00 – 8:30pm, and remains on display through October 29, 2011.

Visual Voices - featuring works by: Alan Binstock, Joan Danziger, Julie Girardini, Margery Goldberg, Robert Jackson, Michael Janis, Joan Konkel, Ann Marchand, Donna McCollough, Davis Morton, Carol Newmyer, Marc Rubin, Barton Rubenstein, Sica, Ellen Sinel, Betsy Stewart, Cassie Taggert, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Paul Martin Wolf, Joyce Zipperer and yours truly.

Book Party, Meet the Author and Artists

Wednesday September 21, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition: September 21 - October 29, 2011

Zenith Gallery at Chevy Chase Pavilion, second level next to Embassy Suites Chevy Chase Pavilion, 5335 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington DC 20015

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: November 15, 2011

Call For Exhibit Proposals 2012 - Photoworks Exhibit Committee

The Photoworks Exhibit Committee invites photographers to submit a proposal for a group or solo photography exhibition in 2012 at Photoworks Gallery in historic Glen Echo Park. Proposals must be received on or before the November 15, 2011 deadline.

Photography Exhibition Dates:

1. March 2 - April 9, 2012

2. June 15 - July 23, 2012

3. September 7 - October 15, 2012

4. November 16, 2012 - January 17, 2013

Deadline for Exhibit Proposal Submissions: NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Visit www.glenechophotoworks.org for more details.

Meanwhile at Obama, Japan...

Here's the gist of the story: Two artists, Joe Beddall and Gregory Coates, left DC in the mid 80’s. Long story since – they both stayed in touch having bonded over color theory (Greg was at Corcoran/Joe via Kutztown) – and eventually both end up in Pennsylvania.

And now, both get selected for Artist in Residence in – seriously – Obama, Japan, which is just north of Kyoto. They’re there now creating public sculpture, which will open this Friday – Sept. 23rd.

But, I am told that there's more DC connections: these two artists are extensions of the DC color theory school. They met in the early 80’s, appreciated art here but also moved on.

Fast forward: Obama, Japan! Is that cool or what? Check out some of the new sculptures here.

Flight woes

So I boarded my plane in San Diego on Friday around 3PM, and had a plane change in Dallas for my return to Reagan National.

Around the time that we were supposed to arrive in Dallas, I noticed that the plane was doing the racetrack flying thing that they do when they are circling the airport but not landing.

20 minutes later the pilot announces that Dallas airport is closed because of rain and lightning. It seems it has been around 100 years since it rained on Dallas, and ahh... anyway - he says that he expects that we'll get the green light to land in 20 minutes or so.

Half an hour later he announces that we will need to land in Killeen Airport because the plane is running out of fuel.

We land in Killeen, where we notice that there are a lot of other airplanes on the tarmac... waiting. The pilot comes back and says that all those planes are waiting to refuel, and it seems like there's only one refueling truck at the airport. He points out that the huge plane to our left is the same model as ours, and that we're next after them.

He continues to advise that the fuel truck can only load 5,000 pounds of fuel a trip, and thus we will need three trips (and so will the guy who's before us). A little while later the fuel truck shows up and begins to fuel the big plane who is before us in line. We start a game to time how long it takes to fuel - soon we notice that it has been 20 minutes and the truck is still fueling our neighbor.

The pilot comes on and tells us that (in case we haven't noticed) that the plane to our left is being fueled and that as soon he's done we're next. He says he expects that to be 20 minutes or so. The whole planeload of people groan, and someone shouts "bullshit!" As my fellow passenger to my left notes, it has taken over 20 minutes for the first fuel load, and since the pilot said each plane needs three loads... well... you do the math.

A few minutes later, the fuel truck departs and goes away, presumably to reload and come back for part two. To our surprise, another fuel truck shows up and begins to fuel us.

"I thought he said there was only one truck in the airport," someone notes. But the fact that apparently our pilot was wrong, is good news, as we're sucking up the first 5,000 pounds of fuel now.

Soon we notice that our neighboring plane is lighting off and moving away. "Looks like that guy decided that 5,000 pounds was good enough for him to get to Dallas," someone notes.

"Someone tell our pilot," suggest another passenger.

20 minutes later, our fueling truck departs and our pilot announces that as soon as everyone sits down, we can take off for Dallas. None of us mention that he had said (several times) something about us needing three trips to fuel up... after all this is good news, and his math hasn't been very good so far.

A fellow passenger has been listening to my tale of woe about missing my connection to DC, and she has checked the web and notes that my flight has been re-scheduled to depart at 10:56PM (original departure was around 9PM).

As we prepare to take off, it is around 10PM and we're told that the flight will take 25 minutes and we'll be at the gate at 10:39PM. Looks like I'm going to make my connection.

As we approach Dallas again, once again I notice that we're doing circles around the airport, and we actually do not land until 11PM or so - more than an hour for a 25 minute trip.

And, after we land, as I had already figured out, we're told that all the gates are occupied and we'll have to wait on the tarmac until gates open up.

An hour later, almost at midnight, we get a gate and disembark.

I stand on line to get some info on what to do next... I figure that I'm sleeping at the airport tonight. Soon the lady at the counter notices the long line and informs us all that she's closing, but that we can go to any other line for help.

I switch lines, and begin to scan the horizon for shorter lines. 20 minutes later, the same person who had been at the counter is still there and there are 4-5 people in front of me.

I notice that several counters away, a new service agent has opened a desk and there is no line. The Japanese guy behind me has noticed the same thing, but by the time he's reached for his huge carry on, I'm already ten steps ahead of him and bolting (more like hopping on one foot - more on that later...) for the open counter.

It is now almost midnight, and I ask the nice American Airlines lady when the next flight is, expecting her to say 6 or 7 am. "We have a flight leaving," she looks at her watch, "in a few minutes..." She notes the look of despair on my face. "But there are still boarding." She begins to punch numbers in to get me a ticket.

I thank her profusely, and get my ticket and groan when I see that I have to take the rail to another terminal, and then I'm bolting/hopping to Terminal A. Have I mentioned that my right foot had been killing me - for some mysterious reason - since Thursday? A really scary intense pain on the top of my foot that had me limping like an old man...

I arrive at terminal A, and limp run to my gate, which is of course the farthest one away from the rail terminal. When I get there, I note the large crowd awaiting to be board and breathe a sigh of relief, as I haven't missed the plane.

It is then that I notice that this flight is going to Dulles, rather than National. Did I mention that I had driven my van to the airport and left it at the parking lot at National Airport? So I'm heading to the wrong airport.

Oh well, I figure, at least I'll be in the DMV, and maybe I can share a cab to National from Dulles to pick up my van... I'll worry about my checked in luggage later.

An hour later, after the crew shows up, we finally take off. While we're taxing to the runway, I smell vomit and an alarmed flight attendant begins to bring bags to the guy sitting behind me. The poor bastard is clearly either suffering from food poisoning or from a massive hangover, as he throws up multiple times during the flight, especially five minutes after the attendants bring him Ginger Ale and crackers. It could have been worse: I could have been sitting next to him.

We land at Dulles around 3AM, and of course, nearly everyone's bags are missing, so a huge line forms to report the missing bags to the one bleary-eyed attendant on duty. The huge line is moving very slowly when a guy tries to cut in front, and soon a near fist fight is taking place in front of me, with a female Army general almost kicking this jerk's ass in front of us. I decide that I can report the missing bag on the phone and decide to grab a cab for National.

Soon I get to the huge line waiting for taxis, and of course, there are hardly any taxis around 4AM, so it's moving slowly. The same Army general asks if anyone is heading to National and wants to share the cab with her. Soon me and another guy join her and we're heading to National and I'm praying that the $25 bucks that I have left in cash in my wallet are enough to cover my share. The fare turns out to be $64 for all of us, so I'm safe.

I hobble over to the parking garage and begin to look for my van. To my horror, my system of remembering where my van is parked has failed me, and 45 minutes later, I'm still looking for my van and my foot is really killing me.

I give up and head to the exit gates to talk to a parking attendant and see what I need to do. As I limp to the exits, I continue to click my remote.

And then I hear my van and see it, about 50 feet in front of me, right by the exits, and nowhere where I recalled I had left it (on the lower level, by the other exit). But I don't question this complicated issue dealing with chaos theory and quantum physics and head to my van, fully expecting a tire to be flat or the battery dead.

But it all fires up OK, and soon I'm on the George Washington Parkway and heading home with a gorgeous view of Washington and once again I note what a beautiful city our capital is.

I get home around 7AM, completely exhausted, crash on my bed without waking up Alida, and smile as I hear Anderson begin to awake and he shouts: "Mamma! Mamma! Find Dadda!"

Obama Agonistes

Obama Agonistes. Charcoal on 300 weight paper with embedded video player and continuous loop video. Matted and framed under glass to 16 x 32 inches. Circa 2011 by F. Lennox Campello
The above piece is my latest exploration of marrying embedded video with drawing. You will be able to see this new piece at the coming (e)merge art fair this coming week.

The work is being presented by Mayer Fine Art, who will be in room 313 of the fair. MFA will also showcase works by DC's own Ben Tolman and self contained video installations by Tidewater area artist (currently living and working in Japan) John Miles Runner.

The new video/drawing shows the President, hugging his knees and agonizing over a variety of issues and problems during his presidency - much like the same way in which every President before him and those who will come after him are often brutalized by the weight of the White House. The extraordinary responsibility of being POTUS and the even more extraordinary demands and expectations that we leverage on all who occupy that job, is reflected on the immense internal combat depicted on this piece.

The continuous loop video plays a series of 20 appropriated news clips, cartoons and other material that deliver a conceptual tie-in to the struggling President, almost overwhelmed by his failures as much as by his successes, but nonetheless ready to continue to fight.

Matted in a white pH-balanced, acid free white mat and then framed under glass in a custom-made black wood frame to 16 x 32 inches.


Detail of Obama Agonistes, showing the embedded video being played.


Detail of Obama Agonistes, showing the drawing part of the mixed media piece

Flight from hell

I started my flight back from California yesterday and just arrived home around 7AM after unexpected landing in Killeen/Ft Hood Airport in Texas... yea.

More later on trip from hell.