The Lilith

"The Lilith." Watercolor on Paper. 7x5 inches matted and framed to 10x8 inches.

Congrats!

To DMV artist Tim Tate, winner of the 2014 Brilliance Award. Details here.

Opportunity for Artomatic 2012 Artists

Artists who participated in Artomatic 2012 are invited to exhibit in Artomatic Takes Flight opening July 25 in The Gallery Walk at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 

They'll send an email soon with details about the call for entries, online artist registration at noon on May 31, art drop off on the evening of July 18 and the morning of July 21 at the airport, and the reception on July 25.

2015 Maryland Individual Artist Awards

The 2015 Maryland Individual Artist Award guidelines and application are now available. Applicants must be full-time Maryland residents. The funding categories for 2015 include: 

• Non-Classical Music: Composition
• Non-Classical Music: Solo Performance
• Playwriting  
• Visual Arts: Crafts 
• Visual Arts: Photography   

All applications must be submitted online. Applicants can click here  to access the guidelines and application. The deadline for 2015 applications is 4:30 PM on Thursday, July 24, 2014.

The Maryland State Arts Council and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation will offer three webinars for prospective Individual Artist Award applicants that will:

  

• Address applicant eligibility, discipline categories, and work sample formats;
• Provide instructions on how to complete the online application; and
• Provide information on the submission of digital images for visual artists

Advance registration is required.

To register, please follow the link listed next to your desired webinar date.  

WEBINAR 1: June 19, 2014
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/533270558 

  

WEBINAR 2: June 21, 2014 

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM 

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/676216598

WEBINAR 3: June 25, 2014 

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM 

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/831610854 

  

An instructional video to assist artists with the application process and work sample preparation guide is also available online here. 

Questions about Fellowships or webinar registration?

Please contact Kimberly Steinle-Super at kimberly@midatlanticarts.org 

(e)merge art fair deadline approaching!

(e)merge art fair NOW ACCEPTING GALLERY, 

ARTIST APPLICATIONS ONLINE

The fourth edition of the (e)merge art fair will take place October 2-5, 2014, in Washington, DC, at the Rubell Family’s Capitol Skyline Hotel.

The DC region is home to one of the nation’s wealthiest, youngest, most highly educated populations. (e)merge provides inside access to a rapidly expanding cultural market with immense economic power.

EXHIBITOR PROSPECTUS (CLICK HERE)

ONLINE APPLICATIONS ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED

GALLERY PLATFORM APPLICATION (CLICK HERE)
The Gallery Platform application deadline is May 30 and notifications will be sent out in June.

Additional information on the EXHIBITOR SERVICES page: CLICK HERE

For additional questions/information: info@emergeartfair.com

In Bethany Beach...

Don't sign your next contract without reading this‏...

Contracts are everywhere. Whether you are a struggling artist, world renowned photographer or a gallery owner, you will be inundated with contracts from art dealers, agents, exhibitors, publishers, ad agencies, museums as well as non-art industry members like landlords and contractors. If contracts are supposed to make sure that both parties fulfill their obligations, then why are there so many …

Read more

Send off Luncheon

The Prince George's African American Museum & Cultural Center at North Brentwood in conjunction with the Museums Connect Program, will host a Luncheon on June 7 from 11:30am to 2pm at the College Park Marriott and Conference Center.

The Luncheon is to honor the teen emissaries from the Museum's Culture Keepers program at the Suitland School for the Visual and Performing Arts who journeyed to Sao Paulo Brazil as part of the Department of State's Museums Connect program.  They will share their trip, the experiences they had and the historical research and art projects they produced with their counterparts in the Afro Museo in Sao Paulo. 

Guests will also enjoy the live Steel Drum music played by young students from Pan Jamboree and the wares of talented Arts District vendors for sale.

Luncheon Tickets will be available on line beginning Monday April 28th on the Museum website at PGAAMCC.ORG.

Luncheon Tickets are $45.00 - They encourage Table sponsors of $450 for groups of 10.  Because so many wish to support the wonderful work of these highly talented students, and they can only accommodate 220 guests, they encourage early ticket purchase.

Local artists are invited to display art work for sale during the luncheon. The cost per table for art displays are $100.

For more information contact: Ms. Tracey Jones, Director of Media and Public Programs at ttjones@pgaamcc.org

ART FAIRS: AN IRRESISTIBLE FORCE IN THE ART WORLD?

Want to go to a panel discussion and reception held by the Fine Arts Committee of the New York State Bar Association Entertainment Arts & Sports Law Section?

Tuesday May, 27th from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Followed by a Wine and Cheese Reception 

Are brick and mortar art galleries the loss leaders in an art world, potentially spiraling beyond viable limits? More than ninety art fairs now define the rhythm of globalized art business. This development has profoundly altered the relationships amongst artists, gallerists, and collectors. 
The panel will explore and critique the impacts and challenges – legal, ethical and business – of the rise of art fairs. This is part of an initiative to create dialogue amongst lawyers, artists and emerging and established art professionals working in the primary or secondary markets.

Cost for the event is $15 including reception.
Registration is here. 

Panelists:

Gallerist Elizabeth Dee will report on the chances and risks that the art fairs impose, in light of the ambitious expansion that her gallery has recently embraced and her perspective as co-founder of Independent, New York.

Attorney Richard M. Lehun of Stropheus Art Law will examine the plethora of ethical and business issues that art fair participants confront.

Attorney Nicholas M. O'Donnell, a litigation partner at Sullivan & Worcester LLP, will present on the legal issues that art fairs carry with them.

Gallerist Edward Winkleman will offer an overview of the research he is conducting on art fairs in preparation for his upcoming book "Selling Contemporary Art: How to Navigate the Evolving Market" (Allworth Press).

The panel will be moderated by attorney, educator, mediator, and arbitrator Judith B. Prowda, Faculty at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and author of Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals (Lund Humphries 2013).

Heard on Univision

Every once in a while there's a commercial in Univision, where the voice over (in Spanish of course) has a "fake" accent - that is, the voice over is in Spanish as it would be spoken by a stereotypical American person who has learned Spanish.

But it is not a "real" accent, but a fake accent.

It's rather odd.

Language USA

Details here.

Help Fund Elise's Wedding

So... I've romanced the stone and pulled the first litho proof of this new set of 10 signed and numbered Frida Kahlo portraits. It is matted in a white, pH-balanced acid free museum mat and then framed under glass in an austere black wood frame to a 16x12 inches size. 

Want it? 

Then help fund my daughter Elise Campello's wedding and send her an offer via email and the highest offer by May 25th gets it! As the first proof, this piece is thus unique.

Email her here.

Nazi Art Hoarder Dies: So Who Gets the Art?

Cornelius Gurlitt, the infamous son of a Nazi art dealer, died on Tuesday at the age of 81. Gurlitt shocked the world when German police found 1,280 works from venerated artists like Picasso, Chagall and Matisse, in his Munich apartment, many of which were believed to be stolen Holocaust-era Nazi loot. The German government had been holding the works, researching their provenance in an attempt to return them to their rightful owners but Gurlitt been fighting to have these works returned to his possession. Unless proven otherwise, the works remain Gurlitt’s property. With very little progress made in discovering the provenance of these works, legal pressures had been building to return the works to Gurlitt.

Read the fascinating article here.

My suggestions for the new US Women's History Museum

This may be a surprise to some, but I don’t think that having a new US History Women’s Museum is a good idea.

Nothing against women; if you read this blog consistently, then you know that I am generally against any and all museums that segregate people by race (there are several race-centric museums in the US), ethnicity (such as the planned National Museum of the American Latino in DC), gender (such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC), or any other label, instead of leading efforts to incorporate those same people into the major museums.

And yes, I do get the point that many of those “other major museums” are essentially mostly focused on mostly men from or of European ancestry.

My original opening argument and position usually falls on deaf ears, and DC’s only Frida Kahlo painting remains in the NMWA instead of the National Gallery of Art, where it belongs. 

Nonetheless, it is my position and I’ve become used to people reacting to it by attacking me, rather than my ideas. That is, unfortunately, collateral spillage from the toxic political dialogue between the vast right wing conspiracy and the even vaster left wing nuthouse: If you disagree with someone’s political ideas/position, then you attack the person, rather than debate the ideas/position.

The new US History Women’s Museum will be built, regardless of what I think, and as such, here are some early suggestions, cough, cough…

First and foremost, mostly progressive, liberal women are allowed to be honored and included in the museum, regardless of any “firsts” or historical contributions that any overtly Republican or Conservative woman has ever made to American history. We’re not sure of Betsy Ross’ political leanings or most of those Revolutionary War women, so they’re OK, as long as the DAR is not too enthused about any particular one of them.

Contemporary women are another issue and the one where all the headlines will be made.

As such, in spite of the remarks that she made about Barack Obama, Geraldine Ferraro must be included and honored as the first woman VP candidate from a major party; but Crom save the poor curator who suggests even mentioning Sarah Palin! Second doesn’t count anyway... right?

However, because of Ms. Ferraro's Obamistic remarks, the whole female VP part of US women's history may have to be skipped all together... cough, cough...

Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman to serve in Congress, and she’ll probably need to be included, even though she was a Republican. But since that was in 1917, those were the “good” Republicans back then, so she’ll be OK. 

All the other such female political “firsts” will of course need to be there – after all they led the way: Hattie Wyatt Caraway (first elected female Senator), Nellie Tayloe Ross (first female elected governor of a state),  Esther Morris (first female judge in the US)… and so on.

Mrs. Clinton hasn’t accomplished any firsts… yet… and may have to wait and see if she gets elected in the next elections to deserve inclusion in the museum… unless Senator Elizabeth Warren decides to run also and somehow beats Mrs. Clinton and then wins the Presidential election and will thus become not only the first female President, but also the first Native American President… cough, cough…

The museum will then, in order to be progressive, have to include also female firsts according to race and ethnicity.

And in the race category, no one deserves to be there more in these segregated categories than the vibrant Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress – and in 1972 not only the first woman, but the first African American (period) whose name was nominated for President. 

She was also my Congresswoman when I lived in Brooklyn and my Congressional sponsor for the US Naval Academy. She nominated me in 1977 (and I was accepted and offered an appointment!) for the class of 1981 – I declined the appointment and instead went on to the University of Washington. When Chisholm found out, she called me and yelled at me for half an hour on the phone and damned near changed my mind. She is one of my personal heroes! If Shirley is not highlighted in this museum, I will be pissed!

The first Latina elected to Congress will be hugely problematic to include, as she is the fiery, brilliant (and very right wing) Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; a fellow peeps Cuban-American and another personal hero of mine. I suspect that she will barely get a mention. Five gets you ten that California’s very cute Loretta Sanchez gets more attention (even though California’s Lucille Roybal was elected first, and no, I am not objectifying congresswomen…).

Susana Martinez, also a Republican, will be also an issue… she’s the first Latina elected to be a governor of a US state… What’s with these Republicans electing all these minority women first? That's no way to win a war... Cough, cough...

And what will the museum do about Condoleezza Rice? After all, according to Rutgers University Professor Francois Cornilliat (who is apparently not a fan of free speech), she’s “not a role model”, and 50 or so opinionated Rutgers students think that she is a “war criminal” … Sorry Condie… cough, cough.

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space should be there… is that the best astronaut name ever? 

Mae Jamison, first African American woman in space and Ellen Ochoa, first Latina in space, will also be there… other possibilities are first Jewish woman in space, first Asian-American, etc.

Nanny Pelosi, as the first female Speaker of the House is a shoo-in and rightly deserves to be there, will be there, and it better be a damned good spot!

Although all the high schools and streets are named after Cesar Chavez, once you do a little research, one realizes that Dolores Huerta actually carried a lot of the load, did a lot of the organizing and seldom got the credit that Chavez did; reserve a spot for Huerta.

Military US women who paved the way for today’s sailors, soldiers and airwomen should also be honored and a special scientific spot as well should be reserved for Admiral Grace Hopper.

And they better have a friggin’ good spot for the incredible Civil War exploits of Loreta Janeta Velazquez, the Cuban woman otherwise known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford during the war.  Think of how many angles the museum can cover with that selection!

Will female entertainers be part of the museum? That will be entertaining to see… 

I'm pretty sure that today's Hollywood does not allow any Conservative woman to become a leading star, so we should be pretty safe from debate with anyone from the 60s onward.

If entertainers are included, don’t forget Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino  in Brooklyn) as she can cover the Hispanic angle as her father was from Spain, but not the Latina angle, as her father was… ahem, from Spain, and as some people know, Spain is actually in Europe and not Latin America… cough, cough.

Female athletes will be easy: Sports Illustrated has already assembled a list of the top 100 female athletes ever – just pick the Americans out of the list.

If only everything was that easy!

Good luck to the US History Women’s Museum; I know that your intentions are good, but you should have fought better to have American women contributions to American history better represented in the American History Museum, rather than segregating women in their own museum.

Sunday Arts section

Hey!

Guess who was in the WaPo Arts Section today!

Click on the images...

Bethesda Fine Arts Festival this weekend

This festival is one of the best ranked outdoor fine arts festivals in the nation...

It is this weekend around the Woodmont triangle in Bethesda... All free and plenty of parking.

Details at www.bethesda.org

I really need to clean up the studio...

Portnoy's Complaint, The Constitution and Fallen Angel

Below you will find three new works. 

"Fallen Angel" (From the Genesis Series). Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 2014. 27.5 x 11.5 inches. Matted and framed under glass in a black, minimalist wood frame to 28x12 inches. 

"Portnoy's Complaint" (From the Written on the Body Series). Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 2014. 11x13 inches. Matted and framed under glass in a white, minimalist wood frame to 16x20 inches. 

"The Last Copy of The Constitution" (This is version II -- also from the Written on the Body Series). Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 2014. 22x17 inches. Matted and framed under glass in a black, minimalist wood frame to 38x34 inches.

These are all available via the galleries which represent my work.
 

"Fallen Angel" (From the Genesis Series). Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 2014. 27.5 x 11.5 inches. Matted and framed under glass in a black, minimalist wood frame to 28x12 inches.

"Fallen Angel" (Detail)

"Portnoy's Complaint" (From the Written on the Body Series) by F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 2014. 11x13 inches. Matted and framed to 16x20 inches

"Portnoy's Complaint" (From the Written on the Body Series).Detail.

"The Last Copy of The Constitution" (also from the Written on the Body Series). Charcoal and Conte on Paper. 2014. 22x17 inches. Matted and framed under glass in a black, minimalist wood frame to 38x34 inches.

"The Last Copy of The Constitution" (detail)

An Open Letter from East City Arts

For the past four years, we have covered the visual arts in NE and SE DC as well as the Gateway Arts District.  The ECA staff met on several occasions to discuss how we could best expand our coverage.  As a result we have decided to include the following areas:

• Northern Prince George's County, MD
• The "Mid-City" area of DC or as we like to call it "the East City of NW"

Starting this week, you will see articles and posts related to these areas.  In the Fall 2014 Quarterly, listings for Mid-City will be included in print.

We will continue to diligently serve our original coverage area and we will add a couple of new writers to ensure our content keeps pace with the expansion.

In the future look for the following:

• An updated website (mid-2014) with posts organized by category (openings, classes, interviews, etc...)
• Increased ECA Quarterly circulation
• Notices of June meetings for public participation and feedback
• The announcement of the creation of an East City Art nonprofit dedicated to expanding the reach of our region's visual arts movement via exhibiting opportunities and documentation through a small press

We greatly value your readership and your opinion here at East City Art. As we undertake this expansion please send us you feedback and comments on how we can serve you better or please attend one of our meetings in early June to discuss in person.

With warmest regards,
Phil Hutinet
Founding Publisher

Art Scam Alert!

This walking cockroach is trying to scam artists - Beware!

From:     Lindsey Supply Co. (contact@connectagri.com)
Sent:    Mon 5/05/14 11:37 AM
To:    lennycampello@hotmail.com

Good day,
  I want to place an order in your store/Gallery/Company and i will like to
 know if you ship to Singapore and my payment will be remitted via Credit
 Card Issued in United States.

 please let me know if you can assist me with the order,and please do not
 forget to include your website in your reply.Your quick response will be
 highly appreciated,I will be very glad if you treat this email with good
 concern.

 Regards,
Lindsey Supply Co.
 Shun Li Industrial Complex,
 603 Sims Drive, #03-10,
 Singapore 387384

Stephen King Redux

A while back I took this pic while watching an episode of Revolution, the most excellent TV show about an apocalyptic world sans electricity... In this scene, the Aaron Pittman character, who looks like a lot like the world's best selling writer, the amazing Stephen King, stands next to a poster of the great American storyteller.

In this scene, Pittman is hiding in some abandoned school, and the writers of the series pay an homage to King, as in the background we see him next to Papa Hemingway. 

If you've ever seen and met the bearded King of the 90s, as I did, then you'd get the irony and smart scene-making of this clever scene, where SK and an SK-look alike are juxtaposed for a brief moment.

Art Bank 2014 Call for Artists

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is once again calling for DC artists and DMV area artists to submit works for consideration to be acquired for the permanent collection of the city.

There is no fee to enter and the entire process is done online and it is super easy. Ahead of time you will need to have a current CV, and Artist's Statement, 10 images of the artwork and and Image Listing.

The deadline is May 23 and you can submit your materials online at http//:dcarts.slideroom.com

Do it now - not at 11:45pm on May 23rd!

Little Guy in the Studio

Little Junes getting into some art materials... cough, cough

Baddest Pinkie Ring Ever!!!

Tough crowd... Sometimes pictures tell a story!

Art Talk with Michael Janis this coming Sunday

When: Sunday, May 4, 2014, 2pm

Join the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Michael Janis, an architect-turned-glass-artist who has become one of the DMV's uberartists - he works with powdered glass, high-fire enamels, and decals to create dreamlike imagery, as he elaborates on his techniques, work, and career.

If you collect DMV artists and don't own a Janis, you have a big hole in your collection. He is represented locally by Maurine Littleton, the premier art glass gallery on the planet.

Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, McEvoy Auditorium

Tickets: Free

Event Link: http://americanart.si.edu/calendar/event.cfm?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D109063429

Art Scam Alert

Beware of this mutant:

From: Marc Kessper

Sent: Thursday, May 1, 2014 10:30 AM
Subject: Art

Good Morning,

My name is Marc Kessper. I lived and worked in Dallas for twenty years. I'm in the process of moving to Italy to expand my business field. I just bought a house in Milan, Italy and I'm interested in collecting some artworks for some spaces within my house to make it unique and beautiful. Can I have a few images of your recent works?  I won't mind having your website so as to explore more into your works.

I look forward to hearing back from you soonest.

Regards,

Marc

La Frida - an etching from 1979

Another find of a set of 10 etchings that I did as an assignment in a Printmaking class at the University of Washington School of Art when I was a student there... If you wanna buy one, send me a note and I'll pass it to one of my dealers.

"La Frida II" Etching, 3"x3" c. 1979 by F. Lennox Campello

Wanna be in a show this weekend?

16x16 Small works call for entry! 

Details here.

In this all-inclusive show, artists are invited to submit art limited to 16x16 inches! Each 16”x16” space in the show will have a $14 hanging fee. 

Submit work including, but not limited to, photography, painting, mixed media, sculpture, lead, ceramics, glass, and more. 

This show has a 0% commission for sales in the gallery. All transactions for this show are direct to the artist! If you sell something and value the experience, feel free to pay them whatever commission you think is fair! No price limit!

The 16” x 16” will coordinate with the Gateway Open Studio Tour.
Details here: www.gatewayopenstudios.org May 10, 2014   12-5pm

Install Sunday May 4, 2014 1pm

Reception May 10, 2014   12-2pm (They’ll be open till 5pm for those who can’t make it).

It is an all Madrid final

Has this ever happened before? 

Over in Europe, the UEFA Champions' League Cup is the world's second toughest soccer competition (after the World Cup), some would say the toughest...

And this year it is an all-Madrid final, as the city's storied Real Madrid Football Club (who destroyed the reigning champion - Bayern of Germany) will fight it out with Madrid's other soccer team, Atletico de Madrid (who beat England's Chelsea FC).

That's like the NY Giants vs the NY Jets at the next Superbowl... only bigger... or the Brooklyn Nets vs the NY Knicks.... cough, cough.... or the LA Clippers vs the LA Lakers...

Anyway... congrats to all the Madrilenos!

Iranian Campaign Medal Ribbon finds a home

"Iranian Campaign Ribbon" by F. Lennox Campello
Oil on Canvas, c. 2007
24 x 48 inches

This painting was exhibited first in 2008 at the "Color Invitations" exhibition at the R Street Gallery in Washington, DC and subsequently at the Red Door Gallery in Richmond, VA at my solo show there. It continued the series commenced in 1999 based on my own military awards. With this 2007 work, this series began to create new imaginary military awards conceived as future ribbons and medals to be awarded in future military campaigns. I call this series "The Colors of Wars to Come" and it is discussed here.  

That show at Richmond's Red Door Gallery was reviewed in the Richmond Style Weekly by Amy Biegelsen. Read it here.

The painting is now heading to a major collection in New Jersey.

The Iranian Campaign Medal was established by Executive Order 13875 signed by the President on 13 January 2015. It may be awarded to American military and naval personnel for participating in prescribed operations, campaigns and task forces ranging in dates from 2 November 2014 to present.

The area of operations for these various campaigns includes the total land area and air space of Iran, and the waters and air space of the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean within 12 nautical miles of Iranian coastline.

Personnel must be members of a unit participating in, or be engaged in direct support of, the operation for 30 consecutive days in the area of operations or for 60 non-consecutive days provided this support involves entering the area of operations or meets one of the following criteria:

• Be engaged in actual combat, or duty that is equally as hazardous as combat duty, during the operation with armed opposition, regardless of time in the area of operations;

• While participating in the operation, regardless of time, is wounded or injured and requires medical evacuation from the area of operations;

• While participating as a regularly assigned aircrew member flying sorties into, out of, within, or over the area of operations in direct support of the military operations.

One bronze service star shall be worn on the ribbon for qualifying participation during an established campaigns. However, that if an individual's 30 or 60 days began in one campaign and carried over into another, that person would only qualify for the medal with one service star. The medal is not awarded without at least one service star. 

The executive order provides that service members who qualify for either the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal or the Armed Forces Service Medal for service in Iran between 2 November 2014 and 12 January 2015, remain qualified for those medals. 

However, upon application, any such member may be awarded the Iranian Campaign Medal in lieu of the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal or the Armed Forces Service Medal, but no Service member may be awarded more than one of these three medals for the same period of service in Iran.

The suspension ribbon for the medal's purple and gold colors were suggested by the historical Imperial colors of Iran’s millennial Persian history and the golden sunsets of the Persian Gulf.

Copy Me: a Web Series about Copying

Copy Me: a Web Series about Copying recently launched a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo. Their goal is to develop eight informative animated shorts on the questions people have surrounding copying. Is copying a file fair? Is copyright hurting anyone? Is the public domain a good thing? They hope to debunk the myths of copying and look at copyright in the context of the new “sharing” generation. The Copy Me Indiegogo Campaign lays out some of the topics they will cover including: fairness in the digital realm, how artists can make money without restricting their work, and the effect of copyright on society.

On the surface, these topics sound innocuous, but the producers may be hiding a more controversial message, as this quote written by the producer in the site’s comment section suggests; it’s not wrong to ASK people to pay, it’s wrong to MAKE people pay for creative works.  That message may not go over very well with many production companies, galleries, studios or other business entities who want more control over their properties’ pricing, marketing, production and distribution efforts.  But alternate approaches are starting to become very popular.

Read the whole article here.

Opening this weekend at Kaller Fine Arts

Latin America's most racist government continues its oppression...

Another piece of evidence against one of the planet's most racist and oppressive dictatorships...

(Via)Citizen journalist Juliet Michelena Díaz was detained earlier this month shortly after photographing a police operation in Havana. Díaz is a contributor to the Cuban Network of Community Journalists (La Red Cubana de Comunicadores Comunitarios or RCCC), a group known for its critical coverage of the government that has fallen victim to government harassment in recent months.

Díaz's arrest followed an incident on March 26 in which she and other contributors to RCCC witnessed police officers using dogs to break up a neighborhood brawl. The Miami-based daily El Nuevo Herald said the use of dogs resulted in one person being bitten. Díaz was briefly detained after the incident along with other observers and people involved in the fight, but she was able to hide her photographs from the police. However, two weeks later, the director of the group Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello said police returned to Díaz's home to arrest her after they learned that she still had photographs and was writing a report about police violence.

Who were the police dogs being used against? - Black Cubans.

Who was the only RCCC reporter arrested? - A Black Cuban woman.

Actually, I meant to say: A hero! Juliet Michelena Díaz: You are stronger than they are...

Why Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an "hijo de puta" to me...

The gift that we humans have to express and have opinions, and use our subjectivity to apply to all sorts of themes, issues and people are the perfect weapon to express my intense dislike and repugnance for Gabriel Garcia Marquez's personal behavior and standards, while at the same time admiring his written words, although I must admit that my "admiration" is often colored by my intense dislike for the man. 

Charles Lane's article in the WaPo details the main reasons for this attitude:

In 1968, just as “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was propelling García Márquez to fame, Padilla published a collection of poems titled “Out of the Game.” Cuba’s cultural authorities initially permitted and even praised Padilla’s book, despite its between-the-lines protest against the official thought control that was already suffocating Cuba less than a decade after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Then instructions changed: The Castro regime began a campaign against Padilla and like-minded intellectuals that culminated in March 1971, when state security agents arrested Padilla, seized his manuscripts and subjected him to a month of brutal interrogation.

The poet emerged to denounce himself before fellow writers for having “been unfair and ungrateful to Fidel, for which I will never tire of repenting.” He implicated colleagues and even his wife as counterrevolutionaries.

Intellectuals around the world, led by García Márquez’s fellow star of the Latin American literary “boom,” Mario Vargas Llosa, condemned this Stalinesque spectacle. Many cultural figures who had backed the Cuban revolution soured on it because of the Padilla affair.

For García Márquez, however, it was a different kind of turning point. When asked to sign his fellow writers’ open letter to Castro expressing “shame and anger” about the treatment of Padilla, García Márquez refused.

Thereafter, the Colombian gradually rose in Havana’s estimation, ultimately emerging as a de facto member of Castro’s inner circle.

Fidel would shower “Gabo” with perks, including a mansion, and established a film institute in Cuba under García Márquez’s personal direction.

The novelist, in turn, lent his celebrity and eloquence to the regime’s propaganda mill, describing the Cuban dictator in 1990 as a “man of austere habits and insatiable dreams, with an old-fashioned formal education, careful words and fine manners, and incapable of conceiving any idea that isn’t extraordinary.”

To rationalize this cozy relationship, García Márquez offered himself as an ostensible go-between when Castro occasionally released dissidents to appease the West.

What Gabo never did was raise his voice, or lift a finger, on behalf of Cubans’ right to express themselves freely in the first place.

Far from being “a representative and voice for the people of the Americas,” he served as a de facto spokesman for one of their oppressors.

García Márquez went so far as to defend death sentences Castro handed out to politically heterodox Cuban officials — one of whom had been personally close to the writer — after a 1989 show trial.

 Read the entire article here.

72 Grams Per Pixel at Gallery B

"72 Grams Per Pixel" is a group exhibition by seven fine art photographers at Bethesda's Gallery B. The title playfully indicates the idea behind the exhibition to explore photographic images using a variety of mediums including prints, hand-made photo books, table-prints and a newly developed multi-screen display system. The gallery show is sponsored by ISProductions, the publisher of the popular FolioLink website service for artists and photographers.

There are some seriously blue chip photogs in this show:

•     Joe Cameron, fine art photographer and Professor at the Corcoran College of Art and Design for over 30 years.   
•     Stephen Crowley, award winning photojournalist of the New York Times.   
•     Muriel Hasbun, fine art photographer and Professor and Chair of Photography at the Corcoran College of Art and Design.   
•     Laurie Hatch, fine art photographer who has documented at length two of the world's great astronomical observatories.   
•     Raul Jarquin,fine art photographer, founder of FolioLink, and photo book maker.   
•     Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, fine art photographer and the founder of the Centro de la Imagen, a well-known venue in the field of photography in Mexico.   
•     Terri Weifenbach, fine art photographer, author of multiple photography books and educator at Georgetown University.

The sale of all photographic work will be conducted directly by the artists (neither the gallery nor ISProductions will be charging commissions) with the exception of subscription sales that provide subscribers with five surprise table print objects and a signed limited edition book, all delivered during a one-year subscription term. The subscription model is managed by ISProductions.

Private Opening Reception May 10th from 6-9pm

To request an invitation to the private opening please send an email to: reception@foliolink.com.

Alchemicals!!!!

Preview the works created for Alchemical Vessels 2014, make a list of your top choices, and visit http://www.smithcenter.org/benefit to learn how you can have a chance to own one of the pieces featured in this video!

Eyes On The Border

Opening Reception: Friday, May 16 from 7–9 pm
Show Dates: May 16 – June 1, 2014

Beyond landscapes, cultures, borders and boundaries lies the artistic language of the human race. Eyes On The Border art exhibit opens Friday, May 16 with a reception from 7-9pm at Del Ray Artisans gallery. In this collaborative exhibit, artist members from Del Ray Artisans (DRA) and Art Latin American Collective Project (ALACP) were invited to explore universal themes from the individual perspective of each artist. The show runs May 16 through June 1, 2014.

Eyes On The Border is both a celebration of Latin American art and culture and a look at how we are all influenced by places, borders and boundaries, political, or cultural, real or imagined. Latin American artists living and working in this area, and Del Ray Artisans with their own immigrant experience share their roots and translate their realities into a vision influenced by the virtual world and globalization.

The ALACP curator is David Camero; the DRA curators are Michele Reday Cook and Lesley Hall. A special display of masks from the collection of David Camero will accompany this exhibit.

The art exhibit is at Del Ray Artisans gallery in the Colasanto Center, 2704 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22301. Gallery hours are Thursday, noon to 6pm; Friday and Saturday, noon to 9 pm; and Sunday, noon to 6 pm.  The gallery is free, open to the public and handicap accessible.

For more details, please visit www.TheDelRayArtisans.org or contact the curators: David Camero (mactrovattore@yahoo.es), Michele Reday Cook (President@TheDelRayArtisans.org), and Lesley Hall (Curating@TheDelRayArtisans.org).