Opportunity for Solo Shows

Deadline: March 30th, 2018

VisArts invites artists working in all media to apply for 2019 Solo Exhibitions in the Gibbs Street Gallery and Common Ground Gallery.

The Gibbs Street Gallery offers exhibitions that explore the breadth of contemporary art featuring emerging to mid-career artists. Exhibits reflect a wide range of media and experimental approaches that offer the viewer unexpected interactions with art.

The gallery is approximately 1,100 square feet with 16 ft. ceilings. It is on the street level with floor to ceiling windows along one wall. International, national and local artists are welcome to apply. The Common Ground Gallery features exhibitions that reflect the creative pursuits of artists from our community.

The gallery is located on the second floor and is approximately 300 square feet. Artists must live in the Mid-Atlantic region to apply for a solo exhibition in this gallery.

Applicants who have participated in a solo exhibition at VisArts within the past two years are not eligible to apply.

Website: https://visarts.submittable.com/submit/98811/call-for-solo-exhibition-2019

Wanna go to a triple opening tomorrow

Artists & Makers Studios Presents
Be Still with Sheryl Massaro & Coriolana Simon
The Dress as Icon with Alexandra Michaels
Revisioning the Flip Doll: Exploring Our Connections curated by Erika Cleveland

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn in Rockville is proud to present three gallery exhibits for the month of February along with artists’ open studios. “Be Still” with Sheryl Massaro and Coriolana Simon explores the still life through their painting and photography. “The Dress as Icon” with Alexandra Michaels takes on the universal

symbol for women with mixed media paintings that contain within them an aspect of female experiences. 

“Revisioning the Flip Doll: Exploring Our Connections” with Erika Cleveland, juried artists, and flip dolls created by women at the N. Street Homeless shelter as part of an ongoing series of workshops - re-imagines the flip doll to show commonalities despite differences, and to explore all the ways in which people are united. 

Words out Loud in the Compass Atelier, from 7-8pm with Philip Wexler, Roger Bradbury and Jason Gebhardt will be followed by an open mic. Resident artists’ open studios will round out the evening for visitors at Parklawn.

Be Still with Sheryl Massaro & Coriolana Simon
The Dress as Icon with Alexandra Michaels
Revisioning the Flip Doll: Exploring Our Connections
Opening Reception
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, February 2nd, 2018
Artists & Makers Studios
11810 Parklawn Dr., Suite 210
Rockville, MD 20852

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards

Deadline to Apply: April 6, 2018

 

Best in Show will be awarded $10,000 & all finalists featured at Gallery B in Sept. 2018

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is a visual art prize produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District that honors artists from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The annual juried competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to selected artists and features the work of the finalists in a group exhibition.

The 2018 competition will be juried by Christopher Bedford, Valerie Fletcher and Michael Jones McKean. 

Artists must be 18 years of age or older and permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. The selected artwork will be on exhibit in June 2018 at Gallery B in downtown Bethesda, MD.

To apply, please visit http://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/trawick-application

New art space about to debut in the DMV

The WaPo does something that it seldom does: discuss a vibrant new (about to open soon) art space in the District!

The idea is to provide studio space to about 40 serious working artists, and in doing so create a community of artists and a destination for curators, collectors and visiting artists. They have even found an honest-to-goodness industrial space to house it: a two-story brick building in Eckington between the Rhode Island and NoMa Metro stops, not far from Catholic University and Union Market and abutting the Branch trail. The Phillips Collection, Halcyon, Studio Visit, Hamiltonian and the Washington Project for the Arts have also signed on as partners.

Read the cool piece by Tara Bahrampour right here!

And after you read it, pleeeeeazzze comment on the story, so that the WaPo editors see that there are readers (they multiply each comment by 1500 readers - don't ask me where they got that formula).

Hirshhorn To Restage Krzysztof Wodiczko Projection

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has announced the restaging of "Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.," an iconic large-scale, outdoor projection by acclaimed American artist Krzysztof Wodiczko (b. 1943, Warsaw), on view Feb. 13-15, 6:30-9 p.m. for the first time since its original three-night display 30 years ago. The work coincides with "Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s," a new exhibition exploring the collision of art and marketing in the 1980s opening Feb. 14. The comprehensive group show will also include Wodiczko's renowned "Homeless Vehicle No. 5." (1988-89), a device designed to provide homeless individuals - who were growing in numbers at the end of the decade - with some form of autonomy, containing shelter, a sink and storage.

After viewing the projection, visitors can explore "Brand New" during special late hours Feb. 13-15, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., and join Wodiczko and the Guerrilla Girls for a public artist talk on "Brand New" and the art of the '80s, Feb. 13. On Feb. 14, the museum will host a wide-ranging conversation on monuments, art and the First Amendment, in partnership with the bipartisan Philadelphia-based National Constitution Center, Gallery Guides will also be on the National Mall and in the museum's lobby all three nights to answer questions and host conversations about the work.

The celebrated three-story-tall installation, commissioned by the Hirshhorn and created specifically for its uniquely curved architecture, debuted in 1988 as part of the museum's "WORKS" program, which ran from 1987 to 1993 and featured a series of temporary, site-specific exhibitions by artists such as Sol Lewitt, Ann Hamilton, Matt Mullican and Alfredo Jaar installed throughout the museum's grounds and plaza. Wodiczko's work, "Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.," referenced widespread '80s debates around the 1988 Presidential election's political rhetoric, reproductive rights and the death penalty, by alluding to the power of mass media to convey ideologies at a time when cable TV was changing the media paradigm.

Wodiczko was at the forefront of a new interest in public art, and his work, including "Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.," reflects an increased political awareness in the art of the period, spurred by forces such as the rise of homelessness, the AIDS epidemic and the polarization of U.S. politics. Using recognizable imagery - body parts, figures, guns and money - Wodiczko's large-scale projections are open to interpretation by the communities who experience them, and in the political and social climate where they are installed. His large iconic images borrow from film and advertisements of the day, which used oversized pictures to elicit an emotional reaction in the viewer, and by projecting on monuments and other public institutions, he raised awareness around contemporary social issues.

 

"The 30-year-old projection appears to me today strangely familiar and at once unbearably relevant," Wodiczko said. "I wrote in 1988 that, more than ever before, the meaning of our monuments depends on our active role in turning them into sites of memory and critical evaluation of history as well as places of public discourse and action. It remains vitally true."

"We are honored to present Wodiczko's 'Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.' nearly 30 years after it premiered to Washington audiences," said Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu. "This projection is a significant public artwork from the 1980s. It exemplifies themes explored in 'Brand New,' and highlights the reaction of artists to the seismic shifts in economy, politics and technology that transformed the decade."

The Sustainable Clothed Body: Embroidery on Garments For Mending & Embellishment

Tuesdays, February 6 – 27
6:30 – 9:00 pm, American University Museum

Join all kinds of creative kindred spirits for a new class at the Alper Initiative for Washington Art: The Sustainable Clothed Body: Embroidery on Garments For Mending & Embellishment.

The super-talented artist Kate Kretz teaches clothing embroidery and embellishment on Tuesday evenings in the Alper Space. Cost is $200 for the 4-week class. Materials are provided.

Registration and more information online: www.tinyurl.com/AUMtix

You can find Kate Kretz's amazing artwork at katekretz.com 

Methods of Inquiry: Fields of Discovery Artist Talk

McLean Project for the Arts will host an artist talk featuring the artists behind our current exhibition, Methods of Inquiry: Fields of Discovery. Presenting artists will discuss the processes and concepts behind their respective work. This talk is FREE and open to the public.

 

WHAT:          Methods of Inquiry Artist Talk

Methods of Inquiry: Fields of Discovery features six artists whose work is influenced  by science. Exhibited together, the works of these six artists offer views from multiple angles of the wonder found in the natural world, both inner and outer, and the processes human beings employ in order to gain a greater understanding of them

 

WHO:             Methods of Inquiry artists Michele Banks, Atsuko Chirikjian, Spencer Dormitzer, Leslie Holt, Susan Main, and Mark Robarge

 

WHEN:           Saturday, February 10, 2018
3:00 – 4:30 pm 

 

WHERE:         MPA@ChainBridge Bullock | Hitt Gallery
1446 Chain Bridge Road, McLean (in the Chain Bridge Corner Shopping Center)

 

HOW:             Admission is free. RSVP: http://bit.ly/2E3oLoz

Coriana Simon at Artists & Makers

Release of DC Cultural Plan Working Draft for Public Review

The DC Office of Planning (OP) is excited to release the DC Cultural Plan working draft for public review. The Plan was led by OP in consultation with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) and the DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment (OCTFME).

Culture is important to the District of Columbia. It embraces who we are; reflects our diversity; and brings us together. Culture is also an important part of our economy, where it accounts for an estimated $30 billion in annual spending and 112,370 jobs.

The Cultural Plan's recommendations strengthen arts, humanities, culture and heritage in neighborhoods across the city by increasing cultural participation, expanding capacity building, stimulating cultural production and informing decision-making. The Plan lays out a vision and recommendations on how the government and its partners can build upon, strengthen and invest in the people, places, communities and ideas that define culture within the nation's capital.

Check out the working draft of the DC Cultural Plan here. 

Comments on the draft will be accepted through February 28th, 2018 via email at DCculturalplan@dc.gov.  

Plae adult sketchbook

Plae is "the innovative, customizable, fashion-forward shoe brand that encourages children and now adults alike to never stop playing. In the light-hearted spirit of fulling its mission, the brand recently launched a sketchbook coloring contest, giving doodlers, scribblers, colorers and sketchers the chance to let their creativity soar."

In collaboration with Swedish artist, Mikael Selin, the contest invites users to download the vibrant adult sketchbook on their website, color them to their heart's desire and submit their masterpieces by 1/29/2018. 

Prizes for the lucky winner include a limited first edition Mulberry Plae shoes (the first ever Plae adult shoe offering), a Boosted Board, a custom Mission Bike, and $250 Plae gift card. 

You can find more info and contest details here.

Sam Gilliam

Lots has been written recently about the well-deserved "revival" in interest in the works of my good friend Sam Gilliam, and no one deserves it more than this hard-working artist (never identify Sam as a "DC artist" or he may kick your ass.

Anyway - Gilliam's work has enjoyed not only a "rediscovery" in recent years (a lot of it associated with his increased exposure via art fairs), but also finally a significant increase in price; after all, art is a commodity.

It wasn't that long ago that one could show up at a local auction house and find an original Gilliam for a few hundred bucks. For example, the below work, identified at the auction site as:

Sam Gilliam (American b. 1933) Untitled (Abstract): A Double-Sided Work The first, signed Sam Gilliam and dated 68 twice l.r.; and the second Sam Gilliam and dated 68 l.r. Mixed media on paper; apparently in good condition. Framed.* Sight size: 17-1/2 x 23 in (44.5 x 52.4 cm) 

Sold for $1400 in 2011!!!

Not anymore! Check out a "local" history of Sam's prices via a local DC area auction house here.

The the bear turned his attention the other way

Opportunity for Portrait Artists

The International Portrait Competition showcases the finest in portraiture and figurative art today. The competition is open to all artists and the top 20 finalists are required to exhibit their original artwork and be present at The Art of the Portrait conference in Washington, DC, April 19-22, 2018.

Over $100,000 in cash & prizes will be awarded with the Grand Prize Winner receiving $20,000.

Entry Fee.

Details: 850-878-9996 OR http://www.portraitsociety.org/international OR info@portraitsociety.org

Lots of Fridas

Who knew?
Check out this search...

Go to this opening tomorrow

Opening at Adah Rose Gallery
adahrosegallery@gmail.com
www.adahrosegallery.com

"The Evocation of a Moment..a Gesture" - Jessica Drenk

Vernissage Saturday January 20 6:00-8:00 pm.
Live Music by Bud Wilkinson

Tactile and textural, the sculptures of Jessica Drenk highlight the chaos and beauty that can be found in simple materials. Jessica's work is influenced by systems of information and the impulse to develop an encyclopedic understanding of the world. Jessica’s interests in archaeology, paleontology, biology, botany and geology influence not only the shapes and textures of her sculpture, but also lend a visual framework for creating, collecting and classifying her own specimens of the present. The sculptures are both fragile and strong, complex and simple; always elegant and unique. Her materials  are as varied as marble, PVC pipes, toilet paper, books, pencils, wood, coffee filters, and q-tips. 

Jessica was raised in Montana, where she developed an appreciation for the natural world that remains an important inspiration to her artwork today. Jessica was awarded the International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.  Her work has been pictured in Sculpture Magazine and she has exhibited in shows at the International Grounds for Sculpture in NJ, Skidmore College, the Albuquerque Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Everhart Museum, Yale University and the Brooklyn Public Library. Her work is in many prominent individual and corporate art collections. Jessica has exhibited in numerous solo and duo shows in Washington DC, Dallas, San Francisco, Hawaii, Florida, Massachusetts and Arizona. She has exhibited with the gallery at PULSE Miami, PULSE NY and the Silicon Valley Art Fair. This is her third show with Adah Rose Gallery.

Jessica Drenk received an MFA from the University of Arizona in 2007 and a BA from Pomona College in 2002. She currently lives and works in Florida.

Adah Rose Gallery
3766 Howard Ave
Kensington MD 20895
Thursday-Sunday 12:00-5:30 and always by appointment

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this mutant trying to rip off artists!

From: Gregory Kurstin andrew.brand966@gmail.com

Date: January 18, 2018 at 4:10:16 PM EST

Subject: Urgent Order

Greetings,Hope you will be in the office, I want to know whether you sell ( Patty Makers ).. Email me the available sizes/models you have, or a link to look through. Also want to know the types of payment you accept.Hope to hear back from you soon.

Best Regards,

Gregory Kurstin 

Art Centers looking for directors!

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is seeking  Directors for two of their Arts Centers, Brentwood Arts Exchange and Arts/Harmony Hall Regional Center. A single online application will be used as a pool to fill both positions. Applicants may express their interest in applying to either or both positions in the supplemental question section of the application.

The Directors must be self-motivated, organized and experienced in personnel management, arts program development, fiscal management, community relations, working in a fast-paced, demanding, creative and exciting work environment. He/she will manage a multi-faceted arts center that includes exhibitions, arts classes, youth camps, concerts, film screenings, lectures, festivals, and public events. An ideal candidate will have at least three years' experience in arts management; in an arts facility or for a regional arts program. 

More information is available online at https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/mncppc/jobs/1943796/arts-facility-manager-director-12727-11233-grade-22

Frida Smoking

Updated a little...

"Frida Smoking"

Charcoal and Conte with Embedded Electronics

24x36 inches

"Frida Smoking"

Charcoal and Conte with Embedded Electronics

24x36 inches

"Frida Smoking"

Charcoal and Conte with Embedded Electronics

24x36 inches

Not a good match this time...

Seriously? I think Google needs a little adjustment....

#googleartsandculture

Bolivaring

Quote of the day

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read."

-- Groucho Marx

New Frida Kahlos discovered!

Is it me, or does this auction in Charlottesville have a lot of "undiscovered" works by major masters???? there's two Kahlos... cough, cough... two Diego Riveras, one Juan Gris, one Toulouse-Lautrec, one Braque....

See them here.

Frida at auction

Anybody like Frida? This very cool painting that I did in art school and which sold originally almost 15 years ago, just showed up at an auction house! Follow the link! At a really good starting bid - Only $100!

https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-lot/lot_44743D7916?utm_source=azemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alerts

Jessica Drenk at Adah Rose!

Opening at Adah Rose Gallery
adahrosegallery@gmail.com
www.adahrosegallery.com

"The Evocation of a Moment..a Gesture" - Jessica Drenk

Vernissage Saturday January 20 6:00-8:00 pm.
Live Music by Bud Wilkinson

Tactile and textural, the sculptures of Jessica Drenk highlight the chaos and beauty that can be found in simple materials. Jessica's work is influenced by systems of information and the impulse to develop an encyclopedic understanding of the world. Jessica’s interests in archaeology, paleontology, biology, botany and geology influence not only the shapes and textures of her sculpture, but also lend a visual framework for creating, collecting and classifying her own specimens of the present. The sculptures are both fragile and strong, complex and simple; always elegant and unique. Her materials  are as varied as marble, PVC pipes, toilet paper, books, pencils, wood, coffee filters, and q-tips. 

Jessica was raised in Montana, where she developed an appreciation for the natural world that remains an important inspiration to her artwork today. Jessica was awarded the International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.  Her work has been pictured in Sculpture Magazine and she has exhibited in shows at the International Grounds for Sculpture in NJ, Skidmore College, the Albuquerque Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Everhart Museum, Yale University and the Brooklyn Public Library. Her work is in many prominent individual and corporate art collections. Jessica has exhibited in numerous solo and duo shows in Washington DC, Dallas, San Francisco, Hawaii, Florida, Massachusetts and Arizona. She has exhibited with the gallery at PULSE Miami, PULSE NY and the Silicon Valley Art Fair. This is her third show with Adah Rose Gallery.

Jessica Drenk received an MFA from the University of Arizona in 2007 and a BA from Pomona College in 2002. She currently lives and works in Florida.

Adah Rose Gallery
3766 Howard Ave
Kensington MD 20895
Thursday-Sunday 12:00-5:30 and always by appointment

Censorship as False Morality

The most recent attempt at art censorship comes from a petition started by someone named Mia Merrill who complained about a Balthus painting at the Met titled Thérèse Dreaming. I suggest that Ms. Merrill next task should be to have Nabokov’s Lolita removed from libraries and burned.

Notice the progression of her argument—it begins with the image and its description. Then, she makes a judgment about Balthus’ personal life, and ends with the main reason of why the painting should be removed.

Read the article in Splice Today by Emina Melonic here.



Thérèse Dreaming by Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski) c. 1938  

Nan Montgomery at Addison/Ripley

NAN  MONTGOMERY

 Intersections/Dialogues

January 20 - February 24, 2018

opening reception for the artist

Addison/Ripley Fine Art

Saturday, January 20th, 5-7pm.

Although we have been aware of Nan Montgomery's work for quite some time, this is the first exhibition of it at Addison/Ripley. Color rich, her paintings combine a pure geometry, in the tradition of Piet Mondrian, and style of Josef Albers and, more recently Burgoyne Diller and Al Held, with a seeming reverence of nature that, ironically, Mondrian processed away from. Mondrian began "...as a naturalistic painter and.....very quickly felt the urgent need for a more concise form of expression and an economy of means. I never stopped progressing toward abstraction." Montgomery clearly shares this aesthetic although her affinity for Malevich in this work, in particular is clear. 

The newest of the paintings in this exhibition have a dynamic quality, an implicit movement and, at the same time, measured strength. Whether in smaller scale egg tempera or the much larger oils on linen, these are the boldest, most assertive works by the artist to date. Strong titles like "Intersection", Decision", "Circlet" and "Cadence" and equally firm compositions demonstrate Montgomery's mastery of her medium and her art. Montgomery's "less is more" credo is evident in an exquisite collection of small works included in this collection.

Cadence, 2015, egg tempera on gessoed wood, 10 x 10 inches each

In a recent essay by Jean Lawler Cohen, the critic notes an evolution to the mature artist Montgomery has become. "But now an accommodation prevails, as if the painter has negotiated a temporary truce between impulses. Hard-edge blocks and stripes advance across dark or light grounds, ensuring a stability that holds until the peripheral insertion of a softer, textured vertical. Indigo, for years her darkest, near-black signature color, still appears but, at times now, co-exists with a new velvety black. Early, outright, heraldic encounters seem to have given way to more contemplative engagement. "

After attending the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and graduating from the Yale University School of Art with a BFA, the artist moved to Washington and took classes at the Corcoran School. Nan Montgomery has been an essential member of the Washington Art Community for more than 30 years. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Watkins Collection of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, the Washington Post, the Artery Organization, the American Federation of Teachers, the Washington Convention Center, The Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC, as well as in private collections. Committed to abstraction and purity of form, her work is unified in the dichotomies of natural and material, restriction and freedom, hard edge and soft, all consistent with her personal history.

The gallery is located in Upper Georgetown at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Reservoir Road and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 until 5:30 and by appointment.



The Complete Guide to 2018 Artist Grants and Opportunities

If you consider yourself a professional artist and not a hobby artist, then start 2018 by working the system(s) and target yourself to apply to six of these...

Click here.

The 10 Questions You Should Ask a Gallerist Before Buying Art

Edward Ball asked gallerists from around the world to share their top tips for buyers — from checking authenticity, to buying as an investment... read it all in Mutual Art here.

Homage to a hero

Three years ago my father died on this day... here's my eulogy from two years ago:

"Hoy se ha caido otro roble en la selva del amargo exilio" is how I always thought that my father's eulogy would begin once he died.

"Today another oak falls in the jungle of bitter exile," began the eulogy for the man whose bloodlines my children and I carry on.

Florencio Campello Alonso died today at age 90 in Miami, the heart of the bitter Cuban Diaspora. Like many Cubans of his generation, he was the son of European immigrants to Cuba. His Galician parents left the scraggy mountains of northern Spain's ancient Celtic kingdom and in the first decade of the 1900s migrated to the new nation of Cuba upon its liberation from Spain.

Galicians have always been uneasy subjects of the Spanish crown, stubbornly hanging on to their ancient Celtic traditions, to their own language and to their bagpipes, so it is no historical surprise that they left their mountain homelands en-masse and headed to the new tropical paradise of Cuba, free from the heavy hand of the Spanish monarchy.

And thus it was never a surprise to me that my father was both a fighter against heavy-handed rulers, a lover of freedom, and one who was never afraid to re-start a life for the better, even if it involved discarding the old. 

My father could have been one of the privileged few who currently rule atop the food chain of Cuba's Workers' Paradise. But instead of accepting the benefits of oppression, this most valiant of men chose the harsh path of right over wrong.

And he paid for it dearly (he spent years in Concentration Camps), but when he died, his soul was clean.

In his youth, my dad worked the brutal hours of the son of an immigrant who was slowly building a small financial empire in eastern Cuba. My father was pulled from school as soon as he learned to read and write, and like his two other brothers and eight sisters, he was expected to work and contribute to building a familial empire.

And he did, as my mother relates the stories of my father's childhood in the fields of eastern Cuba, a blond creole in a land of jingoist natives... he trying to out-Cuban the "real Cubans"... how he organized a labor union of the exploited Haitians who worked almost as slaves at the Los Canos Sugar Mill, how he joined a group of bearded rebels in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra in the fight against a tyrant, how he ran for the leadership of the Sugar Workers' Union and beat the Communists to the post, and how he spent years in a Castro Concentration Camp, jailed for the crime of refusing to join the Party, because he believed in Democracy and not Communism. 

And because of that stubbornness, in the 1960s he was offered the bitter pill of exile, and this brave man decided to choose family... and left his birth place, and thus became another immigrant within two familial generations and brought his wife and child to another new land.

And it is to him that I owe the greatest gift that a father can give a son: the opportunity to grow in freedom in the greatest nation in the history of this planet.

It is because of my father's courage that I was raised in this country and not in a land bloodied by brutality and oppression.

It is because of my father's teachings that I was raised with the conviction that freedom is not free and never to be taken for granted; after all, he fought for freedom and then Castro, the man who inspired the fight, ended up being a worse dictator, eventually destroying all notions of freedom for all of his people.

It is because of my father that I was taught that every citizen owes his nation some form of service, and that's the main reason that I signed (at age 17) to serve in the US Navy.

It is because of my father that I despise anyone who hides behind the mask of victimism to excuse failures and shortcomings.

When our family arrived in New York in the 1960s, my father began to work in a factory three days after he landed at the airport; my mother (who came from a privileged Cuban family and had never worked a day in her life) found a job as a seamstress five days later. That pattern was repeated for decades as they worked their way in a new nation.

"We thought we'd be back within a few years," was the answer given to me when I once asked the question about leaving their birthplace. When that didn't materialize, they became fierce Americans in the "United States of Americans" sense... these were the "America None Better!" set of immigrants, and in my Dad's case, you better be ready to fight if you dissed the USA.

"Americans"!

Always a fighter he was... and always for the right reasons.

Cubans are archaic immigrants... we love this great nation because we recognize its singular and unique greatness; perhaps it is because our forebears had the same chance at greatness and blew it.

And my Dad loved this nation even more than he once loved Cuba... perhaps it is the genetic disposition of the serial immigrant. After all, his father had left his own ancient Celtic lands and kin for a new land... which he learned to love dearly.

My father always wanted to make sure that I knew that I was an "Americano" and not another forced-on label.

"Labels," he'd say, "are just a way to separate people."

By labels he meant "Hispanic" or "Latino" or anything with a "-" between two ethnic words.

I also remember as a kid in New York, when he bought a huge Hi-Fi record player-color-TV console... that thing was huge. He bought it "lay-away" and he'd pay $10 a week to the store and him and I would walk all the way from our house on Sackman Street to the store on Pitkin Avenue to make the payments every Saturday - he never missed a single payment, and that taught me a lesson.

It was soon playing my Dad's favorite music, which oddly enough was Mexican music (Cuban music was a close second)... and he knew all the words to every charro song.

Guadalajara en un llano, Mejico en una laguna...
Guadalajara en un llano, Mejico en una laguna...Me he de comer esa tunaMe he de comer esa tuna.... aunque me espine la mano.

That Jorge Negrete song... being shouted often on weekends at the top of his lungs from our apartment in a mostly Italian neighborhood in East New York in Brooklyn must have raised some eyebrows.

My dad and I watched Neil Armstrong land on the moon on that TV set... we also watched loads of Mets games... and in 1969 and 1972 went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets win in '69 and lose in '72. He really loved baseball and he really loved those Mets!

When I joined the Navy at age 17, my first duty station was USS SARATOGA, which at the time was stationed in Mayport in Florida, so my Dad decided to migrate south to Florida and moved to Miami... just to be close to me.

He and my mother spent the next 40 years in the same apartment while I was stationed all over the world.

When I visited him today in Miami, he looked good and freshly shaven... this is a good thing, as my father was a freak about hygiene... and that's a common "creole" trait.

The Hospice nurse almost teared up when I told her that my parents have been married for 60 years.

I looked at this old "gallego"... his skin as white as paper, his eyes as blue as the sky, and his head (once full of blond hair) as bald and shiny as the old Cuban sing song ("Mira la Luna, mira al Sol... mira la calva de ese.....") and I saw the generations of Neanderthals, Denisovans and Gallego Homo Sapiens that led to my bloodlines... the generations of fighters, of strugglers, and of tough guys who didn't take no for an answer and who made a better place for others. 

And I felt at peace and grateful.

And as my father died tonight, after an extubation,  all that I can think to say to him is "Thank you for your courage... from me, and from my children... and soon from their children. You opened a whole new world for them."

I love you Dad... Un Abrazo Fuerte! Thank you for your gifts to me and my children and it is no coincidence that you died on El Dia de Los Reyes.

Art Scam Alert!!!!

Beware of this mutant trying to rip off artists!

From: Kevin Spiker spikerk48@gmail.com

Subject: Art Work Inquiry 

My name is  Kevin Spiker from Washington DC. I was looking for some artwork online and i found your contact while searching. I will like to purchase some of your work for my wife as a surprise gift for our 20th anniversary.Please kindly send pics and prices of some of your art which are ready for immediate sale within price range $500- $5000, i could be flexible with price. So i will hope to hear a lot more about any available piece in your inventory ready for immediate sale. 

Thanks and best regards,

Kevin

Opportunity for Artists

Mozilla is taking proposals for visualization pieces focused on misinformation - will be installed at the Tech Museum of Innovation

https://challenges.mozilla.community/tech-challenge/ 

Is this cool or what?

Jessica Drenk at Adah Rose

Opening at Adah Rose Gallery
adahrosegallery@gmail.com
www.adahrosegallery.com

"The Evocation of a Moment..a Gesture" - Jessica Drenk

January 19-March 2, 2018
Vernissage Saturday January 20 6:00-8:00 pm.
Live Music by Bud Wilkinson

Tactile and textural, the sculptures of Jessica Drenk highlight the chaos and beauty that can be found in simple materials. Jessica's work is influenced by systems of information and the impulse to develop an encyclopedic understanding of the world. Jessica’s interests in archaeology, paleontology, biology, botany and geology influence not only the shapes and textures of her sculpture, but also lend a visual framework for creating, collecting and classifying her own specimens of the present. The sculptures are both fragile and strong, complex and simple; always elegant and unique. Her materials  are as varied as marble, PVC pipes, toilet paper, books, pencils, wood, coffee filters, and q-tips. 

Jessica was raised in Montana, where she developed an appreciation for the natural world that remains an important inspiration to her artwork today. Jessica was awarded the International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.  Her work has been pictured in Sculpture Magazine and she has exhibited in shows at the International Grounds for Sculpture in NJ, Skidmore College, the Albuquerque Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Everhart Museum, Yale University and the Brooklyn Public Library. Her work is in many prominent individual and corporate art collections. Jessica has exhibited in numerous solo and duo shows in Washington DC, Dallas, San Francisco, Hawaii, Florida, Massachusetts and Arizona. She has exhibited with the gallery at PULSE Miami, PULSE NY and the Silicon Valley Art Fair. This is her third show with Adah Rose Gallery.

Jessica Drenk received an MFA from the University of Arizona in 2007 and a BA from Pomona College in 2002. She currently lives and works in Florida.

Adah Rose Gallery
3766 Howard Ave
Kensington MD 20895
Thursday-Sunday 12:00-5:30 and always by appointment

East City Art's 2017 Year in Review

Always free, pick up a copy of East City Art's 2017 Year in Review at one of the following participating locations:

• American University Katzen Arts Center
  4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
• Anacostia Smithsonian Museum 
  1901 Fort Place SE
• Arlington Arts Center
  3550 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA
• Art Enables
  2204 Rhode Island Avenue NE
• Art League Torpedo Factory Art Center
  105 N Union St, Alexandria, VA
• Artist and Makers Studios
  11810 Parklawn Dr, Rockville, MD
• Arts Council of Fairfax
  2667 Prosperity Ave A, Fairfax, VA
• Artworks Studio School
  3711 Rhode Island Ave, Mt Rainier, MD
• Black Rock Center for the Arts
  12901 Town Commons Dr, Germantown, MD
• Brentwood Arts Exchange
  3901 Rhode Island Ave, Brentwood, MD
• Capitol Hill Arts Workshop 
  545 7th Street SE
• Congress Heights Arts & Culture Center
  3200 MLK Jr. Ave. SE
• Convergence Gallery
  1801 N Quaker Ln, Alexandria, VA
• Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences 
  500 Fifth St NW
• DC Arts Studios
  6925 Willow St NW
• DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities  
  200 Eye St SE
• District Clay
  2414 Douglas St NE
• Driskell Center (University of Maryland) 
  1214 Cole Student Activities Bldg, 1214 Union Ln, College Park, MD
• Fisher Gallery
  4915 East Campus Lane, Alexandria VA
• Flashpoint Gallery
  916 G St NW
• Foundry Gallery
  8th Street NW
• Gallery Neptune and Brown 
  1530 14th St NW
• Gallery OonH 
  1354 H Street NE
• Glen Echo
  7300 MacArthur Blvd. Glen Echo, MD
• Greater Reston Arts Center
  Reston Town Center, 12001 Market St #103, Reston, VA
• Hamiltonian 
  1353 U St NW
• Harmony Hall 
  10701 Livingston Rd., Fort Washington, MD
• Hemphill 
  1515 14th Street NW
• Hill Center 
  921 Pennsylvania Ave SE
• Joan Hisoaka Healing Arts Gallery 
  1632 U St NW
• Joe’s Movement 
  3309 Bunker Hill Rd, Mt Rainier, MD
• Latela Art Gallery 
  716 Monroe St NE #27
• Long View Gallery 
  1234 9th St NW
• Lorton Arts 
  9518 Workhouse Rd, Lorton, VA
• McLean Project for the Arts 
  1234 Ingleside Ave, McLean, VA
• Monroe Street Market 
  625 Monroe Street NE
• Montpelier Arts Center
  9650 Muirkirk Rd., Laurel, MD
• Morton Fine Art 
  1781 Florida Ave NW
• National Postal Museum 
  2 Massachusetts Avenue NE
• Olly Olly Gallery 
  10417 Main Street, Second Floor, Fairfax, VA
• Open Studio DC 
  1135 Okie Street NE
• Otis Street Arts Project 
  3706 Otis St, Mt Rainier, MD
• Plaza Artist Materials Bethesda 
  7825 Old Georgetown RD, Bethesda, MD
• Plaza Artist Materials Downtown 
  1120 19th Street NW
• Plaza Artist Materials Fairfax 
  3045 Nutley Street, Fairfax, VA
• Plaza Artist Materials Rockville 
  1776 E. Jefferson Street Unit 119, Rockville, MD
• Printmakers Gallery 
  1641 Wisconsin Ave NW
• Project Create 
  2028 Martin Luther King Ave SE (2nd Floor)
• Pyramid Atlantic 
  4318 Gallatin St, Hyattsville, MD
• Recreative Spaces 
  3501 Perry Street Mount Rainier, MD
• Red Dirt Studios 
  4051 34th St, Mt Rainier, MD
• Rhizome Arts 
  6950 Maple St NW
• Susan Calloway Fine Arts 
  1643 Wisconsin Ave NW
• Tanglewood Works 
  5132 Baltimore Ave, Hyattsville, MD
• THEARC 
  1901 Mississippi Ave SE
• Torpedo Factory 
  105 N Union St, Alexandria, VA
• Touchstone 
  901 New York Ave NW
• Visarts
  155 Gibbs St, Rockville, MD
• Washington Studio School 
  2129 S St NW
• Waverly Street Gallery
  4600 East-West Hwy #102, Bethesda, MD

My continuous fascination with this

The curious case of people taking a selfie inside a F. Lennox Campello interactive video drawing
Context Art Miami art fair, Miami Florida during Art Basel week

Happy 2018!

Here's a wish for a Happy New Year's wish to all planetary life, but especially to all my fellow veterans, and all Americans on active duty; and to all of the men and women in our Armed Forces all over the planet, and who are away from their families and their nation on New Year's Day, with a special cyber hug to all my U.S. Navy brothers and sisters at sea - we've got your back!