Bookmaking 101: Making a Soft Cover Sketchbook

From Washington Printmakers Gallery:

Bookmaking 101 Making a Soft Cover Sketchbook with Arthur Kohn Friday, February 10, 2023 3:00-6:00 pm

Make Your own sketchbook with mixed media pages and a marbled softcover. Learn to fold and bind a text block and attach a marbled sumi paper cover. Although this sketchbook will be bound with blank watercolor pages the same process can be applied to pre-printed pages as well. Take a bone folder and roll of waxed thread home with your final book for future bookbinding projects!  This workshop or Bookmaking 101 are prerequisites for Bookmaking 201 to be offered in March. Click here to sign up through Eventbrite the cost is $130, all materials included class size 5-15, masks optional Arthur's Instagram

A Rainy Weekend, Elvis, and a Harbor Called Gig

We’re airborne as I wrote this somewhat odd and unusual column, sitting in row 21 of a 737, which puts us right over the wings. The roar of the engines drowning everything else out, and I think about that fact that the sound produced by the mighty Boeing is now and always a perennial part of the universe, traveling in all directions forever, perhaps to be picked up by alien and faraway sensors, who will perhaps also wonder as to the origin of such mighty sounds.

Read about my recent trek to the Great Pacific Northwest here - I suspect that you'll enjoy the writing.

Call for artists: National Art Competition

Click on the image for details!

John Grazier

DC area artist John Grazier died at the end of December in Pennsylvania as reported in this excellent obit by Emily Langer in the Washington Post.

John Grazier, an artist who at times lived homeless even as his works were housed at galleries and museums in Washington and beyond, his slanted depictions of Victorian houses, Greyhound buses and empty phone booths beckoning viewers into worlds at once familiar and strange, has died at 76.

He was found dead at his home in Shamokin, Pa., on Dec. 28 and was believed to have died the previous day of a heart attack, said his daughter Rebecca Grazier. He had spent much of his professional career in Washington before settling in Pennsylvania approximately two decades ago.

Although as far as I can recall I never met Grazier personally, I corresponded electronically with him multiple times over the years.  He was an immensely talented artist and draftsman, and an acute and observant critic of other artists artwork! He writes to me in an email on October 10, 2009:

Nice drawing of Christ.  I generally do not criticize other artists' works, but don't you think Christ might have looked more like a skinny, abused Jew, rather than a muscular Schwartzenegger?  It is a very nicely done drawing.  Keep up the good work, your great hand in creating artworks, and also your significant contributions as a journalist.

I am not going to repeat all the points made by Langer in the WaPo obit, but now let us observe how the art world - mostly the DC artwork "discovers" Grazier after his death.  By the way, not sure how Langer missed the fact that Grazier was and is represented (for many years) in the DC area by Zenith Gallery.

Dalhousie Arch

This is "Dalhousie Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland." 

It's from around 1990 and one of the many ink drawings of the arch that I did while stationed at NSGA Edzell. 

It has been part of the US Navy art collection since then. 

"Dalhousie Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland"

After the base closed, it hung at the old CNSG... it is now hanging at Fleet Cyber Command/US TENTH Fleet in Fort Meade.

Upcoming exhibition: wanna go to an opening this Friday?

Ubertalented Adam Griffiths recently opened a new Comics and Cartooning Arts arts compound / workshop / gallery in downtown Silver Spring called DWIGHTMESS.

Here's the info about the show:

D W I G H T MESS

Cartooning & Comic Arts Compound

Upcoming exhibition: Art Hondros: CHIMERA POLITICK - examines creativity through the symbolic language of #comics and #cartooning when the same artist makes both political and surreal narratives for publication.

When: NEXT FRIDAY the 13th at the gallery in Silver Spring, 6-8pm, light refreshments [Address listed on map, entrance on Ripley St.]. :: IG: @dwightmess

On the anniversary of a superhero's death

 Eight years ago my father died on this day... here's my eulogy from that date:

"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 enormous. 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 tuna 

Me 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.

The Trawick Prize for Contemporary Art at AU

Winter exhibitions at American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center will open Feb. 4, 2023. Exhibits include Madayin, the first major exhibition of Aboriginal Australian bark painting to tour the U.S., photojournalism from World War II, and The Trawick Prize for Contemporary Art.

The opening reception, free and open to all, takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Feb. 4. Please refer to the museum’s website for the most up-to-date information on museum events and visiting the museum. 

The Trawick Prize: 20th Anniversary Emerald Award celebrates the impact of The Trawick Prize for Contemporary Arts, a visual arts prize that honors artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia in an annual juried competition. 

Now in its 20th year, the prize was established by Bethesda, Md.-based community activist and philanthropist Carol Trawick in 2002. To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded over $300,00 to local contemporary artists and has exhibited the work of more than 200 artists who reached the level of finalists in each year’s competition. 

This exhibition presents the work of artists who were awarded the “Best in Show” in the competition over the last 20 years, and features contemporary paintings, sculptures, film, mixed media, and many others. 

This year, the juried competition will result in selecting “the best of the best” over the past 20 years, awarding the artist with The Trawick Prize Emerald Award. On view through March 19.

The exhibition features artists working in a variety of media including sculpture, painting, mixed media, film, and more. Works from artists such as Neil Feather, Jiha Moon, Jo Smail, and many others will be displayed in the galleries. Themes span a range of concepts important to each artist from race, oppression, and genealogy to culture, humanity, and emotion to name a few.

In the words of Carol Trawick “there is no need to travel to see great art, there are numerous talented artists right in our backyard!” 

Featured artists:

Lauren Adams 

WonJung Choi 

Richard Cleaver 

Larry Cook 

Oletha Devane 

Neil Feather 

Mia Feuer 

Caroline Hatfield 

Lillian Hoover 

Gary Kachadourian 

Cecilia Kim 

Maggie Michael 

Jonathan Monaghan 

Jiha Moon 

David Page 

James Rieck 

Jo Smail 

Lomax & Wickerham

2023 Northern National Art Competition

Click on the image for details!

Washington Printmakers Gallery has a new home!

WPG has exciting news! Their gallery is moving to a larger space at 1675 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington DC, a short walk from their old space!

The opening date for the new space is Friday, January 6, 2023.

With over thirty years in the greater DC metro area as a primary source for contemporary fine art prints and photographs, WPG also contributes to the Washington DC community via teaching, internships, lectures, and the promotion of public art shows. We plan to expand in many ways: not only will our large gallery will let us show more artwork, but we will also initiate a new membership drive – we wish to accept eight to ten new full members. For information on applying, click here.

WPG will also be offering more classes and workshops in a dedicated space for learning: printmaking and photography techniques, three dimensional works on paper, art-related lectures and more. Check our calendar for listings.

The new gallery includes an open air patio in addition to two gallery spaces, and we invite local businesses to hold events amongst our lively artworks. We look forward to seeing you in our new space.

Call for Artists! DO THIS!

 Northern National Art Competition

The 36th Northern National Art Competition is a juried art exhibition in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, co-sponsored by Nicolet College and the Northern Arts Council. The Northern National Art Competition (NNAC) began in 1987 with a mere 37 entries. Today, the show attracts the work of artists from all across the United States with hundreds of entries as diverse as the artists themselves, and showcases a wide array of contemporary art in a variety of two-dimensional mediums.

MORE THAN $8,500 AWARDED WITH THREE $1,000 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

CALENDAR 2023

• Monday, January : Registration opens via CaFÉ
• (Call for Entry) online registration system
• Friday, March 24: Registration deadline
• Friday, April 21: Acceptance notification
• Friday, May 12: Hand delivery by appointment
• Monday, May 15: All shipped work due
• Thursday, June 15: Opening Reception
• Thursday, July 28: Show Closes
• Friday, July 29: Pick up hand delivered work by appointment 

All the details here!

Happy New Year's - Enter this!

Northern National Art Competition

The 36th Northern National Art Competition is a juried art exhibition in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, co-sponsored by Nicolet College and the Northern Arts Council. The Northern National Art Competition (NNAC) began in 1987 with a mere 37 entries. Today, the show attracts the work of artists from all across the United States with hundreds of entries as diverse as the artists themselves, and showcases a wide array of contemporary art in a variety of two-dimensional mediums.

MORE THAN $8,500 AWARDED WITH THREE $1,000 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

CALENDAR 2023

• Monday, January : Registration opens via CaFÉ
• (Call for Entry) online registration system
• Friday, March 24: Registration deadline
• Friday, April 21: Acceptance notification
• Friday, May 12: Hand delivery by appointment
• Monday, May 15: All shipped work due
• Thursday, June 15: Opening Reception
• Thursday, July 28: Show Closes
• Friday, July 29: Pick up hand delivered work by appointment 

All the details here!

Wanna get rid of artwork and get a line in your resume?

I'm always baffled by artists who destroy their own work because of "fill-in-the-blank" reason.

Here's a no fee opportunity to donate your artwork for a good cause and at the same time get a museum show line in your resume.

Deadline: January 10, 2023

This exhibition will feature 6" x 6" artwork displayed in a grid, and auctioned off of sale to raise funds for the Grants Pass Museum of Art. Display your work in the museum and support the arts in Southern Oregon during this fundraising exhibit. The Grants Pass Museum of Art is raising funds that provide free admission for museum visitors, affordable art classes, and amazing programs for kids. This will also be an online auction.

Original artwork(s) get mailed to:

Grants Pass Museum of Art

1630 Williams Hwy, PMB 501

Grants Pass, OR 97527

The artwork will be exhibited in the museum and online from January 20 - February 16, 2023. All accepted work will be exhibited. All work needs to be suitable for audience of all ages, and not infringe on copyright laws. Other than that it is up to you!

No application in advance required. Please fill out the entry form for each entry, and mail it with your work. 

Anyone is eligible to submit artwork. Please be aware that unsold work may not be returned. 100% of the proceeds go to fund the Grants Pass Museum of Art in Southern Oregon. 

Details here.

Pat Goslee at Artists & Makers

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville starts the new year with Artist Pat Goslee and the exhibit “Patch” along with two additional exhibits and an Open Studio event. The January 6th First Friday evening opening will run from 5pm – 9pm. Enjoy “Open Window” with Resident Artists, and Gallery 209 Artists exhibiting their latest work. Pat Goslee’s arrangements in “Patch” bring hope and joy as patchy remarks on uneven inequalities of time. These are beauty-impregnated substrates operating as patches of visual code suggesting amelioration. A dream of water so clean it can’t be seen. Flora that references the healing powers found in the Peyer’s Patch. And the pleas of fauna for continued mending of ecosystems before more life is lost. In “Open Window” Resident Artists explore landscape from many varied perspectives and practices. The Members’ exhibit is always a visual treat in the long Gallery Hall.

“Patch” with Invited Artist Pat Goslee

“Open Window” with Resident Artists

The Artists of Gallery 209

Opening Reception

5:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, January 6th, 2023

Meet the Artist - January 14th, 2-4pm

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Exhibits for Pat Goslee, the Resident Artists, and Gallery 209 will run from January 4th through January 25th. Viewing hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Monday-Saturday, and Sundays by chance or appointment.

Job in the arts

 Arts Capital Program Coordinator, Public Art Project Manager

Deadline to apply: January 13, 2023 at 4 p.m.

This position is primarily responsible for building the arts capital grant program outlined in Maryland SB323 (2021) and managing public art and projects for MSAC. Incumbent reports to the Executive Director of MSAC and works closely with the Public Art Program Director and with other staff in the management and administration of public art commissions through the Maryland Public Art Commission (MPAC). The focus will be on building an arts capital grant program that distributes $3 million annually to arts organizations and county arts agencies beginning in fiscal year 2024.

The duties for this position include: providing technical assistance, professional development and program evaluation, building the grant program to include researching existing programs in other state agencies and arts councils; facilitating constituent listening sessions; developing program rationale; establishing grant eligibility and criteria; building an application process, form, and rubric; developing applicant and grantee communication templates; establishing grantee reporting requirements; and developing program outcomes and a program evaluation framework. The position manages Commission projects of the Public Art Across Maryland program, assists in the artist selection process for artwork in new or renovated state buildings and public spaces throughout Maryland and works closely with state user agency partners and contracted artists.

For more information and to apply, click here.

Day Eight

 Day Eight is one of the really good art drivers in the the tapestry that makes up the DMV's art scene - Day Eight's accomplishments in 2022 include:

• They published six books of poetry:

•    Ashes to Justice by Shaquetta Nelson (Feb, 2022);
•    The Great World of Days edited by Gregory Luce, Anne Becker and Jeffrey Banks (Mar, 2022);
•    Why We Write, edited by Robert Bettmann, a youth and faculty anthology (June, 2022);
•    Diaspora Café edited by Maritza Rivera and Jeffrey Banks (Aug, 2022);
•    Breaking the Blank by Rebecca Bishophall and Dwayne Lawson-Brown (Nov, 2022);
•    I’d Rather Be A Nerd by 2022 Poet Project winner Dominic McDonald (Dec, 2022)

• They hired six early-career arts writers who authored more than thirty articles through their arts journalism fellowship. They also hosted a conference on The Crisis in Book Review that featured Joyce Carol Oates, Brian Broome, and other literary luminaries, and they produced a week-long summer institute offering intensive training for professional arts writers, including faculty members Geoff Edgers (Washington Post), Emma Sarappo (the Atlantic), and more.

• They produced a group of opportunities for young writers, including an after school series for LGBT youth and allies, five weeks of summer writing camp, and a monthly writing club for girls.

If you support their work, thank you for considering an end of year donation to Day Eight. All contributions are tax deductible. Whether you donate $5 or $500, every little bit helps. Thank you for your support!

To donate on  their Facebook fundraiser, click here.

To make a donation on their website, click here.

Here Are 6 of the Worst Artworks Around the World in 2022

Sarah Cascone and others from ArtNet News pops in with their top bottom... cough... cough... artworks from around the world...

Who says criticism is dead? Sometimes, despite an artist’s best intentions, an artwork misses the mark—at least according to some opinions. Art is delightfully subjective, and we are sure that many people hold dear some of the art our editorial staff found, well, less than perfect.

Read their picks here...

William H. Anderson, R.I.P

It is with deep sadness that I share my father-in-law's passing on Christmas Eve, William H. Anderson (June 29, 1933 - December 24, 2022) - fair winds and following seas shipmate! RIP - we have the watch!

We called him "Pop Pop", and he was perhaps the kindest, gentlest man that I have ever met. Pop Pop welcomed me to his family from the very first day, and we shared Navy stories and that comradery that only Navy shipmates can share. He loved sports, and we all loved watching soccer with him - one of his favorite sports... "Don't kick it back!" was his favorite commentary and one which will always be associated with Pop Pop. This gentle, hard-working, and loving man will be missed, but his teachings and presence will live in his descendants and in our hearts. Fair winds and following seas, old shipmate - we have the watch now.

Wanna show in Howard County, Maryland?

The Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) in Maryland manages two galleries at the Howard County Center for the Arts with over 21,000 square feet of exhibit space. 

HCAC presents 11-12 exhibits per year of national, regional, and local artists, including two-person, small and large group, juried, curated, and community shows.

Visit HCAC's application portal to apply.

A sailor and his date

As many of you know, when I was in the Navy I did loads of illustrations and cartoons for many newspapers (such as The Stars & Stripes and lots of base newspapers, etc.), and hundreds of sketches of my shipmates and other US Navy sailors in ports in the US and European ports. 

Most of these drawings, cartoons, and paintings were given away to my shipmates over the years, but I also kept many of them, and I see them often being sold at auctions online and by galleries... this image was sent to me by someone who bought it at an auction in San Diego and it is part of this vintage group of Navy artwork! It is called "A Sailor and his date".

A Sailor and his date - 1980 drawing by Campello

Northern National Art Competition

Northern National Art Competition

The 36th Northern National Art Competition is a juried art exhibition in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, co-sponsored by Nicolet College and the Northern Arts Council. The Northern National Art Competition (NNAC) began in 1987 with a mere 37 entries. Today, the show attracts the work of artists from all across the United States with hundreds of entries as diverse as the artists themselves, and showcases a wide array of contemporary art in a variety of two-dimensional mediums.

MORE THAN $8,500 AWARDED WITH THREE $1,000 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

CALENDAR 2023

• Monday, January : Registration opens via CaFÉ
• (Call for Entry) online registration system
• Friday, March 24: Registration deadline
• Friday, April 21: Acceptance notification
• Friday, May 12: Hand delivery by appointment
• Monday, May 15: All shipped work due
• Thursday, June 15: Opening Reception
• Thursday, July 28: Show Closes
• Friday, July 29: Pick up hand delivered work by appointment 

All the details here!

The Fake Art Industry Is Booming Online

This article by Chris Cobb is a must read for everyone who has bought an original Frida Kahlo on Ebay for a few hundred bucks!

If you are in the business of selling fake art online, this is truly a golden age.

It’s especially true if you are selling images attributed to famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, or Jean-Michel Basquiat...

Read the article here. 

Lost Painting by Futurist Master Umberto Boccioni found!

A Lost Painting by Futurist Master Umberto Boccioni Turned Up at a Dorset Junk Sale for Around $100. It Could Be Worth $288,000

Read the article by Vittoria Benzine here.

Glen Echo Park Partnership Call for Artists

Application deadline: December 30

Glen Echo Park Partnership Galleries invites artists to submit art that investigates the impact our environment has on identity and experiences. Themes can include place, identity, origins, routine, displacement, immigration, natural and manmade environments.

Click here for more information and to apply.

Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation

Application deadline: January 18

The Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation welcomes applications for its 2023 Individual Support Grants program, which will award grants of $25,000 in support of mature painters, sculptors, and printmakers who are in financial need. To be eligible, applicants must be able to demonstrate they have been working in a mature phase of their art for at least 20 years.

Click here for more information and to apply.

The Rock Magnet

Below is a peek from Juicy Fruit Perfume: An American Remembers his Cuban Childhood, my biography, which is currently scheduled to be published in 2024 2026 (should I ever finish it!) - This chapter is titled "The Rock Magnet":

One of our favorite games was rock fights. 

How in the world we survived countless battles without losing an eye or getting killed is both a miracle and mystery. 

Rock fights would either be planned, between a couple of teams, or just start out of nowhere, first with one or two people, and slowly gathering impetus until broken up by either an adult, a cracked head, or a cracked window or windshield on a parked or passing car. 

How many times would I wander out of my house, bored and with nothing to do, climb on the roof and survey the neighborhood from my own little kingdom. And if I detected Pepin or his brother Monguito playing down at the end of the block, or perhaps one of the Calixton brothers outside their house a block directly across from us, I would climb down from the roof, gather a few rocks, walk to the middle of the block, yell just one warning shout and launch an unexpected aerial attack.

Having been at the receiving end of these same attacks, it was not unfair to launch an unprovoked attack, and immediately the battle would begin. 

Two solitary warriors lobbing rocks at each other, maybe 100-200 feet apart, throwing the rocks in long, elegant arcs that demanded attention – in order to avoid them – and guts – in order to appear unconcerned and avoid being hit just at the last minute by side-stepping the rock as it was about to hit you. Soon, one of the brothers would join in, and now I would have to start dodging two attackers while shouting for either my cousin Cesar or my best friend Jorge Cunningham to come to my aid. 

As my best friend, Jorge, who was an excellent rock thrower, was feared for his skill; however, he lived about half a block down from Cuartel Street and would not always hear me. Cesar nearly always came to my aid, but he was not very good at aiming, and there was always a chance that he’d join the other guys – unless the Monguitos had done something to him recently. 

The only guy in our neighborhood that you never started an unprovoked rock fight against with was Pupy. 

Pupy was one of an endless horde of Haitians who lived in a huge house at the end of where the paved Cuartel Street ended. He didn’t usually play with us, as the Haitians tended to keep to themselves, and his house had a huge, fenced garden full of trees and space where he usually played his many brothers and cousins. A whole tribe of Haitians lived behind that walled fortress of a house and it was one of the few places in our neighborhood where we weren’t welcomed or allowed in. 

But once in a while Pupy would come out and play with us, more often than not terrorizing us. We were all afraid of him, except the Monguito brothers, who were fearless and would fight anyone, anytime; and Jorge, who although skinny and small was very tough. 

Pupy was mean and evil, and in rock fights would run close up to you and fire rocks at close range, rather than maintaining a respectable artillery distance. Our only means of revenge against Pupy was rather cowardly, but we all did it anyway. 

It consisted of the ritual of lobbing a few anonymous rocks into his house’s back garden or their roof, nearly every night; or whenever we were playing around that corner of the street, which was unusual by itself, as we usually played around the other corner of the block, directly next to my grandparents’ house, which is where I lived. 

There was an art to the rock fight that demanded a certain skill and grace in order to survive without being hit. This was especially needed when you were defending against two boys. 

The idea was to throw your rock and then immediately and very quickly begin looking for a new one to throw. Because we lived on a paved street, strategy and location was important, such as beginning the fight from around one of the several empty lots in our block, with an abundant supply of projectiles. One was most vulnerable when bending down to pick up new rocks (ideally two at once), when you took your eyes off your opponent. 

A well timed throw would arc towards you to try to catch you looking away for that final split second. Two throwers demanded intense concentration and skill, and an amazing dance around a rainfall of rocks. 

One year, for a few delirious months, our street was torn and opened up as huge, new sewer lines were installed. For months these large cement pipes provided castles and forts from which massive rock fights took place – the open, torn streets providing an unending supply of rocks. It is amazing how few times we were actually hurt – of course we were hit, and it did hurt, but seldom were hits very serious or requiring stitches. 

Except for Pepin. 

Pepin was the youngest of the two Monguito brothers, his father was Mongo, who we would all make fun of, as he traveled back and forth to his job in a bicycle, becoming the proverbial Mongo en Bicicleta character. Mongo also wore the same thick, nerd glasses that Castro wore and that nearly every Cuban who needed glasses seemed to have in those years. 

Later when I was in the US Navy we would see those glasses being issued in bootcamp and we would call them "birth control glasses." 

Mongo also had an incredible resemblance to the American cartoon artist Robert Crumb. Pepin and Monguito were a key part of our pandilla, and we all played together, and of course this included rock fights, either on our side against other neighborhood’s kids or internecine battles in our own group. 

But Pepin’s head seemed to be a rock magnet! I cannot recall the number of times that his poor mother Elba, had to take Pepin to the hospital to stitch his head close from rock wounds. It was astounding even to the doctors, and his crewcut was decorated with shiny white healed scars visible under the short cropped hairstyle that we all wore. It was so bad that one time, as Elba and Pepin where coming out of the most recent visit to the hospital (she madder than a hornet at yet another busted head, and he, recently stitched and bandaged), an amazing thing happened as they were waiting for the bus outside the hospital

Now, it must be made clear that buses were also good targets for rock throwing, and in our neighborhood we generously pelted the buses with rocks if they happened to drive by during one of our battles. 

Apparently this was the case all over Guantanamo, as when the bus arrived at the hospital stop, and as Elba and the bandaged Pepin prepared to enter it, from across the street someone lobbed a rock at the bus, managed to miss it completely, arcing the rock over it and landing it squarely atop Pepin’s head, busting it open in a new spot and sending him back to the hospital amidst Elba’s cries of blue murder. 

But the rock fight to end all rock fights was an incredibly huge rock fight that took place one warm, sunny summer early evening at the crossing of the river Guaso. It has remained, both in my memory and my father’s memory, as the largest, most intensive rock fight in Guantanamo’s history, and it literally involved nearly 100 people of all ages, sizes and colors. This rock fight was the mother of all rock fights.

Heading to the Left Coast

 

Wanna get an unicorn?

This 1980 original drawing of an unicorn by yours truly just popped up on Ebay! I did these unicorn series in prep for a private, illustrated edition of a book on the subject being printed in Seattle in 1980!

I recall selling this drawing in 1980 while I was selling art at the Pike Place Market while I was an art student at the University of Washington.

Bid for it here.

The curious case of Associate Professor Erika Denise Edwards and the Argentine national soccer team

Erika Denise Edwards is the author of the book "Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law and the Making of a White Argentine Republic" and an associate professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.  She is also the author of a baffling article in the Washington Post titled Why doesn’t Argentina have more Black players in the World Cup? 

I shit thee not - the professor actually has a bee in her bonnet about this baffling question.  And to make her impossible case, she digs deep into Argentine history, although the article was already once corrected because somehow initially the author made a math mistake that thought that 149,493 divided by 46 million was one percent... cough... cough... the article has now been corrected.

Dear professor Edwards, the reason that there are no black players in the Argentine national team is that for a soccer-crazy nation like Argentina, only the best of some of the best soccer players on the planet make it to that team.  I can assure you that if there was a black Messi somewhere in Argentina with an Argentine passport, he would be on that team regardless of color.

Of that 149, 493 black Argentines, we would need a subset of men aged between 18-35 to sort of be able to even be counted. The miniscule mathematical possibility is now so low, that it takes a deep breath to try to figure out why some idiot at the WaPo thought that this was a valid question.

As one commenter notes: "For the same reason why there are no White or Asian or Latino players in nearly 50 African national teams: the demographics aren't there."

Another commenter strikes the article dead and demolishes the author's thesis in a few simple words: "Can’t say for Argentina’s FIFA team, but superimposing US racial categories on a Latin American country is an intellectual blunder the author should have easily avoided, almost the same mistake the racists make..."

Perhaps Professor Edwards needs to refresh her American-centric mindset, racialized by Americaness, deeply different from Latin American culture, and take a deep look at her flawed outlook and unsupported logic on this subject.  I recommend that she starts with Jorge Luis Borges who once noted that "The Argentinian is an Italian who speaks Spanish, thinks French, and would like to be English.”

Shame on the WaPo for publishing such a silly article. And yet, there's part of me which "hears" what the Prof. is saying, although her arrow errs in her aim - I am talking to you, the rest of Latin America! That's who the Professer needs to aim her arrow at instead of the New World's "whitest" country! Cough... cough...

PS - Latin American newspapers are having a lot of fun with the Professor's article.

Wanna exhibit in Howard County, Maryland?

The Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) in Maryland manages two galleries at the Howard County Center for the Arts with over 21,000 square feet of exhibit space. 

HCAC presents 11-12 exhibits per year of national, regional, and local artists, including two-person, small and large group, juried, curated, and community shows.

Visit HCAC's application portal to apply.

Renewal: The 2023 Prince George's County Exhibition call for entries

The annual Annapolis county exhibition is returning and will be on display at the Lowe House building in Annapolis, MD from January 11- April 10, 2023.

PG County artists can submit an online entry application at: https://m-ncppc.submittable.com/submit. 

All artists must be over 18 and either live, work, or have a studio in Prince George's County. You may submit up to 3 images of artworks for consideration and no more than 1 artwork per person may be selected for inclusion. Please review the entire call for entry for more information on the exhibition.

The deadline for applications will be this Friday, December 16, 2022, 11:59 pm.

Howard County Arts Council Seeks Exhibits and Programs Assistant

The Howard County Arts Council, a multi-purpose non-profit arts agency, seeks a self-directed, outgoing individual for an entry to mid-level Exhibits and Programs position in a small, fast-paced office environment. View the full job description here. 

Position open until filled. Send cover letter with resume and three references to Mary K Baxter at deputydirector@hocoarts.org

The Mighty Thor - page 14, issue 333

The Mighty Thor, issue 333, page 14 published in 1983. Terrific page showing Thor smashing his hammer and then flying away!

Script by Alan Zelenetz

Pencils: M. D. Bright (credited as Mark Bright)

Inks: Vince Colletta

Letters: Janice Chiang