Secrets as Art

One of the Artomatic projects or art ideas that really sunk a hook into me, was this really odd and unusual project that had blank postcards where people could write their secrets.

What a terrific idea!

The creator of this idea is Frank Warren, and he is one of the artists whom Anne C. Fisher Gallery is currently showcasing in her beautiful gallery in Georgetown; and I've just been made aware of the Post Secret BLOG, where anyone can post a secret or read someone else's secret.

Is this a new kind of art? Is this the marriage of reality TV with "reality art"?

I don't know, but there's something definately new going on here. Anyone can contribute... and everyone is invited to anonymously contribute a secret to the PostSecret project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation; Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it publicly (and anonymously) before.

Steps: Create your own 4"x6" postcard and tell your secret anonymously. Then stamp and mail the postcard to the address at the bottom. Some tips:
(a) Be brief – the fewer words used the better
(b) Be legible – use big, clear and bold lettering
(c)Be creative – let the postcard be your canvas.

Mail your secret to:
PostSecret
13345 Copper Ridge Rd
Germantown MD 20874

Shrinkage <----- click on that! (Username: obfuscator and password: whome)

[By the way: (And thanks to AJ)... for sites that ask you to register: If you encounter a registration screen when you click on a link, try bugmenot.com, which will provide you with password access]

Karey Kessler

I am hearing really good things about the Karey Kessler exhibition at DCAC. I hope to go see this show over the next day or two, as Sunday I am flying to California for a week.

The exhibition, titled The Fleeting Instant of Now: Recent Works by Karey Kessler, runs until February 20, 2005.

Class Project

Tracy Lee had a class project in her (now over) brief George Washington University MFA stint, but she was told to "stop doing nudes" and instead she did this.

And Tracy Lee has now switched MFA programs to GMU.

Bravo Tracy Lee!

Visual Art Reviews at DCist

Starting today, together with DCist colleage Cyndi Spain, I will be doing full reviews and mini reviews for DCist, separate from what goes on here in DC Art News.

DCist reaches well over 3,000 visitors each day, and this new aspect of the site will certainly add a new dimension and voice to our warming art scene.

Read today's mini reviews here.

New Curator at Hirshhorn

As revealed in MAN, New York City curator Anne Ellegood is getting a government job and heading to Washington, DC to become an Associate Curator at the Hirshhorn.

Ellegood is a former art critic for New York Arts magazine and was a former Curatorial Associate at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan as well as the former curator for the Peter Norton Collection.

Welcome to DC!

Critical Alignment (Part... whatever)

"And just at the moment painting is a highly fashionable art form. It's having a bout of serious twitches. In the past few years I can think of several major exhibitions that have identified a new spirit in painting... and there have been many other smaller ones.

Or go round the trendy commercial galleries in London. Painting is currently so fashionable, it's on the verge of being unfashionable again."

Read the whole article here.

Thanks AJ.

That big troublemaker J.T. Kirkland, over at Thinking About Art is incensed that the Ellipse Arts Center is seeking proposals for a summer 2005 exhibition, an Arlington-specific nine-hole miniature golf course: The Tour of Arlington Classic Mini-Putter.

I agree with J.T. and it seems to me that this beautiful gallery space, which only does four exhibits a year, could come up with a better summer show that a putt putt golf course inside the gallery.

Not to be defeated by a silly "art" project, some of the artists who comment on Thinking About Art have come up with some interesting "suggestions." Read them here and make sure to scroll to the top.

Congratulations to artist Lisa Bertnick, whose work will be included in Material Whirled, opening next Friday in Miami's Bettcher Gallery.

Lisa Bertnick is a 2001 graduate of the Corcoran and works at Hemphill Fine Arts. Other artists in the group show include: Ray Beldner, Kara D'Angelo, Scott Cawood, and Luis Sanchez.

Me on DC photographer Adrienne Mills in Paint Magazine.

See more work by Mills here. I own some of her photographs. Adrienne shows at Market Five Gallery.

Mark Jenkins and I traded artwork. One of his Pubic Hair Tapestries for my snow day drawing of Eve and Lillith.

Talking of snow, here are some more plastic men enjoying the stuff and two below:

A Painting a Day

(Thanks to ANABA) A Richmond, Virginia painter named Duane Keiser is painting one painting each day and posting them on a daily basis on his Blog.

He writes:

"Most of the paintings on this blog will be postcard-sized oil sketches (I call them Postcard Paintings.) I paint them on site, using a modified cigar box as an easel. Occasionally I may post a larger, more finished painting, in which case I'll include the dimensions. If you would like to purchase a Postcard Painting, they cost $100."

And guess what, most of the paintings are quite good and Mr. Keiser has practically sold all of them. Brilliant use of the power of the Web marrying to a forceful way to keep creating on a daily basis.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: January 31, 2005

Homage to Frida Kahlo. Online juried exhibition curated by yours truly. No entry fee. All entries done online via digital images. 1st Prize: Airfare, hotel and expenses for 3-day/3-night trip for two to the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, Mexico. (Total package valued up to $2,500), 2nd Prize: $1,000, 3rd Prize: $150 towards a Print on Demand order through Art.com Original Art & Photography.

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Deadline: February 3, 2005

2005 Bethesda International Photography Competition. An international photography competition hosted by Fraser Gallery Bethesda. Juried by Connie Imboden. Nearly $1,000 in cash awards as well as a solo show in 2006 for the Best of Show winner and invites to group shows for all other award winners. $25 for three slides. Download an entry form here or call 301/718-9651 or email us here or send a SASE to:
Bethesda International Photography Competition
Fraser Gallery
7700 Wisconsin Avenue
Suite E
Bethesda, MD 20814

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Deadline: February 15, 2005

The Constance Art Gallery in The Helene Center for the Visual Arts at Graceland University is reviewing proposals for solo or group exhibitions for the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons. Open to all media and US artists 21+. February 15, 2005, deadline for entry. Insurance, honorarium, postcards, no commission. Send proposal letter, 20 images in slide or CD format, resume, statement and SASE to:

Julia Franklin
Dept of Art-Constance Art Gallery
Graceland University
1 University Place
Lamoni IA 50140

Or call 641-784-5329 or email her here.

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Deadline: March 7, 2005

48th Annual National Juried Art Exhibition: At the Rocky Mount Arts Center in North Carolina. Open to all US artists in all media except video and installations. $3,300 in prizes. Juror: George Hemphill, President and Director of Hemphill Fine Arts Gallery and Art Consulting in Washington, DC. Postmark deadline for slide entry is March 7, 2005. Exhibition dates: April 30 - June 26, 2005. Download a prospectus here (see Artists Opportunities). Or e-mail your street address to this guy. Or call the Rocky Mount Arts Center, Rocky Mount NC at 252/972-1163.

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Deadline: March 15, 2005

Studio Montclair seeks entries for their 8th Annual Juried Exhibition, "Taboo," May 1-15, 2005, Makeready Press/Gallery 214, in Montclair, NJ. Cash Awards. Juror is Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic, Village Voice, 2001 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Criticism, Contributing Editor to Art in America, lecturer, teacher. Entry Fee: $25 for 3 slides. For a prospectus send #10 SASE to:
Studio Montclair
Box 3041 Memorial Station
Upper Montclair NJ 07043

Or call 973/744-1818 or download the form from their website. Postmark deadline is March 15,
2005.

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Deadline: March 25, 2005

Residencies for Ceramic Artists. The Northern Clay Center (Minneapolis, MN) announces the deadline for its 2005 McKnight Artist Residencies for Ceramic Artists for mid-career ceramic artists residing outside of Minnesota. Residencies are 3 months in length and include a $5,000 stipend, a $300 honorarium for presenting a public workshop or lecture, studio space, and a glaze and firing allowance. Responsibilities include participation in a group exhibition and a written final report at the end of the residency. Application Deadline is Friday, March 25, 2005 by 5 pm. For more information and to receive an application, please contact the Clay Center at 612-339-8007, visit their website at www.northernclaycenter.org, or write to them at:
Northern Clay Center
2424 Franklin Av East
Minneapolis MN 55406

Timothy Comeau has some very interesting words on the future of painting. Read it here.

COSTCO sells Picasso Doodle

(Thanks AJ). COSTCO (yes, yes... COSTCO) has just sold a Picasso doodle done on the back of a bookcover for $40K. Read the story here.

They currently have a Chagall litho (several Chagalls actually) and also a Modigliani litho and a Leger litho for sale.

I am curious as to how these works, and works like this one get into the COSTCO system?

Thinking About Art sends a sarcastic "thank you" to the WaPo for their minimalist coverage of the visual arts in today's Sunday Arts Section.

Sunday Arts has only 237 words about the visual arts within its 12 pages of Sunday Arts.

And this counts as part of the coverage:

ART

ART ABOUT SEX, gender and feminism is everywhere today. Some younger artists even see it as old hat -- they prefer to make work that's closer to good-looking fun. On Tuesday, the Hirshhorn Museum and the art history department at George Washington University are sponsoring a talk by Carolee Schneeman, who was one of the 1960s pioneers of sex-themed art by women. It should remind us of how radically out-there such artmaking once was.

-- Blake Gopnik

At George Washington University's Dorothy Betts Marvin Theater, 800 21st St. NW. Tuesday at 7 p.m. Free. Call 202-633-4674 or visit hirshhorn.si.edu

Actually this seems quite interesting, so I will try to attend; besides, around here sex and art is still quite a radical concept, as Scott Hutchison's tempest in a teapot proved a while back.

Opening Re-scheduled

The opening reception for GMU Prof. Chawky Frenn's (represented by us) solo show at the Washington Theological Union scheduled for today has been cancelled and rescheduled to February 6 from 3 to 5 PM.

I've never been to the Washington Theological Union and I am looking forward to see what their gallery space looks like and how it marries to Frenn's intensely political art.

Snowy days (and it's really coming down now) always put me in a mood for a couple of things: (a) Hot Buttered Rums and (b) Drawing.

So here's the latest creation, a small charcoal on paper drawing:

I call it "Lillith and Eve," depicting a romanticized view of Lillith controlling the Snake as she laughs with Eve. They are both laughing at Adam, who is out of the picture.

Back to the basement... I mean "my studio."

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: March 21, 2005

Gallery Neptune, an independent art gallery located in downtown Bethesda, announces a Call for Entries for The 6th Annual Bethesda Literary Festival. Artists are asked to submit one of the following: functional book marks, non functional book marks (work that may include 3D elements) or design concepts for theoretical or "unbuilt" book marks. All entries must be original art, suitable for hanging and fit within a 12 inch square.

Details and entry forms are here.

Looking for Models?

Figure Models Guild is a terrific area resource for artists who'd like to draw from the live model. They have open sessions (usually held at MOCA DC).

See their schedules and sessions here.