Boot Camp for Artists

On Sunday, June 11, 2006, we will present another one of our highly successful "Success as an Artist" Seminars. This next seminar will be jointly hosted with the good people from Art-O-Matic, and the Warehouse Theater, Café and Gallery, on Sunday, June 11, 2006 from 10:30-6PM, with lunch provided.

The seven hour seminar, which has been taken by over 2,000 artists and arts professionals from all over the Mid Atlantic is designed to deliver information, data and proven tactics to allow artists to develop and sustain a career in the fine arts. The seminar costs $80 (includes lunch) and is limited to 50 people. For more details please visit this website. For this seminar, sometimes called "Boot Camp for Artists" by the attendees, people as far as Arizona, California, New York and South Carolina have attended, including many, many university level art professionals.

In its seven hour format, the seminar covers a wide range of structured issues including:

1. Materials - Buying materials;strategies for lowering your costs, where and how to get it, etc.

2. Presentation – How to properly present your artwork including Conservation issues, Archival Matting and Framing, Longevity of materials, a discussion on Limited editions, signing and numbering, Prints vs. Reproduction, discussion on Iris Prints (Pros and Cons).

3. Creating a resume - Strategy for building your art resume, including how to write one, what should be in it, presentation, etc.

4. Juried Shows – An Insider's view and strategy to get in the competitions.

5. How to take slides and photographs of your artwork

6. Selling your art – A variety of avenues to actually selling your artwork, including fine arts festivals, corporate acquisitions, galleries, public arts, etc.

7. Creating a Body of Works

8. How to write a news release

9. Publicity – How to get in newspapers, magazines, etc. Plus handouts on email and addresses of newspaper critics, writers, etc.

10. Galleries – Discussion on area galleries including Vanity Galleries, Co-Operatives, Commercial Galleries, Non-profit Art spaces, etc.

11. How to approach a gallery – Realities of the business, Contracts, Gallery/Artist Relationship, Agents.

12. Outdoor Art Festivals – Discussion and advice on how to sell outwork at fine arts festivals, which to do, which to avoid, etc.

13. Resources - Display systems and tents, best juried shows and ones to avoid.

14. Accepting Credit cards – How to set up your art business.

15. Grants – Discussion on how to get grants in DC, Regional and National, including handouts on who and where and when.

16. Alternative Marketing - Cable TV, Local media

17. Internet – How to build your website at no cost, how to establish a wide and diverse Internet presence.

The seminar has been a spectacular success, and the feedback from artists can be read online at here and we continue to receive tremendous positive feedback on the practical success that this seminar has meant for those who have taken it.

You can sign up for the seminar at 301/718-9651 or via email at info@thefrasergallery.com. There are a few spots left!

Congrats!

To my good friend Jeffry Cudlin from the Washington City Paper, who has been nominated for the Association of Alternative NewsWeeklies Awards (for art criticism).

Bethesda Art Walk

This next Friday, June 9, is the second Friday of the month and thus it's the Bethesda Art Walk with 13 participating venues and with free guided tours.

We will host the finalists for the $14,000 Bethesda Painting Award Prizes. There will be an opening reception for the finalists at the Fraser Gallery from 6-9PM.

See the finalists here.

See ya there!

At Nevin Kelly

Two really good DC area artists, Sondra N. Arkin and Mary Beth Ramsey open at the Nevin Kelly Gallery this coming Thursday with an opening reception from 6-9PM.

Tape Dude in New York City

Mark Jenkins just keeps getting better and bolder. Check out his latest New York City project here.

Norfolk

I feel like I've been driving for years! I've just arrived in Norfolk for a meeting. Tons of stuff to discuss and post.

Meanwhile have fun with hotel art.

Kevin MacDonald (1946-2006)

Several of you have sent me emails to let me know that Washington area artist Kevin MacDonald passed away at 7:07 last night at Casey House Hospice in Derwood. He had been battling cancer for the last two years.

This is a significant loss to our area's art community of a very talented and respected artist and an exceptionally wonderful and decent human being.

Tate in the WaPo

While I was gone (I'm still gone actually... but heading back) to Colgate, the WaPo's Rachel Beckman had this piece on Tim Tate and the 48 Hour Film Project.

WaPo's Weekend Staff Online

I'm on the road... but keep the pressure up and ask good, intelligent questions!

The WaPo's Weekend staffers are online at 11AM today answering questions about Weekend and its coverage.

You can email your question to them here.

More arts coverage!

On the road...

Heading out later today to Colgate for a college reunion... more later.

1st Fridays

Tomorrow is the first Friday of June and thus usually time for the openings and extended hours of the Dupont Circle area galleries. Openings are generally from 6-8PM, but make sure to check their websites for the correct times.

Also on Friday, Irvine Contemporary and Warehouse Gallery have Charbel Ackermann's "The New Geometry" and "Monument2", a Special Installation at The Warehouse Gallery, opening with a reception for the artist on Friday June 2, 5:00-7:00 at The Gallery at The Warehouse. There's also an artist's talk and afternoon reception on Saturday, June 3rd, 2:00-4:00 pm, also at The Gallery at the Warehouse.

Wanna go to an opening tonite?

"Dogs and Cats Living Together," a solo show by John Aaron at The Clarendon Grill consisting of large watercolor and oil paintings of uncommon household pets has an opening reception for the artist tonight from 6-9PM. The exhibition runs through July 22, 2006.

The Clarendon Grill
1101 N. Highland St.
Arlington, VA 22201
703.524.7455

Opportunities for Photographers

Deadline: June 12, 2006

New Image Gallery at James Madison University is reviewing photography and new media with mathematical themes and inspirations for an exhibition in Fall 2006. This includes all traditional and digital photography processes, photography-related mixed media, video, installations, interactive stations, and performance- based work. Artists, mathematicians, and others may apply.

Curated by James Madison University professors Dr. Elizabeth Brown (Math), Corinne Diop (Art), Rebecca Silberman (Art, New Image Gallery Director). There is no application fee. This exhibition is co-sponsored by James Madison University 's School of Art & Art History and the Institute for Visual Studies. New Image Gallery is James Madison University's contemporary photography gallery, now in a new gallery space. For more details, please contact Corinne Diop, School of Art & Art History, MSC - diopcj@jmu.edu - (540) 568-6485.

Send appropriate documentation on slides, CD, web site links, dvd, or video; an image list; a statement outlining the mathematical implication of your work; a resume; any other support material; complete and accurate contact information; a SASE for return of your materials to:

James Madison University
800 S. Main St
Harrisonburg, VA 22807

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Deadline: August 04, 2006

The 12 12 Gallery in nearby Richmond, Virginia has a call to photographers for its "National Juried Photography Exhibition," September 22 - October 22, 2006. 2-D or 3-D work completed in past 3 years using any photographic processes by artists 18+ years of age.

$1000 in awards. Juror: Stephen Perloff. $30 for up to 5 slides or digital images. The prospectus is available online here or artists may send a SASE to:

12 12 Gallery
12 E. 12th Street
Richmond, VA 23224

Questions? Contact Martin McFadden, Director at martin.mcfadden@cavtel.net or 804-233-9957.

More congrats!

To DC area artists Inga Frick, Ian Jehle, J.T. Kirkland, Gabriel Martinez, W.C. Richardson, and Jason Zimmerman, all of whom have been chosen for the seminfinalist list for the The Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize, a one-time $25,000 art prize that will be awarded in conjunction with the annual Artscape juried exhibition.

Up to ten finalists from the below (very Baltimore-heavy) list (which includes quite a few Trawick Prize finalists and one winner) will be selected for the exhibition that will be on display in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of the Maryland Institute College of Art. From this group the winner of the prize will be selected:

Lauren Audet - Baltimore, MD
Lillian Bayley - Baltimore, MD
Michael Benevento - Baltimore, MD
Heather Boaz - Towson, MD
Nancy A. Breslin - Newark, DE
Camp Baltimore - Baltimore, MD
R.L. Croft - Manassas, VA
Jarrett Min Davis - Baltimore, MD
Laure Drogoul - Baltimore, MD
Eric Dyer - Baltimore , MD
Inga Frick - Washington, DC
Leslie Furlong - Baltimore, MD
Dawn Gavin - Baltimore, MD
Lesser Gonzalez - Baltimore, MD
Geoff Grace - Baltimore, MD
Kristofer Harzinski - Lancaster, PA
Maren Hassinger - Baltimore, MD
Bernhard Hildebrandt - Baltimore, MD
Karin Horlbeck - Baltimore, MD
Jason Hughes - Baltimore, MD
Julie Jankowski - Baltimore, MD
Ian Jehle - Washington, DC
Brian Kain - Emmitsburg, MD
J.T. Kirkland - Arlington, VA
Osamu Kobayashi - Baltimore, MD
Gabriel Martinez - Washington, DC
Lesley McTague - Cockeysville , MD
David Page - Baltimore, MD
Hugh Pocock - Baltimore, MD
Carly Ptak - Baltimore, MD
W.C. Richardson - University Park, MD
Chuck Sehman - Baltimore, MD
Julia Kim Smith - Baltimore, MD
Denise Tassin - Baltimore, MD
Rene Trevino - Baltimore, MD
P. Daniel Witmer - Baltimore, MD
Karen Yasinsky - Baltimore, MD
Jason Zimmerman - Washington, DC

The jurors are Kathy Grayson, Gallery Director of Deitch Projects in New York, Matthew Higgs, currently the director and chief curator of White Columns in New York, and artist William Pope, faculty of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Congrats!

To Ben Tolman, who will be exhibiting this coming June at the "Flights of Imagination" exhibition in Switzerland at the Giger Museum curated by H.R. Giger himself.

Express

The WaPo's Express has a bit on my review of Cristin Millett.

Cristin Millett at Arlington Arts Center

Considering that Jessica Dawson wrote that "I regret to report that almost all of the six solo shows filling Arlington Arts Center are underwhelming" when she visited the Arlington Arts Center recently, I wasn't really expecting an artistic epiphany during my recent visit to see Nestor Hernandez's portraits of Cuban-Americans currently on exhibition on the lower level of the center.

Wrong!

The visit to the Arlington Arts Center unexpectedly revealed one of the most memorable art installations that I have ever seen, and even though critics often have different opinions, I am honestly puzzled that Dawson didn't mention the amazing installation in the main floor gallery.

I am referring to Cristin Millett’s astounding solo show at the Center.

Not being familiar with Millett’s work, I asked the Center’s hardworking director Claire Huschle, to tell me a bit about both the artist and the installation. I then stepped back and listened as Claire smartly dissected and explained the installation and commented on it (and then I realized why Jessica missed it completely! -- "listening" being the operative word here).

"She grew in a medical household," explained Huschle, as we walked into the installation. This revelation (I believe) is the key to understanding (and appreciating) Millett's work; forgive my using the critic's crutch and let me describe it for you.

The installation consists of a maze like circular corridor titled "Teatro Anatomico" which uses Andre Levret’s 18th century schematic representations of the female reproductive system at the time of conception.

Millett has reproduced them into chiffon sheets that hang from aluminum tubing that form the maze and deliver a very convincing impression of both a hospital setting and a surgical theater, set-up in uterine forms that lead to a central point.

There’s a certain and strange Victorian parlor elegance to this first part of the installation, and the technical skill is admirable, both in the hand stitching of the lady-like chiffon and the construction of the aluminum tubing.

Millett has realistically constructed a convincing anatomical theatre with a subtle nuance of the female reproductive system (even the Victorian lighting seems like a female vagina when viewed from the outside); we are entering a medical theatre, where anatomy students, erotica voyeurs, and art observers all meld into one.

Inside the maze, a cleverly constructed medical exam table depicts the living digital image of a young woman's body, except its face which is replaced by a living digital plasm.

Titled "Abdominal Mystery: Dissection of the Observer," this is a living, breathing video, where we see the anonymous body breathing, being dissected, wrapped in plastic (I think), explored and manipulated.

Here the voyeur is fascinated, titillated and sometimes repulsed. The Eros of the nude body is coupled with the grossness of the exploration of its insides and the magic of its fragility. The body has become a bridge of sorts between the interior and exterior spaces of architectural entryway provided by the uterine maze: are we entering the theatre, or penetrating it?

The metaphorical relationship can be overwhelmingly sexual, or perhaps an intelligent attempt to place the female body as a comment on its visual power in a Sexual Personae Camille Paglia sort of way?

And therein lies the unexpected success of this piece, which belongs in a museum where it can be admired, explored and discussed: It brings the viewer into a silent interaction with a work of art that employs the most powerful of human icons: our body.

Millett is a young artist on the faculty at Penn State, and if this installation is a sign of things to come, then keep an eye on this promising artist.

And were our museum curators like their counterparts in New York or LA or Seattle or SF, this piece would find a champion (and a home) in one of our area's great museums.

This is my call for Anne Ellegood or Kerry Brougher from the Hirshhorn or Jonathan Binstock from the Corcoran to pay a visit to Arlington and see the newborn that this young brilliant artist has delivered for us.

The exhibition goes through June 10, 2006.

Update: The Washington Post's Express has a little blurb on this review in the Tuesday, May 30, 2006 issue.

Last week, a reader asked the Weekend staff to consider this really good suggestion/question:

McLean, Va.: How can the Weekend section give out a little more info on gallery shows, etc.? It seems like a lot of space is used to list page after page of museum shows (a lot of which are static and never change) on every issue ...

How about a once a month museum listing like you do now, and the other three weeks only list those museum shows that are new or opening (like you do with galleries).

That would free up additional space to discuss (maybe mini reviews) more art gallery shows ...

Bottom line is that the static museum listing, issue after issue ... seems a little "dusty" and that whole part of Weekend may need to re "re-freshed" -- We're starving for more art reviews out here ...

Aficionado de Arte

I thought that this was a good suggestion and I wish that I had thought of the idea, which is a good workable suggestion to "free up" static space in the section for more art coverage.

But then witness how the suggestion itself is ignored in the response:

Curt Fields: More art reviews would be nice. We also hear from people who want more on Classical music, theater events, etc. And we'd love to write more on all those topics. Unfortunately the amount of space we have is not unlimited. It's a tricky juggling act.

With all due respect, did Mr. Fields read the question/suggestion?

We know that the "amount of space" is not unlimited! But the suggestion offered a way to "free up" space. And yet he ignored that part and gave the canned "we have limited space and everyone wants us to cover their pet interests" answer.

So: How's the suggestion itself (as far as an idea to "free up" more space?

By the way there's a LOT more print space devoted each Weekend to music and theatre than to the visual arts: a LOT more!

Girlz Cook-Out

Candy Keegan and the other artists from the group known as the Girlz Club are having a Happy Hour and cookout this coming Friday, June 2 at Wolfarth Galleries from 4-8PM. They are currently all exhibiting at Wolfarth in a group show called Mixology which runs through the 6th.

Wohlfarth Galleries is located at 3418 9th Street, NE in Washington, DC, 1/2 block from Brookland/CUA red line metro and across 9th Street from Colonel Brook's Tavern. Details and info at 202-526-8022.

Bring something!