Ariel Sigler

The criminal Castro dictatorship in Cuba has released Cuban political prisoner Ariel Sigler after seven years in jail for the high crime of demanding that human rights be respected in Cuba.

Sigler lost half his body weight in jail and was turned by Castro's jailers' beatings into a paraplegic, paralized from his waist down.

His body was broken and yet, his soul was never broken down.

The photo below, courtesy of Penultimos Dias, shows the brutal transformation Sigler went through in Castro's workers' paradise in 7 years in jails that haven't allowed Amnesty International to visit them in 30 years.


Puts a new face on the word "torture" and a new face on the word "hero."

War of 1812 Commemorative License Plate

Deadline: June 30, 2010.

The Washington, DC War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission invites Washington, D.C. visual artists and citizens to submit designs for a new War of 1812 Commemorative License Plate. The deadline for submission is June 30, 2010.

All the design submissions will be examined carefully by the Washington, D.C. War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission and the Division of Motor Vehicles. The first place winner design will appear on the commemorative tag and will receive $200.00 and the second and third place winners design will be displayed on the Commission’s website and print media along with the first price winner.

The new license plate competition will give citizens the opportunity to participate in the process for the first time,” said Chairman Acqunetta Anderson. “We want the new plate to be a positive representation of Washington, D.C. Submissions must be submitted via email For more information about Washington, D.C. license plates, visit the Washington, DC War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission’s Web site here.

All submissions must comply with provisions of this Application, and with the Commission’s guidelines, instructions, and directives issued to the Participant from time to time. For additional information, please contact the Commission at 202-722-1947 or via this very long email address: wdcwar1812@washingtondcwarof1812bicentennialcommission.org

Opportunity for photographers

Deadline: July 30, 2010.

The Nonprofit Village at the Washington School of Photography. Theme: This permanent exhibit will showcase the beauty and scope of the Washington, DC area, from macro images to landscapes. Open to residents of the DC metro area. Any photographic work is eligible: Traditional B&W and color; Digital; Alternative Processes; etc. Maximum dimension of any one side must be less than 36 inches. Slides/CDs - All photographs will be judged from slides or CDs (jpeg only, low res). Cash prizes will be awarded to first, second, and third place winners. Opening reception for artists and guests September 24, 2010. Download a prospectus and find out more information about entry requirements here.

Boot on the throat of BP

Help!

I need a volunteer to help me with the editing and preparation of the manuscript for the 100 DC Artists book.

Lunch, or dinner or both, a free Campello drawing or etching, and my eternal gratitude is the payment form.

Drop me an email if you are available for a few hours this week or weekend. Send it to lenny @ lennycampello.com.

Wanna go to an opening this weekend?

Studio H's last exhibit of the Spring showing season is an exhibition titled "Derailed" by noted local graffiti artist Tim Conlon.

The image is of a model train on which Tim "writes."

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, my High School was actually in Queens, and I'd have to take the LL train and then switch to the number 7 to Queens. Overall that all took about and hour plus to get from my house to the school. Back in those days, the subway trains were covered from one end to the other in graffiti, even the windows! Every time the train arrived onto the station it was like a moving art show, except that in those days no one thought of the imagery as art.

The opening is June 19 from 6-9 PM.

Say what?

I tried to buy a photo the other day from the WaPo and I got this yesterday

Thank you for your interest in photographic reprints from The Washington Post and Pictopia.

Unfortunately, we cannot fulfill your request at this time for the following reason: The requested photograph is not available for sale due to copyright restrictions.

Thank you for your request to purchase Washington Post photos. Unfortunately Major League Baseball does not permit the selling of photographs of their athletes, events, stadiums or arenas.

Please visit our galleries again for other photos that may be of interest to you, and do not hesitate to make new requests in the future.

If you have any further questions about this, contact us. Please use your Request id# XXXXXXXXX in any correspondence with us.

Thank you,

Customer Service

The Pictopia Team
(800) 390-7269
customerservice@pictopia.com

So MLB owns the copyright for athletes, events, stadiums or arenas uh? How about drawings, paintings, etchings or any other form of fine art for the same? I think I will ask them.

Art & Soul Auction later this month

The 8th Annual Art & Soul Charity Auction 2010 is Friday, June 25, 2010 6:00 PM at The Music Center at Strathmore in Rockville, MD just past Bethesda. This is an important charity auction for the National Center for Children & Families (NCCF).

Join Honorary Co-Chairs Fox 5 News Anchor Allison Seymour and renowned jazz keyboardist, composer and producer Marcus Johnson, on Friday, June 25, 2010 at 6 p.m., for NCCF's 8th Annual Art & Soul Charity Auction at The Music Center at Strathmore.

The live auction will feature artwork created by youth from the Greentree Adolescent Program (GAP). The silent auction will feature Gifts from the Soul (non-art items) and juried artwork pieces from regional artists. In addition, guests will enjoy music by Sony recording artist Julia Nixon, the premiere of NCCF's new image, and the presentation of this year's Spirit of Humanitarian Awards.

Art & Soul Charity Auction tickets are $100 per person and can be purchased by contacting Heidi Coons, Director of Development and Institutional Advancement, at (301) 365-4480, extension 114 or click here to purchase online.

Proceeds from the evening benefit the completion of the Freddie Mac Foundation Youth Activities Center (YAC), NCCF’s sole cultural arts and recreational facility located on the Bethesda Campus.

What Pulse said...

For the third year in a row this is what the selection committee at the Pulse Art Fair Miami said to me:

Oh well... there are 24 other fairs to apply to... sigh.

Lisa MCCarthy is No. 5

Lisa McCarthy is Jessica Dawson's excellent choice in the Real Art D.C. thingie the WaPo is doing.

Judith Peck at Hillyer Art Space

Deanna Schwartzberg reviews the current show by Judith Peck at the International Art and Artists Hillyer Art Space in DC.

Judith Peck is both an artist and an intellectual. Her paintings are often generated by her abiding concern for social justice. Although she infuses her work with ideological content, it is in the exquisite execution of her subject, that we see not only the process of her mind, but her soul as well.

In her current exhibit, "Original Position", at the International Art and Artists Hillyer Art Space, June 4-26, 2010, it is a thought experiment by John Rawls that inspired the artist.

Rawls states that if we step behind a veil to cloak our knowledge of our individual abilities, social status and income, it might render us able to effectively consider the interests of all people, especially the least advantaged members of society.

Ms. Peck incorporates the concept of the veil in all of the portraits on display, each taking on a different aspect of the human condition, i.e. gender, passion, and conscience. Without prior knowledge of the artist's text, these paintings speak to us on a visceral level. Her portraits are drawn from live models and composites of the human face and appear to be lit from within. They are infused with a mysterious drama that captures the viewer's attention. On closer examination, we become transfixed in the subject's gaze. These subjects are never emotionally distant, their eyes penetrate and connect with the viewer's own, engaging our thoughts and connecting with our emotions.

On a recent trip to Boston, I viewed Rembrandt's "Self Portrait" in the Gardner Museum. I was enthralled with the delicacy of the painted surface, the fullness of his mouth, the rich textures of his hair and clothing, but most importantly, his eyes. Through his eyes I felt a knowing kinship with the sitter. What if Rembrandt were alive today? He would not only give us a window into the world around him, but into his own mind as well. As a modern artist, he might use his art to relate in visual terms the essence of his core beliefs and allow us as viewers to engage in a dialogue with him.

Judith Peck is a classically trained artist of infinite skill. Her work captivated me with a similar intimacy I found in the Rembrandt portrait, with the added benefit of symbolic imagery and metaphor that in the modern world serve to make the art both personal and timely.

About the author: Deanna Schwartzberg is an artist and painting instructor in the Washington area. She has taught painting at various venues including the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Vis Arts, and at the Art League School in the Torpedo Factory for over twenty years. She received a B.S. in Art Education from N.Y.U. and studied painting at the Art Student's League of New York with a student of Hans Hoffman. Deanna's work in painted paper assemblage and paintings on canvas deal with abstracting the human form.

Never too late to be discovered

An artist who rejected the call of the art market in his youth, and was discovered surrounded by a lifetime of unseen work when he was more than 100 years old, is to have his first museum exhibition this month.

Read Colin Gleadell's story on Stanley Lewis in the Telegraph here.

How the ChiComs know that Strasburg is pitching in Cleveland tonight

Congrats!

The Bethesda Painting Awards were announced last Friday (I never get any press releases from those folks anymore).

Nora Sturges of Baltimore, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Katherine Mann of Washington, D.C. was named second place and was given $2,000, and Deborah Ellis of Alexandria, VA was awarded third place and received $1,000.

Nora Sturges holds an MFA in painting from Ohio University and is currently associate professor of art and head of painting at Towson University.

The show is on at the Fraser Gallery through June 26, 2010.

William Butler Yeats

Happy birthday to one of my favorite poets and a pretty good artist as well: William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), born on June 12, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland.

"A Poet to his beloved"
by: William Butler Yeats

Bring you with reverent hands
The books of my numberless dreams,
White woman that passion has worn
As the tide wears the dove-grey sands,
And with heart more old than the horn
That is brimmed from the pale fire of time:
White woman with numberless dreams,
I bring you my passionate rhyme.

Real Art D.C. Finalist Two: Jenny Yang

Jenny Yang's excellent photographs attracted Jessica Dawson's attention is she is the second Real Art D.C. selection. Read all about it here.

Book Report

As I noted a while back, I have been retained by Schiffer Publishing to edit and create a coffee table size art book titled “100 Washington, DC Artists” as part of their series on national artists.

The book will cover 100 key artists working in the Greater Washington, DC area which encompasses the District and surrounding suburban areas of Maryland and Virginia.

Like all Schiffer art books, this will be a high quality book which will be available nationally and online, as well as available locally at museum gift shops and local area bookstores. Each artist will have a two page spread, with 3-4 images of their work, a small head shot, and a 300 word essay about their work.

So far I've spent a lot of free time editing, cutting and pasting the captions to about 1,000 images for the book. On the good side, I am astounded as to the depth and breadth of artistic creativity in our area. Anyone who says that DC area art is traditional and/or conservative needs to take a look at the 21,000 slides in the collection of the WPA (as I did for "Seven") or to about 1,000 recent images of work by the top 100 artists in our region; then come talk to me about "traditional" and "conservative."



On the bad side, I can't believe how many artists can't follow simple directions such as "write this in the third person." I actually had a college professor ask me what the "3rd person" was. Don't even let me get started on how many variants of writing a caption there are out there. Just in case, the basic elements of a caption are: title of the artwork, year created, media, and size.

Back on the good side, I am honored to be working with such a talented and motley crew. The book will be available in the Spring of 2011; I've already entered into discussions with the publisher for a second book with another 100 DMV artists.

Talking about books: Scored another giant deal on multiple signed modern first editions to add to my collection! Sad when used book stores close though...

Mr. President, please do something...

Congrats!

To DC's Matt Sesow, whose new solo show with Access Gallery in Denver, Colorado, opens with 41 new paintings, yes 41, next Friday.

Meet the Artist Reception: Friday, June 18, 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Live Painting and Gallery Talk: Friday June 18, 12:00–4:00 pm

Family Art Day: Saturday June 19, 10:00–1:00 pm

First Friday Reception: July 2, 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Facebook campaigning

The CP's Jonathan L. Fischer picks up on the Facebook campaign to get the Hirshhorn to pay attention to DC video sculptor Tim Tate.

We can make this happen! Add your voice here!