Sleep is the cousin of Death - prep sketch

Prep sketch for Sleep is the cousin of death

 

East City Art launches their Artist Directory!

After six months of development, the East City Art team has just finished the ECA Artist Directory which provides an alternative to WPA's soon to be discontinued art file. 

As one of the requestors, the directory was created at the request of many artists who wished to see it continue.

Here is the link - CLICK HERE.

ECA soft launched it last week and it officially went public Friday, April 30. Here are some of the Directory's features:

- Self-serve with a user-friendly interface. Artists can link to their payment processor and ECA never takes a commission

- Artists can post their artist statement, CV, website, social media, coming exhibitions

- This is tied to ECA and function as a classifieds section of ECA, benefiting from ECA's traffic

- The new ECA site is scheduled to launch May 24 and will have a cleaner plug-in to the directory

- Speaking of traffic, the directory will be fine-tuned for SEO. Online and social media ads will feature Directory. They are also planning systematic promotions and communications to ensure continued Directory interest.

- The cost is $120 per year.   

ECA is a jewel of the DMV art scene - let's now support it!

Edzell Arch

 As I've noted before, Queen Victoria, on her way to the Highlands, used to travel through the tiny Scottish village of Edzell, in the Angus region of Scotland. Thus, the locals built an arch to honor their English queen.

From 1989-1992, I lived a few minutes from the village of Edzell, and the arch was a much visited subject of my drawings back then. Below are some examples of those works from those years. These are all in multiple collections in Scotland and the US.

My X/19

 1980 or so in Seattle, Washington... with my little beautiful Fiat X 1/9!

Lenny Campello in his Fiat X 1/9 circa 1980

Wanna go to an art fair?

 Here's my March article in the Old Town Crier...

Wanna stay outside no matter what? Our area has some of the best outdoor art shows in the nation, and while nearly all of them were cancelled in 2020, they are all planning a comeback in 2021 – it is probably the best response to a Covidian model that demands being outside to see and buy art and for those who may still be afraid to step foot inside a space.

Our City, Ourselves: Women Photograph Washington

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities now has an exhibition on view in their virtual gallery space, Our City, Ourselves: Women Photograph Washington. 

I highly encourage you to spend some time in the exhibition; it celebrates not only the talented and perceptive women photographers working in the District over the past 40 years, but also the history and evolution of the city itself. 

You can see the exhibition webpage here: http://bit.ly/CAHOurCityOurselves  or you can go directly to the virtual gallery here: http://bit.ly/OurCityOurselves.

Advice for the Covidian Age

 If you're going through hell, keep going.

  -- Winston Churchill

My gift to the "woke" crowd: the racist Che Guevara

Dear members of the "woke" police...

If you wear, or have ever worn a Che Guevara T-Shirt (unless it is like the one on the left) then you are wearing or have worn the image of a man whose racist writing and actions and beliefs are full of negative, racist remarks about Mexicans and Blacks, and Native Americans. 

This man was a killing psychopath whose image has been re-invented over the decades so that in the past he's been viewed by a large, ignorant segment of the planet's population as some sort of positive icon - he was not.

By the way, "Comemierda" is an almost unique Cuban insult...

Wanna read some of the things this comemierda has written or said?

"The black is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized, and intelligent."

                        -- Che Guevara 

"The black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving, which has pursued him as far as this corner of America and drives him to advance himself, even independently of his own individual aspirations."  -- Che Guevara

"Mexicans are a band of illiterate Indians" -- Che Guevara

In an interview given to the London Daily Worker in 1962, Che Guevara said that "if the nuclear missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York City... we will march the path of victory, even if it costs millions of atomic victims... we keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm."

And this line after the Cuban Revolution in 1959: "We're going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing."

“I don’t need proof to execute a man,” said Che during an interview published in a Cuban newspaper in 1959, “I only need proof that it is necessary to execute him.”

Che Guevara (like Fidel Castro) was sadistically anti-gay. He referred to gay people as "sexual perverts" and also helped to establish the first Cuban concentration camp in Guanahacabibes in 1960 - a camp for gay men. This brutal camp was the first of many that the Communists established in Cuba - with forced hard labor, and the first which focused on gay men. From the Nazis, Guevara also adapted the motto from Auschwitz, “Work sets you free,” changing it in Guanahacabibes to “Work will make you men.” 

Inform yourself - then hunt anyone and everyone who has ever worn a Che Guevara T-shirt or had a Che Guevara poster in their college room and out them and cancel them! 

You want the image of a real Cuban hero for your T-Shirt? How about Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet?

Anderson's top 6 - OK six and a half - picks for the upcoming NFL draft

 Anderson's top 6 - OK six and a half - picks for the upcoming NFL draft:

1. Trevor Lawrence 

2. Zach Wilson 

3. Mac Jones (possible Trey Lance)

4. Kyle Pitts

5. Penei Sewell

6. Ja'Marr Chase

Things that are not OK - and I'm going to start calling them out

One of the most common ingredients of the artworld, and sometimes a formidable tool for emerging artists to build a resume (if you want to know what it is sooooooo important that you develop a valid and sustainable artistical resume, then you need to take my next "Bootcamp for Artists" seminar) is to respond to call for artists, art competitions, etc.

There's always a set of deadlines.

A deadline for entries to be in - the most important deadline for the artist.

A deadline for the hosting entity to respond with notifications of acceptance or rejection.

A deadline for delivery of accepted artworks

A deadline for pick up of exhibited/unsold artwork at the end of competition (if local delivered)

Three of the four key deadlines fall on the artists - and generally speaking, if you miss any of the first two (entry deadline and delivery deadline), then you are OUT!

If you miss the last deadline, there's often a daily "storage charge" until the artwork is picked-up.

One thing that I have been noticing more and more lately, is that hosting venues are often - anecdotal data seems to indicate most of the time - Missing THEIR deadline to notify artists and respond with notifications of acceptance or rejection.

This is not only unprofessional, but puts an extra burden on the shoulders of the artists, who may only have a tight window for decision-making related to the submitted artwork.

What is up with that? Why are we allowing the hosting venues to simply (often without a reason) go silent as deadlines pass and then ad hoc notify artists?

I have been on the jurying end of this process dozens if not hundreds of times, and thus as the poet Marti wrote: "I know the monster well, for I have lived in its entrails."

Sarah's Handmade Ice Cream

 Look what our local ice cream joint has...

At Sarah's Hand Made Icre Cream!

New Corcoran Director

Here's the announcement:

Corcoran community,

I’m very pleased to announce that the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University has named Lauren Onkey as its next director. Lauren most recently served as the Senior Director at NPR Music, where she led a team of journalists, critics, video, and podcast makers and provided the editorial vision in creating innovative cross-platform music journalism. She will begin her director role at Corcoran on July 12. 

The goal of the Corcoran’s search committee was to find a strategic leader with the vision and experience to guide Corcoran into the future. Lauren’s lifelong commitment to the arts as an educator, music scholar, museum professional, presenter and producer makes her the right leader for our school. 

Throughout her career, Lauren has dedicated herself to the arts, cultural studies, education and civic engagement, and she believes that innovation and diversity are the key to growing our vibrant, creative community of cultural leaders. With over two decades of experience ranging from directing NPR Music's team to developing and managing a museum's award-winning education and community programs as the Vice President of Education and Public Programming at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Lauren is poised to lead Corcoran’s future growth. She will help increase our school’s impact and visibility and foster student success.

During her tenure at NPR, Lauren worked with NPR's newsroom and robust member station network to expand the impact of NPR Music and continue positioning public radio as an essential force in music. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum from 2008-2015, Lauren led divisions such as Education, Library and Archives, Community Programs, and Visitor Services to provide programs, classes, and visitor experiences that engaged a broad audience in the history and significance of rock and roll music. 

At the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio, which provides civically-engaged humanities education to a large and diverse population of community college students, Lauren led the creation of curriculum and programming and developed strong community partnerships that provided students with opportunities for experiential learning. Lauren also spent fourteen years teaching at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, specializing in popular music studies and postcolonial literature. Over the course of her career, she has published many articles in literary studies, popular music studies, women's studies and pedagogy.

I know Lauren is excited to meet our DC community members at the Corcoran. We will share additional details in the weeks to come about her arrival. In the meantime, please join me in welcoming Lauren and her husband to our community!

Thank you,

Kym Rice

Interim Director

Corcoran School of the Arts & Design

The George Washington University

Anna Soevik at Gallery B

Stop by Gallery B in Bethesda and see the new exhibit featuring colorful paintings and sculptures, "People with Something to Say" by Bethesda-based artist Anna Soevik.

March 31 - April 24, 2021

Wednesday - Saturday, 12:30-4:30pm

7700 Old Georgetown Road

Bethesda, MD 20814

301-215-6660

Carol Brown Goldberg at Addison/Ripley

 CAROLE BROWN GOLDBERG

... ON THE OTHER HAND     *        APRIL 10 - MAY 22, 2021 Addison/Ripley Fine Art is open by appointment Tuesday-Saturday, 11 - 4pm.  Please contact us to schedule your visit:  info@addisonripleyfineart.com or 202.338.5180 Visit our Artsy page to view the exhibition: ... ON THE OTHER HAND *Masks/face coverings will be required to enter the gallery, and for the entirety of your visit. For more information about the artist and her work, images from the exhibition or to schedule an appointment to view the work, please contact Ms. Romy Silverstein at info@addisonripleyfineart.com The gallery is located at 1670 Wisconsin Avenue in Upper Georgetown at the intersection of Reservoir Road

Arte Latino at Queens University

Queens University of Charlotte, NC has a terrific virtual art, writing and performance exhibition titled ARTE LATINO.

In the past I've participated with my artwork, but this year I contributed a written piece about my childhood neighborhood in Guantanamo.

You can see the exhibition and artists here - click on my image to read my story:

Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair

The Other Art Fair, a leading artist fair for discovering emerging artists, today announced its 2021 exhibition plans. The 2021 schedule includes plans to re-introduce in-real-life events once it is safe to do so, as well as the launch of corresponding six-day Virtual Reality (VR) editions.

DMV artist Anne Cherubim is participating and so we have an insider in the fair! She notes:

Among the various interactive activities for this virtual experience, there are curator led tours, a painting class, short films, a talk on art collecting by Saatchi's Rebecca Wilson, a sound installation I'm looking forward to, you can have your portrait drawn -- just a heap of fun things to do virtually.

One of my limited edition Recycled Art Project pieces is part of the Director's Picks:

https://www.saatchiart.com/art-collection/Fair-Director-s-Picks-The-Other-Art-Fair-Los-Angeles-Virtual-Editions/320013/407958/view?page=2

One of my smaller paintings is highlighted in the $500, or thereabouts, section.

I'd be remiss not to tell you to come check it out. I'm in Room 2, apparently diagonally across from Brandon Boyd of the band, Incubus. Today was the first day of the fair, and it continues 'til Sunday, April 4th.

There are videos telling you about each artist at the front of each booth, along with a guestbook you can sign, and a way to schedule video appointments to chat with us, for those wanting to share comments, or who have questions about work. 

See my video here: https://youtu.be/uxOzze_MxHU

Visit the fair here. The Fair Program will point people to all the different activities.

An open letter to DMV area universities

There are several important, major universities in and around the DMV area. In most cases each is working, as most universities do, their own, individualized visual arts exhibition program, which is normally mix of exhibitions by their students, faculty, and sometimes invited artists.

Almost without exception there is very little coordination between the different university/college venues, which in some cases boast some of the nicest exhibition spaces in the area - none better that American University's spectacular Katzen Arts Museum. 

This "little coordination" is not unusual, as I imagine that in most cities this is also the same case, as the focus of the university gallery is in fact the university itselg.

And here is where we can make a major change, and use the extraordinary resources afforded to our area by these venues, and their academic standing, to help Washington expand its worldwide visual art standing.

What we need to happen is for one of the local university art school chairs, or college deans, or even university gallery directors, to take the initiative to start coordinating a joint effort to create one annual combined, joint exhibition that synchronizes a focused exhibition that is spread throughout the Greater Washington area.

Imagine a national survey of art, with a good title and perhaps even a good, donated chunk of money as a prize. Say we call it “The Capital Art Prize” (OK, OK we’ll have to work on the title) and because good ideas sometimes attract funding, maybe we can convince a major local company like Lockheed Martin or Marriott or Booze Allen and Hamilton, or (be still my beating heart), The Washington Post (owned by the planet's richest Cuban-American), to help fund it on an annual basis.

This synchronized event can be modeled somewhat on what the Whitney does, but better. The Whitney Biennial’s Achilles heel is its over-reliance on hired curators. Unless an artist lives and works in NYC, LA or SF or is already in the local radar of one of the curators for that particular year, chances are slim to none that the artist will come to the attention of those Biennial curators. Hence great art and potentially great artists may and often are ignored.

And the Whitney Biennial is not what it used to be... not even close.

In addition to the use of invited curators, also imagine that this event puts forth a national call for artists, independent and museum curators, schools, art organizations, and galleries to submit works for consideration - all to be done online, of course, and without an entry fee.

Anyone can submit and in a fair selection process, since art is truly in the eyes (and agenda) of the beholder, anyone can be selected to exhibit. A truly American concept for a national American art survey that will leave the Whitney and other continental Biennials in the dust.

And because the exhibition venues are spread around the capital area region, in galleries at Georgetown, George Mason, George Washington, American, Catholic, Howard, University of Maryland, Montgomery Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the many others I am sure to be forgetting momentarily, we could put up one of the largest, most diverse, and influential American contemporary art surveys in the nation.

This will take a lot of work to set up initially, as one key university person needs to take the lead and emerge from the pack of largely unknown, anonymous group of academics currently running our area’s university art programs. On the other hand, this could be an exhibition that can and will put names and faces on the international art world map, much like the Whitney Biennial sometimes elevates its curators a notch above the rest

Some universities will resist, as the easiest thing to do is to do things as they have always been done, and not really create “new” work. But given that a strong leader among our academic community emerges and takes the lead for this idea, then even if we start with a set of four or five venues, in a joint, coordinated effort, others will follow.  When it all else fails to get an university or college to play along, then they must be hit via the Board of Trustees of that University.

Boom! A trustee drives the idea and the university will suddenly pay attention!

This will not be an easy job to do, and as it grows, so will the bureaucracy around it. But starting it up will be the hardest part, and as momentum grows, things will become easier. Whoever, if anyone, takes this idea and runs with it, will face many huge obstacles and many negative people. He or she will need to convince other university/college gallery directors to participate (unless a Trustee is involved). They in turn, will have to convince their superiors, who will, in turn have to approve (and perhaps help kick-start the funding) the joint project.

This leader will also have to coordinate the approach to get a local giant to fund this effort, but I suspect that once he has aligned a few colleges and universities, this may become easier (it’s never easy) as the “buzz” and need for the event develops.

This is all a lot of work, and initially, until a bureaucracy is established around the annual event, many, many volunteers will be needed. I hope that some of these can be drawn from the school’s student body, alumni who are artists, and other local artists, much like Art-O-Matic draws from the collective muscle of our area’s significant artist population.

Our area universities and colleges already have significant media resources at their disposal, to help spread the word. They run school newspapers, radio stations, etc. and also provide a constant flow of new blood to our major mainstream media.

The goal (or perhaps “the dream”) would be a national level survey of art, which may look, review and/or jury the work of maybe 50,000 artists around the nation, and select perhaps 100 each year, showcase their work around a dozen academic galleries, and award a $100,000 cash award as the Capital Art Prize, plus various other awards (Emerging Artist, Young Artist, etc.). Art of a nature and scale that will attract visitors to the university galleries, attention to our area, piss some people off, excite others, create interest, discussion and buzz around Washington and our art scene.

I initially proposed this idea locally about two decades ago - and everyone ignored it.

In a weird way that the the Covidian Monster could have never predicted, the potential end of the Covidian Age may be in fact offering us the time for this idea to spring.

There’s nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.

Best Art Blogs in the World

For like the 18th year in a row, my blog has been ranked as one of the "Top 100 Art Blogs in the World" and "Top 100 Art Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2021"

I'd like to influence you to buy some of my artwork! Look into my eyes!

The book that saved my art life

The number one spot in my top ten most influential books (on me) of all times has been occupied since 1977 by The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe.

I think that this book should be required reading for all art school freshmen across the nation, as it will prepare and armor them against all the bull that the art world will be about the heave at them. If you have not read it, please do.

Below is the text of a review of the book that I wrote for Amazon:

Can I start by saying that this book "saved my art life"?

Let me explain. In 1977 I started art school as a not so impressionable 21 year-old with a few years as a US Navy sailor under my belt. But in the world of art, there's a lot of molding and impressions being made by a very galvanized world. And although I was a few years older than most in my class... I was probably as ready as any to swallow the whole line and sinker that the "modern art world" floats out there.

Then I read this book - it was given to me by Jacob Lawrence, a great painter and a great teacher --- although I didn't get along with him too well at the time. I read it (almost by accident and against my will --- it was a get-a-way "love weekend" with my then-girlfriend - it went sour). And this book OPENED my EYES!!! It was as if all of a sudden a "fog" had been listed about all the manure and fog that covers the whole art world.

I used it as a weapon.

I used it to defend how I wanted to paint and feel and write. And it allowed me to survive art school.

And then in 1991 - as I prepared to look around to start my own gallery - I found it again, in a gallery (of all places) in Alexandria, VA. I read it again, and to my surprise Wolfe was as topical and effervescent and eye-opening as ever!

Wolfe has a lot of bones to pick with the art world -- 25 years ago!!! He destroys the proliferation of art theory, and puts "art gods" like Harold Rosenberg, Clement Greenberg, and Leo Steinberg (who have ruined art criticism for all ages - by making critics think that they "lead" the arts rather than "follow the artists") into their proper place and perspective. He has a lot of fun, especially with Greenberg and the Washington Color School and their common stupidity about the flatness of the picture plane.

Here's my recommendation: If you are a young art student or a practicing artist: SAVE YOUR LIFE! Read this book!

Studio space available

As of July 21st, 2021, 1/2 of studio 17 (in section B1 by the galleries) will be available for lease on Parklawn Drive in Rockville, Maryland. This 1/2 studio share rents for $195/month. Get in touch now for jurying to reserve!