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| Home-Land - Exploring the American Myth - this is the main wall with my work |
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| With DMV area artists Akemi Maegawa and Joel D'Orazio |
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| American University Museum director Jack Rasmussen and DMV artist and professor Chawky Frenn |
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| Professor Chawky Frenn and DMV ubercollector Birdie Pieczenik |
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| DMV artists Chawky Frenn and Helen Zughaib at AU opening |
Six New Exhibitions on View Open Tonight at the Katzen!
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25 years ago, the below essay about using the computer to create art was published in Dimensions magazine.
The Digital Atelier: The Computer as Fine Art
by
F. Lennox Campello
Originally published in Dimensions magazine - 1997.
When photography first attempted to enter the world of fine art, the museums and arts intelligentsia alike rudely rejected it, but it was accepted by the public. Today, the computer is attempting to enter the sterile white walls of the Washington power galleries and museums, but unlike photography, it seems to be allied with the insiders in the world of art, who seem enamored with the digital world of art.
"Exhibiting the Digital Atelier: Prints by Unique Editions and Participating Artists", is a powerful groundbreaking exhibition at George Washington University Dimock Gallery, curated by Mary Ann Kearns.
So far, digital (in Washington circles) usually means Iris prints, and owners of these pricey printers, such as Chris Foley and David Adamson, have made quite an impact upon the local art scene by the creation of huge, beautiful Iris prints from standard photographic images. Controversy, caused by lack of data on conservation standards and misinformation, heavily cloud the image (pun intended) of Iris prints, yet photographers like Amy Lamb and Susan Rubin have delivered, huge beautiful works which make us gasp at the beautiful, ethereal, marriage of photography and technology.
This exhibition attempts to push the digital envelope. It focuses on the marriage of software, hardware and creativity: the pencil neck geek meets the angst-ridden, socially conscious artist! The show's primary focus is a collaboration of five artists: Helen Golden, Bonny Lhotka, Judith Moncrieff, Dorothy Simpson Krause and Karin Schminke. They translate their printmaking, photographic and painting skills to the digital world to deliver "fine art in limited editions." In addition to these five artists, several other local artists were chosen from a digital workshop held during the summer at the National Museum of American Art. These artists are Cynthia Alderdice, Danny Conant, Andras Nagy, Linda Mott-Smith, Howard Bagley, Grace Taylor, Patrick Lichty and Lynn Putney.
And it is two photographers among this last group, Danny Conant and Grace Taylor, who steal the show! Conant's mastery of photography is as well known as are her beautiful infrared nudes or fragile Polaroid transfers - she is able to transfer her immense photographic abilities, as does Taylor, to this new media in an effective, creative way. This, unfortunately, makes many of the other images in the exhibition look like fancy web pages.
I must be honest, I had mixed feelings about the exhibition, and perhaps my opinion is clouded by my own background (I have degrees in Fine Art and also in Computer Science). Another perhaps is that I am essentially prejudiced in attempting to see creative beauty in the color of a pixel as painted by a bubble jet printer or a laser printer or an Iris printer, as compared to the beauty of a Van Gogh brushstroke, or an Escher etching or the crisp white of a cloud in an Ansel Adams print.
It is nonetheless a seminal exhibition in its field, and I recommend it! The show hangs December 11, 1997- January 30, 1998 at the Dimock Gallery of GWU, 21st and H Streets, NW in Washington (202) 994-1525.
The Bethesda Art Walk returns on Friday, June 10th from 6-8pm.
Participating Galleries:
Gallery B
Studio B
Triangle Art Studios
Waverly Street Gallery
The below mixed media work depicting the mass-murdering racist psychopath known as Ernesto Guevara de La Serna Lynch will be one of the works showcase starting this Saturday at the American University Art Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.
This piece will be part of Home-Land - Exploring the American Myth, an exhibition curated by Michael Quituisaca and Alexandra Schuman which will have an opening (yep! A real opening) on Saturday June 11, 2022 from 6-9PM.
The image is appropriately ripped off from a Commie photographer and reinterpreted in the context of the truth about this mass murderer. Embedded in his forehead, a small screen plays hundreds of the versions of the Korda photograph which have been used to produce millions of T-Shirts worn by clueless people all over the world. |
| This is Che Charcoal, conte and embedded electronics on paper 24 x 20 inches |
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| This is Che (Detail) |
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| This is Che (Detail) |
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| This is Che (Detail) |
These other works of mine are also included in the show:
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| Desi, Lucy and Fidel 2012, Charcoal and conte drawing, electronic components Courtesy of the Steven and Sasha Pieczenik Collection |
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| Ave Marylinas 2012 Charcoal and conte drawing with electronic components Courtesy of the Krensky Collection |
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| AVE FRIDA II 2011, Charcoal and conte drawing, electronic components and video loop Courtesy of the Roberta (Birdie) Rovner Pieczenik Collection |
The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District announced the top Bethesda Painting Awards prize winners on Wednesday evening during the exhibition’s opening at Gallery B. Andrew Hladky of Kensington, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; James Williams II of Baltimore, MD was named second place and was given $2,000 and Magnolia Laurie of Baltimore, MD received third place and was awarded $1,000. Additionally, Jeremy Jirsa of Baltimore, MD was recognized with the Young Artist Award and received $1,000.
From my good friend Gabriella Rosso:
RoFa Projects is very happy to announce the opening of our new space in the Kentlands, Gaithersburg, MD on Friday, June 17, 2022, in partnership with Beta Gallery.
RoFa Projects (founded in 2014 in Potomac MD) focuses on consolidating art as a powerful tool for social action and as a generator of critical spaces. Working with artists that have different visions of the sociopolitical processes that we live throughout the world and who understand the importance of global thinking.
RoFa projects has three branches: RoFa Art, RoFa Projects and La Morada.
Beta Gallery (founded in 2014 in Bogotá, Colombia) has focused its search on contemporary artists in the Colombian and Latin American scene. In 2016, it incorporated Proyecto ZETA linking urban artists to the gallery space.
Both galleries have joined to work together, bringing Latin-American Art to this beautiful new space.
Their next show, In the Heart of the Beholder, brings together 10 contemporary artists that take us to the immense possibilities that the portrait offers. Painting on canvas, photography, sculpture and even stencil are placed at the mercy of creation, beauty and the heart of the beholder.
Pigments used in the Renaissance, metal printing, photo performance, oil and spray portray emotions, identity, poetic intensity and beauty from a contemporary approach.
Artists: Ana De Orbegoso (Perú); Avelino Sala (Spain); Cecilia Paredes (Perú); DJLU Juegasiempre (Colombia); ERRE (Colombia): Fabian Ugalde (México); Muriel Hasbun (El Salvador); Natalia Revilla (Perú); Salustiano (Spain) and Walterio Iraheta (El Salvador).
In the Heart of the Beholder
Where: 361 Main St, Gaithersburg, MD 20878
When: Opening date: June 17, 2022 - 4 - 9 pm
The exhibition will be open until August 6 , 2022
Wednesday - Thursday: 12:00 pm. - 6:00 pm
Friday - Saturday: 10:00 pm. - 7:00 pm
Or by appointment
The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) in Maryland just announced a $6,747,706 annual budget appropriation which includes $6,339,106 for AHCMC grants and administration and an additional $408,000 for the Public Arts Trust. The $6.7M appropriation was unanimously approved by the Montgomery County Council and represents a significant increase over the FY22 budget and flat funding for public art.
“We are especially grateful to receive a record increase in funding for FY23 from the County Executive and Montgomery County Council,” says Dana Pauley, Board Chair for the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. “Recovery remains slow for our creative economy and many other local industries; receiving this support demonstrates the county's commitment to invest in the full recovery and stability of our arts and humanities sector.”
“The decision to include the creative sector in the county’s strong economic rebound strategies substantiates the essential role of our cultural community in Montgomery County,” states Suzan Jenkins, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. “The arts and humanities buoyed our local communities in our darkest hours and continue to do so today. AHCMC is exceedingly thankful and proud to continue supporting financial recovery for the artists, scholars and arts managers that make up our incredible creative industry.”
The Arts and Humanities Council will award $5,646,737 of the FY23 appropriation in grants that support the arts and humanities sector. Grant funding is available for general operating support, creative project support, and capacity building projects. All funding will be distributed through AHCMC’s existing grant channels, which support cultural institutions and individual artists and scholars across the entire county. The FY23 budget will go into effect on July 1.
I am honored to have been invited to participate in American University's Museum at the Katzen Arts Center's exhibition Home-Land: Exploring the American Myth, June 11–August 7, 2022 and curated by Michael Quituisaca and Alexandra Schuman.
In addition to my work, the curators selected Sobia Ahmad, Elizabeth Casqueiro, Ric Garcia, Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter, Julia Kwon, Khánh H. Lê, and Helen Zughaib for the exhibition.
... the featured eight Washington area artists simultaneously honor and confront the American dream. The idea of “home” is a promise in America that often goes unquestioned. However, these artists reveal that home is not a privilege for all - for some it is taken, for others it is to be fought for and defended, and, for many artists in the show, it is reforged in a new land. This exhibition highlights how these artists have found their place within multiple frameworks of identity, both ascribed and subscribed.
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) is soliciting applications from qualified artists, humanities practitioners, and arts and humanities organizations for its Fiscal Year 2022 CAH-RRF grant program.
The submission deadline has been extended to 10pm on Friday, June 17.
Six years ago my courageous mother died... this is my eulogy from that day:
When my father died last year, I began his eulogy by noting that another oak had fallen.
This morning, around 1:25AM, Ana Olivia Cruzata Marrero de Campello, his wife of over 60 years, and my beloved mother, passed on on the day of her 97th birthday.
If my father was an oak, then my mother was an equally strong, but also very pliable, and elegant tree. When hurricanes attack the main lands of the world, the strong tall trees often fall, but the pliable ones, like plantain trees, always give with the wind, and survive the storms, and thrive in the drenching rains.
My mother was like a an aged plantain tree, not only immensely strong and pliable, but also giving and nurturing.
Like many Cuban women of her generation and her social-economic background, she had never worked for a living in Cuba, and yet within a few days of our arrival in New York in the 1960s, she was working long hours in a sewing factory, putting her formidable seamstress skills, honed in the social sewing and embroidery gathering of young Cuban girls, to use in the "piece work" process of the New York sewing factories.As soon as we saved the money, one of the first things that my mother bought was an electric sewing machine - a novelty to her, as she had always used one of the those ancient Singer machines with a foot pedal.
I remember as a child in Brooklyn, that women used to bring her fabric and a page from a magazine with a woman wearing a dress. Without the benefit of a sewing pattern, my mother would whip up a copy of the dress that was more often than not probably better made than the original. As the word of her skills spread, so did her customers and soon she was making more money working at home than at the factory - but she kept both jobs.
I once noted to her that I admired the courage that it must have taken her to leave her family and immigrate to the United States. "We didn't come here as immigrants," she corrected me. "We came as political refugees, and I initially thought that we'd be back in Cuba within a few years at the most."
When the brutal Castro dictatorship refused to loosen its stranglehold on her birth place, she became an immigrant, and from there on an American citizen from her white-streaked hair down to her heel bone (that's a Cuban saying). Like my father, she loved her adopted country with a ferocity, that I sometimes feel that only people who have been bloodied by Communism can feel for a new, free homeland.
As as I've noted before, 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.
I remember as a teenager, once I started going out to parties and things at night on my own (around age 16 or so), that my mother would wait up for me, sitting by the third floor window of our Brooklyn apartment, where she could survey the whole neighborhood and see as far as the elevated LL subway station a few blocks away, to watch me descend the station stairs and trace my way home.
My mother was always fit and, as once described by my father, "flaca como un fusil" (as slim as a rifle). She was strong and fast. She was also quiet, but never silenced, and when needed, could and would command attention.
My mother was always well dressed and superbly coiffed. When we'd go to parties and events, women would always ask her where she'd gotten that dress! The answer was always the same: she'd made it!
At least once a week, to my father's dismay, and in spite of his demands that my mother stop it, she'd get her hair done at the nearby peluqueria (hair dresser).
My dad knew, and respected his limits with my mother.
I remember one time that my father and I were returning from shopping at the supermarket, dragging one of those wheeled folding carts that could carry four full paper grocery bags. It had been snowing, so the Brooklyn streets were wet and muddy.
When we got to our apartment my father opened the door. He then stood there.
"Go in!" I demanded.
"We'll have to wait," he said gloomily, "Your mother mopped the floor and it's still wet." This giant, tough, street-brawling Galician then looked at me sheepishly, "I'd rather walk through a mine field than step on your mother's wet floor."
I learned a lesson there.
She used to delight in telling stories how, as a child, she would often win the horse races that kids staged around the small country towns where she was raised in Oriente province, where her father was a Mayoral.
"I almost always won," she'd say, and then would add: "Even though I was a skinny girl."
Once, in her seventies, back in the days where you could actually accompany people to the departing gates at airports, we were escorting my oldest daughter Vanessa, who had come to visit, and we were running late. As we got to the airport, we ran to the gate, and to everyone's surprise, Abuela got there first. I still remember how delighted my daughter was that her grandmother could still run like a gazelle.
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, and thus my parents decided to migrate south to Florida and moved to Miami... just to be close to me.
They spent the next 40 years in the same apartment while I was stationed all over the world.
The mostly Cuban-American families that lived over the years in that apartment loved my mother, and would always tell me stories about my mother, ever the nurturer, bringing them food when she knew that they were going over tough times, or riding the buses with them, just to show them the routes.
This week, when I arrived in Miami, already somewhat knowing that this was approaching the end, I saw her with tubes coming out of her mouth and her eyes closed. When I spoke to her she opened her eyes, and in spite of the visuals that my eyes were seeing she somehow still managed to look strong.
I showed her photos and movies of her grand children, and talked to her for a long time.
I thanked her for having the courage to leave her motherland and afford me the opportunity to grow as an American.
When she was being extubated, a young woman came into the room with a guitar and played and sang the haunting free prose of Guajira Guantanamera (The peasant girl from Guantanamo); a most fitting song, since my mother was from Guantanamo, and she came from strong Cuban peasant stock.
"Guajira pero fina (A peasant, but a very refined woman)", noted a neighbor and my mother's loving caretaker.
The song, which can start with just about any prose, started with the Jose Marti poem:Yo quiero, cuando me muera, sin patria, pero sin amo, tener en mi tumba un ramo de flores y una banderaI want to, when I die, without my motherland, but without a master, to have on my tomb a bunch of flowers and a flag.She died without a master, a strong and pliable woman who not only gave me the gift of life, but also the gift of freedom.
And as my mother died in her sleep in the early hours of the morning, in the capital city of the bitter Cuban Diaspora, all that I could gather to say to her was mostly the same that I said to my father when he passed last year: "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 Mami... Un Abrazo Fuerte! Thank you for your gifts to me and my children, and happy birthday in Heaven!
Margaret Dowell is one of the most talented, exquisitely gifted, and technically proficient painters that I know. Add to that hardworking!
“Margaret Dowell: An Art Continuum” is a retrospective of sorts of this brilliant artist. And, it is the first showing of a body of Dowell’s work in Southern Maryland.
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| Self Portrait with Bush Hog and Ancestor by Margaret Dowell |
The Sunderland artist grew up working with her family on the tobacco farm where she now paints. Her representational works which have addressed both the likes of social commentary and farming have been exhibited regionally and nationally, but never locally – until now.
Speaking about her art this well respected artist and educator says: “The making of Art for me is a physical, spiritual, intellectual and psychological process which can be simultaneously humbling and elating. If I have a lofty goal it would be that the works contribute in some way to the shaping of a more tolerable existence.”
Dowell’s solo show will be held in MCAC’s front gallery. In the back gallery Dowell is joined by Frederick photographer Donald Dunsmore for “Addiction and Art” – an exhibition that utilizes art to promote dialogue about substance abuse and recovery.
Show Dates: May 27 – June 26 (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 AM – 4 PM)
Reception: Sunday, June 5, 1-4 PM
MCAC is located in Smallwood State Park, Marbury, MD. (301)743-5159. www.mattawomanart.org.
From Ron Humbertson, Art Collections Registrar, DC COMMISSION ON THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES:
Hello, Artists!
As a previous applicant to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank and Public Art programs, I am reaching out to inform you of an upcoming workshop and pre-survey to help us develop content for the event. In collaboration with the Washington Conservation Guild, we are excited to present a workshop called Methods and Materials. The workshop will focus on art and conservation practices to provide artists with resources and information on how to make artwork more sustainable. Each panelist will discuss conservation and archival methods concerning their expertise in painting, photography, works on paper, and sculpture indoors and out. At the end of the discussion, the panel of professional conservators will take participants’ questions to help support your practice.
If you have a moment to take the survey, please let us know about your current practice and questions on archival materials. Response from this survey will help the panelists address topics through their discussion to best support our community. Please provide any responses by Friday, June 17. To participate, please go to the following link and complete the short google survey: https://forms.gle/zg51GLaGBigq58Jv9
Your thoughts and participation are greatly appreciated! I look forward to hearing from you, and we hope to see you on Wednesday, July 20, from 12 – 1:30 PM. An email with further details and a sign-up for the workshop will be sent to our general contact list closer to the event date.
I will be out of the office from June 9 – 15. If you have any questions regarding the event or survey during this time, I will happily answer them upon my return.
Thank you,
Ron
Ron Humbertson, Art Collections Registrar
(Mr./he/him/his)
DC COMMISSION ON THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES
200 I (Eye) Street, SE, Suite 1400, Washington, DC 20003
Main: 202-724-5613 | Direct: 202-719-6527 | Cell: 202-538-1204
“One Story Is Not Enough”
June 3-July 30, 2022
Tim Tate and Michael Janis each grew up as avid readers, each finding the imaginary world as often much more enticing, beautiful and adventurous as what they found around them.
When Michael Janis and Tim Tate met, almost 20 years ago, they discovered a shared fascination of narrative sculpture - one that seeks to arrive at an image that is both unflinchingly candid in physical representation and psychologically evasive. Working together, they are interested in the simultaneous read of an immediately recognizable image that asks the viewer to linger over history and meanings that unfurl more slowly. Mark, line and material become an extension of touch in the act of representation. The relationship of hand to subject, negotiated through the material, can elicit a response of both visual and tactile.
With these confines they create work in many techniques, but if you stand slightly back and see their history a huge thread of interconnected stories weave through their work from day one. The beauty comes into focus and the viewer sees the edges of a world not dissimilar to this one, but so much more thoughtful.
They present this glimpse into that alternative world, seemingly unstuck in time somewhere between past and future.
Frostburg State University (FSU), in partnership with the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) seeks to commission an artist or artist team to create durable, unique, permanent public artwork for the new Education & Health Sciences Center (E&HSC).
Please read the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) document for a full description of the project, artwork themes & goals, location description, site history, and architectural plans.
RFQ: 2D & 3D Public Artwork for FSU Education & Health Sciences Center
This project offers two artwork commission opportunities. Artists and teams with the appropriate qualifications and experience may apply to both locations but are required to submit two separate applications. To apply for either (or both) opportunity please follow the link below:
Up to three semi-finalists, for each commission opportunity (six total), will be invited to develop and present artwork concept proposals to the E&HSC Artist Selection Committee in person. Semi-finalists will be offered a stipend of $2,500 each for time and travel.
The two public art commission opportunities offered for the Education & Health Sciences Center are part of a State of Maryland Capital Improvement Project, managed by the University of Maryland, College Park. Upon completion, all artwork will become the permanent property of Frostburg State University.
Apply online at publicartist.org
Deadline: 5:00 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Sometimes the collector is interested in selling or deaccessioning the artwork – more often than not it is the children of the original buyer, who may have inherited the artwork after mom or dad passed away.
In any event, the issue is that they have several of your pieces and they want your help in selling them somewhere/somehow.
What to do? What not to do?
The second one is easy: never, ever take the artwork back to try to sell it for them – unless you’ve already got a “new” buyer lined up ahead of time who only wants your vintage work from 1979.
What to do?
The Bethesda Art Walk returns on Friday, June 10th from 6-8pm.
Participating Galleries:
Gallery B
Studio B
Triangle Art Studios
Waverly Street Gallery
Art Clinic Online - Saturday, May 28 from 10:30 -11:30am
Join me at 10:30 this morning at the Art Clinic Online for a discussion and Q&A about nearly everything you wanted to know about being me, and an artist, what has influenced me, etc.
About Art Clinic Online (ACO)
The Art Clinic Online community aims to create a friendly artsy environment and bring together artists who may have taken classes with us before or who are contemplating it and want to learn from one another in an online community-based setting. As such, they are not didactic sessions but a forum for the equal exchange of art ideas and art information as well as an opportunity to share art challenges and breakthroughs.
The Stone Tower resident artists created the ACO after hearing the need for such a forum expressed by many of their students.
ZOOM Dial in: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84149389951?pwd=QkNqUU1ZMFJ5SXpSU1dFOVFTeXZZZz09
MCAC holds 8 - 10 exhibits each year including an exhibit of local high school artists, invitational exhibits (showing the work of individual artists), multi-media exhibits (open to members and non-members), and occasional specialty or themed exhibits.
Their first exhibit of each year is the Seven-up High School Exhibit open only to local high school student artists who are selected by their art teacher.
Their invitational exhibits are by application only and are open to all artists. Guidelines are as follows:
Artists of all media are invited to apply to show their artwork in an individual invitational exhibit. The Mattawoman Creek Art Center Gallery is spacious, light filled, and overlooks the Mattawoman Creek.
The Art Center's Artist Advisory Committe meets in August of each year to select applicants for the following two years.
Interested applicants should submit the following:
an artist statement and/or resume
15-20 .jpg images which are representative of their work, to be sent via e-mail, or a CD via regular mail. Be sure the images are in .jpg format, and include title, medium, and the size of each original piece of art work; and
a printable (.doc) or printed listing of the images.
A self-addressed stamped envelope if you are sending your application/CD by mail and wish to have it returned to you.
For applicants who are accepted for exhibition, there is a $300 gallery fee due at contract signing to cover the cost of postcards, postage and the opening reception.
Please download an Application and a copy of MCAC's Framing Standards.
Art Clinic Online - Saturday, May 28 from 10:30 -11:30am
Join me at the Art Clinic Online for a discussion and Q&A about nearly everything you wanted to know about being me, and an artist, what has influenced me, etc.
About Art Clinic Online (ACO)
The Art Clinic Online community aims to create a friendly artsy environment and bring together artists who may have taken classes with us before or who are contemplating it and want to learn from one another in an online community-based setting. As such, they are not didactic sessions but a forum for the equal exchange of art ideas and art information as well as an opportunity to share art challenges and breakthroughs.
The Stone Tower resident artists created the ACO after hearing the need for such a forum expressed by many of their students.
ZOOM Dial in: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84149389951?pwd=QkNqUU1ZMFJ5SXpSU1dFOVFTeXZZZz09
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