Lume Deodorant ads: please stop!

I get between 4-8 Lume Deodorant spam emails a days from multiple sites... I am curious which part of the algorithm triggered that fucking equation? Unless with all the AI stuff, my phone, or Alexa, or my laptop can smell my pits?

Another fair model

 Free to a Good Home: Artists Launch a New Fair to Clear Unsold Works From Their Studios

https://news.artnet.com/market/zero-art-fair-2485911

This weekend in Reston: The Tephra Fine Arts Festival!

I'll be in booth 626 at the Tephra Fine Arts Festival in the Reston Town Center this weekend!

I checked out all their artists online, and here are my top picks, which I will confirm on Saturday!

I liked Lauren deSerres' art (she's in booth 925) - she notes that she "is a mixed media painter who creates whimsical imagery of nature and animals to create stories addressing the human experience and our impact on the world." 

Ning Lee in booth 909 is a wondrous landscape painter.

Matthew Miller in booth 510 is easily the best trompe l'oeil painter in the outdoor fine arts field - his work is simply spectacular and he'd be my Best in Show winner at any show!

"Pamplemousse" 12"x9" Oil on panel by Matthew Miller

Kristin Moger's highly sophisticated animal-themed work is also notable (in booth 935)! She writes:

My meticulously patterned ink art reflects my love of nature, biology, geology, art history, ethnic art from around the world and textiles. I notice patterns in everything, from grande to microscopic. I harken back to these loves as I draw my joy and compassion-infused art. 

Festival Season: Time to Pitch the Tent and Sell the Art!

Guest post from Michele Banks!

In May, outdoor art and craft shows begin to spring up like dandelions, ranging from small, local events lasting a few hours to four-day extravaganzas with hundreds of elaborate booths.

In my 20 years of making and selling art, I’ve participated in hundreds of outdoor art and craft shows. I vastly prefer festivals to gallery shows, for one simple reason – people buy my work.  At my last gallery opening, after devoting months of work to creating a meaningful and cohesive exhibition, I sold one small painting. The very next day, I set up a tent at a festival and sold twelve.

The Little Shop of Science: set up and ready to go

And I absolutely get it! A tent on the street is much less intimidating than an art gallery, where you often have a vague sense that you’re doing something wrong and it’s mysterious how you might go about buying something, or if you’re even supposed to. In the tent, the work is clearly for sale, the price is on the tag, and you can take it with you.

One of the best things about art festivals is getting direct feedback on your work. It’s incredibly instructive to observe which pieces people look at and which ones they choose to buy, and how those categories diverge. Festivals are also great opportunities to describe or explain your work to people (over and over and over), honing your message as you discover which images and words make people’s eyes light up.

There are, of course, major drawbacks to showing art at festivals. Obviously, the success of outdoor events is highly dependent on the weather.  No amount of marketing will bring out a crowd to look at art outdoors in a rainstorm, and even the strongest tent is no match for high winds.

Also, doing festivals is hard physical work. All my stuff - paintings, tables, tent, weights, display walls, bags, and more - has to be schlepped from home to car, car to tent, set up, taken down, tent to car, car to home again. It might take two hours to set up my tent for a five-hour event, not including loading in and out and driving to and from the venue.

The top outdoor art festivals are competitive and expensive, with some selecting one in 10 applicants and charging up to $1000 for a 10x10 foot space. In theory, I could get on the circuit and do these major festivals, where I could probably sell higher-priced work. However, assembling the infrastructure to do the big shows (heavy-duty booth, portable walls, lighting, etc.) practically demands that you have a van and lots of storage space - and I live in a condo and drive a Prius.

So I end up generally doing the best one-day events I can find that are close to my home in Washington, DC. And that’s where you’ll find me, in my traveling Little Shop of Science, about a dozen times a year. My next stops are at SoweboFest in Baltimore on May 26 and Glover Park Day in DC on June 1.

I’d love to see you there! I expect to be adding more events around DC to my calendar soon, and as always, if you can’t make it, you can shop online.

While on the subject, I'll be in booth 626 at the Tephra Fine Arts Festival in the Reston Town Center this weekend!

The curious case of King Charles III portrait

 Cough... cough...

Official portrait of King Charles III by British artist Jonathan Yeo

Susan LaMont at Susan Calloway Fine Art

The immensely talented Susan LaMont will open "Personality and Place" with a reception this Saturday at Susan Calloway Fine Art from 4 to 6 p.m.

The Garden Room, oil on panel, 20"h x 24"w by Susan LaMont

Susan Calloway Fine Art and Consulting

1643 Wisconsin Avenue NW Georgetown

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants

Apply here

Open Studios this weekend!

Visit the largest Open Studios event in the DMV.

The Gateway Arts District - Mount Rainier, Brentwood, North Brentwood and Hyattsville, MD. Four towns, one community.

Over 250 participating artists along the Rt. 1 corridor.

Just at Otis Street Arts Projects (OSAP): Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Jason Bulluck, Stephanie Cobb, Ceci Cole McInturff, Chris Combs, Beth Curren, Art Drauglis, Kendra Lee, Liz Lescault, Kirsty Little, Shelley Lowenstein, Becky McFall, Lisa Rosenstein, Gloria Vasquez, David Mordini and resident artists Jasmine Adams.

Right next to them is the Washington Glass School!

You can also visit uberartist Robin Bell this Saturday! May 11, 12-5PM.

Robin Bell will be at OSAP all Saturday talking about his current exhibition "Objects." 

About the exhibition:

Robin Bell fuses his 3D and sample-based structural art with light interventions in the OSAP’s gallery. The space serves as a canvas for displaying, creating, and expanding his work over two-months. Visitors are encouraged to witness the evolution of the piece by attending both at the start and end of his show. Through this exhibition, Robin hopes to push himself and other DMV artists to confront and comprehend our shared challenges with site-specific interventions.

About Robin Bell:

Robin Bell, founder of Bell Visuals, is an award-winning editor, video journalist, and multimedia artist based in Washington DC. Robin works on a range of creative, political and public interest projects.

Building upon his formal training as a classical printmaker, Robin developed a unique style of live video collage which he has performed at well-known venues, including The Kennedy Center, 9:30 Club, The Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Central Park Summer Stage in NYC, and The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. Robin was the lead video editor for PBS television show Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria. He also taught video classes at the Corcoran College of Art and Design.

In addition to his ongoing work with ephemeral media forms, Robin creates permanent public art installations, and is the director and producer of the Directed Actions Live Film Series.

This weekend: Bethesda Fine Arts Festival

On May 11 & 12, 20234, the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival takes over Woodmont Triangle, along Norfolk, Auburn & Del Ray Avenues, welcoming over 100 of the nation's best artists, live entertainment, and Bethesda restaurants. Take a glance at the artists attending this year's festival by clicking the link below.

Take a glance at the artists attending this year's festival by clicking here. 

Admission to the festival is FREE and free parking is available in the public parking garage on Auburn Avenue. This event is held rain or shine. 

My picks? In painting Cassie Taggart in booth 94 and Letitia Lee in booth 55.  Top abstract painter was Jorge Caliguri from Philly in booth 99.

In mixed media I like Susan Roche in booth 71 and Kate Norris' gorgeous collages in booth 19.

And there's not one pedestrian photographer in the show! They are all really good! My personal top pick is John Deng in booth 44.

John Deng's booth

See all the photographers here.

Art by Susan Roche

The Home I Never Knew; Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá

THE HOME I NEVER KNEW; NI DE AQUI, NI DE ALLA

Guest Curated by Flor Herrera-Picasso, Casa Azul de Wilson

Opening in June 2024, the Greenville Museum of Art (GMoA) will host The Home I Never Knew: Ni de Aqui, Ni de Alla, a group exhibition of artwork by Latino/a/x artists from or currently residing in the southeast region of the United States.

Accepting artworks by artists ages 15+ and working in all media, the GMoA aims to provide a space for artists identifying within the Latino/a/x community to share about their lives growing up in this region, including hardships, triumphs, and everything in between.

Reclaiming the idea of “ni de aqui, ni de alla,” or “not from here, nor there,” we will highlight the range of individual and shared experiences associated with being both “from here” AND “from there,” belonging or not belonging, or feeling mentally, emotionally, or culturally from elsewhere.

"Space Between" by Anne Marchand at Zenith

 SPACE BETWEEN Paintings by Anne Marchand

May 10 - June 15, 2024

1429 Iris Street NW, Washington DC 20012

Open: Wed-Sat Noon-6pm or by Appointment

MEET THE ARTIST RECEPTIONS: Friday May 10, 4-8 pm & Saturday May 11, 2-6 pm

ARTIST TALK: Saturday, June 1, 2-4 pm

“Space Between” delves into the complexities of the human condition, exploring the unseen realms that shape our existence. This exhibition utilizes the power of art to illuminate the spaces between myth and reality, consciousness and subconscious, and intuition and logic.

The non existing formula for pricing art

 Over in FB land, artist Bardia Jaan asks an often-asked question:

Easy easy question: how do you price your art? 

Material cost + (hourly rate * number of hours * 2)?  Plus studio cost Plus Misc stuff like going to Sushi?

That’s what I thought someone said.  This might be for artists who have just started selling.

In my opinion, there's really no formula - art for sale is a commodity; therefore, ECON 101 tells us about how prices in most cases is driven by supply and demand, but that doesn't work for 99.999% of us because it only works for that art that is very limited in supply but in high demand. 

About a decade ago, you could pick up a painting by my good friend Sam Gilliam at a local DC area auction house for hundreds of dollars, because there was no "demand" and buyers were not willing to pay above a few hundreds for a Gilliam canvas from the past. 

Ten years ago this Gilliam painting from 1972 was estimated at $1000-2000 and sold for $600. That painting is now probably worth several tens of thousands of dollars if not 100s.

Why?

A couple of things happened driven by art galleries (not in DC) "discovering" Gilliam and suddenly there was a demand, and his prices skyrocketed and it couldn't have happened to a nicer person! 

Or take the case of Carmen Herrera, for decades and decades her canvasses sold for practically nothing (if they even sold) - then a curator from the Tate "discovered" this artist who had an amazing pedigree (she showed alongside some of the greats of art in the 40x, 50s, etc.) and organized a retrospective for Herrera at the Tate, and suddenly the world art collectors discovered her work and rushed to buy it - creating the demand and thus a huge rise in prices. 

More examples? 

In the 60s Alice Neel was on welfare and traded her paintings to Lida Moser for Moser to take slides of her work so that Neel could try to get galleries interested in her work... then... go back to the top of this post and substitute "Neel" for those two artists... cough, cough...

Unread emails

In case you wonder why I am often slow in answering emails - that's how many unread emails I have in my inbox... cough... cough...

Shawn Yancy at Pepco Edison Place Gallery

The multi talented Shawn Yancy is having a solo show at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery in DC!

The show has been curated by Miller Spencer who writes:

One of the DC area’s most respected broadcast news anchors and philanthropists is an amazing artist!  

Miller Spencer is proud to present Shawn’s first solo exhibition Intersections: This is Where We Meet.

Explore Shawn’s beautiful abstract works and get a glimpse into her thoughts, feelings, life experiences and more.

The exhibition ends this month at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery, located at 702 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20068.  

The gallery is open to the public from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays as well as the second Saturday of each month from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 

Please contact Miller Spencer at info@millerspencer.com to arrange a private tour or request prices.  

Learn more at www.millerspencer.com 

May the Force be with you tomorrow

 Just sayin'...

Hipster Yoda - drawing on Bisque by Florencio Lennox Campello, 2024

Stephen King at Dorcas

There is a very cute small library at 28 Main Street, in Prospect Harbor, Maine, and while we were in the area hanging around Winter Harbor last weekend, we stopped to visit as I was told that they had a very large collection of works by Stephen King.

The Dorcas Library did not disappoint! It was small but formidable presence and staffed by two of the nicest lady volunteers on this planet.

Dorcas Library, Maine

My reason for visiting was that I had been told that in spite of its size, they had a formidable collection of books by Maine's best-known writer, the very talented and scary Stephen King (whom I met ages ago in 1979 or 1980 at a SeaCon in Seattle while I was in art school).

The visit did not disappoint, as the collection was indeed spectacular!

Stephen King collection at Dorcas Library, Maine

The collection had been donated by a King collector, and then to my spectacular surprise I discovered that also donated was a small etching of King that I had done as an art school assignment in 1980!

Campello with Stephen King etching at Dorcas Library, Main

The American Writer Stephen King, c. 1980 by F. Lennox Campello

Picasso Girl at the Beach

From the art school files: "Picasso Girl at the Beach", c. 1979 and done at Printmaking class at the University of Washington of Art in Seattle. A couple of different pulls from the same plate.

A master class in presentation

Room 493 at the just ended ARTOMATIC is where the very talented multimedia artist Christine Krizsa Uskievich not only displayed her smart explorations of photography among other work, but also teaches a lesson which combines installation skills with a novel and effective strategy for the visitors and potential buyers of her elegant work. 

Moment by Christine Krizsa Uskievich

First, the highly sophisticated work is beautifully presented in minimalist float frames that highlight the art without detractors.

And then she delivers a masters' class in presentation skills. She transformed room 493 into a warm living space, like in your apartment or my house.

Christine Krizsa Uskievich room 493 at Artomatic

The work is hung, and the room is transformed to deliver an impression that says: "this is how it will look in your home." It is clever, clean, and professional! 

Well done!

What's next?

What's next on the fine arts agenda for The Lenster?

1. The Affordable Art Fair Austin Texas is May 16-19 and my work will be in booth B9 along with Jodi Walsh, Shannon Leigh, Kathy Hope and Seth Fairweather!

2. The Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art's Fine Arts Festival will be May 18-19 at the Reston Town Center in Reston, Virginia and I'll have a booth there as well!

Come say hi! Below is "Homage to Celia Cruz"

Homage to Celia Cruz by Florencio Lennox Campello, 2024

Heading to Austin

The very first Affordable Art Fair Austin, Texas is coming May 16-19 and we're gonna be showcasing work by Shannon Leigh, Seth Fairweather, Kathleen Hope and Jodi Walsh!

The below work of mine will also be featured at the fair!

When Death arrived, she was the first one to post it on TikTok

Suddenly, she wasn't afraid any longer

The Incantation of Frida Kahlo

The Incantation of Frida Kahlo