Confederate Cubans

 In view of recent events...

"A Cuban woman who moved to New Orleans in the 1850s and eloped with her American lover, [her name was] Loreta Janeta Velazquez, fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy as the cross-dressing Harry T. Buford.

As Buford, she single-handedly organized an Arkansas regiment; participated in the historic battles of Bull Run, Balls Bluff, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh; romanced men and women; and eventually decided that spying as a woman better suited her Confederate cause than fighting as a man.

In the North, she posed as a double agent and worked to traffic information, drugs, and counterfeit bills to support the Confederate cause. She was even hired by the Yankee secret service to find 'the woman . . . traveling and figuring as a Confederate agent' — Velazquez herself."

This is sort of a Cuban-Southerner-Confederate "Fidelio."

Loreta Janeta Velazquez along with Cuban Confederate Colonel: The Life of Ambrosio José Gonzales by Antonio Rafael de la Cova and "the definitive biography of a Cuban and Confederate rebel", are two curious examples of Cuba's alignment with the South during the Civil War.

Get the book here.

The Cuban dictatorship

If you think that the Castro brothers and their band of criminals will ever let loose their strangle hold on the Cuban people's neck, then as Dostoevsky so elegantly puts it in The House of the Dead:

Tyranny...finally develops into a disease. The habit can...coarsen the very best man to the level of a beast. Blood and power intoxicate...the return to human dignity, to repentance, to regeneration, becomes almost impossible.

Warrant arrest for Shepard Fairey

And then there was this:

Detroit police have issued an arrest warrant for the artist who created the famous "Hope" poster in support of President Obama during the 2008 election, it was revealed Wednesday. 

The Detroit Free Press reported that Shepard Fairey faces two felony counts of malicious destruction of property.... In an interview with Esquire magazine published last month, Fairey said Obama had not lived up to the expectations he had when supported his campaign.

 All the details here.

Homage to a beautiful voice

The other day I was driving around the DMV listening to NPR when the voice of the new lady who does the credits for NPR came on. I reached for the knob and turned the volume up just to hear her voice.

It wasn't the first time that I had done that in the last few weeks, but this time my brain became aware of what I was doing: I was turning the volume up on the radio just to hear the voice of an unknown person... just to hear her voice... and she was essentially doing an ad!

What the heck? That's a little weird, right?

But then the sound waves of her hypnotizing voice flowed over the 88.5 WAMU airwaves, and it captured me once again. This time, aware of what I was doing, I awaited the tiny "ehh" sound that she makes as she skillfully breathes in between long sentences, as words, like tiny silk webs, flow out of her throat. That little "ehh" somehow was able to make me smile.

I don't know who the anonymous voice over for NPR's funding credits is, but I do know that she has the most beautiful voice on the planet. I would bet that she is somewhat tall (a voice like that needs an appropriate vehicle) and I just know that she has a long, elegant neck. Not as long as Parmigianino's Madonna dal Collo Lungo (Madonna with Long Neck), but she'd make a perfect model for a contemporary interpretation of that Mannerist masterpiece. It takes a breath-taking neck like that to deliver the melody that is her voice.

Whoever and wherever you are: thank you for giving me such a wonderful and unexpected pleasure on a daily basis.

Opportunity for female Artists

Call For Entry: CREATING CONNECTIONS
A Commission & Print Replication Project

Application Deadline: Saturday, August 1, 2015

MAP, in partnership with CyberPoint International is pleased to announce an open ‘Call to Artists’. As an extension of MAP’s annual IMPRINT Project, MAP is working with CyberPoint to offer a unique opportunity to female visual artists of the greater Baltimore metropolitan area. Collectively, MAP and CyberPoint wish to commission and license the image of a new work of art. The image of that artwork will be reproduced in a limited edition and presented to the guests of CyberPoint’s Women in Cyber Security reception on November 19, 2015.

The selected artist will receive a $750 Cash Award, increased visibility of artist’s name and artwork through press announcements and be highlighted on MAP and Cyberpoint's websites. Print production sponsored by CyberPoint.
Download the full application and guidelines here.
 

30 years of drawing

Gallery B call for artists

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and Bethesda Urban Partnership are accepting applications for Gallery B 2016 exhibitions.

This gallery (the former Fraser Gallery), located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E in downtown Bethesda, is available to interested artists and arts organizations for one-month rentals. All media including, but not limited to, painting, photography and sculpture is eligible to use the space. Gallery B does not take a commission on any artwork sold during the exhibition.  

 

They are seeking applications from local artists and arts organizations for month-long exhibitions in 2016. Gallery B has approximately 1,500 sq. feet of available exhibition space. The deadline for submission is August 3, 2015.

To be considered for a solo or group exhibition, and to review the gallery requirements, please complete this application.

 

Questions?  Please send them an email to artist@bethesda.org.

And then it hit artwork

This is what happens when a battle over a piece of cloth with complicated interpretations and emotional responses, filters down towards artwork.

Make sure that you read the comments, so that you can see how angry our fellow citizens are.

Hubris Ate Nemesis .... Sigh...

Paintings of the Fraser Gallery... I mean Gallery B

The below gorgeous painting by Cathy Abramson  will be on display at the the Hill Center Galleries Regional Juried Exhibition.

It is one of the series by Abramson titled "Gallery After Hours" depicting the interesting reflections on the windows of Bethesda's iconic Fraser Gallery Gallery B.

The other two paintings are also part of the series.

Details about the exhibition itself are on the invite to the left. The opening reception is Thursday, June 25, 6-8 PM.

Galleries After Hours III
24 x 36 inches

Galleries After Hours III
24 x 48 inches

Galleries After Hours III
24 x 36 inches

 

Update on Alper Initiative

You can refresh on the terrific Alper Inititiave and the spectacular impact that it will have on DMV artists here. Then for an update:

The new home of the Alper Initiative will be:

• 2,000 square foot space
• 5 exhibitions of Washington art per year
• 1 common gathering area for events and film screenings
• DC's only museum space dedicated to the display, research, and encouragement of the region’s art 

The construction begins on August 1st, 2015, and the new space will open in January of 2016. 

In order to learn more about the project please check out their Facebook page, or this recent article.  They are also in the process of building their webpage.

The curious case of the media ignoring Rachel Dolezal's art lies

It has been said that the real power of the mainstream media is to "ignore." That is, to pick and choose what "they" want to publish and "make known"; the latter usually something that fits the particular agenda of the individual news organization.

The comments for some of DC Art News' posts on Rachel Dolezal abound with recommendations from DC Art News readers encouraging Dave Castillo and I to go to the mainstream press outlets with the various artistic deceptions and outright lies that Dolezal has purposefully committed throughout her artistic life.

Movie Still from the film Pariah

 "Alike's World" "Painting" from Dolezal's blog

And I have! I have contacted dozens and dozens of editors, writers, newsrooms about the expose that shines a light on her lies and fabrications when it comes to her art life.

So far, the response has been mostly zero.

Why would the media ignore the fact that Rachel Dolezal may have fabricated her art CV? Why would they ignore that she most likely lied (or vastly exaggerated) about her art sales while in the DMV?

While would they ignore the fact that she appears to be selling photo reproductions on canvas as original paintings?

Could it be because these discoveries fall "outside" of her race change storyline and expose the fact that her entire persona, including her production as an artist, is built on lies?

Many good people, who are not aware of Dolezal's artistic deceptions, have been otherwise very accepting of Dolezal's racial lie. After all, she was one with the "cause", blah, blah, blah, goes the "accepting" narrative.

Were they to discover that Dolezal not only created a mountain of lies in order to provide a base for her racial lie, and her life as a victim, etc. but also mimicked that performance for her persona as an artist, then they might repudiate her -- as a person -- rather than accept her, as a "sister."

Dolezal Name Meaning: Czech and Slovak (Doležal): nickname for a lazy man, from the past participle of doležit ‘to lie down.’

George Bernard Shaw schooled

"I am  enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play;  bring a  friend, if you have one."     - George  Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

  "Cannot   possibly attend first night; will  attend second   ... If there  is one."  
  - Winston  Churchill, in response

General Grievous

General Grievous
Graphite and Colored Pencils on Gessoed Masonite
Anderson Campello, c.2015
11x14 inches

Portrait of Lucifer

Satan wears many faces; this is one of them:

Censored painting now hangs in museum

While still in her 20s, Shapiro received a significant artistic nod with a solo show at the Whitney in 1973. It was the nascent days of feminism, and Shapiro’s work explored questions about what it meant to be female or male. But the topic of gender back then belonged in the realm of the avant garde, so much so that the museum censored two paintings out of Shapiro’s exhibit. That stunning experience sent Shapiro traveling an unexpected artistic path, a path that came full circle when SAM acquired her paintings.

Read about the interesting road that artist Ann Leda Shapiro's painting took to get into the permanent collection of the Seattle Art Museum. Details here.

These Mirrors are Not Boxes

Artists as Docents: Sunday, June 28, 2:00 p.m.

Join the artists featured in the VisArts exhibition, These Mirrors are Not Boxes,  for a tour through the gallery and a discussion of their artwork focused on the issue of identity.

Curated by VisArts’ first Emerging Curator, Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell, These Mirrors are Not Boxes examines the complexities of contemporary identity through the work of six local female artists: Amy Hughes Braden, Milana Braslavsky, Anna U. Davis, Nora Howell, Annette Isham, and Lisa Noble.

The exhibition explores the surprising, alternative, even subversive means and ways identity is formed, presented, confronted, and challenged when marginalized personas are brought out of the fringes. The VisArts Emerging Curator Program offers a unique opportunity for an emerging curator to work with an experienced mentoring curator to develop and present an exhibition and to assist in the presentation of the mentor’s exhibition in the Kaplan Gallery at VisArts. This is the first year of this outstanding new program.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Exhibition Events & Programs:

Artists as Docents: Sunday, June 28, 2:00 p.m.

The artists featured in These Mirrors are Not Boxes will discuss their artwork and identity.

Events are free and open to the public.

 

Dolezal drawings hit payday

Two Rachel Dolezal small drawings done while she lived in the DC area just hit pay dirt in EBay.

Check out the selling prices here: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_armrs=1&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=rachel%20dolezal&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

(e)merge art fair news

From the (e)merge art fair folks:

The (e)merge art fair plans to expand into a larger venue in Washington, DC. Because we are currently focused on making the transition to a new event location, the next edition of the fair will take place in 2016. We eagerly anticipate announcing our new venue in the coming months.

 

Building on the success of (e)merge to date, we will enlarge our format to include a variety of booth options for gallerists while reinforcing the experimental spirit of the independent artist platform. We believe this is the best trajectory for effective growth as we plan the fifth edition of the fair.

 

DC leadership recognizes (e)merge’s role in the city’s cultural future: “With iconic arts institutions like the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center, and exciting new initiatives like the (e)merge art fair…cultural tourism is one of the city’s growing sectors. As Mayor, Muriel Bowser will work with the arts and business communities to create the synergies needed to grow our creative economy to rival New York and Chicago.” - The Bowser Administration Transition Plan.

  

We would like to thank our gallery and artist exhibitors, host committee, vetting committees, cultural partners, sponsors, media partners, panelists, and attendees for supporting the first four editions of (e)merge. We look forward to keeping you updated as we fulfill our new vision and re(e)merge in our new venue!

 

Sincerely,

 

Jamie Smith + Leigh Conner

Call for Photographers

Deadline: June 30, 2015

With night-time photography, techniques can be used to make electric shots full of atmosphere, life and colour. Shooting at night allows us to capture images that the human eye simply cannot detect in low-light conditions. It quite literally helps us to see the world in a whole new light. We are looking for images that explore the hidden secrets of Life After Dark. 

No Entry Fee 

Details: 800-028-7338 OR http://tinyurl.com/kjz6blh OR competitions@thephotgraphicangle.co.uk

Rachel Dolezal totally busted as an artist

Other than her race-change, now people are obsessing on Rachel Dolezal's artistic appropriation of the 1840 J.M.W. Turner painting into her work - artists do that all the time...  Picasso did it with Velasquez's "Las Meninas", and many other contemporary artists do that; no big deal.

The real HUGE issue with her artwork are Dolezal's fabrications and exaggerations that may extend to her artistic CV and arts resume while she lived in DC and even worse afterwards, and then about about the legitimacy of her own artwork - see these links in order:

• http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-curious-case-of-artist-rachel.html
• http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/more-on-curious-case-of-artist-rachel.html
• http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/even-more-on-curious-case-of-artist.html

And then, working with Dave Castillo, she gets really busted here: 

http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-dave-castillo-discovered-about.html 

Case closed! I can't believe not one mainstream media news organization has picked up on this! We think that she's painting on top of copyrighted photos transferred to canvas!

Wanna buy a Rachel Dolezal "original" ?

It appears that artist Rachel Dolezal is smartly taking advantage of her worldwide notoriety to hawk some artwork.

Several of her pieces are for sale here.

Her "appropriated" Turner replica is listed here for sale at $5100 - still waaaay below the $10,000 price ranges that she claimed she was getting for her artwork while a student at Howard - see that story here.



What Dave Castillo discovered about artist Rachel Dolezal

By Hook or By Crook's Dave Castillo has done some pretty impressive image detective work to expose artist Rachel Dolezal's direct copying of some movie posters for her artwork.

Here's a sample of Dave's expose - images and his thoughts from his website:

Movie Still from Pariah

 "Alike's World" "Painting" from Dolezal's blog ("Sold") 

 In my opinion "Alike's World" was likely printed onto a canvas from the photo and Dolezal then touched it up with clear acrylic gesso and paint. It is simply too accurate a copy. She regularly worked with acrylic glue (collage) back in 2012, so she would definitely know how to accomplish this. Much of her blog has to do with cutting things out of magazines. She took images that someone else provided,  glued it down and then called it "Mixed Media"

At first view, I tend to agree with Dave that this "painting" appears to be initially photo-based. That is, a digital image of the photo has been digitally printed onto a canvas and then "re-worked" with some clear acrylic medium (to give it a surface brushwork texture), and possibly some broader brushwork with a thicker medium with color-matching paint on the background buildings. The reproduction of the figure is too exact to be anything other than a reproduction on canvas.

The buildings have been worked over with a broader brushwork to blur them a little into the background, but the shadows (in most cases) are too exact in proportion and relation to the original photo to be anything other than a photo reproduction.

The sky has been worked over as well, and she went a little lazy on the left side of the painting. Five gets you ten that if I examined this painting up close, I would see thicker paint "covering" up the left side of the piece (above the shoulder of the figure) than on the figure itself. The fact that she didn't even bother to "change" some of the folds in the hoodie not only takes cojones, but artistic laziness in this, possibly the shortest fake route to a hyper realistinc painting.

There's now an interesting research challenge for some news organization to contact all the digital printing shops in the area where Dolezal lived at the time and see if she pops up as one of her customers; we may discover that a lot of Dolezal paintings have a similar substrate.

These are not paintings, they are "enhanced" appropriated photographs, which appear to violate copyrights, made up to look like hyper-realistic paintings... visit this link to see what a "real" Rachel Dolezal painting looks like...

Visit Dave's site here and see the rest of his evidence!

Update: Dolezal is selling her paintings - included those mentioned in Dave's piece, at this website: http://www.artpal.com/ - enter "Dolezal" in the search box to find them.