Heard it on the radio

Usually during the week, on the way home after I pick up Little Junes from school, we listen to Sports Talk radio... 

He loves the discussions about football... 

Today a song was playing on the radio - clearly about someone leaving someone - and he piped in: "They should call Cordell & Cordell" - FYI, that's a divorce law firm that caters to men and advertises on ESPN Radio... gotta be on watch ALL the time with little ones... Feh!

The curious case of the WaPo using a misleading photo (twice!)

The power of the photographic image at work!

Text of a letter from a reader published in the Washington Post:

Why did The Post choose an emotional image of a woman embracing her mother in a wheelchair on the front page of the Jan. 29 paper? The mother was from Dubai, which was not on President Trump’s list of countries from which travelers were banned, as the caption noted. The Post could equally well have used images of travelers from Canada or Australia because those countries’ citizens weren’t affected either.

This is a misleading image and not up to The Post’s standards.

To make matters worse, when you click on the letter to the WaPo here, what you get is a different photo, and the caption for that image published in the WaPo's website reads: Shanez Tabarsi, right, is greeted by her daughter Negin at Logan Airport in Boston on Feb. 6 after traveling to the United States from Iran.

That was NOT the image published in the print edition and the one that the reader refers to - here's the print edition - the image is halfway down.

This is the image published by the WaPo and the one that reader questions - See it here.

Of course, now when you see the whole thing online, the reader's concerns don't make sense? Because of the "new" image...


And the press/media wonders why no one trusts them... 

Emily Fussner at MMG

Who invented the term DMV?

Who invented the term "DMV" to refer to the District/Maryland/Virginia??? 

This post from 2003, is the earliest that I have using that term personally: 

http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2003/10/faith-flanagan-organizes-muse-which-is.html

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this art scammer!

From: alfayidgroup@gmail.com

Subject: INTERESTED IN YOUR ITEM

Reply-To: alfayidgroup@gmail.com

Hello, We have interest in purchasing your item and we sincerely hope to establish a long-term business relationship with your esteemed company, I will like to know if you sell in large quantities and if you accept bank transfer (wire transfer) as a mode of payment. Regards. Al-Fayid Al-Azeez ALFAYID GROUP OF COMPANIES IPIC Square, Muroor (4th) Road PO Box 107888, Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates alfayidgroup@gmail.com

This is how the scam works and how to protect yourself... 

Vintage Vinyl Record Live Auction!

The Rockville Bookstore (4886 Boiling Brook Parkway, Rockville, MD) will host the Friends of the Montgomery County Library's first vinyl records auction on Saturday, February 25 at 12 p.m. Preview day Friday, February 24 at 12 p.m. On the block will be jazz and pop collectibles such as records by rock icons, like the Beatles and the legendary Miles Davis.


Click here for a full listing of records to be auctioned.


Auction catalogs will also be available at the bookstores. Email bookstores@folmc.org for more information.

Saatchi Gallery's Selfie Competition

To coincide with the announcement of the exhibition From Selfie to Self-Expression, Saatchi Gallery and Huawei have joined forces to offer artists, photographers, and enthusiasts around the globe a chance to show their most creative selfies internationally, and have their work exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery as part of the #SaatchiSelfie competition.

 

This global competition offers a chance for entrants to express themselves by exploring and advancing the creative potential of the selfie today.

 

Entries must take the form of a photographic selfie. We encourage submissions that are experimental and innovative that take the selfie in exciting new directions.

 

Who is eligible?

The #SaatchiSelfie competition is open to anyone aged 16 or over (See www.saatchigallery.com/selfie for further details).

 

What prizes can you win?

The shortlist of ten winners, selected by a judging panel of renowned artists and forward-thinkers, will have their work exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery and will also receive Huawei's newest smartphone.

The overall winner of the #SaatchiSelfie competition will be announced at the show’s launch in London on 30th March 2017 and will receive a priceless photographic experience, to be announced at a later date.

 

How do you enter?

It's easy to enter. The competition opens for submissions today and over the course of 7 weeks, you can submit up to six selfies on www.saatchigallery.com/selfie

Selfies can only be submitted in the form of still photographic images and not any other form of work (such as video).

 

Once you have submitted your entries, you can post them on social media directly from your profile page on the Saatchi Gallery’s website using #SaatchiSelfie.
 

For further details click here.

Call for artists

Artists wishing to be considered for an exhibit in the Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) galleries are invited to submit a general exhibit application. The HCAC Exhibits Committee meets quarterly to review applications and select artists for the exhibit space. Artists, ages 18 and older, working in all media and styles including time-based and installation artists, are encouraged to apply either individually or as a group. The Committee also welcomes proposals from curators and organizations.

 

Detailed entry guidelines are available in the Exhibit Opportunities section of the HCAC website at hocoarts.org, for pick-up at the Howard County Center for the Arts, or by mail by calling 410-313-2787 or emailing info@hocoarts.org. The next deadline for submissions is Saturday, April 1, 2017.

 

HCAC manages two galleries at the Howard County Center for the Arts with over 2100 square feet of exhibit space. The HCAC gallery program was established to enhance the public’s appreciation of the visual arts, provide a venue to exhibit the work of local, regional, and national artists in a professional space, and provide leadership in the arts by presenting a broad spectrum of arts in all media from both emerging and established artists.

 

HCAC presents 11-12 exhibits per year of national, regional, and local artists, including two-person, small and large group, juried, curated, and community shows.

 

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10am-8pm, Saturday 10am-4pm, and Sunday 12-4pm. To learn more about HCAC programs and exhibits, call 410-313-ARTS (2787) or visit hocoarts.org.  

Jack Boul Art Show at Stanford University Gallery in DC

Call to Artists

Mark your calendars for MAP's 20th Annual Spring Benefit Exhibition & Silent Auction, Out of Order (OOO)!  

One of the most celebrated events among the Baltimore arts community, Out of Order provides an opportunity for artists to hang their work in a salon-style exhibition. Whether you are an emerging, mid career or established artist, join MAP by participating in their 20th annual Out of Order!

Click here for more information about OOO Artist Install Day!

Any artist is welcome to hang one original work of art on the first come, first served installation day, taking place on Thursday, March 30, 2017 from 7 am - midnight. No need to sign up in advance, just come by MAP's first floor gallery space @ 218 West Saratoga Street in the Bromo Tower Arts and Entertainment District!

• All work must come ready to hang.  (size requirement TBA)
• Registration is $10 and can be paid with check, cash or credit card
• All works will be silently auctioned Friday, April 7, 2017 from 7 -10pm

Out of Order (OOO) is a one-night-only opportunity for collectors to acquire contemporary art at unbelievably low silent auction prices.  Purchase your tickets to Out of Order today! 

I've done this show many times and have always sold my work!

Amazing eraser

It's pretty hard to get excited about an eraser... unless you're an artist... and especially if you work in charcoal.

Over the years I've used and been a fan of kneaded erasers (and still am)... and yet, I've discovered this amazing new eraser that really, really works great!

It doesn't tear into the paper, and yet it removes a lot of... whatever!

I got mine from Jerry's Artarama for almost nothing... see it here.

Fullbright!!!!!!!!

Congrats to one of the DMV's real blue chip artists and a great friend - the amazing Chawky Frenn- who just received a Fullbright to go to India!

Yay Chawky!

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Opening Reception: Friday, February 3  6-9pm

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Dr  Rockville, MD

Show open Feb 3-25; Tues-Sat 10am-4pm

The Compass Atelier's inaugural class of the Master Artist Program is graduating with a celebration of their talent and hard work. This Thesis Exhibition will showcase the incredible work of 17 local artists who have completed their 3-year course of study in this revolutionary art program.

 

Christine McNall. 'Awakening'

Oil on canvas.24x36

The students of this unique school have produced an incredible array of high-concept, high-technique portfolios of work. Their accomplishment is overwhelming, especially given that many had never drawn or painted before this program. Now just three years later, many are poised to become professional artists with sales, shows, and gallery representation already beginning to add up.

The event is free and open to the public. Free parking. Wine and food will be served at the Opening Reception.

At ArtReach Gallery

Idiot of the month

A Dallas teacher is in hot water after a controversial stunt she pulled inside a classroom went viral... Payal Modi, an art teacher at Adamson High School, was caught on camera shooting a squirt gun as a video of President Obama... projected onto a whiteboard. The 8-second video shows the teacher repeatedly pointing the water gun at the president and then yelling, “Die.”

Above quote from this CBS article edited for "fake news" effect just to get your brain rolling - but imagine it as noted above... and how you would have heard about this... and then read the article here. 

Art Scam Alert!

Please ignore this mutant trying to rip off artists!

"Lindsey Supply Store."

Hello,
     I want to place an order, to our branch in Singapore, and i want yo to answer below.
Do you accept pick up from your location?
Do you accept visa or master credit card?
I will be waiting your reply.
Regards
(786) 763-3919
Linda

Business Basics for Artists, Scholars, and Arts Management Professionals

Join VisArts for the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts' Creative Entrepreneurship series in Montgomery County! This program is just the ticket for working artists/scholars who need to know how to start and run a successful arts-business as well as established arts managers looking to brush up on best practices and industry standards.

Hosted over six weeks at VisArts in Rockville, the series offers:

1. Business Entity Formation, Feb 15, 7pm - 9pm
2. Copyright/Trademark Protection and Use, Feb 22, 7pm - 9pm
3. Contracts and Licensing, March 1, 7pm - 9pm
4. Negotiation Strategies, March 8, 7pm - 9pm
5. Grants and Leases, March 15, 7pm - 9pm
6. Tax Strategies, March 22, 7pm - 9pm

Brought to you by a collaboration of The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) and Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA), each of the workshops is FREE FOR WALA MEMBERS or $20 per workshop for the general public. Individuals can register for a WALA membership through AHCMC for only $30 and organizations can register for only $100! Organizational membership extends member benefits (including free workshop registration) to all staff members and board members.


If you're not a WALA Member and would like to join, CLICK HERE* to get your discount membership through AHCMC! (instructions for discount below)

*Once at the WALA website, select "Other_____" and type in the discounted annual membership amount that applies to you.  $15 for Students (normally $20), $30 for Individual Artists and Scholars (normally $40), and $100 for Organizations (normally $150). If you use the pre-selected amounts, the discount will not be applied.

Pictish Nation finds a home after 14 years!

"Pictish Nation" c. 2003 F. Lennox Campello Charcoal on Paper 15x41 inches
In a private collection in New York City

Over a decade ago, I had a solo show at the original Fraser Gallery in Georgetown in which I focused all my work on my interest on the original people of Scotland before the Celts arrived from Spain (via Ireland). The show was titled Pictish Nation and was widely reviewed by multiple local newspapers (ahhh... the halcyon days of DMV mainstream media reviews, see some of them here, and here, and here...).


"This legion, which curbs the savage Scot and studies the designs marked with iron on the face of the dying Pict," are the written words of the Roman poet Claudian that give the only insight as to the name given by Rome to the untamed Britannic tribes living North of Hadrian's Walls and one of history's nearly forgotten Dark Ages people: The Picts.

Perhaps the greatest mystery of Scottish or even European history is the people who once inhabited the lands north of Roman England, as far north as the Shetlands. Who were these fiercely independent people? Where did the come from? Which language did they speak? What did they call themselves? We first hear of them in the third century from a Roman writer in Spain, who describes their fierceness and battle skills of both men and women. The writer Eumenius, writes about them 200 years after Rome has been in Britain, and the name associated with the Pict is forever coined. To this day, we do not know if this is truly as in "pictus" (the Latin for "painted") or a Latin form of a native name. Because of the isolation of northern Scotland, history yields little, and the Roman Empire's expeditions into the north ended in little gains.

"We, the most distant dwellers upon the earth, the last of the free, have been shielded...by our remoteness and by the obscurity which has shrouded our name...Beyond us lies no nation, nothing but waves and rocks"...The above words by the Pictish chief Calgacus are recorded by the Roman enemy in the words of Tacitus and are a perfect example of the obscurity and legendary status held by the Picts almost 2,000 years ago.

In "Pictish Nation," I married my interest in history (I am one of the world's earliest and leading Pictologists) with art. The show consisted of two dozen charcoal drawings that interpreted and delivered my vision of how Pictish men and women, and their tattooed bodies, may have appeared.

Borrowing from the designs in the unique Pictish standing stones that dot the Scottish countryside, I re-created, for the first time in nearly 1200 years (The Picts ceased to exist as an independent people in 845 AD, when Kenneth MacAlpin, Scottish by father and Pictish by Mother, usurped the throne of the Picts and Scots and proceeded to erase all traces of Pictish culture from Scotland), the unique Pictish designs of animals, objects and imaginary beasts.

Most of the show sold, and it completely sold out over the years, except for the key central piece (Pictish Nation depicted above). I kept this work for my own, and in 2004 I had Old Town Editions in Alexandria do a small Gyclee edition of 10 reproductions of the work - all of which also sold.

Last year I decided to sell the drawing.

It has now found a home with a well-known collector in New York.

Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat

Just saying...

Art fairs that we're doing in 2017

• Affordable Art Fair New York (Spring)
• Scope Art Fair New York
• Affordable Art Fair New York (Fall)
• Chicago EXPO
• Texas Contemporary (Houston)
• Context Art Fair, Miami
• Scope Art Fair Miami Beach

The Caissons Go Rolling Along...

Something about nuns

Not sure why, but over the years I just keep coming back to this subject... maybe it is all thanks to the sisters of Our Lady of Loreto School in Brooklyn... cough, cough

Elvis and Buster Keaton as Nuns, c. 2001 Charcoal and Conte on Paper By F. Lennox Campello

 

Two Cool Nuns, c. 2005 Charcoal and Conte on Paper By F. Lennox Campello

Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards

The 2017 Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards application is now available! http://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/trawick-application

The deadline to submit is Friday, April 7.

The prizes are:

Best in Show - $10,000

Second Place - $2,000

Third Place - $1,000

Young Artist (must be born after April 7, 1987 to enter this category) - $1,000

Applicants must be 18 years of age or older and permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. All original 2-D and 3-D fine art including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video will be accepted. The jury will select up to 10 finalists for a group exhibition in Bethesda in September 2017.

Artomatic returns to Crystal City: Tour Spaces this Saturday

Artomatic returns to Crystal City for a 2017 signature event! Please join AOM for a site tour this Saturday, January 28th, from 11 am to 1 pm to get a peek at the spring home for Artomatic 2017.

Meet some of the people who make it happen and discover the many ways you can be part of the core volunteer team in building this unique event. 

While you are touring the building imagine the endless creative possibilities for the space and how you can help by contributing your talents!

Assemble in the lobby of 1800 South Bell St, Arlington VA. Come join us!

There is easy access to Artomatic with the Crystal City METRO Station, Yellow and Blue lines, as well as plenty of parking and bus stops nearby - plus a superb mix of restaurants and retail.

LOCATION:

1800 South Bell St

Arlington VA

Saturday January 28th, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

 

Registration details on how to exhibit work or perform at Artomatic will be available in mid February. Please subscribe to Artomatic by email or Facebook, and check the Artomatic website for updates.

Rania Hassan at Gormley

Private collection for sale

Read this article and then see below...

NYC here we come!

We are honored to be participating at the Scope Art Fair (March 2-5) in NYC, and then at the Affordable Art Fair (29 March - 2 April) also in NYC! More on the artists later!

And this is what the finished commission looks like!

In this post I described the inner machinations of a recent commission...

All done! And here's what it looks like all installed...

First the original space:

And now with my two pieces added in - each is a mirror image of each other and flanking the windows: