WaPo's Weekend Staff Online

The WaPo's Weekend staffers are online at 11AM today answering questions about Weekend and its coverage. You can email your question to them here.

I've sent mine in...

I'll bite

Today's CP has this curious item by Josh Eiserike:

Japanese artist Hokusai probably never imagined that his work would inspire tentacle porn. The Edo-period great master, who coined the term “manga,” created wood-block printings and drawings that are considered the forbearers of all things anime, from Sailor Moon to hentai and everything in between. In “Capricious Comics,” American cartoonist Colleen Doran will explain the connections between manga and anime, and how both relate to American comics, in conjunction with the current exhibit of Hokusai’s work. Though Doran’s résumé includes Captain America, Wonder Woman, and fantasy series A Distant Soil, she doesn’t enjoy the accolades in America that Japan showers on contemporary manga artists—in Japan, everyone reads comics, not just maturity-delayed men. In addition to a discussion of the Hokusai exhibit, Doran offers a showcase of her own work at 1 p.m. (see City List for other dates) at the Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave. SW. Free. (202) 633-4880.

OK... I'll bite: what is "tentacle porn?"

It's Grant Time!

Applications for all Fiscal Year 2007 DC Arts Commission grant programs are now available. Please visit www.dcarts.dc.gov for more information.

If you don't apply, you definately won't get one!

New Arts Beat Columnist

Rachel Beckman, formerly from the Washington City Paper will be taking over the Arts Beat column at the WaPo.

Rachel follows in the footsteps of Jessica Dawson, who also used to write for the CP before she replaced Ferdinand Protzman a few years ago, when Ferd suddenly quit writing the "Galleries" column for the WaPo.

Congrats to Beckman, and we all hope that Rachel will return the Arts Beat column to what it used to be: a column that augmented the fine arts coverage of the WaPo's Style section, rather than the all-inclusive general column that it became in recent years.

Caucus Report

Authentic Art has a good report and loads of photos from the recent Women's Caucus for Art Annual Networking Day.

Read the report and see the pics here.

Bisese at Neptune

Gallery Neptune will showcase “A Perfect Garage,” new paintings by Ed Bisese from May 4 through May 27 with an artist’s reception May 12, 2006 6-9 PM.

According to the gallery: "In this new body of work, we are introduced to an assortment of men, most who moving and some that are standing in personal landscapes that serve to enhance their exaggerated traits. Through form, color, facial expression, body language and props, Ed invites us to study the dilemma of each of these characters, caught in a synthesis of psychological and societal impositions."

Art from the Gulf

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, in Silver Spring, MD, is presenting “Art from the Gulf: Reflections on Katrina,” an exhibit of over 25 artists from the Gulf Coast region whose work explores the impact of Hurricane Katrina and considers its relation to the threat of global warming.

Curated by Steve Prince, a native of New Orleans, “Art from the Gulf” is on view from May 9th until June 16, 2006. The opening reception is on Tuesday, May 9th, from 6:30 to 8:30pm.