ArtClash Fun-A-Day in Philly

What is Fun-A-Day? The event grew out of a December 2004 potluck dinner in West Philly, where artist Kara Schlindwein and three friends were searching for some mid-winter inspiration.

Drawing on an idea that had taken hold among comics creators, they dared each other to create one artwork each day during the month of January. To seal the commitment, they planned a show in mid-February. Then they started spreading the word.

"We thought we'd get maybe 14 people," Kara said. Instead, 47 people brought their creations to her friend Nick's living room, and those were just the participants. "We had about 200 people come -- not all at once, thank God."

The success of the first show spawned Artclash!, a West Philly-based artists' collective established, essentially, to keep Fun-A-Day going.

Four years later, the Fun-a-Day concept has spread beyond Philadelphia: this year, artists in Houston, Pittsburgh, and even Amsterdam will hold Fun-A-Day events. In Philly, some 70 people -- professional artists and casual funlovers alike -- signed up to participate in 2008.

"That usually means about 50 to 60 projects will make it to the show," Kara said (See some photos from 2006's Fun-a-Day 2 here).

This year's creations run the gamut from thirty-one haikus composed on SEPTA, to a daily leaf-quilt-square, to a month of different breakfast pastries. Others are entitled "neon paper cut designs," "a walk and a photo," and "flowchart-a-day."

The Fun-a-Day show has moved from a living room into Studio 34 Yoga | Healing | Art, a new 5,000-square-foot space at 4522 Baltimore Avenue in West Philly.

Named for the adjacent trolley line, Studio 34 offers yoga and Pilates classes, massage and other healing services, and community spaces for meetings, art shows, and live performances.

Its grand opening will be in March, but the Fun-a-Day show will offer a "sneak preview" of the KBAS-designed studio.

What: The 4th Annual Fun-a-Day Show, hosted by The Artclash! Collective

When: Saturday, Feb. 16, from 7 to 11 p.m.

Where: Studio 34

Neon for Obama

I guess we know who DC area neon sculptor Craig Kraft is voting for...


Don't forget to vote today if you are in the MD, DC and VA region...

Laurie Lipton Can Draw

I'm a sucker for artists that can really, really draw well. Laurie Lipton in an American artist based in London. Her work will be on view in a group show entitled Pop Surrealism at the Robert Berman Gallery, in Santa Monica, CA that opens March 28.

And Laurie Lipton can draw with the best of them...

"I had been trying to teach myself how to paint like the early Renaissance masters, but failed miserably. Then I decided to try to draw the way the masters painted, using tiny little lines to build up areas of tone. It was crazy and took ages. It was worth the effort, though. The detail and clarity of the images became luminous. I got excited. I drew and drew until I made myself ill, but I didn't care."

Visit her website here.

2008 Presidential Campaign Positions on the Arts & Sciences

I had no idea where the current Presidential candidates stand on the arts, and a while back I emailed all of them asking for some positions, but so far they have farted me off.

However, Marc Molino over at the RP Muse has done his homework and has the campaign's positions -- where there is one -- on those subjects here.

More Bad Things Artists do to Galleries

This actually happened to a gallery in Georgetown, in Washington, DC in the 1990s:

Back when there were eight galleries in Canal Square, one of the galleries had given a show to a local -- at the time "hot" artist -- who was a painter (I say "was" because I haven't heard of the dude in years).

The artist was supposed to deliver and help hang all the paintings on a Wednesday, in order to be ready for the Georgetown third Friday openings. He did show up on Wednesday with about 50% of the work, and brought some more (freshly finished) on Thursday and to the gallerist's horror, even brought some more on Friday, and even as the show was opening at 6PM, was adding the last painting touches to several of the works.

Needless to say, several of the oils were actually wet when people starting showing up. On opening night, it was crowded, and someone apparently rubbed against one of the paintings and smeared some of the oil paint.

Now the gallerist was faced with a very irate person, demanding that his suit be cleaned (it eventually had to be replaced) and with a furious artist, demanding that the gallery pay him in full for the damaged painting.

If I am to believe the gallerist, the case actually went to court, where the judge threw it out.

More Bad Things Galleries do to Artists

This has happened to artists several times in my memories, both in the US and in Europe:

Artist and gallery owner agree to do a show of the artist's work. The gallery, like many all over the world, also has a side business as a framing shop, and tells the artist that they will take care of the framing.

The artist agrees on a handshake, and never asks for a contract, or costs, assuming that the gallerist knows what he is doing.

On opening night the artist shows up and is not too keen about the framing, but it's too late for any real discussions, as people are beginning to show up. Several pieces are sold, and the artist is very happy with the opening.

At the end of the show, the artist gets a letter in the mail from the gallery. Excited to see the payment for the sold work, the artist opens the envelope and finds a framing bill.

The bill details the cost of the framing, substracts from that amount the artist's commission from the sold work, and bills the artist for the remaining amount, as framing is very expensive.

Anger follows...

More bad things that (a) galleries do to artists or (b) artists do to galleries or (c) galleries do to collectors here, and here and here.

Congrats!

To all the semi-finalists for the $25,000 Sondheim Prize:

Becky Alprin, Laura Amussen, Rachel Bone, Ryan Browning, Mandy Burrow, Linda Day Clark, Brent Crothers, Melissa Dickenson, Eric Finzi, Laurie Flannery, Shaun Flynn, Dawn Gavin, Geoff Grace, Maren Hassinger, Kay Hwang, Courtney Jordan, Bridget Sue Lambert, Youngmi Song Organ, Beverly Ress, James Rieck, Christopher Saah, Lynn Silverman, Molly Springfield, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Calla Thompson, Edward Winter, and Erin Womack.

DC area artist Eric Finzi is having an opening for his latest works with a show titled "My Double Life: Musings on Sarah Bernhardt" at Bethesda's Heineman-Myers Contemporay soon. The opening is March 1, 2008 from 6-9PM. See the exhibition catalog here.

Never seen this before...

Amongst the most spectacular sights that I have ever, the Northern Lights, which I saw for a couple of hours during a magical night in Scotland in the early 90s, as well as seeing snow paint the ocean white, and then coming up to the Arctic ice edge -- which I did one summer in 1988 and then again in 1989 while aboard an icebreaker somewhere North of Novaya Zemlya -- are right up there.

But last night in the Poconos I saw and heard something new and wondrous to me: Lightning and thunder in the middle of a snow storm!

Freaky and beautiful and a little scary.