Help!

I need a volunteer to help me with the editing and preparation of the manuscript for the 100 DC Artists book.

Lunch, or dinner or both, a free Campello drawing or etching, and my eternal gratitude is the payment form.

Drop me an email if you are available for a few hours this week or weekend. Send it to lenny @ lennycampello.com.

Wanna go to an opening this weekend?

Studio H's last exhibit of the Spring showing season is an exhibition titled "Derailed" by noted local graffiti artist Tim Conlon.

The image is of a model train on which Tim "writes."

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, my High School was actually in Queens, and I'd have to take the LL train and then switch to the number 7 to Queens. Overall that all took about and hour plus to get from my house to the school. Back in those days, the subway trains were covered from one end to the other in graffiti, even the windows! Every time the train arrived onto the station it was like a moving art show, except that in those days no one thought of the imagery as art.

The opening is June 19 from 6-9 PM.

Say what?

I tried to buy a photo the other day from the WaPo and I got this yesterday

Thank you for your interest in photographic reprints from The Washington Post and Pictopia.

Unfortunately, we cannot fulfill your request at this time for the following reason: The requested photograph is not available for sale due to copyright restrictions.

Thank you for your request to purchase Washington Post photos. Unfortunately Major League Baseball does not permit the selling of photographs of their athletes, events, stadiums or arenas.

Please visit our galleries again for other photos that may be of interest to you, and do not hesitate to make new requests in the future.

If you have any further questions about this, contact us. Please use your Request id# XXXXXXXXX in any correspondence with us.

Thank you,

Customer Service

The Pictopia Team
(800) 390-7269
customerservice@pictopia.com

So MLB owns the copyright for athletes, events, stadiums or arenas uh? How about drawings, paintings, etchings or any other form of fine art for the same? I think I will ask them.

Art & Soul Auction later this month

The 8th Annual Art & Soul Charity Auction 2010 is Friday, June 25, 2010 6:00 PM at The Music Center at Strathmore in Rockville, MD just past Bethesda. This is an important charity auction for the National Center for Children & Families (NCCF).

Join Honorary Co-Chairs Fox 5 News Anchor Allison Seymour and renowned jazz keyboardist, composer and producer Marcus Johnson, on Friday, June 25, 2010 at 6 p.m., for NCCF's 8th Annual Art & Soul Charity Auction at The Music Center at Strathmore.

The live auction will feature artwork created by youth from the Greentree Adolescent Program (GAP). The silent auction will feature Gifts from the Soul (non-art items) and juried artwork pieces from regional artists. In addition, guests will enjoy music by Sony recording artist Julia Nixon, the premiere of NCCF's new image, and the presentation of this year's Spirit of Humanitarian Awards.

Art & Soul Charity Auction tickets are $100 per person and can be purchased by contacting Heidi Coons, Director of Development and Institutional Advancement, at (301) 365-4480, extension 114 or click here to purchase online.

Proceeds from the evening benefit the completion of the Freddie Mac Foundation Youth Activities Center (YAC), NCCF’s sole cultural arts and recreational facility located on the Bethesda Campus.

What Pulse said...

For the third year in a row this is what the selection committee at the Pulse Art Fair Miami said to me:

Oh well... there are 24 other fairs to apply to... sigh.

Lisa MCCarthy is No. 5

Lisa McCarthy is Jessica Dawson's excellent choice in the Real Art D.C. thingie the WaPo is doing.

Judith Peck at Hillyer Art Space

Deanna Schwartzberg reviews the current show by Judith Peck at the International Art and Artists Hillyer Art Space in DC.

Judith Peck is both an artist and an intellectual. Her paintings are often generated by her abiding concern for social justice. Although she infuses her work with ideological content, it is in the exquisite execution of her subject, that we see not only the process of her mind, but her soul as well.

In her current exhibit, "Original Position", at the International Art and Artists Hillyer Art Space, June 4-26, 2010, it is a thought experiment by John Rawls that inspired the artist.

Rawls states that if we step behind a veil to cloak our knowledge of our individual abilities, social status and income, it might render us able to effectively consider the interests of all people, especially the least advantaged members of society.

Ms. Peck incorporates the concept of the veil in all of the portraits on display, each taking on a different aspect of the human condition, i.e. gender, passion, and conscience. Without prior knowledge of the artist's text, these paintings speak to us on a visceral level. Her portraits are drawn from live models and composites of the human face and appear to be lit from within. They are infused with a mysterious drama that captures the viewer's attention. On closer examination, we become transfixed in the subject's gaze. These subjects are never emotionally distant, their eyes penetrate and connect with the viewer's own, engaging our thoughts and connecting with our emotions.

On a recent trip to Boston, I viewed Rembrandt's "Self Portrait" in the Gardner Museum. I was enthralled with the delicacy of the painted surface, the fullness of his mouth, the rich textures of his hair and clothing, but most importantly, his eyes. Through his eyes I felt a knowing kinship with the sitter. What if Rembrandt were alive today? He would not only give us a window into the world around him, but into his own mind as well. As a modern artist, he might use his art to relate in visual terms the essence of his core beliefs and allow us as viewers to engage in a dialogue with him.

Judith Peck is a classically trained artist of infinite skill. Her work captivated me with a similar intimacy I found in the Rembrandt portrait, with the added benefit of symbolic imagery and metaphor that in the modern world serve to make the art both personal and timely.

About the author: Deanna Schwartzberg is an artist and painting instructor in the Washington area. She has taught painting at various venues including the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Vis Arts, and at the Art League School in the Torpedo Factory for over twenty years. She received a B.S. in Art Education from N.Y.U. and studied painting at the Art Student's League of New York with a student of Hans Hoffman. Deanna's work in painted paper assemblage and paintings on canvas deal with abstracting the human form.