Call for Scary Art

Deadline: August 1, 2013

BFSD (BIG FAT SCARY DEAL) Purdue University Galleries is curating exhibit of contemporary art that is edgy, weird, unsettling and scary. Open to US artists. Oct 21 - Dec 8, 2013. Any media, limit 8 feet tall or 10 feet wide. Selections from jpeg or video files - no PowerPoints. Artists responsible for shipping. No entry fee.

Details: Craig Martin, Director
765-494-3061
 http://cla.purdue.edu/galleries
email: cdmartin@purdue.edu

Vintage Korda on its way to Oregon

See that shrink wrapped photo lying on my kitchen island and awaiting for an art courier to pick it up (which she did yesterday)? - that's the very first, original, vintage Korda photograph of the Argentinean psychopath Ernesto Guevara de La Serna Lynch, known to most of the world as Ché and to many Cubans as El Chacal de La Cabaña.

That photo, together with 16 other vintage Kordas from 1959 - 1960s are heading to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum at The University of Oregon for an extended loan.

Korda's iconic photo of Guevara (titled "Guerrillero Heroico") is the most reproduced photograph in history, thanks to the billions of T-Shirts that it adorns. I am told that recent appraisals put its value at around $4.5 million dollars.

I'm glad that it is out of my house and on its way to the Great Pacific Northwest. It's a good thing that the kid has nerves of steel, as I picked it up from the owners' home in Chevy Chase and transported it to my home so that the courier could pick it up yesterday. She came with a crew that boxed it up in a very cool carrying case.

The world's most reproduced and iconic photograph (and perhaps the most expensive as well) made its way to a collector's home in the Greater DC area thanks to a very interesting series of events after Korda died a few years ago.

The two top most reproduced images in the world are bearded men: The Christ and Ché...  cough, cough...

Now it's on a permanent loan to Oregon, which this Fall begins to teach a new class on Guevara.

Admiral Frank Kelso

Sad to report that Admiral Frank Kelso passed away today after sustaining injuries after a fall.

I never served with him, but under him.

And he probably never even knew that he saved my butt when I was a very junior officer in the Navy and I did something under fire that drew a lot of harsh criticism from senior leadership in the Navy and to which Kelso (then Commander of the Navy's Sixth Fleet) sent an official message using the words "initiative that Commanders can only dream of" that pretty much saved that young officer's (me) Naval career.

Fair winds and following seas Admiral...

And the next Artomatic will be at...

You saw it first here... the next Artomatic will be at the old Hecht's warehouse on New York Avenue - that's a great location for Artomatic!

Frida Kahlo’s Closet is Opened 58 years After Her Death

"If you are a Frida Kahlo fan – and really, who isn’t – check out the new exhibit at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City.  It opened this past weekend and it takes us inside Frida’s long-locked closet."

Read the story by Diana Olivia Cave here.

Reworking Eve

I seldom do this, but after framing "Eve Sees Her Face for the First Time" and looking at it for a few days, I decided to re-work the pond/water area. Here's the final version heading to Glenn Aber Contemporary in New York for the fairs at the Hamptons.

This is an experimental public artwork that uses social media to create this final work of art. The concept is to offer a path to develop a collaborative effort between the artist and other people. 

The video drawing “Eve Sees Her Face for the First Time” showcases the faces of about 75 women from all over the world. When this piece was conceived, I put out a call via Facebook for women of all ages, ethnicities and races to send him an image of their faces for inclusion in the piece. 

The call went viral on Facebook and over 1,000 images of women came from all over the world (and are still coming!). This work contains about 75 rotating images of the first woman. Additionally, the piece can continue to “grow” and the collector of this piece has the option to continue to add more faces to the piece via an included USB connector, if so desired, and thus become a “contributor” to the work.

My next step with this series is to create the next piece with the ability to log onto the Internet and via Facebook (once the owner logs it into his/her Facebook account) to search for the Facebookian women who have given permission and donated their faces to the project.

I am in the process of beginning working with Facebook developers to have them create a "permission" that can be recognized by my work, so that it can "grab" the permitted image and insert it into the artwork.

Eve Sees Her Face for the First Time
Charcoal and Conte with Embedded Electronics
32 x 20 inches and framed to 40.5 x 28.5 inches

Previous version of the piece

USS Enterprise's last voyage

USS Enterprise, easily the most legendary US Navy ship, is about to take its final voyage.

Read it here.

Fair winds and following seas to this amazing lady.