Heading to Vegas for some time with my Left coast offspring...
Friday, March 24, 2017
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Entries for the 2017 Trawick Prize are due two weeks from tomorrow on Friday, April 7
Don’t miss your chance to apply for this award! One artist will be named Best in Show Winner and will receive $10,000. A second place prize of $2,000 and a third place prize of $1,000 will also be awarded. Young Artists (must be born after April 7, 1987) are also eligible for the $1,000 Young Artist Prize.
Applicants must be 18 years of age or older and permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C.
For more information, eligibility requirements and to apply, please visit:
Fundraiser for Alma Selimovic’s Project in Berlin
Otis Street Art Project Studio is hosting a fundraising event for DMV artist Alma Selimovic.
Alma is going to Europe for a two-month residency at the INSTITUTE FÜR ALLES MÖGLICHE in Berlin, Germany. The focus of the residency will be to create digital drawings of people from Eastern Europe who are queer, trans and/or gender neutral. Alma’s drawings will be exhibited in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The final installation, "In Transition" will be exhibited in the USA and potentially a few other locations.
About the Fundraiser:
This event will feature a presentation by Alma, a screening of a documentary about her activist work in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Queer Sarajevo Festival: Documentary), and an exhibit and silent auction of her sculptural work and smaller works by her sister company RozArt.
All proceeds from the sales will go toward “In Transition” project. Alma would like to compensate travel and time of all of her models. Other expenses are included, such as the creation of a working team that will assist Alma with logistics, audio translations and photography. This project will geographically span Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, in order to reach more people.
Alma has initiated a GoFundME campaign https://www.gofundme.com/residency-in-berline
Please visit the page and donate and share it with others.
Saturday
April 1, 2017
6:00 PM -9:00 PM
Otis Street Arts Project3706 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MDFacebook Event Page
Alma is going to Europe for a two-month residency at the INSTITUTE FÜR ALLES MÖGLICHE in Berlin, Germany. The focus of the residency will be to create digital drawings of people from Eastern Europe who are queer, trans and/or gender neutral. Alma’s drawings will be exhibited in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The final installation, "In Transition" will be exhibited in the USA and potentially a few other locations.
About the Fundraiser:
This event will feature a presentation by Alma, a screening of a documentary about her activist work in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Queer Sarajevo Festival: Documentary), and an exhibit and silent auction of her sculptural work and smaller works by her sister company RozArt.
All proceeds from the sales will go toward “In Transition” project. Alma would like to compensate travel and time of all of her models. Other expenses are included, such as the creation of a working team that will assist Alma with logistics, audio translations and photography. This project will geographically span Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, in order to reach more people.
Alma has initiated a GoFundME campaign https://www.gofundme.com/residency-in-berline
Please visit the page and donate and share it with others.
Saturday
April 1, 2017
6:00 PM -9:00 PM
Otis Street Arts Project3706 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MDFacebook Event Page
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Please just sign it somewhere...
Dear artists: Just sign the damn thing... somewhere...
One of the most curious things that I have puzzled about in the many decades of making art, presenting art, selling art, and dealing with both artists and art collectors (as well as art dealers), is how often artists anguish over a signature.
"Why don't you sign your artwork?", I ask.
The eyes wander away... the hands twist... mental agony is clearly evident, and more often than not, a semi-puzzled answer is "I just don't."
By now you're itching to yell at me: "Lenster! What is this? Damn if you and damn if you don't?"
If you don't believe me about the power of a signature, then just go online and research the difference in price between a signed Picasso (most of them) and the two dozen or so fully validated, authenticated and documented unsigned Picassos (the ones that he gave to one of his ex-wifes that he hated).
One of the most curious things that I have puzzled about in the many decades of making art, presenting art, selling art, and dealing with both artists and art collectors (as well as art dealers), is how often artists anguish over a signature.
"Why don't you sign your artwork?", I ask.
The eyes wander away... the hands twist... mental agony is clearly evident, and more often than not, a semi-puzzled answer is "I just don't."
There are gazillions of ways to screw up a work of art with a signature - the most common one is where a work of art is marred by a giant signature in glow-in-the-dark silver color marker or some hideous color like that.
Even a tiny and elegant signature can distract from a work of art if placed in the wrong area of the work. Imagine an elegant abstract, such as a Mondrian, with a signature in the middle of one of the color geometric shapes.
And, the real truth is that if you care at all about art as a commodity, then I will tell you that most collectors, especially the savvy ones, will always ask about the signature, if one is not apparent at first inspection. You can give them all the certificates of authenticity on the planet, but they want that siggie somewhere.
"A Picasso with a signature may be worth twice as much as one without a signature," said Mark Rosen, former head of the print department at Sotheby's, which sells approximately thousands of prints per year with prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to over $100,000. "Chagall did a series of prints called 'Daphne and Chloe' and those that are signed are worth 10 times as much as those that are unsigned. Otherwise, they are the same prints."
By now you're itching to yell at me: "Lenster! What is this? Damn if you and damn if you don't?"
Nope - it's just damn if you don't; just do it in the proper place(s).
Some easy to remember DO NOT Rules when signing artwork
- Never sign with a gigantic signature; a normal signature (or even smaller than normal) will do fine.
- Never sign anywhere on the surface where it interferes with the composition.
- Never sign with that glows, shimmers, is metallic, or will fade.
- No need to put the little "c" inside the circle "copyright" sign by your signature. You already own the copyright no matter what!
- If you sign on the back (verso in Sothebyse), make sure that it doesn't bleed through!
- Don't sign using inks that will fade in time, or worse, separate, such as "Sharpies" do after a few years, when they acquire a yellow border around the faded black ink.
You want to know where to sign, right?
Cough, cough...
By the way... I'm meandering all about signatures on two dimensional work; you sculptors are all on your own, as long as you don't pull a Michelangelo on the Pieta stunt.
Where to sign two-dimensional work:
1. On the back (make sure that it doesn't go through and can be seen from the front); in fact, the more info that you can put on the back to help art historians of the future, the better.
2. On the lower margin of the piece (usually the right margin, but that's up to you).
3. Photographs can either be signed (and numbered in a small edition, cough, cough) on the verso (there's a million "special" photo-signing pens for all you photo geeks; they "write" on photo paper and dry in nanoseconds and don't smear, etc.) Or you can sign them if you leave a white border all around the printed photo. Even signing the mat in the lower margin in pencil was in vogue in the last century and is OK.
If you don't believe me about the power of a signature, then just go online and research the difference in price between a signed Picasso (most of them) and the two dozen or so fully validated, authenticated and documented unsigned Picassos (the ones that he gave to one of his ex-wifes that he hated).
That will learn y'all a lesson about signatures and art, Jethro... and don't get me started on dating artwork as well.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Coming in from the North Sea
A while back I posted about some of the artwork that I did while I was living near Brechin, in the Angus region of Scotland from 1989-1992. You can see some of those works here.
It has been of extreme interest to me to see several of these pieces come up for auctions and estate sales here and there, as sometimes the buyers contact me for information about the work.
In this case, this work was acquired at an estate sale in Hannibal, Missouri of all places. I recall selling it via an art show in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1990!
It has been of extreme interest to me to see several of these pieces come up for auctions and estate sales here and there, as sometimes the buyers contact me for information about the work.
In this case, this work was acquired at an estate sale in Hannibal, Missouri of all places. I recall selling it via an art show in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1990!
 |
| "Coming in from the North Sea, Heading to Montrose, Scotland" 16x20 inches, Watercolor on Paper, circa 1990 By F. Lennox Campello |
Monday, March 20, 2017
Art Scam Alert!
Triple threat from these three idiots! Ignore and delete! DO NOT open the attachment!
--
Dear Sir/Ma'am,
We went through your works from a partner, we like to do business with
you
Please refer to the attached document & kindly reply with urgent
quotation.
Sent from my iPhone
Henry Bloom/ Purchase Manager
TWB CO. LTD.
9 Battery Road, #28-01
Straits Trading Building
Perth, Australia
E-mail: theme@thewebsitebuilders.com.au
Website: www.thewebsitebuilders.com.au
Dear Sir/Ma'am,
We went through your works from a partner and we love them, we like to do
business with you
Please refer to the attached document & kindly reply with urgent quotation.
Sent from my iPhone
Henry Bloom/ Purchase Manager
VIVOSEC CO. LTD.
9 Battery Road, #28-01
Straits Trading Building
Perth, Australia
E-mail: font@vivosec.com
Website: www.vivosec.com
Dear Sir/Ma'am,
We went through your works from a partner and we love them, we like to do business
with you
Please refer to the attached document & kindly reply with urgent quotation.
Sent from my iPhone
Henry Bloom/ Purchase Manager
VIVOSEC CO. LTD.
9 Battery Road, #28-01
Straits Trading Building
Perth, Australia
E-mail: font@vivosec.com
Website: www.vivosec.com
The World Is Your Stage opens this week
"The World Is Your Stage" Photo Exhibit by Sir Harvey Fitz
1231 Good Hope Road, SE Washington, DC 20020
Show Dates: March 25 - April 4, 2017. Free and open to the general public.
Meet the Artist Opening Reception: Saturday, March 25, 4:00-6:00 pm.
Anacostia Arts Center Hours: Wed. - Thurs. 10AM - 7PM; Fri. - Sat. 10AM - 8PM; Sun. 10AM - 3PM
Sir Harvey Fitz’s photo exhibit, titled “The World is Your Stage” is a documentarian depiction of the seven stages of mankind from grand stages to street corners. This exhibit celebrates the passion that drives an artist or performer, regardless of the stage of life that they’re in – from being a dreamer of the craft, to a veteran, or someone who longs to return to their art.
Website: http://anacostiaartscenter.com/event/the-world-is- your-stage-exhibition/
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