The Jackson Art Center is hosting their Open Studios next Sunday, December 7 from noon to 5 PM. They are located in the historic Jackson School opposite Montrose Park and near Dumbarton Oaks. There is ample street parking nearby. Food, wine and soft drinks will be served. For further info contact Sue DuFour (301) 986-1386 or Liz Naden (301) 424-9440 or visit their website.

Faith Flanagan organizes MUSE, which is a monthly art salon at DCAC. Each session is an opportunity to talk about contemporary art at a monthly get-together. Each salon features a discussion with a member of the local arts community, followed by a chance for audience members to show slides or samples of their work.

The next MUSE is December 7, 2003 at 7:30 P.M. when the guest will be Anne Corbett, Executive Director, Cultural Development Corporation. A new MUSE will be organized the first Sunday of each following month. For more info email Faith at salon@dcartscenter.org.

Can't wait to see this: In 1946 Salvador Dalí did a cartoon for Walt Disney titled “Destino." It was never finished until recently, when computer-generated images finished the last few frames. Read the entire story and see some clips from the cartoon at NPR.

Also lots of good images from the cartoon here.

The former Art Editor for the British newspaper The Guardian discusses how and why a newspaper should have a high commitment to supporting the arts.

The interesting point in this article by Ian Mayes is that fact that he discloses that between the Guardian and the Observer (owned and run by The Guardian), they employ about 60 art critics backed by a similar number of editors and subeditors!

And they made a deliberate effort to provide arts coverage in spite of the fact that "...the commitment is not simply or primarily a commercial one. In terms of revenue for the paper, many areas of the arts would not pay for the coverage."

I would guess that our own Post, which has a daily circulation of around 600,000 printed papers, and gets around two million hits a day for its website, and owns several other newspapers, is probably about twice the size of the Guardian newspapers.

Does anyone want to count the number of Post critics and see if they employ or use more or less than the Guardian?

Linda Hales takes a look at the Freer Gallery's "Mr. Whistler's Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London," which opened a few days ago. This is a "different" show in the sense that the Freer has attempted to re-create two famous Whistler London shows -- "Arrangement in White and Yellow" (1883) and "Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Grey" (1884) -- to show how Whistler revolutionalized the then standard rules of displaying art and set a new style for exhibiting artwork in gallery shows that is still in use to this day.

Some people think that Whistler's unorthodox use of acrid colors was perhaps due to the fact that he may have been partially color blind.

Artists looking for studio space should contact The Blue Elephant Art Center. They are a cooperative artist studio/gallery in Frederick, MD featuring over 3000 sq. ft. of gallery spaces and 10 studio spaces. Two full studios and one shared studio are available now.

Cost is $200 a month for the full studio and $100 for the shared studio, all utilities included. Studios are roomy and have large windows. Group and solo shows at the Blue Elephant are available for all members. Currently on exhibit is a Blue Elephant group show. Please send contact information (name, address, phone, email), some images of your work and one page statement of work and artist intent to Brian Slagle, Blue Elephant, 4a W. 5th St., Frederick, MD 21701 or call him at 301-663-7809. Email address is blueelephantart@aol.com.

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Deadline: Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Touchstone Gallery on 7th Street is having a call for artists for its 6th Annual juried competition. The show will be curated by my good friend Joe Shannon, easily one of the best painters in our area. Joe, who is a retired curator from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and currently teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He is also a reviewer for Art in America and writes art related stories for The Washington Times and sometimes also for the Post.

Prospectus can be downloaded from the gallery website, or send a SASE to Touchstone Gallery, 406 7th St., NW, Washington, DC 20004. For further information contact Camille Mosely-Pasley, Director, Touchstone Gallery, 202-347-2787, or info@touchstonegallery.com.

Last night was opening night for the four Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown. It was pretty good, with around three hundred people showing up over the three hour period.

Parish Gallery had a particularly interesting photography show, which featured some very arousing photographs by Alex Downs. It's rare to see an erotic photography show in Washington, and Downs manages to capture several highly sensual photographs of women while also investigating SM imagery.

We have a show of new figurative assemblages by Katie Dell Kaufman, who teaches at the Corcoran.

No matter how hard I try, I just don't get this guy and I now I am puzzled as well as to why the chief art critic of the New York Times Michael "Dia" Kimmelman, suddenly likes him so much.

Kimmelman writes that "Mr. Currin is among other things a latter-day Jeff Koons, trafficking in lowdown humor, heartless kitsch and ironic smut, while offering up dollops of finesse, beauty and brains. The combination is disorienting and, at its best, thrilling."

I'm disoriented by the review! Not in a million years would I have speculated that the same critical mind that loves the minimalist nothingness of most Dia:Beacon artists, would also find John Currin "thrilling."

If you like Currin - do you also like Lisa Yuskavage?

Live and learn.

Just back from gallery hopping around the Third Thursday downtown area galleries.

After the galleries, Kate and I enjoyed our favorite tapas at Jaleo. My favorite Spanish tapa is cazon, which is shark with Alioli. I just love it with that great bread that they serve in Jaleo. I fell in love with Cazon while I lived in Andalucia in the the 1980s. I also really liked "San Jacobo" tapas back then, but I have yet to find it in any of the area's Spanish restaurants.

Today was "Galleries" focus day in the Post and Jessica Dawson, like she does usually on the 3rd Thursday of the month, did a series of mini-reviews of several area galleries, including one vanity gallery. I've seen several of these shows and from the lot of six, my pick is Jeff Spaulding at G Fine Art.

Tomorrow I'll be at the Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown for the 3rd Friday openings from 6-9 PM.

In response to the whole issue of nude paintings causing a "controversy" in our Bethesda gallery, photographer Forrest MacCormack emails me a link to his favorite local nude in a public art collection.

Just like Forrest, I think that Ron Mueck's giant is a superb example of the diversity of the human body and the amazing range of emotions it can extract from us.

Opportunites:

Deadline December 19 - Juried Art Show and Auction to benefit The National Center for Children and Families.

This is a call for artists for a live and silent auction to be held March 13, 2004 at BAPA's Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD. NCCF is a private, nonprofit agency with an 88-year commitment to serving families in the national capital area. NCCF's residential programs serve homeless families, victims of domestic violence, and vulnerable adolescents. Auction proceeds to be split 50/50 between artists and NCCF. For more information or to download submission guidelines, please visit their web site at www.nccf-cares.org. For questions, call 202-270-8822.

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Deadline January 15, 2004 - Liquitex Excellence in Art Award.
Awards totaling over $14,000 in cash and products will be given to artists demonstrating skill and creativity in the use of acrylic paints. Open to residents of US and Canada. Entries must be postmarked on or before January 15, 2004 and be received by January 26, 2004. Tel:
800-445-4278 or visit: www.liquitex.com.

Reminder: Today is the third Thursday of the month, and thus the Third Thursday extended hours by the downtown area galleries. See locations and details here.

And tomorrow is the third Friday of the month, and therefore the four Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown will have their new show openings from 6-9 PM. Openings are free and open to the public and catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant.

Last night the Channel 7 news at 6 PM had the story about the "controversy" caused by our current exhibit of Caroline Danforth and Scott Hutchison.

See the video of the newscast here.

It was a bit over dramatized with "battle lines" drawn over an exhibition that essentially features a lot of large female nudes. There were also some really ignorant comments by some of the "public" interviewed in the story. Some of the more eloquent responses (from the public) were never used.

What goes for shocking in NYC and what goes for shocking in the DMV are two different things.

Our current exhibit of Caroline Danforth and Scott Hutchison paintings has raised the ugly issues of nudity and art and complaints and censorship.

Because of the visibility of the Bethesda Gallery, Scott Hutchison large nudes have apparently offended some people and we're apparently being complained about. This morning a Channel 7 news crew came and interviewed Catriona and will air a segment about the whole issue at 6 PM tonite.

Our landlord supports us, and so do some of our neighbors, but perhaps this is as good an opportunity as any to discuss this show from the perspective of what goes for "shocking" in the Washington area is still the human figure.

Opportunities for artists:

Deadline: January 31, 2004. The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation's "Space Program" offers free studio spaces in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood for visual artists 21 and over.

Studios are available beginning Sept. 1, 2004 for up to one year. Postmark deadline is January 31, 2004. Applications should include: 8 slides of recent work or video, an annotated slide list or video description, a resume, a one page statement on why studio is needed, and a SASE for return of slides.

Send applications to The Space Program, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, 830 North Tejon Street, Suite 120, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.

This coming Thursday is the third Thursday of the month, as as such Third Thursday extended hours by the downtown area galleries. See locations and details here.

And Friday is the third Friday of the month, and therefore the four Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown will have their new show openings from 6-9 PM. Openings are free and open to the public and catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant.

Thanks to Modern Art Notes for a great link to the images of the 8th Bienal de La Habana.

Aimée García, a very young Cuban artist being showcased at the Bienal, and whose first American solo show sold out last year at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica, will make her Washington, DC debut next November 2004 with a solo show at our Georgetown gallery.

The Washington Post website sports a new look today. Museums and galleries are now on this page. Their listing of 142 area art galleries is here.

When the Post first launched their website a couple of years ago, they used to augment their printed newspaper coverage of the visual arts by allowing a few freelance writers (myself included) as well as their "regular" galleries critic (at the time Ferdinand Protzman) to write additional weekly reviews of gallery and museum shows. Then their online Arts Editor (at the time John Poole) was promoted and the "job" was left open for a very long time and all the online gallery reviews ended.

Maura McCarthy is now the online Arts Editor and doing a pretty good job, but obviously the budget to have contract writers do additional gallery reviews no longer exists and she doesn't have the luxury to augment the print version's already skimpy coverage of area galleries and artists.

Of all the moronic, dimwit, tunnel-visioned, agenda-driven, academic, peer-pressured reasons to clamor and claim (for 40 years now) that "painting is dead," this is probably the only good reason to kill painting.

Warning: The link above is rather gross, as it depicts artist Keith Boadwee in the process of "painting" via the use of his asshole. This is definately "mixed media."

And this artist may be a close second.

The Washington Times art critic, Joanna Shaw-Eagle offers her view of the Washington Convention Center's Public Art Collection.

Why the Washington Times doesn't have a "regular" weekly "Galleries" column, like most major metropolitan newspapers in the world offer, has always been a mystery to me.

Another great mystery: Considering how inexpensive storage is, and how easy it is to store an article online once it has been created. Why doesn't the Washington City Paper archive its articles?