Reprint

The below is from a couple of years ago, but recently someone asked me about it, so here it is again:

---

One of the more eye-opening things in attending an art fair is seeing the dynamics that go onto the decision to buy a piece of art.

Put together a few thousand people, paying an entry fee to enter the fair, an assortment of dealers, and a huge diverse variety of offerings and it's an education in people watching.

The married couple:
"Do you like it?"
"Yeah, I like it- it's just what we've been looking for."
"Where would we put it?"
"We have a couple of spots that it'd fit."
"Do you really like it."
"Yeah, how about you?"
"Yeah, I kinda of like it."
"Should we get it?"
"If you want it."
(five minutes later)
"Let's think about it."
"OK" [To me] "Do you have a business card?"

The couple (not married):
Her: "Do you like it?"
Him: "Sssoright"
Her: "Where would we put it?"
Him: "Dunno."
Her: "Do you really like it."
Him: "So'OK.. Yeah, how about you?"
Her: "Yeah, I kinda, sorta, really like it."
Him: "Dunno though"
Her: "What? You don't like it?"
Him: "If you want it."
(five minutes later)
Him: "Let's think about it."
Her or Him: "OK" [To me] "Do you have a business card?"

The Single Woman (SW) with a Woman Friend:
SW: "WOW! Now, I really like this!"
Friend: "Yeah... it's nice"
SW: "It's exactly what I've been looking for!"
Friend: "I have a friend who does work just like this..."
SW: "I am really drawn to it!"
Friend: "Are you really sure you like it?"
SW: "Uh - yeah!... why? Don't you like it?"
Friend: "Yeah... it's OK"
SW: "I think it's really good... I think it's the first piece in this whole show that I really like."
Friend: "There's a few more booths we haven't seen."
SW: "I think I'm going to buy this."
Friend: "Are you sure?"
SW: "Uh - yeah!... It's a good price too.... why? Don't you like it?"
(five minutes later)
SW: "Do you have a business card?"

The Single Woman (SW) with a Man Friend:
SW: "WOW! Now, I really like this!"
Friend: "Yeah... Cool"
SW: "It's exactly what I've been looking for!"
Friend: "I think it's a lithograph" [it's actually a charcoal]
SW: "I am really drawn to it!"
Friend: "Are you really sure you like it?"
SW: "Uh - yeah!... why? Don't you like it?"
Friend: "I have something like it... I got it cheaper though..."
SW: "I think it's really good... I think it's the first piece in this whole show that I really like."
Friend: "You like lithographs?"
SW: "I think I'm going to buy this."
Friend: "Are you sure?"
SW: "Uh - yeah!... It's a good price too.... why? Don't you like it?"
(five minutes later)
SW: "Do you have a business card?"

The Single Focus Dream Buyer:
[Walks straight up to one piece, never looks at the rest of the work in your booth]
"I'll take this"
[Me] "Thank you... it's a very striking charcoal drawing - will be that be a check or charge?"
"Charge"
[Me] "I can send you more information on this artist..."
"That will be great - I love this work - it's exactly what I'm interested in!"
[Me] "I have a few more pieces here, would you like to see them?"
"No, thanks..."

The "I'm glad you're here guy (IGYHG)":
IGYHG: "Hey! I've been looking for you!"
[Me]: "Hi, how are you?"
IGYHG: "... been walking this whole fair looking for you!"
[Me]: "Yeah... lots of dealers this year... glad you found us!"
IGYHG: "Howsa been goin'?"
[Me]: "Yes... quite good actually..."
IGYHG: "Well, let me look at what you've got!"
[three minutes later]
IGYHG: "Well... I'm glad you're here... see ya next year!"


The "I Shudda Bought It Last Year Guy (Shudda)":
Shudda: "Hey! You're here again!"
[Me]: "Hi, how are you? Yeah... It's our 7th year here..."
Shudda: "... been walking this whole fair looking for you!"
[Me]: "Yeah... lots of dealers this year... glad you found us!"
Shudda: "Howsa been goin'?"
[Me]: "Yes... quite good actually..."
Shudda: "Well, let me look at what you've got!"
[three minutes later]
Shudda: "Where's that really good watercolor of the fill-in-the-blank?"
[Me]: "Uh... I sold it last year - but I have a few more pieces by that artist."
Shudda: "Ah! - I really wanted that one! Do you have another one?"
[Me]: "Well, no... it was an original watercolor, and I sold it; but I have ---"
Shudda: "I really wanted that piece; and it was a good price too..."
[Me]: "Maybe you'd like some of his new work..."
Shudda: "I shudda bought it last year"
[Walks away]
Shudda: "You gonna be here next year?"

The "Where's That Piece Guy (WTP)":
WTP: "Hey! You're here again!"
[Me]: "Hi, how are you? Yeah... It's our 7th year here..."
WTP: "... been walking this whole fair specifically looking for you!"
[Me]: "Yeah... lots of dealers this year... glad you found us!"
WTP: "Howsa been goin'?"
[Me]: "Yes... quite good actually..."
WTP: "OK... last year I saw this piece... it was a fill-in-the-bank and I should have bought it then! "
[Me]: "Yeah... that is a nice piece."
WTP: "I've been thinking about it for a whole year"
[Looks around the booth and doesn't see it]
WTP: "Do you still have it?"
[From here there are two paths...]
Path One -
[Me]: "Uh... I sold it last year - but I have a few more pieces by that artist."
WTP: "Ah! - I really wanted that one! Do you have another one?"
[Me]: "Well, no... it was an original watercolor, and I sold it; but I have ---"
WTP: "I really wanted that piece; and it was a good price too..."
[Me]: "Maybe you'd like some of his new work..."
WTP: "I shudda bought it last year"
[Walks away]
WTP: "You gonna be here next year?"
Path Two
[Me]: "Let me get it for you... I have it in the back!"
WTP: "Great"
[I bring it out and give to WTP]
WTP: "Yeah this is it! It's great!"
[Me]: "This artist has done really well this last year and ---"
WTP: [Handing it back] "Excellent! I'm glad you still have it... until what time are you going to be here?"

Top 10

The FBI has unveiled its top 10 art crimes list yesterday to "call attention to a problem that Interpol ranks third among property crimes worldwide and costs an estimated $6 billion a year."

See the WaPo/AP article (and its unfortunate article title) here.

Re-inventing painting

Videopainter.... videopaintism... videopaintist...



That's what I have dubbed Scott Hutchison: a videopainter.

And just when some of you and Blake thought that the ancient medium had nothing left to give, along comes Arlington-based Scott Hutchison and delivers something so "new" that I am sure that were Scott showing in NYC or LA, curators from the Corcoran or the Hirshhorn would be descending on this show like bugs on your porch light (the last time Scott showed with us, he created something of a controversy because of this).

Typical video art: Film something boring, or something artsy, or something sexy, or an old classic movie a frame-at-a-time, and then sell photographic stills from the video.

The new videopainting: Spend months and months creating a set of small paintings; superbly painted works, each and every one of them, and then marry then (through technology and video) into a singularly unique and new idea: like this one.

Click here or here if you want to see what one of the future(s) of painting looks like.

Come to the opening at our Fraser Gallery Georgetown on Friday, November 18, from 6-9PM if you want to see a gallery full of something "new."

Richard on Newman

The WaPo's former Chief Art Critic delivers a rare and welcomed thing: an unexpected review.

Paul Richard reviews William Newman at Adamson.

More please...

P.S. And the current WaPo Chief Art Critic, Blake Gopnik, last Sunday delivered a really good review of Alice Neel at the NMWA.

Openings this week

On Thursday, November 17, Susan Calloway Fine Arts has Alison Hall Cooley: Recent Works – Abstract Oil Paintings opening from 5-8PM. Cooley has exhibited in Washington, DC, Virginia, and Massachusetts. She is the winner of several awards, including the Charles C. McDougall Award for Promising New Artist. Cooley attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, and Sarah Lawrence University.

Also on Thursday, The League of Reston Artists has the opening for their Annual Juried Theme Exhibition: "Edges". The awards reception is at Walker & Company from 6-8PM.

On Friday, being the third Friday of the month, the Georgetown Canal Square Galleries have their extended hours and openings.

We will have an amazing show by Scott Hutchison, perhaps one of our area's most innovative and talented videopainters; more on that later.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: December 9, 2005

Stretched Tight is an exhibition that is open to all artists in the United States and abroad working in the ancient medium that refuses to die: painting.

Artists are encouraged to submit work that challenges conventional notions. Work may represent a broad range of subjects, genres, concepts and/or processes.

Juror: My good friend Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the Katzen Arts Center at American University, Washington D.C.

Jack has also served as the Executive Director of the di Rosa Preserve: Art & Nature, Napa, CA and the Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore.

Deadline December 9, 2005. Show dates February 24 - March 26, 2006. Entry fee $30.00 for three images (slide or CD). $500.00 in award money.

For a prospectus send a SASE to the:
Target Gallery
Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 North Union St
Alexandria VA 22314

Or call 703-838-4565 x 4, or E-mail: targetgallery@torpedofactory.org

This looks like fun

Deadline: November 30, 2005

The Masters Mystery Art Show 2005 is an international exhibition that will coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach 2005.

Artists are invited to donate original work in any medium in a 6 x 9 postcard format to be sold for the affordable price of $50. All artists names will be published at the time of the exhibition but the works will be displayed anonymously and the identity of the artist will only be revealed to the purchaser after the completion of the sale.

The event is organized for the sole benefit of the prestigious Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts (MFA) program at Florida International University, Miami. In its remarkably successful 2004 inaugural edition, which took place at the Ritz Carlton South Beach, over 1000 artworks by more than 500 artists and celebrities from art related fields were featured and over $20,000 was raised for the MFA program.

It's so easy to participate! Just download the Entry Form and the Artist Info Form from this website.

Wanna go to an opening?

Salve Regina Gallery at the Catholic University of America presents: Hollow Work with an opening reception on Wednesday, November 16 2005 from 6-9PM.

Artists include: Joan Ganzevoort, Lancelot Coar, Mary Frank and Phoebe Esmon.

The Salve Regina Gallery
Catholic University of America
620 Michigan Ave NE
Washington, DC 20009
202.319.5282

South American Holiday

South American Holiday opens at the Anne C. Fisher Gallery in Georgetown this coming Friday, 18 November with an opening reception from 6-8pm.

The exhibition features South American artists Joan Belmar (Chile), Patricia Secco (Brazil), Luis Scotti (Uruguay) and Helga Thomson (Argentina).

The exhibition hangs through 13 January, 2006.

Deadline Approaching

The deadline for receiving applications for the 2006 Bethesda Fine Arts Festival is Friday, December 16, 2005.

For more information and to download an application form, visit this website.

Art Job

Bedford Gallery, City of Walnut Creek, California. Part-Time, 30 hours per week, $25.65 - $30.97 per hour plus benefits!

Coordinate and implement promotion of Bedford Gallery exhibitions; plan and present events and arts education programs. Supervise volunteers. Requires: Bachelors and/or Masters of Art or fine arts, and 2 to 3 years direct experience. City application required, apply by 11/18/05. For more information and a city application go to: www.walnut-creek.org.

Worldwide

I am somewhat amazed as to the number of visits that DC Art News gets from all over the world (from outside the DC area that is).

We're now approaching around 1,000 visitors a day, and a random check on the world map shows visits from all over the planet.

See the 100 most recent visitors here.

Power of the Web

Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal: "You, Too, Can Be a Critic - Regional arts journalists now have competition -- the 'artblog'"

"Few regional papers, after all, can afford to hire more than a handful of arts staffers, and even fewer editors know enough about the arts to make informed hiring decisions, much less intelligently oversee the writers they do hire."

Read it here.

Bootcamp today

I'll be at Warehouse all day co-presenting the "Success as an Artist" seminar, also known around these parts as Bootcamp for Artists.

This seminar is fully booked, but we have a wait list for the next one. Email Catriona for details.

More later...

Ursy

A while back I met a very talented lady, who has not only an important history as one of our area's top potters and ceramic wizards, but is also an amazing kayaker.

And slowly but surely she has taught herself a separate wizardry: digital manipulations of her own nascient photography.

If you want to see how an artistic vein can course through many different genres, don't miss Ursy Potter's exhibition at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Fairfax 2709 Hunter Mill Road, Oakton, Virginia and on the phone at (703) 281-4230. The reception is Sunday, November 13 from 12:30-3PM.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

The show is "Threesome: A Girl, a Guy, and a Gay" at Studio One Eight, a new gallery in Adams Morgan located at 2452 18th St. NW, and the opening is tonight, from 7-10pm. The show features new paintings and drawings by Dana Ellyn Kauffman, Gregory Ferrand and Scott G. Brooks.

This show brings together three figurative artists living and working in DC. Each approaches their work in a unique style from a different point of view, with equally distinct results:

- Dana Ellyn Kauffman is a full time painter, living and working in Washington, DC. and we last saw her work at Art-O-Matic... she's a narrative painter whose works usually tell a story and have powerful visual meaning, and sometimes the message may come as a shock... don’t let her pigtails fool you.

- Gregory Ferrand, a Washington, DC artist, is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts. After living in Buenos Aires, Argentina for two years and traveling through Latin America, he began to paint in earnest. His paintings and drawings for this show deal with emotional, physical, and societal insecurities.

- Scott G. Brooks is originally from Flint, Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He moved to the D.C. area in 1990 and currently lives and works in the U Street corridor. His work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, and many venues in the D.C. area, including the recent "Jumping Through Hoops" at Gallery Neptune, the WPA/Corcoran show "Seven," "Drawing National 2" at Montgomery College, and the last three Artomatic exhibitions. Scott has also illustrated two children’s books: The Three Armadillies Tuff, and The Ring Bear. For "Threesome," Scott focused purely on the figure, creating six new paintings based on models that he has worked with recently.

While I was gone

Leave it to Blake...

Last Sunday, the WaPo's Chief Art Critic looked at the Katzen and it got a bunch of artsy folks arguing online.

Read it here.

For a different perspective, Joanna Shaw-Eagle at the Times (and who has been writing about art since Blake was in diapers), offers this view.

Tate in the Blade

The Washington Blade has a good article on Tim Tate in today's paper.

Read it here.

Tate's new solo show "Caged by History," which is already nearly a third sold prior to the actual opening (his previous two solo shows sold out) opens to the public tonight with an opening reception as part of the Bethesda Art Walk, from 6-9PM.

If you only come to see one of our shows this year, come see this one, and see what develops when the power of narrative art is brought, for the first time, to the genre once segregated to the craft side of the arts and focused only to the vessel.

Details on the Art Walk here.

DC Arts Grant Recipients

Congrats to these artists, who were recently awarded an average of $4,700 as part of individual art awards by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Trends in Contemporary Drawing

Next Thursday, November 17, from 7-9 pm, join the Arlington Arts Center for an evening of challenging definitions and preserving traditions as four leading artists and curators from the Washington, D.C. area discuss trends in contemporary drawing.

The latest AAC exhibition Drawing: Tradition & Innovation opens on November 15 and features diverse work by 21 artists from the Mid-Atlantic region. The roundtable is free of charge and open to the public.

Panelists are:

Margaret Boozer - Ms. Boozer is a contemporary sculptor whose work in clay exploits the natural occurrence of line as the material hardens. Her work is included in the collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and in many private collections. She was also an exhibiting artist in Seven. She is the director of Red Dirt Studio in Mt. Rainier, MD, and has been a visiting artist and lecturer at local and national institutions.

Richard Dana - Mr. Dana has exhibited his art extensively regionally, nationally and internationally. He has had over 16 solo exhibitions and participated in over 65 group exhibitions. Most recently, he has shown his work at the Pretoria Museum of Art in South Africa in June and at Tribes Gallery in New York in October and locally in Seven. Mr. Dana is a participating artist in Drawing: Tradition and Innovation.

Janis Goodman - Ms. Goodman is an Associate Professor at the Corcoran College of Art. She has received an NEA support grant and DC Commission on the Arts grants to individual artists. Her own work is deeply rooted in the traditions and extensions of the drawing process. For the past three years she has been a visual arts reviewer for WETA’s TV program Around Town,

Karey Kessler - A Washington, D.C. based artist, Ms. Kessler uses the tradition of mapping to underscore the organizing principles of line. Though based on the science of topography, her intimate drawings depict imagined, dream-like locales. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States. She currently serves as Gallery Manager at the District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC), and independently curates in the region regularly.

The evening, part of the AAC's Bridges to Contemporary Arts series, will be moderated by AAC Curator, Carol Lukitsch. For more information, contact AAC via email at info@arlingtonartscenter.org or by phone at 703.248.6800.