It's all good!

Gee folks! I posted Invictus a few days ago and all of a sudden people are emailing me asking if I'm OK - it's all good, and no worries.

I learned that poem some time in my teens... around age 13 I was hit by a speeding car crossing Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. It made me sail from Atlantic to the middle of Eastern Parkway and it broke my left femur on impact with the ground, and my hip.

The car kept on going - hit and run.

I spent several months in a body cast at Brooklyn Hospital - not fun. 

Incredibly enough, considering my Fridamania, I had never noted this parallel with Kahlo until someone recently mentioned it to me.

Anyway, someone read that poem to me while I was in the hospital all those months (my father and mother came every single night, and my mother brought me dinner every single night, as I hated hospital food, while my father scarfed up the hospital food).

I now equate Invictus with hospital stays.

No worries.

She caught me

I literally tooks almost a thousand photos of people taking selfies in front of my artwork... in this one, one of the two girls caught me doing it! They told me that they loved the work!

@contextartmiami #contextartmiami

Invictus

Spent all this week in the hospital - not a happy experience, but certainly an eye-opening one, where I re-learned the power of words (in a sense) - what happened did not happen, but had to be accepted as happening... Invictus is the only thing that comes to mind as I rest in an empty room.

Out of the night that covers me, 

      Black as the pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever gods may be 

      For my unconquerable soul. 

In the fell clutch of circumstance 

      I have not winced nor cried aloud. 

Under the bludgeonings of chance 

      My head is bloody, but unbowed. 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 

      Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 

      Finds and shall find me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 

      How charged with punishments the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate, 

      I am the captain of my soul. 

And no worries, all is good - final Miami art fairs report coming soon!

Art Scam Alert!!!

Beware of this scammer:

From: Roger Cox rogercox407@gmail.com

My name is John muller  from Washington DC was looking for some artwork online and i found your contact while searching.

I will like to purchase some of your work for my wife as a surprise gift for our 20th anniversary.

Please kindly send pics and prices of some of your art which are ready for immediate sale within price range $500- $5000

I hope to hear a lot more about any available piece in your inventory ready for immediate sale.

Thanks and best regards,

John!!

More on the curious case of the artwork and the selfie

This just kept happening 100s of times a day at the Context Art Miami fair... I have 100s of these photos....

Art Scam Alert!

And yet another asswipe trying to rip off artists:

From: David Morton samdavid.morton01@gmail.com

Subject: Interested in your Artworks.

My name is David Morton from Brownsville TX was looking for some artwork online and i found your contact while searching. I will like to purchase some of your work for my wife as a surprise gift for our 20th anniversary. Please kindly send pics and prices of some of your art which are ready for immediate sale within price range $500- $5000 I hope to hear a lot more about any available piece in your inventory ready for immediate sale.

Best regards!

Holiday Starkillers Strike Back

Holiday Starkillers Strike Back continues to pay reverence at market penetration, thematic parallels, and early conceptualizations with a new exhibit of futuristic grandeur. Holiday Starkillers Strike Back celebrates the cultural phenomena of George Lucas' space saga. Featuring works by Andrew Wodzianski, Scott G. Brooks, Gregory Ferrand Artist, Chris Bishop, Jared Davis, J.D. Deardourff, and Steve Strawn. 

During his studio negotiations for the writing and directing fees of a particular science fiction film, George Lucas agreed to a lower price in lieu of licensing and merchandising rights. Those rights were exploited wisely, and Lucas has inundated our culture with licensed toys, games, accessories, and collectibles for the past forty winter holidays.

Exhibition on view December 8, 2017 - January 20, 2018.
Anacostia Arts Center
Curated by Andrew Wodzianski

Do you see what I keep seeing??

Do you see what I see (again)

ABMB Week: Thursday - Chuck Close!

Two Washington Huskies smiling for the camera as I got to meet the great Chuck Close at Context Art Miami! We both went to the same great art school at the University of Washington in Seattle...

He asked me when I attended, and when I told him, he laughed and said that he graduated 20 years before I did....

Chuck Close and Lenny Campello at Context Art Miami 2017

Art Scam Alert!!!!

Beware of this mutant trying to rip off artists!

Subject: Form Submission - New Form - ARTWORK

Reply-To: patwal816@gmail.com

Name: Patrick Walter

Email Address: patwal816@gmail.com

Subject: ARTWORK

Message: Greetings, 

My name is Patrick Walter from Ohio.. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work, I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too,You are doing a great job. I would like to receive further information about your piece of work and what inspires you.. Kindly confirm the availability for immediate sales..

Thanks and best regards..

ABMB Week: Thursday report

Today was the best day so far at the Context Art Miami fair for attendance and sales (at least for us)... sales by Erwin Timmers (plus a commission), Audrey Wilson, Elissa Farrow-Savos, and me!

And the curious case of people taking selfies in front of my interactive piece "Your portrait in a gallery of portraits" continues!

ABMB Week: Wednesday

One of the odd things that one notices at art fairs - mostly in Miami and seldom in New York - is the fanfare of provocative clothing, shoes, and appearance by the visitors to the fairs... and selfies with artwork.

At this Context art fair, one of my pieces, the massive 40x60 inches "Your portrait in a gallery of portraits", an interactive piece where your image becomes a temporary part of the work, has been quite a magnet for the selfie crowd, and the below photos are a small sample of some of the people taking a selfie in front of the work - essentially they are taking a photo of themselves inside the artwork, as recorded by an embedded spy camera, that puts them "inside" the work.

The big dance starts! VIP Preview at Context

And tonight was the VIP night at Context - the usual (by now) of impossibly skinny women in dagger-sharp high heels and handsome young men in tight jeans, as well as elderly gents with refined ladies by their sides, followed by someone wearing Mickey Mouse antenna hats...

I got to meet the great Joe Namath, and even take a picture with him! I remember watching Broadway Joe do his magic for the Jets in 1967 when I was a kid. He was the nicest guy too! Super friendly to all the people who kept bothering him for a pic!

That's me, Broadway Joe, and Edwin Baker III, a terrific young Florida artist whom we're sponsoring and mentoring during the fair.

Edwin Baker III, Lenny Campello and Joe Namath

Here are some pics of the main booth...

Outside wall with Erwin Timmers and Dulce Pinzon

Erwin Timmers

Audrey Wilson and Laura Beth Konopinski

Davin Ebanks

Tim Vermeulen and Amy Marx

Elissa Farrow-Savos and F. Lennox Campello

F. Lennox Campello

Matthew Langley and Amy Lin

Outside Wall - F. Lennox Campello

@contextartmiami #contextartmiami

ABMB Week - Monday

The Context Art Miami fair opens tomorrow.

Yesterday we hung most of the booth, and thus today we slept in and arrived around noon just to finish hanging and to put the labels.

When we get there, artist Amy Marx has already arrived, pleasantly surprised to see that Audrey Wilson had already hung her work the day before.

Matthew Langley is also already hard at work - this is the second year for Langley at Context (Photo by J. Jordan Bruns)

Soon I discover that I didn't bring all the labels - no idea where they are, so I now have the task of printing labels back at the hotel - also ran out of extension cords - also left behind at home.

Tomorrow the fair opens to VIPs and the biggest art dance in the world begins.

ABMB Week: Delivery day - Sunday

Delivery of the artwork to the Context Art Miami fair came somewhat easier that I had imagined... after all this is a new spot, and over the last few years we had the old Wynwood location all figured out.

I arrived around 8 AM and was allowed to park right on site, while Audrey Wilson and Erwin Timmers (both of whom are showing their work with us in booth C225) drove the rented giant cargo van hauling my work, Ric Garcia's, Elissa Farrow-Savos, J. Jordan Bruns, Amy Lin, Amy Marx and Dulce Pinzon.

Needless to say, even that giant beast from planet Enterprise was full to the gills... all photos either by Jordan or Audrey.

The big vans and delivery trucks first have to go to the Marshaling Yard, about 4 blocks away from the actual fair site. After the security check-in the trucks file into the actual fair site, and the unloading dance starts - by the way, Audrey scores a primo Doris Day parking spot, right by the entrance!

We begin to unload, and then to hang. To start, Laura Beth Konopinski is unpacking and hanging Amy Lin's work, Audrey is hanging Davin Ebanks work, and I am hanging my own.

About 12 hours later, most of the booth is hung, around two PM, J. Jordan Bruns had arrived from the airport, quickly put up his work and then began to help everyone else... teamwork.

At the public spaces wall, our sponsored artist, Edwin Baker III is also working hard hanging his work. I swing by together with fair director Julian Navarro and we give Ed some good constructive criticism - he's hung the work waaaaay too high.

EBIII is a good learner (and an excellent artist, and clearly a hard worker) and he begins to un-hang the work, lower it, and re-hang it.

Back at the booth, LBK begins to set up and hang the shelves upon which her amazing work will be displayed. Once they're up for the first time, they have to come down too... the "two high" bug bites again - all part of the learning process. BTW, those gorgeous figurative pieces are Audrey Wilson's new work.

Audrey then hangs all the work by Amy Lin - super easy job for a hanging pro like AW.

After the first day, I head out to Miami beach to check in on my aunt - on the way I pass through a Sunpass check-point, which are like cash collection points for non-Floridians...

Small bill coming from Sunpass, giant bill coming from Enterprise, who tacks on a huge bill to the Sunpass charge... not sure how they can get away with that.