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Bethesda Fine Arts Festival Applications Open

The online application is now open for the 2024 Bethesda Fine Arts Festival. This annual festival features 120 of the nation's finest artists, in categories including, but not limited to, ceramics, fiber, glass, painting, photography and sculpture. 

The juried festival provides artists with amenities including 24 hour security of the festival site, booth sitters, breakfast & lunch for participating artists, and more. 

The deadline to apply is Friday, December 22, 2023, and selected artists will be notified in late January 2024.

The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival will be held on May 11 & May 12, 2024 in Woodmont Triangle and will feature our selected artists, live music and local restaurants.

Details and application here.

Glenstoning

Together with the famfam I visited Glenstone last Friday -- first time that I have been there since the grand opening a few years ago.

I was particularly interested in seeing Iconoclasts: Selections from Glenstone’s Collection, which as they note:

On long-term view, a selection of works drawn from the museum’s collection will is on view in the Gallery. The exhibition features more than 50 artists who have made some of the most radical contributions to art in the 20th century. Foundational collection artists—such as Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Ruth Asawa, and Martin Puryear, among many others—are on view alongside new acquisitions, including Hilma af Klint’s Tree of Knowledge, 1913-1915.

While Marcel Duchamp's iconic "Fountain" is essentially the battle standard of any artist claiming to be an iconoclast (a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions), some of the other works in this most excellent collection are not really iconoclastish in my learned opinion.

And a more sanguine person would add that later in life Dechamp de-iconoclastized himself and his art by succumbing to the k'chiing temptation of art and making reproduction after reproduction of the original "Fountain", which no one has any idea where it ended up at, but I suspect that it is still serving its original purpose in some bathroom in France.

But I digress.

The DMV's own Anne Truitt is also a member in good standing of the iconoclast gang and her piece in this show exemplifies why:

Others, such as Ellsworth Kelly - ah! not so much, especially his "Carmen Herrera did this waaaay before paintings."

But in essence, this show is spectacular and well worth the visit to the astonishingly beautiful Glenstone, a marvel of design and nature, in which I am always wondering how they prevent the deer from munching on Jeff Koons' "Split Rocker."

The curious case of the ten million dollar painting that sold for $40K

He Thought His Chuck Close Painting Was Worth $10 Million. Not Quite - ran the NYT headline about a long-lost Chuck Close painting and the nice dog-walking guy who had been gifted the painting.

Have you ever had this fantasy? You befriend a curmudgeonly stranger and one day, out of the blue, the old grouch bequeaths you a gift to change your life.

For most of us, that fantasy is priceless. But for Mark Herman, a former dog walker now living on Social Security, an auction house in Dallas told him exactly how much that fantasy was worth.

Read the story here.

November is National Adoption Month

National Adoption Month acknowledges and celebrates adoptive and foster families that help create safe and supportive homes and families for children. 

In November of 2020, my wife Libby and I made the decision to expand our family through adoption. Now, three years later, we celebrate 15 months with our daughter Penny and we couldn't be happier. The adoption process quickly changed any assumptions we previously had and provided us with much insight as to the many personal, emotional, and legal obstacles involved. Our story is just one of a million ways that a family can be created.

- Cory Oberndorfer

Artwork and Donations 

 

For the remainder of the month of November, 33% of sales of Cory's work will be donated in your name to The Barker Adoption Foundation, an adoption nonprofit. Barker has been serving our area for the past 78 years, placing more than 8,000 children into the welcoming arms of adoptive parents and providing counseling and related support services to more than 30,000 women and families who are considering placing a child up for adoption. Their compassionate services and inclusivity align with the values important to the Oberndorfer Family. 

Shop

Visit Cory's online shop to see available works or request new commissions. Larger paintings and commissions are also available by request. You may also contact him directly at cory@coryoberndorfer.com.

The curious case of the Washington Post censoring cartoonist Michael Ramirez

Another great example of the Washington Post doing the talk, but not walking the walk.

"I Was Canceled for a Cartoon About Hamas' Human Shields. I Stand by My Cartoon—and Its Critics" says cartoonist Michael Ramirez, whose recent cartoon about mass murdering terrorist Ghazi Hamad was recently censored by the Washington Post.

Cartoon by Ramirez that was pulled from the Washington Post
© Michael Ramirez/Las Vegas Review-Journal for the Washington Post

Ramirez eloquently notes:

This cartoon was designed with specificity. Its focus is on a specific individual and the statements he made on behalf of a specific organization he represents—their claims of victimhood, and the plight of innocent Palestinians used as pawns in their political and military strategy.

That person is Ghazi Hamad. The caricature of the central figure looks like Ghazi Hamad.

The organization is Hamas. The main figure in the cartoon is labeled Hamas.

Hamad's words and the innocents bound to him as human shields and their forced martyrdom reflect the official position of Hamas.

Hamas is a terrorist organization that blames Israel for the attack on civilians, but ignores its own complicity in their suffering. It was Hamas that first launched the attack on Israel, continues to use civilian infrastructure as cover, and restricts the evacuation of Gaza civilians from areas which Israel has given advanced warning of strikes.

Gaza civilians are victims. Hamas is not.

It's ironic that those who criticize the cartoon for overgeneralizing and stereotyping cannot seem to distinguish between a known terrorist group and Palestinians. And it's a tragedy that their only way of coping with the truth depicted in my cartoon is to erase it from view.

Shame on the Washington Post decision makers, who once again prove that their backbone has a clear weak point when it comes to standing up to the woke mafia.

Read about it here.

New art exhibition opportunity for Prince George's County artists

Attention Prince George's County Artists

New Call for Arts for

"Collective Ground"

Submissions are now being accepted for "Collective Ground" the 2023 annual exhibition of artwork by Prince George’s County Artists in the Prince George’s Delegation of the Lowe House Office Building, in Annapolis, MD.

DEADLINE: 11:59PM on December 8, 2023

For details, visit: https://m-ncppc.submittable.com/submit

What's your favorite work of art?

I originally asked in 2007 and got many, many great answers.

My favorite?

Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley at the National Gallery of Art. It seeks to depict an event that took place in Havana, Cuba, in 1748.

The naked guy in the water is fourteen-year-old Brook Watson, who was attacked by a shark while swimming alone in Havana harbor. Lucky for Watson, some of his mates were already at sea waiting to escort their captain ashore, and were able to fight the shark and rescue Watson, although the shark bit one of his legs off. On his return to England, he got his fifteen minutes of fame and Copley painted this work.

If you study the painting carefully, you will realize that Copley probably had never seen a shark in his life, and his depiction of the great white in Havana harbour yields one of the most ungainly and ugliest non-sharks fish things ever painted.

I love to sit in front of this painting and watch people as they walk by and get mesmerized by the brutal event taking place and kids making fun of the shark.

What is your favorite work of art? Not just DC, but from wherever you [reader] hail from? Email me your favorite and I'll post it!

Hi-lined at sea

 

That's me being hi-lined from USS THORN to USS JOHN KING, somewhere in the Med in the early 80s...

Two Campellos at UNDER $500 in Baltimore

 

UNDER $500 Benefit Exhibition and Sale: Friday, November 17 | 6 to 10 pm  | Tickets $30 

Last Chance (physical): Saturday, November 18 | 12 to 4 pm

Virtual Exhibition & Sale: Saturday, November 18, 10 am - Black Friday, November 24, 12 am

Deck the walls by giving the gift of art this holiday season! Maryland Art Place (MAP) is excited to host its 11th annual UNDER $500 affordable art sale where artwork is sold on a first-come-first-served basis right off our gallery walls! UNDER $500 promotes the purchase of artwork by artists in the Maryland region. Guests can expect to mingle with other artists, collectors, patrons, and general art enthusiasts at the event. Take your purchases home with you the night of the event. Gift wrapping will be available on-site! 

Ticket & Registration Link: https://UNDER5002023.givesmart.com

About UNDER 500: 

This year UNDER $500 will be both a physical and virtual event. The opening night sale (physical) will take place Friday, November 17 from 6 pm to 10 pm (ticketed) and then again on Saturday, November 18, 2023 from noon - 4pm (free). Saturday is a ‘last chance’ opportunity to snag any artworks that remain on MAP’s walls. All participating artists get FREE admission to the physical event on Friday, November 17th.  This year’s theme is WINTER WONDERLAND! 

The virtual sale and exhibition will also take place and will be featured online HERE from Saturday, November 18 at 10 am – Black Friday, November 24 at MIDNIGHT. Artwork will NOT be available to view online until November 18 at 10 am. 

These two works of mine will be available for sale - both under $500!

Sleep is the Cousin of Death
by Florencio Lennox Campello, circa 2021

Woman Walking in Baltimore
by Florencio Lennox Campello, circa 201

Wanna go to a gallery opening this Saturday in Bethesda?

       "Conversing with Nature" On Exhibit at Gallery B

Gallery B welcomes back Kee Woo Rhee, a nature photographer whose art is driven by her curiosity. Kee Woo Rhee has traveled extensively in search of natural beauty, working to fully absorb the place, visualizing the structures and tones of the setting to build a composition in the form of expressive photography. The November exhibit at Gallery B will share her extensive photographic work from the United States, the Canadian Rockies, New Zealand, Italy, Patagonia, and Korea. 

There will be an opening reception and artist talk Saturday, November 11 from 4-7 PM

Gallery hours are Thursday-Sunday, 12-6 PM. Gallery B is located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E.

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Up to a couple of days ago, I had never heard of Jennette McCurdy.

If you don't know who she is, this is what Wikipedia notes:

Jennette Michelle Faye McCurdy (born June 26, 1992) is an American actress, singer, and writer. McCurdy's breakthrough role as Sam Puckett in the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly (2007–2012) earned her four Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. She reprised the character in the iCarly spin-off series Sam & Cat (2013–2014) before leaving Nickelodeon. McCurdy also appeared in the television series Malcolm in the Middle (2003–2005), Zoey 101 (2005), Lincoln Heights (2007), True Jackson, VP (2009–2010), and Victorious (2012). She produced, wrote, and starred in her own webseries, What's Next for Sarah? (2014), and led the science-fiction series Between (2015–2016).

McCurdy independently released her debut single, "So Close", in 2009. She released her debut EP, Not That Far Away, in 2010, followed in 2012 by the Jennette McCurdy EP and the Jennette McCurdy studio album. The lead single, "Generation Love", reached number 44 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs.

In 2017, McCurdy quit acting to pursue a career in writing and directing. In 2020, she began hosting an interview podcast, Empty Inside. In 2022, she released a memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, which quickly topped bestseller lists and received critical acclaim for her description of the pressures she faced as a child star and the abusive behavior of her since-deceased mother.

Here's how I met her: I had just finished listening to one of Malcolm Gladwell's great books (audiobook that is), when to my horror I realized that my entire listening shelf was empty, as the Montgomery County Library listening app (Libby) automatically returns books on your shelf when they're due - imagine that!

I searched for any available audio book, and the first one on the list was some weird juvenile audience book read by a young girl, the next one a Stephen King book that I've read before, the third one a recent book by one of the British princes, and the fourth one was I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy.

The title and the image on the cover caught my eye, and as I was driving, I veered off my lane a little, over corrected, put my cell down, and noted to myself to stop doing dangerous shit like that while driving.

When I arrived where I was going, I parked, retrieved my cell phone and studied the image, which shows a smiling young woman, a tiny woman from the look of her impossibly small waist, holding a pink urn filled with what looks like confetti.

I clicked the "Play a sample" and was immediately assaulted by the fastest speaking human being that I have ever heard on an audiobook and only surpassed that those speeded up people who super-fast-speak all the disclaimers at the end of a commercial.

The narrator is McCurdy, and the speed of her reading is not just remarkable, but a little outside of human capacity, so I have a suspicion of the possibility of an alien abduction of her mom by some alien race able to speak at multiple times the "normal" speech pattern of a human being - even more pronounced by the fact that (technically) she's reading!

And thus, I decided to "borrow" the book and listen to it - enthralled and seduced by the machine gun staccato of her narration.  You are now judging me by saying: "Lenny Campello, you picked a book because of the voice of the narrator?"

Duh! If you are a constant reader of my rantings, then you know that I an easily seduced by voices, be it the irritating phenomenon of "vocal fry", or the strangely-patterned diction of Michael Barbaro, the host of The New York Times news podcast, The Daily, or the NPR ads lady with the "most beautiful voice on the planet."

And thus McCurdy had me within the first 23 seconds of her narration.

The book (by the way) is a raw and spectacular memoir and a brutally honest description of the creation of a child actress star.  A creation guided by, driven by, and controlled by, a mother singularly and terrifyingly focused on making a star out of her daughter.

It is also a book that manages to combine two completely opposites: it is both incredibly funny and heart-breaking sad.

McCurdy has the rare ability to place you next to her when she auditions, in the shower with her when her mother bathes her through her teens, at the table when she is forced to manage her calories and develops into a full-blown bulimic, when she has her first kiss (a screen kiss), and so on. And all through the book we manage to teleport through emotions that are sad, horrific, anger, to the extremes of being super funny at times.

This is an impossibly fucking hard thing to do! She machine-gun sprays you with a few thousand words in 30 seconds as she describes her first period and you feel sorry for her. Suddenly she sprays a torrent of sentences without taking a break and has you in stitches of laughter.

This tiny woman is a genius!

The book will break your heart, as McCurdy pours her out. It will also make you laugh, while reminding you that sometimes laughter can also be sad.  I give it my highest possible recommendation!

UNDER $500 Benefit Exhibition & Sale!

 UNDER $500

Benefit Exhibition & Sale!

UNDER $500:
Friday, November 17 | 6 to 10 pm  | Tickets $30

Purchase UNDER $500 Tickets HERE 

Last Chance: 
Saturday, November 18 |  12 to 4 pm

Virtual Exhibition & Sale: 
Saturday, November 18, 10 am – Friday, November 24, 12 am

To view the virtual exhibition click  HERE | Free 
Live on Saturday, November 18 @ 10 am

REGISTER HERE

Deck the walls by giving the gift of art this holiday season! Maryland Art Place (MAP) is excited to host its 11th annual UNDER $500 affordable art sale where artwork is sold on a first-come-first-served basis right off our gallery walls! UNDER $500 promotes the purchase of artwork by artists in the Maryland region. Guests can expect to mingle with other artists, collectors, patrons, and general art enthusiasts at the event. Take your purchases home with you the night of the event. Gift wrapping will be available on-site! 

The opening night sale (physical) will take place Friday, November 17 from 6 pm to 10 pm (ticketed) and then again on Saturday, November 18, 2023 from noon - 4pm (free). Saturday is a ‘last chance’ opportunity to snag any artworks that remain on MAP’s walls. Tickets are $30 for opening night and can be purchased at the door or in advance at UNDER5002023.givesmart.com. 

This year’s theme is WINTER WONDERLAND! Please come in your whitest attire! MAP will have holiday trees on display. Enjoy a cheerful atmosphere with an open bar, light fare and some holly jolly tunes by DJ Amsies and Drag Queen Brooklyn Heights! 

A virtual sale and exhibition will also take place and will be featured online HERE from Saturday, November 18 at 10 am – Black Friday, November 24 at MIDNIGHT. Artwork will NOT be available to view online until November 18 at 10 am. Be sure to register in advance in the interim! Registration is free.

King Street Gallery: “BLUE - Visual and Performing Arts Department Faculty & Staff Exhibition”

King Street Gallery at Montgomery College Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus presents: “BLUE - Visual and Performing Arts Department Faculty & Staff Exhibition”. 

King Street Gallery at Montgomery College Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus presents: “BLUE: Visual and Performing Arts Department Faculty & Staff Exhibition”. The exhibition will run from November 27, 2023, to January 5, 2024, with an opening reception to be held on Thursday, December 7, from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Attendance is free and open to the public. 

My Little Pony by Kai Fang

Following the gallery’s 2023-2024 season theme, “Blue,” each artist was tasked with interpreting this open concept within their own artistic practice and includes works in Animation, 2D Design, 3D Design, Ceramics, Craft, Drawing, Graphic Design, Illustration, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture.  

Artists participating in the show include Michael Anthony, Adriana Baler, Michael Booker, Kevin Bowman, Pablo Callejo, Leeanna Earp, Miriam Ewers, Kai Fang, Mieke Gentis, Brandon Geurts, Michal Hunter, Wanjin Kim, Kate Kretz, Matthew McLaughlin, Jake Muirhead, Carrie Rennolds, Alzira Ruano, Amare Selfu, Megan Van Wagoner, and Jenny Walton. 

Gallery hours are Monday -Thursday 8-5 pm and Friday 8-4 pm. The college and gallery will be closed December 23, 2023 – January 2nd, 2024. 

Gallery Address: The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, 930 King Street, Silver Spring, MD 20912 

Writing a Stronger Grant Proposal: Tips and Procedures for Creating Effective Applications

 Writing a Stronger Grant Proposal:

Tips and Procedures for Creating Effective Applications

with

Elizabeth Ashe

Presented by The Washington Sculptors Group

Monday, November, 20, 2023

7:00 - 8:30 pm (on zoom)

Registration Required

Have you applied for a grant? Is it routine for you, or has a part of the process kept you from even trying? This panel will demystify the process. 

We will outline what to include and what to leave out. All grants are different, so we will describe criteria for deciding what grants may be right for you. We will discuss strategies for finding partnerships that strengthen your application, and when it is best to seek them. We investigate the specific local organizations that distribute grant money, such as the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council, ArtsFairfax and Arlington Commission for the Arts. Most importantly we will help you rewrite normal art documents into strong narratives for grants.

About the Speaker

Liz Ashe began writing grants in 2018 when she was Administrative Director for Zenith Community Arts Foundation (ZCAF). She has received 20 grants to date, ranging from programs at ZCAF, to helping individual artists and other small nonprofits, to supporting her own studio work and curatorial projects. She earned her MFA in Creating Writing from Chatham University, and her MFA in Multidisciplinary Art from MICA. Liz works at the Katzen Arts Center at American University.

Register in advance for this meeting here.

This discussion will be recorded for posting on the WSG YouTube channel. Registration will be deemed consent to be recorded.

This panel discussion is part of WSG’s ongoing series of professional practices talks for artists.