Tuesday, November 14, 2023

What's your favorite work of art?

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

My favorite?

Watson and the Shark, 1778


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!

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Hi-lined at sea

 

LTJG Lenny Campello being hi-lined from USS THORN to USS JOHN KING in 1980s

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

Saturday, November 11, 2023

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

Woman Walking in Baltimore by Florencio Lennox Campello, circa 2018
Woman Walking in Baltimore
by Florencio Lennox Campello, circa 201


Thursday, November 09, 2023

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.

Wednesday, November 08, 2023

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!

Tuesday, November 07, 2023

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.


Monday, November 06, 2023

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
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 

Sunday, November 05, 2023

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)

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.

Saturday, November 04, 2023

Pollock-Krasner Foundation

Artists can apply to the Pollock-Krasner Foundation by submitting an online application.

Requirements for consideration are the application form, a cover letter, a current resume including an exhibition record, and ten digital images of current work with a corresponding identification list. All applications will be promptly acknowledged and considered. Please do not send application forms by mail, fax or e-mail. A crucial part of the application process is based on the Committee of Selection’s review of each artist’s images. The Foundation will only accept images completed within the past ten years. The Foundation urges artists to send the highest quality images of their work.

All that you need to apply here.

Friday, November 03, 2023

Copyright Law for Artists

 Tuesday, November 7, 2023

11am 
*CAH/WALA presents: Copyright Law for Artists and Creatives w/ Washington Bar Association*Free admission courtesy of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) as part of The Business of the Arts Professional Development Series (BOA)

Register below

Tue. Nov. 7, 2023 - Copyright Law for Artists and Creatives info & registration (Free Admission)


Wednesday, November 01, 2023

The Joy and the Limits of Picking Yourself

A guest post by the super hard-working DMV artist Michele Banks!

The Joy and the Limits of Picking Yourself

A dozen years ago, Seth Godin wrote a blog post called Reject the Tyranny of Being Picked: Pick Yourself. It was a rallying cry for creators to bypass the gatekeepers and simply get on with doing what they want to do. Can’t get a book contract? Self-publish. No record deal? Start posting your songs online.

Godin says, “It’s a cultural instinct to wait to get picked. To seek out the permission and authority that comes from a publisher or talk show host or even a blogger saying, “I pick you.” Once you reject that impulse and realize that no one is going to select you–that Prince Charming has chosen another house–then you can actually get to work.”

Michele Banks - Detail from Purkinje Neuron in Black and Indigo, Ink on Yupo, 2023
Michele Banks - Detail from Purkinje Neuron in Black and Indigo, Ink on Yupo, 2023

Godin’s piece, which came out as I was starting to sell my art online, was tremendously heartening to me. After some bruising encounters with galleries and juried group shows, it was encouraging to consider that there might be another way. Who needs gallery representation? So what if a curator won’t choose you? You can get out there and find your own audience.  And so I did: I’ve sold thousands of paintings in the intervening years.  

Yes, thousands, and I not only painted them all, I matted them, photographed them, described them, listed them, packed them in cardboard and took them to the post office.

I take great pride and satisfaction in the fact that I did all those things myself.

I picked myself, and it worked.

But of course I didn’t do it all on my own.                     

And of course I could not completely avoid gatekeepers.

I started out selling online on Makers Market, a sadly short-lived joint project by Make Magazine and BoingBoing. I applied, and I got picked. And as a result, Make and BoingBoing shared my work with a huge audience, one I might never equal on my own.(After Makers Market folded, I opened my Etsy shop)

Pick me! From the Cells to the Stars, a 2011 watercolor, was featured in BrainPickings, giving me a publicity boost. Indigo Coronavirus (ink, 2020) was acquired by the National Academies of Science, a little institutional cred.
Pick me! From the Cells to the Stars, a 2011 watercolor, was featured in BrainPickings, giving me a publicity boost. Indigo Coronavirus (ink, 2020) was acquired by the National Academies of Science, a little institutional cred.

I still make a big chunk of my income from selling my art at festivals. And quite often festival jurors do not pick me, but if I want to get my work in front of their audience, I have to keep applying and submitting to the judgement of those gatekeepers. There’s no setting up a tent on my street and declaring myself a fine art festival.

Yes, I could rent an apartment in another city, set up a studio, and call it a residency.

Yes, I could set up an online fundraiser for myself and call it a grant.

But I have not done that.  I’ve applied for grants and residencies the usual way, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.  After years of blanket rejection, I stopped applying for gallery shows. But I have not stopped showing in galleries!  Anything I’ve shown in a gallery over the last six years has been a product of, yes, waiting around to get asked. Sorry, Seth.

Do I have a point here beyond “it’s complicated?”

Yes.

Picking yourself is completely valid as a mantra and a strategy. You really do have to pick yourself, to put yourself out there, to present your work to the public and say, “look at this thing I made.”  By all means, make a great website, a stunning Instagram account, an online shop, a newsletter. Those are all things you can create and control on your own.

But most creators at some point must engage with gatekeepers. You need shows. You need publicity. You have to choose between the effort of creating all this on your own or applying and hoping to get picked. Because gatekeepers are also boosters.

I doubt that most people get into the business of running galleries or art festivals or giving out grants because they crave the adrenaline rush of rejecting artists. (Okay, some of them might, but let’s not go there) They do it because they want to support artists and provide them with a platform for their work. As an artist, you can and should build your own platform, but it’s fine to stand on someone else’s now and then. It’s probably bigger than your personal platform, and can maybe boost you up a little higher.

I believe in the message of picking yourself: it’s essential. But the part where Godin says “no one is going to select you” is far too harsh. It’s true that toiling over your art in obscurity and simply waiting for a genius grant is unlikely to succeed. But if you make good work, tell your story compellingly, choose your opportunities thoughtfully, and cultivate your network with kindness, you put yourself in position to get picked.

New Art

I have not forgotten that by far the most important people who pick me are the buyers of my art!  While I’ve mostly been busy painting dozens of brains and neurons for the upcoming Society for Neuroscience meeting, I’ve recently added 15 new paintings to my Etsy shop, including watercolor brains, viruses in both watercolor and ink, and several new sayings of the Algorithm.  Find them here.

Upcoming DC Art Events

I have a few more IRL events in DC before the end of the year! Find me here

November 11-15: Neuroscience 2023

November 18: Dumbarton House Makers Market

December 2:  Dupont Circle Holiday Pop-up

Thank you so much for reading. I’m new to this, so if you enjoyed this piece, please share it with others and subscribe to read more.



Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop will offer Unleash your Creative Spirit

On Saturday, November 11, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop will offer Unleash your Creative Spirit, a collage workshop with Teaching Artists Carolina Mayorga and Sharon Burton.

Date: Saturday, November 11, 2023

Time: 2:00-4:00pm

Location: Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW), 545 7th St. SE, Washington DC 20003

Cost: $15 (please pay in advance by calling 202-547-6839)

On Veterans’ Day, CHAW will offer a collage workshop to honor veterans and caregivers. 

Led by Teaching Artists Carolina Mayorga and Sharon Burton, participants will create a collage to honor themselves, veterans, and caregivers. Unleash Your Creative Spirit will offer participants an opportunity to celebrate creativity, self-expression, and a sense of community while exploring one of the most enjoyable and relevant art forms. Light refreshments will be served.

Monday, October 30, 2023

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

You know you can't hold me forever

I didn't sign up with you

I'm not a present for your friends to open

This boy's too young to be singing

The blues, ah, ah

                               - Elton John 

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Delna Dastur at Fred Schnider Gallery in Arlington

The Fred Schneider Gallery in Arlington will be showing a new body of work by DMV artist Delna Dastur to include paintings and drawings, in a solo show starting on November 10.  

The reception is on November 11, 2023 from 5-8PM  The artist will also be giving a talk on December 9th from 5-7p.m. 

Embracing Arlington Arts interviewed Dastur for this show and you can visit that interview here.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Friday, October 27, 2023

"Ninety Degrees" by Isabel Manalo

Ninety Degrees

By Isabel Manalo

Show Runs: November 4 - December 31, 2023

Artist Talk: Sunday, Nov. 5 at 4pm


GASLIGHT Gallery

 3 Roads | 118 East Church Street, 118 East Church Street, Frederick, MD 21701

Isabel Manalo is an Artist’s Artist. She is a pro who not only maintains her own studio practice and exhibition schedule, but also guides countless other artists with aesthetic and academic counsel. Manalo’s paintings possess an uncommon transcendence and mysticism. Yet they are essentially simple and familiar in their subject matter, often with her two young daughters engaged in exploration and wonder amid the natural world. The jewel-like glances of vivid translucent color so musically applied to the picture plane provide a sense of hopeful providence and even joy. Manalo has been exhibiting her work internationally since 1999. Her art works are included in several public and private collections, such as the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the permanent collections of U.S. Embassies in Bulgaria, Philippines, Kazakhstan and Nepal. Manalo is currently an Adjunct Professor at American University and George Mason University and serves as an Artist Mentor at Lesley University in Boston, MA. She is the Founder and Chief Collaborator of The Studio Visit, an art journal featuring artist interviews with artists in their studios.

“Lately painting for me has become a release and expression of my drawing process. That which is more immediate, gestural, imperfect and ephemeral and yet still driven by a highly saturated palette and layering of marks and pattern. Images of faces and bodies comingle with familiar plant life and foliage and bouquets of flowers that have been given and received in all the exchanges of hello's and goodbyes. Cues from media of current events pop up as does the pre-colonial script from the Philippines.”

                                                                                - Isabel Manalo