Postcard Shout Out by Art and Seek

One of my favorite online cultural resources Art and Seek posted an article about the postcards I've been drawing. Brad Ford Smith Sketches the (Art) News 

Houston Fine Art Fair Shopping List

The Houston Fine Art Fair was like going to Whole Foods, row after row of good for you art work. Unfortunately I left the wallet containing big wades of cash at home. I posted my shopping list and a few observations on Art and Seek. (Photo- Keiko Gonzalez, Salar Galeria de Arte, Bolivia)

Next month is the Texas Contemporary Art Fair. Will it be worth another 8 hour roundtrip drive?..

Houston Fine Art Fair

Well I just can't stay away. I'm heading down to Houston for the Houston Fine Art Fair. I've posted a short blurp on Art n Seek , which I'll follow up on with photos on monday.

Behind The People Behind The Video Camera

One of the benefits of blogging for Art and Seek is the access it affords to people, places, and events. That's also one of the reasons I first got into doing art conservation. I get to handle and explore artwork that gives me a special understand of how the artist works. Of course with the blogging I don't get quite so physical.

One of the first events around the Dallas Art Fair was a press interview with the artist Jim Lambie, who is presently showing at the Goss-Michael Foundation. You may recall his colorful tape installation at the DMA a few years back.

The folks from Art This Week were there as well. And that is really what this post is about. Art This Week has been producing video interviews of artists and curators sense May 2009. Their latest interview with Jim was their 100th video posting!!! Congratulations ATW!

Unfortunately this honor falls on an interview with Jim, who is no Clark Gable when it comes to sophisticated silver screen personas.

Lauren Kennedy interviewed Jim, while Caroline Belanger snapped some pics, and Richard Serrano filmed the action. Hard to believe Richard shoots all the videos on a camera the size of a deck of playing cards. I don't know much about ATW. They appear to be a young, bootstrap organization that doesn't let the limitations of equipment and funding prevent them from pumping out one video after another, 8 in the just the last 30 days. Admittedly, the end product may not be up to the evening news standards, yet. But who knows, given some time and some cash, and Jerome Weeks may have some serious cultural coverage competition. Then it's onto tackle Art 21.

I've added them to my Links Page because ATW has a DIY attitude that is just what the Dallas art scene needs to see more of.

Posting About The Art Fairs In Dallas On Art and Seek

This is a quick post. Still have more art to see before it's all gone. I've been posting about the Dallas Art Fair and the Suite Art Fair on Art and Seek.net. Here's the link to all those pages, plus my older posts on art go by.

 I'll be blogging more about the art fairs on my blog soon.

A Suite Art Fair Just Up The Hill

Just posted a review about the Suite Art Fair on Art and Seek. Here's the link A Suite Art Fair Just Up The Hill

Eyeball Exercise Coming Soon At The Dallas Art Fair

The Dallas Art Fair opens to the public next Friday! I've been really jonesing for this event. This is the third year of the DAF. Each time it gets a little bigger with a few more galleries signing up. Plus there is the Suite Art Fair being held over at the Belmont Hotel. (I'll be stretching the corneas there as well)

The beautiful people at Art and Seek are once again indulging my rambling prose, so keep an eye out there for my latest misspellings. I'll post links here on my blog to any posts I make there.

Tonight, I'm doing some warm up exercises at the local art gallery openings.

Shout Outs and Link Love

One of my favorite resources for art information in the Dallas Fort Worth area is Art and Seek. On Thursday they posted a short article which included a shout out to my blog! The post also noted 2 other local art blogs Art This Week and This Week In The Arts, both of which I highly recommend, and are now listed on my Blogville Link List.

In honor of Art and Seek spreading the link love, I am highlighting 2 Texas artists from my Artists of Note list. Each have created wonderful sites.

Brad Tucker - His site begins with a standard artists website title page, but as you dig into it, you realized he is having lots and lots of fun making all kinds of wonderful things.

Tracy Hicks- It starts with frogs in jars, but it is so much more than that. This is a wonderful collection of art. Really beautiful to look at and think about.

Also in the spirit of supporting artists, bloggers and online art magazines in my own small way, I am creating a page on my blog that is dedicated to cultural linkage. So stay tuned for that.

Thanks again to Art and Seek. You Rock.

SculptCAd Rapid Artists hit the Media

Ginger Fox Bird on a Branch

Last week Jerome Weeks from KERA Art & Seek stopped by SculptCAD to see what the SculptCAD Rapid Artists program was all about. He talked with the director Nancy Hairston and 5 of the artists; Heather Gorham, Shane Pennington, David VanNess, Ginger Fox, and myself. A few days later he meet up with Nancy and Ginger Fox at the Rapid Prototyping Lab at SMU to see what it looks to print something using the 3D rapid prototyping process.

All of Jerome's work has resulted in a report broad cast on KERA's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Plus a posting on the KERA Art & Seek website, plus a Youtube video of the Rapid Prototype Lab.

Art & Seek drops in to talk with the ScultpCAD Rapid Artists

Shane Pennington talking with Jerome Weeks from KERA/Art & Seek

Reporter Jerome Weeks from KERA/Art & Seek dropped by the SculptCAD studio to talk with some of the artists involved in the SculptCAD Rapid Artists project. He was there for over 2 hours patiently recording the techno geek terminology and the arty babble. Hopefully he got enough intelligent, understanable dialoge to post something on Art & Seek.

On a side note, I think all the artists benefited from having to put into words what they have been doing in the world of 3D computer modeling.

Art in the District 2010: posting on Art Seek

Posted a little blurb about the Art In The District 2010 art fair on Art and Seek. Just hoping to get the word out a bit more.

I really feel like the local/Texas media coverage for this art fair and the Dallas Art Fair, which by the way ran full page adds in Art in America and Art News for the last two months, was severely lacking. After the grand opening events for the two new performance centers in the Dallas Arts District a few months ago, you would think having 56 nationally recognized galleries set up camp across the street from the DMA would cause some buzz with the Art District crowd...

Dallas Art Fair posting on Art & Seek

I just posted an article about the second annual Dallas Art Fair on Art and Seek, click here. I am heading down there tomorrow to hopefully load up my eyeballs on some hot relevant artwork. Then I'll pop over to the new Art In The District 2010 art fair. Perhaps if I am lucky I will OD on art.

David Bates at Dunn and Brown Contemporary

This was originally posted on Art and Seek in January 2010, but it seems to have been lost when they reformatted.

I stopped in at Dunn and Brown Contemporary to see the new show by David Bates, Themes and Variation. Of the 24 paintings on view only 3 are not of flowers. So it's safe to say that this is a show of floral still lives. It is not breaking any new ground in the world of painting, in fact it is looking backwards into the history of painting, one of the things that David Bates does with skill and passion.

There are strong connections with the stone solid flowers of Marsden Hartley, Picasso's late decorative work, and Manet's paintings of cut flowers. All artists that demonstrate an obvious love for the medium of oil painting.

From this platform of art historical connections David Bates launches into a series of paintings that are thick with paint, rich with deep color, and bold with mark making. When all combined, this show of Themes and Variations is a strong must see for those who love oil paint.

Reflections from VSC posted on Art & Seek

This posting about my posting on Art & Seek is a bit late. I've had a lot to catch up on sense getting back to into town.

Anyway, Here is the Art and Seek link to my follow up article on the Vermont Studio Center.

You can also see more photos of VSC at my flickr page.

New posting on Art & Seek

The great people at KERA Art and Seek posted my article on the first 14 days at the Vermont Studio Center. Below is a draft, or you can click here to read it and see all the photos on Art and Seek.

Johnson, VT. -

You would think that without the distractions of job, family, and phone, making art all day would be a piece of cake. Well, it is sweet, but it is also a strangely surreal experience. Large blocks of time are consumed in focused bursts of creativity that leave you staggering back to your bed hoping to grab a few hours of sleep, but then you come across a some comrades sitting on the front porch, and you find yourself engaged in conversations about art, books, and movies, swapping silly stories, and laughing that kind of painful gut wrenching “Stop! Stop! I’m going to pee in your pants” kind of laugh that is so very rare and so very, very good… Then you find it is once again 3AM.

This is my second week at the Vermont Studio Center, and I am just now getting around to writing about my experiences so far. The days here are full, quick and exhausting. Trying to schedule them in the same fashion that I would while at home is not possible. That would be forcing a structured regime onto a world where the only real passing of time is measured by when to eat.

So, here is a little info on the Vermont Studio Center. It is an Artists Residency program located in the small town of Johnson Vermont. Each month 50 artist are set up with a private studio and a house that they share with a few other artists. All meals are provided in the Old Red Mill. There is always desert served after dinner. The artists here are either writers or visual artists. I am of the latter, but hanging out with a bunch of writers has been a novel and wonderful experience. The VSC web site explains the program in detail; so check it out because I’m going to focus on the more ethereal aspects of this experience.

On the first day of residency, one of the staff members shows you to one of the old wood-framed houses that will be your new home. Then it’s over to your studio, which contains a chair, two sawhorse tables and your boxes of art supplies that you shipped up from home. The studios are large, clean, and very white. Most of them have windows with wonderful views of either the river or the wooded hills. Then, with a “see you at dinner” you are left to your own devises.

In fact, being left to your own devices seems to be the unwritten motto of VSC. They provide you with food and shelter, plus a calendar of optional social events and lectures. From there you are free to go in whatever direction you wish. You can dig deep into your creative physi, or spend your days in the coffee shop down the street reading trashy tabloids. There are no expectations for what you do with your time or for the creation of some end product. You are free to let whim and whimsy run amuck. Of course, this freedom creates a scenario where things can get a bit surreal.

A quick survey of my artistic comrades reveals that the first thing we loose track of is the days of the week. Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, they all feel the same. At this time of year in Johnson, the sunrises at 4:30 AM, so by 5 it is so bright that your internal clock skips a beat and then stops. Soon, sleep only happens a few hours a night, or more likely while attending one of the numerous slide lectures or readings. Note to visiting lecturers: The snoozing audience seated before you is not bored, they are exhausted.

The first week of residency is all about adrenalin and remembering. You are in hyper drive to get started on a self-centered creative adventure, while at the same time desperately trying to remember the names of all 50 artists you have just meet. A few of my personal stumbling blocks have been finding I did not pack the right computer cords, but I did pack a two year supply of pink highlight markers. I also keep misplacing my dental floss, and the nearest store to get moisturizer is 20 miles away. (I need the moisturizer because I am working with plaster, which tends to dry my out hands… and I like having baby soft skin) As for remembering names, I suck at it, but I am really good at remembering art and creative ideas, so the names have been slowly falling into place.

Referring again to my quick survey, the second week begins with complete exhaustion. The adrenaline is gone. Only twelve people show up for breakfast on Monday morning. By 11:30 you might find a few people shuffling around listlessly in their studios. Dark circles under the eyes seems to be the trend of the day. Over the next few days, the amount of dirty coffee cups at breakfast is three times the amount of dirty plates and bowls. If asked how things are going in the studio, the enthusiasm of the reply is usually tempered by the amount of coffee just consumed.

The second week is also an emotional rollercoaster ride, where the creative struggles in the studio start to clash with personal expectations and perhaps a wee bit of delayed stress syndrome. Personally, I am flip flopping from what I feel is either a creative brake through or just arty dabbling and then back to visions of grandeur. I also have a stack of very sophisticated novels that I am completely ignoring, opting instead to downloading audio books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which are filling my head with images of Pellucidar, the World at the Earth’s Core.

Friday was the first Open Studio Night, which means everybody got the chance to visit everybody else’s studio. This created a frenzy of activity that kept the creative juices flowing for the last three days.

It is now Sunday night. I know that because the Red Mill only serves brunch and dinner on Sundays. There is an unspoken realization in the air that the residency is now officially half over. How that will affect the dynamics of the third week I can only muse upon.

Please note, this posting should to be taken with a grain of salt, as it is based solely on my personal and by now somewhat surreal observations. Each person’s experience at VSC is different. Some are actually getting up early to jog miles and miles through the lush green hills of Vermont, or spending hours in yoga posses that would cause me to spit blood. Some people are even eating right and going to bed on time.

Art & Seek, Artist Studio Tour video

Art & Seek is continuing their exploration of Dallas Artist's studios. Last week Besty Lewis stopped by my studio and shoot a few few feet of video. They have now posted that on their web site. Click HERE to see it.

Art basel: Immersion and Beyond

Posted the last article on Art Basel Miami 2008 on the Art & Seek blog. It was a great time that I hope to repeat next year.

Art Basel: Our man in Miami, Part 4

Here's the link to my 4th article that I have posted at Art & Seek on Art Basel Miami 2008 

Art Basel: The Been Done List

After spending days and days of viewing art at Art Basel Miami 2008, I can safely post a list of art that has been done. Check it out on the Art & Seek blog.

Art Basel: Our man in Miami, Part 2

Due to tech issues I could not post on Art & Seek while at Art Basel Miami. So I sent photos of the Texas galleries to Anne, who was so nice to post them for me.