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. 

Art Basel: Our man in Miami, Part 3

This is a link to the Art & Seek photos that I sent in while at Art Basel Miami. Thanks Anne for posting those for me. 

Art Basel: Our man in Miami, Part 1

This is a link to my first "on assignment" posting for Art & Seek. There's an introduction by Anne Bothwell with my photos of some of the Texas galleries that are part of Art Basel. This assignment lead to posting 5 articles. 

I am going to Art Basel Miami 2008

I am going to Art Basel Miami 2008, and KERA Art & Seek asked me to write some articles about it. Here is the link to my first article on the event and the varies Texas galleries that will be there too.

Arty Thanksgiving Article for Art & Seek

Art & Seek asked me to post an article about my arty Thanksgiving musing. It's a bit sweat but there's a few chuckles too. Check it out here.

Vermont Studio Center Residency Program

I just found out that the Vermont Studio Center has accepted my application for their Artist Residency Program. They gave me an Artist's Grant and a Work Exchange Award to help cover the cost. I'll be there in June 09 for 4 weeks. 

Marco Breuer speaks at SMU

I went to a wonderful lecture by Marco Breuer at SMU. I was not familiar with his work, but I heard that SMU was having some really good artist's lectures, so I went and discovered a really interesting artist. 

He works with photographic paper with out using a camera. Check out the link above to see his work.

Kitty Alice Snead at Janette Kennedy Gallery

Kitty Alice Snead, one of the best photographers in Texas is having a show at the Janette Kennedy Gallery. I wrote a review of the show for Art & Seek. Please note that the above photo has been cropped, but it gives you the flavor of her subject matter.

Kara Walker Has Spoken

I went to see Kara Walker talk. I took lots of notes so I could write about it for Art & Seek. I am glad I did because Ms. Walker was so scattered in her presentation it was hard to keep trace of the important topics. Check out the article.

Kara Walker Steps up

Kara Walker is giving a lecture at the  Modern art Museum of Fort Worth.  I posted a notice 

on Art & Seek.

Arthouse 5 x 7, The Dallas Show

I posted an article on Art & Seek about The Arthouse 5 X 7 fundraiser that is happening Aug 28th. It's a great event with lots of art and lots of art collectors behaving badly.

EASL Fundraiser

I am a big sucker for fundraisers, especially when the money collected goes directly to the people in need. EASL (Emergency Artists' Support League) is the prime example of just of what people can do for people in need. EASL has been around for over 10 years. They have helped so many artists, that if you live in Texas you probably know someone they have helped.

Above is my donation to this years Art Heist, August 23 at Artspace 111 in Fort Worth Texas. The title is Valves #1. It is part of a series based on the various valves located on or inside of the human body. It measures 10" X 8" and  is made from MDF and cast resin. 

Arthouse 5X7 show 2008

The annual Arthouse 5 x 7 fundraiser is coming to Dallas on August 29th. This time it will be held at the Dunn and Brown Gallery. It is always a great event. Lots of great art for great prices. Lots of people to meet from all walks of the Dallas art life.

Tonybones article on Art & Seek

Once again for the sake of art, I stayed up until the wee hours struggling with the english language in hopes of constructing a new article for Art & Seek. This time it is about the Tonybones show at the Public Trust.

Check it out, and let me know if there are any misspellings. 

Cows in the class room

 Doss Heritage and Culture Center wins the prize for the most surreal experience of the month. 

They made an appointment to have Studio Six examine some recently donated items, four Longhorn Steer mounts and one Buffalo mount. The Doss Center focuses on the history of Weatherford Texas which has always been a big cow town, so having a few stuffed cows in the collection is what you would expect. What made it surreal was stepping into a classroom that was filled with cow heads. I laughed outloud 

The Underside of Family History

A client recently brought in a dinning room table that originally belonged to her Great Grandmother. It had been stored in a barn until the estate was dispersed and the farm was sold. The table was in very very bad shape, but the connection to family history was to strong to pass up. So the client brought it into Studio Six for restoration. 

As the conservation report was being made it was noted that the underside of the table (see photo) had lots of pencil scribbles and what turned out to be numerous globs of old crusty chewing gum. 

After consulting with the client it was determined that these artifacts were limited to an area where her Grandfather would have set. The client decided not to remove these items because they gave a personal insight into the young life of her Grandfather.

Kara Walker Article For Art & Seek

I saw the Kara Walker exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth this past Sunday. It really was a suppressing and overwhelming show. I submitted a review of it to Art & Seek. If they post it like I'll make a link to it.

Eating the best food in Taos, New Mexico

On our way to go hiking in the Wheeler Peak Wilderness we stopped in at the Dragonfly Cafe for a quick snack. It is a rustic house turned European cafe' where people eat in the front yard, the porch, and in the house. Organic ingredients locally grown, and the eggs that come from the chickens raised by the chief made this an intriguing choice. 

I ordered the Beef hash, and it was so good I had to take a picture! Yummy!

The beef hash looked more like a beef stew cup cake. Standing tall, crowned with a poached egg and drizzled with hollandaise sauce. It was served with two slices of extra hard bread that I used the to clean the plate with as opposed to licking the plate clean.

Hiking up the mountain later was a real struggle.

Site Santa Fe "Lucky Number 7?"

I stopped in to see the seventh edition of Site Santa Fe. This time it was a show of site specific art work that was not were only in the museum but also scattered around the center of the city.  There are 25 artists from 16 countries that created art for just this show and just these sites.

I had high hopes for this show but I think the majority of the reviews got it right. There just wasn't enough real meat to chew on. My hunt for the outside installations was derailed by heat, food and other galleries. I did enjoy leaping from the balcony onto the big foamy stunt pads. I now know why I am not a stunt double.

What I did like was the ball point pin drawings by Timothy Nero at the Box Gallery . They had that obsessive noodling that I am a sucker for. Also the Tai Gallery  which is know for showing woven bamboo baskets from Japan has started to show photography. Masaru Tatsuki captures a vanishing lifestyle that combines low riders, transformers, and diesel trucks.  

Marsden Hartley article for Art & Seek

 Art & Seek posted a review that I wrote of the Marsden Hartley exhibit at the Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum. Art & Seek has asked several art professionals to write articles on various cultural events that are going on around town. 

The experience of seeing a show then writing about it reminded me of being back in college. I think it makes me look at things differently. And then to see it posted on their web site was fun but also weird.

Anyway, you can see the article by clicking Marsden Hartley.

Zero lot construction

In Dallas as it is all across the country the small homes of yesteryear are being replaced by modern upscale houses; McMansions, Starter Castles, Coliseums of Consumption.

But this has to be a new plateau for the construction of zero lot homes. Apparently the architect did not think about phone lines overhead until they started building of the roof. That's when it must have dawned on them that the cables were going through the roof line.

So they just tied the cables up with plastic ties and added a third floor balcony. Problem solved. 

Desk Top Drawings Phase 3

I just finished the last drawing for Desk Top Drawings Phase 3. This is a series of drawings on photos that began as doodles on my work desk. So Phase 1 is photographs of the doodles on the work desk. Phase 2 is photos of the doodles that I have drawn on top of. Phase 3 is photos of phase 2 that I have drawn on top of again. Next I'll start phase 4, drawings on top of a photo of a photo of a photo of a photo.

This is a very simple system, but in practice it combines the process of redefining an image while the image is being degraded by photographic reproduction.

For more info on this project go to www.BradFordSmith.us

5X7 @ Art House at the Jones Center

It's time once again for the annual Art House 5X7 "art splurge and exhibition". There is a very long long list of participating artists, many like myself that have donated art to this event for years. The big event starts out in Austin TX at the Art House gallery. From there it will travel to Dallas, Houston and possible San Antonio. But the big night is definitely at the Art House gallery.

In the arty woods @ La Reunion TX

This week end Sarah Jane Semrad orchestrated a quick clean up and hedge whacking at the La Reunion TX site. It gave me the chance to do a little sprucing up to the cedar that I did for the first annual tree carving project. This photo of hot and sweaty me was taken by Sarah Jane.

More On Hall of Fame, A new conservation technique?

A client brought this marble top plant stand in to Studio Six Art Conservation. She got it from a friend of a friend. She thought it was pretty but a bit too wobbly. So we took a look to see what the problem could be. When I removed the marble top I saw these white squares sticking out from the four leg joins. Upon closer inspection I was dumbfounded to see that the plant stand was held together with velcro! 

High School Repeat Visit

In this program held at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, local artists and five high school AP art classes work together to investigate various art topics based on what is currently on display at the museum.

The museum will be exhibiting a retrospective of one of my favorite artists, Martin Puryear. I’ll be working with the students (100 teenagers in all) to to create paper sculptures that focus on the cross over of skilled labor and fine art that is inherent to the working process of Martin Puryear.

TAM meeting 2008

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This was the third Texas Association of Museums meeting that I have attended. There is always loads of great lectures, but meeting and talking with people involved in museums and obsessed with history is the real joy of the meetings. This year the TAM meeting was held in Galveston, so the evening social events included h’orderves and wine at the Bishop’s Palace, Freeto pie at the Galveston Art Center, grilled shrimp at the Ocean Star Drilling Museum, and on the final night, dancing under the wings of B 52 bombers at the Lone Star Flight Museum. How can you not love history!

Chuck and the angry inch

So I called the cats in for their dinner. As they were dancing and begging at my feet I noticed the red dots on the floor. Lots of red dots. More and more red dots! They were coming from the tip of Chucks tail! Somehow he lost the end of his tail and he was flinging blood everywhere. He didn’t seem to be in any pain, but the kitchen was starting to look like a murder scene. So I rushed him to the “late night” veterinarian, and they shaved his tail and put in a few stitches, then charged me $568.00. When we got back home at 11:45 PM Chuck was really really hungry and I needed a glass of wine.

A day in the swamp

I know that for most people the idea of spending time in a swamp brings up images of alligators, snakes, and swarming mosquitoes. Things that should be avoided, especially when on vacation. But The small town of Uncertain Texas on the edge of Caddo Lake is one of those quite hide a ways that is so special that I feel guilty telling others about it.

Caddo Lake is a hunting & fishing paradise, but if you go off season the lake will transport you to a world that is filled with the sounds of birds, frogs and yes the rumble of distant alligators.  When the sun cuts through the spanish moss covered trees the water becomes a rippling mirror. And the town of Uncertain is a culture unlike any other in Texas.

Tree carving at La Reunion

Well not only was February 2nd Groundhog day it was also the first ever event to be held at the property of La Reunion TX.

 

The focus of the event was the artistic killing of 7 trees by 7 artists, including myself. We selected sick or non-native trees to turn into biodegradable art. In this way the property will return to its natural habitat while providing habitats for bug and animals. 

 

For my project I selected a small cedar (14’ tall), removed all the branches, cleaned up the trunk, and then doweled the branches back onto two sides of the trunk. The result was a two dimensional tree that looks similar to a pressed flower.

So... what the hell comes down.

So... Today was the last day of the show. I spent it packing up art work and sending the work that sold to it’s new homes.

This has been a really great event for me. The Janette Kennedy gallery is organized so that the artist is in charge of all most every aspect of putting a show together. And I must admit that it was a lot more work than I thought. Just organizing and sending out the press releases was quite a task. In the future I will be much more thankful for all the hard work that gallery owners put into an art exhibit.