Italy, Viewing a Masterpiece: Survey #4

A trip to Italy can easily become a check list of MUST SEE historic buildings and masterpieces. That said, Rome definitely has masterpieces that will feed your soul if you allow yourself to spend quality time with them.

On top of all the Must See Lists is the Sistine Chapel and its ceiling by Michelangelo. The Sistine Chapel gets over 10,000 visitors everyday. It takes 12 full time museum guards to manage the crowd flow, and to remind these people that the Sistine Chapel is a house of worship, so be respectful, be quite, don't talk on your cell phones, or take photos. (I would absolutely hate to have that job)

You enter the chapel by a small nondescript side door. The first impression is seeing a mass of people all looking up. Then your eyes move upward and there it is... and then you stumble off the stairs that you didn't notice because you were looking up.

I could go on and on about the impact of seeing this masterpiece, but there is already plenty of that on the internet. So, I am skipping to later that day, around 4:30, when we went back for a highly recommended second look. There was only 15 people in the chapel!!! There was actually setting available! We hung out for about an hour and a half, soaking up as much as possible. Quietly pointing out the beautiful details to each other.

One question did come up, What exactly were Adam and Eve doing just before the snake in the tree interrupted them?

Sketchbook Project 2011

Just Below The Surface, The Cover, originally uploaded by Brad Ford Smith.

This is the front cover of the sketchbook I sent to The Sketchbook Project 2011. SBP 2011 is an exhibit of moleskine sketchbooks sent to the Arthouse Co-op at the Brooklyn Art Library. The project includes 28835 artists in 94 countries. Starting this summer, SBP 2011 will tour 8 different cities. Stopping at the Austin Museum of Art in March.

To see more images from my sketchbook check out my Flickr site.

For more info on the project check out the Arthouse Co-op blog.

OGOP goes onto Flickr Site

OGOP Hatchie Moe, originally uploaded by Brad Ford Smith.

Downloading images of my printmaking project OGOP onto my Flicker site. These prints were made using 60 grit sand paper as the print block.

There's Trouble In The Wires, Issues With Blog Delivery Using Google Friend Connect

I have been blogging for over 2 years now. Soon I'll be posting my 150th blog post! My blog is admittedly, very much a Brad Centric point of view. I write about my experiences in the art world, and about the art that makes me think.

Several people are now following my blog using various follow apps. And that's really what this posting is all about. I have found that the Google Friend Connect app has BIG issues with delivering posts to the people who have signed up using that formate. Over half of the "Members" have never received one blog post.

So, I am going to stop using the Google Friend Connect just as soon as I contact all of my followers who are using that app. Please note that this is a very popular Follow app. So, if you are a blogger you should check your follow feed. And if you are one of those wonderful people that has signed up to follow a blog, double check to see if you are getting all the posts that blog is sending out.

Oh How the Arts Move Us Around and Around

It quickly becomes obvious how fluid the arts are when you start sending out Press Releases. Having gone through this process quite a few times, I have come to expect the "Failed To Deliver" E-mail responses. News papers, magazines, and online editorials have become a turnstile of writers and editors. Culture centers trade out employees as if they were sports teams.

I updated my contact list back in September while sending out Press Releases for the SculptCAD Rapid Artists show. It is now 4 months later, and I am doing the PR thing for the sculpture class I am teaching at the Creative Arts Center.

This time around, the Failed To Deliver E-mail responses reminded me of how many galleries are simply gone, and how many friends have moved on to other lines of work because of the continued downsizing of News Papers, Radio, TV, Museums, Non-profits, Schools, Historic Agencies, Government Supported Organizations...

It all makes me very concerned for the future of our culture and the long term loss of history.

So, I would like to send out a big THANK YOU to all the Cultural and Historic centric people out there that have worked so hard to promote and support the inspired side of human nature.

All the Best to each of you in 2011!
Brad

Rome, Bits and Pieces of History: Survey #3

It didn't take me long to realize that beneath every step I made in Rome, I was walking on top of history. The Roman Forum is one of the more famous historic holes dug around the city, a city that is passionately linked to the history buried under its feet...

or incorporated into its buildings (Theater of Marcellus)...

or simply given right of way because it was there first. This respect for the past is because modern Rome knows that the dirt and stones they walk on are the embodiment of tradition and family.

This respect leads to the preservation of ancient fragments no mater where it might be found. Midway up a wall in the sub-basement of the Capitoline Museum or...

as a subterranean window boxes in a Metropolitana station.

Shortlisted for the Artpace Artist in Residence Program

I received this letter from Artpace just before we left for Rome, and then it got berried in the accumulated pile of vacation mail so I am a bit late opening it up.  It says I have been Shortlisted for the Artpace Artist in Residence Program in San Antonio. And that there is a possibility that the Guest Curators will request a studio visit in the near future. So, I should clean the studio, or keep it the rat nest that it has become.

                                                          Studio with Mammoth Tusk


On another note, the Texas Biennial turned down my application with a We Regret to Inform You e-mail.  It would have been really cool to be a part of that event... I'll just add it to my stack of rejection notices from other organizations such as TEDxSMU, The Lawndale Art Center, The Drawing Center, The Idea Fund, Henderson Art Project, and don't forget the Texas Biennial 2007 and 2009, and Artpace 2007 and 2008.

Of coarse I have been accepted into several great art programs and art shows. I ramble on and on about each of them here on my blog. And don't think I am belly aching about getting rejection notices. It's all part of expanding beyond the studio walls. To be turned down by some of these organizations is something I sometimes wish I could put on my resume.

Wow, Mr. Smith, the quality of your rejections indicates that you would be an excellent candidate for our multi million dollar artist grant!