New Face To An Old Website

I am VERY, VERY, VERY happy to announce the launch of my new website!

www.BradFordSmith.us features my artwork AND it looking really great! There are still some tweaks and blank spots to fill, but it looks so clean and it's so easy to manipulate.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the people that responded to my many inquiries about their websites.


To receive fresh off the keyboard ramblings delivered direct to your email, sign up at www.BradFSmith.blogspot.com.

Project Bear Fat .02

Project Bear Fat is off to a great start, 3 pounds in just the first week. One of the highlights was a lasagna handmade by my friend Heather. The before baking photo shows the snowcap of savory cheese and one of the red bell pepper hearts that covered the surface.

I was going to take a photo of it after baking, all golden brown, but the aroma was so compelling that I simple forgot about anything other than serving it up. Later, after a third serving, I really couldn't do anything other than stair into space like a contented cat.


To follow further Project Bear Fat developments, and receive fresh off the key board ramblings delivered direct to your email go to www.BradFSmith.blogspot.com.

Project Bear Fat .01

Project Bear Fat was created upon the advice from a person of clout and persuasion. Project Bear Fat is all about eating, a thing that I enjoy doing several times a day, but, Project Bear Fat takes the consumption of food to the level of actually putting on and maintaining some serious weight.

Of course my first impulse was to gobble down a few boxes of cookies, eat ice cream after every meal, and switch over to eating peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches for breakfast. But sugar based fattening is not what I am necessarily after here.

Project Bear Fat is a bulking project that needs to come mostly from savory dishes high in protein. This means I will be eating a lot more meat than my flexitarian diet usually includes, and just to make Project Bear Fat harder, I am working out at the gym three days a week in order to re-awakening some of those mussels that have been asleep for several years.

Fortunately I am surrounded by family and friends who are exceptional cooks, and who all have special dishes guarantied to turn event the most scrawniest toothpick into a substantial red wood. To each of you, I savor every bite and the love there in.

Shifting Ambitions

The photo of the migrating Grackles is there just so you will have something of interest to look at while I test the Blogspot connection on this newly migrated blog.

Recently, some of you received one massive email blog post that included every blog post I have done in the last 5 years. This was not an ambitious posting on my part, but rather it turns out Feedburner wouldn't let go of that old nasty Wordpress blog without sending out one massive blog post.

I am so glad to be unhooked from that managerial mess!

Now, onward to rambling on and on about art, oddities and misguided insights...

Simplicity Is The Order Of The Day

It's been a bit of work to get to the point where I decided that the bells and whistles offered by Wordpress were only making everything harder. (Note that I am writing this post on Blogspot)

As an artist all I require is the virtual equivalent of a white box gallery. Clean simple pages that focus on the artwork with a bit of room for description... Also a simple blog page.

So, with that in mind I have been searching for a fine art web host. There are a lot out there, but have you seen them? Most are trash. Most are over hyped crap that require you to crop your artwork to fit their templets!!! WHAT!!!

Simplicity...

I did come up with a few sites that are very nice. From those I choose Icompendium. Simple, clean, and RESPONSIVE.

So, please excuse the blips and burps that are sure to follow as I dismantle myself from Wordpress AKA: Time Sucker Extraordinar.

Debbie Ballard: Alter Ego at the Valley House Gallery

I went to the exhibit Debbie Ballard: Alter Ego (Resent Sculpture) at the Valley House Gallery expecting to see resent work based around some sort of alter ego narrative. Turns out, this show is not about an alter ego, or resent work. Instead, it's a straight forward survey of an accomplished sculptor's creative path over the last ten years. A sculptor who's works of art quietly depict those moments when interior thoughts become illustrated in the body's posture.

Sure, depictions of rage and anger are easy, that's not what Debbie is doing here. These figures are caught in those spaces where the outer world dissolves, as thoughts begin to fold back upon themselves. These figures sit, stand and sometimes congregate in poses that reflect a certain amount of self absorbed melancholia.

Yes, these sculptures do tap into my secret fondness for the Pre-Raphaelites, except here, Debbie has stripped them of all the flowers, tapestries and silken hair. What remains is very moody and modern.

The Vallie House has done a wonderful job of curating this show. The newest works are found in the main gallery space, along with some really wonderful drawings and sculpture studies. There a dozen more sculptures scattered throughout the 6 acre, heavily wooded sculpture garden. These works range from 1993 - 2012.

All combined, this exhibition is a wonderful and unique opportunity to see an artist develop. And to see a clear illustration of an artist thinking, reasoning and quietly showing the world who she is.

Texas Museum Conferance Awash In Tepid Waters

Each year the Texas Association of Museums conference (TAM) has an official theme, this year it was Navigating the Raising Waters of Change. And then there is the theme that develops as the attendees converse.  Last year it was "Yes, Our budgets and staff have been cut back, but we are optimistic about finding new ways to deal with it".  (TAM post 2011)

As the 2012 Texas Association of Museum conference in San Antonio progressed, it became clear that those strong hearted souls from 2011 were feeling the toll of yet more cut backs, lay offs and reduced funding.

For some reason beyond my comprehension. Texas supports the elimination of all funding for the arts. Texas supports deep cuts in funding of public education and public programs. Texas also supports reducing the taxable write off of donations.

Eliminating funding for the arts will not only get rid of that non-profit museum down the street that only shows conceptual installations involving string and hot glue, it will also close the doors of the hundreds  historic museums in small towns across Texas.

With the cut backs in art funding, most museums, big and small, have turned to developing their educational departments as a way to make ends meet. Now, with education funding under the gun, museums, libraries, community centers and historic sites are wondering where to turn next...

Perhaps the community! Perhaps they can fill that financial gap with donations?!  Unfortunately the taxable write off for donations made to non-profits has been reduced yet again. This reduction has persuaded the community to hold off on giving away their hard earned money.

Last Option: Raise the ticket price for admission.


Result: The community cries foul! This museum is an elitist institution that thinks its to good for people like me!!! So the doors shut.

Fortunately, most art museums are high security structures that can easily be converted into prisons. With all the cuts in education and public programing, we'll be needing a lot of those real soon.