The Imaginary Idea of Time as Concrete

timeasanabstract
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan.

Testing this flickr tool

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

crafty bastards - sunday

Crafty Bastards is tomorrow. I'm not setting up but i'll be there helping Rania with her booth.Shes been working like mad on a crazy amountof new stuff. come check it out!

:: Sunday, October 1st 10am-5pm ::
Marie Learning Center :: Adams Morgan :: 18th St NW & Wyoming Ave

more than most things, i find ruins fascinating.

i have always enjoyed things that have decayed, but especially architecture, industry, man made things. I like the vestigial parts of buildings, things no longer in use.

As a kid, i used to break into abandoned buildings to look around. I loved the ruins of the revolutionary war era forts and buildings in my hometown. I loved Ellis Island and the adandoned factories in the new york area. Things like that amaze me. They still do.


Yesterday i went on a tour of the old McMillan Sand Filtration Plant, which was a revolutionary and very advanced water treatment plant built in 1900, in my neighborhood of bloomingdale. Here are the photos i took.

at the DCAC. just some thoughts, not a critique, cuz i'm not a critic.

I saw the show about liminal space at the DCAC currated by two people i admore greatly, Margaret Boozer and Claire Huschule. I really enjoyed the concept of this show, The Space of Change. The time period/ thought process between distinct times or personas or mindsets. It's an element in my work that i didnt know had a name. I think of it as an everyday heroic journey, which is some form or another, is the theme to my works.

Still, i tend not to react to artworks based on their concept, but on what they look and feel like. sometimes how they are made. There were two series of works that i found rather dull... mathematical, even. One looked like a print out for a design of a music box cylinder, but was actually an overlay of the new york times with only the O's filled in. the other, appeared to be some type of changing graph readout, but was ( i think) the outline of words in the dictionary. both were a bit not my style or interest.




The prayer-bears, however were very fun. creepy. a bit cold. a bit easy. still, fun. The pods/seeds were the coolest to look at. Great textures/colors.
There was an automated piece that was a bit interesting. The concept was fun, and i always enjoy a bit of automation in art.



Amy Kaplan made the bears.
Martin Brief made the new york times and dictionary series.
Justin Rabideau made the pods and some photos i didn't care for.
Wendy Weiss and Jay Kreimer made the automated climbers.

The show is on until october 8th.

Black Rock.

Black Rock Center for the Arts in Germantown, MD.

12901 Town Commons Drive
Germantown, Maryland 20874


I am having a show here next year and wanted to gets some snaps of the place to think about the series i will create.

If i'm not mistaken, i think i saw the production of the "black rock"sculptures at a farm up thataways a bunch of years ago. They dug big trenched in the ground and poured the concrete into the hollows.

I've been to a wedding out there once. and a friend had an exhibit there earlier this year.

pages from sketchbooks....

Start All Hallows Eve with an Art Party at City Hall!

crazy huh?

City Hall has recently purchaed a large number of art works from local artists and Halloween is the party to celebratre!


Here is the info

When- HALLOWEEN 5-7 PM Speaker at 6:00.

Where- The WILSON BUILDING 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW ( enter on the Penn Ave side)

Who- EVERYBODY. kids, seniors, ghouls and goblins, whatever.

Why- The city bought two pieces of my sculpture!

How- you MUST RSVP to CAROLYN.PARKER@DC.GOV OR 202-724-2042. Also you need photo ID to get in the building.

What- A reception for the artists, music by the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Jazz Combo, food from the Whole Foods Market, candy for the kids.


Please come and show city hall how much we love and wish to support city sponsored Art in DC!

I'll email you the flyer with the names of all the artists, if'n you let me know you want it.

Please pass this around!

This purchase/ exhibition was all put together by Sondra Arkin

photostream

I have updated the information on my faux finish slide show. i have included more descriptions and will include more pictures continuosly.

See it HERE




If you click on the image, you can read the descriptions.

political trading cards.

check this out






















This is put together by a local artist.

stone wall.

These faux stones are on two separate walls in a kitchen. One is over the stove, the other over a fireplace.
click to enlarge

drawing from memory

this is amazing. if you like drawing, or memory, or even rome this is worth a view.

saw it on lennys now "regional" art news blog.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonain Art Museum

I finally made it to the finally reopened museum. damn it was gorgeous. I hardly noticed the art, but i'll go back many times. The vicotrian styling of the great hall is stunning, and super fun in that elegant/ carnivalesque kinda of way that only the victorians can be. The hall on the east side of the building is a wonderful space for modern american art. Funny that most people in the room at the time i walked through it were SITTING in front of the television installation. I remember the bathrooms from the museum pre-closing were fascinating in that old institutional tiled way. Now, they look like any plain restaurant. i was disappointed by that.



Here is the view from the Portico Cafe, which by the way has a full bar.



here is the row across the street with the inspiring facades.



Penn Quarter/ Gallery Place is really turning into the best neighborhood in DC, in my opinion.


I also swung by the National Building Museum
which has a good exhibit on Green building practices. Check it out. I am a big fan of the green roof. and im a sucker for beautiful buildings.

My Adams Morgan Day experience.

Rania and I each set up to sell our art during the Adams Morgan Day festival yesterday. I have only set up at a few other festivals before... and that was ten years ago. She has never done this before.

Needless to say we were rather nervous.

We have been working tirelessly for the past few weeks getting things ready. I created a series of smaller pieces, and polished up a few of my concrete disks.

Rania created an awe-inspiring workshop in our dining room and living room and studio in order to complete a lot of her very ambitious ideas. Which, our course, she did.


We packed up our car on Saturday and cautiously drove it 30 blocks to our house, parked it in our driveway/patio and covered it with a tarp.


All night i was wary of some alley denizens toying with the stuff on the roof i dreamed of the car disappearing or being stolen with all of our stuff inside. Generally is very bad practice to leave ANYTHING in your car in our hood. Still, there was no way in hell I was going to pack it up in the morning. We had to be there by 7, and we are not morning people.


We woke up at 5:15 ish to get going. I downed about 750 cups of coffee and a sip of water.

We arrived and started to set up. We were met by our friend and assistant for the morning, the fabulous Beth Baldwin. Thank you Beth!

Another friend, Tom helped us out putting up signs and various finishing up stuff. He also did a coffee run to bring my total up to 750 1/2 since I shared it with rania.

It took just over an hour for me to get my walls up and pieces hung.

I met Avner Ofer, the organizer for the artists. He did a bang up job.

People started trickling by as they were walking their dogs or jogging or going to get the Sunday paper.

Rania sold a painting before the event even started!

Thousands of people walked by. Hundreds came into my booth. Scores asked about my work, picked up my card, signed my mailing list, and many bought my work.

I met a number of people I have only know through blogging. Stop, blog and Roll, Rebuilding Place, Alexandra Silverthorne, Scott Brooks, Amanda Hirsh uhh.. Anyone else?
I met a couple that reads my Bloomingdale Blog and live just a couple of blocks from me.


many other bloggers came by, but I already knew them.


A number of friends were set up too.

The wonderful painter Dana Elyn whose work I love, but don't yet own.
The AMAZINGLY prolific Matt Sesow
The Washington Glass Studio guys, whom of course, I think are great.
A former Art Monday chick, and cool silkscreen producing Kristina Bilonick.

I was set up next to a new friend Moira, the Bookish Lady. I quite liked her image transfer pieces.

All in all it was a very energy packed day ( 750.5 cups of coffee not withstanding....) i had tons of fun, it was a freaking beautiful beautiful day. I hope to do more shows like this.

Th reactions to my work were generally very positive. People seemed to enjoy my titles quite a bit and i received some alternative interpretations of my work. In one instance a woman walking by glanced at my work and actually SCOFFED very loudly. Another woman in a very codescending and loud voice said," Well, thats interesting".

Definitely the most amusing negative critics i've had.




Thank to everyone that came out, and special thanks to all of you that bought my work!

stop by my tent durring Adams Morgan Day.

sunday noon til 7:00. come by and say hi.

local furniture maker

check out this guy's stuff

Someday i'll hire him for some built-in's.... but i need to save up some money first....