art to see

I'm still spellbound by our new bundle of joy and won't be able to head out to see pretty things, but there are some things coming up I'm going to try to see eventually...

SEVEN opens tonight at 6pm. Curated by F. Lennox Campello, assisted by Sandra Fernandez and Adrian Schneck, the show features tons of great DC area artists including J.T. Kirkland, Scott Brooks and Kelly Towles. Campello has some pictures of the setup on DCartnews.

Here in C'ville, Second Street Gallery continues with Anne Kesler Shields - a show of big photo-collages.

Les Yeux Du Monde continues with bronze work by Steven Strumlauf downstairs and oil paintings by Sonia Fox upstairs.

The McGuffey has a few things - During July and the first two weeks of August, McGuffey Art Center will be presenting three shows: In the Main Gallery, McGuffey will be showing LAYERS featuring works made in collaboration between two or more artists. Works range from painters painting in the style of another, to sculptors and painters collaborating on a piece. In the Upstairs and Downstairs Hall Galleries, McGuffey will present its annual SUMMER GROUP SHOW featuring the work of approximately 50 member artists. Also in the Downstairs Hall Gallery, MIMI TAWES will be showing a group of whimsical and semi-abstract figurative sculptures.

There are probably openings tomorrow night at Nature, C&O, Bozart and the other smaller places around town too (update your websites!).

Profile in Comics Journal via Comics Reporter

Page from Jefferson Estates Phase 1.

Last Fall Tom Spurgeon profiled my work in The Comics Journal, and he has the piece up on his great info-blog Comics Reporter. Read it here.

sbook 013

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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005, sbook006, sbook007, sbook008, sbook009, sbook010, sbook011, sbook012.

sbook 012

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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005, sbook006, sbook007, sbook008, sbook009, sbook010, sbook011.

Hoke on Jefferson Forest

Page from Jefferson Forest.

In his weekly column at Comic Book Galaxy, Shawn Hoke has written about my book Jefferson Forest as one of the ten most innovative mini-comics.

The book is available for purchase from usscatastrophe, Printed Matter and The Poopheet Shop.

sbook 011

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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005, sbook006, sbook007, sbook008, sbook009, sbook010

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Thanks for all the well-wishes - I'm way behind on the sketchbook project so here's some. Little baby Violet should start showing up in a few posts...









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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005, sbook006, sbook007, sbook008, sbook009.

Great collaborative masterpiece

Violet Katherine Craghead-Way, born June 8 at 2:29 am. Everyone is healthy and she is super-cute.



I'm the luckiest man ever.

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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005, sbook006, sbook007, sbook008.

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A whole page of visual diary.

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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005, sbook006, sbook007.

sbook007

getting ready for new baby...


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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005, sbook006.

Achimescu @ Second Street

It just closed, but last month Second Street Gallery and Les Yeux Du Monde Gallery teamed up to show a two-part exhibition by Romanian artist Bogdan Achimescu.

He spoke about "uglyplaces" and the world we live in, but I was staring at the drawing and tuning out all the art-speak. I was fascinated at how he takes drawing off the wall and into the world - at Second Street had made some huge construction-drawings:






Basically a drawing-yurt! In his talk he spoke of nomads and Mongolians he lived among.



He also drew on a really long piece of paper:



Here's a detail:



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At Les Yeux Du Monde Gallry, he had more traditional work on paper, though it was presented in a great, crazy way:









He also had several elegant and charming ink drawings on the wall.



What's present in all his work is a sense of fun and exploration - of crazy "let's try THIS" mixed with a cold, calculating art-world survival sense. He knows how to get the best out of himself AND to present it well.

Great show - I mean shows - and I hope it means more team-ups here in C'ville for our already great art venues.

Roundup

Gary Panter, pages from DalTokyo

First, I've added a few links to the side area. James Bailey is a DC-area photographer and blog-haunter who makes all kinds of crazy art. New Images is a blog by Hans Heiner Buhr, a German artist living in Tbilisi, Georgia. His blog is great - scoll down for pictures of his son in their studio. Gary Panter is one of the greatest ink-warrior artists of all time.

Also, Slate has a slideshow about Basquiat by Lee Siegel that hits some of the same points I did here.

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Second, theres a few opportunities to look out for. The National Portrait Gallery's Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006 gives you a shot at 25K - J.T. Kirkland writes about it here, entry form here (Deadline September 6).

There's still a few more days to apply for the WPA/C show SEVEN, curated by F. Lennox Campello, assisted by Sandra Fernandez and Adrian Schneck. Campello has frequent updates on his DCArtNews blog about how the show is coming together. Deadline June 10.

Here in C'ville, there's an annual public art competition, Art In Place. I have sneaky plans for my entry (there are clues in my sketchbook posted on this blog). Deadline July 1.


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Finally, this Friday is First Friday here in C'ville, so lots of art to see.

Second Street Gallery has Anne Kesler Shields through August.

At the McGuffey Art Center Gloria Mitchell will be exhibiting in the Main Gallery, with
Reba Peck and Lindsay Michie Eadea in the lower hall galleries and August Rolin in the upper hall gallery.

I'm sure there's cool stuff at Nature, but they need to update their site.

CODG has "situations".

There's more - I'll post more as I find info.

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Drawing while driving.
















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This post is part of a series documenting my current sketchbook.
Earlier entries: sbook001, sbook002, sbook003, sbook004, sbook005