Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series

Bombay Sapphire

Be The Next BIG name in Visual Arts

Bombay Sapphire and Russell Simmons’ Rush Philanthropic Art Foundation teamed up to create the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, a nationwide search for the newest wave of imaginative artists.

ELIGIBILITY: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to U.S. residents 21 years of age or older, void in California, Utah, Rhode Island and where prohibited or restricted by law, regulation, rule or otherwise. Subject to all applicable federal and state laws and regulations. Contest begins at 12:01 a.m. EST, June 7, 2011 and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on August 31, 2011.

TO ENTER: To enter online go to www.complex.com/sapphireart, www.juxtapoz.com, www.curatedmag.com, www.deviantart.com or www.facebook.com/bombaysapphire and follow the instructions for creating and submitting your visual arts piece. Please complete the online Official Entry Form by entering your full legal name, complete mailing address, daytime/evening phone numbers, e-mail address, and date of birth and attach an image of your visual arts piece in JPEG format (all fields required). Click on the "submit" button to transmit your entry. The visual arts piece submitted must be the exclusive and original work of the entrant. If you do not want your e-mail address used for future marketing and promotional purposes, please leave the opt-in box unchecked on the entry form.

You may create your visual arts piece in any medium, including using the computer program of your choice, but the image submitted must be in JPEG format in order to be eligible. Use of any computer or computer program is not provided by the Sponsor.

Enter as often as you like, but each entry must be submitted separately with a limit of one (1) entry per person per day. All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST, August 31, 2011.

SECOND PRIZES: Twenty (20) Second Prize Winners, will each receive a trip to Miami, Florida, as described below, to participate in the 2011 BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Artisan Series Finale Competition in December 2011.

GRAND PRIZES: Two (2) Grand Prize Winners will be selected from the twenty (20) Second Prize Winners attending the 2011 BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Artisan Series Finale Competition taking place in Miami, Florida in December 2011. Each Grand Prize Winner will display each of their winning visual arts pieces at Rush Arts Gallery in New York City during the month of February 2012. Each Grand Prize Winner will receive a trip to New York, New York

Arlington Arts Gallery

Is Your Art Looking For a New Hang-Out (or rather, hang-up) Spot?

There are several spaces at the Arlington Arts Gallery, a co-op gallery in Arlington!

Arlington Arts Gallery

The gallery is located at 5179 Lee Highway near the intersection of Lee Highway and George Mason Drive and is open Monday through Saturday from 11 am – 7 pm and closed on Sundays.

The cost is $300 for 6 months ($50 a month) for a wall space. There is no work commitment (except on evenings of receptions). There is no commission taken except if the buyer uses a credit card, then the bank fees are deducted.

Please call Jane McElvany Coonce at (703) 524-7049 if you are interested.

Email: ArlingtonArtsGallery@yahoo.com

Artists know how to party!

I just found these great videos for Agenda in California that uses clips from famous artists that are a little "tweaked." Great stuff!

**EDIT: Looks like you can't embed the video's so check them out at the following Links:

PABLO PICASSO HAS MAD GAME
The man has women falling all over him!

JACKSON POLLOCK ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION
The age old question of Regular or Lite Beer?

SALVADOR DALI ALWAYS PRE-GAMES
Dali being Dali, nothing else needs to be said!

There are a couple other with Georgia O'Keefe and Andy Warhol, but these three cracked me up!

Luminescence is Featured on NOTCOT!

NOTCOT.org

NOTCOT.org

My new series Luminescence was just featured on NotCot! The last time this happened my web stats went through the roof!! Thank you NotCot!!!

Strathmore Reception for Fine Artists in Residence

Strathmore

On Friday, July 22 between 7:00-9:00pm there will be an opening reception for the 2010-2011 Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition. I plan to attend and offer my support and make some connections. If you are looking for something to do Friday evening stop on by and enjoy some great artwork!

View the Press Release HERE

Emerging Washington, D.C.-metro area artists Minna Philips, Solomon Slyce, Wilmer Wilson IV and Brittany Sims will conclude their residency experience by unveiling new works in the Strathmore Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition. These young artists’ unique voices and contemporary perspectives will be expressed through photography, mixed media, drawing and painting in the galleries in the Historic Mansion at Strathmore through Saturday, August 20, 2011. The multidimensional exhibition will also include work from Fine Artists in Residence mentors - multimedia artist F. Lennox Campello, award-winning photographer Susana Raab and co-founder of the Washington Glass School Tim Tate. For more information, call (301) 581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

The Strathmore Fine Artist in Residence (Fine AIR) program cultivates local visual arts talent in the D.C.-metro area by pairing emerging artists with established professionals in related disciplines and mediums. Fine AIR residencies last six months, during which time participants build an audience, hone their craft, create a curatorial proposal and premiere a new body of work commissioned by Strathmore in the culminating Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition. The artist mentors provide pupils with career guidance, artistic critique and career development opportunities throughout the program.

Strathmore Fine Arts Presents

2010-2011 Fine Artists in Residence Exhibition

through Saturday, August 20, 2011

Gudelsky Gallery Suite

Gallery Hours

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Wednesday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Opening Reception

Friday, July 22, 2011

7:00-9:00pm

Free, open to the public

Light refreshments

ART TALKS

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Children’s Talk & Tour, 10:15 a.m.

Free. RSVP to (301) 581-5109

Art Talk & Tour, 1 p.m.

Free, no reservations required

Mansion at Strathmore

10701 Rockville Pike

North Bethesda, MD 20852

For additional information or to purchase tickets
visit www.strathmore.org or call (301) 581-5100

New Art! LUMINESCENCE

LUMINESCENCE

I recently created six new pieces that all have the basic feel to them. I wanted a "lighter" series of images, as most of my pieces have a darkness to them. (I mostly work with space images, so it's kind of a given.) Anyways the series started with "Origins of Essence" where I was working with inverted space images and several geometric shapes. It felt good to work in a different style, and so I came up with some thumbnail ideas utilizing other shapes, and maintaining a certain color scheme to the over all pieces. I think the series came out quite nicely. I am offering them in several sizes at a limited quantity. So once they are sold out, they won't be made available again.

Click below to view them all...

ENDEAVOUR WON THIRD PLACE

At the recent HOT reception, I was awarded third place for Endeavour. It was great just to get into the show, but to even place in the top three is a great feeling as well!! The exhibition runs until August 8th. When you get a chance come and see the other great pieces that depict the essence of "HOT".

Endeavour

July 8-August 8, 2011

Capitol Arts Network at Washington Gallery of Photography

4850 Rugby Avenue

Bethesda, MD 20814

www.capitolartsnetwork.com

301.661.7590

But is it Art? Art Fair

But is it Art? Art Fair

I'm "borrowing" this write up from Daily Campello.

The WCP's Kriston Capps has a very interesting article on a new and fresh concept on a DC satellite art fair to the (e)merge art fair - read it here.

When artists Alex Ventura and Victoria Milko host the But Is It Art? fair from Sept. 22 to Sept. 25, they won’t be putting that question to their artists or audience. They know what they’re doing is art. Their DIY fair is asking a pointed question about another art fair taking place over the same weekend: the inaugural (e)merge art fair.

“We can show as strong a contemporary art show without the development,” Ventura says. “I’m not judging, but it’s sort of a friendly ‘fuck you.’ Contemporary art doesn’t need that setting.”

This is a first heard for me - check out their website here. When Art Basel Miami Beach started in Florida less than a decade ago, it was just them (Art Miami had been around for years, but at a different time). The idea proved so good, that now there are 25 satellite art fairs around the ABMB magnet and even the original art fair (Art Miami) changed their schedule to align with ABMB week in December.

“These people have not contacted us,” Conner says, “but I think it’s fantastic.” She says that (e)merge aims to be inclusive and to broadcast other arts events within the city, including, potentially, But Is It Art? “Casting things as mainstream versus alternative—I’m not sure those are the right terms. If like the Armory, if like Art Basel, if what (e)merge is doing is inspiring others, we’re happy that a satellite is happening.”

HOT Reception

Capitol Arts Network Presents...

“HOT”

A Mixed Media, National Juried Exhibition

Angelic Composition

I was one of only Five artists accepted into the juried show. My two pieces that will be on display are Angelic Composition and Endeavour. Come meet me at the opening reception!

The show opens as part of Bethesda's ArtWalk on

Friday, July 8, from 6pm to 9pm

Endeavour

What do you think is hot? A new trend, spicy food, a sexy man or woman? See five artists interpret their version of HOT in photo, paint, and other 2-D media for this show. These pieces are turned on, turned up, and scorching hot!

Russ McIntosh - Angelic Composition and Endeavour

Richard Weiblinger - Hot Pink Flamingo and Hot Chile Peppers with Window

Kay Lane - Hot Dog and Do Not Enter

Gian-Piero Forcina - Love-Then and Love-Today

Barry Ripin - And All That Jazz and Sepia Sprawl

July 8-August 8, 2011

Capitol Arts Network at Washington Gallery of Photography

4850 Rugby Avenue

Bethesda, MD 20814

Juror Missy Loewe is co-founder of CAN, executive director of the Washington School of Photography, and owner of Visual Arts Consulting. She has authored and collaborated on books, articles, and is frequently sought out as a juror and speaker for arts groups.

CAPITOL ARTS NETWORK

CAN is a Maryland nonprofit providing fine arts training and opportunities for artists to network and display their work. See the website for more details.

www.capitolartsnetwork.com

301.661.7590

Persist

The other day I found this great letter, from Austin Madison of Pixar, online.

In May of this year, Pixar animator Austin Madison kindly hand-wrote the following open letter to aspiring artists, in a bid to inspire them through times of creative drought. It's a lovely, eloquent letter, and in fact contains advice valuable to people in many a creative field. It was written as a contribution to the Animator Letters Project, an admirable effort by aspiring animator Willie Downs — mentioned on Letters of Note previously — to collate letters of advice for fellow would-be animators, penned by those who have managed to break into the industry. Although only a few letters strong at present, it's a fantastic idea with great potential.

Transcript follows.

Transcript

PIXAR

May 17, 2011

To Whom it May Inspire,

I, like many of you artists out there, constantly shift between two states. The first (and far more preferable of the two) is white-hot, "in the zone" seat-of-the-pants, firing on all cylinders creative mode. This is when you lay your pen down and the ideas pour out like wine from a royal chalice! This happens about 3% of the time.

The other 97% of the time I am in the frustrated, struggling, office-corner-full-of-crumpled-up-paper mode. The important thing is to slog diligently through this quagmire of discouragement and despair. Put on some audio commentary and listen to the stories of professionals who have been making films for decades going through the same slings and arrows of outrageous production problems.

In a word: PERSIST.

PERSIST on telling your story. PERSIST on reaching your audience. PERSIST on staying true to your vision. Remember what Peter Jackson said, "Pain is temporary. Film is forever." And he of all people should know.

So next time you hit writer's block, or your computer crashes and you lose an entire night's work because you didn't hit save (always hit save), just remember: you're never far from that next burst of divine creativity. Work through that 97% of murky abyssmal mediocrity to get to that 3% which everyone will remember you for!

I guarantee you, the art will be well worth the work!

Your friend and mine,

Austin Madison

"ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!"

VIA

Itch Submission

Itch Magazine

Artists working in any medium and writers expressing themselves in any form or genre are invited to submit work for the ninth issue of ITCH Online. The "theme" is:

Intertwined arms, self-embracing, reaching across, beyond and back again. A race track - for formula one Ferraris or electric toy cars? A number, defeated, exhausted, collapsed upon the floor? Everything is everything, what is meant to be will be? As seen from the heavens: two people kissing? Ying and yang, before they worked out the summarized symbol? Winding roads and hairpin bends? Universal time? The totality of space? A sophisticated chignon? Doubling back on the self, trying to rerun old scenes from a life already lived and passed? A looping riff from some gloomy old blues tune? All the numbers that could ever be counted? Things promised and then revoked? A pair of lips twisted into a snarl? A thousand clichéd tattoos? A dough-nut; a diet? A waist cinched into a corset? Forever and ever, amen?

What does ∞ mean to you?

You are free to interpret this theme in any way that you wish, to speak to or against it, to explore or ignore it.

Submissions will be open until 31 July 2011. Contact the editor if you have any suggestions or questions.

http://www.itch.co.za/submissions/

H.O.W. Journal

H.O.W. Journal

H.O.W. Journal is an art & literary journal that publishes an eclectic mix of today's prominent writers and artists alongside upcoming talents with an effort to raise money and awareness for the approximately 163 million children throughout the world that have been orphaned. The publication features works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry as well as visual arts.

The subject matter of the work published in H.O.W. Journal is vast and varied: the only common element its quality.

Currently we are working with Safe Space located in New York. Past organizations / orphanages we have worked with include Atetegeb Worku Memorial Orphanage, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and S.O.S. Children's Village, Zanzibar Tanzania.

For more information on submitting go their submission page on their website HERE.

The Six Most Common Mistakes Artists Make When Approaching Galleries

I just received an email from owner of Xanadu Galleries that is very insightful. He offers seminars and such for artists.

Did you know in an average week I may be approached by as many as 20-35 artists looking for gallery representation? Most of them are ineffective. Are you making the same mistakes they are?

Before I explain, let me introduce myself. My name is Jason Horejs. I have owned Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, for more than eight years.

Several years ago, I began to wonder why artists were when inept talking to galleries. I quickly realized most were unsuccessful because there is very little information explaining the best strategies.

That lack of information leads to these blunders: