If you're wondering where I've been, even if you haven't been wondering where I've been I'll tell you.  It's been a crazy couple of months.  Went back to school this year and that's definitely been eating up my time.  The last couple of weeks have been spent creating a new body of work.  Fortunately I completed the work yesterday morning.  The good part about that was that I gave a presentation last night and showed the work for the first time to great feedback.

Fortunately I've still been out and about in the art world so I'll give you a taste of what I saw in March and then write some entries about what's recent.  Lots of great stuff out there and more coming in May so start training for the art marathon.  It's like spring hits and the artists come out of hibernation, at least they seem to emerge from the studio and take in some fresh air.

Here goes...

Camera Obscura...A great exhibit with the work of Lou Stoumen.  He did a lot of photography work of Times Square in NY.  The photographs on display were from his time in the army where he served in Asia.  The piece that caught my eye was "Boy soldier and grandfather".  It tugged at your heart and packed a punch.

Wilson Adams Gallery...Saw the work of Ted Engelmann, also a photographer, but he's very much alive.  His work was both black and white and color photographs he took in Vietnam.  The photographs showed great emotion.  This is one of the few instances where turning the photographs into a multi-media event would have made a greater impact.  Having a sound loop documenting his travels, converting the hanging work into a travel journal would have served him well.  The photographs are done well, but they need that extra ooomph and I believe that would increase the viewers connection to the work.

Artist Talk with Rene Farkass...Unfortunately this is one of the artist talks with Eric Matelski that seemed to be more of joke than an actual evening with the artist.  There seemed to be some bantering between Rene and a woman in the audience, guessing she's one of his models, and that was very distracting.  If agree having fun is important, but don't let it get out of hand.  The distraction took away from the art which I liked, but the interpersonal superimposed on the art diminished the work.

I was e-mailed by a gallery director who didn't like something in my post and wanted me to remove it from the post.  Does she not get that any publicity draws people to your site and if it weren't true she wouldn't have been that upset.  Yes, once it's on the web it's there forever so be cautious about how you handle yourself in the world.  Also, do you think it helped or I felt encouraged to remove the post because she didn't like it?  Let's be real.

There's a new gallery in town, what a surprise, called Ditto.  First of all I would have fired the graphic designer for their logo/header because the name "Ditto" in the design they used looks like "DiHo".  When I met the woman touting the business cards and postcards she talked about all the artists there have to be willing to make giclee prints.  I think that 's great...then she put her foot in her mouth.  She said that it's great for collectors who want to start off with less expensive art.  I don't think that says much for the public.  There's plenty of well priced art from emerging artists that buying a print doesn't need to become "collecting".  I meet emerging artists every day and if you want to become a collector start off with an emerging artist and grow with them.  Your income will increase over time and you will be able to afford more expensive pieces they're creating as time goes on.  Nothing substitutes for original art...sorry!

That's some of it...will do another post of more recent excursions.
Glad to be back...
Greg