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July Artist of the Month - RUSSELL U. RICHARDS

Okay, okay.  We've got it.  Times are tough.  We've all been suffering through this recession one way or another.  But as bad as you've got it, imagine being an artist.  Now imagine being an artist and suddenly losing the use of both your hands.  Yikes!  That's exactly what has happened to Charlottesville artist Russell U. Richards.

Not long after coming out of a long term illness that literally laid him up for months; back in March, Russell made a hugely successful return to creating and exhibiting some very strong work.  Read my review here.  Unfortunately, while enjoying his new found good health and energy, Russell - an experienced mountain biker - recently went for a trail ride.  This is where we all cringe… Yup, you guessed it: Russell took an awkward spill and freakishly broke both his arms.  He is now stuck in casts for a good number of weeks.  Could it be any worse?

 

Instead of lockering himself at home and simply riding out this bad time, Russell is making lemonade out of his crappy situation.  Throughout the summer, while he is stuck in his two casts and unable to create new work, Russell is focusing his energies on selling the inventory of his current artwork.  And to make it all particularly sweet, Russell is selling his lemonade… er… artwork at a discount!

 

    

 

This is an incredible opportunity for art buyers and collectors.  Russell has turned his misfortune into a gain for us, and I strongly recommend everyone take advantage of it.  Make it a gain for Russell too.

For those of you new to his work… Russell's quirky and electrifying art is uncompromising.  He draws in a frenetic style and captures fantastical worlds from the past and the future.  These worlds, born in Russell's head, are often brutal and sometimes erotic (or both!).  His work is the complete package: imagination, story telling, beautifully crafted, and, of course, unique and creative.

If you are new to Russell Richard's work (or even if you are a long time fan), do yourself a favor…  Take a look at his website.  Visit his studio.  Contact him.  Buy his work.  This is one of those special win/win situations.

 

Images include:

Top:  4th of July - oil and ink on paper, 21"x15".

Middle left:  Perilous Existence - four color etching (edition of 10), 6.25"x5.25".

Middle right:  Dinosaur Swamp - four color etching (edition of 10), 5.5"x4".

Bottom:  Robots (evolution) - four color etching (edition of 10), 4.5"x4.5".

Wordless Wednesday

 

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Diving Into the Jury Pool

Last summer, I had the pleasure of being a member of the ArtInPlace panel of jurors. As a reminder: ArtInPlace is an annual selection of sculptures presented in public spaces (mainly along roadways) throughout the city of Charlottesville.  Read my 2008 review here.  The deadline for submitting applications is upon us – so interested artists should hurry.

Last year's panel was a large (eight members) and diverse group which made the selection process very dynamic. In the end, I thought the pieces selected satisfied the tastes and needs of the panel members and, most importantly, the public who got to view the sculptures on a daily basis.

This year, Laura has been asked to be on the juror panel. She jumped at the opportunity. This is one of the best ways to have a direct impact on what art people get to see and determine how Charlottesville gets to present itself as an art loving community to the gazillions of people who drive through our streets.

Selections won’t be finalized until September, and the work won’t be placed until October. I'll keep you posted on the developments.

Wordless Wednesday

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Art? Not Art?

I'm often asked where I get the abundance of content to write about. Sometimes I wonder myself – especially now as we enter art's summer doldrums. But having done this for a number of years, I know there is always a story just around the corner. It happened today.

While walking down the historic downtown pedestrian mall here in Charlottesville, I spotted a famed artist with his easel up and brush in motion. People were gathering. Snapshots were being taken. Not often does this happen even in this self-proclaimed culturally endowed enclave of a town. I went to check it out. Low and behold, it was Smithfield (yes, all the great ones go by only one name). A rare sighting indeed. Outside his Virginia farm, sightings of Smithfield have been relegated to large scale media programs like The Ellen Show, Regis & Kelly, and America’s Got Talent. Smithfield has also been known to show up at the local county fair kissing booth (good marketing for any artist).

For the record... Smithfield is a painting pig. A popular artist. A famous one at that. Just the kind of artist people really can identify with. Although he specializes in the challenging genre of abstraction, he does the occasional narrative and representational piece. People eat it up. And at $50 a piece, he is on the cutting edge of making fine art accessible to the public. Gotta love old Smithfield.

   

Even his website is professional. I can't tell you how many artist's websites I've seen that open with an introduction just like Smithfield's:

Welcome! My name is Smithfield and here you can get more information on me and my art. This site includes my portfolio and the services that I offer. As an enthusiastic artist I am always looking to be part of a new and exciting project.

I provide creative, reliable, and timely service with professionalism and care. Please take a look around to see examples of distinctive style and let me know if you are interested in hiring me or purchasing my work.

Thanks for dropping through Charlottesville, Smithfield... and giving me something to shake my head at.

[Images include: Left, Unicorn; Center, Duck Reflection In Water; and Right, George Washington (man on horse).]

McDonald's® is making art more accessible

I'm all for making art accessible to the most people, but I have to categorize this as "a sign the apocalypse is upon us"....

Today, I got myself a little over hungry. Desperate for a quick caloric fix, I jumped into a McDonald's®. As I sat down and unwrapped my burger, I noticed the paper placemat on my perma-greasy tray didn't have the usual word find, maze, tic-tac-toe or any other games on it. Instead, it was a big ad for the new McCafé® coffees. What I read puzzled me more than any game. I tore off the text part of the ad. Here’s what it said:

I don't know. My first instinct is to say WTF! It's a cheap coffee served in a plastic cup - not art. But then again, maybe I should be more aware that art really is all around us. And I should tip my hat to the excellent craftsmanship of the many proud artisans who live among us.

Nope. I'm going to stick with WTF.

Fraud alert!

Richmond based and legally bankrupt electronics merchant, Circuit City, recently announced it found an original Alexander Calder tucked away in one of its corporate office closets. It is now being sold on eBay and is listed as "Famous Artwork found at Circuit City." Go here for the listing.

It's being described as "Alexander Calder's 1970 Hand-Signed Lithograph 'Wave' (This is No.113 of 120 / Size: 44.5"x33.75")". At the current bid of $1,500+ this seems like a steal, right? But, hold on buckaroo. Think about it for a second and read between the lines. Here is the made up story description of the piece:

After Circuit City filed for bankruptcy, the bankruptcy judge appointed Liquid Asset Partners to handle the sale of all assets inside Circuit City's distribution centers and corporate offices. While clearing out the remaining rooms at Circuit City's corporate office in Richmond, VA, liquidators stumbled upon something special. Tucked away in one of the office closets, they found an assortment of paintings; one stood out above the others, an original Calder. The 1970 hand-signed lithograph titled "Wave" can be instantly recognized as a Calder by its abstract flow of bright contrasting colors and bold lines. Featuring his signature "Calder Red" and bright blue with black outlining, one could define Calder's work with this one piece. Liquidators set the "Wave" aside, until further decision could be made about the artwork's fate.

I smell a fake. Is eBay really the best way to sell this piece? My guess is Liquid Asset Partners did try to unload the piece in the traditional way though recognized art dealers but came up short because LAP couldn't provide an inkling of a reasonable provenience for the piece (no mention of when it was purchased, from whom it was purchased, how much it was purchased for, no invoice, no documentation – it was simply "found" in a closet). Without the proper paperwork, this thing is of virtually no value.

For me, the icing on the cake is that the folks at Liquid Asset Partners couldn't even take a half decent photograph of the piece. I believe someone is trying to pull a fast one to make an easy buck. Buyer beware.

Artomatic 2009

 

Artomatic is here! 2009 marks its 10th anniversary and it opens to the public on May 29.

Whoa. Wait. What's that you say? "What the heck is Artomatic?"

In a word (or two), Artomatic is a month-long art festival in DC featuring over 1,000 visual artists and 600 performing artists. And it’s FREE to the general public. This year, Monument Realty and the Capitol Riverfront BID have provided a brand-new 275,000 square foot building to host Artomatic, right next to the Nationals Stadium. The event features NINE floors of visual and installation art, theater performances, dance and comedy, three music stages, street performances such as fire dancing and drum troupes, and a film screening theater. Workshops and seminars are also held all month. You better eat your Wheaties before you go.

With four stages, four bars and a lounge on each floor, the 10th Anniversary Artomatic is bigger than ever. 52,500 people attended Artomatic last year, and 70,000 are expected this year. This is a do-not-miss event. Yes, naturally, you have to wade through a heck of a lot of junk art (repeat: nine floors covering 275,000 square feet), but there are always some serious gems in the crowd. Personal favorites will include the crew from the Washington Glass School (Michael Janis, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, et al), and some great work coming out of Sunderland, England (38 artists are jumping the pond for this event) giving this year’s Artomatic a decidedly international flare.

Stay tuned to the Artomatic blog for live reports and a plethora of personal opinions. Something interesting is always happening at Artomatic.

Fun with Architecture

Why the heck didn't they have this when I was a kid?

 

Brick by brick, Lego has been building its way out of the near bankruptcy it suffered around the turn of the century. It has done this by a seemingly simple strategy — making awesome product after awesome product. Now it is releasing the almost ridiculously fitting Architecture series, beginning with the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection.  First up is Fallingwater, the iconic cantilevered waterfall-house outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

 

  

 

All I had growing up was the Lego set that had a total of about 5 shapes - all rectangles.  I guess that's why I have such fond feelings for the American Foursquare.

 

 

 

["Agnes" by Tony Cochran.  Distributed by Creators Syndicate.  May 12, 2009]

Art related comics

As a fan of Chuck Close, I got a double chuckle out of this one.

 

["Get Fuzzy" by Darby Conley.  Distributed by UFS, Inc.]

AAF NYC 2009 Report #2

After a week of exhibiting at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC, Laura and I returned home late yesterday. Whew. What a week!. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that working one of these art fairs is like one long, glamorous cocktail party. After five days of setting up, exhibiting, selling, and taking down all the art, we feel closer to grungy, blue-collar workers than fancy, well-groomed gallery owners. Very physical. Very emotional.

So… a recap of the show: Overall, this was a far cry from the killer show we had here last year; but, we knew it would be hard to match 2008. One issue we faced this year was that the Fair changed venues, and I strongly believe the new location attracted an entirely different clientele. Last year it was in a terrific building in Chelsea (the heart of New York’s art scene). This year it was on the eleventh floor of a glitzy building across the street from the Empire State Building – a touristy location to say the least. The vibe was definitely different.

With that said, Migration’s group of artists once again woke up the New York crowd to what we are doing here in central Virginia.

Numerous times we were told that Michael Janis’ glass pieces were the best work in the entire fair. All we could do was nod knowingly. This of course was the main reason we brought his work to the show.

 

Our newest (and youngest) artist, Ashley Williams, had people leaving skid marks on the floor when her exquisite and detailed work on paper caught people’s eye forcing them to spin on their heel as they walked by.

 

Tim Taunton’s surreal and colorful narrative paintings were also show stoppers – leaving most simply shaking their head in disbelief that any artist could have such beautiful and lyrical thoughts and execute them so beautifully.

 

Arturo Mallmann’s meditative paintings pulled virtually every passerby into the booth. It is always fun to see viewers’ blood pressure lower as they fall into Arturo’s glowing, meditative work.

 

We spent a good amount of time listening to people trying to decide exactly which of their friends/co-workers/family members were depicted in Brian Mallman’s drawings. His graphite on board drawings had everyone nodding their approval.

 

And, Warren Craghead’s drawings on paper forced people to stop, sit and read. Picking out this level of originality is no easy task at one of these fast paced fairs.

 

The most important result of the Fair was to give our artists the attention their work deserves. Nothing beats successfully exhibiting art in NYC. Although we had hoped for better sales, understanding the economic strains people have endured over the past year leaves us feeling pretty good about the results. Maybe next year the Fair will return to Chelsea where it belongs.

AAFNYC 2009 Report #1

The Affordable Art Fair is off to a good start.  Wednesday was the Private Preview Opening Reception and yesterday was the first full day of the show (with another Preview cocktail reception in the evening).  So far, the crowds have been great.  There's a lot of enthusiasm.  Plenty of interest.  Tons of talk.  But there is a general reluctance for people to pull the trigger and buy like they did freely last year.  Regardless, we are thrilled with the booth, our artist's work and the numbers thus far.  Here are a couple of pictures of Migration's booth:

 

Specifically, we've gotten terrific feedback on two artists (who we did not show here last year).  Ashley Williams' work on paper (pictured below left) has stopped people in their tracks.  Great to see a young artist impress the seasoned NY collectors.  And, glass artist, Michael Janis, is getting all the praise we expected (pictured below right).  Warms our heart.

  

Of course, being in NYC is a blast for Laura and me.  Sights, sounds and tastes of the Big Apple.  Other than the hard work of the Fair, we are enjoying this "vacation."  Oh... and the view out our hotel window is of the Empire State Building.  Kind of nice to open your blinds and and have that iconic spire looking down on you.

Stay tuned for more reports from the Fair.  I'm sure Saturday will be a big day!

The Affordable Art Fair New York City

The stock market is rising. Consumer confidence is up. And the art is hot! This promises to be a great week at the Affordable Art Fair. May 7-10.

AAF NYC is the place for new and established collectors to discover and buy paintings, drawings, sculptures, video, photography and limited edition prints from distinguished galleries, all priced from $100 - $10,000. This year the Fair will host more than 60 galleries from the US, Europe, Asia, Canada and South America. AAF 2009 will debut at its new home at 7 West 34th Street.

Be sure to stop by Migration’s booth (C-204) and say Hi (mention artPark and we will be extra nice). And take a close look at these artists we will be exhibiting:

  TIM TAUNTON

 MICHAEL JANIS

 BRIAN MALLMAN

 ASHLEY WILLIAMS

 ARTURO MALLMANN

 RANDALL STOLTZFUS

WARREN CRAGHEAD

 

Ashley Williams

Do you ever wonder why people pan for gold? Seems like a lot of time and effort, right?  But when those few nuggets are found – eureka! - all that work pays off. This helps explain why I keep looking at students' artwork. So much of it isn't promising at all. But, once in a blue moon, a discovery is made. This past Fall, Laura and I made one of those rare finds at Univ of Virginia... Ashley Williams is a  rare gem.

Hanging in the hallways outside the artists' studios, two large works on paper caught our attention. We were floored. Craftsmanship, detail, layered imagery, provocative subject, and very very fresh. Ashley's work had it all. Luckily she was in her studio and we were able to introduce ourselves.

  

From there, Laura and I have been working to get Ashley's work out to the public. An obvious decision for us was to take her work to the Affordable Art Fair in NYC. She agreed. We’re psyched. This is the kind of stuff New York needs. And we can't wait to get the reactions.

On a local level, Ashley is currently participating in a student show at the UVa's Ruffin Hall. A reception is being held this evening. I strongly recommend you find the time to attend. See firsthand what has us all aflutter.

A little about Ashley: She is from Roanoke, Virginia and will receive her Studio Art and Art History degrees this spring from UVa. She has already been awarded the prestigious Aunspaugh Fellowship and will continue her studio work at UVa next year. She has studied classical drawing in Italy and has exhibited in various artist shows around Virginia. Ashley is also a gifted creative writer (not hard to imagine based on her painting).

About her work, Ashley says this:

Like the city streets, the modern world floods our bodies with information.  Scientific advancements and improvements in communication technology mean that it has become increasingly difficult to extract the useful from the extraneous.  In response to this, our bodies function as a system that both absorbs and discards sounds, statistics and images.  However, this internal system is inefficient.  We cannot contain everything and the process of filtering out information can cause us to overlook what is most important.  Stillness is sometimes necessary.  My art, in some ways, is about reclaiming what has been filtered out by embracing the confusion, diagramming and displaying it.   It is a process, I think, similar to long-exposure photography.  Like the earliest Daguerreotypes, the lens is left open long enough for images to crowd the picture plane, overlapping each other until, like the famous shoe shiner in "Boulevard du Temple", something important begins to surface.  It is only through observing and accepting the whole, that we eventually find our focus.

JOACHIM KNILL is today's ArtistADay

If one is fun, and twice is nice, then three must be the charm.

First, Randall Stoltzfus was the featured artist on ArtistADay.com. Then, a Migration fav, Susan Jamison, was featured. And now, Joachim Knill, Migration's Polaroid photographer extraordinaire, is today's ArtistADay. We have reason to be excited about this: The attention for each of these artists explodes from this exposure (Randall has received over 13,000 visits and is currently ranked #3 in votes). ArtistADay.com has a very large following, and, more importantly, it is a discriminating following. So, today, go to Joachim's page, take a look, vote, comment, and contact me if you need any more information about his work.

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I find the timeliness of Joachim's selection to be exceptionally appropriate. For starters, the demise of Polaroid has been a hot topic recently. This month's Art and Antiques cover story is titled "Polaroid's Last Shot" (by Sheila Gibson Stoodley). It is filled with great perspectives from some notable artists like Chuck Close, Elsa Dorfman and David Hockney about the importance and uniqueness of Polaroid images. Chuck Close says, "There's so much more information embedded in it than can be seen with the naked eye – unbelievable detail and real physicality."

For those of you who have followed artPark, you are already familiar with Joachim's utterly unique and masterful work (read my early review here). Although many artists rent Polaroid's large format 20"x24" camera to capture their work, Joachim took the extra step and built his own camera. His, however takes 20"x30" photographs. You may read that as a minor difference, but, in reality, it is a monumental. The hoops he had to jump through to convince Polaroid to allow him to use their film in his camera rather than theirs would deter virtually every other artist. Not Joachim. And his persistence has paid off.

Creating his handmade surreal worlds, adding the drama of stage lighting, and capturing them on large format Polaroid film with his one-of-a-kind camera has drawn rave reviews. Laura Parsons of The Hook said, "Say 'Polaroid' and most people envision waving a hand-sized snapshot in the air, drying it as the image emerges... But what Knill's 20x30 single-exposure photographs have in common with those pics is what the Grand Canyon shares with a creek bed – i.e. they're technically created the same way, but the former is, how shall we say, considerably more eye-popping."

See more of Joachim's work here and here.

[Images include:  1) Circus; 2) Armor]

The difference a year makes

I went to the Ruffin Hall Gallery on the University of Virginia campus to see the first of this spring's weekly student shows.  Since last year's closing of the Off-Grounds Gallery, I've been looking forward to these shows.

 

First up are the Aunspaugh Fifth Year Fellows (fifth year students) James Dean Erickson and Patrick Costello.  I saw these two exhibit last year as seniors (read my review here).  They both were awarded an additional year to hone their skills and their art.  Erickson wowed me last year with enormous portraits of some of our down and out citizens, but Costello's prints didn't impress me much at all.  So I went on Friday evening expecting more of the same.  Surprise!

 

My first surprise was that both Erickson and Costello are doing basically the same thing.  As students, my expectation was to see a change in style, maybe medium, something different over the past twelve months.  Isn't that what school is all about: studying, experimenting, testing, finding your way?  But, no, they both basically showed the same type of work they did last year.

 

Erickson is still making massive portraits, using scraps of cardboard as his canvas and a variety of media to get it all out there.  He is blending cheap, throw-away materials and presenting it in a street savvy, graffiti style manner.  This year, instead of the frontal, headshot portraits, he is doing full body portraits; and of the four exhibited, only two were of homeless men (I have no idea if these two people are actually homeless or not, so bare with me as I use the term generically).  The other two were of blue collar workers - one, a janitor, the other, a cafeteria worker.  Bridging the grittiness of the homeless to the employed did nothing for Erickson's work.  His subjects suddenly are less relevant (my second surprise).

 

Although the theme of "Teachability" is clear (we all have things we can learn from these people) and successfully accomplished by Erickson, the power of the individual pieces is gone.  The passion seems to have disappeared, and the ability to make those who live on the edge of poverty becomes less important.

 

Erickson's work remains technically superlative, but the comparison to how last year's portraits moved me to this year is a let down.

While studying Patrick Costello's prints and wall paintings, it struck me that Patrick is a mark maker.  He makes marks.  He makes marks on a lot of things.  Last year, Costello's prints were very blah for me.  I didn't read much into them.  I now see that those failings were mostly due to presentation.  This year, Costello has presented his work as an installation:  He draws on the wall (should we give credit to Sol LeWitt?), he draws on inverted hung planters, he makes prints (framed in old desk drawers), and, with great success, Costello has made a stop action motion picture.  Here is where the growth of Costello's work shines.  Although he is still making the same marks, he has presented them in a new and highly successful manner (my third surprise).

 

Simple lines and concepts can be a real challenge for any artist.  Leaving his lines lifeless on the paper was not successful.  Animating them tells the story Costello is trying to convey:  "people trying to figure out how to live in the world and with the earth in the face of human made environmental destruction."

 

Extending their respective college education for a year after graduation took Erickson and Costello in two different directions.  For Erickson, I believe he would have been better off putting his student career behind him - his art was ready for the real world.  Staying within the friendly confines of the university life dampened his strengths.  Costello, on the other hand, took full advantage of the extra year and has found a much stronger format for his work.

PHILIP GLASS - In 12 Parts

Knock, knock. Who's there?

Knock, knock. Who's there?

Knock, knock. Who's there?

Knock, knock. Who's there?

Knock, knock. Who's there?

Knock, knock. Who's there?

Philip Glass.

 

Those are the words famed artist Chuck Close uses to describe the music of Philip Glass. So much truth can be found in the humor. Love his music or hate it, Philip Glass has cemented himself as the most important composer of our time. Personally, I love it!

The American Masters program on PBS is running a 2 hour documentary special tracking a year in the life of Philip Glass. The show is called Glass: A Portrait of Philip Glass in Twelve Parts. Laura and I watched it last night. Fantastic footage of a master artist. What really popped to me was a man with an unmatched passion to compose music. He is a man comfortable in his own skin whose first love is his music.

If you are at all interested in Philip Glass, his music and his career, I highly recommend you watch this film. Some of the best footage was looking back at the beginning of his career in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Those were heady days in the American arts scene.

[Image: "Phil/Watercolor," a portrait of the composer Philip Glass done in 1977 by Chuck Close]

Employment Opportunity at PCA

Piedmont Council of the Arts, the leading arts agency of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, seeks candidates for the Communications Manager position. PCA offers programs and services for artists and arts organizations, educators, and young people and also serves the community at large by coordinating arts-related initiatives with area partners.

This part-time position (15-20 hours/week) is integral to the realization of PCA's vision to be the nexus for all things arts-related in the Charlottesville-area community. The selected candidate will be directly involved in the local arts community, support a growing nonprofit arts organization, and gain experience in an energetic and professional work environment. Enthusiastic individuals with an interest in serving communities through the arts are encouraged to apply.

For the full posting and additional information, go here.

Feeling the love from ArtistADay.com

Some of Migration's favorite artists are feeling the love from ArtistADay.com.  Last week, the site featured the work of Randall Stoltzfus. Today's artist is Susan Jamison. Take a look at both. Vote. Comment.

Based on reports from Randy, this one day exposure gave him a huge bump; and we are still fielding inquires about his work. I assume the same will be true for Susan.

Wonder who will be featured tomorrow? Or next week?