DCACSPARKPLUG

Dafna profiled by the Examiner

2010-08-23T21:00:00.001-04:00

Image by Dafna Steinberg

On the occasion of her Photos on the Deck event at Marvin Restaurant, Sparkplug artist Dafna Steinberg was profiled by the art beat folks at the Examiner. You can have a look at the brief write up here.

Barter closing reception at WPA

2010-07-30T14:09:00.003-04:00

Barter, a project organized by Sparkplug curator Blair Murphy, is holding a closing ceremony this evening from 6 to 9pm at WPA headquarters in Dupont (2023 Mass Ave NW).

Barter is a non-monetary silent auction that is part of Washington Project for the Arts’ Coup d’Espace series. People were allowed to bid on goods and services by offering their on goods and services in return. Winning bids have been selected and exchange items and certificates for exchange services will be on display tonight at the closing reception.

See you there!

Introducing the new SPARKPLUG members

2010-07-21T18:49:00.008-04:00

Things were delayed a bit, but the blog is back up and running. DCAC welcomes the seven new member artists of Sparkplug: Rob Chester, Chajana DenHarder, Todd Gardner, Joseph Hale, Chandi Kelley, Matthew Smith, and Dafna Steinberg. Blair Murphy is the lone member of Sparkplug F1 that will continue in the new iteration of the group, and she is most certainly welcome back.

To introduce the new members, DCAC presented Facts and Fiction, which closed last Sunday July 18. Thanks to those of you that came out for the opening reception on June 18 and for the artist talk on July 11. Below is the press release for the show:

Sparkplug Presents
Facts and Fictions
June 18 - July 18
Opening Reception: June 18, 7-9pm
Artists Talk: July 11, 5pm

Curated by Blair Murphy
Featuring work by Rob Chester, Chajana denHarder, Todd Gardner, Joseph Hale, Chandi Kelley, Matt Smith and Dafna Steinberg

Featuring work by the seven new members of DCAC's Sparkplug artist collective, Facts and Fictions highlights the tension between the real and the constructed, between the production of elaborate fictions and the documentation of a seemingly concrete reality. Working in painting, photography and mixed media, the artists in the exhibition blur the boundaries between documentation and creation. Fictional narratives and imagined characters inhabit fantastical worlds that nonetheless speak to everyday experiences and anxieties. In other instances, work created with an eye towards everyday human experience transforms otherwise ordinary moments into unfamiliar and surprising visions.

Call for New Members!

2010-03-05T09:42:00.001-05:00

Sparkplug Artist Collective Seeks New Members!

Sparkplug, a collective of emerging artists and curators sponsored by DC Arts Center, is seeking new members interested in participating as curators or artists. Currently composed of nine DC area artists and curators, the Sparkplug collective meets regularly to discuss their work, explore common concerns, grow their community and dream up creative engagements both in DC and around the world. Through its support of Sparkplug, DC Arts Center provides meeting space, legal and technical resources and exhibition opportunities to emerging artists and curators without current gallery representation or institutional employ. Via a continuing dialogue encompassing the theoretical and the practical, the group’s members share experiences, perspectives, preoccupations, challenges, and topics informing their ongoing artistic practice.

New members chosen during the Spring of 2010 should be prepared to participate in an exhibition this June and remain active members of the group for the next two years. Members are expected to attend monthly meetings and participate in studio visits. Applicants should be 21 years of age or older, live in the DC metropolitan area and not currently have gallery representation or institutional employ as curators or art writers. The deadline for applications is April 5, 2010. Invitations for formal interviews will be extended on or before April 19. 2010.

Go to the DCAC website for more information about Sparkplug and to view the full call and application requirements.

About DC Arts Center

The District of Columbia Arts Center, founded in 1989, is a nonprofit arts space dedicated to promoting the freshest, most under-recognized artists in the Washington metropolitan area. We encourage an ongoing dialogue between new artists and the greater art community, and assist artists in the business of production. Comprised of a theater, gallery, and administrative offices, DCAC is located in the heart of Adams Morgan. Since its inception in 1989, DCAC has received local, national and international reviews for visual and performing arts. Over 100 visual arts exhibitions and 500 performance events have illustrated the need for DCAC. Poets, painters, actors, storytellers, sculptors, performance artists have been drawn to the Center from as close as around the corner and as far as from around the world.

2010-03-03T12:11:00.000-05:00

SAVE THE DATE: May 13th for CUISINE DES ARTISTES!

Are you an ARTISTE' with an idea for an aesthetic appetizer? What a great excuse to get to know us. Get in touch at info@dcartscenter.org if you're interested in helping.

2009-10-01T13:49:00.013-04:00

PRESENTS FINDINGS

October 16 - November 15
Opening Reception: October 16, 7-9pm

Art by Deborah Carroll Anzinger, Peter Gordon, Michael Matason, Lisa McCarty, Kathryn McDonnell, Karen Joan Topping and Jenny Walton

Curated by Lea-Ann Bigelow and Blair Murphy

DCAC’s resident collective considers the artistic process as a mode of inquiry, a domain characterized by sustained research and vigorous experimentation, yet focused less on the production of definitive answers than on the discovery and negotiation of contradictory truths.

2009-08-19T17:32:00.009-04:00

360 degrees of images taken by Lisa McCarty from Sparkplug: Now exhibit at AAC.

The show ends this weekend. The 22nd will also be your last opportunity to sign the memorial book for Mark Planisek before the AAC sends it to his family. Please stop by if you have not already.

2009-07-27T17:28:00.002-04:00

SPARKPLUG: June 2009.

A permanent reminder that we should appreciate how lucky we are every day and realize how one person always makes an impact. We miss you Mark!

left to right - Lea-Ann Bigelow, Kathryn McDonnell, Blair Murphy, Mark Planisek, Lisa McCarty, Mike Matason, Jenny Walton, Karen Joan Topping, Peter Gordon, Deborah Anzinger and B Stanley

2009-06-24T23:28:00.004-04:00

At 10:45pm on June 19, our dear colleague and irreplaceable friend Mark Planisek’s life was taken from us when as a pedestrian, he was struck by a vehicle in a crosswalk near the Clarendon metro station barely an hour after leaving an art opening at the Arlington Arts Center of the collective show Sparkplug: New Work, in which he was exhibiting.

Mark became a part of Sparkplug in 2007, when the group was newly formed, but I have had the privilege of knowing Mark since 2003 as tenant of the Millennium Art Center (MAC) where Mark had the studio above me. Our combined tendency for working late hours was a natural source of bonding. When MAC lost that space it was Mark who found me a space neighboring the new studio he had moved into.

All and all we were studio neighbors for about 5 years and in that time I would enjoy the pleasures of his art, his conversation and eventually his friendship. I would also find him to be an unending resource on the craft of painting, printing and art handling and fierce and resolute advocate for the unsung hero and history of visual art in DC and for welcoming and creating opportunities for those that were new to the scene.

Mark moved to another studio space in early 2007. Missing him as my neighbor in arms, (and in art) later that year I urged him to join our monthly discussions at the DC Art’s Center in the formation of Sparkplug. I know I speak for everyone in the Sparkplug Collective and at DCAC, Mark’s depth of experience and tireless devotion and enthusiasm for his own work and for community building was integral to the powerful start Sparkplug has had these past two years.

I have been told that Mark’s passing was ‘swift and decisive’, yet it leaves the members of our group feeling a gap that will never be filled by any one person with so much skill and sincerity, kindness and humility. As one of our members wrote me, the shock of his death “happened so quickly. I feel like I was just getting to know Mark through my involvement in Sparkplug and feel like I've lost so much because I won't be able to work with him further.” Mark is a legacy of the embodiment of a working artist. He created art works of integrity, works that communicated all the wonder and intensity that were such a part of his personality.

I know my grief at losing Mark, who has done so much for me personally, is just a small, small piece of the collective pain that all the members of Sparkplug are feeling and will have to endure forever following this senseless and tragic loss of someone who was so good. The anguish we are experiencing in the small community he shared with us at DCAC hardly begins to scratch the surface of the loss felt by the entire DC community in which he was so well loved. Our sincere condolences to Anne and to Mark’s family and all his most treasured friends, thank you so much for sharing him with us. Mark truly touched all of our lives and will never be forgotten.

A public memorial is being planned at the Portrait Gallery where Mark was an art handler. The date and time are pending.

Mark's Family has kindly allowed that his collage "16th & K Street NW" remain on view in the show Sparkplug: New Work until August 22nd. The Arlington Art Center has placed a memory book in their Jenkins Community Gallery for anyone that would like to honor Mark Planisek and share their memories of our wonderful times with him.

Karen Joan Topping

SPARKPLUG: New Work

2009-06-19T15:03:00.000-04:00

In the Jenkins Community Gallery at the Arlington Arts Center
June 19 - August 22 2009 | Opening Reception: Friday, June 19, 6-9pm | Artists Talk: Wednesday, July 22, 7-9pm

Curated by Lea-Ann Bigelow and Blair Murphy
Featuring painting, drawing, video, photography, and mixtures thereof by
Deborah Carroll Anzinger, Peter Gordon, Mike Matason, Lisa McCarty, Kathryn McDonnell, Mark Planisek, Karen Joan Topping and Jenny Walton

Upcoming Exhibition at the District of Columbia Arts Center
October 16 - November 15, 2009 | Opening Reception: October 16, 7-9pm

for more information about Sparkplug: www.dcartscenter.org/Sparkplug

Below text by curators Lea-Ann Bigelow and Blair Murphy.

Achieving an overall aesthetic can become a high-risk endeavor when I push the material to its perceived limits. – Kathryn McDonnell

Kathryn McDonnell’s vivid paintings flout determinacy. Likewise, Lisa McCarty’s toy camera vignettes are not static transcriptions of times or of places, but rather suggestive, ranging, image-passages – moments en route – polyvalent vibrations captured through what some might deem a throwaway lens. The aesthetic dynamism of these artists’ work owes much, no doubt, to the fluidity and expansiveness of their respective processes. Both artists are open to finding unexpected elements within their work, and downright welcoming to chance effects that fall (just) outside of their creative control; this openness has proven mutually fecund.

Taking a cue from the Expressionist tradition, McDonnell often begins a piece with a direct pour. This initial chaotic spill serves to activate a sequence of material and formal challenges, resolutions and revelations that stem from the temper and flow of the paint, and coalesce to provide each canvas’s inner logic. McDonnell’s colors tend to the elemental, calling up water, blood, air, sun: the colors of connected life. Simultaneously cosmic and worldly, yet in no way world-weary, her paintings also embed insistent patterns that have in some way piqued the artist’s eye, patterns found in nature, architecture, and information technology.

When McCarty, in a conscious reversion/revision of the snapshot-seeking tourist, heads out on a shoot, she is awake and vulnerable; not bent on treating any subject in particular, but ready for her course to be inflected by genuinely felt, precisely heeded instances. For McCarty, there is wonderment in the chance-driven aspects of her explorations. She also revels in the felicitous distortions - light leaks, blurring, uneven saturation - yielded thanks to the Holga’s endearingly flimsy construction. The artist understands the paradoxical potential of this “low-fidelity” hardware, in its concomitant propensity for double-exposure and atmospheric sensitivity, to convey her experiences with heightened faith and veracity.

I am interested in recording the sensation of environments, seeking to be consumed by the conditions of a moment. – Lisa McCarty

The accumulation of fantasy and imagination, memory and hope, or anxiety for the future, are often complex and entangled and not easily described – though they are keenly felt. - Karen Joan Topping

Deborah Carroll Anzinger and Karen Joan Topping examine the relationship between geographic locations, lived environments and identities. Exploring the impact of shifts in time and space on the construction of subjectivity, both artists question linear narratives of identity formation, suggesting that the relationship between past experiences and present identities evades straightforward explanation.

Topping’s work uses games and other markers of childhood to probe the links between the play we undertake as children and our understanding of the world as adults. In Red Light, Green Light, a voice off-camera inserts the chants of a playground pastime into a commute through suburban gridlock. As the viewer is limited to a disoriented, even helpless perspective, the physical environment of the video - the car interior, anonymous traffic and surrounding buildings - becomes claustrophobic, a tightly knit structure dictating the rules of play. Locked into a system, the driver - and the viewer - find their movements dictated to them. The strictures of the lived environment limit possible movements, constructing the driver and the passenger as players in the game whose rules they both follow and enforce by their own involvement.

Memories, thought of as frozen in time, provide a seemingly stable ground for the formation of our current selves. Challenging this assumption of stasis, Anzinger examines the impact shifts in physical location have on memories. Past experiences may become reinterpreted over time, shifting along with changes in environment as our current surroundings seep into our perceptions of the past. Rather than imagining a single direction of influence, with memories and experiences forming a foundation for the development of the self, Anzinger presents the self as the unstable product of an ongoing negotiation between past experiences and present circumstances.

The paintings present themselves as mental maps of memories dispersed over vague and amorphous environments, where the manner in which the impressions of the past occupy the physical space of the present are as important as their provenance. - Deborah Carroll Anzinger

Within my photographic registration, geometric composition, color and texture correlation, I have a very natural, flowing, process. Look. See. Think. Do. – Mark Planisek

In this digitally-enabled era of the mash-up, the combinatorial tactics of collage would seem to spring straight from the zeitgeist. But in contrast to the electronic manipulations of other visual mix-masters, and in league with their Dada/Futur/Constructiv/Cub-ist forbears, Mark Planisek and Peter Gordon have both embraced materially intensive and tactile (re)assemblage techniques. Both artists cut, layer and paste their visions together, then draw and/or paint on top of these constructed surfaces to extend the imagery further and add dimensionality. Collage is notorious for bringing still-recognizable signifiers – fragments excised from the cultural inventory – together in a kind of semiotic collision. The very act of appropriating and rearranging images shakes up our reception of them by liberating them from expected contexts; their placement in sometimes jarring juxtapositions has the power to reinvigorate these images and coax out meanings and energies that might otherwise have remained latent, or inert.

Planisek’s oeuvre spans many mediums, but photography has always been integral to his artistry. With his latest series of hand-painted photomontage boxes, Planisek follows in the footsteps of Bernd and Hilla Becher in his documentation of unsung and fast-deteriorating industrial architecture. His practice and preoccupation veers from the Bechers’, however, in that it is not clinical, but romantic; Planisek lets his camera alight on stairwells, doorways, rear views, windows grown over with vines, junctures which hint at the former life of buildings yet retain some mystery. And in the painstaking (almost archaeologically so) reconstruction of the environments that initially caught his attention, one senses that Planisek is learning to love these spaces all over again.

Their compositional commotion notwithstanding, Gordon’s Going Green works are no magpie compilations – there is economy and keen intent behind each of his selections. Gordon raids newspaper sales inserts, attracted no doubt by the stark literalness of numbers, then undergirds his pieces with these variegated price-tags, which read at once as the building blocks of his renderings of civilization and the particles that contribute to the gathering storm of inputs and outputs. The deer – one of Gordon’s chief protagonists – immediately conjures associations of nature’s majesty, but also of its imperiled state; the beast is fully in our sights, caught in the headlights. All the while, the artist’s exact political stance remains oblique; he dramatizes the relentless churn of the environmental feedback loop in a manner that avoids sentimentality but packs an emotional charge.
In the sounds and movements of natural forms, such as animals, clouds, landscapes, wind, water and sunlight, I find a living source of contemplation.

I am inspired by the harmony, balance and beauty of nature. – Peter Gordon

Through explorations in science, medicine, and the idea of faith I hope to seduce the viewer with events that are beautiful, horrific, and touch the sublime. - Jenny Walton

Jenny Walton and Michael Matason explore corporeal materiality, presenting the body not as the well-protected fortress we often wish it to be, but rather as a flesh and blood incarnation of the tensions between vulnerability and defense, growth and deterioration. The two artists’ aesthetic exploration of the body’s potential for both beauty and decay reflect these paradoxes, searching for the sublime in bodily permeability and destruction. Ф Walton’s work muses on the body’s ability to evoke, simultaneously, both awe and horror. Exploring a diverse array of processes, from painting and printmaking to light installation and photography, Walton flirts with abstraction, transforming imagery culled from anatomy textbooks to create depictions at once recognizable and strange. In Walton’s monotypes, rich blacks create sharp, aggressive, yet exposed forms; the potential threat looks inward as the body’s own defenses turn on it.

Matason’s photographic work explores the relationship, within portraiture, between the photographer, the subject and the viewer. In recent work, the stark presentation of a specific body part - a single finger - couples an abundance of physical detail with a disorienting lack of context. Methodically displayed for the camera (and consequently the viewer), the luscious pink of the flesh and the shiny hardness of the fingernail draw the eye even as the skin’s ruptures unsettle and repulse. In Matason’s images, the ruptures begin in the space where the hard shell of the nail and the soft flesh of the finger connect: the body’s defensive attribute - the nail - creates the very space at which the skin is most easily breached.

My work comes from trying to find an understanding of my actions/habits, which I feel at times I do not have any control over. The photos are a digital record of my behavior, but also focus me to come face-to-face with my psyche. – Mike Matason

2009-05-19T14:05:00.002-04:00

mmm mmm. As an artist working in video, this may be tasty just for me, but I thought this was a good place to share. AU's Center for Social Media breaks down fair use into a mash up all its own. Go here for the written guide in simple people words.

2009-05-13T16:53:00.001-04:00

Opening Reception: Friday, June 19, 6 – 9 pm at the Arlington Art Center

clockwise from top left:
Peter Gordon, Going Green: Cap and Trade #1, Mixed Media on Wood Panel, 10x15", 2009; Mark Planisek, 6th and K St. NW, Photo Box Collage, 6-1/2x8-1/2x2-1/2, 2008; Karen Joan Topping, Still - Red Light, Green Light, Digital Video DVD 8 minutes 20seconds, 2008; Deborah Carroll Anzinger, detail - My Sister Had a Pogo Stick, 64x56", oil, resin and sharpie

Sparkplug; NEW WORK

Arlington Arts Center, Jenkins Community Gallery, June 19 – August 22, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday, June 19, 6 – 9 pm

Artists Talk: Wednesday, July 22, 7 – 9 pm

DC Arts Center’s resident arts collective Sparkplug is, at present, a spirited gathering of ten artists and curators who meet twice a month to discuss their work, explore the arts in the nation’s capital, grow their community, and dream up creative engagements in DC and around the globe. In the context of this closely-focused show, Sparkplug’s mission will be to testify to its own mutable now: the now of its production, the now of its collective exchanges, the now of individual stances outside of the collective, the now that will inevitably be then soon. For a collective whose very existence is based on a charter of becoming, of sharing, of transitions, of emergence, of change…the privileging of a specific Sparkplug moment presents a persistent (albeit purposeful) challenge.

Curated by Lea-Ann Bigelow and Blair Murphy, the show will highlight painting, drawing, video, photography, and mixtures thereof by:

Deborah Carroll-Anzinger, Peter Gordon, Lisa McCarty, Kathryn McDonnell, Michael Matason, Mark Planisek, Karen Joan Topping and Jenny Walton.

Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Accepting Applications

2009-05-01T17:55:00.000-04:00

holycreamoly - another crazy amazing arts writing grant op - you know who you are -

The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant provides project grants to individual authors whose work addresses contemporary visual art. The program is spearheaded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its broader Arts Writing Initiative and is administered by the Creative Capital Foundation.

The Arts Writers Grant Program issues awards for books, articles, short-form writing, blogs, and new and alternative media projects. The program aims to support the broad spectrum of writing on contemporary visual art from general-audience criticism to academic scholarship.

Only individuals are eligible for a grant. Applicants must be an art historian, artist, critic, curator, journalist, or practitioner in an outside field strongly engaged with the contemporary visual arts. Nominees must also be at least 25 years of age and be a published author (specific publication requirements vary depending on project type).

Applicants are not eligible if applying on behalf of an organization or for a project in which his/her primary involvement will be as an editor. Full-time students in degree-granting programs (with the exception of those students who are simultaneously maintaining professional careers as arts writers) are not eligible.

The program supports approximately twenty to twenty-five projects a year. Grant amounts range from $3,000 to $50,000 each, depending on the scope and complexity of the project.

Visit the program's Web site for project-specific requirements and application procedures.

http://www.artswriters.org/guidelines.php

http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/rfp_item.jhtml?id=250900025

2009-04-15T14:57:00.003-04:00

SP Minutes 4/14/09

Attendance: Peter, Kathryn, Karen, Lea-Ann, Blair, Jenny, Deborah, Mike

Lea ruled the day with a smashing agenda and new list of dates

1) “Sparkplug: New Work” is the title that Lea & Blair have chosen for the AAC show – rather than Decay & Development or some riff on that. They still have every intention of addressing that idea and our place relative to Cudlin’s show in the main gallery “Paradox Now” in their message for the show.

2) WED., APRIL 22nd – DCAC newsletter ‘press’ date :( this pertains to the curators and KAREN, MARK, DEBORAH and PETER). Lea’s idea was to create another simple composite image featuring the 4 artists that were not on the April 2008 show card for DCAC- which means that KAREN, MARK, DEBORAH and PETER need to get high-resolution images to Blair -ideally before the 22nd of April so she can try to work a tiny box for us into the DCAC newsletter.

3) MONDAY, MAY 4th - AAC press release info: High-resolution images from EVERYONE of the piece we are putting in the show – including full description title, size, year and material and any other description that is requested.

4) Marketing/Dissemination of Information: Lea started some discussion about a ‘brochure’ instead of a postcard-more specifically a “Broadsheet” – we talked a lot about this – but didn’t come to any hard and fast resolutions. Jenny is going to see if she knows a designer that wants to design it pro-bono or if she can get a printing deal. Kathryn and Mike both seemed to have some interest in doing the design on a brochure once we all submit our info on May 4th. I feel like the general consensus is that we all want to pursue making sure we document this show with something even though we will have to fund doing a brochure for the AAC show on our individual dollars (my past discussions with B lending themselves to DCAC supporting the marketing of shows we have @ DCAC – not necessarily shows we have at other locations). Doing as much work on it as we can ourselves is probably best.

As the show creeps up on us I’d say to anyone that is fielding information or donations of time or design or services report back to us all as you get your info. So that we can get a decision on how we should proceed as soon as possible.

5) AAC Storeroom – we suggested the evening of Thursday - April 30 (even though if you saw my other email - I want to recall my saying that day was OK with me - I want to see Martha Rosler) or Sunday afternoon, May 3rd. Anyway – curators will give us the day that Jeffry decides on to go see the space and see what fixtures the AAC has available. Lea would like as many of us that can make it to try to attend this – even if you think you don’t need fixtures.

6) AAC hosted Sparkplug Panel: there was no dissention to trying to set up a panel sometime in July at the AAC about Sparkplug. Lea will try to set a date ASAP (by the DCAC press date) so the date of the panel can be in the newsletter.

******While there was no dissention – keep in mind that the PLAN is for ALL of US to be on the panel – if you are going to go to Egypt or something for the whole month of July we need to know NOW*****

Lea & Blair are trying to tap Kathryn Cornelius (http://kathryncornelius.com/) to moderate – but other suggestions would be welcome ASAP.

Some great ideas were throw-around for doing panels in conjunction with the Fall show at DCAC by hosting panels or other reach out events to media, design, music, street art, political art that are very different from us – but identify with the word COLLECTIVE – like DECCA, BeeHive, Code Pink and Kathryn said E32 would be a great resource to tap for NYC collectives

7) Please make sure your membership is update at the Sparkplug level!!!!
8) Take a look at the Flickr group we spent until 10 PM looking at the 2009 Proto AAC show images and tongue-wagging about how cool the show is going to be (for a little show)

ACTION THIS WEEK

****DON’T forget LISA’s opening at AAC this Friday the 17th

****Peter’s open studio this Sunday the 19th at 3 PM – directions under a separate email

IMPORTANT DATES:

Deadline for DCAC press ready artist materials from Peter, Karen, Mark & Deborah-April 22.

AAC Storeroom meeting: TBD (last week of April)

Deadline for AAC press ready artist materials-May 4.

Sparkplug Meeting, Tuesday, May 12 starts between 7 & 730 PM, at DCAC

DCAC GALA: Friday, May 29th

Updates for Sparkplug Binder (resume & general artist statements) to Peter: TBD

Installation at the AAC: Begins Wednesday, June 10 and runs through Thursday, June 18. Your availability on the weekend of June 13 & 14 will be the most critical. Show opening is Friday June 19. Show ends Saturday, August 22.

Sparkplug Panel Discussion at DCAC: date TBD (tentatively July)
Installation at DCAC: Tuesday, October 13 and Wednesday, October 14 (Expect EVENING hours, just like our 2008 installation). Opening is Friday, October 16. Show ends on Sunday, November 15. De-installation is the evening of Sunday, November 15 and all day and evening Monday, November 16, which is also critical.

Lea will email us the AAC’s loan forms, there are 2. One that everyone fills out and one regarding exceptions. They have insurance that covers the exhibit of artist work, with some EXCEPTIONS, like works on paper that are not framed. We will each get this document sometime in the future which spells out the specifics of what is not covered.

Please feel free to add anything I forgot –phew that was a lot.

2009-04-15T10:40:00.000-04:00

As much as possible given the time and space allotted. from Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen on Vimeo.

OK - I seriously do not know what to think about this...as someone who has worked behind the scenes in museums, (like about 1/3 of us in Sparkplug) I have seen 'the stacks' and know the beautiful collisions that can happen on those racks where items are put together solely based on available space-like a little Daumier painting ending up next to a big Bonnard, where proximity creates affinity. Dollars to donuts that's the kind of thing you'd have to travel through space and time to actually see hung up in a museum - unlikely matches happen, but rarely.

It also struck me that this show looks a lot like the proverbial mid-century SOHO painters loft (Alice Neel's is infamously described in my circle of education) where finished paintings line every available space not needed for walking or working. This kind of chaos is often where us 'art professionals' work - why not drive that point home to the pedestrian public?

Well frankly, because when I see it on 'tv' I realize how freaking insane it looks - how does clearness of message arise out of this horror vacui?

Well brother - it just does. Contemplate that.

2009-04-03T13:02:00.003-04:00

For those of you that saw "Vincent" at DCAC recently - more talk about artists and their drive for something more from Elizabeth Gilbert. Plus check out Ted.com where there is lots of other progressive stuff.

2009-03-24T09:59:00.003-04:00

Elsewhere Artist Collaborative

WOW - this gem was brought to me by my BF listserve - artinfobank - so brilliant - residencies in a former thriftstore that was never cleaned out - a shangrila of stuff to make art with - and they like to take 'colloboratives' as residents - wow can you imagine if we all went? Junk has been an important part of the development in my personal art practice, it would be interesting to share perspectives with those of you that are not so stuff oriented xo Karen

Residencies at Elsewhere

Elsewhere’s dynamic architectures and the immense 58-year collection of American cultural objects (thousands of toys, books, periodicals, clothing, fabric, games, trinkets, bric-a-brac, furniture, antiques, army surplus, and historical documents) housed on-site serve as a resource for the cultivation of new creative processes and the creation of new works.

Elsewhere’s residency program invites emerging and established artists and scholars to create site-specific works using the plethora of objects and dynamic spaces as materials for works or as a foundation for conceptual or technological projects. Residents launch projects from within the theoretical framework of an evolving exhibition of objects and artworks across media, composing an experimental museum rethinking the premise of the collector and collection, questions of history and myth, the stasis of the art object, the role of the artist, and the relationship of process within production.

Elsewhere offers a dynamic alternative to the museum and gallery spaces and traditional residency formats. Artists find Elsewhere residencies to be intensive, conceptually challenging, and highly playful. Working within transforming installations, artists engage interactive environments as platforms for conceptualizing their practices. An Elsewhere residency becomes an ongoing artistic happening formed by an evolving dialogue that explores responsive artistic practices as a means of communication within an artist community. While artists are given control over their individual work for the time of their stay, artists collaboratively build upon others’ visions in response to the developing installation. The opportunity to build alongside, work with, or even transform past artists’ work yields layered histories of experimentation, communication, and art production that resituates the creative possibilities for the museum-as-medium.

While all work produced with Elsewhere’s objects stays within the space (works in reproducible media are shared with Elsewhere and curated within the environment), artists have the opportunity to expand and apply their body of work on an unprecedented scope and scale while furthering the development of a collaboratively built museum. Elsewhere’s collaborative framework cultivates continued feedback and response throughout the creative process from the directors and other artists. Interns and production staff assist artists with documentation, creation and curation.

Residents are encouraged to spend one month creating in the space. No proposals are requested. Instead, we ask artists to draw their ideas from the space itself, its resources, and the multiplicity of systematic arrangements and performative organizations that interweave resource, artwork, and collaborative artistic response.

Residents pay a $200 residency fee and $50 deposit to hold space upon acceptance of invitation. Residents are required to fund their own travel, although Elsewhere, as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, can assist artists with granting opportunities. Collaborative or collective groups are encouraged to apply. Shorter residencies and student-residencies are available.

The application requires a written portion including a written application, resume/CV, digital work samples, and a phone interview.

DCAC turns 20!

2009-03-19T14:54:00.002-04:00

DCAC’s SPARKPLUG Announcement

2009-01-12T13:00:00.001-05:00

In the past year the District of Columbia Arts Center’s exploration of what being in collective means for visual artists a group of ten individuals set themselves apart through their commitment to DCAC’s Sparkplug through their sustained participation in meetings and their willingness and abilities to step into leadership roles. These individuals have demonstrated serious professionalism and a passionate belief that pursuit of collaborative discussion makes each of them better artists and curators. The decision to limit our numbers at this point in the development of DCAC’s Sparkplug has been a hard one and we wish to thank all of you that have participated in the past year by posting your comments and coming to meetings and events.

With the number of participants limited to ten to fifteen people we will be developing and announcing an application process for future spots. We will continue to use this list for special announcements regarding DCAC Sparkplug events, exhibitions and future openings in the DCAC Sparkplug roster. If you are no longer interested in remaining a member of this email list you can email me at karenjoan@gmail.com with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line or use the unsubscribe link that is at the bottom of this message.

All The Best To You In 2009,

DCAC’s Sparkplug

DCAC does a lot with a little. Resources for individual artists can be hard to come by, something I am sure that those of you that expressed interest in DCAC’s Sparkplug know well. Keep in mind, the District of Columbia Arts Center has so many other opportunities for independent artists and curators looking for a forum for their work

Proposals for use of the gallery are accepted on a rolling basis – more information on how to put together a proposal here: http://www.dcartscenter.org/submit_gallery.htm

Curatorial Initiative - a curatorial apprentice program. Applications happen each November – more information here: http://www.dcartscenter.org/submit_gallery_VAI.htm

Volunteering (a great way to meet artists and people who buy art): http://www.dcartscenter.org/support_internships.htm

We know that many of you are members already, but if you are not, I encourage you to become one as soon as possible. If you are a member – why not ask your friends to join too? http://www.dcartscenter.org/membership.htm

We hope you will continue to be involved with the District of Columbia Arts center as it gets ready to start its 20th year of helping artists be artists.

About entropy.

2008-09-16T18:56:00.005-04:00

What I am really interested in, and what I am so powerfully impacted by as a theme that unites Sparkplug members’ work, is not the phenomenon of entropy itself, but the fight against/resistance to/defiance of entropy and stasis that drives the art making process, and – more broadly – is a causal agent in dreaming up and enacting any kind of change to one’s environment. The contra-entropic impulse, if you will. One dictionary definition of entropy is “the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity” – i.e. the chaos and degradation all organisms and systems tend towards when no additional attention or oppositional energy is directed their way. But even artworks that appear at first to brim over with unbridled, noisy, surplus or even accidental energy and information (that is, lots of entropy!) have definite and deliberate organizing principles and patterns. These stratagems and motifs were put into play during their creation, and continue to evolve through viewers’ deepening engagements with the work over time.

DCAC’s Sparkplug in New York City, Tuesday, Sept 16.

2008-09-10T18:45:00.000-04:00

DCAC’s Sparkplug in New York City, Tuesday, Sept 16.

IT’S STILL. IT MOVES. II

E32 = VIDEO PHOTOGAPHY PAINTING MIXED MEDIA PERFORMANCE DOCUMENTATION DRAWING

Every 3rd Tuesday of the Month in New York City E32 is a video/discussion series that takes place at the 5C Cultural Center in New York City. E32 is pleased to announce DCAC’s Sparkplug is included in the upcoming video/discussion series titled:

IT’S STILL. IT MOVES. II
Tuesday September 16th, 2008
7:30 – 10:00 pm
5C Cultural Lounge
68 Avenue C at 5th Street
New York, New York

The show includes work by members of the DCAC’s Sparkplug including slides of work by: Kathryn McDonnell, Karen Joan Topping, Michael Matason, Lisa McCarty, Jenny Walton, Mark Planisek, Deborah Carroll-Anzinger, Peter Gordon, with Lea Ann Bigelow, curator.

More about E32 at http://e32.hitart.com/.

2008-09-08T18:29:00.001-04:00

I got excited and wanted to show you the preview that Linda Griggs has been working on! Great Job everyone - especially Kathryn & Lisa !!!!! More on this Soon!

Sept 14 - Meeting - Read carefully!

2008-09-05T18:26:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone – I am going to try to nip any confusion about the “PROPOSED MEETING” in the bud right now. It is happening – but read the below closely – it’s a little unorthodox.

While I was away at school this Summer in Philly there were committees and individuals that have been working on DCAC’s Sparkplug for the past year working. I am meeting with them first at the DCAC Gallery on September 14 from 7-8 PM to get their reports about our slide debut in the East Village, NYC, a Sparkplug proposal for a locally themed show of local artists and how to make membership clearer, fairer and help DCAC. Only people that were working on these projects should come to the DCAC Gallery at 7 PM.

We then wanted to have an open forum after that from 8-9 PM (or until it ends) for everyone that had been attending meetings sporadically for the past year and anyone new that might be lurking since we made our blog public (http://dcacsparkplug.blogspot.com/ ). We are all missing the easier going atmosphere we started off with and understand that we all need to get to know each other better if we are going to work together.

PROBLEM is that there is something in the DCAC theater that nite too – so it will not be a great idea for us to have a group larger than 10 or so people in the gallery on the 14th so as not to disturb the patrons in the theater.

THEREFORE, in order to solve this problem as soon as possible, I propose that at 8 PM we will all head over to the bar & pool hall, Bedrock Billiards, located in the Lower level of 1841 Columbia Rd NW. Some of you may recall this is where we first gathered a huge-ish group of people in 2007 to talk about why what they thought being involved in a collective could mean.

I encourage everyone that may be interested to see how we have handled our first year to come on by Sunday night, September 14 as we approach our “Terrible Two’s”. Feel free to email me directly at karenjoan@gmail.com with questions.

2008-08-28T18:26:00.002-04:00

Hi DCAC SPARKPLUGGERS

I'm back from Philly - Hope you all had a good Summer. Stay tuned for details on an open forum September meeting. I won't be able to announce the details until after September 8th or so - but I wanted to give people a chance to ask questions and get prepared for what is on our plate at the moment and find out how you can help out.

Ciao, Karen

July Update

2008-07-29T12:51:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

Just a few quick notes.

Our regularly scheduled meeting in July was just Mark and I. We had a great conversation over some beverages at Angles Bar. We missed you all.

Mark, Peter, and I have been meeting about getting the Arlington Arts Center proposal together and hope to have it ready for roll out to the general Sparkplug population by our September meeting. We are hoping to meet with the AAC people very soon and are excited about the possibilities of collaboration.

We are hoping to have an August meeting. So please stay tuned. If anyone has any questions, please contact me.

Jenny Walton

Meeting Minutes 5/12/08

2008-05-19T17:31:00.000-04:00

Sparkplug minutes

5/12/2008

prepared by Jenny 5/19/08

First…an update:

Deborah and Josh welcomed little Zoë into the world on the Wednesday, the 14th. Everyone is doing well. She weighed 6lbs 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long.

Now down to business…

Members present: Karen, Lisa, Mike, Mark, Jenny, Kathryn and Peter. New people Christian Benefiel and Eva Hennessa.

Discussion:

Membership – It was discussed how to move forward with projects and still get the maximum enthusiasm and strength to continue in each project. The question of how large is too large was brought up and also if there should be criteria for membership. Several characteristics were discussed of fellow artists that we would hope to look for in someone entering the group. Development of a body of work, accomplishment, seriousness and commitment to working practice of art were all qualities and criteria we would like to look for. Further discussion will happen at the June meeting.

Blog – it is now public. The question of how it can benefit the community as a whole was discussed, as our findings from Learnapalooza were that there were some people that were really enthusiastic about creating, but may never actually want to join Sparkplug. Our question is how do we continue to reach out to those individuals?

E32 presentation draft: Lisa and Lea-Ann have done a great job in getting the draft of the presentation together. Lisa compiled all the images curated by Lea-Ann and put them together in a running slide presentation; each artist has 4-5 images. We did a couple run throughs of the presentation and made any necessary change notes. It was discussed that the show may run in June or September in New York. The general consensus was we would rather have it run in September to allow everyone to possibly get the time off to go see it. Lisa needs all info ASAP to complete the presentation. The presentation will be in it final format for the next meeting.

Cuisine des Artistes presented by Karen: DCAC’s biannual fundraiser is coming up on Wednesday May 28th. Sparkplug members are highly encouraged to participate in some way. Please contact Karen as soon as possible if you are interested in participating. If you are contributing food/art, Blair needs a paragraph bio and the “title” of your piece for the event by TODAY.

Arlington Arts Center proposal presented by Peter: We will be putting together a proposal for the Arlington Arts Center Community Gallery. The space is 13’ x 35’. Jeffrey Cudlin, director of exhibitions would like us in there in early 2009. Some issues to address in the proposal are: site specific to Arlington, how is Sparkplug’s mission different from DCAC’s, What is our idea of a collective. Several of these will necessitate a meeting with Mr. Cudlin to clarify. The idea of a sub-committee to take care of the initial dealings and proposal was brought up to make sure we submit a clear and concise proposal.

Eve Hennessa presented her work.

Next meeting Sunday, June 8th at 3pm at Jenny’s house in Kensington; poolside with potluck BBQ to follow. The meeting will happen from 3pm to 4:30pm then let the potluck begin! I will be inviting other artists to the potluck as a social art gathering. The pool should be open by then so bring your suits if you are interested in swimming. Please RSVP to jenny.walton@gmail.com this meeting and I will forward directions.

AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING
i. Continue discussions of membership
ii. View final presentation of E32 submission
iii. Arlington Arts Center proposal
iv. artist presentations (if any)
v. exhibition exchange with San Francisco collective Agent Peach

The Associated Press: Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg dies in Fla. at 82

2008-05-13T13:54:00.001-04:00

The Associated Press: Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg dies in Fla. at 82

This is such a huge loss to the art world.

pricing artists DVD's for sale

2008-05-09T12:29:00.004-04:00

This information came to me thru Lea-Ann while hanging the Sparkplug show - and I realized what a great resource it was - hard to find discussion of it anywhere out side the gallery system. It gives good reason to burn & complete these things before you exhibit them. This all made more sense when it was in someone elses words. Thanks!

pricing artists DVD's for sale
AP (Artist Proof) would be priced the highest. For future knowledge, the number of APs in an edition is contingent upon how many copies make up the edition. There should only be one AP for every third of the edition. If there is an edition of three so that means 1 AP. If there is an edition of 10--you would have 3 APs.

SPARKPLUG at Learnapalooza 2008 Saturday, May 10th

2008-05-09T08:00:00.001-04:00

Hope you're planning to join us this Saturday for Learnapalooza DC
2008! Check out this awesome selection of workshops at DCAC:

http://www.dcartscenter.org/sparkplug.htm

SPARKPLUG at Learnapalooza 2008

Artist Materials 101: 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM taught by artist, Jenny
Walton
This short demonstration will take you through materials that artists
have traditionally used up to today's vast variety of widely available
media. We will explore the transition from dirt to paint and
everything in between, focusing on the genres of drawing and painting.

*Black and white
Graphite & Charcoal, Differences between each, how are they made
Inks: Sumi and India
Commercial – traditional vs. modern (natural and synthetic)

*Color pigment – what is it and where does it come from?
Natural vs. synthetic
How does it get mixed to create different mediums
Watercolor, Gouache, Oils, Acrylics, Pastels

*Paper - Small history lesson on papermaking
Examples today’s vast variety
Usage
Eastern vs. western methods

*Painting Grounds
Canvas vs. linen painting

Stretching Your Own Canvas: 3:30 PM to 4:00 PM taught by artist, Peter
Gordon
This demonstration (with a handout) will give people the knowledge to
stretch their own painting canvases in order to save them money and
increase their sense of ownership using a three step demonstration so
people can see the process first hand before attempting in their own
studios.

Demonstration supplies:
• Unprimed canvas (3 pieces, roughly 14-17 inches each)
• Stretcher bars (six 11 inch/ six 14 inch length bars)
• Canvas pliers (1)
• Staple gun (1)
• staples (plenty!!!).

Framing Tips: 4:30 PM to 5:00 PM taught by artist and museum
preparator, Mark Planisek
In this demonstration the canvas that was stretched in the earlier
class is placed in a widely available standard size commercial frame.
Students will get pointers on the different fasteners that can be used
to hold the canvas in the frame, how to wrap a professional picture
wire, when to use D-rings and what kind of hanging nail to use with
each hanging mechanism.

Plus 60 more, learn Mandarin, Improv, Meditation, Juggling, Yoga,
Capoeira, Photoshop, Photography, Pool, and dozens of other things...
all for free.
. l
http://learnapaloozadc.com/workshops/list

AND... AFTER THE WORKSHOPS, LET'S MEET UP FOR DRINKS!

Learnapalooza After-Party
7-10 PM, Saturday May 10th
Local 16 (1602 U St NW)
$4 Learnapalooza drink specials

See you there!

P.S. If you want to help out, email i...@learnapaloozadc.com. We need
volunteers Friday evening 6-8PM and Saturday all day.

Next meeting is planned for Monday May 12, 730 PM

2008-05-07T16:10:00.002-04:00

Hello - Next meeting is planned for Monday May 12, 730 PM at DCAC,
definitely in the gallery - we need to de-install. For the 7 that
were in the show - if you can’t make this meeting you need to let me
know ASAP so I can arrange to get you in to pick up your stuff on
Sunday nite.
Agenda items for next meeting

1- deinstall - post-mort show & learn-a-palooza and document what was
great and what we need to do better

2- presentations
Kofi Dofour cannot make the meeting on Monday so will have to present
later.
I have had inquiries from five or so new people. If you are one of
those new people and would like to present some slides let me know
ASAP. Bring a CD of only five or so jpgs representing your most
current work and plan to talk for 5-10.
3- Working on getting a draft of the E32 project to screen - but not
sure that is going to come through in time for Monday - if it does
we’ll show it

4- Talk about Cuisine des Artistes - DCAC really needs everyone to
help with this. I am glad many of you have mentioned ideas to me, but
you really, really need to email bstan...@dcartscenter.org so he knows
you are confirmed and can put you in touch with the coordinator for
the event. We can brainstorm more ideas at the meeting as it would be
fantastic if everyone that was just in the exhibition could do
appetizers and talk about your experience so far with Sparkplug to the
guests (those that can ‘show us the money’) at this event

5- Talk about my draft for the new Sparkplug web page on
dcartscenter.org as well as possibility of documenting the 1st show
with an online publication

6- plan a June meeting some where other than DCAC (the show that comes
in after us will be de-installing both Sunday and Monday) - options
could be another party or meet at a museum or someone’s studio,

7- decide what you want to do about meetings for July & August so I
can let B & DCAC know

8- ~ALWAYS ALWAYS feel free to email me anything else you want to talk
about or think needs to be added to the next meetings agenda-AND
ANYTHING I MAY HAVE FORGOT!

2008-05-03T17:08:00.000-04:00

Photos of some of the Sparkplug installation at DCAC that ran from May 2 -11, 2008.

2008-05-02T16:11:00.002-04:00

Congratulations and thanks to everyone that helped make this show a reality. Can I just tell all of you how impressed I am with everyone's contributions and thankful I am that you have welcomed me in participating in this experience. The learning and resources shared by this "gang of nine" in the past 4 weeks has surpassed what I had ever imagined and is only the beginning.

Meeting Minutes 04/13/08

2008-04-16T18:37:00.002-04:00

SPARKPLUG 4/14/08 minutes (taken by Karen) There were 12 people in attendance : Jenny, Kathryn, Mike, Mark, Lisa, Deborah, Peter, Lea-Ann, Philip, B, Kofi & Karen
Agenda items were covered as follows AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO RESPOND WITH QUESTIONS, CORRECTIONS OR CLARIFICATIONS –WE COVERED A LOT!:

1-introducing

We had one new prospective member attend the meeting. His name is Kofi Dofour and we will plan of having him do a short presentation of his work at the next meeting. In the meantime his website is http://kofidofour.com/splash.html

2-Slides “E32”

Lisa was kind enough to volunteer to take everyone’s images and burn them to a CD so Lea-Ann could take them home and work with ordering them – at this point we did not put a dead line on this.
• Lea-Ann will put them in a power point so we can all take a look at the presentation.
• Once the presentation is OK’ed Lisa will work on sizing the chosen images (and syncing the music choice),
• Karen or Kathryn need to go back through their emails and get the submission format requirements for resolution to E32 and send to Lisa,
• When we have uploaded to E32 we let Kathryn know so she can let her contact Linda Griggs know,

3-Sparkplug the exhibition

Lea-Ann will be contacting people in this first exhibition (Jenny, Kathryn, Mike, Mark, Lisa, Deborah, Peter, & Karen) to schedule studio visits to get a dialogue going about what work we should be bring for installation on 4/30. She will post these times as open studio times if others are available at the set times and want to participate in the studio visit.

Peter will work on formatting resumes, etc. for a gallery binder for the show. Please send him a resume and statement in Word ASAP so he has time to mock up everyone’s resumes in a similar format.

Karen will work on getting an email phone list distributed for this show so we can contact each other directly rather than through the group in the next two weeks. (You should have received this already) She should also be able to send you a pdf/html of the show postcard for you to send to your individual email lists between the 16th & 18th. Hard-copy postcards should be available the week of the 23rd. Stay tuned for more details on dealing getting hard-copy cards.

Once you have spoken with Lea-Ann make sure that you have the following information for all the works she has selected/suggested you bring to installation

Your name,
title of work
Medium
Dimensions h x w x d
Year

For all future projects – make sure you provide this information with any images that are collected!!!!

critical details as discussed:

Submit resume/statement for binder Sun., April 20
Drop off work and hang the show Wed./Thurs., April 30 & May 1
Opening Event - Fri., May 2
Learn-a-Palooza/Meet the Artists Sat., May 10 – 2 PM to 5:30 PM
Take down show remove work from gallery Sun., May 11 (After 7 PM)
Mon., May 12 (730 PM & after-this is also our next meeting day)

3-Learn-a-Palooza

link to last years Learn-A-Palooza http://www.learnapaloozadc.com/

It was agreed that the format of offering the three workshops we are brainstorming as 25 minutes classes in the following order would be preferable:
230 PM – materials show & tell
330 PM – stretching a canvas
430 PM - Now you want to frame it

If we get a good turn out this will leave us plenty of time to answer questions so we don’t run over out time limit. Right now we can still use the theater for the workshops. The gallery opens at 2 PM.

Lisa and Kathryn can help with set and break down and then assist in the gallery if people come to the meet the artist (though we need to clarify times for them as I don’t think either of them can stay the whole time). We need to be cleaned up and out of the theater by 5:30 PM.

Karen will work on getting the class descriptions posted to learn-a-palooza and the DCAC listserv and approach Utrecht for material donation. Hope to have an answer about that by the end of the month – if not we will need to get stretcher bars to fit in Mark’s 11” x 14” frame.

3-goals for goals

Cuisine des Artistes – is DCAC’s major fundraiser. This year it is on Wed., May 28.

There is more information on the dcartscenter.org website about how to participate. If volunteering artists services will not fit into your schedule please see if you can volunteer in some other way for the event: like help set-up, clean-up, sell memberships. Volunteers are critical to making this a success. Passing on information to people that might attend is also really important to expanding our membership.

3-ideas about ideas-in no particular order

a-Suggestions for the short term to get it ready for the show on the May 2: Post the html of the show card and details and make it link to the blog ASAP before the postcards go out.

Not ASAP but sooner rather than later - we talked about what we needed to add to the Sparkplug page of the DCAC website to more accurately reflect how far we’ve come. So far the belief is that focus, themes and discussions will change and ‘prospectives’ should feel comfortable with working in the collective for the duration of their interest (I think the idea here is along the lines that commitment is only required for ‘projects’ not for participation-does that sound right?)

Participation in the monthly meetings was critical to motivating projects and the artists & curators that were participating so far would welcome anyone that makes the effort to ‘be there’. It is this sharing of experience and idea and being able to lend you individual skills at what you are good that is making this venture collective and a much greater motivating factor than just being a ‘member of a group’.

In general making the blog public was Ok with everyone. Adding a list of shows or some kind of group resume to the blog was suggested that lists the projects we complete. Karen will work from her notes from this discussion to draft something for dcartscenter.org/sparkplug. Be on the lookout to respond with comments to the ‘updated description’ that she will send out on the Google group.

b-curatorial development. Lea-Ann noted that at the first meeting at Bedrock Billiards A LOT of curators showed up and that perhaps we needed to comb through the list and work at re inviting these people to try coming to the set meeting times and get involved in the dialogue. DO we need to also try to develop in the area of writing too?

c-In the future if we want new people to come – we may have to strike doing so much administrative business at the monthly meeting and set secondary meeting times or REALLY use the web & phone ….

4~ACTION!

-Make sure you get in touch and set up your studio visit with Lea-Ann
-Make sure your schedule is clear AT NIGHT in the 30th & 1st so you can help out with the installation – keep both days free in case we can’t hang everything Lea-Ann chooses you will need to get it out of the space on Thursday nite
-Make sure that you come to DCAC with all the price list info-title dimension, etc….
-make sure that you can or arrange for someone else to pick up your works for De0install on May 11 or 12 (we will do our regular meet up on the 12th, 730 PM)

5-Agenda Items for next meeting

The next meeting is planned for Monday, May 12 at 7:30 PM
at the DCAC gallery

~De-Install works from the show that ends on May 11
~Kofi Dofour will present
~hopefully see a draft of the E32 presentation in power point
~plan summer meetings
~ALWAYS ALWAYS feel free to email me anything else you want to talk about or think needs to be added to the next meetings agenda-AND ANYTHING I MAY HAVE FORGOT!

Next Meeting Sunday April 13, 700 PM at DCAC

2008-04-05T13:50:00.003-04:00

Hello - Next meeting is planned for Sunday April 13, 700 PM at DCAC, probably in the gallery.

Agenda

1-Get to work loading up people’s chosen work and formatting the presentation for E32. If Lea-Ann has not already contacted you she hopes to get to everyone by Wed., 4/9. Bring the absolutely highest resolution of the image(s) chosen; and hopefully we will be able to work out the sizing of our images for E32 as a group.

2-Talk about what is underpinning the choices of the photos in order that we all have something to bring to the show installation at DCAC on Wed., 4/30. As mentioned earlier it is likely that some of us may not have the exact works available that get chosen for E32 because the work is sold or destroyed or not printed or what-have-you.…
To recall last meetings discussion there are two major tangents that I remember: 1- entropy, 2-place.

en·tro·py, noun
1. a measure of the disorder that exists in a system
2. a measure of the energy in a system or process that is unavailable to do work. Symbol S
3. a measure of the random errors (noise) occurring in the transmission of signals, and from this a measure of the efficiency of transmission systems

Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

After looking at the definition of entropy, I think that although our discussion of ‘place’ focused on our experience of place as “Washington, DC” I think we all may start thinking about what guides the choice of works we can bring to install as:

1-entropy 2-place 3-systems.

These three words seem like more than enough to get people started.

3- thanks to Peter for volunteering to format a binder for this show – in the future we will want to make sure we keep this up as an electronic file available at DCAC too. I sent out a deadline of 4/25 to have information (A resume and a one to two paragraph statement) to Peter by, but as always the sooner the better. This is Peter's email: pgordon78@yahoo.com

4-Discuss Learn-A-Palooza. We communicated our short meeting about this event and the ideas for the three classes in another post. We will want to nail down the details like times and schedules at this meeting.

In order to post the classes on the Learn-a-Palooza website, have printed info available at the May 2 opening and get the event of the DCAC listserv I need the blurbs as soon as possible (definitely no later that April 15 for the blurbs-if I can get them before the meeting, even better) and canvas stretching and framing sizes (ASAP).

I’m working on developing a materials list to try and get donations from Utrecht but that is not a done deal yet– so if you have something in your studio that you are not going to use and want to bring it on 4/13 to donate, give me a heads up in an email about what it is. karenjoan@gmail.com

3-ideas about ideas  (which I seem to be monopolizing this month)

a-I have some updates concerning the past month or so at DCAC. What brought on my card mock up that is posted on the blog and DCAC’s Cuisine des Artistes upcoming fundraiser and how you can help.

b-my experience at the conference in NYC and some ideas or opportunities that could be pursued in the future,

c-there are at least 3 new people that have requested to join the list serve, have asked me questions and are looking at our posts. I hope to see them at the upcoming meeting.

d-as this first exhibit gets off the ground, we by default will begin to form a particular public identity for DCAC’s Sparkplug. I urge you to look at the Sparkplug tab on the DC Arts Center website http://dcartscenter.org/sparkplug.htm and think about the specific aspects of the experience so far, what we have contributed to this discussion and where we want to go.

4-goals for goals

a-discuss curatorial development, where do we find more idea people to help craft shows and statements, etc. as well as give fresh perspectives from non-artists perspective and how do we entice them to like us?

Email me any additions you'd like to see on the agenda, any questions or corrections. karenjoan@gmail.com

2008-03-22T14:56:00.006-04:00

LEFT - mock up for possible invite

HERE IS THE TIMETABLE FOR THE SHOW WE COMMITTED TO AT DCAC -

Provide information for press releas/binder: April 13

Installation: April 30 and May 1, 2008

Opening Reception: May 2, 2008

Dismantle exhibition: Sunday, May 11 (evening -while the gallery is closed) or Monday May 12, 2008

2008-03-14T17:20:00.002-04:00

Hello - for discusions sake I am posting my first short semester paper, seeing it's about

~the relationship between art & school (relevent to Learnapalooza),
~I kind of take a stab at DC, which is kind of unlike me - but after a decade of not leaving the city very often I am becoming more and more convinced that we need a non-federal, relatively independant CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM in this city (which is relevent to maintaining and growing the arts and artists in the city)
~uses the New Museum's program "Night School" to introduce this facinating guy Anton Vidokle, I am most impressed that I have found THREE collections of essays that he has participated in published online as PDFs - and think in the future that even if we cannot pay to create 'catalogs' for whatever we do - we should definately consider using this online psoting of pdf books method - especially as we have some design people with some crazy skills that could make an online pdf look really hot and print really nice.

recess is over...Karen

Sleepless in DC because of “Night School”

Sleepless not because of the eleventh hour push to get assignments done or worrying about grades, but sleepless thinking about a program going on for the entire year of 2008 at the New Museum in New York City; called “Night School”, the program is commissioned from artist Anton Vidokle by the New Museum and the core offering to the public is four days of seminars at the end of every month which are run and moderated by more than a dozen artists, writers and contemporary thinkers. Much more than just a program of public seminars, the New Museum’s literature relates and expands on the format of a “temporary school” where museums, organizing contributors, twenty-five hand selected core students and the interested public facilitate extended critical engagement in contemporary art, institutions and the role of the artist ("Night School").

The yearlong “Night School” falls under and alongside the auspices of other new programs that coincide with the opening of the New Museum’s brand new building. The “Night School” organizers are counted as ‘fellows’ of a new program called Museum as Hub which will partner four international art organizations with the New Museum’s. All will implement programming in their locale on the agreed topic of ‘neighborhood’, cross planning and hosting the other institutions literally and virtually on their websites, and in exhibition spaces and education centers. Museum as Hub is described as a “new model for curatorial practice and institutional collaboration…to enhance our understanding of contemporary art around the world” ("Night School"). This interconnected tangle of programs and exhibitions seems cleverly formulated to perhaps for the first time cut into the maze of bias, nepotism, leading experts and arbiters of taste to rediscover what discovering art is: a very real desire to ‘get it’.

In Vidokle’s transcribed opening remarks for “Night School” he frighteningly states “while it is still possible to produce critical art object, there seems to be no public out there to complete its transformative function, possibly rendering the very premise behind contemporary art practice effectively futile” (2). He describes the subtle and complex historic difference between the socially engaged public of the past and the one of the present that seems to be degenerating into an audience that does not seek a role beyond “being consumers of leisure and spectacle” ("Vidokle" 2). This is a clear observation that should give pause to thought for all, not just artists.

What seems to be fundamental to the understanding of “Night School” as a commissioned work of art is that it is a work that finally gets around to exploring what has always been crucial to appreciating art, the process of engagement. Far from blockbuster exhibitions that have brought a whole world of paintings to billboards and covered city buses in advertising ‘skins’, “Night School” is designed to “aggressively solicit audiences…through advertisement” of its “content” not it’s “objects” ("Vidokle" 3). Like the adage “a workman is only as good as his tools” this far-reaching program does not shy away from the part of the system that works, but seeks to uproot the insidious and pervasive apathy of thought that approaches the practice of art and trappings of culture as just another commodity to be pigeonholed or peddled to niche markets.

Vidokle describes the product of “Night School” as “framed by itself” and while assisted by the museum the program does not totally rely on the institution to “display it” ("Vidokle" 4). It is exactly because of inspired statements like this that I am simultaneously loathing and loving the internet at the moment for sending me the enchanted list-serve email that made me aware of this program happening in a city 350 miles away from me in the first place. Lauded for the accessibility of its national museums, that are admission free and open every day but Christmas, the institutions in Washington, DC have historically served as window for a national audience to look upon this countries objects of significance. The Smithsonian Institution and other national galleries have likewise existed as a “frame for itself” as the nation’s cabinet of wonders for spectacle and for acceptable interpretation. But from my perspective as a full-time colonial citizen of the United States capital city circa 2008 it seems that in DC, as in Vidokle’s description of his project for Manifesta 6 “the situation demands not commentary, but involvement and production”("Exhibition" 2). The desire to be a part of a dialogue and the anticipation of carrying away ideas, rather than note cards and coffee mugs, has already taken a strong hold on me. Unlike the ambivalence I feel for the entreaty of my peers that I ‘really must go to Miami one of these years’- I feel drawn to “Night School” in an almost supernatural way; not unlike Vidokle describes his reading of George Maciunas unrealized vision for the New Marlborough Centre for the Arts that that Vidokle says “is a proposal that hinges on the notion of ‘possibility’, saying far less about what needs to be done than about what can be done” ("Exhibition" 3). And on that note – there is something in this man Vidokle’s single-minded repetition that there must be a way found for art, lasting great art, that can be made available to the public independent of the institutions that the leading society is holding onto with a death grip. As individuals, we have become too comfortable with our insular tendencies. Unlike the spirit of revolution and manifesto driven by desires to break from totalitarianism and capitalism that are now reflected upon as the impetus for the ‘true’ art of the 20th century, the 21st century has yet to name its motivation. I vote for thoughtful collaboration, access to information and equitable education and what better place to start than art.

Works Cited

Night School. 2008. New Museum. New York. 5 Mar 2008. .

Vidokle, Anton. “Exhibition as School in a Divided City.” Reading Room,
unitednationsplaza. 12 Mar. 2008. readingroom/VIdolke_ExhibitionAsSchool.pdf>.

---. “Opening Remarks. Anton Vidokle. Night School, January 31,
2008.” 31 Jan 2008. 12 Mar. 2008 .

Karen Joan Topping
Independent Writing Project I
P. Falzone
Washington, DC
3/14/08

SPARKPLUG 3/10/08 minutes

2008-03-11T17:28:00.002-04:00

SPARKPLUG 3/10/08 minutes (taken by Karen) There were 9 people in attendance : Jenny, Kathryn, Mike, Mark, Lisa, Deborah, Peter, Lea Ann & Karen
Agenda items were covered as follows:

1-presentations
Everyone that came to the meeting managed to get a number of images loaded into the flickr group – We let it run as a slide show on projection as we discussed the similarities; focusing largely on Lea Ann’s observation of a commonality of “subtle entropy” in the theme, execution or process of all of the work, regardless of the style. This is the crux of how the curatorial aspect for this particular curated slide set all inclusions will come from this recently posted group of work. Lea is going to work on a “slide list” indicating which photos she is selecting and will try to have that to each of us by the beginning of next week.

Hopefully by the time she makes the decisions known to us, we will have communicated with Linda Griggs at E32 to check what technical requirements there are for the jpgs. In short though we should all plan to bring CD’s of the photos Lea selects-we will download all of them at next meeting to one computer then work on getting the presentation in whatever format it needs to be sent to E32 in. Downloading the photos at the meeting will also serve as the MASTER file for any other opportunity we may have to present this work.

2-Slides “The Show”
An unexpected opportunity to use the gallery for a Sparkplug Exhibition has arisen in May. It would only be for a two week slot, but there seemed to be a general consensus that in developing and preparing for the E32 submission we could also test out the developing theme in the gallery.

We will be hashing out the logistical and curatorial details over the coming weeks, but the critical details will not change.

Drop off work and hang the show Tues./Wed., April 29 & 30
Opening Event - Fri., May 2
Learn-a-Palooza Sat., May 10
Take down show remove work from gallery Sun., May 11 (After 7 PM)
Mon., May 12 (until 5 PM)

3-Learn-a-Palooza
Here is the link to last years Learn-A-Palooza.
http://www.learnapaloozadc.com/
I (Karen) talked more about my experience last year and the different approaches we could take to participating. Given that this event would occur during the period that we would have our work in the gallery we could schedule gallery talks or talk about Sparkplug; we could get on the schedule and look for other instructors to do art related classes and just serve as hosts, individually we can work on developing classes.

Peter’s suggestion of showing “how to stretch a canvas” was a great idea. I’ve already elaborated in an earlier email about “painting show & tell”. In my experience last year – do not underestimate your potential to teach something small or simple.

Here is last year’s organizer that will give more info on how to think about being a teacher
http://wiki.learnapaloozadc.com/index.php?title=FAQ

Last years rules of participation were as below and I am guessing they will be very similar this year:
• classes are on April 28, between 10AM and 6PM
• classes must start on the hour or half-hour
• they must be 25 or 55 min long
• they must be free and open to the public

As about 1/3 to ½ of us were engaged in other activities between now & April 1 - we will try to have a mini-brainstorming meeting just on Learn-a-Palooza for those who are interested or available to help sometime in the last week of March or first week of April – more details later.

3-goals for goals
none come to mind that are not related to the above two items

3-ideas about ideas-in no particular order
none come to mind that are not related to the above two items
Except for fact there was a lot of interesting things said relative, tangentially and in support of Lea’s bringing up tension, place and entropy as a theme. I don’t have time to put them down but think this would be a completely appropriate topic to try and capture what many of you said by going on the blog and posting about the other things we brought up when discussing the slide project.

4~ACTION!
Lea presents us with a preliminary slide list so we can all get out highest resolution images ready to bring to the meeting on CD’s or thumb drives.

Plan a mini-meet-up to see if it is of interest to develop anything for Learn-A-Palooza

5-Agenda Items for next meeting
The next meeting is planned for Sunday, April 13 at 7:00 PM
at the DCAC gallery
~bring photo files for download
~go over curatorial statement and set schedule for any extra PR that we want other than the DCAC weekly list serve news letter
~get specific commitments from people for the exhibition and Learn-a-Palooza
~Ideas about ideas
~Goals for goals
~ALWAYS ALWAYS feel free to email me anything else you want to talk about or think needs to be added to the next meetings agenda-AND ANYTHING I MAY HAVE FORGOT-I am too sleepy today!

2008-02-29T18:02:00.003-05:00

Check out this page at NewMuseum.org:

http://www.newmuseum.org/events/139

Night School is an artist's project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize and conduct the program.

I look at this program at the New Museum and I am in awe. My love of the NewMuseum in NYC and my experience in Philly at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art)which I am also in heart with are showing me that part of DC's problem when it comes to Art is that there is no reasonably sized privately funded art venue. The Katzen could become it- but it's not quite that yet.

The depth with which the TNM & ICA plumb their communities for shows and ideas and enrichment is staggering. The federal museums are trying, but so long as local art shown at these venues are spread out it seems like exceptional local art will always seem like "tokenism" to any outsider.

The big money person that realized they could come into DC and start building a private or NGP/NFP venue like the institutions I mentioned in Philly & NYC may have an uphill battle - but so did the New Museum and the ICA when they first opened if anyone that reads this has kept track. Something to think about and proselytize for.

THANK YOU KATHRYN & SPENCE

2008-02-24T17:16:00.004-05:00

was what the google group post was supposed to say....Thank you to Kathryn and her husband Spence for opening up their home and giving us the resources to have a longer more natural discussion in light of starting to work on this first project. Thank you for coming and bringing good stuff to eat and drink. Thank you for being interesting and engaged and giving a damn.

To get the ball rolling on a ‘slide show’ to submit to E32. To get the ball rolling fairly quickly we have two ACTION items for the next meeting.

1-a private flickr group was created for everyone to load 10 to 20 slides on before the next meeting on March 10. I sent you all an invite emails, but if you want to go and set up an account with another email the url is: http://www.flickr.com/groups/dcacsparkplug/

The work you put on flickr should be your best foot forward, best slides you have and remember final submission needs to be projected at 40” x 60” so make sure you have a high quality image available for all the images in case it is chosen-(the whole product here is of the reproduced images.)

Here is a link on how to post photos to the groups photo “pool” (I am a first time flickr user so those with more experience feel free to give some pointers)

http://www.flickr.com/help/groups/#57

2- think of themes that might interesting for this slide show to talk about at the meeting
After discussion of themes at the next meeting, Lea Ann has agreed to help with crafting the short curatorial statement and picking work from the slides loaded on flickr and Lisa has agreed to work on finding the 3 minute musical accompaniment.

Other stuff we talked about 'in group' ...

In putting together the raw material for E32 there was then interest  in putting the presentation into a power point or other similar  software and setting up a similar slide program at a local venue, like  The Diner or projecting along (or on) a band or at other event in DC  to promote Sparkplug and DCAC. There are probably other venues  outside of DC that project artists works that we can seek out locally  and far afield so keep your eyes peeled for similar opportunities.

some other stuff I thought of ....

I think we may have 1-2 more simple questions for Linda Griggs (who  runs E32) like can they accept video snips, how much can she let us  know about any local group she might match us with and how much notice  we will have about when the work might be presented. I will work on  that with Kathryn. let me know if you think of anything else we need  to ask.
Also we started trying to figure out about how long each slide was  projected (which seems like about 6 seconds) Figuring out in advance  how many images v. description slides fit into a 3 minute presentation  may be helpful if someone has the time to look at the archived  presentations on the E32 website and do the math.

2008-02-23T17:43:00.001-05:00

Here is the flyer for the conference I will be participating in at the end of March that I told many of you about this weekend - this seemed like the best way to pass on the information. Thanks for the support. Karen Joan

Call for Entry

2008-02-22T18:08:00.001-05:00

PAPER AIRPLANE: Call for Entries

Paperwork Gallery in Baltimore, MD presents a juried
show of works on paper, including drawings, paintings,
prints, mixed media, and photography.

Jurors: Amy Eva Raehse, Director of Goya Contemporary
Gallery and Jackie Milad, Director of the Union
Gallery at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Exhibition dates: June 15 - August 30. Applications
must be postmarked by April 1. Applications should
Include three jpegs, a title sheet, a one page resume,
and a $15 application fee made out to Paperwork
Gallery. Send applications to: Paperwork Gallery. 107
E. Preston Street. Baltimore, MD. 21202.

Please email us at paperworkgallery@gmail.com or visit
us at http://paperworkgallery.blogspot.com for more information.

2008-02-14T17:33:00.005-05:00

Kathryn just sent me this V-day post from the E32 people - lovely little slide show that is far from 'sugary' - it actually had a friend of mine in it (frosted police car, mmmmm).

Thinking about what we would send - I think something themed is strong-it gives you a reason to keep wanting to see more....not all of us may have work to submit if we narrow the theme, but it may make more of an impact, just a thought....

2/10/08 Meeting Minutes

2008-02-13T17:48:00.005-05:00

SPARKPLUG 2/10/08 minutes (taken by Karen) There were 7 people in attendance :
Jenny, Kathryn, Philip, Mike, Deborah, Peter & Karen

Agenda items were covered as follows:

1-presentations
Mike Matason & Peter Gordon presented their work. (Disclaimer: I am going to sum it up in just 1-3 sentences - (if anyone thinks I have severely misrepresented email me at karenjoan@gmail with what you want fixed or what you thought.)

Mike Matason works in the medium that he describes as “visual light painting photography” using a black and white film camera he investigates how film is capable of arresting how sensory perception makes the intangibility of light tangible. Capturing bursts of light in abstract patterns and “painting” in the features of his portrait sitters with a focused beam of light by using the ‘bulb’ shutter setting, Mike is also finding that he catches many intangible qualities of time and motion and the personalities.

Peter Gordon is painter that does very heavily textured oil paintings inspired by the varied micro and macrocosmic visual shape and masses found by looking at landscapes. In the process of translating a seemingly horizon less landscape the process of laying down the media of paint or drawing materials strongly reflects his viewpoint that circumstance of both art and life are driven by uncontrollable interruptions and respect for what cannot be controlled.

2-The Party
We talked about the impending inaugural Sparkplug party on Saturday, 2/23/08. Details on the party were posted to the list and the blog on Feb. 3 Feel free to ask me questions, coordinate rides or potluck thru me and please RSVP to karenjoan@gmail.com by 2/18/08 so I know we will have enough soda & pretzels.

3-Shelfari
I have set up a book group for SPARKPLUG on Shelfari. http://www.shelfari.com/
The group is called SPARKPLUG. You will need to create a personal login to use the website. You can search for SPARKPLUG in a field in the top margin of the home page (but make sure to switch the search parameter from books to groups.)
http://www.shelfari.com/clubsearch.aspx?keywords=sparkplug
We can use the group to write responses specific to the discussions we are having in meetings. I encourage you to set up and account and write down your responses regarding the books that you have read and recommended at the last meeting or add books you have thought of since then.

3-goals for goals
Possible project to think about…In planning the party Kathryn & I began talking about a good possible fist project of putting together a ‘curated’ slide show in earnest for a call for projects found here : http://e32.hitart.com/

Pre-screening the web site and thinking about how to approach this project is something we hope getting informally discussed at the party in addition to more people getting to know each other better as we start thinking about working collectively on something.

3-ideas about ideas-in no particular order
~Philip has suggested doing critiques of how we might present our work as individuals if we were sending images to a jury panel. We had an extensive discussion about how these panels resemble“cattle call” type actor’s auditions – if 100 people send 20 slides - each that is 2000 (!) slides that need to be viewed in one sitting. With that many slides to view, artworks (and the artists that paid $20 to be reviewed) are quickly cut out of the jury process for reasons such as:
*unfocused slides
*slides of 2-d work where the work is photographed crooked
*using jpgs that were watermarked for use on the web
*not sending a ‘slide list’ with your jpgs or pdfs listing the medium, size, title of the works

*sending slides of work that show too many different ideas
*sending useless details that don’t show any more content then the picture of the whole work
*not sending details when you really need to – esp. for installation & sculpture

The first 4 items apply to everyone. The last 3 items need to be handled differently by everyone. There are many subtle things that you may not think about because you are so intimate with your own work. A jury that has never seen it does not take anything for granted. Re-doing our slide presentations and running a jury panel on OURSELVES is the suggestion that is on the table. Think about how much time you need to prepare and if this is something of interest, we can pick a deadline for SUBMISSION to our ‘fake’ jury.

~Jenny has started working for International Arts & Artists and can get you information about getting group insurance coverage from them.

~Lisa McCarthy (who many of you have already met at Sparkplug meetings) is having an opening of a solo show called Astral Bodies at …..Tada……DCAC! The opening on Friday, 2/22/08. Please come out and support her and see her paintings in the ‘flesh’.
Info: http://dcartscenter.org/event.htm#Gallery

(Aside: In general it would be great to see more Sparkplug people at each & every DCAC opening, not just those of Sparkplug members. It’s a convenient ‘extra’ collective building time. I am at almost all of them and it would be great to dialogue about what people think about the shows that are being put on at DCAC and meet more of the DCAC staff & board.)

4~ACTION!
~COME TO LISA’s OPENING (2/22/08) & THE PARTY AT KATHRYN’S (2/23/08)

5-Agenda Items for next meeting
The next meeting is tentatively planned for Monday March 10 at 7:30 PM at the DCAC gallery

~talk about the party, Astral Bodies and curated slide show idea
~set possible deadline for ‘fake’ jury panel
~Ideas about ideas
~Goals for goals
keep forging ahead towards "Meatier Discussion"

(ALWAYS ALWAYS feel free to email me anything else you want to talk about or think needs to be added to the next meetings agenda)

2008-02-03T15:28:00.001-05:00

Sparkplug: Beyond Networking

"the party"

Please RSVP for you and a friend or two, to Karen at karenjoan@gmail.com by February 18.

When: Saturday, February 23, 2008; 8 PM to Midnight. Presentation at 9:30.

Where: 2825 49th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007

How: Hosted by Sparkplug member Kathryn McDonnell at her home. (This location is not near a metro station, and while the house is on the D6 bus route, the closest stop is over half a mile walk. Driving or arranging a ride with someone in the group is highly encouraged.)

What: BYOB/potluck social event in a more relaxed, domestic setting designed to revisit where we started and push the question "What's next for Sparkplug?"

Why: As we approach our six month mark, a consistently committed core of artists and curators is beginning to take shape. Where do we go now? Come to this evening and be a part of the continued efforts to raise the level of dialogue and commitment to the collective Sparkplug community to the next level.

Chips, dips & non-alcohol stuff will be provided, but like our Sparkplug meetings so far, potluck and responsible BYOB is highly encouraged.

New introduction of excellent, under-represented artistic and curatorial talent from our collective spheres of influence is also highly encouraged.

There will be a short presentation by Karen and Kathryn at 9:30 PM.

artadvice.com

2008-01-31T21:42:00.001-05:00

For discusions sake, regarding the 'practicalities' of our chosen career path (which we all seem to like to talk about), this is an good list serve to join: artadvice.com. Not rocket science, or spam (she only posts once every 3 months or so) just usually practical, dorky reminder, self-help type stuff, like this article: 5 facts artists need to face. The article can be found online at: http://www.artadvice.com/advice/article30.php
--

SAVE THE DATE !

2008-01-18T17:36:00.001-05:00

February 23rd for a Sparkplug party-

If anyone feel like being fun, forum is open for ideas on a theme or name
for the innaugural event.

More details soon about time and place-

Dorkbot-anyone?

2008-01-14T17:45:00.001-05:00

I have been lurking on this list - "dorkbot" and wonder if anyone has ever checked them out? I certainly recognize some of the members names, but I don't know anyone very well. As my work gets more technical and technological, it seems like a great way to pump up your own DIY skills.

I am not going to be able to make this meeting, but I'll put it out there that if there is anyone else interested in going to one of their meetings or MAKE sessions in future I am totally up for it.

Karen

WHAT: Inaugural DorkbotDC + Make:DC Workshop
WHEN: 16 January 2008 (Wednesday), 7 - 9pm
WHERE: Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences
6th & E Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 334-1201 (for directions)
Click here for a map
URLs: http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/
http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotdc/

ALWAYS FREE! (Except for materials, see below.)

Feel free to forward this notice to other interested parties.

Join us for the first-ever joint meeting of Dorkbot DC with the first-ever meeting of Make:DC!

During this meeting, we will be building LED cubes as seen on the Make blog:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/09/make_a_pocket_led_cube_we.html
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/09/make_a_pocket_led_cube_we_1.html

But we're going to improve on it by using an open-source Arduino microcontroller instead of an ATtiny2313V.

The chosen project will provide an opportunity for participants to learn:

Structural and electrical soldering
Programming and usage of microcontrollers
Simple programming
About the economical but versatile Arduino microcontroller that participants can use as a basis for future projects

there is more technical stuff, but I am cutting it off here - I think you get teh flavor of the thing...k

Goooooooooooo Sean!

2008-01-10T18:10:00.000-05:00

Yay Sean - thanks for all the enthusiasm and useful stuff that you are sending to the Google group - YOU ROCK!

1/7/08 Meeting Minutes

2008-01-09T18:07:00.002-05:00

SPARKPLUG 1/7/08 minutes (taken by Karen)
There were 6 people in attendance
Sean, Jenny, Kathryn, Mark, Lea & Karen

Agenda items were covered as follows:

1-presentations
Sean Hennessy presented jpgs of his work. (Disclaimer: I am going to sum it up in just 1-3 sentences – (if anyone thinks I have severely misrepresented email me at karenjoan@gmail with what you want fixed or what you thought.)

Sean Hennessy does mixed media constructions using materials like plaster, concrete (raw and pigmented) and glass casting of items like toys, light bulbs, tools and hardware. Inspired by mythology, industry, religion, energy, and archeology he frequently engages in the retelling of classic stories with common contemporary objects, instilling in them a “Narrative of Relics” as a way of contextualizing their cultural content, meaning and identity.

2-surveys
Six individuals have responded to the survey, which gleaned in 4 pages of results, expertly compiled by Jenny. Two mentionable items are the varied skills and resources that were listed by us and the overwhelming interest in being connected to an engaging community of artists that is interested in “cultivat[ing] new ideas” and discussing art on a professional level. These surveys so far seem to justify the conversational discussion format that is continuing to develop as this community becomes more “collective”.

[While it was not discussed at the meeting I do have copies of the results if you would like one, please ask me for it at a meeting. While I presently do not foresee results being compiled again until some yet unknown milestone, having individual record of peoples interests will be helpful to have on file in the future. If you have not filled one out you can get a blank survey in the file section of the dcacsparkplug Googlegroup. When complete, bring it to a meeting email it to Jenny Walton (Jenny.Walton@gmail.com) or myself (karenjoan@gmail.com).

3-ideas about ideas-in no particular order
~HAVE A PARTY! try to bring together the Monday people and the Sunday people and some new people in a more relaxed venue-like someone’s home. Stay tuned, more on this very, very soon
~Sean offered to post information regarding an upcoming film series about sculptors (films
on Richard Serra may be some of the first to be scheduled), be on the lookout.
~We started talking about the WACK! Exhibit, but it seems that of the six people in attendance only Kathryn & I went and we saw each other at NWMA so we had already talked about it. (WACK! will be at NYMOMA at the PS space, you should still try to see it)
~after Kathryn & I gave our synopsis of WACK! the discussion turned into a sort of – “one that got away” reminiscence by everyone else that was there – (you know, the exhibitions that you really meant to go to, know would be important to your development, but still missed going to see.)
~as some of us filled each other in on what others had missed at certain shows like Richard Serra in MOMANY this summer, Julie Taymor at NMWA, Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting at MAD, NY the two following ideas came up

~ Lea had suggested a reading list as well as maybe trying to pick one book that none of us had read and all try to read it – the suggestion is NOT for a book club, (I don’t think any of us has time for that) but for one book that we can all try to get into and draw discussions out of.

Suggestions so far are

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Art & Fear

The Shape of Content (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)

Ross King The Judgment Of Paris (the Revolutionary Decade That Gave The World Impressionism

What Painting Is

Pictures and Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried in Front of Paintings

Regarding the Pain of Others

Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston

Taking the Leap: Building a Career As a Visual Artist - (Not for discussion purposes, but recommended by Sean & myself as a very practical book to have about doing your own PR, taxes, exemptions, budgeting and all kinds of stuff)

Certainly check out these books and try to think of others and post them to the group – I am suggesting now that at the February meeting we try to narrow it down to 5 books and then pick one that we can all try to read this YEAR – just one book –

~In discussing setting up a book list it was suggested that a tag/bookmark lists for books & websites would be good – in hindsight I have thought of linking to exhibitions past present & future that come up in meetings given that there are permalinks on many websites not – it would be a great resource to have)

Sean has already suggested a bookmark site and set up a flickr group for us. We could also set up a book list on amazon.com, shelfari.com or goodreads.com or explore using http://ma.gnolia.com or http://del.icio.us/

(don’t want to get too many web things going here – everyone take a look at these sites, Mike checked in with me and he’s exploring ways for setting up better blog discussion threads, I have given him a heads up about trying to incorporate these other lists to the blog as well so stay tuned)

4- goals for goals

~HAVE A PARTY !

~consider hosting practical artist workshops on taxes/business sides. Sean mentioned a workshop he attended in the past run by Lenny Campello / Frasier gallery a few years ago that was very, very good. The names Sarah Stout and David Furchgott of International Art & Artists were mentioned as people that might be familiar with Lenny’s workshop and be able to come up with something similar.

4~ACTION!

~Recommended openings this Saturday (on January 12th) on 14th Street

Phil Nesmith at Irvine: http://irvinecontemporary.com/index.php
and
15 ways of looking at Philip Barlow at Curators Office: http://www.curatorsoffice.com

5-Agenda Items for next meeting

The next meeting is tentatively planned for Sunday February 10 at 7 PM place TBD (tho’ probably will be in the DCAC gallery
~Mike, and maybe Pat present their work
~Ideas about ideas
~Goals for goals
~talk about the 14th Street openings, discussion ideas and headway on virtual tools to assist with our development of ideas
~keep forging ahead towards “Meatier Discussion”

2008-01-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

Okay,

As discussed last night...I'm forwarding the following links to area blogs that I know of.

http://artificeau.blogspot.com/

http://artificesatellite.blogspot.com/

Great Meeting!

2008-01-07T23:46:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to say what a great meeting we had tonight with awesome discussions and ideas happening! Thanks everyone!

2008-01-03T17:22:00.002-05:00

Hello - let's go for it and have a January meeting, I could not get my studio ready for a visit in time so it will be in teh DCAC gallery again, Monday, January 7, at 7:30 PM.

Agenda for 1/7/08 SPARKPLUG meeting

(feel free to email me at karenjoan@gmail.com with other suggestions before Monday as this may be a 'lite' meeting if no one presents) This fact will give us more
time to talk about the NMWA and the Corcoran though.

items are as follows:

1-presentations

Not sure if anyone else is ready to show work - please speak up or
just show up with 1-5 jpgs or a short form of audio or video or what
ever it is you do and we will accommodate that first.

Tim, Mike, Sean or Lea Ann are natural candidates. Are any of you
ready or even able to make it on Monday?

Sorry I still haven't gotten to posting the power point with notes on
the Google group, I am going to try to get it done for this for this
month.

2-surveys

Still working on the statistical part of this one...so we will try for
the next meeting to see if it shows us anything different than what we
have been talking about in person.

If you still need to fill one out you can get a blank one in the file
section of the dcacsparkplug Googlegroup. Email it to Jenny Walton
(Jenny.Walton@gmail.com) when it is filled out.

3-ACTION!

Talk about WACK! Show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and
a piece called "Venus" at the Corcoran.

Hopefully there were some takers for this action, we'll talk about it
and see what was good or what could have been better.

4-ideas about ideas-

Fresh & new brainstorming or habituating group think, you decide

4- goals for goals

Most of the goals from last meeting had to do with skills, games &
'meatier' discussions. We'll see if the Action! Assignment SPARKED (ha-first time that happened) anything meaty, and go from there.

Saturday- Free Creativity Brainwave Workshop

2007-12-13T17:43:00.001-05:00

This workshop is run by a former creative director of Discovery Channel, HBO and NBC and Pat wanted me to pass it on to all of you. (DOUBLE CLICK on the photo to make it big enough to read!)

2007-12-11T16:58:00.001-05:00

call to ACTION! from the 12/9/07 meeting

1-The Wack! Show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts ends on Sunday (12/16/07). Of the 7 of us that were at last Sunday's meeting at least 4 of us were interested in going so we thought it would a good jumping off spot for discussion. We set a loose schedule to be at NMWA between Noon & 2:30 PM. If you prefer to go on your own or can't make this time frame, that's cool, but I do hope you see the show.

To start off the discussion here is a link to a review I wrote in October of the WACK! show at NMWA on my school blog. If you are "afraid" this is just a show of feminist art, or artists that are "Feminists" I think you are wrong. Take a look at the review.

National Museum of Women in the Arts, is at:
1250 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20005, 202-783-5000, 1-800-222-7270

Admission
Adults: $10.00, Visitors 60 and over: $8.00, Students: $8.00, NMWA members: Free
Youth 18 and under: Free, Free Community Days are the first Sunday of every month.

Hours
Monday-Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Sunday: noon - 5:00 p.m.

2- We also discussed an installation that sparked an interesting discussion about drawing. It is called Loop and is by Jennifer Steinkamp's and seems like it is on view right now as part of the Corcoran's permanent collection. The Corcoran graciously provided this archived link to info about the piece called Loop. It would be interesting if WE ALL went and looked at it and then talked about it in relation to drawing. Once again the loose plan is to meet here at 2:30 PM, Saturday 12/15/07 if you are interested. The Corcoran is at 500 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20006, 202) 639-1700.

Hours

10 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Thursday. The Gallery is closed Tuesdays.

Admission
General Admission $6, Children aged six and under admitted free of charge.
Complimentary Admission for Members. General admission gains the visitor access to the Corcoran’s permanent collection galleries. All reciprocity agreements will be honored. However there is an additional charge for the special exhibition (Annie Leibovitz & Ansel Adams)- we were not really focusing on that, just "Loop" in the meeting so don't be compelled to see it except for your own edification.

12/09/07 meeting minutes

2007-12-11T13:27:00.003-05:00

SPARKPLUG 12/09/07 minutes (taken by Karen)
There were 7 people in attendance
Jennifer, Jenny, Mike, Lisa, Philip, Kathryn & Karen
(These will be posted in the file section of the Google Group – if I have missed something please feel free to download the notes and add or correct, just make sure to date & initial the newly posted document)

Agenda items were covered as follows:
~assess Sunday Monday meeting times
1-presentations
Lisa McCarty and Kathryn McDonnell both gave presentations and like the members that went last month I am going to attempt to sum it up in just 1-3 sentences – if I have severely misrepresented you email me at karenjoan@gmail with what you want fixed.
I am going to try to get the PowerPoint presentation with notes up on the Google group before the end of the month so anyone that is interested but has not made to a meeting can take a look.
Lisa McCarty
Lisa McCarty does mixed media work on canvas inspired by the experience of live performance and independent music. She incorporates original photos of performances she attends at intimate rock & roll venues and transfers then to canvas using iron-on paper. She then paints into the resulting grid and images being conscious of both the image and the elements of painting like color and gesture as she also tries to capture elements of experience, perception and memory.
Kathryn McDonnell
Kathryn McDonnell paints abstract expanses of saturated color on canvas. She builds up rich textures and experiential moments in the canvases that are inspired by direct experiences. In translating her experiences into paint she is also inspired to name the language and objects in her titles and prose writing that enforce the visceral experience that she is investigating with paint and canvas.

2-surveys
Still working on the statistical part of this one…so we will try for the next meeting to see if it shows us anything different than what we have been talking about in person.
If you still need to fill one out you can get a blank one in the file section of the dcacsparkplug Googlegroup. When complete, email it to Jenny Walton (Jenny.Walton@gmail.com) when it is filled out.
3-ideas about ideas-in no particular order
~we batted around ideas about the commonality in Lisa’s & Kathryn’s work, as well as the work we had seen before. In no particular order this list of ideas / works came up:
Breath, layer, layering, layers of meaning, performance, mapping, sky, air, projection, and drawing
This last item, drawing, brought up some interesting comparisons of how we define drawings and some other tangents that lead to the idea to attend an exhibition together to spark discussion topics.
Some of us already wanted to see the WACK! Show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts before it closes on Sunday so we are going to meet there THIS SATURDAY 12/15/07 from noon to 230 then go to the Corcoran from 300 to 5 to see a “projected drawing” that Jenny described.
This is not like a guided tour, you can casually come for as long or as short as you like. The idea is that by seeing the same show we can all start appreciating the “Thrown-Togetherness” (Lisa’s excellent term) of our personalities and backgrounds.
~ This falls under both ideas and goals-have a meeting that was devoted to the more raw side of the work – not an academic style critique, but a forum where each artist could talk about what troubles them about their own work or art practice (technical, philosophical, issues they have problems with, etc.) - so they can then hear other peoples responses to that one thing, I think the idea was that by letting each artist has to pick something that they are critical of in their own work and focusing on that it would be both helpful to the artist and help us get to know each other
~there is still interest in visiting people’s personal studio space, but we need someone to volunteer to get this going

4- goals for goals
~don’t get ahead of ourselves, get to know each other before we start trying to make proposals, get to know each other, figure out what is interesting about the ‘randomness’ of us meeting
~try to plan a meeting of artist – games – where the outcome may be a work of art, a drawing game or something to do with picture taking were mentioned, I think. This all boils down to actually making collaborative work.
~ get a “meatier” discussion going (Mike also volunteered to help with the blog to see if he can recommend a different format to use for discussion)
~ try to be more rigorous about discussions by having one person post an idea on the blog on a weekly/bi-weekly basis. Ideally we would respond on the blog as well as take the discussion from online into the in-person meetings
~ put into a future meeting agenda a mini – class on how to read and write using a blog template
4~ACTION!
See the WACK! Show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts before it closes on Sunday.
Go to the Corcoran to see the “projected drawing” on the Venus
I will send more on these venues and what we planned under a different heading. If you can’t make it try to go see it on your own.
5-Agenda Items for next meeting
The next meeting is tentatively planned for Monday January 7 at 7:30 PM – place TBD (probably DCAC, but I may try to get my studio presentable to host the first studio visit
~Mike, Tim and Sean still need to present as well as anyone else that might be lurking out there that is interested.
~Status of returned surveys
~Ideas about ideas
~Goals for goals
~talk about the WACK! Exhibition and this projected ‘drawing’ at the Corcoran (Hopefully this topic will be narrowed in the discussion that takes place at the museums & online)

Images for Tonight!

2007-12-09T09:42:00.001-05:00

Just an all call for images for tonight. Please email them ASAP if you would like to be on the presentation schedule tonight! thanks!

Jenny.walton@gmail.com

Local Artists Paint the Town RED for World AIDS Day

2007-11-30T12:22:00.005-05:00

For the 20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day, local artists including myself will paint Baltimore red on Saturday, December 1st as they showcase their artwork highlighting the AIDS epidemic impacting communities.

Organized by Authentic Art Consulting and the ThickArt Collaborative, the opening ceremony will be held at Peace and a Cup of Joe Cafe at 713 W. Pratt Street starting from 3-7pm.

"With a passion to bring awareness and action on public health issues, I founded a DC-based nonprofit, Creative Cause, to develop creative campaigns for change to engage the community to become a part of a movement," stated Tambra Stevenson, artist and founder of Creative Cause.

So for HIV/AIDS awareness, the campaign is called Plant HOPE, which stands for HIV Outreach is a Pathway to Empowerment.

At the event, Creative Cause will have materials for visitors to make their own artistic postcards of hope in memory of a loved one to become a part of Plant HOPE.

"Initially when I created Plant HOPE it began with the focus of planting hope in ourselves and then in the community," said Stevenson. "So to me, hope has many meanings such as helping other people everyday. I dedicated Plant HOPE to my dad who was a humanitarian and always helping people as a firefighter."

Stevenson, a self-proclaimed suppressed artist now emerging, has recognized for using art to highlight health and environmental issues since a teen in Oklahoma. She is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine/Emerson College joint program in Health Communication program and is the creator of Postcards from Katrina.

Support and learn more about Creative Cause at www.creativecause.org and Plant HOPE at www.planthope.org. Email questions and comments to info@creativecause.org.

THE EXHIBIT: RED
Artists Lifting One Voice in One Common Thread
December 1, 2007 - January 11, 2008

RED is a visual exhibition of original artwork expressing the hopes, fears, experiences dreams about the struggle with HIV/AIDS epidemic in this country and around the world. A portion of the sales of artwork for this event will be donated to CARE' s I AM POWERFUL Campaign's HIV/AIDS Program and the Art Therapy program at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The exhibition will feature art from over 20 local artists who were invited to visually express through original artwork their hopes, fears, experiences and dreams about the struggle with HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and around the world. All artwork is available for sale. Patients in the Art Therapy program at the Institute of Human Virology have been invited to display their art as well

The opening reception will also feature an opportunity for guests to make their own postcards to express their thoughts, hopes, dreams about HIV/AIDS or to honor a loved one who may have died from AIDS, courtesy of Creative Cause, a DC-based organization that creates campaigns for causes that change communities for good.

Participating Artists include:

Lola Akinmade
Prudence Bonds
Sharon J. Burton
Kiesha Carroll
Patsy Cline
Cynthia Johnson
Ebony Johnson
Jennifer Judelsohn
Tina Lassiter
Paul Longanbach
Michelle d. Parrish
Marina Reiter
Aurora Rosselli
Michael Stebbins
Luba Sterlikova
Nora Stinley
Schonda Sweeney
Tanekeya Word

goals - presentations and a statement

2007-11-18T19:14:00.001-05:00

Thanks Deborah-well I am looking at what you said - I felt pretty good about the presentations in November and hope we can have 5-8 more people go in December - hoping that more peoples work will draw a bigger visual arc so we can step back and try to see how our work all can fit together objectively for this maiden voyage

- it is a personal bugaboo for me to always want the curatorial work drawing a bigger picture than just the the art on the wall, it's a personal stance, but in a lot of ways it is a big part of the contempory direction of art so I guess I'd like to know what people think about making the effort to include bigger ideas-then just the work hanging on the wall. Just throwing up art takes a big effort, but adding more layers to the exhibition part is even more effort - but I've found to be lightyears more rewarding

- I think I'd couch the direction we are going in when it comes to professional goals is to put together an exhibition proposal - A short written statement about what is drawing us all together should be worked out, then a strategy for an exhibition - does that make sense? If anyone thinks I'm blowing smoke out my earhole they should tell me. Cheers & happy turkey day! - Karen

Goals

2007-11-13T11:22:00.002-05:00

It was good to see everyone that turned out yesterday. I think we accomplished what we set out to (becoming more familiar with what page each other is on with their individual work).

Before I leave town tomorrow, I wanted to put down in writing Karen's timely suggestion that we start making goals for the group. I was wondering if everyone would be okay making those goal suggestions here so that by the time we meet in person over the next 2 months we know what's on the table for discussion.

I mentioned last night that I will not be in town from tomorrow until Jan 3, so I will miss the December meeting, but i can participate in group discussion via the blog during that time provided that everyone agrees with using this format for the above topic.

More specific questions: What will be our primary professional initiative? Will it take the form of an exhibition? if not, what would we each like to see as our first professional step as a group?

Talk to everyone soon hopefully.
Deborah

MEETING REMINDER: MONDAY 11/12/07

2007-11-06T17:49:00.002-05:00

The next Sparkplug meeting WILL be on Monday, November 12 at 7:30 PM (Yoinks-that’s about 5 days from now!!!!)

Agenda items for November meeting-

~Status of returned surveys
~10 – 12 people show slides-talk about work
~Schedule new group to show slides as necessary
~Ideas about ideas
~Do we want to start a list of possible goals for the next 6 months-year?
~Set Agenda for December meeting

The presentations are supposed to be no longer than 10 minutes a piece (which adds up to 1 hour and 20 minutes if we do all 12 people - add a half hour for other issues and realize this could be about a 2 hour meeting.)

We realize some of you may be bringing actual small works to talk about, but just in case you were thinking to have your jpgs projected Jenny has not received jpgs from anywhere near 12 people – so if you were at the October meeting and want you work projected make sure to send them to her ASAP!

Please submit your digital images (NO MORE THAN 5!) in jpeg format to me at jenny.walton@gmail.com before November 10th! Please make them a reasonable size and know that they will be projected.

The 12 presentation slots are already filled for the November Meeting. **However, to get your work in the line-up for December, please submit them here as well. Slots are filled on first come first serve basis.**

We will be projecting in the gallery-so if you are free and want to come 15 minutes early to help set up that's awesome. Snacks and beverages that people bought last time were also awesome.

Looking forward to continuing our discusions and hoping these first talks will assist us all in coming up with themes and working relationships with the groups work and give us an idea how and where to move from here.

10/14/07 meeting minutes

2007-10-19T12:24:00.002-04:00

SPARKPLUG 10/14/07 meeting minutes taken by Karen Joan Topping

(These will be posted in the file section of the Google Group – if I have missed something please feel free to download the notes and add or correct, just make sure to date & initial the newly posted document)

Agenda items were covered as follows:

1-meeting times

We will try to maintain meeting on a regular schedule of alternating days at the DC Arts Center. Plans are to meet in the second week of every month, alternating between Sundays at 7:00 PM and Mondays at 7:30 PM. Following this proposed schedule the next two meetings are scheduled for Monday, November 12 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, December 9 at 7:00 PM. This schedule is subject to change based on the availability of the space and requirements dictated by the agenda of the meeting.

2-survey

Those in attendance agreed to fill out an introductory written survey, (you may have already seen it). The survey was posted in an email to the Google group by Jenny Walton or can be downloaded as word file in the files section of the Google group. The hope is that these surveys will help us in forming our first goals for sparkplug and be useful as a reference of skills for future projects.

3-ideas about ideas-(in no particular order)

~Set up an online photo group like flickr or yahoo photo
~Have everyone summarize their work in just one sentence without identifying themselves and then as a group begin categorizing these sentences to get ideas
~Have a meeting where we do a drawing project together (work/play nite)-like make posters for ‘fantasy’ art – i.e. shows that don’t exist yet that we could curate
~Discuss & form themes, do work about elevating the ordinary as an idea
~Have a slide night where participants show one slide of their own work and one by of another artist they admire/is important to their work
~Consider look for collective public art projects-like grants for art in pocket parks
~Come up with concepts that allow artists in the collective to interact directly with the public/viewer in an unexpected manner and document those interactions (presumably as inspiration for both audience and artists)
~Have additional meetings at people’s personal studios
~Investigate a theme show on planning vs. spontaneity
~Have a slide show and have people introduce and start talking about themselves and their work

It was decided that the last item on this list should be acted on immediately-so the following format was discussed and decided on by those in attendance:

There will be presentations of work starting on the Monday, November 12th Meeting at 7:30pm. There will be up to 12 presentations lasting no longer than 10 minutes a piece (which adds up to 1 hour and 20 minutes-add a half hour for other issues and realize this will be about a 2 hour meeting.) This should assist us all in coming up with themes and working relationships with the groups work and give us an idea how and where to move from here.

In order to accommodate the digital needs and reduce “fiddling with the projector/computer/changing discs between artists” time, Please submit your digital images (NO MORE THAN 5!) in jpeg format to me at jenny.walton@gmail.com before November 10th! Please make them a reasonable size and know that they will be projected. If you are unable to furnish digital images, please bring one (transportable up stairs) piece of work with you to the next meeting.

The 12 presentation slots are already filled for the November Meeting. **However, to get your work in the line-up for December, please submit them here as well. Slots are filled on first come first serve basis.**

4-agenda items for November meeting

~Status of returned surveys
~10 – 12 people show slides
~Schedule new group to show slides as necessary
~Ideas about ideas
~Do we want to start a list of possible goals for the next 6 months-year?
~Set Agenda for December meeting

SPARKPLUG MEETING ON OCTOBER 14

2007-10-08T14:46:00.001-04:00

Meet at DCAC at 6:45 PM on Sunday October 14th. Right now plans are to meet in the gallery. Help with setting up a table and chairs will be greatly appreciated. If you feel like bringing something to share, I'm sure refreshments would also be appreciated, but not required.

4 points for discusion:

WHERE to meet and do we set a regular schedule,

WOULD you mind filling out a survey, that way we can get a more quantifiable idea of the skills that are being brought to Sparkplug and what interests people are coming to Sparkplug to develop collectively,

HOW do we begin to develop the IDEAS that will hold together a collective of people, their respective art work and an eventual exhibition. SUGGESTION: Please write down one idea you have for collectively generating ideas,

AGENDA ideas for the next meeting

2007-10-08T13:32:00.001-04:00

I wish more people had been able to come the talks that Dos Pestañeos and Skote gave at DCAC. I think these two groups really showed the two extremes that collectives go to. Dos Pestañeos showed us some very high quality intellectual/curatorial oriented group exhibitions, while Skote, (which started as much freer investigation of process and identity in a group of friends animating alter-egos, creating a product that was not originally meant for public consumption) is tentatively taking their provocative style of collectivized improvisation, ego investigation and nostalgia for naive TV public through DVD technology and the constructs of performance art. Still, both these groups - and in other collectives I've experienced, developing ideas about WHY the work was together even if the idea is fluid or generalized is tantamount.

A very important way in which these two collectives are similar is that neither shys away from entertainment and product, though certainly questioning this commodification is also part of the dialouge There are plenty of other art collective models that exist soley to question (maybe even undermine) the commodification of art. I would point out, that after going to both the Dos P's & Skote's talks that both groups stressed that making product happen (making catalogs or videos and treating your grant proposals like they were works of art in and of themselves) as a component of exhibiting - though it took crazy financial and work commitments, have to become a part of your repertoire as an artist. We might all know this already, but certainly Dos P's and Skotes frankness about having achieved and having to achieve these things collectively is a practicality to keep in mind as we move on.

Check Dos P's and Skote out at:

http://www.dospestaneos.com/

http://www.skoteshine.com/index.html

Ian Jehle - Here's to You

2007-10-05T10:54:00.001-04:00

Hi Folks,

I've been AWOL from Sparkplug for some time now, but I've been keeping up with the goings on and I hope to return to full participation after my upcoming show has opened. Here are two of the large drawings

Adrienne Moumin in Architectural Treasures Art Exhibit

2007-09-30T14:10:00.001-04:00

You are cordially invited to the opening of Architectural Treasures, to be held at the award-winning office of Cooper Carry Architects, Alexandria, VA, on October 11, 2007, from 4 to 8 PM.

Cooper Carry is located at 625 North Washington Street, 2nd Floor, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Free parking is available in the building's retail parking garage, and the closest metro stop is the Braddock Road station on the yellow and blue lines.

The show will include "Wall (Starrett-Lehigh)"one of the works from my new series of cut-and-pieced inkjet photo collages, which is reproduced here on the blog.

All artworks are available for sale, and checks, cash, and credit cards will be accepted.

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Rachel Davis at 703-462-6672, or e-mail racheldavis@coopercarry.com by Friday, October 5.

I hope to see you there!

Best regards,
Adrienne Moumin

********************************************************
on the web at: www.picturexhibit.com
Saatchi Gallery: http://tinyurl.com/hw6r3
Art DC: http://tinyurl.com/vtjqf
********************************************************

Deb Carroll Anzinger- cartographs of transient displacement

2007-09-29T21:43:00.001-04:00

title: recombination
dimension:~Approx. 30" x 60"
media: Graphite, gouache, acrylic matte gel and tracing paper on 8" x 10" sketch sheets

I'm preoccupied with the way an individual and its environment inform each other. For this drawing I completed one composition comprised of adjoined sheets of paper which i then dissasembled and rearranged to form a completely new yet still unified "map" without changing the content of the individual sheets. My process for the above drawing functions as a conceipt for my current preoccupation. I felt it was also important for me to explore the potential fallacy of the notion of only one natural conformation.

you can see a bigger image of it at www.deborahcarroll.net

-deborah

p.s. i'm working on some other paintings along the same theme that i'll share at some later point.

Karen Joan Topping

2007-09-29T16:11:00.001-04:00

bullet feather voice, summer, 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARIuBSznSrw

Adrienne Moumin Recent Work

2007-09-28T18:49:00.002-04:00

Smithsonian Castle Gate, 68x42

Kaleidoscope (Starrett-Lehigh) [detail], 37" diameter

Wall (Starrett-Lehigh), 28x20

These are the first three in a new series of cut-and-pieced inkjet photo collages commemorating and re-visioning architectural landmarks.

For more info see http://www.picturexhibit.com

Adrienne Moumin's Recent Work

2007-09-28T18:18:00.003-04:00

These are the first 3 in a new series of cut-and-pieced inkjet photo collages, which commemorate and re-vision architectural landmarks. From top to bottom: Wall (Starrett-Lehigh), 28x20; Kaleidoscope (Starrett-Lehigh) [detail], 37" diameter; Smithsonian Castle Gate, 68x42.

For more info see http://www.picturexhibit.com

Jenny Walton - recent works

2007-09-26T00:04:00.003-04:00

Artist Statement - Absense of Structure

The process of illness, injury, and healing of the human body are the catalysts for this current work. I work towards bringing momments of injury or specific events in a body’s history that are both beautiful and horrific into the work to create visual tensions. This work also deals with ideas of inside and outside, the privileged viewership of the medical profession, and the mystery that is left for the rest of us.

For more info see http://www.jennywalton.blogspot.com/

Jenny Walton - recent works

2007-09-25T23:37:00.002-04:00

Artist Statement - Absense of Structure
The work relates to moments of injury or specific events in a body’s history, events that are both beautiful and horrific. This work also deals with ideas of inside and outside, the privileged viewership of the medical profession, and the mystery that is left for the rest of us.