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.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
12/09/07 meeting minutes
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)
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)
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Images for Tonight!
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
Jenny.walton@gmail.com
Friday, November 30, 2007
Local Artists Paint the Town RED for World AIDS Day
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:
REDArtists 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
Sunday, November 18, 2007
goals - presentations and a statement
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
- 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
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Goals
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
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
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
MEETING REMINDER: MONDAY 11/12/07
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.
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.
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