2/10/08 Meeting Minutes

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)

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

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 !

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?

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!

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

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”