Exhibitions, Guest Blogging, and the Website

A few months ago I was invited to a meeting with The Pinkline Project, hosted by its founder Philippa Hughes, gathering arts writers together to write about art for her new site. I haven't written about art for anyone else for a couple of years (with the exception of a couple failed efforts to get reviews and crits published in local papers... correction: failed efforts to get responses from editors or publishers of papers or magazines after submitting work... details), and I was rather gunshy of writing any kind of review. Fortunately, Ms. Hughes didn't want reviews; she wants to create a culture of enthusiasts who seek out and attend arts events, and maybe even increase the number of art collectors. It took a while to piece an essay together, and another while to get it up on the site. But, the essay is up. To summarize, it basically says that you don't need to buy art at Target, you can get affordable art at a number of venues in town.

The spring is/was getting to be incredibly busy. Before the new year I shot a portion of my work of Homonyms off to The LoDi Project in Raleigh, NC for an exhibition on the use of letters in art (judged by a graphic designer, so the topic makes sense, it runs through Jan 30). last week I was asked by the gallery director at Prince George's Community College if he could include my work in an exhibition on the subject of time. He wanted to include Moment of Zen, but I suggested work from Maintenance Required instead, since Zen showed in a faculty show in Fall '08. Meanwhile, in preparation for a new installation of Maintenance at The Arlington Arts Center in April, I was getting a new work ready, Job Creation Project, for a group show at The Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland (more on that "project" later). However, due to some miscommunication, it turns out that show is Spring '11. The Job Creation Project will be on hold for a couple weeks so I can reschedule and get work ready for Arlington.

Meanwhile, I redesigned my website, making it a lot sleeker and easier to update, only to have problems posting it. As it turns out, I was having a server hosting issue. So, I contacted the host, switched servers, and apparently am still in the process of switching servers 96 hours later. Maybe the issue will be resolved by Monday afternoon... maybe. I was excited because I finished my first web piece. It's a simple piece of HTML, but it also falls into the art-about-art category, which I know is less interesting for some people, and kind of functions like a joke on Conan where only a select portion of the audience gets it... just like art.