Author: dmckee

Received my first rejection letter today, along with my slides and CD. No big surprise there, really. I expect more than a few of these in my life — I once tried to publish short stories, and have many a rejection letter from that little escapade.

Still, at least they returned my slides. I invested a lot of time to get those made, and I was a little worried they weren’t going to come back. CDs, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen (or thereabouts), so I really would rather submit stuff on CD.
I suppose the quality of paintings can be faked easily in digital media. You can retouch digital images to your heart’s content, but slides are harder to do. All the same, my slides were crappy, so if you compare the slides against the digital photos, my work lies somewhere in-between the retouched digital images and the poor-quality slides.

Luis Jimenez, a Latin American sculptor whose work adorns public places across the U.S., has died after being crushed by his own sculpture.
Part of the sculpture fell and pinned the 65-year-old artist against a steel support while it was being moved with a hoist at Jimenez’s studio in Hondo, New Mexico, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office.
His 1969 work Man on Fire was a sculpture of a man in flames that drew its inspiration both from Buddhist monks in South Vietnam who immolated themselves and the Mexican story of Cuahtemoc, set afire by Spanish conquerors.
That work was displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. His work has also been seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and is on display in public sites at the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque’s Martineztown.
His 1996 sculpture Fiesta Dancers, in front of the El Paso’s Fine Arts Centre, is a colourful fibreglass work that depicts fiesta dancers. Several Jimenez sculptures are civic landmarks in his hometown.
CBC Arts: New Mexico artist crushed by own sculpture

They just came in, and are now leaning against the side of the house. They’re about 90″ wide, where the studio opening is about 101″, so I’ll need to build some new framing to accomodate them. It’s a 3-section door unit, with one fixed door, one pinned door, and one regular door. They’ve all got slide-up screen openings, so I can get air movement within the studio (which it really needs).
Over the next week or so, I’ll be installing them and removing the previous fold-up garage door. I’m not sure what to do with the old door, but I think the RE-Store or Habitat for Humanity can use it.

More than 500 Canadian art professionals have formed a new coalition to call on the government to take a balanced approach to copyright reform. Appropriation Art: A Coalition of Arts Professionals, includes arts organizations from Alberta, BC, Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan along with hundreds of artists from across Canada. The remarkable list features the President of Carfac Ontario and winners of numerous art awards including eight Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
The group identifies three issues in their letter to Ministers Oda and Bernier: fair access, certainty of access for creative purposes through a fair use provision, and no support for anti-circumvention legislation. There is something very exciting happening here: musicians, privacy groups, students, and now artists are standing together against anti-circumvention legislation and for balanced copyright. These are voices that until now have been missing from the copyright reform debate. With their active involvement, they have affirmed that the DMCA-like provisions have little to do with support for creators or creativity. Rather, they are provisions designed to support a small cadre of largely foreign-backed industry groups without representing the real needs of Canada’s own artistic and cultural communities. It is time for the government to listen to its own artists, who are forcefully speaking in their own name.
Michael Geist – Hundreds of Canadian Artists Call for Balanced Copyright

Some really beautiful stuff on this site. And she’s got a really good artist’s statement:
“Leni’s attraction to the abstract arts is the ability to see and represent a world that is absent from the boundaries and expectations of our physical senses; a world coloured by personal passions, emotions, and dreams.
“Cubist and surrealist influences are largely evident in the majority of her work.
“She is drawn on the one side to the fluidity of the surrealist form and its ability to express pure passion and dream. Concepts of love, torment, and sexuality, are subjects she finds easily explored through the application of this style. The challenge in such works is to see and understand the feelings that unite us as human beings.”

Leni Kae ..

Got a nice style. One that’s getting pretty close to something I was thinking about.

Artists Online : Dee Adams
Dee Adams’ history as an artist spans the worlds of traditional art, graphic design, advertising design, and technical illustration. Born in the US, Dee spent time studying art and biochemistry at Ithaca College and Cornell University originally pursuing a career as one of the top scientific technical illustrators in her field. Seduced by the world of graphic design and advertising, Dee went on to San Francisco to work for such companies as Yahoo!, Microsoft, Disney, and various media and film studios.
It wasn’t until several years ago that Dee made her way back onto the traditional art scene with shows in both San Francisco and New York. Her style has been described as contemporary bold minimalism with an edginess inspired by technology.

I found this on an artist’s website, and it looks like a good list of services to provide if you’ve got a lot of art which isn’t moving. I suppose it’s always important to consider all current contracts you have with galleries or studios, as the following list could impact on your existing agreements:

• Trade discounts on more than 2 pieces
• Rental schemes for show homes
• Collections for galleries and retail outlets
• Free sourcing of artwork
• Free art on loan service in return for promotional presence

I’d be interested to see if CARFAC has any similar lists, with some pricing models.

Been looking at some different sizes of canvases for my next painting project. I was thinking something in the range of 91x91cm (3’x3′) or 91x122cm (3’x4′). These look like good sizes that would still fit into my car, if I needed to transport them. I really like the idea of using canvas. It’s so much lighter than the masonite projects. I’m a little worried about whether I can knock them around as much as the masonite projects, though.
Now I just need to consider pre-stretched, pre-gessoed canvas vs. doing it myself. The benefits are easy to see for pre-stretched:

• everything’s pretty much done for me
• pre-stretched
• pre-gessoed
• properly assembled

The benefits of doing it myself are also compelling:

• I don’t feel like a real artist unless I do it myself
• the canvas materials are cheaper
• I like black gesso, not white
• I can make whatever size I want

It boils down to one thing, really. Am I too lazy to do this myself, or do I feel like I could do this better than the art supply store would. I’m still thinking….

Here are some pictures of the exhibit at Queen St. Yoga in downtown Kitchener. The studio is located at 44 Queen St. S., Kitchener, ON (just above Encore Records). They’ve got twelve of my paintings, and have installed nine of them. They are looking for places to display the other three at the moment. This exhibit is part of the Kitchener Available Space Art Project.
The paintings will be on display for the next 2-3 months. QSY has offered to extend this show after ASAP is finished.