THE ASSOCIATION OF HAWAII ARTISTS PAINT RAG

Amazing Night

2010-10-19T21:15:00.000-10:00

Amazing Night Part 1

Philip Riley

At first night in Honolulu, I met a girl named Walter. Her grey hair frizzled out like burnt wires and her rubinesque figure strode with great pomp. I automatically followed her into Hanks Café, a bar on

Nu’uanu Street

“Nice hair,” I said. She scowled darkly like the huddled figure from Edward Munch’s woodcut “scream.” The scowl though seemed exaggerated, like a sidewalk caricature and I wanted to laugh. I couldn’t hold it in and my cheeks burst.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked as she stared suspiciously at me.

“I’m fine.” I replied. Her liquid dark eyes glowed at me and I saw reflections of stars in them.

“Would you like to go eat pizza? I asked. What boldness was overtaking me, but it felt so much like bliss. She inspired at once bravado and surrender.

“Why would I want to do that?” she spit out caustically.

“You mean you won’t?” I pretended to pout. She examined my face with a sneer, like a surgeon looking for a disease. I smiled back like a drunkard in a Frans Hals painting.

We walked silently up Nuuanu toward

Hotel Street

. I had total faith in the journey with her. In spite of her angry looks there beat the blood of a common intuition. Approaching St. Marks Garage a whirling noise encompassed us. I looked up and saw a man hovering in a space ship about the size of an old Volkswagen Beetle surrounded by an ultramarine blue Rothko haze. He launched a beam of the blue light from a cardboard tube and cast all buildings, lamp posts, and traffic signs on Nu’uanu in a blue color. People walked in and out of doorways as if part of the Picasso blue period.

“How do you like this show?” Walter said as she sprouted a rat tailed Salvador Dali mustache that extended at least five inches long on each side of her cheeks.

“It’s an amazing night.” I said.

“You can’t argue with instincts” she said, adding, “We are having so much fun.”

Stopping at Hotel and Nuuanu she emptied her pockets of thick sticks of pastel colored chalk. We fell to our knees and began to draw on the street. We moved slowly like Tai chi movements, conscious of our bodies in space.

The man in his spaceship grinned down at us from above the three story brownstones that fronted

Nu’uanu Street

. He waved a long languid hand as theatrical as a Toulouse Lautrec poster. We waved back together in one movement and in slow motion. Then we returned to our drawing on the asphalt. We blocked the intersection timelessly and though the police station was only a block away, no police interrupted us. Cars honked a symphony around us as all their tones fell in place.

“It’s a regular Caravaggio,” said Walter as we stopped to survey our abstract chiaroscuro.

Then a man burst onto the scene with Rosarina’s pizzas in Mondrian patterned boxes

“I’ve got pizza.” He said with a wide elastic smile that curved around a banana shaped nose. He gingerly passed slices of pizza through the open car windows of the frustrated drivers who had been yelling and shaking their fists. They stopped yelling and ate loudly with faces contorted with the aggression of German expressionist’s paintings.

The pizza man stood contra posta in front of Walter, and with eyes alight said to her,

“My old friend Michelangelo painted love on my ceiling you know.” Walter dropped her chalk and they embraced him as tight as a Brancusci sculpture. Then the two disappeared. I was now alone on Nuuanu and I sat on the curb thinking like the statue by Rodin. The noise of the small spaceship vanished in the Kandinsky sky. (to be continued)

Judd Boloker

2010-10-17T19:35:00.000-10:00

Judd Boloker’s works on paper are created using heavily applied colored pencil on Bristol board. His compositions challenge the traditional presentation of the natural world, presenting organic elements influenced by an increasingly hostile 21st century climate. Given the detail involved, each drawing takes approximately 6-8 weeks to complete. Judd’s drawings have been exhibited throughout the mainland including galleries in Chelsea NY, Los Angeles CA, and Scottsdale AZ. His work “Night of the Spider Flowers” recently won “Best in Show” at the 2010 Association of Hawaii Artists’ 41st Annual Contemporary Exhibit. For more information and images, please visit http://www.boloker.com/.

The Poetry Pope

2010-09-26T13:37:00.000-10:00

AHA Member Philip Riley is hosting poetry readings as The Poetry Pope and has started a blog at http://www.poetrypope.blogspot.com. The next reading will be on September 30, from 6-8 pm at Hank's Cafe, Nu'uanu Ave.

41st Annual Contemporary Show Prospectus is available here.

2010-08-14T13:21:00.000-10:00

Download and print a copy of the PROSPECTUS!

Entry Date is: September 4, 2010

Hiromi Uehara - The Tom and Jerry Show

2010-04-28T22:22:00.001-10:00

Was cruising NPR.org and came across a story on Hiromi . . . this piece is just phenomenal!

Art Imitates Life? (Maybe)

2010-04-27T21:03:00.001-10:00

In an odd bit of coincidence (or is that redundant?), I came across these two pics today. The first, a diagram of how to implement an idea. The second, um, maybe the same?

(links to the original posts here:

How to be Happy

The Enemy is Powerpoint

41st Annual Aloha Show Reception Invitation

2010-03-15T13:27:00.001-10:00

New Paint Rag Editor Needed

2010-03-06T22:38:00.000-10:00

As you may have noticed, the Paint Rag has languished recently, for which I apologize. There are so many demands on me that I've let the Paint Rag go, which is unfair for the Paint Rag and the AHA membership. That being said, I have to let this go, so if anyone is interested in picking up the task, please let me know and I get you set up with the passwords, etc.

Little resigns as head of Honolulu Academy of Arts

2010-03-06T22:28:00.000-10:00

Stephen Little has resigned as head of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Click here for article.

Prospectus for Aloha Show

2010-03-06T22:21:00.001-10:00

Click this link for the prospectus for the 41st Annual Aloha Show at Honolulu Hale:

By the Maker of "Tank Man"

2009-10-27T22:53:00.001-10:00

This past June marked the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. One of the iconic images of that time is a photograph of a young man facing down a row of tanks. Variously called "Tank Man" or "The Unknown Rebel", the photograph was taken by Jeff Widener, who didn't realize the power of the image at the time:

"When I saw the column of tanks come down the Chang'an Blvd. I told the student Kirk that the lone man was going to screw up my composition. I was not thinking clearly with the concussion and I also was suffering from a severe case of the flu. Only a few days later when some of the other international news photographers congratulated me did the full importance of the image sink in. After all, after witnessing everything that I had seen over the previous few days, nothing really seemed far fetched."

(From an e-mail interview of Jeff Widener by About.com Asian History Guide Kallie Szczepanski. The full interview is here.)

Widener will be giving two lectures and showing recent work at the University of Hawaii: for the general public 7:00 p.m. on Friday, October 30, at East-West Center's Keoni Auditorium. Widener will speak to UH Mānoa students and faculty at a free lunchtime discussion on Monday, November 2, at noon at the East-West Center's Ohana Room. For more information, click here.

An interesting side note: although Widener's photograph is probably the best known, there were several other photographs taken, including one from street level. And a video. Remarkable.

.

2009 CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON INVITATION

2009-10-27T22:11:00.000-10:00

AHA President Anthony Randall has booked the AHA Christmas Luncheon at Kaimana Beach Hotel,
Hau Tree Lanai, Sans Souci room. Saturday Dec 12 from 11:00 to 2:00. It was so
nice last year and it will still be $30.00 per person. Menu is:

Leahi Leisure Lunch Menu (Buffet Style)

Mix Green Salad with House Dressing
Chicken Alferdo with Linguni Pasta
Chef's Choice of Dessert

Coffee, Hot Tea or Iced Tea

Space is limited to 40 so please e-mail him at: randallt001@hawaii.rr.com to RSVP and for payment information. Bring a wrapped gift, something from your studio, for a gift exchange.

Art can also be found in a rice field - - -

2009-10-18T10:29:00.018-10:00

Sometimes you get interesting stuff in e-mail . . .

Beautiful and amazing....no computer/digital tinkering, no ink, dyes, spray painting.....the farmers actually plant different colored plants to create the intricate designs.

Art can also be found in a rice field - - -

New AHA Committee Members

2009-10-18T10:12:00.000-10:00

Publicity Warren Stenberg 262-8306 warsten.art@hawaiiantel.com
Membership Anthony Randall 398-1863 randallt001@hawaii.rr.com
Paul Staub to Exhibits 393-6144 paul@kaha-kii.com

“A SEARCH FOR ULTIMATE TRUTH”

2009-10-18T10:03:00.001-10:00

Press Release

Honolulu, Hawaii—Art exhibit “A SEARCH FOR ULTIMATE TRUTH”, featuring a range of 2-D and 3-D work, from photo essays of sculptures, to paintings, mixed media and wall sculpture, delving into the search for fundamental principles of human existence; an artistic exploration of the underlying harmony among religions and cultures.

Confused and overwhelmed by the plethora of information today about spirituality, spiritual practices, “New Age” ideas, books, tapes, spiritual teachers, prophecies, religions, etc, and seeing the resultant friction among different groups, the artist developed ‘spiritual indigestion” of a sort. In response, Bennett began a personal, serious, inner and outer search for what was common among all of them, an eternal Truth. The search brought the artist from the jungles and shamans of Peru, to the deserts of New Mexico, the Dalai Lama, the “Hugging Saint” of India, the sweat lodges and other ceremonies of the American Indians, and from the Bible to the Bagavah Gita and other esoteric writings. Like Dorothy landing in Oz, the journey took on a spirit of adventure where fact was stranger than fiction, where saints and mystics abound, and the chaos of human existence develops into a seamless whole, complete with a personal gift of the Ruby Red Slippers.

Opening; Sunday, 15th November 2009,

Artist’s reception; Friday, 20th November 2009, 5 -8-30 pm

Location; Gallery on the Pali, “A Socially Conscious Gallery”, First Unitarian Church, 2500 Pali Highway 96817, (808) 526-1191

Hours open; M - F 9-8; SS 1-4

Proposals Requested for Kapolei Hale Art

2009-10-18T09:59:00.000-10:00

Proposals Requested for Kapolei Hale Art

The Commission on Culture and the Arts of the City and County of Honolulu wishes to commission two works of art for Kapolei Hale, 1000 Uluohia Street, Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii . One work of art shall be installed on an existing interior wall; the other shall be at the front entrance of the building. This request for proposals is open to all artists (or artist teams) residing or working in the State of Hawaii . The budget for the interior work of art is $50,000; the budget for the exterior work of art is $38,000.

All applications must be received by 4:00 p.m. on February 1, 2010 at:

Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts

Attention: Art for Kapolei Hale

530 South King Street , Room 404

Honolulu , HI 96813

All questions regarding this Request for Proposals should be directed to the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, (808) 768-6622, email: tlaitila@honolulu.gov.

Download the RPF at http://www.honolulu.gov/moca/news.htm

Contact:

Tory Laitila, 808-768-6622

Three artists

2009-10-18T09:54:00.002-10:00

Opening Reception of three acclaimed Hawaii artists, L to Rt: artist Satoro Abe (seated), artist Warren Stenberg (AHA member), Sandy Pohl (Gallery owner) and artist Harry Tsuchidana. Louis Pohl Gallery, Oct.15th (Photo courtesy Charlene Hughes)

Honolulu Arts Beat - Photos of the Contemporary Show

2009-09-19T19:08:00.002-10:00

Our friends at the Honolulu Arts Beat did a nice piece on the Contemporary Show! Check it out here: Photos of the Contemporary Show

Art Teachers and Leaders of Art Groups Exhibition

2009-07-28T20:31:00.000-10:00

The Art Teachers and Leaders of Art Groups Exhibition, sponsored by the Association
of Hawaii Artists will be at Pauahi Tower, Lobby Level, 1001 Bishop Street and runs
from August 10 through September 4. Gallery hours are M - F 7am - 6pm and Sat.
8am - 2pm. This is an artist's invitational event.

An Artist's Reception will be Monday, August 17, 5pm - 7pm
Info call 234-0585

Why I Can't See a Painting: The Semiotics of Jon and Kate Plus 8

2009-07-25T20:57:00.000-10:00

[Editor's Note: I wrote this when the Jon & Kate brouhaha first broke, but never got around to finishing it. It's still not finished, but I'm running it just because I still think the issue (whether context is necessary to understand art, not Jon & Kate per se) is interesting and because perhaps the context of the article itself has changed from it was first written and, if so, what does that do to one's understanding of the article . . . or Jon & Kate?]

"The law of trainwrecks—hard to watch, harder not to watch—was in full effect during last night's Jon & Kate Plus 8." - Joal Ryan, Eonline, on Yahoo!

Just to be clear: I (that is, your Paint Rag editor) don't watch "Jon & Kate Plus 8," TLC's reality show about a couple (the eponymous Jon and Kate) with eight kids (fraternal twin girls and fraternal sextuplets, three girls, three boys). I do, however, have a fascination with the commentary about the scandal that surrounds the show. As Chandler Bing might say, ironically, "Could I be more post-modern??"

For those who don't know, allegations recently arose that Jon was having an affair, then allegations arose that Kate was having an affair (with one of the bodyguards on the show), then there were renewed questions about the welfare of the children on the show, including whether child labor laws are being violated. In short, the reality of the situation is that the attention and celebrity occasioned by their status as television stars has, in the usual course, morphed into a tabloid fascination with their foibles.

Against this backdrop, the season premiere was, shall we say, a trainwreck. There's plenty of general criticism and kibitzing out there, including speculation that TLC will make the "will they get divorced?" question part of a season long arc that will end in a cliffhanger finale. Like I say, perversely fascinating.

But the reason I bring this up is this quote by Time's TV Critic, James Poniewozik, in his blog entry: Jon & Kate Plus 8: This Would Be the 'For Worse' Part:"

"It's clear what Jon & Kate has become now: It's The Hills for old people. Like MTV's reality show, it's less a TV series than a media environment, where the broadcast itself is only the starting point. You need to follow the coverage in the tabs and on the gossip shows in order to get the full storyline and the context.

Watching the confessional interviews themselves last night—with all those publicist-managed phrases about "my choices" and "this situation"—would have been near-unintelligible to someone who hadn't followed any of the wider media coverage of the show."

This was interesting to me . . . does one now need to know the broader societal context in order to understand a television show?

The proposition sounded familiar to me and finally I placed it . . . Tom Wolfe's "The Painted Word." Wolfe's skewering of contemporary art (circa 1975) begins with him reading New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer's review of show called "Seven Realists" one Sunday. This passage catches his attention:

"Realism does not lack its partisans, but it does rather conspicuously lack a persuasive theory. And given the nature of our intellectual commerce with works, of art, to lack a persuasive theory is to lack something crucial—the means by which our experience of individual works is joined to our understanding of the values they signify."

Wolfe goes bananas:

"What I saw before me was the critic-in-chief of The New York Times saying: In looking at a painting today, "to lack a persuasive theory is to lack something crucial." I read it again. It didn't say "something helpful" or "enriching" or even "extremely valuable." No, the word was crucial.

In short: frankly, these days, without a theory to go with it, I can't see a painting.
Then and there I experienced a flash known as the Aha! Phenomenon, and the buried life of contemporary art was revealed to me for the first time. The fogs lifted! The clouds passed! The motes, scales, conjunctival bloodshot, and Murine agonies fell away!"

Damn! All I wanted to know was, what the hell kind of theory do you need for realism??

Do we really need to know context for a painting? What about Jon and Kate . . do we really need to read People Magazine as a prerequisite for watching a television show?

Art in a Warehouse with No Lights

2009-07-25T20:25:00.003-10:00

[Editor's Note: Click the title link to go to site for video and photos.]

By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 26 July 2009 0251 hrs

SINGAPORE : Most of us would be used to viewing art pieces in a gallery or museum with lights to highlight the works.

But a group of artists went off the beaten path recently - by showing off their works in an industrial warehouse with no lights.

And the response was overwhelming - over 2,600 people ventured into the dark and enjoyed the show.

Organisers of the exhibition titled 'Blackout' wanted visitors to step out of their comfort zone.

"When the lights go off, what happens is your senses come alive - your sense of touch, the way you look at things, the way you walk. So that's why the works are so interactive," said Alan Oei, curator for 'Blackout'.

And visitors got to step on eggs, for example, in an art piece that's about challenging people to do what they normally wouldn't.

Another piece has dozens of paper planes dashing out from one single point. The artist wanted viewers to feel the sudden rush of flight when the light flashes.

Then there's a piece that addresses consumerism. It comes in the form of a sculpture made up of junk food wrappers and in the shape of a man puking over toilet bowl.

"This is a big difference from what normal art exhibitions are like. (It's the) first time I'm seeing something like this... The kids love them," said one exhibition-goer.

"It’s very new, to have an exhibition in the dark, and it’s quite groundbreaking," said another.

Organisers said the idea for a free art show in the dark at a warehouse came about when the building owners had a gap period.

13 artists then got together over three months to present their take on darkness with a space slightly larger than a football field.

Over 1,000 visitors turned up the night the show opened.

Following the overwhelming response, organisers now have plans to do similar exhibitions in other locations in Singapore. Talks are also underway to bring the concept overseas to places like Japan. - CNA /ls

The art of a recession: Gallery owners struggling

2009-07-25T20:10:00.001-10:00

[Editor's Note: From Yahoo!.com]

By AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writer Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jul 25, 1:21 pm ET

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Art gallery owners across the country are finding they have a tough sell these days.

With houses going up for auction, unemployment continuing to rise and the threat of layoffs seemingly ever-present, many gallery owners in art communities such as Scottsdale, Ariz., Santa Fe, N.M., Portland, Ore., and New York City are closing shop, going broke to stay open or drastically changing the way they do business.

"Art is a very discretionary sort of object, and we are in the worst recession arguably in the postwar era," said Jay Bryson, a global economist with Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C. "Obviously somebody who has lost their job in a factory in Indiana probably is not buying art."

Even people with plenty of discretionary money aren't spending much on it.

"You're a billionaire and you took a 40 percent hit on your portfolio, now you only have $600 million left," Bryson said. "That's still pretty deep pockets, but 40 percent is 40 percent."

In the gallery district of downtown Scottsdale, at least a half dozen galleries have closed in the past year or are in the midst of closing. Others still are wondering how much longer they can make it.

One recent day, Leslie Levy sat quietly amid the contemporary art she sells in her gallery, which was just as deserted as the streets outside, where the temperature was in the triple digits.

The summers here are always slow because of the heat, but this one is much worse than usual. That's partly why Levy is closing her doors at the end of August after 32 years in business and becoming a private art dealer online.

"I'll tell you what — if I was younger, I'd just keep at it knowing we've not seen times quite as bad as this before," Levy said.

Longtime customer Marylyn Gregory of Bernardsville, N.J., came in the gallery that day to see it one last time and check out what pieces Levy had left of her and her husband's favorite artist. Gregory told Levy she was surprised and upset when she heard the gallery was closing but added, "You're probably doing the right thing."

Gregory didn't end up buying anything that day, saying she needed to check with her husband. Before, she might have been more spontaneous.

"Sometimes you'd go to an opening and have a glass of wine, and you're like, OK," she said. "It's certainly the method to get everyone to open their checkbooks."

But like many other art lovers, the Gregorys are more conservative with their money these days.

Levy understands. "People are watching what they spend — cutting back and spending on the necessities of life. That makes sense to people."

Becky Smith knows that all too well. She owned the Bellwether Gallery in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood for a decade, but closed at the end of June after watching her revenue plummet to $80,000 gross in the first quarter of 2009. She had $40,000 net, and $10,000 of it went to rent each month.

The $80,000 figure was down from about $350,000 the same quarter in 2008 and about $600,000 during that period the year before.

"I was really startled," Smith said. "It was the spring of '08 where I saw three shows that should have been blockbusters underperform, and I was in shock.

"Things were booming so intensely a couple years ago and the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction, it was impossible to know where I stood," she said. "And I didn't want to be paying for a storefront while I was figuring it out."

In the past two years, at least 24 galleries have closed in Manhattan, mostly in Chelsea, according to New York City-based Artnet magazine, which covers the fine art world. "That's really dramatic," said Artnet editor Walter Robinson.

In Santa Fe, N.M., between 10 and 15 galleries have closed this year, said Christy Walker, managing director of the Santa Fe Gallery Association.

"A lot of people have this idea that running a gallery, the owners make a lot of money, when it's just a lot of effort to make a living off of it," she said. "It's a hard business to be in, and when things are good, things are good, and when times are tough, it's a really tough business to maintain."

Kraig Foote of art one gallery in Scottsdale has done everything he can think of to avoid shutting down.

His house is about to go up for auction because he hasn't made a payment in seven months, he has laid off his two employees and he has resorted to selling his own beloved art collection for a fraction of what it's worth.

"I have given up everything," he said recently in the very empty gallery, which sells work by local high school- and college-age artists.

And still, the threat of closure looms.

"I'm trying to make it to December," Foote said. "I think people will start spending again once they get to the next holiday. They'll say, 'We've saved, let's get something.'"

He paused. "I don't know."

New Yorker Cover Art, Painted With an iPhone

2009-06-16T23:39:00.000-10:00

[From NYTimes.com]

May 25, 2009

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Some people send text with their iPhones, and some play games. The artist Jorge Colombo created this week’s cover for The New Yorker with his.

Mr. Colombo drew the June 1 cover scene, of a late-night gathering around a 42nd Street hot dog stand, entirely with the iPhone application Brushes. Because of the smears and washes of color required by the inexact medium, it comes off as dreamy, not sharp and technological.

“The best feature of it is that it doesn’t feel like something that was done digitally; quite the opposite,” said Françoise Mouly, the art editor for The New Yorker. “All too often the technology is directed in only one direction, which is to make things more tight, and this, what he did very well, is use this technology for something that is free flowing, and I think that’s what makes it so poetic and magical.”

Mr. Colombo bought his iPhone in February, and the $4.99 Brushes application soon after, and said the portability and accessibility of the medium appealed to him. He began the scene by beginning with the buildings’ structure, then layering on the taxis, neon lights, hot-dog stand and people. (A video of the process is available at newyorker.com beginning on Monday.) [Editor's Note: check out the video; it's pretty cool!]

It “made it easy for me to sketch without having to carry all my pens and brushes and notepads with me, and I like the fact that I am drawing with a set of tools that anybody can have easily in their pocket,” he said. There is one other advantage of the phone, too: no one notices he is drawing. Mr. Colombo said he stood on 42nd Street for about an hour with no interruptions.

“It gives him an anonymity in the big city that an artist with the easel wouldn’t have,” Ms. Mouly said.

“Absolutely nobody can tell I am drawing,” Mr. Colombo said. “In fact, once I was doing the drawing at some place, and my wife was around, and they asked her why did I have to work so hard? I seemed to be always on my iPhone sending messages.” STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

AHA Mailbag

2009-06-16T22:42:00.005-10:00

[Editor's note: Still experimenting with listing various AHA Bulletin Board type announcements in the Paint Rag. I tend to think this is redundant with the Bulletin Board, takes up a lot of space, requires a lot of editing and attention and breaks the flow of the Paint Rag. My feeling is that this type of item is better handled via the Bulletin Board (click here). But we'll see.]

AHA NEEDS A DESK TOP PUBLISHING VOLUNTEER

Aloha everyone, AHA needs a volunter to make postcard and e-anouncements for our Aloha show and Contempporary show using Vista Point or some such program. The position involves only a handfull of invitations and or announcements of our coming show receptions. Without this we cannot reach a bigger audience of guests for our award shows. Please let me know asap if anyone is willing to take this on. Mahalo, President Tony randallt001@hawaii.rr.com or feel free to call me 398-1863. We need the Aloha show postcards done and printed by entry day July 31.

CALL TO ARTISTS FOR SUMMER SIZZLE AT HCC

Aloha everyone, as of today we only have about 3 artists for our Summer Sizzle show at HCC. Theme is pretty open but we have no artists. Anyone interested please contact Priscilla or myself asap. Entry day is Sunday June 28 9 a.m. AHA doesn't want to lose HCC as a venue but we need to supply the demand . . . Mahalo, President Tony For Prospectus, click HERE.

AHA WEB MASTER NEEDED

Aloha , We are in need of a new web master for the AHA web site. If anyone is interested please contact myself or Priscilla. My e-mail is randallt001@hawaii.rr.com or feel free to call me at 398-1863 Mahalo, President Tony

NEW PUBLICITY CHAIRMAN FOR THE AHA

Warren Stenberg is our new publicity chairperson for the AHA. He will be responsible for marketing the AHA activities to the public by contacting the newspapers, radio and other media of our events. His phone number is: 262-8306 and his email address is: Warsten.art@hawaiiantel.net.

PROSPECTUS FOR THE 39TH ANNUAL ALOHA SHOW Click HERE.

Dates: Friday, July 31, 2009 (Intake Day: from 9:30am to 10:30am) to August 24, 2009 (Take Down Day: from 12:00pm to 2:00 pm)

Gallery Hours at Honolulu Hale: Mon.-Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm.

Reception: Friday, August 7, 2009, 5:00PM - 7:00PM. Entrants are requested to bring a pupu to share.

Juror: Mr. Michael Schnack, owner of Cedar Street Galleries.

Awards: Best in Show, 1st Place, 2nd Place and 3rd Place with 3 Honorable Mentions.

SUMMER ORIGAMI WORKSHOP

The Contemporary Museum
June 26, 2009 (1-3 p.m.)
$15 TCM members; $20 non-members

Take a summer break from email and treat someone special to a handmade origami card. This unique summer workshop is open to all ages, keiki (6 and up) and adults alike. Three different origami models will be taught from the very simple sailboat, to the low-intermediate twist fish, to the more challenging butterfly. Learn at your level and then create unique note cards with beautiful handmade papers. Come ready to have fun! Reservations are required. Please call (808)237-5217 or email Quala-Lynn Young, Curator of Education at qyoung@tcmhi.org.

NATIONAL ARTS PROGRAM EXHIBIT AT HONOLULU HALE

Artwork created by City and County of Honolulu employees and their family members will be on display July 13 to 28 at Honolulu Hale.

The Fourth Annual Exhibit of The National Arts Program® in Honolulu is being presented by The National Arts Program Foundation and the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts. The program was established in 1983 by The National Arts Program Foundation to identify the artistic talents of our nation. The program involves employees and family members of municipal and county governments and businesses, and is gradually expanding to include the general public. All works will be judged by professional arts practitioners in the following categories: amateur, intermediate, professional, and youth.

It currently reaches more than 450 cities and communities in 44 states and the District of Columbia in 84 annual venues. The City and County of Honolulu is currently the only organization in the state of Hawaii to participate in this program.

Exhibit hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Exhibit viewing is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts at 808-768-6622 or visit www.honolulu.gov/moca.

ART EXHIBIT AT HO'OMALUHIA BOTANICAL GARDEN GALLERY

An Exhibition of New, Recent and Rediscovered Works by five Association of Hawaii Artists members: David DEVENOT, Charlene HUGHES, Ruth Laird PISTOR, Warren STENBERG & Hank WHITTINGTON

July 1 thru July 30,2009
Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden Gallery
45-860 Luluku Road, Kaneohe, HI 96734

Please join us at our Artists' Reception
SUNDAY JULY 5th 3PM – 5 PM

Please Join Us *** Ample Free Parking
(Call for more info: 262-8306)

HAWAII ARTS BEAT . . . MUSIC, ART, ENTERTAINMENT, CULTURE

You can get more information regarding Gallery Openings, spotlites on art
exhibitions like the Haleiwa festival, at the website: http://www.honoluluartsbeat.com

One of the features at this website has Ward Centre GAllery News: Susie Anderson has been invited to represent Oahu at the "July 4th Makawao Paint-Out Invitational - Painting a Volcano from Crater to Coast!" 22 plein air artists will be painting for 7 days from June 28 to July 4th at locations on the Island of Maui: Tedeshi Winery, Harvest Dat at O'o Farms, Alii Lavender Farm, and at the Grand Wailea Resort. Susie will be posting an updated schedule at her website: www.susieanderson.com

Mark Norseth will be having his "3rd Annual Summer Painting Demonstration" on
Saturday, June 20, 2009. Watch Mark's demonstration, bring a light suppper if
you wish, and be part of the onlookers. For details, contact Mark at: 263-2013,
or email him at:mark@marknorseth.com

SCHAEFER PORTRAIT CHALLENGE EXHIBITION

On display at the First Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop St. There were 56 artists juried into the show from hundreds of entries. 15 of the artists did self portraits. Show runs through September 11, 2009 and is organized by the MACC. The First Hswaiian Center hours are 8:30am - 4:00pm Monday thru Thursday, and 8:30am = 6:00pm on Friday. The Schaefer Portrait Challenge is a spectacular exhibit, not to be missed.

Connie Hennings-Chilton showed her work in Fukuoka Japan in June along
with a Hula Festival at the Fukuoka Sun Palace Hotels and resort, June 6-7. The
main sponsors of the event - Aloha Monarch RKB Hawaii. One of her pieces to be
featured in their brochure is LEGEND OF THE TARO.

Roger Ebert Movie Review: My Kid Could Paint That (PG-13)

2009-06-16T22:38:00.000-10:00

Cast & Credits With Marla, Mark and Laura Olmstead, Anthony Brunelli, Elizabeth Cohen and Michael Kimmelman.

Sony Pictures Classics presents a documentary produced and directed by Amir Bar-Lev. Running time: 83 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for language). Opening today at the Music Box and Evanston CineArts.

By Roger Ebert

The truth lurking beneath "My Kid Could Paint That" is that your kid couldn't paint that. The documentary considers the perplexing case of Marla Olmstead, a 4-year-old girl from Binghamton, N.Y., who got a lot of publicity because at her age she was producing abstract paintings that sold for hundreds and then thousands of dollars, were awarded gallery shows, generated a firestorm in the art community, and were the subject of a controversial segment on "60 Minutes."

The paintings are pretty good. They are as good as some, not most, abstract paintings. They play into the hands of those who dismiss abstract art as the process of applying paint to canvas with a technique that looks random and unconsidered. Some, not all, abstract art gains its importance not because of its intrinsic quality but because of its price. At $25, it looks like dribbles. At $25 million, it looks like a masterpiece.

The story as told by Mark, Marla's dad, an amateur painter himself, is that one day little Marla was on the kitchen table while he was painting, and she grabbed a brush and started painting, too. The child showed an instinctive feeling for color, pattern, composition, texture, and because of her age and the abstract-art-debunking angle, she started to get worldwide publicity.

The problem was, no one had actually seen Marla creating a whole work from start to finish except, presumably, her parents. "60 Minutes" came to do a piece on the girl, put their equipment all over the house, and installed a secret camera in the basement ceiling. Through it, they were able to see Marla beginning a painting with urgent whispered instructions from her father. We never see him touch a brush to the painting, but on the other hand, the finished painting doesn't look like a "Marla" but like something any child could paint.

Is the little girl the star of a hoax by her family? Amir Bar-Lev, the maker of this film, says he doesn't know, and the film has an open ending. He grew quite close to the Olmsteads, and at times worried that he was betraying their confidence. My own verdict as an outsider is, no, Marla didn't paint those works, although she may have applied some of the paint.

But it's more complicated than that. As I said, some of the paintings are pretty good. People might pay hundreds if they were by a kid but would they pay thousands unless they actually liked them? The irony may be that Mark Olmstead is a gifted painter who could never break into the closed circle of abstract art without a gimmick like Marla.

My favorite modern painter is Gillian Ayres, OBE. Ayres (born 1930) is a well-known British abstract expressionist whose huge canvases, often measuring several feet in their dimensions, look like finger painting, because they are. With untrammeled exuberance, she paints in bright colors with a thick impasto. Chaz and I had not heard of her when we saw one of her paintings in a warehouse, and simultaneously agreed we loved it. I append an Ayres painting, one of 14 in the Tate Modern. No, a kid couldn't paint that.

In the last analysis, I guess it all reduces to taste and instinct. Some paintings are good, says me, or says you, and some are bad. Some paintings could be painted by a child, some couldn't be.

Ivory sculpture in Germany could be world's oldest

2009-06-16T22:21:00.000-10:00

[From Yahoo! News - for some reason, there's been a mini-run of art articles on Yahoo! recently.]

By PATRICK McGROARTY, Associated Press Writer Patrick Mcgroarty, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 13, 3:42 pm ET

BERLIN – A 35,000-year-old ivory carving of a busty woman found in a German cave was unveiled Wednesday by archaeologists who believe it is the oldest known sculpture of the human form. The carving found in six fragments in Germany's Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts.

"It's very sexually charged," said University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, whose team discovered the figure in September.

Carbon dating suggests it was carved at least 35,000 years ago, according to the researchers' findings, which are being published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.

"It's the oldest known piece of figurative sculpture in the world," said Jill Cook, a curator of Paleolithic and Mesolithic material at the British Museum in London.

Stones in Israel and Africa almost twice as old are believed to have been collected by ancient humans because they resembled people, but they were not carved independently.

The Hohle Fels cave discovery suggests the humans, who are believed to have come to Europe around 40,000 years ago, had the intelligence to create symbols and think abstractly in a way that matches the modern human, Conard said.

"It's 100 percent certain that, by the time we get to 40,000 years ago in Swabia, we're dealing with people just like you and me," Conard told The Associated Press, referring to the southern German region where the sculpture was recovered along with other prehistoric artifacts.

Conard believes the 2.4-inch-tall (6-centimeter) figure may have been hung on the end of a string. The left arm is missing, but Conard said he hopes to find it by sifting through material from the cave.

The Hohle Fels sculpture is curvaceous and has neither feet nor a head, like some of the roughly 150 so-called Venus figurines found in a range from the Pyrenees mountains to southern Russia and dating back about 25,000-29,000 years.

But Cook warned against trying to draw any connections between the Venuses and the Hohle Fels figure, saying that would be like comparing Picasso to a classical sculptor — too much time had passed.

"I wonder whether at this point we're looking at figures which are unique within themselves and unique within the cultures that they're arising in," she said.

Archaeologist Paul Mellars, of the University of Cambridge, suggested a clearer continuum.

"We now have evidence of that sort of artistic tradition of Venus figurines going back 6,000 years earlier than anybody ever guessed," he said.

Neanderthals also lived in Europe around the time the sculpture was carved, and frequented the Hohle Fels cave. But Mellars said layered deposits left by both species over thousands of years prove the sculpture was crafted by humans.

"Nothing within a million miles of this has ever been found in a Neanderthal layer," Mellars said.

The archaeologists agreed the sculpture's age and features invite speculation about its purpose and the preoccupations of the culture that produced it.

Cook suggested it could be symbol of fertility, perhaps even portrayed in the act of giving birth.

Mellars suggested a more basic motivation for the carving: "These people were obsessed with sex."

Conard said the differing opinions reinforced the connection between the ancient artist and modern viewer.

"How we interpret it tells us just as much about ourselves as about people 40,000 years ago," he said.

More on Artists of Hawaii

2009-05-24T10:40:00.002-10:00

Artists of Hawaii 2009 opened May 13 , with 86 pieces by 64 artists selected from a field of over 900 submissions. HPR's Noe Tanigawa spoke with this year's juror, Laura Hoptman, when she was in Honolulu for the final jurying. The link to the interview is here: HPR Interview.

Also, the Academy of Arts has a link for the show: Academy Site. If you go to the "Artists" page and click on a name, you'll see that artist's work.

Shows, Calls for Artists, Workshops, etc.

2009-05-17T10:33:00.002-10:00

[Note: For further information on any of the items, click on the link and you will be taken to the AHA Bulletin Board post. If you are not a member of the AHA, you will have to register and be accepted by a moderator.

Items for this page should be sent to the AHA Bulletin Board manager, Chieko Higuchi, at higuchic002@hawaii.rr.com.]

Calls for Artists:

Call for Artists for "Da Kine: Local Perspectives" by David Behlke & Associates (June 6)
Hawaii Watercolor Society (HWS) Annual "Small Kine Show" (May 31; must be member)
Call To Artists Assistance for Next Honolulu Country Club (HCC) ArtShow (June 28)

Happening Now:

"Ancestral Reflections 1", photo by Osvaldo Flores, through May 28
"Serenity" and "Embrace", photos by Osvaldo Flores, through June 26
"Artists of Hawaii 2009," with works from AHA members: Virginia Carabelli, Winner of The Reuben Tam Award for Painting, Francisco Clemente, Margo Cook, Douglas Ing, Charlotte Maxwell, Dennis McGeary, Vernon Miyamoto, Roy Okano, Frank Oliva, Jacquelene Watson, through August 16
"A Geisha's World", a mixed media collage show by Warren Stenberg at Honolulu Club, 5th Floor, through June 27
"Art.....Exercising Emotions" by Ed Furuike at Honolulu Club, 7th Floor, through July 4

Coming Up:

Schaefer Portrait Challenge Exhibit, May 29 - September 11
"Analytical Cubism;" a drawing class with master artist Harry Tsuchidana, October 18

Just for fun

2009-05-14T00:08:00.004-10:00

Ignore the subtitles . . . identify the image . . .

Getting "The Message!"

2009-05-13T22:04:00.009-10:00

[Editor's Note: Here's an interesting take on portraiture that showed at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition "RECOGNIZE! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture" ran February 8, 2008 to October 26, 2008. Kehinde Wiley was one of the artists in the exhibition.]

Artist's Statement: Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley’s portraits of African American men collate modern culture with the influence of Old Masters. Incorporating a range of vernaculars culled from art historical references, Wiley’s work melds a fluid concept of modern culture, ranging from French Rococo to today’s urban landscape. By collapsing history and style into a unique contemporary vision, Wiley interrogates the notion of master painter, “making it at once critical and complicit.” Vividly colorful and often adorned with ornate gilded frames, Wiley’s large-scale figurative paintings, which are illuminated with a barrage of baroque or rococo decorative patterns, posit young black men, fashioned in urban attire, within the field of power reminiscent of Renaissance artists such as Tiepolo and Titian.

[Visit the webpage here and here.]

Texas museum acquires Michelangelo's 1st painting

2009-05-13T21:35:00.003-10:00

(From Yahoo! News)

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer Angela K. Brown, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 13, 3:55 am ET

FORT WORTH, Texas – The Kimbell Art Museum will soon be the only U.S. museum to display a Michelangelo painting after acquiring his earliest known work, a rare treasure that was tucked away and doubted as authentic for more than a century.

The museum declined to disclose how much it paid for "The Torment of Saint Anthony," a 15th-century oil and tempera painting on a wood panel that depicts scaly, horned, winged demons trying to pull the saint out of the sky. Experts believe he painted it when he was only 12 or 13 years old.

And only four such works — including this one — by the artist exist, and two of them are unfinished. Most of his paintings are frescos, the famous scenes on the ceiling and wall of Rome's Sistine Chapel.

"This is one of the greatest rediscoveries in the history of art," Eric M. Lee, the Fort Worth museum's director, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The evidence could not be stronger. It's like a detective story, like a mystery, and it involves one of the greatest artists of all time."

The painting was exhibited as late as 1874 in Paris. But some questions about its authenticity had surfaced through the years, and after a London family acquired it in the 1900s, the painting was kept privately and largely forgotten in the art world, Lee said.

Last summer an art dealer bought it for nearly $2 million at a Sotheby's auction and then took it to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where one department chairman shared his hunch that it was the work of the Renaissance artist, Lee said.

Experts in the Met's paintings conservation department carefully cleaned it by removing decades of dirt, as well as paint layers that art restorers had applied through the ages to fill in chips or dull areas, Lee said.

When they examined the painting further using X-rays and infrared technology, they were able to see how the artist made certain brush strokes, scraped paint layers to achieve detail and even changed elements of the painting before the final version, Lee said.

Museum experts said they determined it not only was Michelangelo's — based on similarities to his other works and the artist's stories of the piece as told to biographers — but also that it was his earliest work — based on its age and details in the painting. The confirmation came a few months ago, and then the Kimbell decided to buy it, Lee said.

The generations of dirt and paint buildup had obscured the painting's identity, and some doubted its authenticity because a similar painting existed, Lee said. But an art expert who extensively studied both paintings said the other was done in the 17th century.

Michelangelo's piece has previously been known as "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" because he was inspired by a similar engraving of that name while learning to be an artist. But after the Kimbell acquired the oil painting, Lee decided to change its name because that engraving depicts a different scene, he said.

The painting will be displayed at the Kimbell starting this fall after a summer exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Lee said he may loan the painting to other museums later for traveling exhibits.

"This could not be a rarer object," Lee said. "That's why this is such an extraordinary opportunity."

___

On the Net:

Kimbell Art Museum: http://www.kimbellart.org

Art student's car vanishing act

2009-05-05T21:18:00.005-10:00

From BBC News:

A design student made a battered old Skoda "disappear" by painting it to merge with the surrounding car park.

Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car's appearance.

She created the illusion in the car park outside her studio at Uclan's Hanover Building in Preston.

The car is now being used for advertising by the local recycling firm that donated the vehicle.

'Just amazing'

Ms Watson, a second year student, said: "I was experimenting with the whole concept of illusion but needed something a bit more physical to make a real impact."

She was given the Skoda Fabia from the breaker's yard at local firm Recycling Lives.

Owner Steve Jackson described her work as "amazing".

"When I first saw the photos I was convinced it was something which had been done on the computer," said Mr Jackson.

"But when you look more closely you see the effort and attention to detail she has put into it. It is just amazing."

2009 Water Conservation Week Poster and Poetry Contest

2009-05-05T21:17:00.001-10:00

Nearly 3,500 posters and more than 200 poems were entered in the 2009 Water Conservation Week Poster and Poetry Contest! The entries are currently being reviewed and the winners will be announced in early April.

Lots of entries. Staff sort and layout entries for judging.

To see a short video news story of the poster contest judging, click here. Click on individual photos to view larger images.

The judges deliberate. Judges Alison Ibara-Kawabe, Anthony Randall and Arthur Aiu review poster contest entries.

The contests are held annually to teach Oahu's keiki about the importance of water conservation. The poster contest is open to Oahu students in kindergarten through the 6th grade, and the brand-new poetry contest is open to Oahu students in grades 7 through 12. The winning and honorable mention posters and poems will be showcased in the 2010 Water Conservation Calendar, which will be available in December 2009.

Entries galore. Staff sort and organize entries post-judging.

Click here to download and print the 2009 Water Conservation Calendar.

For more information about these annual contests or calendar, click here, call 748-5041, or email contactus@hbws.org.

Thousands of Entries Received for the 2009 Water Conservation Week Poster & Poetry Contests

Lego Torture Scenes Protest Media Censorship

2009-05-05T21:17:00.000-10:00

From Wired Online:

By Jim Merithew and Keith Axline

05.04.09

A few weeks ago, the Obama administration released controversial memos from the Justice Department describing torturous techniques used by CIA agents while interrogating terror suspects. Since then, media and news outlets have been saturated in moral discussions: Should the CIA have tortured the detainees? Should Obama have released the memos?

But few have questioned the media's self-censorship in reporting on these techniques while they were in use.

Flickr user Legofesto (who prefers to remain anonymous) was fed up with news outlets refusing to publish images depicting torture due to their graphic nature. So he recreated the images and first-hand accounts using Legos to protest what he saw as irresponsible censorship.

[Click here for slideshow. Be advised that it's somewhat disturbing. You've been warned.]

The use of children's toys is at once sanitizing and horrifying and many of the images have received thousands of views. We post selections from Legofesto's series here as a gallery, accompanied by remarks from the artist.

Photo © Legofesto

Mission Impossible: The Code Even the CIA Can't Crack

2009-05-05T21:16:00.001-10:00

From Wired

By Steven Levy 04.20.09

The most celebrated inscription at the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, used to be the biblical phrase chiseled into marble in the main lobby: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." But in recent years, another text has been the subject of intense scrutiny inside the Company and out: 865 characters of seeming gibberish, punched out of half-inch-thick copper in a courtyard.

It's part of a sculpture called Kryptos, created by DC artist James Sanborn. He got the commission in 1988, when the CIA was constructing a new building behind its original headquarters. The agency wanted an outdoor installation for the area between the two buildings, so a solicitation went out for a piece of public art that the general public would never see. Sanborn named his proposal after the Greek word for hidden. The work is a meditation on the nature of secrecy and the elusiveness of truth, its message written entirely in code.

Almost 20 years after its dedication, the text has yet to be fully deciphered. A bleary-eyed global community of self-styled cryptanalysts—along with some of the agency's own staffers—has seen three of its four sections solved, revealing evocative prose that only makes the puzzle more confusing. Still uncracked are the 97 characters of the fourth part (known as K4 in Kryptos-speak). And the longer the deadlock continues, the crazier people get.

Whether or not our top spooks intended it, the persistent opaqueness of Kryptos subversively embodies the nature of the CIA itself—and serves as a reminder of why secrecy and subterfuge so fascinate us. "The whole thing is about the power of secrecy," Sanborn tells me when I visit his studio, a barnlike structure on Jimmy Island in Chesapeake Bay (population: 2). He is 6'7", bearded, and looks a bit younger than his 63 years. Looming behind him is his latest work in progress, a 28-foot-high re-creation of the world's first particle accelerator, surrounded by some of the original hardware from the Manhattan Project. The atomic gear fits nicely with the thrust of Sanborn's oeuvre, which centers on what he calls invisible forces.

[Read the complete story . . . here . . .]

Amazing Night - Part I

2009-04-12T21:14:00.004-10:00

By Philip Riley

At First Night in Honolulu, I met a girl named Walter who took me on a journey through art history. Her grey hair frizzled out like hot wires and in her Rubenesque figure she strode with great pomp and I followed her into Hanks Café.

“Nice head of hair,” I said. She scowled darkly like the huddled figure from an Edvard Munch. For all that I stifled a laugh.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked with the earnestness of Edgar Degas.

“I’m fine,” I said ogling at her with one eye. Her Mona Lisa presence and dark eyes intoxicated me.

“Would you like to go eat pizza?" I asked.
“Why would I want to do that?”

“You mean you won't?” With the intoxicated flourish of a Frans Hals I pretended to pout. She examined my face with a sneer, like a surgeon looking for a disease.

We walked silently up Nuuanu toward Hotel Street bound by an artistic muse. It bound us in spite of the surface animosity for underneath it beat the blood of art history. I saw a man named Roy hovering in a space ship in a Rothko haze above St. Mark’s garage. He launched a beam of blue light from his space bazooka and we found ourselves the same color as the buildings, lamp posts, and traffic signs. Around us people walked in and out of doorways like a Hieronymus Bosch painting except we were walking in a Picasso blue period.

“How do you like this show?” Walter said, and then sprouted a Salvador Dali mustache that resembled rat’s tails.

“It’s an amazing night,” I said.

“We have no control over this,” she said.

Stopping at Hotel and Nuuanu she emptied her pockets of thick sticks of chalks. We moved slowly like Tai chi as we drew.

Roy waved from his spaceship grinning like Toulouse-Lautrec. We waved to him, our chalk scratching the concrete. Cars honked more and more frequently. We blocked the intersection timelessly and though the police station was only a block away no police interrupted us.

“Wow, it’s a regular Caravaggio,” said Walter stopping to survey our drastic chiaroscuro composition.

Then a man named Romeo burst onto the scene with Rosarina’s pizzas decorated in boxes with a Mondrian pattern.

“I’ve got pizza.” He said with a big smile as he gave the frustrated drivers pizza which they ate with faces contorted like German expressionists paintings.

Flirting with Walter, Romeo said, “My old friend Michelangelo painted on my ceiling a long time ago.” Then the two left me alone in the middle of Nuuanu posed like Rodin’s “Thinker.” Roy zoomed away in his spaceship till he was only a point in the Kandinsky sky.

Next: Roy goes to the planet of the Loonies.

HCC Open Show Winners

2009-04-12T21:06:00.003-10:00

[Photos courtesy of Roy Okano]

1st Place - “A Special Place” - Maurice Hutchinson

2nd Place - “Washed Up in Horan's Yard” - Sue Roach

3rd Place - “As Evening Falls” - Maurice Hutchinson

Honorable Mention - “The Hula Sister's Free Show” - Ann Corum

An Interesting Collection

2009-04-12T20:32:00.000-10:00

[Editor's Note: This piece was originally scheduled for posting on April 1, 2009, but circumstances conspired to delay it until now.]

Your Paint Rag editor recently ran across an interesting website with quite an eclectic collection. There's a real Duchamp-ian quality to the site that prompts a meta-level contemplation of the Artistic Project. I also love the descriptions of the pieces; e.g. "A startling work, and one of the largest crayon on canvas pieces that most people can ever hope to see. The bulging leg muscles, the black shoes, the white socks, the pink toga, all help to make this one of the most popular pieces in the MOBA collection." Here are some others:

"Suicide"
Acrylic on canvas by Unknown
18"x24"

"Bloody cloud bursts in an otherwise clear sky, frothing nostrils as the bovine beast dives, lemming like, and misses the phosphorescent, oily, swimming hole."

"Vortex" Acrylic on canvas by Unknown

"A black road, tangential to a reservoir, a leering disembodied head, its almost solid shadow spewing blood. Don't drink the water."

For more pieces in the collection, click here.

I did mention this was intended for publication on April First didn't I . . . ?

AHA All Things Hawaiian Show: Winners

2009-02-18T21:26:00.016-10:00

[Photos courtesy of Roy Okano.]

From left to right: Juror David Behlke, Charlene Hughes, AHA President Anthony Randall, Noriko Wakayama, Jennifer Cook, David Devenot, Suzanne Marinelli, Hans Loffel, Phil Uhl

First Place: "Lime Italian Glass" by Noriko Wakayama

Second Place: "Reflection Time" by Phil Uhl

Third Place: "Looking Mauka" by Hans Loffel

Juror's Choice Honorable Mention: "Beauty" by Jennifer Cook

Honorable Mention: "Annalisa's Wedding Basket" by Suzanne Marinelli

Honorable Mention: "Chinatown Market Place" by David Devenot

Honorable Mention: "Pine Man - End of Era" by Charlene Hughes

AHA Non-Figurative Show: People's Choice Winners

2009-02-16T20:04:00.026-10:00

[Photos are courtesy of Roy Okano.]

First Place: "Koi Noir" by Warren Stenberg

Second Place: "Longevity III" by Regina Bode

Third Place: "Articulation: Whispering Universe" by Geoff Kam

Fourth Place: "Blue Rules" by Arlene Woo

Calif. artist sues AP over image of Obama

2009-02-09T19:49:00.005-10:00

(Editor's Note: This article is a follow-up to last Wednesday's piece about the Associated Press threatening Fairey with copyright infringement (link). I haven't actually seen the lawsuit, but it appears to be a declaratory judgment action in which Fairey is seeking the court's declaration that his work is not infringing. It will be interesting to see how the court rules, if the case makes it that far.)

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 9, 4:27 pm ET

NEW YORK – An artist who created a famous image of Barack Obama before he became president sued The Associated Press on Monday, asking a judge to find that his use of an AP photo in creating the poster did not violate copyright law.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan said street artist Shepard Fairey did not violate the copyright of the April 2006 photograph because he dramatically changed the nature of the image.

The AP has said it is owed credit and compensation for the artist's rendition of the picture, taken by Mannie Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

Lawyers for Fairey acknowledged that the artist used the photograph. But they said he transformed the literal depiction into a "stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that creates powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message."

AP spokesman Paul Colford said the AP was "disappointed by the surprise filing."

He said in a statement that the AP had agreed last week not to take legal action while it was in settlement talks, but that Fairey's attorney broke off contact Friday.

Colford said the AP had indicated that any settlement would benefit a charitable fund that supports AP journalists worldwide who suffer personal loss from natural disasters and conflicts.

"AP believes it is crucial to protect photographers, who are creators and artists. Their work should not be misappropriated by others," Colford said.

The AP has not taken legal action against Fairey. But his lawsuit noted that the AP had threatened twice to sue Fairey, possibly as early as Tuesday, and that it considered all works that incorporate the imagery of the "Obama Hope" poster to be infringements of its copyrights.

The lawsuit said the purpose of the photograph documented the day's events while Fairey's art, titled "Obama Progress" and "Obama Hope," was meant "to inspire, convince and convey the power of Obama's ideals, as well as his potential as a leader, through graphic metaphor."

Fairey's image became popular on buttons, posters and Web sites. It showed a pensive Barack Obama looking upward. It was splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.

The lawsuit noted that Fairey first began distributing his Obama images in early 2008 and that Obama thanked him in a Feb. 22 letter for his contribution to the presidential campaign.

When asked Monday about AP's position, Fairey said: "It's a suppression of an artist's freedom of expression." His attorney advised him not to say anything else.

The lawsuit was brought on Fairey's behalf by the Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project and a San Francisco-based law firm.

"There should be no doubt about the legality of Fairey's work," said Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project. "He used the photograph for a purpose entirely different than the original, and transformed it dramatically."

The lawsuit was filed on the same day that Fairey appeared in two different Boston courtrooms, where he pleaded not guilty to charges he tagged property with graffiti.

He allegedly vandalized a Massachusetts Turnpike Authority building last month as part of one of his street art campaigns. Fairey also pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of placing a poster on a Boston electrical box in September 2000. Boston police said he had failed to appear in court in the 9-year-old case days after his arrest.

The 38-year-old Los Angeles resident was arrested Friday when he was in Boston for an event kicking off his exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art. At the time of the arrest, detectives were aware that Fairey had failed to appear in court in 2000, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office.

Fairey was ordered to return to court on the Boston charges for pre-trial hearings on March 10 and 11.

"I'd love to be able to feel like the culture of Boston continues to encourage freedom of expression," Fairey said after Monday's hearings. "If that's not going to be the case, I'll deal with that."

___

Associated Press writer Russell Contreras contributed to this report from Boston.

AHA Artist Roster Project

2009-02-05T07:34:00.000-10:00

Dear AHA Artist:

We have an on-line membership roster. The website is http://ahaartists.blogspot.com.

(Current) members are invited to email an image of your art together with a statement, commentary or bio directly to the site.

It's very easy! Here is how you do it:

1. Start up a new message.
2. On the subject line, put your name.
3. In the text box, just cut and paste in your information. If you do not have a ready-made bio somewhere in your computer, just type in something about yourself. Don't worry, anything you post can be edited if you find it unsatisfactory.

4. Attach a picture of your art work. (You do this in the same way that you would attach a jpeg to mail to your friend.)
5. Send this email off to: hawaiiartists.post@blogger.com
6. Go to http://ahaartists.blogspot.com to see what you posted.

Your posts will be reviewed for appropriateness. Don't post anything that the average viewer might consider offensive such as porn, vulgar language, bad language, comments that might create flame wars or off-topic comments; positively no spamming. You may include your contact name and number and your website address. Three posts per member is the maximum so that everyone will have a chance to show their stuff.

If you should have any questions, let me know.

Aloha,

Priscilla Hall
Membership Chair

AP alleges copyright infringement of Obama image

2009-02-04T20:32:00.007-10:00

(Editor's Note: I ran across this item today on Yahoo! and am taking the liberty of reproducing it here. It raises some interesting questions about the limits of the Fair Use Doctrine. But on a deeper level, it raises questions about the extent to which any derivative work should be considered art in a country that can sometimes make a fetish of artistic originality.)

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer, Wed Feb 4, 2009 6:56 pm ET

NEW YORK – On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.

Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.

The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.

"The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission," the AP's director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement.

"AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey's attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution."

"We believe fair use protects Shepard's right to do what he did here," says Fairey's attorney, Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University and a lecturer at the Stanford Law School. "It wouldn't be appropriate to comment beyond that at this time because we are in discussions about this with the AP."

Fair use is a legal concept that allows exceptions to copyright law, based on, among other factors, how much of the original is used, what the new work is used for and how the original is affected by the new work.

A longtime rebel with a history of breaking rules, Fairey has said he found the photograph using Google Images. He released the image on his Web site shortly after he created it, in early 2008, and made thousands of posters for the street.

As it caught on, supporters began downloading the image and distributing it at campaign events, while blogs and other Internet sites picked it up. Fairey has said that he did not receive any of the money raised.

A former Obama campaign official said they were well aware of the image based on the picture taken by Garcia, a temporary hire no longer with the AP, but never licensed it or used it officially. The Obama official asked not to be identified because no one was authorized anymore to speak on behalf of the campaign.

The image's fame did not end with the election.

It will be included this month at a Fairey exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and a mixed-media stenciled collage version has been added to the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

"The continued use of the poster, regardless of whether it is for galleries or other distribution, is part of the discussion AP is having with Mr. Fairey's representative," Colford said.

A New York Times book on the election, just published by Penguin Group (USA), includes the image. A Vermont-based publisher, Chelsea Green, also used it — credited solely to Fairey_ as the cover for Robert Kuttner's "Obama's Challenge," an economic manifesto released in September. Chelsea Green president Margo Baldwin said that Fairey did not ask for money, only that the publisher make a donation to the National Endowment for the Arts.

"It's a wonderful piece of art, but I wish he had been more careful about the licensing of it," said Baldwin, who added that Chelsea Green gave $2,500 to the NEA.

Fairey also used the AP photograph for an image designed specially for the Obama inaugural committee, which charged anywhere from $100 for a poster to $500 for a poster signed by the artist. [Editor's note: see for youself, click here.]

Fairey has said that he first designed the image a year ago after he was encouraged by the Obama campaign to come up with some kind of artwork. Last spring, he showed a letter to The Washington Post that came from the candidate.

"Dear Shepard," the letter reads. "I would like to thank you for using your talent in support of my campaign. The political messages involved in your work have encouraged Americans to believe they can help change the status quo. Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign."

At first, Obama's team just encouraged him to make an image, Fairey has said. But soon after he created it, a worker involved in the campaign asked if Fairey could make an image from a photo to which the campaign had rights.

"I donated an image to them, which they used. It was the one that said "Change" underneath it. And then later on I did another one that said "Vote" underneath it, that had Obama smiling," he said in a December 2008 interview with an underground photography Web site.

___

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Washington contributed to this report.

Narcissus Queen Talent

2009-01-25T20:12:00.004-10:00

Lisa Wong was crowned the 2009 Narcissus Queen, and won the talent segment with the performance viewable here: [Clip]. (Note: you may have to click the "play" button.) Now that's some performance art!

Secretary of the Arts

2009-01-10T20:41:00.010-10:00

by Geoffrey M. Kam

"A nation in which artistic excellence is celebrated, supported, and available to all Americans."

--Vision Statement of the National Endowment for the Arts.
. . .

"[S]everal weeks ago, I began to receive a number of letters, phone calls, and postcards from constituents throughout the Senate concerning art work by Andres Serrano. They express a feeling of shock, of outrage, and anger.

They said, "How dare you spend our taxpayers' money on this trash." They all objected to taxpayers' money being used for a piece of so-called art work which, to be quite candid, I am somewhat reluctant to utter its title. This so-called piece of art is a deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity. The art work in question is a photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist's urine.

This artist received $15,000 for his work from the National Endowment for the Arts."

--Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-NY) in the May 18, 1989, Congressional Record
. . .

I got an interesting e-mail this morning:

Subject: Petition to Obama for a Secretary of the Arts

I just received this from a friend in NYC and think that it is important to pass along. Please, please sign this petition. At the very least, you can feel good about some effort to be heard. O.K.
Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts--now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html

I was intrigued for two reasons. First, because I had not realized how unusual it was for the United States to not have a Secretary of the Arts. And second, because I wondered whether protecting the national heritage of a country and promoting cultural and artistic expression are important government concerns on a par with, for example, maintaining streets and sewers. Many other countries think so (see, for example, this list). And, for that matter, in Hawaii we have the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the City and County of Honolulu's Mayor's Office of Culture & the Arts.

At the Federal level, there is the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities, which includes the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA is an independent agency, not attached to any particular department or office. It is perhaps best known for the controversy over Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ," in which detractors questioned the grant of $15,000 of taxpayer money to fund a work which many found patently offensive. (Here's a link to wikipedia's version of the matter; if you're sensitive, or think you might be, don't click it.) While we may support broad governmental support for the arts, does that general support at some level translate into support of specific artists, and, if so, are we willing to accept the possibility that our tax dollars are used to fund things that we think are of no merit whatsoever. Or, circling back to my original thought, should government fund art/artists at all?

The NEA's vision statement (quoted above) and its slogan, "A great nation deserves great art," are aspirational, but should the United States make arts and culture a cabinet level priority? Quincy Jones' suggestion that it should prompted an on-line petition drive. From Jones' website:

"During his travels Quincy has observed that people in other countries seem to have greater appreciation for American music than Americans. He hopes the creation of a secretary of the arts in the U.S. will help preserve American music and other U.S. arts and ensure that they remain a vital part of our schools’ curriculum."

Here's video of a subsequent interview: Quincy Jones on FORA.tv.

As I write this, the petition has 42,861 signatures. For those interested in signing, here's the link: http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html. Note that you can add comments to your e-signature.

(All views expressed herein (to the extent that there even are any views expressed herein) are the author's and are not those of the AHA. The author would love to have a lot of responses and comments to this post and welcomes and invites the discussion.)

Quilts for Obama: An Exhibit Celebrating the Inauguration of our 44th President

2008-12-28T10:03:00.009-10:00

Charlene Hughes of Honolulu, Hawaii is one of the Master Quilters whose work is included in "Quilts for Obama: An Exhibit Celebrating the Inauguration of our 44th President," a special celebratory exhibit at The Historical Society of Washington, DC. Ms. Hughes has two quilts in this exhibit, representing Hawaii: "Kapa Apana" and "Kuu Maui Aloha."

"Kuu Maui Aloha" is an example of what is considered true Hawaiian-style quilting. Two colors only, strong value difference (red and yellow), echo quilting, symbolic.

"Kapa Apana" demonstrates what Hawaii is all about, showing the ethnic and cultural differences of the quilting ladies---all working together in harmony.

The exhibit contains approximately sixty art and interpretive quilts made to celebrate the inauguration and welcome the Obama family to Washington: 44 by master quilt makers from across the US, along with others honoring the Obama family from Kenya, Hawaii, Kansas, and South Carolina. The Historical Society and the Women of Color Quilters Network have partnered with The Group for Cultural Documentation (TGCD) to present the exhibit.

Guest curator Roland L. Freeman is a folklorist and photo-documenter whose career began during the Civil Rights movement.

The exhibit runs January 11 – January 31, 2009 at The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., 801 K Street, NW (at Mount Vernon Square), Washington, DC 20001. For more information call: 202.882.7764

(Editor's Note: There is a longer article about Charlene and her quilts in the January 9, 2009 Midweek! The on-line version is here, but without pics!)

AHA Christmas Party

2008-10-27T20:07:00.008-10:00

AHA Christmas Party
Saturday, December 13th, 2008, 11:30 am to 2:00 pm
Kaimana Beach Hotel, Sans Souci Room, 2863 Kalakaua Ave.
Cost: $25.00 per person (for AHA members)
Menu: Fresh Salad, Chicken Alfredo with Linguine, and Dessert

RSVP to Priscilla Hall at: (808) 239-6066 or to Tony Randall at: (808)398-1863 or randallt001@hawaii.rr.com.

20th World Wide SketchCrawl - Saturday, October 25, 2008

2008-10-20T20:49:00.000-10:00

SketchCrawls are world wide drawing marathons, all held on the same day! People interested in sketching and drawing gather to share and learn from each other's observations and art techniques. SketchCrawls are free and open to all who like to sketch, draw, or paint. Beginners and professionals are both welcomed! Some sketches may be posted on the SketchCrawl website for sharing with other world wide sketchers.

This Saturday, October 25, 2008, World Wide SketchCrawl #20 will be held in Kailua town for observing, sketching and/or painting. Sketchers should gather approximately 10:25 AM at Kailua Zippys, 44 Oneawa Street (map). Gather in Kailua town, for sharing of the day's sketchbooks, drawings, observations and techniques. Share stories and learn about the community, and have lunch together.

Mark Norseth will join us for the Kailua portion of the crawl. Mark has offered to speak about drawing!

Also, for those interested, John and Min will be busing in from downtown at: 10:00 AM at Corner Alakea and Hotel Street downtown to catch the #56 from Honolulu to Kailua (The same Bus (#56) leaves Ala Moana Center on Kona Street at 9:45 AM.) Catch the same Bus #56 returning to downtown Honolulu in the afternoon.

Supplies:
Drawing, painting, marking tool and paper/canvas of your choice
Sun protection recommended!
Bus fare (if riding the Bus)
Home Lunch and/or lunch money for purchasing lunch

Sites of interest:

20th World Wide Sketch Crawl: www.sketchcrawl.com
Sketch Crawl Kailua-Hawaii-USA: www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3244
Mark Norseth's website: www.marknorseth.com/
Star-Bulletin Article: archives.starbulletin.com/2007/03/13/features/story01.html
Plus, a cool website to inspire! www.urbansketchers.com

Editor's Note: Calendar

2008-10-12T16:15:00.003-10:00

I've added some useful links to the left side of the page. It's an effort to include a calendar function to the Paint Rag. Thus, there's a link to the AHA Calendar on the AHA website and a link to the Honolulu Weekly's calendar page, which includes gallery shows, calls to artists, things of that nature.

The Color Blue

2008-10-12T16:14:00.002-10:00

by Connie Oliva

Blue! There are more blues than there are words to name them. Blue is a mysterious color, hue of illness and nobility, the rarest color in nature. It is the color of the heavens and of the abyss, of smoke and distant hills, of veins seen through skin, and according to one famous magazine editor, a blue cover used on a magazine always guarantees increased newsstand sales . . . painters take note!

The symbolism of the color blue varies from culture to culture, and figures powerfully in art. It was a favorite of John Singer Sargeant’s palette, reached matchless depth of blue in Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park No. 79, rendered eerily emaciated the Bathers by Cezanne. The vivid and gem like blue of the eyes in Mondigliani’s portraits brought to life the otherwise static figures, particularly those of Jeanne Hebuterne. And blue became the color Pablo Picasso used for years during his blue period (1901-1904) when he was living in Parisian poverty and portrayed beggars, café habitués and poor working people sunk in lethargy, melancholy and despair, using a predominately blue palette to convey the hunger and cold his subjects felt. Asian artists have given specific and interesting symbolism to the various shades of blue in art, clothing, literature, in ritual and decoration.

The color blue was probably first used in Phoenicia, and made from sea whelks. Later on Egyptian blue was made by heating sand, soda, lime and copper sulfide to make a blue glass which was then crushed to form a powder and pigment. Cultures have given the color many connotations: to Egyptians it represented virtue, faith and truth; in Jerusalem, a blue hand painted on door gives protection, in Morocco, blue thwarts the power of evil, and despite what most people may believe, in Ireland, the color of St. Patrick’s day is not green . . . but blue. Blue is for boys, and is a male representational color in western society, but also the color of one of art’s great icons and subjects, the Virgin Mary.

For the artist, there are vegetable blues, blue from ashes, copper blues, blues from sea life and minerals . . . and on and on. And blue fades . . . faster than any other color. No other part of the palette is so susceptible to distortion by the effects of age as are blues and violets. And no other color can be as costly. It was always the most expensive pigment for painters and usually reserved to represent glory, supernatural beauty and perfection. Lapis lazuli is the raw material from which the precious ultramarine pigment was prepared, and the cost to European painters was such that contracts often contained additional money for the allotment of blue, so rare and costly was the color.

Surrounded by the sea, Hawaiian seascape and landscape artists use a lot of blues, but the color means more than the sea, symbolically, culturally and psychologically. It is the color of the extrovert, is used to quiet patients in hospitals, to soothe babies, and to represent the serene, the infinite. It is an essential color on the artist palette, near the bottom of the color spectrum, and a great instrument in conveying emotion.

WisdomBook.org

2008-10-12T16:00:00.002-10:00

Charlene Hughes recently brought this site to my attention: Wisdombook; and I thought I'd share it with everyone. It's a beautifully executed little film, with this Concept:

"Inspired by the idea that one of the greatest gifts one generation can pass to another is the wisdom that it has gained from experience, the Wisdom project, produced with cooperation from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, seeks to create a record of a multicultural group of people who have all made their mark on the world. Presented against the same white space, all of the subjects are removed from their context, which not only democratizes them, but also allows for a clear dialogue to exist between them. In an attempt to create a more profound, honest, and truly revealing portrait of these luminaries, the project encompasses their voices, their physical presence and the written word. This comprehensive portrayal of such a profound and global group is an index of extraordinary perspectives."

Theft of Gerald Murai's Art

2008-10-11T23:57:00.002-10:00

This an e-mail (lightly edited) from Amy Markham, who runs a plein air group on the Big Island. It's a request to keep an eye out for some stolen art, and also a cautionary tale for those of us who show our art in public.

Aloha all...

This is of significance. As many of you know Gerald Murai & Patrick Sarsfield recently (9/5-9/25) had an exhibit at East Hawaii Cultural Center. Gerald hung an estimated 92 works, but due to a oversight- only 87 were listed in the show's booklet. Although Gerald noticed the oversight pre-opening, he didn't press it.

Unfortunately about half way through the show, a still life of Gerald's went missing. It's an oil on canvas titled "Still life with Pomegranate". The painting depicts a pomegranate thats been split unevenly open, seeds dripping out. Gerald was bothered by the theft, but took the loss in stride. . . . The show ended and he and Patrick took their work down. . . .

When Gerald got home and unloaded his truck, he immediately noticed that one of his favorite peices, a nude titled "Shelly's Back" was missing. It was an oil on canvas, NFS. He promptly called the EHCC, but no one had seen it. He was devastated, miserable, distraught. I was so affected by Gerald's sadness, that I phoned Leslie Sears who had photographed some of the show. Had she had photographed any of the nudes? She had, and a copy was sent to Gerald. When he saw the photo, he was horrified to notice that "Shelly's Back" was not the only missing painting- another nude was missing too!! "Standing Nude" a small oil on canvas is also unaccounted for. It's a study of a standing nude woman, leaning forward on a white pillar. . . .

Sadly there's no accurate inventory list, and no "check in/check out" procedure, so it's difficult to determine if other works are missing too. Gerald is the first to admit that he's unorganized, but like many artists, the work he creates remains fresh in his mind. He can recall the smallest of detail in each painting, down to the lighting. Gerald is deeply bummed. If you see any of these 3 missing paintings, please call Gerald Murai at 935-5898. [Above] is a photo of the 2 missing nudes, we're still trying to locate a photo of the missing still life. Please log onto the blog [Plein Air Artists of Hawaii Island http://www.paaohi.blogspot.com/] to see more photos of the missing nudes.

Artists!! This is a wake up call for everyone! Before you display your work inventory it, & photograph it! If you have work in a show, exhibit, or gallery, photograph it inside the gallery. Inventory all your work before it's handled by anyone, and again after. If works are not listed in a gallery booklet, perhaps they shouldn't be shown. I'm told that neither the EHCC nor the Wailoa Center insure the art in their galleries. Please check with gallery directors for the most accurate insurance info before your works are placed anywhere. Keep your eyes peeled!
Mahalo nui loa, Amy Markham

The Moonglow Lounge

2008-10-05T14:36:00.000-10:00

Story and Art by Philip Riley

The Moonglow Lounge and the painting of it emerged under duress. I had walked out on an unsuccessful marriage and slept on the beach for a few weeks until I found a room in a garage in Waipahu. The landlord, Mrs. Macaranus rented me this room with only a week’s security deposit which was about all I could afford.

About a block away on Farrington Highway, a 20 foot sign on the Westgate Shopping Center said “Moonglow Lounge.” Black pupils looked up in the two moon shaped white “o’s of the word “Moonglow.” When I walked into the Moonglow, a band was auditioning. The band members were given bottle caps, redeemable for free beer. First the band members invited me to their table. Then, they silently slid their tokens to me. Before I walked home to my garage, a curious Hawaiian lady, counseled me that I was going to have a big headache the next day.

I painted the painting called “The Moonglow Lounge” during this time. I drew on napkins from many visits and took photos with a cheap portable camera. In the background of the painting I fictionalized the band with violin players. The red and brown tinted light glows on the people’s faces in this bar whose seats were black and whose sparse lighting shone through a dropped colored ceiling tile. A black velvet painting of a semi nude elegant Spanish looking lady hung on one of the nicotine colored walls. The patrons and those who worked there exuded unpretentious rough warmth. Though the bar has changed hands and names and there is no live music, a bond remains . . .

Preparing Images to Cafe Specifications

2008-10-05T14:31:00.002-10:00

from Priscilla Hall

Artists, if you are planning on submitting to the Artists of Hawaii, and if you already have Photoshop, this site has a tutorial that will explain how to prepare your images to Cafe specifications. Just follow the instructions step by step and it should come out quite well.

http://www.callforentry.org/pdf/CAFE%20Image%20Formatting.pdf

Artists of Hawaii 2009 Prospectus

2008-09-29T06:12:00.002-10:00

Artists of Hawai’i 2009
The Honolulu Academy of Arts
Juried Exhibition
Prospectus

Exhibition dates: May 14-August 16, 2009. Opening reception May 13, 2009, 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Juror: Laura Hoptman, Senior Curator, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
Juror lecture: Monday, February 16, 2009, 7:30 pm, Doris Duke Theatre

The Honolulu Academy of Arts’ Artists of Hawai’i is one of the longest-running juried exhibitions in the country, showcasing the quality and diversity of art in Hawai’i. For more information on the Honolulu Academy of Arts please visit www.honoluluacademy.org.

**ONLY ARTISTS RESIDING IN THE STATE OF HAWAI’I ARE ELIGIBLE**

PLEASE READ THIS PROSPECTUS CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW ALL PROCEDURES.
CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE FROM PRECEDING YEARS.

ELIGIBILITY AND CONDITIONS:
• All artists living in the state of Hawai’i are eligible.
• Functional and nonfunctional works are eligible in any medium or combination of media: painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, collage, sculpture, film and video, light works, sound, ceramic, glass, fiber, jewelry, and other art forms.
• No work shown previously in a juried exhibition on O’ahu is eligible. All works must be original and created independently within the past two years.
• Size and weight:
— Up to 7 feet in each of two dimensions, not more than 3 feet in the third dimension.
— Works that can be broken down into smaller and shorter units may be up to 12 feet in height but no more than 7 feet and 3 feet in the two remaining dimensions. Measurements include frame, base, and all multiple parts.
— Unframed flat works that can be folded or rolled for handling: up to 12 feet in height and 7 feet in width. General weight limit: 250 lbs.
— Weight limit for works that are suspended from ceiling can be 50 lbs per suspended unit.
• The Academy reserves the right to reject works for any reason including technical complications, and in the interest of public safety.
• Frames and mats: Entries must be in finished condition for handling and display. When appropriate, works should be framed (with hanging hardware included) for their own protection.
• Prints, drawings, and photographs must be framed in metal or wood frames with hanging hardware included (mounting in mats alone is not adequate).

JURYING PROCESS:
• Juror will make selections of works to be included in the exhibition exclusively from digital images and information downloaded by artists on CaFÉ (www.callforentry.org). The Academy will notify all artists of jury results via e-mail.
• Of the artists selected for the exhibition, the juror will select 20 to 25 finalists as candidates for the special awards.
• A studio visit may be requested as part of the award selection process. The juror, accompanied by a representative from the HAA’s curatorial department, will conduct these studio visits. The museum will coordinate studio visits for those finalists during the month of February.
• Both works in progress and finished works may be presented during the studio visit.
• Award recipients will be notified after the selection process is complete.

HOW TO ENTER:
The Academy will conduct the submission process for Artists of Hawai’i 2009 online with all materials submitted in digital format through CaFÉ (www.callforentry.org).

NOTE: Slides or hard copy materials will not be accepted. First-time CaFÉ applicants must allow enough time to prepare their images to CaFÉ specifications and finalize the electronic submission prior to the deadline. First-time applicants should allow approximately 3 hours to complete the process.

• You may submit up to 3 artworks for judging
• The jury fee is $15 per artwork. This fee includes one digital image submission
• Each additional digital image submitted is $5 (1 entry=$15; 2 entries=$20; 3 entries=$25; 1 entry+1 detail=$20; 3 entries+2 details=$35, etc.)
• You may submit a minimum of 1 digital image and a maximum of 6 digital images
• Include an artists statement, limit 1000 characters
• Payment can be made by credit card through CaFÉ or by check.
Please make checks payable to The Honolulu Academy of Arts. Mail to:
Attn: Rui Sasaki
Honolulu Academy of Arts
900 S. Beretania St.
Honolulu, HI 96814

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING APPLICATIONS AND IMAGES ONLINE:
FRIDAY, January 2, 2009
12:00 NOON

ALL ENTRY FEE(S) MUST BE RECEIVED BY:
MONDAY, January 5, 2009
4:00 PM
Notification: Results of the jurying will be sent to all artists who submit work by e-mail no later than
Friday, February 13, 2009.

FOR SELECTED ARTISTS: HOW TO DROP OFF ARTWORKS:
1. Clearly label artwork with artist name, ID number issued from CaFÉ, phone number, email address, and title of work
2. If bracing wires are attached they must by taut.
3. If artwork requires special handling submit clear written instructions at time of delivery.
4. If artist’s presence is required for installation please call Rui Sasaki (532-8770) at least one week prior to the drop-off date to set-up an appointment.

DROP OFF DATE FOR HAND-DELIVERED ENTRIES:
SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2009
9:00 am–12:00 pm
All entries must be delivered to the Academy’s street-level loading dock on Victoria Street where Academy personnel will be available to receive entries. Use of parking lot on Victoria Street is permitted only for the delivery of entries. In the case of unusual circumstances—size and weight extremes, unusual fragility, complexity of set-up—requests for special delivery times will be considered.

AFTER THE EXHIBITION CLOSES: ART PICK UP AND SHIPPING:
The Academy’s storage space is limited. Please do not submit works if they cannot be picked up at the times stated below. Artists failing to claim work on time must pay a $10 per day storage charge. Entries for the next juried exhibition will not be accepted from artists who do not pay storage charges due. Works will be disposed at the Academy’s discretion one week following the pick-up deadline listed below.

PICK UP DATES FOR ENTRIES SELECTED FOR EXHIBITION
Tuesday, August 18 – Saturday August 22, 2009
9am–12 noon
*Exhibitors must pick up works after the close of the exhibition, at the Victoria St. entrance (down driveway, behind teahouse).

NEIGHBORING ISLAND ARTISTS: HOW TO SHIP ARTWORKS:

DEADLINE FOR SHIPPED ENTRIES:
FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2009
All entry conditions must be observed and artwork labeled properly (see “All Selected Artists: How to Drop off Artworks”). Please allow ample time for delivery of artwork to the Academy. Boxes must be constructed of wood or other sturdy material with appropriate padding and be sturdy enough for return shipment.

SHIPPING OF ARTWORKS TO NEIGHBORING ISLANDS
The Academy returns all works prepaid, following the close of the exhibition; artist’s insurance values of works are declared with carriers. Note: The Academy must have the delivery address in order to return the works, not post office addresses. If you do not wish to have your artwork(s) returned to you by mail, it is your responsibility to inform the Academy of other arrangements. Call Rui Sasaki at 532-8770.

LIABILITY:
Entries are submitted at artist’s/owners own risk. The Academy employs skilled, experienced staff and will handle materials with utmost care. The Academy is not responsible, however, for the loss of or damage to works, frames, glass, or any other component of the art, no matter how sustained.

Accepted works must remain at the Academy for the total period of the exhibition. Artworks submitted are subject to reproduction for publicity and use in Academy publications. Please provide photography credits if necessary.

(for more, click here)