Monthly Archive for July, 2009

Pinchy

Photo 228ah shoot! I had to take today off because the nerve I pinched in my neck or wherever at some point last week is rendering my good arm tingly and kind of numb. like, my fingers are locking up. it’s just as well because I doubt I’d be able to steady a bonefolder today. I am trying to wrap up this article for Locus, probably our last issue for a while (sad face) and I am so so so so so stuck. I am excited about all of these upcoming art opportunities, stressed about all of them, and still want to come up with more, more, and more.

my parents came down to Baltimore yesterday and we took down the old tracks and put in 5 new rails of track lighting! (this, of course, never could have happened without Josh’s long arms and everyone’s awesome patience and my dad’s even more awesome handyman skills) the gallery looks GREAT. like really really really great. we put the rest of the flood bulbs up, they fill the space with so much cool light (the old lights were too warm and were a constant little bug to me). I’m still thinking about how amazing the light is.

just moved my computer desk into the bedroom where I can concentrate a little more (and blog, go figure), stay cool, and sit with better posture so as to not further pinch my already pinched nerve. oh, bother. let’s hope for some good news from the dr. this afternoon, there is way too much to draw and install during the next few months to let this continue!

draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and ignore the unrelated pinched nerve spreading tingles down my good arm and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw and draw water and draw and draw and draw and draw

Announcing: Hexchange!

All that busy-ness I’ve been alluding to? Here’s a tiny fraction of it.


CALL FOR PRINTMAKERS:

The Hexagon Gallery is pleased to announce Hexchange, a Baltimore-themed portfolio exchange for emerging printmakers. Hexchange will be on exhibit during the month of October, with an opening reception on Saturday, October 10th, in conjunction with Second Saturdays, a new initiative from the Station North Arts & Entertainment District to bring community arts and music awareness to the area. Following the exhibition, Hexchange will become a part of the permanent collections at the Hexagon Gallery and the International Print Museum in Southern California (and possibly more). Hexchange is also receiving promotional support from the Bmore Art Blog, the Contemporary Museum and the Station North Arts & Entertainment District.

There are 50 spots in this portfolio. Hexchange will first open registration to Baltimore/DC printmakers (immediately). Starting on August 3rd, artists from outside the Baltimore/DC region can begin registration. All artists participating in the exchange will receive a portfolio of 50 different prints.

To register for the exchange:

1) send the following information to Hexagon Gallery coordinator Phuong Pham at artart hexagonspace.com:
Name
Email Address
Mailing Address

2) send payment:

Checks can be made payable to Phuong Pham, or payment can be sent via Paypal (please inquire for paypal invoice)

The Hexagon
attn: Phuong Pham, Gallery
PO BOX 50015
BALTIMORE MD 21211

Fee: $10 for artists in East and Central time zones, $15 for artists in Mountain and Pacific time zones. Artists outside the continental US will be given a payment estimate upon inquiry. This modest payment will cover constructing portfolio mailers, return postage, and exhibition postcards (also to be sent to each artist prior to the show). Your registration will not be complete until we have received your payment.

3) Start printing! Print requirements:
-edition of 55
-11×15 inches
-paper choice and bleed are up to you
-Baltimore-themed
-sign and number prints

***Important*** All editions must be received, with interleaving, (address above) by September 18th, 2009. No extensions, as this will give us just enough time to collate, construct cases, and hang the exhibition.

Questions? Contact Phuong at artart hexagonspace.com


The Hexagon is a community run gallery and performance space in the Station North Arts Distric of Baltimore, Maryland. The focus of the space is to eliminate segregation in the community by providing a forum for collaboration between artists of diverse backgrounds, to mentor local arts organizers, and to provide educational public arts workshops. Our facilities and services are made available to all artists who need a place to exhibit, perform, or create their original artwork, especially those who cannot obtain space to exhibit or perform from traditional sources because of financial or other limitations For more information about the space, please visit http://www.hexagonspace.com.

Stick this in your ear: Simmertime Jamz

Been playing around with features around here (new contact page!), with Mark’s guidance… For better or worse (mostly for better) I’ve thrown myself into a lot of work lately, an eye always on future projects before the current one is finished. (sigh) One of the simple things I like to do to keep truckin, or to make sure my work environment accurately reflects what I’m feeling, is to make a new playlist. Sometimes I like to trade with faraway friends, but I usually keep them to myself mostly because they’re all my goofy comfort songs for singing or dancing when I’m in a certain mood–driving, working, cooking, blue, happy, whatever. I made a little mix for these low key summer nights (but have we even broken 90 yet? I hope we never do!), drawing or mapping or printing in my living room studio. (also working on a loud driving hot weather jams playlist, forthcoming) These songs conjure night time stoop-drinks, cut-offs shorts, flip flops with a worn-in dent at your big toe, witbier, stealing tabletop flowers to tuck behind your ear, smiling and walking with your favorite person, summer clammy arms linked.

[note to friends reading via reader/RSS: you'll most likely have to click out to this, because there's a playlist widget that doesn't always appear in reader/feed organizer things. sorry!]



so many great things in here

To Each Book an Emoticon

isabelle_vaverka_thebook02

I like that this is a design of a rejection of design and a focus on objects that can be overly-designed.

I had a great book (Midnight’s Children) on my shelf that I refused to open for 4 years because someone who had scarred me very much also happened to love that book very much. Incidentally, that book was recently nearly destroyed after some pipes burst over my nightstand while I was on vacation. I think I’ll repair the covers so then it will completely be my book, too.

(more info on the project here)

Gosh

I just love everything and everyone right now!

Friday Shout-Out: The NewJ and the general state of humanity

Not even kidding–this week’s shout-out goes to the State of New Jersey, the NewJ, Dirty Jerz, etc. etc.

While you folks were lighting sparklers and steaming crabs, Leah and I were off on our epic adventure. Friends who’ve known me for a while also know that I am just a personal jinx on my car. She’s survived so much, and keeps chugging along, despite crisis after crisis. There was the time that it was stolen and later recovered by the FBI after having been used in a series of bank heists (true!). Or the time it was hit by the Philadelphia Fire Dept. and they left me a note. Or the time that the electric company towed it for some temporary construction and left it in an alley between two abandoned buildings. Or the other time or the other time. My car is a trooper.

So we’re driving along, girlin’ out over our girlcation, listening to some girl-tunes, in Northern NJ, about an hour or two from our final destination, and I hear a loud pop! from behind us, my car starts to wiggle like crazy, and luckily, so luckily, the cars behind us saw it and slowed down enough so we could make a fast move onto the shoulder. A truck pulled over to see if we were okay; apparently, an old tire in the rear had hit something, or something, and the tread flew off, leaving wires and raw rubber exposed. Damn! And of course, by a sequence of boring and long-winded events, I didn’t have any tire-changing tools with me. Nor do I have AAA (yes, getting on that now… thanks Mom), so I called up Geico, they connected me with an emergency response person, who then directly connected me to a tow guy in the area, who THEN started to head in my direction and said “uhhh, why don’t you just call NJ DOT? They’ll take care of you…”

DID YOU KNOW? The New Jersey Department of Transportation has an army of service trucks that patrol the highways LOOKING for people who need help. And they help you. For free. So not only did Tony the Tow Guy stay on the phone with me while I figured things out, he also saved me a crap ton of money and referred me to a free service. And the NJ DOT trucks are awesome! I waited not more than 20 minutes, the guy put on my spare and perked up my tires free of charge, and safely saw us to the next exit to get a replacement. I also expected the rest of the process to be a complete pain in the ass, but the two auto shops we visited were completely nice and honest and awesome to us, the afternoon before the 4th of July, when you Know homedude just wants to go home to a beer and a brat’ and a bbq.

You don’t even have to pump your own gas in New Jersey!

NewJ, I’m sorry you get all that Armpit flack from Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers. You’ve won a billion more points from me. I’ll see you again next month for beach fun, too!

Abandon Ship!

some days I feel like that, even!

so busy. showin, emailin, press releasin, organizin, second saturdayin, breakin hearts, barely sleepin, apartment-fixin.

I’m about to install a tiny thing at Current Gallery for their Abandon Ship! show:

opening this Friday, 7-10.

Also teamed up with Art with a Heart for a community youth show at the Hexagon next week!

artwithaheart

working on a print exchange

getting pumped for the warehouse show in September

thinking about ways to collaborate with another DIY gallery space in Philly for a 215-410 mail art exhibition in the winter… or something

the best things in life, or maybe the best motivators, are short trips. Wizzwah just past, Atlantic City in a couple months, a long week in Northern California in September, a hop to Austin in November… art art art in between all of those. fun!

Girlcation

Look, Blogosphere! I’m in a cave!

Girlcation adventure… pictures here and here!




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