Category Archives: art

Onward and upward with the arts

Lots of other arty things were happening during this, the first weekend of Spring – although Artomatic registration is not open yet.

I’m a bit cantankerous because I want to start recording the soundtrack for a potential installation and a major construction project sprang up 200 yards from our recording space. Pile-driving and sound recording are not the very best of friends. We have a little time, but this kind of installation requires a lot of planning and construction that can’t be done at the last minute.

Did I mention that Artomatic registration is not open yet? It’s not.

David Fogel’s 88 hosted the 4 day Forward Festival at various locations. Artery 717 opened “Private Arts” a new show of work by 40 local designers showing off the art they create after their design clients go home. Anna U Davis closed out her show at Long View Gallery. Artomatic registration did not open, although Sean Welker opened a new show at R. Coury Fine Art Gallery in Savage, Maryland. Transformer Gallery opened Fabrication of Blindness/Fabricating Rain, an intriguing looking show. There is/was a whole bunch of music stuff going on this weekend that I’m too tired to blog about, but luckily dcist has a roundup.

We were going to go to many of these things – instead we stopped at Artery 717 and said hello and then drove by BeBar for X in DC, but by then I was too tired to get out of the car – let alone go inside – so we went home. It is indeed a life glamorous and exotic.

In far more important news, the pattern for the cables on the cute little ballerina sweater from Glampyre Stefanie Japel’s Fitted Knits are totally fucked up. The sweater looked wrong because it was wrong. If I’d just looked up the errata to the pattern to begin with I would have figured out why much sooner. It’s an eyecatching cable and the mistake is centered right at breast level – you’d think someone would have caught that before the book went to print. I’m just grumbling because I don’t feel well and I hope this would be a quick and easy project, not one I had to rip out and redo repeatedly. It’s a beautiful sweater and I love her designs.

And, of course, yesterday was National Corndog Day, as you may have read in the accidentally epic meatblog post, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Corndogs.” You can go read that while you wait for Artomatic registration to start – if you’re on the mailing list you’ll be the first to know when it opens.

The WaPo Style Section {hearts} Artomatic

“Breaking the Valentines Mold”

Artomatic and the Pink Line Project head into Day 2 of their Luck of the Draw weekend of art and music events at venues around the Navy Yard Metro in Southeast. We count on both of these groups to put on the best art parties around (yes, fine, we {heart} them). And this show seems to have it all: a photography exhibit curated by Ten Miles Square; another exhibition, “RED: St. Valentine bled for us” (with work by Tim Tate, Pat Goslee, Scott Brooks and others); and DJs and music performances every day.

Free. Tonight 6-10 p.m.; tomorrow 2-6 p.m. Half Street, between K and L streets SE. Navy Yard Metro station. For a schedule and details, visit the Pink Line Project or Artomatic.

Friday 5.3

Artomatic alum/Post Secret superstar Frank Warren is speaking tonight at Lisner auditorium:

Literature Frank Warren on PostSecret The Germantown-based creator of the PostSecret project encouraged people to write out their deepest secrets on postcards and drop them in the mail to him — and here’s the thing: They did. Warren, who has compiled several books collecting the confessions (which range from funny to tragic), visits George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium tonight to talk about the project and his work in suicide awareness. $10; GWU students $7. 7:30 p.m. Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW. 202-397-7328 or visit the Lisner box office, 202-994-6800.

There are lots of ways to use the web to reach your audience. If you want to use your art/craft/project website to propel yourself to superstardom, sitting at home whining that it’s not fair that Frank gets all the attention isn’t really the path. You’re going to have to do lots of behind the scenes work. Fortunately for you, there’s no one right answer.

If you’re doing the etsy thing and you haven’t bookmarked Tina Seamonster’s project, Hello Craft, you really should. Lots of great info there.

You should also consider hitting up an event Tina posted about earlier this week. The Creative Alliance is hosting this event in Baltimore on Sunday:

The Business of Craft (Presented by The Baltimore ETSY Street Team)

Sun Jan 25. 10am-2:30pm.
Adv reg $25, $20 CA & BEST mbrs. Walk-in $30, $25 CA & BEST mbrs. Includes lunch.
Practical information for the creative entrepreneur featuring roundtable discussions led by experts on legal and accounting basics; marketing, wholesale and pricing; and looking your best– on the web and in promo photos. Speakers include: Cynthia Blake Sanders, MD Lawyers for the Arts; Rebecca Cason, former director of the Buyer’s Market of American Craft; Jen Menkhaus, working crafter and one of the founders of the Baltimore Street Team, as well as a professional photographer, accountant, and web designer. Over lunch, get connected with other local artists and crafters to make new friends, show off your work, and share ideas.

The directions and registration info are at that link.

I’ve gotten lots of requests for legal and technical panels or workshops for next Artomatic related to showing or selling your work online. I’m keeping a list of suggested topics, so keep sending them my way. I’m not going to manage the workshops but I’m sure I’ll be helping out or at least putting out feelers for good speakers or presenters.

But back to Hello Craft – Tina reports that Etsy has at long last integrated Google Analytics into the stores and she links to the tutorial to help crafters use the tool effectively.

And now, back to the original topic: Post Secret. CBS still has the full episode available on-line of the fall episode of CSI: NY, titled “Dead Inside”. That’s the episode wherein a murder leads to “an art-house project called SecretU” where an artist posts anonymous confessions mailed to her on artsy post-cards.