art
Just got the key to the space 10 days ago and rushed to get enough art up to welcome the press to a preview and interview with photographer on Wednesday 21. Story breaks online on the 24. And on 25th the Sunday newspapers sport the story as front page news. Very impressed with the way the press is able to create under crazy deadlines a work of art while telling a story.
Me and the latest incarnation of Beheaded Betty, the centerpiece of my debut exhibit at Art’s Up! Gallery at Pembroke Mall.
Driven to the Edge, I took the Leap...into the Deep, Dark, Unknown. Page 3 of the Journey od Artchilles.
I lugged my 4' x 2' exhibition model through the streets of virginia beach and up the steps to the conference center of the Cultural Center, with framed work, portfolio, etc., to make the meeting on time, which I did. The meeting had already been pushed up to accommodate a city worker, who arrived late. After the meeting, I sent the additionally requested info promptly. But it has been over 6 months without any followup. So, I sent email today. "There's no place for your art," was the response. This to art created on the assembly line at the old Kempsville Building Materials on Witchduck Rd., where I got my start, when I drew inbetween assembling doors on the line at work, when I didn't have a studio, and was living on the street. The drawings would have special meaning on the walls of the homeless center being built on that spot, as an inspiration to the down and out that are going to be treated. The point was to show that despite the seemingly hopeless efforts - creating works on ripped paper to fit a small drawing surface with a finger dipped in company coffee - there is light at the end of the tunnel. One series of blue-wash drawings is of an architectural nature, providing a sense of home, when there was none - what relevance to the homeless center! The drawing style originated in this local factory has won national and international awards, while that is not in itself so amazing, holding onto something through (thick and...) thin, and the culminating symmetry of the journey's composition is. But, no matter how relevant, how academic, how cultural, it has to make it across their threshold of prejudices and ignorance.
My exhibition model filling the elevator @ Sandler Performing Arets Center's conference room at the Virginia Beach Cultural Center
Filed application in March, Officially Registered on Sept. 19, 2017.
Finally my name is official - I can put the "R" in a circle.
Ironic that someone resembling Santa is the recipient of my first comic strip giveaway. Congrats to Barry G. from Franklin, VA.
Winner of Weekly Give-A-Way @ Cool and Eclectic @pembrokemall - Signed print of my 1st installment of my comic strip, "Artchilles," featuring the famous Beheaded Betty Boop, and Partially Limbless Elvis. Congrats to Barry G. of Franklin, VA. Please enter to win weekly signed strip.
Athena Finger responded with an enthusiastic "YES!," when I asked if I should put a cape on the famous Beheaded Betty Boop. Shot her a quick design sketch of cape -"Love it!" she responded. Nice to have input from royal comic blood!
Katherine Hefner, a reporter from the Virginian-Pilot created a cool article about the broken icons - Beheaded Betty and Broken Elvis, that live happily ever after in a Pink Garage. See the news link here
Artchilles battled a gang and at first glance, it would seem he lost, but he was able to ressurrect himself from the graveled ground where he was left for dead. The dramatic after-math of a fast-food drawing session at a Norfolk McDonald's turned into an exhibition...well, at least, in this little space of a video.
These Ripped Drawings have a Story...
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