Kevin Mellema stepped up to the plate and brought a few drawings by my place that were previously on display in the Lee Art Center.   Kevin’s work “Ponytail #3″ pictured below really spoke to me, and he agreed to offer it for a raffle.  One extremely lucky art lover was going to get an amazing deal!

Ponytail #3

The raffle idea is a bit unusual since it fights the traditional affluent art buying mentality.  It’s still an expensive work of art, but one lucky collector will get the work through funding developed by the masses, not the individual wallet.  We had to protect the artist with a minimum.  It would be a travesty if the gamble failed and he only received pocket change for his work.  The project was successful, and we sold enough tickets to pick a winner.

At the close of the day, Amy and I tossed all of the tickets into a pitcher, shook them up, and then she picked one at random!  There was no bias! (see the video below!)  Kevin and I are both quite pleased that the winner is an artist and an art lover.  Which means it will go to a loving home where it will get the respect it deserves.

The winning ticket.

The opening reception will be April 10th, a Saturday, from 6-9 pm. The show consists of numerous Maryland artists’ works of a larger size and varying mediums; sculpture, painting, drawing, instalation and mixed media. There will be beverages, snacks and great art! Please come and support Maryland artists and the rising Hyattsville Arts District. The show will be held at artdc on Route 1 in Hyatysville, MD.

Participating Artists;
Caroline Battle, Michael Booker, Felicia Glidden, Peter Gordon, Grayson Heck, Jeff Martin, Sarah Martin, Audrey Sackner-Bernstein, Timothy Thompson, Alexandra Radocchia Zealand, and Jesse Cohen.

Check out some install pics shot by Alexandra Zealand:

These images were shot by Peter during the installation.

Find the facebook event listing here.

Find the artists here:

We’re so pleased that there’s a Secret individual out there wishing us  support and great hopes for the future.  It takes a lot of energy to step out and do something.  We’re glad the benefactor did.

See the pics below:

Thanks to Fareeha Khawaja for the snap shots of the gifts!

Evidently it pings a server every 10 minutes to make sure that it’s still for sale.

This goes beyond artificial intelligence, it’s something different.  I’d love to see the auction history for this item with past and future sales.

Here’s a link to the artist’s site.

UPDATE: It sold for US $6,350.00 and $50.00 for shipping on January 28, 2010.

We send our thanks to the benefactor! Check out these shots unpacking the bank and monopoly money. Here’s an image of the box shortly after we opened it under a painting by Jill Hackney.  

We thought the bank looked so good in the gallery that we put in on a pedestal for display!  Let’s hope the public get’s the point and supports us!

Here’s a full shot of the bank on the pedestal. We think it looks great in the space!

Maybe the monopoly money was a little prod at the Washington Post’s Reliable Source accusations of a connection with the collector. (scroll down to read their blurb about “The Collector’s Identity? It’s as Clear as Frosted Glass.”)

For some more background about Bill and Sy, please read this article at the City Paper.  I was so pleased to see them write this artist’s profile.

Mr. Mason is a Washington DC/Maryland based art, entertainment, and intellectual property attorney. His practice focuses on copyright and trademark matters, litigation, contracts, and commercial matters. He works with artists, writers and creative people and companies to protect and exploit their work and is also a literary agent. He is on the Advisory Board of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington and the Board of Director of Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts. The website for his firm, The Intellectual Property Group, PLLC, is www.artlaws.com and his e-mail is artlaws2@aol.com.

Find the schedule of events for a Day of art, music, and creativity here.

There were well over 450 submissions which made this a tough yet pleasurable task.   The Art League is an organized movement which could give Seiko or even a Rolex a run for the money.   I was amazed at the attention.  There were 5 or 6 volunteers dedicated to helping the process run smoothly.  They insisted on bringing the work to me to view it.  I felt guilty watching them run from one pile to the next bringing me art.  In the end, I was exhausted, yet they had to feel it more since they were constantly running back and forth!  

The most difficult task was saying no, over 35o times, such an un-Dale Carnegie task.  (I keep hearing his instructions, make them say yes!)  

The Art League’s marketing manager too notes on our discussion about the curatorial process, and what I looked for to include a work.  At which point, I had to say, there could have been 2 or 3 other shows in this body of work.

One image or painting wasn’t  better than another,  the chosen works seemed to fit the theme better.  Some were picked for their raw emotion, others for my opinion of great skill, and many things in-between.  I would have loved to come back for a later visit to think more about which images were chosen, however the spontaneity of the of the process is part of the excitement, and it ads to the show.  I like the outcome. 

It’s an exciting experience to develop a show, and I often find an open call creates a very different situation from a private curatorial project.  In the past, I’ve had the luxury of looking at work,  making studio visits, thinking about the work of multiple artists coming together in one space, and sitting on it until one level of inspiration or another brings forth a strong presentation of their work.  Here we had 2 to 3 hours to develop a show out of a huge group of work.  

The art league volunteers are amazing!  I’m so thankful for their hard work.  We had to pick 3 categories.  Yes, no, or maybe, and each artist could only be represented once, even if they submitted multiple works in different mediums.  We had to cull the group down to a manageable number, so we looked at the work grouped by artist, and I removed the works that did not fit the subject mater.  From that point on we pulled out works that I immediately liked, followed by maybes.  We made a count of the works, and I had picked about 59 works of art, and it was our goal to pick around 80.  So I spent time in the maybe pile pulling out more work that I thought suited show with a numbered goal in mind.  

We ended up with several themes, and to me, they were all based portraits around emotion.  I was looking for images that pulled me in one direction on the other.  I wanted to see something that moved the viewer beyond your average pet picture.  Some that made you feel warm, fearful, or…

In the end there were so many tremendous works of art, I couldn’t pick them all.  There were many works that I didn’t select that I would have been proud to hang in my house!