Artomatic is happening again this year (05/29-07/05)! Art by everyone for everyone. Last year, there were 1,000 visual and performing artists and approximately 50,000 visitors. Get involved as an artist, volunteer, visitor, or all three! Artomatic 2009 registration opens Friday, March 27.

For registration questions, e-mail register@artomatic.org. To volunteer, e-mail volunteer@artomatic.org.

You can also visit the forums (which I help moderate) at: http://artdc.org/forum/index.php?board=37.0

I participated as an artist in both 2007:

• http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/new-artomatic-in-second-life-event-schedule/
• http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/artomatic-second-life-splattered-paint-oh-my/

and 2008:

• http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/python-photography-digital-art-artomatic/

Both times were phenomenal experiences as an artist and as a visitor. The art was fun, good, bad, amusing, awful, and totally worth seeing. More than that,  being part of such a huge volunteer-run event outside of the uptight art snootery and commodities market you normally encounter is totally worth it.

The official press release can be found here:

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Artomatic 2009 to be held in D.C.’s Capitol Riverfront neighborhood

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Artomatic will be bringing its trademark one-of-a-kind
multimedia arts event to Half Street’s 55 M Street, S.E., in Washington, D.C.’s Capitol
Riverfront neighborhood in summer 2009, the arts organization announced today.

In conjunction with the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District (BID) and Monument
Realty, Artomatic will be presenting more than five weeks of art, music, theater, workshops
and more — all of it free for visitors. Located between the U.S. Capitol Building and the
Anacostia River and between Barracks Row Main Street and South Capitol Street, the Capitol
Riverfront is a vibrant new business center, urban neighborhood, entertainment district and
waterfront destination.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Artomatic on this unique arts event. With both Artomatic
and Major League Baseball within blocks of one another, the Capitol Riverfront will be the goto
location for summertime entertainment in 2009,” said Michael Stevens, executive director
of the Capitol Riverfront BID. “Artomatic sets the stage for the type of future festivals and
entertainment that you will see in the Capitol Riverfront at the three new parks — Diamond
Teague, The Yards Park and Canal Park — which begin opening spring 2009 through 2011.”
Artomatic 2009 will be held at 55 M Street, S.E., a new 275,000 square feet LEED Silver Class
A office building developed by Monument Realty. The building, currently under construction, is
located atop the Navy Yard Metro stop and within a block of Nationals Park, home to the
Nationals baseball team.

“We are pleased to be hosting Artomatic at 55 M Street for its 10th anniversary,” said Michael
Darby, principal of Monument Realty. “It is not only a great opportunity to promote the
neighborhood and attract new visitors but also to bring some very talented artists to the
Capitol Riverfront.”

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished indoor space into an exciting
and diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays by hundreds
of artists, the event features free films, educational presentations and children’s activities, as
well as musical, dance, poetry, theater and other performances. Artomatic 2008, held in D.C.’s
NoMa neighborhood, attracted a record-breaking 52,500 visitors and 1,540 participating
artists.

The 2009 Artomatic event promises to be an equally appealing destination for D.C. area arts
fans as well as those looking for summer entertainment, said Artomatic President Veronica
Szalus.

“The D.C. area has a vibrant, energetic arts scene and we are excited to be able to showcase
that talent and share it with the community,” Szalus said.

Artomatic 2009 will be held May 29 to July 5. The event will be open Wednesdays and
Thursdays from noon to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 1 a.m., and Sundays
from noon to 10 p.m. Artomatic will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission to Artomatic
is always free for visitors.

Registration for participation in Artomatic will open in March and will be open to all artists —
including painters, photographers, sculptors, graphic designers, musicians, poets, actors and
dancers. Artomatic is an unjuried event, so all artists are welcome, from professionals to
beginners. Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis and will end once space is
filled. To be notified of the date when registration will open or to stay up on other Artomatic
news, sign up to receive ArtoNews, the Artomatic newsletter, on the Artomatic Web site.
Artomatic is run entirely by participating volunteers, and new participants are sought yearround.
To volunteer and help make plans for Artomatic 2009, e-mail volunteer@artomatic.org.
“Artomatic 2009 will fulfill 10 years of commitment to the growth of our cultural community
and help fuel our creative economy,” said Artomatic Chair George C. Koch.

More details on the event will be available on the Artomatic Web site, www.artomatic.org, in
coming weeks.

###

About Artomatic: Artomatic is a creative community that collaborates to produce and
present a free arts spectacular. Participation is open to all, from recognized artists to
undiscovered talents, who work in a variety of arts forms. In partnership with the
development community, Artomatic transforms unused building space into a playground for
expression, serves as a catalyst for community growth in up-and-coming neighborhoods, and
helps to grow the creative economy. The nonprofit Artomatic organization is headed by a
volunteer Board of Directors and is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and
Humanities, an agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. For more
information, visit www.artomatic.org

About the Capitol Riverfront BID: The Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District
(BID) is dedicated to making the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood clean, safe, friendly and
vibrant; to creating the best quality of life in the neighborhood; and to attracting office
tenants, residents, retailers and visitors. For more information, visit www.capitolriverfront.org
About Monument Realty: Monument Realty is an award-winning full service real estate firm.
The firm’s diverse portfolio includes mixed use, office, residential and hotel properties.
Monument Realty has developed more than 5 million square feet of office space, nearly 5,000
residential units and three hotels valued at more than $5 billion. For more information, visit
www.monumentrealty.com.

Erf. I just got done saying I wasn’t going to do one of these (Artomatic Experience Posts), but I just saw the base image assembled as a whole for the first time and was excited enough that I wanted to post pics of the image at least. Just getting that out of the way first – this is a blatant excuse to post pics..(yet somehow this is long-winded…I have nights like this).

Artomatic Piece

Originally uploaded by sintixerr

So -

As mentioned earlier, when I first really started thinking about AOM this year, I thought I was going to be in Arkansas for the majority of the show and wanted to put together something “simple” (yeah, right, me? simple?). I was so strapped for time, in fact, that Angela and Paivi had to grab me some space for the second year in a row while I was out of town. ( My space is on the 8th floor at SE D6 btw.)

Ok. Great. Have space. Project? Art? No so much.  Ultimately I decided to do a huge (6′x6′) self portrait installation (covered in earlier blog posts – http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/python-photography-digital-art-artomatic/ )

So, uhm, how do you print a photo that’s 6′x6′??? I ended up deciding to print the picture in 9 sections, 24″x24″ each. I originally wanted to do an 8′x8′ image, but at 24×24″ sections I could go one price category lower at Chrome than 32″x32″. Still, lots of cash. Hrm. Where else will print this? For a much more reasonable sum?

It turns out that -Ritz Camera- of all places will print really large images for less than half the price of Chrome. Supposedly archival. I test printed one 24×24″ section and it came out perfect. Sweet. I had a printing solution.

For framing I went with Angela’s suggestion of American Framing and picked the smallest frame borders I could – with no matting. The ultimate effect would hopefully look like the face was peering in through…something (window-esque?). That was an easy process and everything showed up toot-sweet.

I went with overnightprints.com for the business cards. They did a good job but, in hindsight, I didnt. I think my cards are a little bit juvenile and cheesy, but, we all make mistakes sometimes I mean, who puts “Artist” on their cards? I guess I do. Meh.

While I was still playing with my final image, I met Angela and Paivi at our spaces last Sunday to help them paint, do lights, and take a look at my space.

I got there first and spent an hour or so mocking up what I wanted things to look like with rope and gorilla tape (it made sense then). The final result was looking pretty good and I was feeling very satisfied. Until Ang and Paivi showed up.

“Thats not your space, Jack”

“Whu?”

“Thats. Not. Your. Space. Its the one next to it.”

–Insert vulgar words here–

Luckily I hadn’t done anything permanent and I sheepishly took down all my stuff. At any rate, I knew what it was going to look like and everything was good.

Angela and Paivi that day managed to paint their space, buy lights, put up lights. I managed to…put down duct tape and put up one wall of the shadowbox (seen in pics later). Really, I hate this part. Im slow as HELL at painting walls and usually a mess. People always regret asking me to help them paint their house/interior. I suck at it.

I came in the next Thursday after work by myself to try my luck alone and got a lot further. I managed to put up the second shadowbox wall, put down a layer of paint, and not end up with blood or paint all over my clothes. It was a good day in that regard. Still, I had forgotten paint rollers and had to use a brush. Those partitions, even with primer, suck. up. the paint. I was despairing a little bit about how things were looking, but put that aside knowing how much was left to do.

So far, I’d run into a couple of people here and there that I knew, but the AOM space is -so- large this year that unless youre actively wandering around looking for people or just outright lucky, it’s entirely possible to work with a dozen people you know there at the same time and miss them completely. (Except for Melissa, whom I run into every single time Im in the elevator.)

This past Saturday night I had my first volunteer shift with Angela and Paivi, so I came in ahead of time to get some work done. I met my “partition-mate”, who’s name I can’t recall at the moment, but who’s work I had been familiar with and am really psyched to be next to. If I had space in my apartment, Id buy some of it honestly. More painting ensued and things were good.

Queue the volunteer shift.

I have a gripe here. We were given a 3 minute introduction to our responsibilities by the GM on duty. The instructions did not mention two big things that we were asked about -all- night:

1. Lights. Anything about them. Where to get them? What to do if any were broken? Etc. I know this was a GM responsibility, but by Saturday you’d have figured that there were enough questions being asked that the volunteers should be given some sort of heads-up.

2. Brightest Young Things:

Anyone who was at AOM that night figured out very quickly that there was some shindig on the first floor. The only instructions of info we were given by anyone about the first floor party was “oh yeah, tell people bathrooms are on the 10th and 12th floors if they start bitching about the first floor bathrooms”.

What about the first floor bathrooms? Huh? And who’s making all that racket next door? Apparently Philipa Hughs’ Pinkline and Artomatic collaborated to help throw a relaunch party for a website called BrightestYoungThings.com ( http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/events/byt-relaunch-party-1200-1st-street-ne/ )

So, in addition to AOM people, there were tons of the trendiest, coolest, hippest, artsiest, brightest young things wandering in and out of the front door. Nothing against them (and it was cool something else was going on there), but it was really a pain in the ass to do “lobby” duty while there were bands playing, a plastic fence between us and them, etc.

I was asked to “keep people from there going up to AOM”…but really…how was anyone supposed to tell the difference? There were also a lot of people bringing in artist materials through the lobby that I didnt catch because I couldn’t always pick them out from the crowd milling about in the lobby.

This all would’ve been cool if we had been given heads-up….but we weren’t. We were left to piece it together ourselves…

I also wish I’d NOT worn the -skankiest- shirt I own to paint in. Felt like I was bringin the place down just sitting next to the party Wink

The monotony was broken up a bit by a trip to Sketchies (aka Wendy’s) to bring us back some much-needed diet cokes (Angela and Paivi were covering Loading Dock duty that night) and also by Jim, who gestured for another volunteer and myself (I think he meant me too) to come out front where he proudly showed us the new lighting for the Artomatic signage in the windows. The “ART” in “ARTOMATIC” was glowing red! Cool!

By the end of the shift, we were all -done-. Id gone running that morning for the first time since the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and between that, working on the space, and the volunteer shift, I was no longer human. Paivi wanted to take some pics of the graffiti kids up on our floor (Cool doing their thing (didnt work out), but we did run into Halo and Arty4ever putting down some finishing touches on Michael’s space (which looks great!).

I also met a couple of cool volunteers, but unfortunately was too brain-fried to ask for the business card of one of them and now forget her name. Ill need to check the volunteer list later if I can…

That brings me to today. Lights are up, painting is finished, etc. I just need to get some fabric to frame the shadowbox, hang the piece, and add some other artistic touches to the installation (and it will be an installation) that I dont want to describe here. I managed to frame all 9 sections (woohoo – Im really slow at that, so Im proud of myself here) today as well!

Ok, whew. Finally, this behemoth of a post is at it’s end.

(As a side note, the lighting in the first pic is provided by a couple of White Lighting 10,000 strobe, which we’ve now started using as generic apartment lamps lately. Heh.)

It’s that time of year again! Artomatic is coming up soon! Wait what? Didn’t we just do this last year? It’s hard to believe but it’s true. DC’s mammoth do-it-your-way art event is with us again and far earlier than expected. At last year’s Artomatic, 500 or so artists graced a run down office building in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. This year, 1000 artists are taking over a not-yet-used office building in NE DC right next to the New York Ave Redline Metro stop. And yes, that’s 1,000, 1k, one thousand artists – twice as many as last year. And, unlike last year’s rat-maze (which was fun, but not conducive to finding art), the spaces are much more wide open and visible

Obviously, if I’m posting about it here I must have some interest in it, and I do. Not only am I showing, but my wife Paivi will be there as well. This will be her first art show of any kind and she’ll have some pretty damn cool photographs on display that she put together just for Artomatic. Angela and she (intentionally) grabbed spaces next to each other and are both across from my own space on the 8th floor (come see us!). Angela will be showing (unless she changes her mind) a collection of her more surreal, dreamlike photographs. I’m really a big fan of those and am looking forward to seeing them at the show.

As for myself, Artomatic did approach me to ask about another Second Life installation, but – as much as I would like to – my job/habitation situation (maybe more on that later) is really preventing me from investing a lot of time elsewhere for long periods of time. But, as sad as that might be, it leaves me free to do something a little different.

Over the past year, my friendship with Angela and Paivi’s newfound love for old, cool cameras (and her subsequent lusty relationship with photography in general) has resulted in a complete alteration in my approach to art. Rather than drawing, I’ve taken up the banner of the camera as well (as should be obvious from this blog and my flickr stream).

But there’s more to it than that. I enjoy a lot about photography in and of itself – I get a great deal of personal satisfaction from it – but unfortunately, it will never be “my art”. As an artdc-er not-so-nicely pointed out (I’m looking at you starvingartistdc!), most of what I’ve done in the art the past few years (installations and Second Life excepted) hasn’t been….art. Instead, I’ve considered almost everything I’ve done since my return to doing creative things for fun (specifically the Joy Division piece in Chicago circa 2001) to be technical training. In order to be able to express myself, I couldn’t be getting hung up on details of execution. It would distract me too much. I can recall very few instances where I’ve set out to create art for art’s sake for a long time.

Recently, however (and getting back to the point), I’ve felt like I’ve reached a stage where I can -start- looking again at the art of the work. I’m in a place where I might be able to combine the expressiveness of my teenage years with the technical restraint and maturity I’ve gained since Chicago. I’m not saying I’m any good or you will like my work, only that the mental and emotional viewpoint I maintain on my own work has changed.

This is the opportunity that Artomatic presents to me this year and which I hope to take advantage of.

Everyone, come to check out my new work and see the rest of the great art this year at Artomatic.

It’ll be a circus! Come, have fun!

Details:

—–

Artomatic Comes to NoMa May 9–June 15, 2008

Updated Mon, 04/21/2008 – 10:49pm

For immediate release: March 19, 2008

Artomatic media contact: Marina Reiter, 202-271-4748
NoMa BID media contact: Leslie Braunstein, 703-234-7762

Up to 1,000 artists and 50,000 visitors expected in D.C.’s most exciting new neighborhood

The NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue) Business Improvement District (BID) will host this year’s Artomatic, the Washington, D.C. area’s homegrown art extravaganza. From May 9 through June 15, 2008, up to 1,000 local and regional artists will exhibit their works on eight floors of the Capitol Plaza 1 building, located at 1st and M Streets, N.E., just one block from the New York Avenue Metro station.

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished indoor space into an exciting and incredibly diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays and sales by hundreds of artists, the event features free musical, dance, and theater performances; holiday celebrations; films; educational presentations; and much more.

This year’s Artomatic, occupying 200,000 square feet at Capitol Plaza 1, will be the largest to date. Designed by renowned architect Shalom Baranes and owned by an affiliate of The Polinger Company, Capitol Plaza 1 offers 293,000 rentable square feet of Class A office space, with dramatic Capitol and city views from the upper floors.

“We are thrilled to partner with Artomatic in an event that will bring tens of thousands of people to NoMa,” said Elizabeth Price, president of the NoMa BID. “It is a great opportunity to showcase the transformation that is underway in NoMa and infuse it with the energy and creativity of the artistic community.”

“Artomatic has come back to its roots in D.C. with our largest event ever,” said George Koch, Chair of Artomatic. “We are excited about our partnership with the NoMa BID and their help in bringing this new space to our attention. Artomatic 2008 will have an abundance of exhibit and performance space that will be open to all — from recognized artists to undiscovered talents.”

###

About the NoMa BID:
NoMa is an emerging mixed-use neighborhood north of the U.S. Capitol and Union Station in Washington, D.C. Private developers have invested almost $2 billion in 2007–2008 alone, with plans to develop more than 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, and retail space in the 35-block area covered by the NoMa BID over the next 10 years. For more information about the BID, including an interactive development map, see the BID Web site at www.nomabid.org.

First, an update. I finally got my WPA membership taken care of and my info in their artfile (thanks, Angela, for mentioning it to me). You can now find the link in one of the right-hand columns, or just click…HERE

—

Second, Paivi and I, with Angela’s help and company, got our submissions framed today for the Photo 08 competition in Arlington. It’s one of the few juried events I’ve submitted to, one of the fewer photo events Ive submitted to, and the only one so far that has required pre-framed submissions. But this meant that the process ended up being kind of cool for me (if more expensive than I would have liked) since it involved creating something of tangible value from my photography (and from Paivi’s) by actually getting images printed and framed.

I was also particularly interested in submitting for this show, in part, because of the juror: David Griffin, Director of Photography & Senior Editor for National Geographic. For whatever reason, it seemed like the kind of photos I take would be more appropriate than – for example – The Fraser gallery competition. The same goes for Paivi’s photos.
I had considered having Chrome do the work but, honstly, I can’t tell the difference between Chrome images and the printer we have at some (and certainly not when you account for expense). So, after spending a few hours (don’t ask) getting the HP Photosmart to print the right sized, we were ready to go.

Here are the three I chose (click for larger):

What do you think? I know I completely regretted what I sent to the Fraser thing. What was I thinking? I also didn’t send the “Waiting for Love” pic (the dress outside of a building in Adams Morgan). I love the pic, but others needed their chance!

We ended up doing the framing work, as usual, at the Framer’s Workroom (DIY). I hope we didn’t cause too much of back-up by bringing six pieces at once for framing! Also hope I didnt look to grungy. Angela and I came straight there from running 6 miles on the mall!

It’s been a fun, cool day overall and I’m looking forward to DC9 tonight!

Edit: I just found out one of my oldest friends (knew in FL, lives in DC, small world) who is a tech writer by day…has taken up sword swallowing and other sideshow things! How cool is that?

Image Artists (top left to bottom right):
Video Installation by Angela Kleis, Paivi Salonen and Jack Whitsitt,
Mixed Media Sculpture by Gabriel Kulka,
Gelatin Silver Print by Vickie Fruehauf.

Come party Day of the Dead style, with art, workshops, altars, music, spoken word, dancing, marigolds and the souls of the departed when the Art Outlet presents “Ofrenda: Art for the Dead” from 3 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, October 13.

Bring an offering to our two artist-designed altars. Come dressed Day of the Dead style, design a sugar skull, and enjoy the art and music.

Artists:
Zulma Aguiar, Michael Auger, Joshua Barlow, Jennifer Beinhacker, Alison Christ, Andrea Collins, Rosemary Feit Covey, Jared Davis, Roni Freeman, Jenny Freestone, Vickie Fruehauf, Susan Gardiner, Angela Kleis, Gabriel Kulka, Emily Liddle, Rob Lindsay, Bono Mitchell, Thomas Paradis, Marina Reiter, Paivi Salonen, Marina Starkova, Henrik Sundqvist, Jack Whitsitt

Schedule:
Day of the Dead Workshop: Sugar Skulls 3 – 5 p.m.
Mariachi Band 5 – 6 p.m.
Film Screening by Zulma Aguiar 6:15 – 6:30 p.m.
(Humanitarian Water – a short film about US/Mexican border issues.)
Mud Pie 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Flo Anito 8 – 9 p.m.
Special Guest Appearance by Inspyra 10:30 pm
(Founder of Capital Fire Arts)
Yoko K. 10 p.m. – Midnight
Location:
2925 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
(Right next Mexicali Blues Restaurant & Bar)

Directions:
By Metro: Take the orange line and exit at the Clarendon Metro stop. Walk down 1 1/2
blocks on Wilson Boulevard. “Ofrenda – Art for the Dead” will be on your left.
By Car: Park in the garage at the corner of Highland Street and Wilson Boulevard. It’s free on weekends.

April 28: I’ll be broadcasting an ArtDC.org member’s band “American Sinner” from Artomatic into the gallery from 9:00-10:00pm Saturday night.
May 4: We’ll be broadcasting a number of artists from Artomatic’s Electric Stage into Second Life, including:

• Keyote and DJ Tru at 7:30pm EST
• Alpha Betts at 8:30pm EST
• Ephemeral Sun at 10:30pm EST

(We’ll also try to project the gallery on a wall of the Electric Stage (instead of the digi room), but Im still waiting on permission for that)

May 2:  At 7:30pm in the Lapis Auditorium at Artomatic, Im going to be doing a live hands-on presentation focusing specifically on Second Life and Art, but also on the theoretical role of virtual worlds in art (SL is just the most well developed at this point). 

The overall talk is geared towards explaining more thouroughly what I’ve only talked about in short clips to people (ie, make it more coherent) and advocating the use of a vastly underutilized and underappreciated art medium and tool in a digital age.

In a larger sense, the art world is ridiculously behind the technological world and needs to catch up soonish now

The (related) points Ill be covering are:

• “How to be there when you’re not” – Second Life as a live event presentation and extension mechanism
• “How to let people walk through your dreams with you” – Second Life as an art medium in its own right and how it can help explore ideas before creating them in real life. Here Ill be referencing some of Rebecca Gordon’s work (directly) and Tim Tate’s (indirectly) as examples (Tim’s dorkbot talk was great and I meant to do this then)
• “Remembering your friends” – Second Life’s impact and role in presenting art and observations on the role of socialization in art
• “Who cares and why?” – Perspectives on how to market your virtual world presence and use it to your advantage using examples of things that worked, didn’t work, and could have been done or done differently

May 5: I’ll be giving tours of the gallery and any AOM art submitted to me for Second Life Display from 7:30 – 8:30pm EST

May 12: (time TBD) Artists and observers will take part in a live group Art Critique of works from Artomatic Artists as well as artists as a part of a special session of Eshi Otawa’s weekly Open Art Critique session held every Sunday night in her gallery, the Luxor. If you’d like to participate as an artist, please send me a jpg of a piece you’d like discussed and plan on attending in Second Life or at Artomatic Saturday Evening.  If you’d just like to talk about art but don’t have any to show, please come by as well! Your input is valued

May 18: On the 18th, we have a follk artist from Atlanta performing in Second Life and being displayed in the Digit room. The backdrop to her performance would be art submitted by AOm artists previously. (More detail here coming)

May 19: Sculpture Contest with Voting and live Artomatic bands. This will be a well -advertised and attended event.  We’d love to have ppl in the Digiroom participating and voting on the sculptures. We’re giving away almost $100 in prizes to the virtual artists this night. Again, AOM art submitted to me would be the backdrop for this event. (More detail coming)

It’s been a busy week or two since I last posted. A whole lot more work and money has gone into this gallery than I originally anticipated, but it’s been worth it completely.

I have a semi-edited video of it that’s worth checking out. My laptop couldn’t really copy well enough to get it where I wanted to be, but in the meantime this should give everyone a clear picture of what it being built (and the great art!)

http://jackwhitsitt.com/sintixerrgallery.mov

or

http://jackwhitsitt.com/sintixerrgallery.wmv

We have work up from the 17 artists who took a chance on this idea that they mostly didn’t understand and it all looks gorgeous! Everyone who walks by has had nothing but good things to say. The gallery is not set up to list visitors, give gallery and artist information to newcomers who teleport in, and is basically automated finally to the point it needs to be – that’s taken up a lot of the time so far (and prims!)

The only remaining work to be done is to spread the word, and even that is well underweigh. Angela interviewed me this past weekend about Second Life, We’re on the official SL Gallery Tour, Ive sent out two classified ads in-world, we have an event scheduled on the calendar, etc.

The event ad reads:

Come help us celebrate the grand opening of the SintixErr Gallery. There will be art, giveaways, music, artists, and fun at this three hour event!

For the opening, we are hosting 17 outstanding artists and works from the Washington DC area – including:

• A real life robot that is also an artist
• Abstract works based on global hacking attempts
• The woman who began “Postcards from Katrina”
• A RL work which took years to finish but is debuting in SL

Few of these artists are in SL, but they’ve taken the chance to show here anyway, so come out the 16th and show them why this is such a fantastic place for art.

Many of them will be available to answer questions from a live artist reception in DC.

So, come along – bring a friend – have some fun – enjoy the art.

Later this week I’m also going to be sending out craigslist ads and maybe do real life press releases as well. We’ll see how the week goes.

The artists list is available HERE with all of their contact information. That same information is available near their work in the gallery.

Not everything has been work, though. I went to Enniv Zarf’s Grand Opening party which was a blast! He does some amazing work and I really admire his creativity and originality in the SL environment. His art stands on its own outside of any SL novelty value!

Here’s a photo from the party:

Also, to my pleasure and surprise, one of the artists – a skeptic even – in the show (matt Otto) has been hanging out at the gallery for the past few days. We’ve been on rollercoasters, virtual jet rides, etc. It’s been entertaining. Here’s a shot of us standing around at the gallery with a drop-in visitor from Spain:

More later…

Wow. This Second Life stuff has really been eating up my own First Life…and not only that, but the ties between the two are getting closer and close. But, it’s for a good cause. I really believe this is the neatest thing in art going on right now.

 News -

First off, I was just offered a paid part time position -in Second Life- as a co-moderator for a weekly open art critique at the Luxor Gallery there. That should be fun!

 Also, a snapshot I took of my gallery at Sunset in the game has been selected for showing in another gallery opening in-world  soon that has a floor dedicated to Second Life art. It really is a neat picture (I wont post it here because it’s in a few places now..but it’s the really abstract one in my Flickr stream).

 The formal request for art announcements are finally starting to go out: Ive sent them out to individuals and put out a discussion item on artdc. I really hope people take advantage of this…and if I get enough initial response, Im might send out a press release to the Washington Post and to the City Paper (I have to write one for class anyway!).

 So, if you’re an artist from around DC and are reading this, please send in your submission asap!

 Lastly, here are a series of questions I asked earlier today to outline why I think this is so cool:

People are finding out that their imaginations have become the sole limitation of their art! And, while we talk of “digital art” here and there created with Photoshop, Poser, and other tools, it really ultimately is the same art created a different way and has a disconnection with its audience: It still has to be printed or shown on screens and generally doesn’t touch the real world. A digital sculpture created in Photoshop lacks a real context and ability to interact with the real world.

But, in Second Life, real businesses exist. Real money exists. Real markets exist. They’re not functionally different than any real life businesses and the money is exchangeable at market rates for real US dollars. The only difference is that physics and location are no longer limiting factors.

What happens, then, to art itself, when a world is created where people exist, have jobs (I just got a part time job for real pay there!), lives, and buy and sell things with real money? Suddenly, that digital “not real” art becomes real and relevant to a society and culture – one that we’re all on our way to being incorporated into.

What happens, then, to people’s understanding of art, when they can get together, socialize, talk about art, touch it, be a part of the creation process, buy it, sell it, own it, give it away, display it…in a real time, social environment…all from the comfort of their own homes?

What happens, then, to the art of creation process when you realize that you can make anything you can imagine and people will be able to make it a part of a life that affects in real ways?

What happens, then, when the lines between real and unreal start, finally, to completely blur in ways that really impact our lives and businesses?