Come on out to Lotta Art, School 33 Art Center's annual fundraiser, where you can see one of my photographs and maybe even take it home!

From the School 33 website:

Lotta Art 2009
At Silo Point
1700 Beason Street
Saturday, April 25, 2009

Attend an evening of art, food and fun!  Meet and mingle with the contributing artists!  Lotta Art features juried art by more than 120 local artists who have generously donated their work to benefit School 33 Art Center. Each art ticket holder is guaranteed a work of art in this lottery-style drawing.  

Continuous Cocktail Buffet and Art Viewing begins at 6:00pm
Drawing begins promptly at 7:30pm.
Catering by The Pantry

Tickets
Art ticket - $175 each
Art ticket - $150 for members, participating artists, and tickets purchased through March 31, 2009
Guest ticket - $50, not eligible to select art work

Buy tickets online here.


Okay, okay -- can't shell out almost 200 bucks for a ticket?  You can preview the work online April 11-25 or in person at Silo Point April 18-24.

The 6th Annual Transmodern Festival
Four Days of Avant Performance, Installation,
Sound, Film, Mayhem, Ecstasy, and Radical Culture!

April 2, 2009 - April 5, 2009
H&H Building
405 W. Franklin Street
Baltimore, MD
http://www.transmodernfestival.org/2009/

Letters, Words, and Phrases
March 23, 2009 - April 26, 2009
     
The use of language was a major part of cubism, futurism, Dada, and other avant-garde art movements. It was also important in pop art, which frequently incorporated advertising text and logos, and conceptual art, in which language often became the artwork itself. Words and images began to function interchangeably, breaking down distinctions between the two and creating a sort of synthesis. Thus, language and image often oscillate in contemporary visual art, forcing the viewer to infer some basis for associating them. Letters, Words, and Phrases is an exhibition that explores visual art's ongoing engagement and entanglement with language, bringing together works by nine contemporary artists who use letters, words, and phrases as part of their work: sculptures by Ruth Bowler and R.L. Croft, photography by Susan Eder and Craig Dennis, mixed-media art by Cara Ober and Susan Brandt, prints by Rebecca Katz, and drawings by Julie Marie Geare and Molly Springfield.

Goucher College
Towson, MD
http://meyerhoff.goucher.edu/rosenberg/

Patterns of Obsession
March 20, 2009 - May 2, 2009

Gallery Imperato is pleased to announce Patterns of Obsession, a three-person show that brings into light the visual and behavioral patterns of each individual artist. On display will be Dana Reifler Amato's luminous, three-dimensional drawings, Chris Bathgate's precision made, metal sculptures, and Matthew Kern's mixed media Polaroid collages.

Gallery Hours: Saturdays 11-7 or by appointment
921 E. Fort Ave
Suite 120
Baltimore, MD
http://www.galleryimperato.com/home.cfm

Now that all is said and done, Baltimore's art community is finally weighing in on the Baker Artist Awards selection process. In some ways, the Baker Awards really revolutionized the art competition as we know it, and we should all be thankful for the breath of fresh air. However, I hope to see some important refinements in next year's contest.

The Baker Awards' biggest issue is in the end, winning comes down to clever marketing and basic organizing skills. Many people had this figured out immediately: the key to winning is to spam friends and family with “vote for me” emails, follow up, and make sure they stay active on the site so they can earn the privilege of voting for you several times. The possibilities for promotion are endless: your Facebook account, blog, website, and office are all up for grabs. All this is fine, but at a certain point it detracts from the spirit of the contest.

Practical people will tell me that's just the way it is. At least those visitors were exposed to some other art, whether they like it or not. But I've never like d popularity contests. I combed through the site looking for artists I thought should win the top prize. In a way, we all had the opportunity to jury and curate our own show. My voting board represented the work I wanted to be seen, period. I never voted for friends just because they were in the running.

At the same time, I can definitely deal with a popularity contest. The world is full of them. My biggest criticism is that the secret jury apparently pulled from the top vote-getters, or at least took vote counts into serious consideration. That, and none of us know our own vote counts.

While the Baltimore's Choice winners were by and large very worthy recipients of the award, it's conceivable they just had the biggest email contact list (though I would hope not). With that in mind, didn't the jury judge more on popularity than merit of the work? Might some excellent portfolios never have even been seen by the jury?

If I send my images to a traditional competition, at least I can be relatively sure they receive a couple seconds in front of the jury. Given the public forum of the Baker Awards, maybe it was incumbent upon me to use the system to my best advantage. However, we don't even know who the jury was. Were they ever interested in evaluating the artistic merit of all nominations, or were they happy to pick favorites from the cream of the vote-getting crop?

Without these answers, it's very difficult for me to comprehend a large difference between the Baltimore's Choice and Mary Sawyers Baker awardees. Isn't this problematic, given the fact that the award jumps from $1,000 to $25,000?

All in all, I commend the organizations involved for putting the Baker Awards together and I'm excited to see the process again next year. However, it's becoming clear Baltimore's artists are aware that an online, public forum does not always beget a transparent process (remember this with your federal government, too, folks). There is absolutely no reason why all nominated artists should not be able to see vote counts and names of jurors. How else will we know if we ever stood a chance, or how we can improve our chances and our exposure next year?