Artomatic final floors! ...a week too late

I'm pretty sure nobody was waiting on my review before checking out floors 4-6 at Artomatic, but if you were I apologize because well, the show ended last week. These floors had plenty of great individual work but I wasn't captivated by an entire exhibit the way I was by Chris Peloso and Tracey Lee on my first trip or Heather Bartlett and Patrick Wilson on my second. But there was still plenty of art that interested me:

John Pack had a whole series of mouth-watering food creations made entirely of sea debris. The ice cream and toppings were various corals and the cone was a seashell. Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette put together my favorite installation in 1,584 Bottles of Beer on the Wall (I've had my share). It was a testament to her grandfather "Sarge" who gave up drinking cold turkey at age 60 (saying "I've had my share") and who left her two coffee cans full of nails which were used to nail 1,584 not-necessarily-beer bottle caps to the wall (several were from my favorite IBC root beer)

I previously joked that BRASH was putting a poem up for every artist. I believe I have to revoke the joke. As far as I could tell, by my final trip on closing weekend BRASH had left a poem for all 1,000+ artists. Amazing. Congratulations. One of my favorites was her interpretation of Sabrina Cabada's Outside Looking In. I believe it was a fairly different interpretation than what Sabrina intended, but it made the piece for me. BRASH also had a great poem for another of my favorite pieces called Roadmap to Spring by Susan W. Holland. The trunk and branches of the tree are all made by exposing the bottom layer of the painting to reveal a map of the DC area.

For the most part I don't tend to be a fan of abstract art. Kay Layne and Pilar Jimenez's work was an exception for me. I think I liked Kay's work because the titles gave me a concept I could grasp onto. The subject of her painting was a simple red square (or should I say Krasnaya Ploshad! yukyukyuk). In the case of Corralled there were some circles surrounding the red square and as you can see on the left, here the red square is Waiting in Line. I have no idea what appealed to me about Pilar's work but it did. Maybe the background reminded me of a photo I had just accidentally taken of the concrete floor? Nope I have no idea.

While I wasn't sucked in for quite as long as I had been upstairs, two artists did have a number of different works that appealed to me. JD Yezierski had a series of photographs of nudes "painted" with projected images. I love the three-dimensionality that this gave to Mona's eyes. Other humorous ones included Ass on Ass with a projection of Rummy, and Jerry Fal-well endowed which I imagine you can also picture. Finally Nancy Daly had a broad range of fun pieces: from her commentary on men and women with strategically placed hearts, to a rolling office chair made entirely of post-its, and from a "Support our oops" photo of a burned out neon sign, to a blue bower bed with clever story which asks the question "Are good things a good enough replacement for good genes?"

Looking back, the highlight of the show for me was Tracey Lee's Refused: Return to Sender which used several pieces to tell the heartbreaking story of her relationship with her alcoholic parents. What I may remember most from this Artomatic experience though was getting so much feedback from the artists to my first blog post, and especially finding out Joseph Merchlinsky had made my favorite piece from 2004. Now if I can just figure out who made the Converse sneaker color study from the year before...

While I begin the wait until the next Artomatic and Darren and I continue to debate our mantle options I'll be keeping my eyes open for a glance like Cristin's...

Artomatic 2008: Round 2

Well it took two trips but I explored the next three floors of Artomatic (7-9). I was on my own for these visits which meant I could go at my own pace... which I discovered is really slow. I was taking nearly an hour and a half per floor. Hence the second trip. I am primarily chocking that pace up to getting absorbed into two exhibits: Heather Bartlett's Skinny Jeans exhibit space and Patrick Wilson's wall of diary entries and paintings.

Like Tracey Lee's Return to Sender, discussed previously, there wasn't a great deal of visual appeal to Heather's skinny jeans, but they provided a springboard for a lengthy mental conversation about self-image. On the jeans are a variety of weight-loss advertisements, barbie images, and most poignantly, posts from girls in online forums setting absurdly unhealthy weight goals for themselves and describing how they are staaaarving but aren't going to eat any dinner and are looking for support. It was truly frightening, and even more disturbing because I felt partly responsible. I'm attracted to skinny women. Perhaps it's driven by the same societal paradigm of beauty that has twisted these women's perception of themselves, but the fact remains that I don't find myself physically attracted to larger (or sadly even normal sized) women, and I'm not sure there is a way for me to change that. It was a sobering journey through the exhibit, which was greatly enhanced by thoughts and responses posted on the walls by viewers. While these issues are hardly new, it is rare that I stand in one area quietly reading and contemplating the issue as Heather's exhibit compelled me to do. The thought I left with was to be healthy and to take pride in yourself, not your body, and don't try to change for people like, well ...me.

Now to dispel the impression that I only like artwork without visual appeal or with plenty of prose, I present Eli Halpin's hugging octopus which caught my eye without reading the title or artist's statement. Of course I did like it more when I read about the inspiration: scientists' discovery that octopi can hug sharks to death. Deadly hugs. Maybe Shel Silverstein was wrong and we would rather play at tug-o-war than hug-o-war.



Ironically, from a visual standpoint my most memorable piece of the show so far is probably one of the most traditional. Joe Granski II's portrait of Cristin, Candlelight is mesmerizing and we stared at each other for an unhealthily long time (Cristin and I, not Joe and I). The poem Glance left by BRASH was the perfect complement for me. You can read it alongside the painting if you click on the photo.




BRASH is another of my favorite parts about Artomatic. BRASH is a mysterious poet who, for at least the last couple of shows, has been secretly leaving poetic additions as responses to various artists' works. This year "she" (gender based purely on a rumor I heard last year) seems to have somehow found the time to leave a poem for every single artist! Perhaps not quite but she seems much more prolific than at past shows and it was quite often that I would go 4 to 5 booths in a row which each had their own poem. Like the artwork, some of BRASH's poems worked for me better than others. Cristin, Candellight and Glance were a perfect pairing as was this How I Know It's Reality response to Deborah L. Brooks' wonderfully whimsical In Dreams All Things Are Possible.

One advantage to exploring Artomatic on my own is that after Darren visited these same floors we could compare notes (and photos) and see which works struck us both without any influence from each other. Two examples of this from these floors were Brandon Wu's I Don't Want to Go! which perfectly captured how I (and it) felt about them ripping The Awakening out of Hain's Point and shipping it off to some place I'll never visit in Springfield. Boo to the Parks Service for not doing whatever it took (spending my tax money presumably) to keep it there! The other piece was Patrick Wilson's FOVULATION, which was part of the second exhibit space (after Heather Bartlett's) that monopolized my time.

Darren and I were both drawn to Patrick Wilson's work. In addition, Darren and I both assumed they were by a female artist (which in hindsight seems odd since the subjects are pretty much exclusively partially-clothed women in science-fiction settings). The wall where Patrick's work is exhibited is completely filled. Surrounding the half-dozen or so paintings are countless pages of his journal entries, which are usually accompanied by a colored sketch of a potential piece, some of which are shown alongside the final work they evolved into. It was amazing to see how many sketches there were and fascinating to read the journal entries. Some of the entries which stood out to me were his confession of feeling ashamed/embarassed as his artwork became more sexually explicit, detailing his struggles with alcoholism, and the thought-provoking line "so many people tried to love me out of alcoholism but it didn't work. At first." Even more than most, Patrick put himself out there (including daily calorie counts!) for the world (well the DC area) to see, and I certainly appreciated it.

Without too much commentary I'll share some of my other favorites from these floors:

• Charles Hansen's gorgeous photo collages which brought back memories of Jazz at the Sculpture Garden (which is back!) and hiking Old Rag
  

• Tinaseamonster's random thoughts laser etched on wood, which I later found throughout the Clark St. Playhouse... except they didn't have my favorite one about maracas
  

• Darren Smith's Cross and Ladder photo series commenting on symbols of faith vs. logic
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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• Jack Whitsitt proving that a computer scientist (like me!) can be an artist as he wrote a Python script to build a mosaic of his face
  
  
  
  
  
• Jose Piedra had several paintings that I loved but I got a good laugh out of the Washington Condiment which—whatever its relevance in his painting—just reminded me of the metal "condom"—as my friends and I referred to it—that the monument actually wore several years ago during repairs
  
  
• Van Nyugen's Peace series delighted my eye...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• While Solomon T. Wondimu's Protest tricked it. I initially saw it from so close that it looked exactly like the abstract swirls on a kitchen countertop I remember growing up and it wasn't until I looked back from across the room that I saw the faces
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Darren also managed to trick me when he showed me his photo of Masai Conversation by Mitra M. Lore on his camera's LCD screen

I'll be back with the final three floors hopefully before the show ends next weekend (I'll get to the floors it's just a matter of whether I'll get a chance to write them up). Thanks again to the artists who found themselves referenced here and took the time to let me know they appreciated the mention.

Refused: Return to Artomatic

My favorite art show has returned. For the first time, Artomatic is back after only one year (I’d previously seen it in 2002, 2004 and 2007). The schedule has been somewhat erratic since Artomatic is free and takes up a lot of space (1000+ artists tend to do that). Lots of free space is a tough order though, so it’s usually in a building being renovated or demolished (an old Hechinger’s, EPA building, DC Children’s Museum, Patent Trademark Offices). This year it’s the brand new Capital Plaza I… before the interior floors are drywalled and decorated. Capital Plaza I is located just a block from the New York Avenue metro and an easy bike ride from my office so while it can’t quite compare to last year’s Crystal City location, there’s certainly nothing to complain about.

I’ve been accused of enjoying traditions (I do) and with this being my fourth show and last year’s lessons fresh in my mind (and blog) I feel like I am close to perfecting my system for experiencing Artomatic. Here are the key components:

• Bike to the show – Not so critical but part of the tradition and a good way to balance art and athletics (plus, unlike last year, they have bona fide bike parking)

• Go on a weeknight – Sadly it’s closed Monday and Tuesday, so Wednesday is the golden time at Artomatic. It’s quiet and the artists aren’t usually around… which means Darren and I can discuss the work candidly (and it’s easier for me to bring you some photos)

• Plan multiple trips – This is the key. The show lasts four weeks and I plan to go once a week.

• Plan short trips – After a couple of hours I start to lose focus which makes it hard to…

• Pay attention to the details – Some of my favorite work didn’t mean anything to me until I read a title or the artists statement

The Flight of the Conchords show (deservedly) won out over Opening Night at Artomatic this year so the first trip was the following Wednesday and starting from the top we hit floors 12 thru 10. Here’s what I found there…

I was a little concerned that after only one year much of the artwork would be the same work I saw last year (and likely the pieces that weren’t good enough to have been sold yet!). So far that hasn’t been the case. I saw several artists I recognized and all of their artwork was new to me this year. For example Emily Greene Liddle returned with a new entry in her food-on-a-hook temptation series (incidentally she’s also the most searched for artist on my blog… or at least the most searched for artist whose seekers end up at my blog!). This one is titled (or not): Untitled (Jalapeno). I don’t know what to make of that. It’s not really untitled because of the (Jalapeno)

But that does segue into a rant that Darren could really handle better than I. When Darren becomes our benevolent dictator (more on that in a future post) I expect a “Darren Decree” along the lines of “All artwork shall have a title”. Since I haven’t created art since high school I certainly won’t tell artists what to do but I will point out that quite often the title makes the piece for me. Here are two examples. Sanjay Suchak’s photo of the pigeons by the river took on a completely different tone after I read the title. I’d say that tone was ominous except that they are pigeons so whimsical is probably a better description of how I felt about… Battle of the Potomac. Likewise I took another look at Alexandra Zealand’s geometric relief when the title Addiction, Part 3 clued me in to the fact that it was composed entirely of used coffee filters (it’s much more obvious what they are from the shot I took than it was straight on).

Other pieces I liked because they triggered particular memories for me. Joseph Merchlinsky’s possibly political “Kill” actually didn’t do anything for me, but it did remind me of the much subtler work I mentioned last year as my favorite piece from the 2004 show where the artist (who I'm happy to have now found out was also Joseph Merchlinsky!) used “I Voted” images in Red, White, and Blue and Green, Black, and Red to create the vague silhouette of the infamous hooded Abu Ghirab prisoner. And taking me even farther back in time was Tim Grant’s Hording Beanie Babies. For some inexplicable reason I am about to admit that a decade ago my girlfriend at the time and I actually enjoyed driving around and collecting them. In fact if I remember correctly (and I hope I don’t) that Stegosaurus and Inky the Octopus were actually fairly valuable. To this day I believe there is a trash bag full of them somewhere in my parent’s basement… and now if Tim’s work sells for $900 I may have just found out how they can actually have some value again! In case I still had you fooled into thinking I had good taste, I imagine that façade has been completely demolished now so let’s move on…

Yes, let’s shift the focus to Darren… who apparently had a dream about Fidel Castro shortly before this trip to Artomatic. Who dreams about Fidel? Actually not only was Fidel in the dream… he was Darren’s great uncle! Anyway he was telling us the story of his dream just before we came across some of his comrades. He’s even got the right color scheme going, almost like he planned it… hmmm perhaps he really is plotting a socialist revolution to become our benevolent dictator!

One goal of the trip was to find some artwork that we could put up over our mantle which has now been blank (well except for a wreath around Christmas) for over four years (and we’ll consequently become the only straight men to ever purchase artwork for their mantle). We’ll keep looking through the rest of the floors but we definitely found a strong candidate. Tiny Ghosts produces a series of works that consist of two framed photos with a handwritten story beneath them. As you can see, the text usually contains an unexpected twist beneath the second photo. Tiny Ghosts has a coffee table book of the first 100 pieces which we’ll buy and probably select three of our favorites ($60 a piece framed) to hang over the mantle.

Sometimes even a good title isn’t enough for unsophisticated art viewers like myself, and that’s why I love the Artist’s Statements at Artomatic. For example, I learned that Brian Lusher had taken a mass produced bust of Jesus (shown unpainted at the top) and shown the wide range of expressions that can be painted on. He also had an interesting write-up on how his intention wasn’t to blasphemously (to some) portray Jesus as a drag queen, but instead to show the idea that Jesus is in everyone (including drag queens). Without the artist statement and blank bust I doubt I would have even realized what was beneath the makeup. Chris Combs (or as I remember him, Chris Cones) had a series of seemingly subjectless photographs where even titles didn’t help me, until I read his artist statement which begins with him saying how he keeps seeing cones everywhere. I went back and looked over his photos again and it all clicked. Each photo contained an orange traffic cone somewhere and the title referred to the cone, as seen in my favorite one Lurking.

And in the case of Tracy Lee’s Refused: Return to Sender the art basically was the artist’s statement. Darren and I both nearly skipped right past the exhibit that seemed to contain nothing but pages of slides hung from the wall and a small collage of family photos. There wasn’t much there visually to be called art and I can’t really think of any other art venues that would have shown the “work”, but that is the beauty of the unjuried nature of Artomatic. As Darren and I walked away Sara had taken the time to read the artist’s statement, and she called us back to read it. I nearly missed my favorite piece of the day, and also the most thought provoking. Read the statement, then look at the collage titled 80 Proof Childhood (doesn’t everyone drink beer for breakfast?) and the return letter which gave the exhibit its name. Powerful stuff. Thank you for sharing Tracy.

Finally, the peep-o-ramas returned for the second time and there are plenty of fun ones. My favorite this year (though it makes me sad) is ‘The Apeepening’ Leaves Hain’s Point. And that’s what I’ve got so far, but I will soon Return to Artomatic…

Nothing to do with Russia...

...and not much to read either. Just enjoy the photos from Gerry Hofstetter's "Lighting to Unite" at on the National Cathedral. The DCist ran some less egocentric photos including ones of the front of the cathedral.

Note to Jon:

• My friends hate it when (or at least how) I take photographs.
  

Turning Japanese

Ah, Japanese Culture. All I can do is smile. The Japan! Culture + Hyperculture festival has descended upon the Kennedy Center and Mimsi and I decided to join Darren in checking out Shintoku-Maru (performed in Japanese...without supertitles).

The highlight of the evening turned out to be the pre-show exhibits we explored, especially Yayoi Kusama's Dots Obsession Installation which coated two rooms with black and yellow polka dots. Particularly in the yellow room, you feel like you are losing your balance. An installation of flying textiles and Asimo, the running robot, also kept us entertained until showtime.



As for the play itself, it felt like Oedipus goes to Japan, which is fine... if you're in to that sort of thing. I can usually find something to appreciate in any play and this was no exception. For example, I was impressed that none of the costumes burst into flames due to the shower of sparks that four power grinders were raining down on the stage during the opening and closing scenes. The grinders were an excellent effect and helped set the atmosphere of a chaotic city street.

Other scenes of note were the disturbing scene of the step-mother spanking her son, and the even more disturbing scene of the son dressing up as the step-mother and attacking his little step-brother... by ripping his shirt off and biting his neck. What was really twisted was that during both of these scenes the music suddenly becomes so cheery—and in the latter case comical dancers fill the stage—that you find yourself experiencing counterintuitive emotions.

The whole experience was reminiscent of watching Peer Gynt in Olso in 1994; strange things were happening in a language I didn't understand, but there were some powerful images (e.g. 14 years later I can still remember the first act of Peer Gynt taking place inside a set made to look like a motherboard, and I remember watching Peer scale the motherboard wall by climbing up the circuitry).

I'm sure some people enjoyed the show (Darren wanted to know what a Japanese person thought of it... but didn't ask) but I just hope it wasn't because they could relate to the characters. Here's the closing line of the synopsis (Alan Rickman reads this aloud before the play ever starts so I'm not the one ruining the ending here): "They finally acknowledge their love for each other and [the son] pleads with [his step-mother] to consummate this love, so that she may give birth to him, and hence become his real mother."

Note to Jon:

• If you can figure out how to make the illegal turns we took from the Rock Creek Parkway up F St. (or can get to New Hampshire Ave. a more legal... *cough* boring... way) then get there shortly before 6:30 and the Saudi Embassy has two free spots reserved just for you... well as long as you drive blue Prii.

Through the looking-glass

It all began on our family trip to the UK in 2000. We stumbled across the Victoria and Albert museum during a Chihuly exhibition. It's ironic we discovered his work in London since his studio is in Seattle (granted I have been to London and not to Seattle so I guess it isn't that ironic... and there's a long debate on what irony is anyway). I then saw his Sea Forms exhibit at the Monterey Aquarium in 2004 and his permanent (I think) installation at the Bellagio in Vegas that same year. Since then it has become a bit of a family tradition to visit any Chihuly installations in the vicinity. Last year we caught the show at the Botanical Gardens in New York and this year we took Friday off work in order to pull a day-night doubleheader on the last nighttime show at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh (of course they have since extended it... until February!)

Despite the overcast skies and my camera's inability to take decent low light shots (or my inability to adjust the settings appropriately... but let's go with the first option), the weekend turned out as well as we could have imagined. Our plan was nearly foiled when they sold out of tickets for the night show, but Dad managed to get three tickets for us and through tactical use of the elevator and the incoming crowds all four of us wound up inside. Way to go Dad! We weren't the only family engaged in covert operations though, as I witnessed someone pass tickets back out through a fence later in the evening. I guess it was a popular exhibit! The rest of the trip was just as enjoyable because we got to visit my good friend James (who recently launched a promising, though sadly Republican, political career by defeating a 20+ year incumbent for a seat on the Mt. Lebanon school board. Congratulations James!) and his two adorable kids, and as an added bonus we picked up lunch at Jimmy John's, a staple of Mimsi's college diet which doesn't exist in the DC area.

The slideshow is a mix of my photos and Mimsi's photos, with all of the nighttime (and generally any of the more impressive) shots taken by her.

Where will our next Chihuly encounter take place...

Artomatic 2007

Artomatic 2007 wraps up today and I want to record some of my impressions of this year's show. The show this time took place in the old Patent and Trademark buildings in Crystal City, and with the metro, free weekend and after 4pm weekday parking (plus bike path access I took advantage of twice) and restaurants in the area, I think this is easily the best location they have had yet.

The highlight of the show for me was getting my portrait done by my friends in the 4traits on opening night (my profile photo - which I think looks like me but which most people said looks like a superhero and as Jan Louis said "looks better than you do"). Overall though this year no single piece stood out to me the way they had in the past, but there were quite a few which I enjoyed and overall my experience at Artomatic this year was as fun as each of the past two. I'm just disappointed I didn't spread my visits more out over the length of the show instead of just opening night and then four visits in the last week. My other regret is not going earlier in the show and purchasing some of my favorite pieces. A couple of pieces I would have bought had sold by the last week.

Here are some of my favorite pieces (if any artists would like me to remove these photos just let me know, I'm not exactly sure of the fair use policies regarding photos of your artwork in my blog).

First of all my favorite pieces from AOM 2002 and 2004 (without credits since I didn't have my blog then, if you happen to know who did these pieces I'd love to know and include them):

2002: A series of photographs taken from the top down of each different color of Converse sneaker in a similar colored setting (green chucks in grass, camo chucks in leaves, etc.). The actual color study effect was much more visually interesting than my description.

2004: Joseph Merchlinsky's painting (who I can finally credit a year later thanks to his comment on my 2008 post) consisted of hundreds of "I Voted" stickers (painted, not actual stickers) in red, white and blue or black, green and red. Viewed from a normal distance it just looked like a piece comparing American and Iraqi Democracy, but the subtlety (or not so subtlety) of the piece was that when seen from a greater distance the change between American and Iraqi stickers occurs in a vague silouette of the infamous hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib. The 2007 show had another political commentary piece (not pictured) which was really sad to see that was a photo collage of George W. Bush's face constructed from photos of soldier's who had been killed in Iraq.

2007:

If I had to pick one favorite memorable piece from this year's show it would probably be Alicia Buenaventura Santos piece shown to the left which reveals something about the viewer.














And another image of the same subject...

Emily Greene Liddle had a fun series of paintings of fruit in unusual shapes or situations (a delicious strawberry and blackberry on a fishing line with the hook poking out menacingly).

On the right is one of pieces I would have purchased had it not already been sold by the time I saw it. The piece was by Richard Goulet and sold for something like $120.

Andrew Cronan's space is filled with a variety of mobiles, most of which are essentially identical to miniature Calder's, although he had created Calderesque mobiles in the shape of a horse and fish which were more interesting.

But my favorite part of his exhibit was the two mobiles he placed in a steel cage and acrylic box respectively and left papers for the audience to comment on what was in each box. Many answers focused on gender roles, but my favorite was perhaps the most literal.






George Koch and Rebecca Gordon's Antomatic was a simple yet satisfying installation of ants stamped all across the walls and ceilings of a dead end hallway

Anna Nazaretz's whimsical Terrance and Philip-esque Close Up was matched by an equally whimsical BRASH poem. One particularly fun part of Artomatic (and a reason to see it again towards the end of the run) is that BRASH writes poems in response to artists pieces and secretly places them in the exhibits throughout the show.

Carl Dahlke captured the last few weeks of his father's life and his mother's interaction with his father is this poignant series of photographs.

Damien Gill captured this series of detailed fire hydrant photos which reminded me of the water tower photo series I'd seen at the LACMA Museum several years ago.

Jennifer Haack's Counting the Days was another piece that I definitely would have purchased ($400) had it not sold before I saw it. I'm just a sucker for Manatees. EDIT: In a wild twist of fate I discovered that this painting was actually bought by a friend of a friend who I went White Water Rafting with this past weekend! Small world.

Bill Remington's The Frame Builder is another piece I considered buying (for the mantle). It's hard to tell from the photo, but the paint was layered on so thick is areas (over an inch) that from most angles it looked like purely abstract art. Only from straight on could you see the man in the painting. The caption was "There is a method to his madness".

Ruth Trevarrow's Caution Christian Values is another piece that would have made a fun mantle hanging. I especially enjoyed the reflectors lighting up with the flash.

My favorite of the Washington Post's Sunday Source Peep Diorama Contest was this peeposuction clinic by Marti Doyle, mainly for the before and after shots of the peep.

Heather Schmaedeke's Senses was a simply but well executed piece that appealed to me...

Thankfully our hands don't actually look like that or else it would have made collecting the materials for this piece even more unpleasant than it surely was (unfortunately I can't figure out from my photos or the artomatic website who the artist is).

Malcolm Jones had a whole series of paintings (as well as decorating his wall with murals) of cartoon Koi. I have to remind myself that Koi are the fish and Poi is the starchy purple pudding I had in Maui.

Genevieve Lynn had a series of Chinese brush paintings including this one of a Tiger. I may actually purchase this one because I am also a sucker for Tigers (Harimau-Harimau) and my Manatee was sold.

Michelle Wee's vibrant rendition of a turtle was another of my favorites. Looking at it made me happy. This was a place where Darren pointed out that our taste in art diverges. He needs visionary scope and layered meaning whereas I appreciate a colorful turtle.

Darren and I did both agree that we loved this impromptu installation (of an artist whose name I haven't been able to determine) that was an homage to a recent episode of Heroes where strings create a 3-D map of the connections between all the various heroes. In this case the strings connect many of the artists in Artomatic and the tagline "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" has evolved into "Save the Artist, Save the World".

I'm not sure if we succeeded in saving the artist, but I did love the time I spent at this year's Artomatic and can't wait until the next show (hopefully no more than two years away). I definitely share Darren's sentiment about the end of the show as expressed here with our friend Ming's croqueted head.