Stuff:

Why these things take me so long, I do not know. I finally finished 2 apps. They're sitting next to me waiting to be mailed. Since I am on a roll, it would behoove me to burn a couple more disks, handcraft another impeccable cover letter and knock out my as-yet-determined quota for keeping things flowing.

But that is not the case. The Culver City Artwalk is today and I feel obligated to leave my compound and look at other people's art for a change. Still, I may shoot for getting one more app out the door on the way to the Artwalk, but probably not because it's time for my afternoon espresso now.

It's not often I rank favorites:

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. Julian Schnabel.

hello my pretties.

Right, I'm kind of obsessing about shoes. I'm trying to write a grant. Not for shoes, but seriously, wouldn't that be great if I could? I mean the real reason I need shoes is because I trash mine in the studio.

I'm having some concentration issues today. Obviously.

As I once again mind-meld with my laptop in order to write grant proposals and if I were slightly alturistic, here's what I'd do-

Yes, those two thoughts have nothing to do with each other and it's a disjointed sentence to boot. Nonetheless, one of the top 50 things I would like to do in my life include purchasing a plot of land and and running a small artist residency program.

Now back to proposal planning and all the excitement that comes with that.

Further up on the list is selling out the contents of my flat file this summer and fall.

I'm considerably happy right now, verging on optimistic. No explanation for this, but I'm going with it.

OPP and resources LINKS

I received a email blast from another artist listing a bunch of resource links, which prompted me to attempt to compile my cache of bookmarks. But because I'm only half-assorganized, providing a link to my del.icio.us account wasn't going to be effective. Therefore, the following is some reasonable attempt at listing opp links. I've also thrown in some other links just in case you like dogs or John Fluevogs. I'm coveting those Fluevogs.

Funding Resources Overview
PrintedMatter.org
Chinati Foundation | La Fundación Chinati
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation General Information Page
Americans for the Arts News
:: CCI :: Funding ::
Residency Program
Dog Ice Bones, two sizes: Good Dog Pet Express, Inc.
Riverside Art Museum - JTNP Artist-In-Residence & Affiliate Artist Programs
LACE Submission Guidelines
Submit Art - Artwork Submission - Call for Art - Artistaday.com
NYFA Interactive - New York Foundation for the Arts
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation - The Grant
Grants for Individuals : Arts
Alliance of Artists Communities: Supporting artists residencies programs worldwide
The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts, Inc.
Fluevog Shoes - Item detail: Lily Darling
The California Resale Royalties Act
Limited Edition Artists Books Artist Residencies Art Fellowship Artist Opportunities New York - Women's Studio Workshop
Phantom Galleries LA Information
Fine Art Adoption Network
ART LEADS
America’s Best Places for Artists
GYST: Getting Your Sh*t Together: Tracking Software for Visual Artists - Home
Hofstra University Museum, Exhibition Proposal Guidelines
San Jose Museum of Art | TEMPORARY EXHIBITION PROCEDURES
Art Resources
| Opportunities | for | Artists |
Submitting your work :: the Contemporary :: The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
Welcome to Lantana Projects Residency Information Page: Memphis' Only Non-Profit International Artist Residency Program
NEA: 20
Momenta Art: Submission Policy
General questions
SFMOMA | Shop | Artists Gallery: Slide Submissions
Orange County Museum of Art
Professional Services Department -- Oakland Museum of California
Visiting Artist Program
Google Answers: List of grants w/ URLs
Terra Summer Residency - Musée d'Art Américain Giverny
Visual Arts at The Banff Centre
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts : Residency : Residency Application
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum: Opportunities
Weatherspoon Art Museum - UNC Greensboro
Smack Mellon
SCHLOSS PLÜSCHOW
Stichting KAUS AUSTRALIS
Welcome to the Weisman Art Museum
Djerassi Resident Artists Program
Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences
TransArtists
How to Clean Anything
Gottlieb Foundation
The Durfee Foundation
Creative Capital Foundation

it's raining and cold. it's may. it might as well be chicago

Yes, I'm whining, but I FINALLY got back in the studio after the mind meld with my laptop and am still excited to be a painter–so I'm NOT whining about that. Just when I'm on the verge of thinking I've got it figured out (which would be an utter disappointment) I find a new loophole.

Heads up: More Visual Art, Upcoming Shows in Nashville and New York in June

Tag art gallery
Nashville, TN
Nice to Meet You
group show with Teri Saul, Keith Greiman, Mary Addison Hackett, Greg Gossel, Maura Cluthe, Andrew Hem
June 7 - 28, 2008
reception: June 7, 6-9 PM


Affordable Art Fair
with Tag art gallery
New York City
exhibiting artists:
John Casey, Chris Scarborough, Lori Field, Tim Yankosky, Mary Addison Hackett, McKay Otto, Vadis Turner
June 12-15, 2008

Yep, the fun begins again in about 2 weeks. I feel pretty lucky to have all this happening at once. I will unfortunately miss the opening as the show at Kristi Engle in Los Angeles comes down June 7th and I figured I should maximize my time out here. Plus, American Airlines was having their little crisis and I couldn't get through to change my reservations.

Still, if you're east of the Mississippi in June, I will have some smaller paintings showing alongside some super talented artists at Tag art gallery in Nashville and at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC.

There's a part of me that would like to be at both events, but the real me will be relaxing with one of my closest friends in Del Rey Beach, Florida for a few days during all the hoopla. Then I'll be back in Nashville while the show is up, and I'm planning on meeting some friends at the gallery, doing lunch, etc. That will be nice.

And then there's that cross country motorcycle trip I haven't fleshed out yet.

Rumor has it, the talk went well.

It's recorded and perhaps one day in the near future an edited version will show up on You Tube, but for now, I'm back to the nut and bolts, behind the scenes business of my artmaking empire, meaning that my laptop and I have melded into a single form.

I go to Nashville, then Del Rey Beach, Florida, then Nashville again, in about 2 or 3 weeks. Have 2 mid-size paintings going on in the studio that I will finish before I leave and am working on some small watercolors. I'm anticipating having a flat file sale near the end of summer or fall.

Well, that was a nice way to start my day-

Around the Galleries
By Christopher Knight
Times Art Critic
May 16, 2008

Visual feast of color, technique

There's an easygoing charm to Mary Addison Hackett's abstract paintings, a simple acknowledgment that, hey, this is art, not rocket science or a cure for cancer. Painting is tough enough to pull off on its own distinctive, seductive terms without adding demands for the impossible.

Six large recent paintings, five vertical and one square, in Hackett's fine debut solo show at Kristi Engle Gallery mostly succeed by marshaling a virtual anthology of modern painting techniques. Oil, acrylic and spray paint is scuffed, smeared, brushed, poured, dribbled, stained, shaded and drawn. Rulers and other hard edges seem to have been employed in places, along with templates or rudimentary stencils.

In one a linear web of blue marks creates structural scaffolding, built in concert with the painting's lexicon of colorful marks. The sturdy structure contrasts with the evanescent shimmer of silver spray paint. Appropriately titled "Linking Room," the painting carves a visual space in which seemingly incompatible colors, forms and styles all manage to connect. It's large enough (at 6 feet by 5 feet) to engage a viewer's body rather than just the eye.

Comic-book footprints seen from below seem to march across the top of "Fast Acting Mr. Electric Sunshine," flipping the spatial orientation in the elastic manner of a cartoon. "The Highest Mountain" is composed of elements that should not cohere side by side but nevertheless do, and they get there by rhyming a shape, transforming the path of a dribble into an intentional line or making a brush stroke do a sudden U-turn to avoid collision with another mark.

Hackett has titled her show "I forget now what this is all about . . .," quoting the 19th century critic John Ruskin, champion of all things pagan and fierce enemy of standardization. These are paintings drunk on painting, and gimlet-eyed to boot.

Kristi Engle Gallery, 5002 York Ave., Highland Park, (323) 472-6237, through June 7. Closed Sundays through Wednesdays. www.kristienglegallery.com.

Anticipation

An enthusiastic friend called me at 6:30 this morning to tell me I had a nice review in the Los Angeles Times. I was going to postpone reading it until sometime this summer, but Matt pulled it in and started laughing, giving Christopher Knight big props for his use of language and perception, (duh) so I ended up reading it before summertime. Will post a link later.

Heads Up: Art Talk at Kristi Engle, This Sunday May 18

Kristi Engle Gallery
5002 York Ave.
Highland Park, CA 90042
323.472.6237

I forget now what all this is about...*
solo show of new paintings by Mary Addison Hackett

May 3 - June 7, 2008
artist talk: SUNDAY May 18, 2 pm.


________
*John Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol.1, endnotes

Rauschenberg

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-rauschenberg14-2008may14,0,1147598.story
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/remembering-robert-rauschenberg/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5049867116853252888
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/rauschenberg_robert.html
http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_133.html

Work got shipped. Fang is a clock.

Comb-over
oil, spraypaint on canvas
20" x 16"

This was such an atrocious painting for a while. I really, really wanted to give up and pitch it in the dumpster, but it seems like the closer I get to thinking a painting is absolutely meritless and I simply cannot redeem it, the greater the reward for making it to the other side. I don't approach every painting with this attitude. Some paintings never go through an awkward stage where I want to give up. I'm just saying that when I hang in there, the game's a bit more complex and satisfying in a different sort of way.

I came across the following quote a few years ago, and of course I can't find who to credit it to now, but I tried to apply it to my painting for awhile:

"Don't even bother "fixing" pieces. Making art shouldn't be a struggle. You're simply "thinking out loud" onto the page, photo-paper or canvas. If a product seems confused, leave it confused. Make another piece where you contemplate whatever issues you were wrestling with. Try something different. When clarity arrives, it will come in one living piece--not be Frankensteined together out of a single infinitely re-worked, mangled corpse."

- Somebody Else, Not Me

Sound advice, but I don't follow it. In fact, I think my current work is Frankensteined together, but not a corpse, more like a zombie. ¡Viva la Zombie!

I am Molasses

Dharma Pneumatic Carrier Station

I'm not sure where the time goes, but it's 6:13 pm and I am going to shift my focus to the interior dwelling.

Brief timeline of my day as best as I can recall:

• 6:05 a.m. Alarm rings, hit snooze.
• 6:15 a.m. Alarm rings, hit snooze.
• 6: 25 a.m. Alarm rings, hit snooze.
• 6:26 a.m. Clock radio, classical music. Slowly consider waking up and letting Fang out.
• 7 a.m. Coffee. Set timer for 1 hour. Quiet time. I do nothing but meditate with my coffee. Sometimes I write.
• 8 a.m. Timer goes off. I get dressed.
• 8-11 a.m. Phone call. Track down box store in Marina Del Ray. Quick visit to a friend's studio to pick up more cardboard, stayed to chat a few. Grocery store. Unloaded car.
• 11-12 p.m. Breakfast. Phone call.
• 12-3 p.m. Made big mess with cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, strapping tape and shrink wrap in studio. And Styrofoam. Let's not forget the Styrofoam. I can't. It's everywhere.
• 1-2 p.m. It only took me an hour and some change to wrap and pack the paintings once I had the proper materials.
• 2:09 pm Coffee break. Returned neighbor's house key and took Fang for a walk.
• Lost track of time after that.Maybe I packed the paintings before coffee. I can't remember, but I prepared packing list and cleaned up mess from studio. I lose focus easily when I have petty tasks to do. I tend to make frequent trips to the kitchen to snack on peanuts and consider another espresso. The other day Matt informed me coffee was a luxury item. Trader Joe's has French Roast, $8.99 for 24 oz. I stocked up. I probably killed 15 minutes wandering/pacing back and forth from studio to kitchen. Bad habit.

Still need to refurbish some things before burning a disk. I will finish this tonight before LOST comes on. I thought last week's episode was lame. Jack has a an appendectomy, shacks up with Kate in the future. Starts popping pills and drinking too much. Kate has a secret. Whoopee. Of course, that's still considerably more interesting than the day I just described. I'd like to see someone on the island try to pack artwork for shipping.

I am a procrastinator

I drew (scrawled) a picture the other day of my perfect studio-

I keep envisioning this space, so I'm pretty sure it exists somewhere other than in Dwell magazine.

*****

And now, for the life of me, I can't figure out why I am sitting at the computer typing this rather than-

a) Wrapping some paintings to ship off to Nashville
b) Painting
c) Applying for a grant, etc.

Quick analysis:
a) It's hard to say goodbye
b) I have to pack and ship in a clean environment before I can let paint spills and drips fall to the floor
c) I'd rather be doing (b)

Concrete analysis:
a) I'd rather be doing (b)
b) My studio is a two-car garage behind my house. People don't just flock in. I need to do (a) and (c).
c) See (b)

Nice turnout. Work looked great.

* I should clarify about the work looking great. Yes, of course, I think the paintings look great, but in my post title, I'm referring to how the show was was hung, the lighting, the space between the paintings etc. - stuff I had nothing to do with. Major thanks to Kristi and Daniel. Oh, and of course the catalog. Quite beautiful with a fabulous essay by Max Presneill.

More over at flickr.

Yes. It's here. Welcome to my geekdom.

I've seen a few variations of the show title floating around out there. I'm crossing my fingers the real show title will stand up and be accounted for.

Hello, my name is "I forget now what all this is about...*" and I'm a exhibition title.

So tonight, I will enjoy myself, and next week I will finish shipping out some stuff to Nashville and let the whole thing begin again.

Never get your bangs trimmed the day before an event

Famous last words: "I want them really short. They grew out so fast."

[sigh]

****

Well, my intentions today were to work on the laptop and compose some eloquent letters to folks I'd really like to see the show. And I would have, except that one of the nicest people in LA called to see if I was available to have lunch in Culver City. Then I two-wheeled it over to Venice to visit another one of the nicest people in LA, who honored my request to trim my bangs a tad too short.

Then there was grocery shopping, a dog food run, getting the details for pet sitting a neighbor's dog this weekend, and the disappointment of realizing the dress I won on ebay, was not REALLY a vintage Lilly Pulitzer dress after all. I mean, it's still a vintage frock, but I thought I had found an near-exact replacement for my summer painting outfit, which happens to be a well-washed and worn Lilly dress from the 90's. Instead I received a knock-off, but for 10 bucks I can still paint in it. Still, I had my heart set on finding an exact match.

And of course, later tonight is LOST.