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Artist R.L. Gibson

Author: R.L. Gibson

FOURTH ATTEMPT: Gluttony

Click to follow R.L. Gibson by Email!3rd Time was NOT a Charm

Have you ever had a piece of artwork just beat you down?  I’ve been working on Psychomachia show for 1 1/2 years now, and we have booked the opening at Perihelion Arts on March 31st of 2011.  It is a series of 14 pieces from myself and Arizona artist Jerry Portelli. 

I have 12 of the 14 pieces completed. 

The first piece I attempted and completed for Psychomachia art show was called Gluttony, and I hated it (as I have mentioned before).  I have redone this piece over and over.  And, on the fourth try…I think I’ve got it. 

Thirteen down…Greed to go. 

I can’t reveal the whole piece until the show opens, but here’s just a taste.  Enjoy!

NEW ENTRY: I Am Solitary London

Click to follow R.L. Gibson by Email!2nd Time’s a Charm!

 Some of the most popular culinary creations in my house come from leftovers. We frequently put a whole chicken in the crock pot on Sundays, and on Mondays we usually have “Chicken Something.” Just because you’ve tried something once doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it another try. This next post has had three lives on AAAD.

First, I published the orignal I am Solitary Call for Entries, then I published the follow up show Call for Entries at the Gift Gallery. Now I’m giving it one more stir in the Crock Pot because they have extended the deadline for another week. So, check out this Call for Entries for I Am Solitary – London that is a counterpart to the original.

Join me…I entered today!

Learn More About I Am Solitary - LondonCall for Submissions:
I Am Solitary – London

Beers.Lambert Contemporary Art is proud to curate an exhibition for Gift Gallery, at its extraordinary location on London’s primary gallery row, Vyner Street.

I Am Solitary – London, is a counterpart and extension of the related Beers Lambert exhibition that took place in Nottingham, in September of 2010.

This collaboration with Gift Gallery seeks progressive contemporary art that responds to questions of identity and individuality.

The exhibition aims to highlight ideas and articulations relating to a conceptual and aesthetic understanding of individuality, isolation, and identity in a world typified by conflict, disillusionment, and change.

Learn about the original I Am Solitary Exhibition!The work submitted should critically & aesthetically challenge the reception of these themes & truly push the direction of contemporary art.*

*For those of my readers that like to skim the posts, please note that I put this sentence in bold…green…AND centered it for you…hint, hint.

NEW EXTENDED Submission Deadline:
Monday, November 22, 2010

Eligibility & Media: Artists at all career stages, from all parts of the world, working in all mediums and practices are encouraged to submit.

Vyner street haslong been the benchmark of excellence in London’s contemporary art sphere; prominently located at 10 Vyner, Gift gallery continues this tradiiton of featuring emergent and progressive contemporary art.

Beers Lambert is proud to work with Gift to present I Am Solitary – London.

For full details, visit
www.beerslambert.com/opencall.htm!

GLUTTONY: Rejected Attempt

LESSONS LEARNED

One of the hardest lessons I ever learned was that it was okay if the work isn’t genius EVERY TIME.  The first image of the Psychomachia series that I tackled was Gluttony represented by The World’s Heaviest Woman.  I was excited…I worked hard on the set pieces and props.  I loved the resulting image for about 2 months…

NOW…it has been cut and replaced by a completely different concept, but it shines as an example of “it doesn’t always have to be perfect.”  Jerry Portelli, my Psychomachia partner, won’t let me show any of the work until the show opens, but since this pieces was rejected (at least by me), we’ll call it my lesson in humility…

…here it is, Gluttony Rejected.This version of Gluttony was rejected (by me) for inclusion in Psychomachia.

PSYCHOMACHIA will open in Arizona!

THE CIRCUS IS COMING!

If you haven’t heard already, Arizona artist Jerry Portelli and I have been working on Psychomachia, our show of diptychs portraying the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Holy Virtues and Circus Sideshow Freaks, for approximately a year & a half.

Great News…we are finishing the show as we speak, and
Psychomachia will open at Perihelion Arts in April 2011!

Visit Perihelion Arts online!

ART PUBLICATION: The Flaneur

Pieces of Me: Fat by R.L. Gibson

ART
PUBLICATION
RESULTS

At ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, I spend a lot of time preaching about the benefits of Art Publication and why you should enter art shows.  So, it only seems fitting that I publish my occasional results that address both.

In June, ArtAndArtDeadlines.com posted a blog about The Flaneur, an Independent Art & Culture Newspaper.  I followed my own advice and submitted one of my favorite pieces called Pieces of Me: Fat.  Below is the front page of the latest edition of The Flaneur along with the page on which my piece appears.  Click the image below to go to The Flaneur!

Visit The Flaneur online!

ART Publication Anyone?

Tired?  Me too.I’ve been trying to carve out the time to enter shows and answer calls for submissions and blog at ArtAndArtDeadlines.com and finish a show for this fall and write four more Pea Pickin’ Hearts songs before August and improve my autoharp skills. 

Are you tired yet?  Me too.

Nonetheless, I submitted work to this Independent Arts & Culture Newspaper because they made it SO easy.  Check it out:

Here’s the call…HURRY!

Final Call for Arts and Writing magazine submissions

Check out The Flaneur online!The next issue of The Flaneur (click here for the name origin) is publishing as a newspaper and as an iPhone app.

If you are a writer or artist and are interested in being a part of this project please submit reviews, short fiction, flash art, cartoons, articles, poetry, short fiction.

They are interested in anything cultural. Take a look at their What We Publish Page if you have questions.

Please email your work to editor@flaneur.me.uk with ‘Flaneur submission’ in the title.

Please note that contributors are not currently paid.

A Love Letter to my YOUTH

 

Me in W.D.'s kitchen circa 1989...interesting island wear, eh?
Me in W.D.'s kitchen circa 1989...interesting island wear, eh?

It is rumored that when I was younger… I had a wild streak full of bigger-than-life stories, life-altering experiences and risk-taking adventures.

I’ve met a lot of colorful characters with eccentricities too odd to explain and some too cliched to repeat.

When the Dominican Republic’s earth-shaking tragedy happened this year, I had a flash back to my past…a wild two-week romp through the sugar cane fields of Puerta Plata in 1990.  Was the place I cling to when I need to remember something other than bills and responsibilities now a pile of debris? 

I had no way of knowing.

I came to visit the Dominican Republic in an odd sort of way.  It started in the US Virgin Islands where I decided to show up at 17 with a one-way ticket and $100 cash wearing 4″ heels and a snow white sundress. 

My luggage was lost for 11 days. 

My hotel turned out to be a motel that was in a bad section of town.

And, the US Navy dumped untold thousands of sailors off an aircraft carrier shortly after I arrived.

Headed out with W.D...as a sailor, I suppose? Ha.
Headed out with W.D...as a sailor, I suppose? Ha.

I suppose it could have been a shameful comment on my honor if I hadn’t run in to one of our country’s finest soldiers that was concerned about the volume of free drinks that were constantly headed my way. 

Further, he had the good luck to run across a local cabbie that had been watching idiot 17 year old girls make this same hackneyed journey for an untold number of years. Sadly, I was not his first rescue effort.

Let’s just say I woke up the next morning safely in my seedy motel room with everything intact…including my 4″ heels.  That cabbie was W.D…later known to me as “Uncle Bill.” 

After that, W.D. became my frequent dinner companion, designated driver, and little devilish conscience that kept me out of extreme trouble while still enjoying watching me flounder in the shallow end “uh oh.”

After the romance of the islands wore off…I finally got a permanent case of Rock Fever and left for the States for good.  Over the next few years, I would hear from W.D. occasionally when he was in the States…a phone call here and there. 

One day he called me in Atlanta and said, “What’s Up?”

“Not much,” I replied.

A Love Letter to my Youth!“Wanna go to the Dominican Republic for a couple of weeks? I know a guy that knows a guy with a hotel.”

“Separate rooms, right?”

“Hehehe.  You always spoil the fun.  Yeah.  I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

And we were off.  I speak three words (literally) of Spanish.  It was an adventure.  I came back renewed and nostalgic for the islands but ready to get off my butt and make something out of my twenties.

Today, I received a love letter to my youth. 

Well, a postcard to be exact.  No sweet words.  No mushy sentiment.  Just a postcard signed “W.D.”  A reminder, if you will, that my youth is still alive and well in a sugar-cane field in the Dominican Republic.

Thanks, Lovey.  I needed that.

BAD ART GALLERIES & DEALERS

Follow Artist R.L. Gibson on Twitter!I’ve had a very small handful of bad experience with art galleries and dealers, but I run into artists all the time that share with me their bad experiences.

The name of the game is:

Trust your gut

Don’t be overwhelmed by flattery…no matter how badly you need to hear it…

and BE CAREFUL.

Read the article at ArtBusiness.com!Here’s a great article about How to Spot a Bad Art Gallery or Dealer from ArtBusiness.com . Thanks to my friend Michaela Pilar Brown for pointing it out to me!

ART SHOW TO ENTER

A Tiny peek at Lust from R.L. Gibson's Psychomachia Show!

On ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, I preach the wisdom of not getting complacent…of continuing to enter shows.  However…I have been working on my show Psychomachia for more than a year now with Arizona artist Jerry Portelli, and I have worked on it to the exclusion of almost everything else.

So, I really need to take my own advice and decide that it is time that I at least enter a couple of shows.

NO MORE EXCUSES.

I PROMISE.

It has ceased to be about cash prizes for me.  It is all about the ability to show in new places.  Here is one of the shows that I’ve chosen for June:

Sylvia White Gallery online!

Sylvia White Juried Show–Entry Deadline June 19th

This summer, the Sylvia White Gallery will be awarding two exhibition opportunities in our gallery space in Ventura, California’s New Art City.

Sylvia White Gallery online!COMPETITION DETAILS:

Juried by: Sylvia White.  Sylvia White is founder and director of Contemporary Artists’ Services. She has been advising artists on matters related to career development since 1979. Sylvia White Gallery opened in 2008 and has exhibited artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Graham, Ed Moses, Dale Chihuly and others. Take a virtual tour of our gallery , please visit our website at http://www.sylviawhite.com/ .

PRIZES: One solo exhibition and one group exhibition.

EVENT SCHEDULE:
June 19 – Entry Deadline
July 3 – Notifications sent out
August 4 – September 4 – Group Exhibition (Solo exhibition dates to be arranged with winning artist)

ELIGIBILITY:  Open to all U.S./Canadian resident artists at least 18 years of age.  Eligible entries include paintings, mixed media, works on paper, photography, sculpture, installation art and performance.

ACCEPTANCE:  Accepted work may be refused if it does not conform to the image entry, at the Juror’s discretion. No substitutions of accepted works will be allowed. All accepted work must remain in the gallery for the duration of the exhibit.

Artists will be responsible for delivery and return shipping of all their artwork. Sylvia White Gallery will assist in providing e-mailing lists and press contacts.

SALES:  Unless otherwise specified, accepted works will be considered for sale at the price indicated and 30% of the selling price will be retained by The Sylvia White Gallery. A purchaser may not remove work until the end of the exhibition.

INSURANCE:  Great care will be taken with all work, but artists are responsible for insuring their own pieces if they wish. The Sylvia White Gallery will not be responsible for any loss or damage to work while on the premises or in transit to or from the gallery. Artists are advised to get their own insurance.

DELIVERY & RETURN:  All work must be suitably framed, wired and ready for hanging, or installation. Graphics, prints, watercolors and pastels must be framed under Plexiglas. NO GLASS.

Shipped work must be packaged in a reusable container. NO STYROFOAM PEANUTS. A prepaid waybill for its return must be enclosed. Please make shipping arrangements through the U.S. Postal Service, DHL, FedEx, or UPS. COD returns are not acceptable. The gallery accepts no responsibility for work not retrieved on the pick-up date and will charge the artist $5.00 a day thereafter for storage. After 30 days the gallery may dispose of the work.

APPLICATION PROCESS:  To apply you need to email all of the following to juriedshow@artadvice.com.

1. Link To Website with available work (if available)
2. Three (3) Digital Images of Work – Digital Images should be submitted in JPEG format and the images’ dimensions should not exceed 1600 pixels in any dimension and should have a maximum file size of 5 MB. Please label each JPEG image as follows: Lastname_Firstname_title.jpg
3. Details of submitted work: Title, Medium, Dimensions, and Price.
4. Contact Details of Artist: Name, Email Address, Phone Number
5. Entry Fee $40 (US Dollars only)

If you have any questions, email Sylvia…she’s always quick with replies.