Happy Holidays Everyone!

Background Factors by Caryl Henry Alexander & Jesse Alexander Hits Chicago Calling

Background Factors is FUN FUN FUN at Chicago’s Little Black Pearl!

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w36D_69DIfU

“Background Factors” is a multimedia artwork created by Visual Artist Caryl Henry Alexander and Poet Jesse Alexander. The video piece interweaves paintings, poetry, music, photos, and sculpture. It examines the complex of social and cultural forces affecting the nature of an individual or community’s environment.

For the last month we have been hatching ideas for the exhibition “Chicago Calling” at Chicago’s Little Black Pearl Art Center. Our idea was to compose a short video that would be sandwiched between our live stream conversation with attendees at the gallery this past Friday night.

Big Up to Chicago based artist and organizer Alpha Bruton who invited us to participate in the show! Special thanks to Jeff Harrigfeld, tech dude extraordinaire. The result is a uniquely blended presentation of our individual creative works and collective perspectives.



Below you will find the Press Release and the exhibition announcement.





FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: Daniel Godston 312.543.7027 dgodston@gmail.com

THE THIRD ANNUAL CHICAGO CALLING ARTS FESTIVAL EVENT: The Third Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival (CCAF3) will take place October 1-12, 2008, featuring Chicago-based artists collaborating in performances and projects with artists living in other locations -- both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations will be prepared, improvised, and some performances will involve live feeds between Chicago and elsewhere. Among the scheduled projects are: a Chicago-based musician/composer collaborating with a composer from the Philippines, Chicago-based poets connecting over the radio with poets from Hawaii, and a Chicago-based musician collaborating with a British visual artist. Venues for CCAF3 will include Elastic, The Velvet Lounge, Black Rock Pub & Kitchen, Heaven Gallery, Little Black Pearl Art & Design Center, WNUR (Northwestern University), Peter Jones Gallery, 32nd&Urban Gallery, AV-aerie, and other locations. Artists involved with CCAF3 work in a wide range of media, including music, painting, video, poetry, dance, and other art forms. CCAF3’s participants will include Lisa Abbatomarco, Tom Abbs, Josh Abrams, Jeff Albert, Jesse Alexander, Fred Anderson, Geejay Arriola, Ian Ash, Chris Avgerin, Renée Baker, Steve Barsotti, Ben Billington, Jeb Bishop, Chuck Bontrager, Alpha Bruton, Vittorio Carli, Chicago Phonography, Janina Ciezadlo, Chad Clark, Clean Boys, Boo Cook, Stephen Crall, Eric Cressley, Noé Cuéllar, Tim Daisy, Larry O. Dean, Christian Dillingham, Eric Elshtain, Michael Erzen, Marcus Evans, Douglas Ewart, Rachel Thorne Germond, Dan Godston, Jon Godston, Matthew Golombisky, Caryl Henry-Alexander, Alan Emerson Hicks, David Harrison Horton, Hamadal Issoufou, Jennifer Karmin, Donna Kiser, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Simone LaPierre, Eric Leonardson, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Bill MacKay, Joshua Manchester, Elizabeth Marino, Dave Marsalek, Jayve Montgomery, Robin Morrissey, Shelley Nation, Bruce Nelson, Charlie Newman, Carol Ng-He, Erin Obradovich, Donna Pecore, Divik Ramesh, Mike Reed, Matthias Regan, Timothy David Rey, Eric Glick Rieman, Ed Roberson, Larry Sawyer, Cathleen Schandelmeier, Alycia Scott, Seattle Phonographers Union, Karl E. H. Seigfried, Stajabuu, Laura Evonne Steinman, Katherine Stubbins, Craig Taborn, Hanah Jon Taylor, Erin Teegarden, $2 Cockroach, AJ Viola, Joel Wanek, Ann Ward, Della Watson, Michael C. Watson, Stan West, Matt Weston, Glenn Weyant, Paul Wood, the World Listening Project, Dave X, Sid Yiddish, Saalik Ziyad, Taalib-Din Ziyad, and others. http://www.chicagocalling.org

"Perserverance" Painting Exhibited in ArtMD 2008

Perserverance Acrylic on Canvas

GOOD NEWS!

"Perserverance" from my new series of mixed media paintings and sculptures will be exhibited in ArtMD 2008. October 31st to December 12th

The exhibition is in the gallery at:

Howard County Arts Council, Howard County Center for the Arts
8510 High Ridge Road Ellicott City, Maryland 21043
hocoarts.org

The exhibition takes place from October 31st to December 12th 2008.
The reception will be held on December 5th 6-9pm and includes a gallery talk by Dr Leslie King Hammond, professor emeritus at MICA. Check her out.
http://www.mica.edu/FACULTY_DIRECTORY/index.cfm?faculty_id=198

US Artists in the Workforce: 1990-2005.

Portrait in a handmade ChaChu* Mirror , designed and produced by Caryl Henry Alexander and Carlos Uribe 2008
Photo by Andre Kreft

Greetings friends! Long time-o!

I want to share this information with you. It came out in June 2008 and has great information about our artist communities. The executive summary is a great place to start. It features charts and graphs that illustrate our numbers, where we live, what fields we practice and lots more. I encourage you to read it and welcome your feedback and ideas.

http://www.nea.gov/research/ResearchReports_chrono.html


Artists in the Workforce: 1990-2005.
Artists in the Workforce: 1990-2005 is the first nationwide look at artists' demographic and employment patterns in the 21st century. Artists in the Workforce analyzes working artist trends, gathering new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to provide a comprehensive overview of this workforce segment and its maturation over the past 30 years, along with detailed information on specific artist occupations.

The Meeting

"The Meeting" is a mixed media painting with batik, acrylic painting and sewing.
It represents women coming together across cultures.

Today I am thinking about Global Art Spots! I have been to a few great spots to relax, take some time, share ideas with people and make some art. Of course my big spot right now is a two car garage here in Clinton MD.

One of my favorite Art Spots is theToki Memorial Art Center and it's director, my friend Tunde Odunlade. Tunde' Center, sited in Ibadan Nigeria, had two rooms, one for batik and one for sewing on a busy sidestreet. The dying was done near the street in front of the center. Seyi Ogundele, who ran the center for Tunde, taught me the process of waxing and dying cloth. Plenty of people from the community were in and out of the studio, visiting and working each day. I was able to create a few pieces at Toki, "The Meeting" is from that series.

During my time there, I learned a lot about the possibilities of the batik process.
Contact me for more info! Caryl@bigbangbanners.com

This is our economic reality as a nation!

The Gross National Debt

Ekaabo!

Welcome! Do you know welcome in languages that arent shown here?
Please add them!

Caryl's Global Art Spot