Under the Sun Art and Music Festival (Miami) is seeking artists, merchants and musicians

Presented by Frames USA & Art Gallery, the Under the Sun Art & Music Festival is sponsored in part by Frames USA & Art Gallery, with support from Miami Dade County Parks. On this inaugural year, the event's goal is to feature more than 300 local and non-local ARTISTS and MERCHANTS exhibiting work in a range of mediums. MUSIC from local talent will also be presented on two stages.

*Artist, photographer and craft booth spaces cost only $59 for the one-day event.

“We would like to extend an invitation to participate in the newest art and music festival to hit the Miami Events Calendar.  We would like to encourage everyone to participate and help make this festival the biggest event in the history of Tropical Park.   The deadline to qualify for the early registration prices is November 1st 2014.  Visit our website to register:  www.underthesunartandmusicfestival.com/artist-booth-info.html. “

You can contact Under the Sun Art and Music Festival via email at info@underthesunartandmusicfestival.com or call 305-666-3355.

Namast-YEAH!

The Radically Honest ART Cheerleader

Or, Kelly N Patterson

Red Disaster (the poem, not the Andy Warhol silkscreen!)

I have to confess:  I never read ART CRITQUES or art journals because personally, I do not want anyONE else’s opinions, interpretations and art prejudices to frame MY experience with a piece of ART (of any media.)  I prefer to experience art (as well as LIFE) a la tabula rasa, or better yet-- as a “blank canvass.”  We SEE art (and the world) as we are…and to demonstrate this fact, I wrote a poem…

Red Disaster (Andy Warhol) 

Red Disaster (Inspired by Andy Warhol)

By Kelly N. Patterson

A brazen, threatening image:

Colossal black and red silkscreen painting

Not one, but twelve icons

Of the progressive, industrialized tool of execution:

Sing Sing’s electric throne

Hanging on the aristocratic walls

Of the Fine Arts Museum

Which inspired Hoffman and Conrad to argue in public.

Conrad commented lightly on the primitive element

Co-existing in modern culture

Death penalty:

Powerful, irreversible commodity

Sani-flush for the degenerate and evil

Antiseptic flush of all human waste.

Hoffman did not appreciate Conrad’s capriciousness

Red is the blood of the prisoner

Black, profound darkness in a lottery-like deeply racial system

He who hath a good lawyer

Hath life.

Thus Hoffman and Conrad continued to argue in public

Until the close of the museum.

Upon parting they vowed to never discuss political issues with one another again.

Hoffman and Conrad never went to the Fine Arts museum again.

Resources for ARTISTS facilitating SOCIAL CHANGE

A Blade of Grass (a non-profit organization) provides valuable RESOURCES to ARTISTS who demonstrate artistic excellence and serve as innovative conduits for SOCIAL CHANGE. To that end, ABOG is inviting Letters of Interest for its Fellowship for Engaged Art!  Happy Birthday to US!!

The ABOG fellowship supports socially engaged projects that promote ART as a CATALYST for social change (NOTE:  I COULD argue that ALL ART is a catalyst for social change, but that is a blog in itself!); projects that feature artists in leadership roles; dialogue-based projects that emphasize active and sustainable partnerships with communities; and projects in which artists engage community members as equal partners on locally relevant issues, or globally relevant issues as they apply to the local context. *Projects in which co-creation with non-artists is part of the process are highly encouraged.

Fellows will participate in a program that features a range of services, including a two-day orientation that explores ABOG's documentation and assessment models and includes workshops on strategies for community engagement; quarterly co-assessment meetings with other fellows to share progress and offer feedback to one another; support and feedback for ongoing self-assessment in the form of collaborative action research; and assessment by an “outside evaluator”.

Eligible applicants include individual artists as well as artists’ collectives with projects that engage directly with a specific community or communities. NOTE: Artists may not currently be enrolled as students and must be legal United States residents or U.S. citizens who are at least 25 years of age. In addition, applicants must have a website with contextualized examples of past work that a selection panel can review.

Letters of Interest must be received no later than November 24, 2014. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit full applications.

For complete program guidelines, information about previous fellows, and application procedures, visit http://www.abladeofgrass.org/ .

Namast-YEAH!

The Radically Honest ART Cheerleader

Kelly N Patterson