Holiday Sciart Events

It's beginning to look a lot like....SCIENCE! Geek it up this holiday season with sciency gifts and art that will make you look super smart. You can find me at the following events over the next few weeks:

November 19 - January 8  
Glen Echo Park, Maryland

I have a solo show, Hidden Worlds, in the Park View Gallery, featuring larger watercolors based on brains, microbes and cells.  I also have smaller works in the Popcorn Gallery as part of Glen Echo's annual Holiday Art Show. If you come on December 10 for Winter's Eve, there's a reception from 6-8pm for my show as well as many other festivities and open studios.

December 3 - 6  
Artists' Row at ASCB, San Francisco

I'm showing for the first time at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. I'll be bringing lots of new cell-inspired art and scarves.

December 17 
Grump, Crystal City, Virginia

GRUMP is an awesome local holiday show featuring 50 top-quality art and craft vendors.
And a Yeti.

Where You'll Find Me

I have lots of art events coming up, including some old favorites: the always-amazing Artscape, Alexandria's big, fun, friendly Art on the Avenue, and the gorgeous MPA Artfest.  This year I'm adding some new shows to the mix, including the Mt. Gretna Outdoor Art Fair in Pennsylvania and the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in December in San Francisco. As always, I'm painting up a storm so I have new work for every show.


July 15-17
Artscape
Baltimore, MD

August 20-21
Mt. Gretna Outdoor Art Festival
Mt. Gretna, PA

October 1
Art on the Avenue
Alexandria, VA

October 2
McLean Project for the Arts Artfest
McLean, VA

December 3-7
Cell Biology 2016
San Francisco, CA

Upcoming Events: Spring-Summer 2016

I'm delighted to announce that I'll be taking part in three new events this spring: two completely new and one "new to me."

First, I'll be showing at the first-ever Makers Mart at the National Museum of Women in the Arts from April 10-12. This unique event showcases the work of many women artists and crafters from around the DC area, and allows visitors to check out the great collections of the NMWA at the same time as shopping for unique pieces. Lots more information here.

On May 7 and 8, I'll be at A-RTS (Arts Rockville Town Square) for the first time. The outdoor festival gathers 175 selected artists to the streets around Rockville's town square.

Next up, in June, I'll be taking my art on the road to show at the first ever Art Walk at ASM Microbe 2016! From June 16-20, thousands of microbiologists gather for the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, and for the first time, they will be able to see and shop for microbe-inspired art from me, the Vexed Muddler, and other artists.

I'm designing some new microbe and virus-themed scarves just for this event! More details to come.

Some Thoughts on Sciart and Blogging

I’ve been making science-inspired art as my primary job since 2010, and been writing about science-inspired art (sciart, as we call it on twitter) as an unpaid side gig all along, first for Guru Magazine and then for the Finch & Pea. I’m going to keep making my art, but I’m giving up the writing, maybe temporarily, maybe permanently. We’ll see.

Why? Because nobody cares. I’ve been trying for more than five years to build an audience for sciart, and, frankly, failing. If I don’t flog my posts endlessly on social media, nobody reads them. I’ve written about hundreds of artists, and probably 5 or 6 of them have even noticed. So I guess it’s time to admit defeat.

Somebody on twitter the other day said he couldn’t quite see the point of “sciart” – why is it not just considered as art? That’s a very good question. I would love for it to just be art. For me, sciart is a hook, a way to get people who don’t like art, or think they don’t understand art, to look at some art and think about it. I think that’s worthwhile.

Also, it’s a marketing hook to help me sell my work. I would dearly love to make art that is much more abstract, but unless I include recognizable cells or microbes, it doesn’t sell. I would love to be covered in the media as an artist and not as a scicomm sideshow, but that has never happened, and given my lack of art-world cred (no MFA, no gallery), it probably never will.

When I complained about people not reading what I wrote, several people told me that I should just blog for my own enjoyment, not for clicks. So I’m not going to link this on twitter or Facebook or anywhere. It’s just for me, and maybe for a few people who happen to stumble across it.

I’m really sad about this, and I’ve shed a lot of tears, but I guess I’m done. 

Panda Tweetup! Panda Tweetup! Panda Tweetup!

Hey DC twitter friends! Two of the best things about our city have converged recently – the arrival of a panda cub and the arrival of no-tourists season. So I propose a panda tweetup to be held on Thursday, February 25, at the National Zoo.

Here’s the plan: we meet between 10 and 10:30 am at the tables across from the entrance to the panda habitat (“Panda Plaza” on the zoo map, not to be confused with the Panda Overlook Café). I’ll make a bunch of delicious cookies and get one of those boxes of coffee. We will eat cookies and drink coffee and look at pandas and talk and tweet. If there's a line for the pandas we can take turns. Or something. We'll figure it out. 

I fully realize that 10 on a Thursday is tough for some people, but I tried to choose a time that would maximize our chances of seeing Bei Bei and minimize our chances of being overwhelmed by tourists. According to the zoo, this is the time of day he is most likely to be up and active.

So, please come. Invite your friends. This is not any kind of official or zoo-sanctioned activity, just a chance to hang out. If about 20 people come, we all get cookies and coffee on me. If hundreds come, we may have to go to Starbucks (not on me).

To summarize: Thursday, February 25, starting at 10am, National Zoo, Panda Plaza. Bei there! 

Let's Do Some (Art Show) Things Better This Year

Heyyy, just kicked off 2016 with a rejection on New Year's Eve and an invitation to pay $40 to apply for a (small, local) show that last year didn't bother to ever let me know my work wasn't selected. I'm not really terribly bummed about either of these, but it seemed like a good excuse to suggest some best practices (or at least better practices) for people organizing art shows this year.

1. Let everyone know the status of their application. AT THE SAME TIME. Really, all this requires is two mass emails (or three if you have a wait list). If you don't know how to BCC, please ask a friend, or do not run an art show.

2. Let people know if the work in the show is for sale and if so, how they can buy it. I can't count how many shows I've been to where there was virtually no information on how to purchase the art. Make a brief announcement at the reception. Explain it across the top of the art info sheet. Make it as easy as possible. Think prices on the wall (small, not on red stickers) and a person at a desk with a Square terminal.

3. Please don't invite people individually to apply for a show and then reject them. I know that an invitation to apply is not a guarantee of acceptance, but why do this? It makes everybody feel bad.

I'm sure there are others. Comment away!