Artomatic and the sun
Yesterday, being the Summer solstice, I went down to DC to meet up with the lovely sharrainchains. She had suggested it as we are both low on funds. And it was fun.*
This was the first time for me so it was a bit over whelming. My visual senses where in some cases knocked for a loop. Some of the materials used astounded me. Some assaulted me (well they assaulted my visual/mental perception, none of the exhibits actually got up and attacked me. Though that would have been interesting in an odd performance art sort of way -note to self: do odd performance art sort of thing at an Artomatic sometime, who wants to be in on it with me?-)One young man outside the exhibit approached me with an underground art mag. This is where I got to astonish him, as I said, "I know you, you were at Dragon Con last year selling these outside the lower lobby entrance of the Marriott" Wish I had brought my camera to capture the look on his face! hehehe, 'cuz he sure as heck wasn't prepared for that.
There are nine floors of…weird, wacky and wonderful exprestions of self and how that self relates to the world, events and just plain life, that you really to go down there yourself. We only made it to two floors. Here are some of my favorite highlights:
Peep -o-Rama: I’m not sure that this is the actual name but that is what I’m calling it. So you all know about Peep jousting, (if you do not go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I18FIrE5xfk) then it will come as no surprise that people make dioramas using , yes, Peeps. My personal favorite was “the Day the Earth Stood Peeped” Done all in grey, it depicted the scene from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, when Klatoo had just been shot and was lying on the ground and the robot comes out of the ship. Our robot was a plastic incased peep rabbit. It was too bad I had not remembered my camera.
Other Peeps of note - Sweeney Peep A cardboard box had been transformed into the building where Mr Todd did his Barbary, Chinese new Year - the year of the Peep, Roller Derby Peeps, Nip/Peep,(wish they had had Desperate HousePeeps)Camelot(knights of the Peep table) and Peep on a Wire with a 3D view of Paris. There were many more.
Another exhibit that was to me interesting was the woman who had framed her iPhone photos in what looked like iPhones. I’d like to find out where she got the Plexiglas and how she worked it to make the replica iPhone like frames.
Many exhibits are interactive. There are also several that say Please do not Touch. Like the elaborate ‘woven/chainmail and gems and bits’ jewelery. And of course there were even some pieces that where lit up with neon. I have to admire all the imagination, effort and courage that the artists have to share their unique visions with us. My contribution to one of the interactive ones was a Haiku:
Snow on the mountain,
Building contains the frost of ages,
Shall walk into Summer.
And so with that I leave you with this image to commemorate Summer’s longest day
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090621.html (should be work safe)
The coolest thing about that picture is, if all goes well, I’ll be there in a couple of weeks!!!!! Whoo Hooo! one for the ‘Bucket List’
*fun - funds, only a couple letters difference yet there seems to be a correlation there...draw your own conclusion