Creative Pumpkin Carving

In honor of the spookiest day of the year, The Armory Art Center is offering creative fun for the whole family.

Bring your own pumpkin on Saturday Oct. 30, 2010 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and learn how to make a super creative jack-o-lantern from an artist.

You're guaranteed to have the coolest, most impressive jack-o-lantern on the block!

The cost is $25 for your first pumpkin and $5 for any additional creations.

To sign up, call 561-832-1776 ext 33 or just stop by the registration desk.

The Armory Art Center is located at:
1700 Parker Ave. in West Palm Beach
Just 1/2 from the Kravis Center

Boca Raton Museum of Art reopens with multiple exhibitions

Like many of its visitors and neighbors, the Boca Raton Museum of Art had a bit of work done. *wink wink*

After months of being closed for renovations, the museum finally opened its doors again on October 12 and museum goers will have plenty to see.

Five new exhibitions were unveiled at the re-opening.  They are:

• Valerio Adami

Adami is an Italian-born, widely recognized European painter specializing in Nouvelle Figuration, the French intellectual version of Pop Art.
The exhibition runs now through Jan.9, 2011

• Robert Cottingham: Twenty Ways to See a Star.  

Cottingham is an American photorealist painter of signs and building facades.  His exhibition is sponsored in part by the Sun-Sentinel.
The exhibition runs now through Jan. 9, 2011.

• Romanticism to Modernism: Graphic Masterpieces from Piranesi to Picasso

On display or 65 original works for masters of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries,

The exhibition runs now through Jan. 19, 2011.

• Latin American Art from the Museum's Collection

Twenty works, including sculpture, are being shown from 20th Century Latin American artists such as Rufino Tamayo and Carlos Cruz-Diez.

The exhibition runs now through May 1, 2011.

Travodor by Rufino Tamayo

• Wyland: Art and Conservation

Focuses on work of marine conservation artists.  Ocean, sea life, endangered wildlife, etc. are the subjects of the paintings.  The exhibition is running in conjunction with the "Wyland Living Green Fair."

The exhibition runs now through Nov. 7, 2010.

Museum Hours

• Tuesday-Friday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
• Saturday-Sunday: 12 p.m. - 6 p.m.
• Mondays and Holidays: closed

Admission Cost

• Museum Member: Free
• Children (12 and under): Free
• Adults: $8
• Senior Citizens (65 and older): $6
• Students (with ID): $4
• Adult Group Tours (15 or more): $4
• School Group Tours (up to 60 students): Free

Las Olas Art Fair coming up this weekend

The 23rd Annual Las Olas Art Fair is returning to us this weekend.  It is a show featuring more than 150 artists displaying their work in booths lining the streets in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The show is juried which means that each artist was selected to be in the show out of hundreds of applicants ensuring a quality experience for all visitors.

All work on display is available for purchase with prices ranging from $15 to $20,000.  Items inclue small jewelry, paintings, sculpture, woodwork, and more.

In honor of October being breast cancer awareness month, artists and festival goers are encouraged to wear pink.

The festival runs Saturday and Sunday Oct. 23 & 24, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Las Olas Blvd. and admission is Free.

As a veteran attendee, I would highly recommend clearing some time in your schedule to make a trip down to Las Olas Blvd this weekend.

Erotic Art Museum Celebrates Sex

Oct. 16, 2010 marks the fifth birthday of The World Erotic Art Museum in Miami, Fla.

Founder, Naomi Wilzig, a 75-year-old grandmother began collecting erotic art from around the world 20 years ago.  Once her collection outgrew her home, she purchased building space in Miami and that is how the World Erotic Art Museum came to be.



Hajime Sorayama, Lithograph #38



Wilzig wants to make sure that she is not seen as a collector of pornography, but of fine art.  She told South Florida Gay News,

“Many people presume erotic means pornographic.  We are fine art. They don’t realize the potential and experience of coming in and discovering 12,000 square feet of erotic art from all over the world.”

She also believes that the display of sexual art is historically important.

“So many people are unaware that erotic art has been created throughout the centuries.  Without eroticism, without the sexual acts which are depicted, there would be no people. What the art does is visualizes the thoughts and activities of habits of people throughout the ages.”

In honor of the 5th anniversary, a party will be held at the museum on October 16 from 8 p.m. until midnight.

There will be performances and the $15 entrance fee will go toward stem cell research at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach.

• 1205 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. 
• No one under 18 admitted. 
• For more information call 305-532-9336 or visit WEAM.com.

Bank of America perk gives free entry to museums

Calling all Bank of America customers!  Just in case no one told you, there are a variety of museums across the country that you can get into for free.

I seem to have a trend of promoting as many free opportunities as I can because who doesn't love a good deal?  I do!

During the first weekend of every month, show your Bank of America credit or debit card and receive free general admission to over 100 museums nationwide.

Participating museums in South Florida include:

Miami

• Miami Art Museum
• Miami Children's Museum
• Miami Science Museum
• Museum of Contemporary Art
• Bass Museum of Art

Fort Lauderdale

• Museum of Discovery & Science
• Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale

Davie

• Young At Art Children's Museum

West Palm Beach

• South Florida Science Museum

On a side note:

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This lovely painting is called A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by French painter, Georges Seurat.  It was painted between 1884-1886 and its most famously known for being composed entirely of individual dots of paint.  The color of each dot was chosen strategically based on color theory to complement each other and create the final desired affect.

Seurat was only 26 years old when this painting was first showed which seems like it would be toward the beginning of his career.  Unfortunately, this talent's life ended at the young age of 31.

Meet Me at the Center of the Earth

Artist Nick Cave is a creator of sculptures like never seen before.  He makes wearable sculptures called 'Soundsuits.'  The name of each 'soundsuit' comes from the noise it makes in movement while being worn.

On October 9, 2010, Cave's exhibition titled Meet Me at the Center of the Earth, is debuting at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach.  The museum will have forty works on display by Cave.  The suits are all made from materials such as yarn, beads, sequins, bottle caps, vintage toys, rusted iron sticks, twigs, leaves and hair.

When asked about his soundsuits, Cave told the UCLA Newsroom,

"To me, everything outside of myself is community.  I don't see myself as an artist but as a humanitarian using art to create change. My hope is that these new Soundsuits will cause people to find ways to live with each other, extend our compassion to other communities and take care of our natural resources. If I can create an opportunity to bring people of all creeds, identities and interests together, then I am doing my work."

The exhibition will run from Oct. 9 to January 9, 2011.

Museum HoursTuesday - Saturday - 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday - 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Second Thursday of each month - 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Closed Mondays and on major holidays

Admission to the Norton Museum is as follows:
(Includes access to Special Exhibitions and the Norton Collection)
- $12 for adults
- $5 for visitors ages 13-21
- Free for Members and children under 13.
- $10 for Adult Group Tours
- Free for School Group Tours

FAU Fine Arts Festival to raise funds for visual arts and art history departments

Coming this weekend, Florida Atlantic University's visual arts and art history departments will be hosting the first Fine Arts Festival.

The festival will feature the art of students as well as professional artists and will be for sale with prices ranging from $10 to $10,000.

The Fine Arts Festival is the main fundraising event for the visual arts and art history departments.

Linda Johnson, organizer of the fine arts festival told FAU,

"We are excited to have Claire Dorst, Stanford Slutsky and John McCoy joining our group of professional artists.  Claire Dorst, painter and FAU professor emeritus, joined FAU in 1964 as the founding member and first chairperson for the art department. John McCoy, an accomplished ceramist whose soup tureens are a must buy, brings clay to life with his focus on functional pottery. Stan Slutsky will be adding a splash of vibrant color with his pure geometric and chromatic abstraction paintings."

The types are art being displayed are:

• Ceramics
• Drawing
• Design
• Photography
• Painting
• Printmaking
• Sculpture

The festival will be held at the Performing Arts and Visual Art Center on FAU’s Boca Raton campus on Oct. 9 & 10, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Admission is free.

Delray Beach craft show a definite miss

This weekend a craft fair took place in Delray Beach.  It was not advertised anywhere.  I just happened to be in the area and stumbled upon it on 4th St. and Atlantic Ave.

4th St. Downtown Delray Beach

Smaller fairs like the one this weekend can be hit or miss.  They will not be as big and busy as an event such as the Delray Affair or the Las Olas Art Fair, but they still have the potential to be a hidden jewel.

The craft fair in Delay Beach this weekend was a miss; there were maybe three booths that actually displayed art.  One of them was called A Chopping Block.  Artist, Jim Keading says on his website,

"A Chopping Block has provided a fun way to be creative and earn money during the down times."

Keading provides chopping blocks in various colors and shapes, but if you are looking for something specific, he can make custom chopping blocks as well.  The boards at $20 plus shipping.

Other booths were selling plants, organic dog treats, hot sauce, and earrings that have been out of style since the 1980s.  I'm not one to judge fashion, but decorative earring cuffs should be banned.

I would have taken a picture of a person wearing one, but no one dared.

Doggie sun visors were all the rage this weekend, which somehow didn't surprise me.  After all, there were more dogs in baby strollers than actual human babies, so why not give them UV protecting headgear?

This spoiled pooch is enjoying the fair in his stroller while shaded by his sun visor.

If you missed this show, which you probably did, not to worry.  It was bad and there will be plenty more good ones in the future.