Day 4 the Layout

Spent today laying out the show. Was vert surprised I had to edit. After spending a year in a panic about filling the space, we cut five paintings and 12 photographs. Everything has room to breathe and its looks wonderful. So now I'm heading back to my boat to eat crawfish etoufee and watch the sunset. Ahhhhhh.

My heart and me in Cajun Country #1

Today I am at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, Louisiana starting the process of hanging my show. I had to laugh, they are expanding and it's under construction. Those of you familiar with my work know my predilection for construction sites so it's entirely appropriate.

I am staying with some good Cajun friends. I hope to combine working on the show with some fishing, birding and dancing so be prepared...

Joyous Day!!!!

I am the happy recipient of a glorious painting by Cora Cohen and it's arriving today. It's called Green Drips but drippy it is not. It is a glorious enmeshing of color and brushwork and as Cora would say, "...full of air." And you know what? I'm walking on that air!!!

Bodies the Exhibition and Bodies the Controversy

Today we're going to talk about the "human rights" of bodies. The use by artists of bodies for the study of anatomy used to be a routinely accepted practice (at least post the grave robbing era of study). Today, we use cadavers for many kinds of study including crash test dummies, crime decomposition models, post death free face lifts, "beating-heart" cadavers and more. I really enjoyed Mary Roach's book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and I highly recommend it if you are curious about what might happen to your body after you donate it to science.



In fact, Bodies the Exhibition, was offering discounts to artists to come and draw. However years of assurances that the cadavers on display were legally obtained in China, the company that runs the exhibit admitted that it could not prove that the bodies were not those of prisoners who might have been tortured or executed. A legal settlement came after an investigation into the origin of the cadavers/parts in the exhibit.

Under the terms of the settlement, the exhibit cannot obtain new bodies without documentation proving the individual’s identity, cause of death and consent for the body to be displayed, a requirement that may slow or end the importation of bodies from China.In addition, the exhibit must display, on its Web site and with a sign at the entrance, a statement explaining that it is not able to confirm that the bodies being displayed were not Chinese prisoners who may have been victims of torture and execution, the attorney general’s office said. The company is now looking into the feasibility of a program in which bodies would be donated from within the United States in the future. Will this become the newest form of performance art?

AP Has No Right to Obama ‘Hope’ Image

Excerpted from Bloomberg, more on the Shepard Fairey Debacle:

AP Has No Right to Obama ‘Hope’ Image, Photographer Tells Judge
By Erik Larson

The Associated Press, which sued artist Shepard Fairey for using an AP photograph as inspiration for a Barack Obama campaign poster, wrongfully copyrighted the image it seeks to protect, the photographer told a judge. Mannie Garcia, the freelance photographer who took the disputed photograph while on assignment for AP, said the news company’s copyright for the image should be invalidated. “The AP is aware, and was aware at the time of filing its copyright application for the Garcia photo that it was not the true owner of the rights to that photo,” the photographer’s lawyer, George Carpinello, said in the filing.

Garcia is challenging both the AP and Fairey by trying to join the pending lawsuit between them. The news company sued Fairey in March, accusing him and his Los Angeles-based company, Obey Giant Art Inc., of copyright infringement for using Garcia’s 2006 photograph of Obama at a National Press Club panel discussion about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Garcia also claims Fairey wrongfully copied the photograph.

The AP “remains confident in AP’s ownership of the copyright, because Mr. Garcia was an employee of AP when he took the photo in 2006,” said Paul Colford, an AP spokesman. Garcia, who works out of Kensington, Maryland, said in his court filing "that he can’t be considered an AP employee, because he was on assignment for five weeks and wasn’t eligable to join a union or receive health, vacation or unemployment benefits."

Whew...If we watched Obama, followed the lawsuit, obeyed Shepard Fairey and have an opinion, does that mean we can join the lawsuit too?

Here's the case info if you want to follow it on Lexus Nexus...
The case is Fairey v. The Associated Press, 09-cv-01123, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).