Participating artists

Big thanks to these artists, who participated in our January 21 Draw-A-Thon at Harlow Gallery:

Brian Reeves, Cynthia Ahlstrin, Deb Fahy, Edward McCartan, Emily Johnson, Helene Farrar, Ken Gross, Kenny Cole, Lisa Burke, Lisa Davis, Lisa Wheeler, Lynne Harwood, Nancy Barron, Natasha Mayers, Nick D'Alfonso, Nora Tryon, Page Conway, Pat Taub, Peggy Cope Mascher, Priscilla Jenkins, Ramona du Houx, Rob Shetterly, Steve Burke, Suzanna Lasker, Wendy Newbold Patterson Image: Jenny McKendry

We Drew!

It was a great time...I was happy to meet a bunch of new artists and we even got taped for Occupy TV! Our ability to photo silk-screen has not yet been perfected, so we cut up a stencil version of William Hessian's "Sheep No More". Thanks everyone for making this Draw-A-Thon a great success! (Click on "Flickr Images" in the links column)

Tune in tomorrow at 6:35 am! The Pulse Morning Show

I'll be gettin' interviewed by Pat LaMarche about our upcoming Draw-A-Thon. I heard Pat speak a few times and found her to be a true inspiration!...looking forward to this! larger image

Kenny

Come One, Come All!

Well, it's official! We are organizing another Draw-A-Thon...this time around it will be at Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, Maine. Our thematic approach this time around will be to take on the spirit of the OCCUPY! movement. In April the gallery will give us a month long exhibition slot where we will be able to show some of the work created at this Draw-A-Thon. We'll also conduct a Print-A-Thon during the exhibit to show the public how we do things. So what are you waiting for? Drop me or Natasha Mayers a line and let us know if you will be attending! Hope to see you there! Kenny (kenny@kennycole.com) Natasha(mayersnatasha@gmail.com)

Catching up!

Wow...the last post was in July! I'm a very bad post-master...a lot has happened between now and then. For example there was this little thing called the "Occupy" movement that came along at the end of the summer!

Here's Lisa Savage's report on the WERU Grass Roots Conference: The Bring Our War $$ Home 30 day Care-a-Van kicked off a statewide tour with a t-shirt screen printing workshop at WERU Community Radio's Maine Grassroots Media Conference at Unity College on Sep.10, 2011. Images made at Draw-a-thons previously held with the Union of Maine Visual Artists, as well as the Codepink "house" campaign logo, were available for the public to have printed onto a shirt of their choice. Artists and organizer Steve Burke headed up the production of about 50 shirts which will now help carry the BOW$H message out into the world. Panelists Rob Shetterly (Americans Who Tell the Truth), Tamar Etingen (West Athens 4th of July), Lisa Savage (CP Maine Local Coordinator) and Steve displayed and talked about political art and its power to inspire and communicate. Rob's portraits of art activist Natasha Mayers, playwright Eve Ensler, whistleblower Bradley Manning, and other truth tellers on display brought still more voices into the conversation. photos of the event

Portland Paste

There is a new kid in town: Portland Paste. Check them out! Very much in the spirit of what we've been trying to achieve; Political art action at its best!

CMCA Draw-In

Today we conducted a "Draw-In" at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, Maine, during the Steve Mumford lecture. In attendance were myself (Kenny Cole), Julie Rose, Brian Reeves, Mark Roman and Natasha Mayers. Natasha and I began our action by standing outside and handing out Robert Shetterly's statement to anyone willing to read it. It ended up being a sold out event and I personally witnessed several people getting turned away because they had not reserved seating for the talk. We sat quietly and drew for the hour long presentation and were able to ask a few questions afterwards. Our cause was a difficult sell to this "support the troops" crowd, but we did our best. Mumford proved to be a smooth talker who could contradict himself without skipping a beat. His case, from my perspective, was as follows: he is essentially a realist painter who developed an interest in war, went to see it for himself, but only found lots of bored soldiers. When questioned about depicting the horrors/Iraqi victims of war he replied that you can't depict it if you don't see it, that to do so would be dishonest propaganda, just not what realist painters do. His only regret was that he did not see enough action...maybe next time? Let's hope that there are a lot more wars...eventually I'm sure he'll get around to finding those damned evasive horrors!

Image by Julie Rose