I obviously suck at blogging. If you are on any of my mailings you probably know about my solo show last fall and my current installation in Red Hook, NY, "The Lonely Death of Esmin Green". Through this, January 07 has continued to receive private visitors at the studio, and support via email. Now, I am very happy to announce that it will be in a show in the Washington, D.C. area this fall! The show is at the Torpedo Factory gallery, Target Gallery, in Alexandria, Va, running from Sept.3-Oct 12, 2008, with a special opening on 9/11. Please come if you can! I am attaching an excerpt from the Target Gallery's description.

"The work seeks to create and stir a dialogue with the viewer; some of the work will strike at the innermost chords of our being exposing the vulnerability that exists. It exposes our weaknesses and our imperfect nature. No matter how prepared or powerful we may feel, a disaster has a profound way of bringing us back to earth and to the realization that anything can happen and that our time here is very precious and fleeting. The exhibition also provides a glimpse of the power of art and its unique way of helping people and communities heal, come together and attempt to understand the chaotic nature that exists when disaster strikes.

The exhibition runs from September 3- October 12 with a special reception and candlelight vigil on September 11, from 6-9pm. Programming for the evening consists of a reception for the artists from 6-8pm, remarks from our special guests Gifts In Kind International spokeswoman Melissa Lanning-Trumpower and Executive Director Shanti Norris of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts which begins at 7pm. A special candlelight vigil is planned out on the docks in front of the Torpedo Factory Art Center beginning at 8:30pm.

For additional information about this exhibition and the special programming on September 11 please contact the Target Gallery. The entire exhibition will be online beginning September 3 at www.torpedofactory.org you can also stay up to date about events happening in the gallery by visiting our Target News page at http://www.torpedofactory.org/galleries/targetnews.php. "

There is much to discuss.
The opening weekend was a great experience, with over 1,200 people passing through our show in Red Hook. There must have been an awakening this winter, because we had three large Iraq themed works on one floor, and some smaller ones upstairs as well. Many people stopped to discuss January 07, and Iraq. Being an art show, and being in Brooklyn, the majority of the crowd was predictably liberal and anti-war, but most had not seen the extent of the damage caused by this occupation. So there was lots of eye-opening discussion.
A minority of our viewers were pro-war, and one artist in particular took great resentment to the Iraqi pieces, and mine in particular. He actually brought up the idea of banning all political art from future BWAC shows. It is a sad stereotype that this atttitude is fitting within, but banning alternate views is a typical response of repressive regimes. I trust that my fellow artists will not want to silence any voice.
This self-same artist is now writing hate mail to me, calling my art negative and hateful, and calling for me to leave the group. Since many other members have volunteered their support of my work, I will not be leaving anytime soon; but isn't it typical that the one negative comment nags at us?
I am sad that he feels that a different opinion should be banned. My piece calls for an examination of the price of this war, it calls for us to look at the faces being ravaged, both Iraqi and American. It calls for an awakening of empathy. It is the freedom of this country that allows free expression. Both of us have the right to speak, and both of us have a responsibility to speak respectfully. So we can enjoy our freedom in peace.
Our soldiers do not share the same freedom right now. Active troops in Iraq are now blocked from using Youtube and MySpace. Photos of combat and it's aftermath have been further restricted. The view of this war continues to be constricted. I believe this is happening because if the american people were fully aware of the human cost of this war, they would insist on it's end. This is what my piece is trying to show.
Please look.
Tomorrow night is the opening of the open studio tour, with one of the small Iraq pieces being unveiled for the first time. This is a set of smaller works focusing on just one of the days of January. Controversial? A good or bad thing to show?
I guess any talk is good.
See you then.

After months of working in the dark of the night, flipping through endless websites full of scary images, compiling, angsting, testing materials, re-working sizes (you get the idea),
"January 07" is completed. It has been a difficult piece to create, emotionally, and I am very happy that it is ready to share. It loaded into it's first venue this week ( involving a mechanical lift, two staircases, and three strong guys dangling precarioiusly out of a window, which is another amusing story that could be pried out of me with minor coaching), and the piece is installed on the first floor of the BWAC exhibition space in Red Hook, Brooklyn (where my studio also is). It nearly fills the 8' panel that it is on, and I have finally experienced some feedback on the work! Fellow artists also setting up and working on the show have been very encouraging, and I have had the first conversations about it's impact. The show cards arrived today, the wrong color, but at least it's something, and if you have found this site you probably have one. For the record, it's supposed to be blue, not green.
I am really looking forward to the opening tomorrow! I hope that many people view this work, because it will take a lot of energy to change the current direction of destruction happening in Iraq.