For those who don’t live in the Washington DC metropolitan area, Artomatic is this HUGE “art happening”, by artists for artists, with no jury or curation, just pick a 12′ wall and hang your work to your heart’s desire. It encompasses just about every conceivable artistic means of expression, from painting, photography, drawing, sculpture to music, theater, dance, performance art, video, poetry and the just plain incomprehensible. Artomatic strives to be a bi-annual event, but that doesn’t always happen, as it has no permanent home and is dependent on property owners of large empty spaces being interested in making those spaces available. The last few Artomatics have featured something on the order of 1000+ 2-d/3-d artists and 600 performers of some kind. The whole thing is produced on a volunteer basis, which makes it all the more amazing that it even happens at all.

For more information about Artomatic in general, the history of the event, and schedules for this year’s event, go to Artomatic.org

Important dates relating to this year’s Artomatic:

• May 18 – Artomatic Opens
• June 2 – Meet the Artist Night (I will be there, with wine and cheese if allowed)
• June 23 – Artomatic Closes

The show is open Wednesday and Thursday from 12 noon to 10 pm, Fridays and Saturdays 12 noon to 1 AM, and Sundays 12 noon to 5 PM. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. There is a recommended $5 donation for admission, but it is pay what you can. Despite the fact that over 75,000 people attended, Artomatic did not make a profit – this is a very expensive, labor intensive effort to produce a show of this size and scope.

I have NOT yet decided what work I will be putting in the show. It’s a toss-up between doing some really large color prints of my night-time work, or making some new platinum/palladium/gum male nude images inspired by Japanese landscape screens. The $64,000 question is will I have enough time to produce that work before installation is over.