3rd Annual Tremont West Art & Cocktails Benefitis sekking art donations

3rd Annual Tremont West Art & Cocktails Benefitis sekking art donations . This year, we will be holding Art & Cocktails, our primary annual fundraising event, at Asterisk Gallery on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Fundraising events are crucial to support Tremont West Programming, such as Community Organizing. Please help us uphold our mission of “improving and maintaining the living, business and cultural conditions for all Tremont” by becoming one of our Art & Cocktails sponsors. Tickets are $25


if you have questions, please feel free to contact Michelle Davis at 575-0920

Lantern Awards

The LIT (formerly The Poets’ and Writers’ League of Greater Cleveland) is proud to announce The Lantern Awards to honor and celebrate the most talented literary artists who live and work in Northeast Ohio. The winners will be announced and awards will be presented at ALL LIT UP: An Evening of Literary Excellence on Saturday, September 11, 2010 at the Ohio Theatre of PlayhouseSquare.


Eight Different Genre Categories Include:

I. Poetry:

Published anthology, chapbook of poems, collection by a single poet; and publication of a single poem

II. Fiction:

Novel length publication; and short fiction: collection and single publications accepted

III. Graphic Novel:

Full-length publication

IV. Memoir:

Book length publication; and essay length publication

V. Creative Nonfiction:

Book length publication; and personal essay, collection and single publications accepted

VI. Journalism: Personal Interest Story:

Individual article and series accepted

VII. Playwriting/Performance:

Original work written then performed in a public venue (please submit printed flyers, press clipping, reviews, invitations, along with the typed manuscript. The playwright, author, or poet only are eligible for the award (not cast).

VIII. Blog, Blog, Blog:

Literary interest general interest blogs with demonstrated excellence of craft AND 50+ readership list (must be submitted with nomination).

Guidelines and Restrictions –

~ Deadline for submissions is Saturday, May 1, 2010.

~ Work must have been published or performed (see publication & performance guidelines) within the past two years (January 2008-May 2010).

~ Writers must live in the following counties: Ashland, Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, or Wayne.

~ Work must be submitted in published form, or photocopied from published texts, including online publication in legitimate publications. Publication information and/or performance information (including source and date) is necessary. Actual texts are required.

~ Exclusions: self-published or vanity press works.

~ Work can be self-nominated, or nominated by an outside source (publisher, colleague, friend, agent, etc.). The author's permission to have the material considered is mandatory.

~ Attach biographical information about the author, including name, address and phone number. Reviews of the work (stating sources) are encouraged.

~ Entries should be marked "Literary Awards" on the outside of the envelope, and mailed to: 2010 LITerary Awards; c/o The LIT, 2570 Superior Avenue, Suite 203, Cleveland, OH 44114.

~ Submissions will not be returned.

Books sales and support are provided by Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Legacy Village. 20% of book sales proceeds will be donated to the LIT during this event. An independent, local bookstore, Joseph-Beth Booksellers celebrates 10 years in the Cleveland community this year. For more information, visit www.josephbeth.com

ABOUT THE LIT

Since 1976, The LIT has been dedicated to the improvement, appreciation, and growth of the literary arts by fostering and promoting a thriving community of writers of all ages and across all genres. Founded as The Poets’ and Writers’ League of Greater Cleveland, The LIT works to grow and sustain an appreciation and audience for the work of literary artists and in doing so, strives to advance literacy throughout the Northeast Ohio region. For more information, please contact:

Minus Signs by Andy Netzel - Cleveland Magazine Jan 09

Minus Signs by Andy Netzel - Cleveland Magazine Jan 09

Anyone who actually hated Cleveland wouldn’t have enjoyed this.

This wasn’t an event for Pittsburghers or Cincinnatians. No, the All Things Cleveland exhibit opening at Tremont’s Asterisk art gallery was personal — a show that took the tired old Cleveland joke and turned it into a funhouse that warped, distorted, amplified and, at times, accurately reflected the state of the place we call home and our stew of feelings about it.

Even the advertising for the exhibit— a “CLE –” symbol that parodies the Cleveland Plus campaign’s pro-Northeast Ohio bumper stickers — drew a brief, authentically Cleveland moment of consternation when an attorney for the Greater Cleveland Parthership sent the gallery a cease and desist letter.

How could outsiders appreciate a trio of musicians all dressed as Super Host who served as the exhibit’s opening-night entertainment? Or a painting of one of the new downtown buses navigating a shaky bridge over a valley full of orange barrels? Or a re-airing of the Tribe’s 1995 World Series loss to the Braves? Or the overwhelming smell of sauerkraut wafting from the Crock-Pots near the entrance?

That’s why curator Dana L. Depew limited his call for artists to those who grew up here. “I asked for a grittier view of Cleveland from Clevelanders,” he says. “I didn’t want pretty publicity shots. I wanted people who grew up in Cleveland to create the work to get an insider view. In the eight years I’ve curated shows, I’ve never had a bigger response from artists.”

But even though I got all the artists’ jokes — maybeespecially because I did— the pieces evoked a full range of emotions in me.

I shook my head with empathy when I saw Eileen Dorsey’s series of paintings depicting Browns fans, which asks viewers to commiserate a fictional interception with her orange-and-brown-clad faithful — one man looking disgusted, another heartbroken.

A work titled Growth in Midtown prompted a chortle with its vacant industrial building covered with ivy, but the clever “Be Leavin’ Cleveland” twist on the “Believe in Cleveland” billboards around town stung me. And my heart downright broke when I saw the photo essay of vacant homes framed by a door from one of the city’s once-grand neighborhoods.

Outside the gallery, John Friscat, a 27-year-old Cleveland Heights resident, said he didn’t know how to feel. There was some beauty and some laughs, but also something else. It wasn’t anger, he said — maybe a little melancholy.

And in an art-imitates-life/life-imitates-art moment, Toby Radloff (the self-proclaimed nerd-made-cult-figure by way of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor comics and accompanying movie) offered that maybe it’s because of our toughness that reveling in such self-deprecation is OK for our civic psyche. “Cleveland has a lot of guts and a lot of heart,” he said. “Cleveland can laugh at itself.”

I hope he’s right. But such tough love only matters if it forces us to find the fresh ideas and leadership to combat the city’s problems. And All Things Cleveland only works as humor if reveling in the psychic weight we give our city’s collective negativity and stereotypes finally provides us a way to escape it.

Dante Launches Artists Series to Support Local Art and Food

Dante Launches Artists Series to Support Local Art and Food

For Immediate Release

March 12, 2010 – Tremont, OH

Dante restaurant in Tremont, a big supporter of local artists and local food, kicks off seasonal art shows featuring changing art with a changing menu.

The first cocktail party in the series takes place Sunday, March 28 from 6 - 8pm at Dante. The party will feature large scale photographs by Dan Morgan, who plans to select the next artist to follow him with an autumn themed exhibition.

Many Clevelanders will recall Morgan owned and operated Gallery 0022 for five years above SPACES before moving to New York. There he worked for Sothebys auction house. Morgan’s love for the arts is now being rivaled by his love for, slow, local food. He and his wife Annette now operate a Farm Stay vacation rental property in Ashland County.

Soggiorno in Fattoria, Italian for Farm Stay, is the title of the inaugural exhibition on March 28. The event offers guests the first opportunity at purchasing the limited edition work, printed on canvas gallery wraps with special archival inks.

Kari Moore with Slow Food Northern Ohio will assist as Chef Dante Boccuzzi will offer various appetizers featuring meats and cheeses from area farms, as well as a selection of fine wines.

For tickets, call 216.274.1200. Dante • 2247 Professor Ave. • Tremont • Ohio • 44113

ACCEPTING ART DONATIONS FOR ART AND COCKTAILS

3rd Annual Tremont West Art & Cocktails Benefit . This year, we will be holding Art & Cocktails, our primary annual fundraising event, at Asterisk Gallery on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Fundraising events are crucial to support Tremont West Programming, such as Community Organizing. Please help us uphold our mission of “improving and maintaining the living, business and cultural conditions for all Tremont” by becoming one of our Art & Cocktails sponsors. Tickets are $25
you have questions, please feel free to contact Michelle Davis at 575-0920
Arts and Cocktails facebook page

“Objects to be Destroyed” CALL FOR ARTISTS

“Objects to be Destroyed”


Fall 2010 @ Asterisk Gallery

Curated by Dana L. Depew

This is an open call for artists to participate in an performance/exhibition of artwork and installations that is created to be destroyed during the opening. Works that are audience interactive are encouraged. For example a painting of a dartboard in which participants can throw darts at it during the opening etc.

please email submissions or working concepts, ideas to - contact@asteriskgallery.com
or call 330-304-8528

The Original Readymade


The original Object to Be Destroyed was created as a readymade in 1923. According to Man Ray, the piece was originally intended as a silent witness in his studio to watch him paint. In 1932 a second version, called Object of Destruction, was published in the avant-garde journal This Quarter, edited by André Breton. This version featured an ink drawing of the Object To Be Destroyed with the following instructions;

Cut out the eye from a photograph of one who has been loved but is seen no more. Attach the eye to the pendulum of a metronome and regulate the weight to suit the tempo desired. Keep going to the limit of endurance. With a hammer well-aimed, try to destroy the whole at a single blow.

1932 was the year Man Ray's lover, Lee Miller, left him to return to New York. To make the connection to Miller more explicit, the object's original eye was replaced with a photo of hers.[1] This metronome was exhibited for the first time at Galerie Pierre Colle, Paris, as Eye-Metronome in 1933.

Subsequent exhibitions called the piece Lost Object, 1945, Last Object, 1966 and Perpetual Motif, 1972.[2] Man Ray stated that he had always intended to destroy it one day, but as a public performance.

Fortune of the day

This was from a fortune cookie I keep in my wallet from July, 2009
A fortune cookie is a crisp Asian American cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside. A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of faux wisdom or a vague prophecy. In the United States and Canada (although also available in other parts of the Western world), it is usually served with Chinese food in Chinese restaurants as a dessert. The message inside may also include a list of lucky numbers (used by some as lottery numbers) and a Chinese phrase with translation. The exact provenance of fortune cookies is unclear, but various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century, basing their recipe on a traditional Japanese cracker.  The cookies are mostly unknown in mainland China or Taiwan.