SHOWTIME

On Friday, September 1st from 5-8 pm Carver Hill Gallery in Rockland, Maine will open a two-person exhibition of my paintings and those of David Hornung.

The opening coincides with Rockland's Friday Art Walk events. The gallery is at 338 Main Street, close to the Farnsworth Museum.

More info.










"And the Winner is...."  2012.  Flashe on canvas.  48" x 24"

Mainely Art

       

     
    TODD McKIE 
Life is Funny Art is Serious

August 2 - 27 

Opening Aug. 2, 5 - 8 pm 

       Artist's talk Aug. 3, 1 pm         

          

                     

 carver hill gallery
   
   338 Main Street, Rockland, Maine  
    207 599-7745 carverhillgallery.com

Wartime in West Cambridge

In the wake of the horrific events of two weeks ago, the title of my recent exhibition, Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Look at Art Again, seems chilling and prophetic. The bombs exploded four blocks from the gallery. I’d like to take back that title if I could and substitute something bland and merely descriptive: Recent Paintings, perhaps.

We live across the river from Boston, in the westernmost part of Cambridge, right on the Watertown line. We do a lot of our shopping in Watertown, a community filled with Greeks, Lebanese, Syrians, Turks and Armenians. There are wonderful Middle Eastern markets, bakeries, Iranian restaurants, and felafel joints, all of them pungent with exotic spices, their proprietors and patrons yammering away in strange tongues.

You saw it all on the news. Gunfire, explosions, police, FBI, National Guard, Homeland Security, ATF, Swat teams, dogs, helicopters. We watched TV, tried to sleep (couldn't), checked repeatedly to make sure our doors were locked, lay in bed listening to the sirens, jumping up to look outside as our street filled with police cars, their pulsing lights painting the neighborhood blue.

On Friday the police helicopters buzzing across the sky were replaced by huge military copters. For a while one of them hovered directly above our house. As we poked our heads out the door to see what was happening, Judy suggested we check our shed. I said, "Don't." But after I'd gone back into the studio she went outside and looked in the shed to see if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding inside it. He wasn't.

Kim Jong Il Loves Our Work

Belatedly, here is the piece that Kim Jong-il sent for David Caras and I to use as the foreword for the catalog that accompanied our recent show at NAGA gallery. Whatever one might think of his politics, I think you'll agree the man can write and has exquisite taste.


It is a great honor to applaud, on behalf of all Korean peoples, the artistic accomplishments of Caras David and McKie Todd. Struggling from within the cesspool of degenerate values, these two comrades raise high the banner of Correct Thinking, proving that there is no real art except that which glorifies the masses. True creativity springs not from an unwholesome urge to satisfy capitalist greed, but from the generous impulse to share the fruits of Cultural Labor with our brothers and sisters. Following on the path of Revolutionary Enlightenment leads us to an awareness that Beauty Belongs to the People.

I congratulate Comrades Caras David and McKie Todd on the exposition of their esteemed works of art entitled Hair This Day and Go Away Tomorrow. They have joined together the highest achievments in modern Korean technology with traditional artistic handcraftings. Their selfless collaboration reminds us to remain vigilant against reactionary forces who find merriment in the baldness of others, treating such unfortunate condition with loud jokings and laughters, but instead to strive always to Improve Society. This our two beloved Artistic Comrades have done without ceasing, but never with greater success than in their latest Hair Examples.

I am fortunate to possess a head on which hair grows as abundantly as wheat upon our Eastern Plains, but remember that our true task is steadfast dedication to achieving Social Progress, not in the cultivation of decadent hairstylings.

As we salute the artists, let us not forget to honor the brave cultural workers from the NAGA Museum of Fine Art Treasures who, by determination and Correct Thought have assembled this Great Exhibition. On this historic occasion the Korean people join our American friends in celebrating a Glorious Victory for Progressive Art.

Kim Jong-il
General Secretary of the Workers' Party
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Pyongyang
28 March 2010