RED

Description

“Archie Rubungus, artist and brother of Gertrude — the hero of our story, Archie was a painter and professional medical trials participant. He claimed to hold the title for the number of IV scars in the right arm. Archie was never happy with the various red egg tempera paints that could be purchased at the local art supply store. He claimed that it was because he had examined the true color of blood as it was collecting in the various vials.

Archie made reproductions of renaissance altarpieces on wood panels. He very respectfully and precisely would throw in contemporary pop culture references and always have at least two figures, whether male or female, with Alfred E. Neuman heads. He never sold any, claiming that they were not finished and never would be in his lifetime, suggesting that they were destined to be found after his death and finally and roundly appreciated — the great unfinished work of a true master. Consequently he tried countless new drugs and contributed jugs of bodily fluids, for money of course, in the pursuit of various cures.

Archie experimented with many, many substances to enhance the color of red egg tempera paint: the egg yolk of Road Island Red hens, the rust of old fire trucks, shavings from a Santa Claus candle, hair from Vladimir Lenin’s beard, petrified vampire blood that he purchased at a voodoo emporium in Memphis, pomegranate Jello, rendered ketchup, a liquid enhanced by boiling a Howdy Doody promotional doll in distilled water, cardinal feathers pulverized in a food processor, red Nyquil, New Mexico chili powder, scrapings from his sisters childhood patent leather shoes, a rolling stones logo that his newly apprenticed nephew had tattooed on a piece of rawhide and he had reduced in sulphuric acid, etc.

He never found the red he was looking for.

One extremely warm Tuesday afternoon an exterminator carelessly tossed a cigarette against the foundation of Archie’s Mother’s garage. Tragically, it smoldered then ignited dry grass and a deli sandwich wrapper, burning the garage to the ground, along with all of his unfinished paintings. His sister, Gertrude, did her best to fight the fire with a garden hose, but to no avail. She stood amongst their mother’s seared tomato plants, weeping, the still flowing water hose needlessly turning the smoking embers to mush.  Upon arriving at the scene Archie was briefly inconsolable until he caught a glimpse of Gertrude’s tears running through the ash on her fire reddened face, gathering some in a the cap of a ballpoint pen he ran excitedly into the house, loudly slamming the door…” From “Gertrude Red” By Franklin Cincinnatus

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JUROR | Fran Forman will be the juror for “red”.  Fran has had many solo exhibitions, including the famed Henry Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, England, and The Griffin Museum of Photography and the Massachusetts State House. She has won numerous significant awards and prizes; most recently, first place from the Julia Margaret Cameron awards, three awards (First Place, Gold and Silver) from PX3 Prix de la Photographie, Paris 2012. In 2011, she was invited to exhibit and attend the China 2nd Biennial International Photographic Cultural Festival and Exhibition, Lishui, China (one of only thirty Americans); she also won the second prize from the World Photography Gala Award (out of over 8000 entries) in the People and Portrait category; in 2010, she won 1st place as well as an Honorable Mention in the Fine Arts Collage sub-category for the Lucie Foundation’s International Photo Awards (IPA). She was one of the Top 40 at the LA Center for Digital Art in 2010 and 2006. She also received first and second place awards in the Fine Arts sub-categories at the Px3 Prix de la Photographie (2008 and 2007 respectively); she was a fourth place winner in the Adobe sponsored Photoworkshop.com; and she was a finalist for an Ultimate Eye Foundation grant. And at the International Photo Awards 2008, she won 2nd place for Collage and Honorable Mention for Digitally Enhanced.

Fran is a featured artist in Contemporary Cape Cod Artists (2014), Photoshop Masking and Compositing (2013), and many publications and books. She is a Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and teaches workshops in the US and abroad. She is also a recipient of grants from the Sassower, Tyre, Tavris, and Puffin Foundations. She has been a Resident Artist at Holsnoy Kloster, Norway, The Studios of Key West, and the Vermont Studio Center.  Escape Artist: The Art of Fran Forman, was published by Schiffer Books in 2014 and was selected by Elizabeth Avedon as One of the Best Photobooks of 2014 and won First Prize in an international juried competition selected by 21st Editions.

Fran’s photo-paintings are in the permanent collections of The Boston Musuem of Fne Arts, The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM, Washington, DC), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Grace Museum, Abilene, The Sunnhordland Museum, Norway, and the North Down Museum, Northern Ireland.

She is represented by Pucker Gallery (Boston), Afterimage Gallery (Dallas), Susan Spiritus Gallery (Newport Beach, CA), and Galeria Photo/Graphica (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico). She was the Commencement Speaker and received an Honorary Degree from the New England School of Photography in 2018.

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Creativity is encouraged.