On March 12, fresh from our session with Nori Zay, we rolled down to G40:The Summit, Art Whino‘s gigantic art show to bring a special session Dr. Sketchy’s session to Crystal City, just a stone’s throw from the capital.
G40: The Summit was a dynamic contemporary art exhibition featuring curated works from artists around the world on display for the entire month of March, featuring musical and visual performances, lectures, live painting and, well, a lot more. (BTW, I cribbed some of that sentence from their promotional material. Don’t tell.) It was pretty amazing, and honestly, we had to go back the next weekend just to finish seeing all of it.
Here’s a little bit more of their promotional material, just so you can see the scope…
The mission of G40: The Summit is to bring the leaders of the New Brow genre together in Crystal City, VA in an effort to explore, discuss and grow this movement. G-40: The Summit will be a culmination of ideas and processes, brought together and highlighted by region and style, creating, for the first time, a full cross examination of this genre.
Floors:
1 – Show information / performance area / mixed use
5 – New York metro area artists
6 – All Encompassing
7 – California artists
8 – Washington DC metro area artists
Pretty amazing stuff.
In any case, we all got off work a little early, loaded Bill’s car up with sketchpads and lights, and set off for DC.
And then sat in Baltimore-DC traffic for three hours.
Having originally planned to get there two hours before showtime, we arrived with a scant 45 minutes to prepare. Thankfully, Art Whino’s Shane and Rob helped us sort out the seating and lights, and the lovely Sugar Ann Spice and L’il Dutch were ready to go.
There were a couple awesome DJs spinning tunes over the course of the night; DJ Chris Instrument covered the first hour, with Nappy Riddem, featuring Rex Riddem and Mustabar, covering the last two, and putting on a pretty kick-ass performance afterward—impressive enough that we, Sugar, and L’il Dutch all bought copies of their CDs.
hand pecked debb
Our first contest was the opposite hand contest, where [takes a deep breath] if you’re right-handed you draw with your left, if you’re left-handed you draw with your right, and if you’re ambidextrous you should be off juggling somewhere or something and have no business drawing. The two freakishly-talented artists who won this contest were sent to the bar for free drinks that we hoped would help level the playing field for the rest of the night.
Being that the title of the exhibition was somewhat a play on the heavily-protested G20 summit, the second contest was the best incorporation of whatever sort of protestors might show up for G40. The prize was a ticket for two to the Dutch Oven Burlesque’s second anniversary show at the Palace of Wonders the very next weekend, courtesy of L’il Dutch herself.
Brian Dugan
Brian Dugan
The third contest was the best incorporation of a political scandal, with the prize being Miss Mindy’s Sassy Paper Doll Bonanza from Baby Tattoo Books. BTW, check out Sugar Ann Spice’s awesome strawberry luchador mask:
Brian Dugan
hand pecked debb
Alexis presenting Aniekan Udofia‘s Marion Barry-inspired entry.
Elstabo (the winner)
Special thanks to Sugar Ann Spice and L’il Dutch for being amazing and honestly inspiring some of the best drawings we’ve ever seen; thanks as well to Shane Pomajambo who put together such an amazing exhibition and who was kind enough to invite us down; thanks to Rob for climbing precariously on makeshift ladders to fix the lights; to DJ Chris Instrument and Nappy Riddem for the great music, thanks to Bill for driving us down and back, Jeff for the great photography you see above, and last but not least all the amazing people who showed up, most of whom had never before been to a Dr. Sketchy’s in their lives.
Our next Dr. Sketchy’s will be April 12 at the Windup Space with Viola Van Wilde of Gilded Lily Burlesque, in a special Twin Peaks themed session to coincide with the Windup Space’s Lynchfest on April 10!
Dr. Sketchy's Baltimore 