POETIC PIZZA
Abstraction is defined as the process or result of generalization. In my house, the dinner discussion goes a little like this: “What do you want for dinner?” Which is often followed by “I don’t know. What do you want for dinner?” Which is then further followed by: ” Well, I know I don’t want pizza.” By the way, this abstract dinner notion of I-don’t-know-but-I-don’t-want-that, usually ends in pizza for dinner. Poetic, eh? Here’s a way to have a more productive abstract notion…
Check out this Call for Entries called True Poetry: Abstractions from the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago. I’ve shown at Woman Made before, and I always admire the curatorial eye of their jurors. The fee is reasonable, and you know I love a theme. Take a closer look…
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.
Western art was, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the nineteenth century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality.
The arts of cultures other than the European had become accessible and showed alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy.
The sources from which individual artists drew their arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture at that time.
Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be only slight, or it can be partial, or it can be complete.
Abstraction exists along a continuum.
Even art that aims for verisimilitude of the highest degree can be said to be abstract, at least theoretically, since perfect representation is likely to be exceedingly elusive.
Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance color and form in ways that are conspicuous, can be said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to anything recognizable. In geometric abstraction, for instance, one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic entities.
Figurative art and total abstraction are almost mutually exclusive. But figurative and representational (or realistic) art often contains partial abstraction. Both Geometric abstraction and Lyrical Abstraction are often totally abstract. Among the very numerous art movements that embody partial abstraction would be for instance fauvism in which color is conspicuously and deliberately altered vis-a-vis reality, and cubism, which blatantly alters the forms of the real life entities depicted.
MEDIA: Open to two- and three-dimensional semi-abstract, non-objective to pure abstract works in all media by women artists from the international community.
SUBMISSION ONLINE:Submit jpgs of up to three of your works on their website. Please include an artist statement and a $30 entry fee.
JUROR: Sandra Perlow is a prolific artist interested in abstraction and pictorial space. She earned her BA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MA from the Illinois Institute of Design.
Perlow has shown her work internationally, including at Linda Warren Gallery, Harper College, Jean Albano Gallery, and the Rockford Art Museum. She is an active contributor to WMG and serves on its Advisory Board.
DEADLINE: February 9, 2011
NOTIFICATION: March 12, 2011
IT’S RAINING DUCK
They are looking for images that have interesting stories behind them, as well as being strong images in their own right. 
