E-mail the editor with positive, negative or other comments or feedback to anything on this site. Tell what page you are referring to. Sign it or don't sign it or use a fake name, if you'd prefer. Note if you do not want your letter published.

December 27 2005

The AetheriA Foundation, A nonprofit (5013c) corporation, was formed to benefit the Arts District of DFW and the metroplex. Endowments will include The Dallas Symphony, The Opera and the Texas Ballet, as well as various Museums in the DFW area. Additional benefactors will be students from the DFW area in the form of full scholarships for the TOP three students in Music, Visual Art and Theater as well as a mentor program for the top Arts teacher. AetheriA, "an artclectic evening" will be our first annual charity event to be held January 27, 2007 at Fair park in Dallas. Entertainment will include the benefactors of the event as well as Cirque Du Soleil, Kelly Clarkson, Norah Jones, Pat Green, Willie Nelson and other Texas legends. With Supporters like Governor Rich Perry and a host of others, AetheriA will become THE annual event like no other.

Your participation is requested to help ensure AetheriA becomes the signature event of the millennium and to help raise artistic consciousness of the metroplex. The children of the metroplex need your support, donations and involvement. Thank you for your time and consideration and have an artistic day.

For more information contact: Info@aestheriadallas.org or david Anderson at DEA2142881620@aol.com

For a line by line critique of this miserable attempt at publicity, see our brand new Bad PR page, which this email inspired.

I sent a short email citing the Bad PR page, saying they'd won our Worst Ever PR Award, and in reply, I got what looks like an automated response, below, unsigned. -JRC

>> Thank you for your support, it is organizations like your that truly help
>> support the arts community as a whole, great work!

December 12 2005

Dear JR Compton,

Thanks so much for your visit and your review of the third annual Cedars Open Studios. We're very excited about the many artists here in the Cedars and are proud to invite the public to see them in their "natural habitat."

The artists are an important part of what makes the Cedars a great neighborhood.

You clearly have learned some of the ways of the Open Studios, and I can tell that next year you'll know to arrive earlier, ride the Mog hay wagon and go on inside at Lee Harvey's when you want to order something on a busy day!

Bert and Ann Scherbarth did an outstanding job of getting things together for this year's Open Studios; we look forward to many more.

Thanks again for the review. The photos were great, can we borrow some for next year?

Sincerely,
Mary Guthrie
President, Cedars Neighborhood Association

November 5 2005

Nice to see a little inspired adversity on the Feedback page for a change.

It's a shame that Laurie Thompson didn't leave any contact info, how's anybody supposed to make a connection there? [The editor has since added her email address.]

img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/fused/misc/ohpoop.gif

She may be right. (ha!)

I think Ali "Bad Art Proponent" Fitzgerald has good energy coupled with a great atitude and I hope her aesthetic crime spree continues a long time before she is shackled with that MFA.

Art Shirer

October 23 2005 & ff

Hi,
I found your Dallas Arts Revue by surfing. We are here, temporarily, from New Orleans. Planning to return at the end of the year. This year, BTW. Our storm damage was not severe. I would like to find a consignment venue of some sort in Dallas. We are renting in "The Village" apartments in Dallas and while we are here I would like to continue with my art and photo restoration work.

Since I know nothing about the city at all, it's difficult. I would appreciate any suggestions you might have, even if it means finding that there is nothing like that here.

Thanks.
Laurie Thompson
New Orleans
(in exile in Dallas)

I wrote:

as i tell everyone who writes asking to tell them where to sell their work, i provide plenty of information, but you pretty much have to take it and find use for it.

Laurie wrote:

Well, I take that as a brush off - I would certainly do as you suggest IF I had a clue about this confusing city!!

I wrote:

I publish DallasArtsRevue. I work hard at gathering all kinds of information. Check out the Gallery Information Page linked on the calendar, read reviews with attention to which galleries do what, read the calendar.

I am not paid. So I clearly am not paid enough to do your work for you.

Everybody in any market has to do these things for themselves. Due Diligence, it's called. I don't know what kind of work you do, quality, size, format, medium. Yet you expect me to find you a gallery, when there are so many Dallasites of talent and grace already without those things.

I provide the info, but you pretty much have to take it and find use for it.

Laurie wrote:

Ahhhhh! That Texas Spirit!

The true ambassador of the art community speaks. I guess that's why your vibrant art community it so accessible!

I replied:

With an attitude like that it's no wonder you haven't found a gallery. But thanks for a great addition to my feedback page.

To which she replied:

You Know, I am almost 70 years old and have no daytime transportation and no knowledge of your city. All I was looking for was a direction in which to go. Names of galleries that took consignment at all. Neighborhoods that I could get to without harm.

You, sir, are a shit.
Laurie

I wrote How to Start Showing Your Work for Laurie and Jenice Johnson, who asked pleasantly, and others over the years who've asked for information I thought I didn't know till I started writing this. -JRC

October 1 2005

Hey J R ... read some of your articles. Obviously, you did not study in the field of journalism. It is also evident that you just try to [sic] hard to overcome your lack of education ... sorry pal. It looks like you will live and die in the lackluster art scene in Dallas.

Christine Awad Schmalz of
The Art Workshop Inc., after-school
art instruction in Frisco and North Dallas

September 18 2005

You are at the top of the heap when taking pictures. Your narrative is also interesting.

Thanks.
Larry and Margaret

August 26 2005

Hullo, JR,

was just scouting around online and stumbled into your mention of the NTT show at the Craighead-Green, saw that you mentioned my painting (The Orphanage) and felt a warm, comfortable glow. I just wanted to thank you for the kind words--the photograph was excellent, and i'm so glad you liked the piece.

Cedra

Augutst 9 2005

I was looking for a source to become acquainted with Dallas area artists and came across your webpage. It led me to the Arts Revue website, which just blows me away.

Paul Castillo

July 24 2005

JR, it was a treat to discover one of my paintings climbed onto the front of the member pages again.

from Art in the Hood review:

Zaremba's work was, at best, gentle, soft and
textural, and at worst, lepidopteran.

"H.R. Giger meets The Butterflies."

...twirl in my 'puter chair and look that one up in the dictionary ... it may take me awhile to find a place to (appropriately) use it, but I'll keep it handy.

Jeanne

July 22 2005

J R Compton doesn't appear to have any respect for art or the people who create it.

Next time, send someone who has more appreciation for art and less interest in the food and freebies. He had some nerve to bash the door prize his accomplice won — it doesn't get any tackier than that.

Lisa Lovegood

My unindicted co-conspirator and I agree that far from bashing this lilting New Orleans themed door prize, I championed the class demo (as it was described to Anna), which we both admire — Anna has it on her living room wall.

Perhaps in an area of art where puff pieces predominate, people do not understand or appreciate the value of thoughtful, balanced criticism. -JRC

July 21, 2005

Hello Michael Helsem,

I somehow stumbled accross an art review you did of my work which was showing at the former Cidnee Patrick gallery on Cedar Springs at Maple. I was completely unaware of this review and very thankful that I ran accross
it. I wanted to thank you for your thoughts and valuable comments concerning my pieces. had I known about this prior, I would have sent this thank you message much sooner.

thanks again and I will miss exhibiting my work there in Dallas now that Cid is closed. Perhaps in time there will be another gallery there appropriate for my work — I really miss comming to Dallas.

sincerely,
Rob Douglas

July 8 2005

Whatever one thinks of the integrity or motivation of alien abduction claimants, the claims exist and are part of our discourse; and if all of them were to be proven false, that still would be a phenomenon worth investigating — maybe even more so.

Though i think ultimately the advent of Jungian typology applied to art will not so much put criticism on a scientific basis as eliminate many of its routine misapprehensions, the sort of talk about art that is not viciously jargonized still serves a valuable function: too bad there isn’t more of it. You can easily find ten different opinions about a movie, but the painting that gets discussed at all is rara avis.

And what of today’s art ideologies? They too say something about us, only not what we think. And the aliens really are coming.

Michael Helsem

June 21 2005

JR,

“The first piece of art to catch my awe at the four openings we hit in rapid succession Friday evening, June 17, 2005 was this Kendra North photograph of a woman in blousy pink chiffon at Craighead-Green. Before that I was blithely passing on and by anything and everything before my eyes that purported to be art.”

I was so disappointed to read that you think my paintings "purport to be art".

Carolyn Zacharias McAdams

June 16 2005

Dear JR,

Thank you so much for the very nice exposure in The DallasArtsRevue. Forgive me for not thanking you sooner, I am not too organized. We are now in Maine for the summer so I have a little more time to remember and glow. What you wrote was very special to me. Thank you.

Have a fantastic summer,

Annie

May 31 2005

JR,

Just a note to say thanks for posting one of my works on the Arts Revue Membership page... I was reading the review you did recently of the show at Gray Matters and you mentioned the Book Store that Vance put together and I agree it is one of the best (if not the best best in the city).

The only one I can think of that rivals it is the shop across the street from the Menil in Houston.

I can't think of one in Austin or San Antonio... Is that pathetic?? or what???

Norman Kary

May 28 2005

Dear Mr. Compton:

I find it HIGHLY disappointing that all you can focus on in your review of the continental gin is someone asking you not to go into their PRIVATE space.

I am a supporter of the artists of the gin, their work, their dedication to their art and the idea of an artist studio in this town. The problem with the arts in Dallas is not that there is not support for the arts. It is that "critics" like you focus on criticizing the "building" and the fact that someone asked you NOT to go into their PRIVATE space instead of focusing on their art.

In addition, I noticed that you say that you are NOT a non-profit organization ... "it just works out that way." I was excited that a few of the artists I know had joined thinking that this would bring some quality arts patrons to the talented dedicated artists I know there. Instead, it brought a person who chooses to be NEGATIVE!! and, who knows what is happening with those "membership dues" paid by the artists.

That is why the arts are the way the are in this town .... the people at the gin are working hard to change that. pictures of the patio are VERY unimportant.

Name Withheld

Ms. Withheld:

Visiting The Continental Gin Building, Again is the story of a visit with people in a place, not a review. I only touched on the incident (since deleted), which you relate third-hand and inaccurately, and I wrote about many other topics.

I like the Continental Gin Building as my many photographs show — as the text relates.

I have known many fine artists who've made art there, including Tom Orr & Frances Bagley, Sherry Owens, Bert Scherbarth, as well as long-time DallasArtsRevue members James Michael Starr, Nancy Ferro, Bob Nunn and new members Fannie Brito, Donna Ball, Elissa Foster, Erica Felicella and Karla Leaphart.

Despite the incident, I have warm feelings toward most of the people there. The patio is a community space in a community space and clearly shows its proximity to downtown Dallas.

DallasArtsRevue promises members exposure and links to their pages (like some of those above). People join for many reasons, including to support my efforts and to help get their work seen. Anyone who promises patronage is engaging in hype.

The space in question was not private. The event was advertised as a free and open to the public Open Studio. I did not enter the space, I only looked. He did not ask, he shouted, and I did write about his work, which I thought was amateurish.

I know where most of the membership dues go. I spend it on things like web space, internet access, digital memory for my camera, batteries, hard drives, software, gas, oil, electricity, food and movies. I'm saving up to buy a DVD burner so I can back up images, and I desperately need a new refrigerator. Things like that.

$75 a year for web pages is a bargain, especially when you consider I photograph members' work at no charge — most photogs charge $100/hour. Don't worry about DallasArtsRevue making me rich. My income is well below the poverty level, but I am doing what makes me happy.

The arts are alive and well and diverse in Dallas, Texas. The artists at the Gin Building are some of those who make it so. There are other multiple-artist studios. One excellent example is The Shamrock Hotel, which we visited that same day, and it is included in the continued story.

J R Compton
Editor/Publisher

May 14 2005

Hi JR

I really enjoy the site. In fact, I check every month to see what's new ... especially the photography. I just wanted to let you know something that I've noticed over the past year ... and that is .... that your spelling is getting a little shaky, It's distracting, especially since I enjoy your witty writing style and usually read all the new stuff.

Anyway, I'm a fan and I guess we can refer to the slip-ups as “creative license.”

Gwen Hart
 

Actually, my spelling is not nearly as bad as my typing.

; j r

April 13 2005

Dear JR,

I have wanted to write you a note for some time now to say thank you ever so much for your support and encouragement over the years. I continue to check out your site every day, and I value your thoughts and critical observations. I look forward to supporting Dallas Arts Revue for a long time!

As for me, you can certainly imagine what a difficult decision it was to close the gallery. I met so many amazing people and formed some really wonderful relationships/ friendships. However, so many things were changing, and if I was going to pursue my next career, the timing seemed ... right. My academic background kept pulling me back, so off I go back to graduate school to pursue my PhD in Art History (Fall '06).

In the meantime, I will continue to teach and hopefully do some writing for ArtL!es. I'm also on the panel of Jurors (along with the Director of the African American Museum and the Director of the Latino American Cultural Center) for the National Competition for Community College Art Students coming up in 2006. Who knows what other opportunities will fall my way. I look foward to new challenges.

Again, thank you for your support and all you do for the Dallas art scene. Keep up the good work.

Best regards,
Cidnee Patrick

April 13 2005

JR,
I just want to thank you for the review and the opportunity you gave me last year. I'm having my first show...and a solo show nonetheless at the Magnolia Theater in the upstairs bar area at the moment. It's been a success with four sales since it opened last Friday. Again, I feel like your review helped give me the start. Go by and check it out if you get a chance sometime.

Jason Roskey

March 25 2005

I'm really liking the front page format, especially the list of recent stories and the "new" bug that identifies recent additions. I can't remember how long it's been since it evolved to that, but I just realized that I've gotten into the habit of hitting it every day or two just to see if there's anything I haven't read.

That's the way to use a web page. Remember when everybody said that the great thing about a web page is it's like having a brochure that you could constantly update, then they'd never update it?

JM

March 25 2005

Hey J R,

My name is Ali Fitzgerald and I am a Texas Biennial artist (one of the proponents of "bad art" according to your section of the same name.) Anyhoo, you didn't include my name or the title (perhaps you were unable to decipher the label through your impending artistic aneurysm.)

I'm kidding of course. I don't have the power to kill people through painting ... yet. I like the review and the site but thought I would give you this info since you seem to want it, and I want my name besmirched accurately. The title is "Blubbering Heights," although I doubt that sheds any more light on the narrative. Have fun disliking it. I sort of like that you do.

Here is a link about my work in case you are looking for other crimes against aesthetics: www.slowart.com/articles/fitz.htm

Ali

You have no idea how happy this feedback made me. Thank you for writing. All of DallasArtsRevue's extensive Texas Biennial coverage is linked on the Texas Biennial Index page.
 

March 13 2005

Dear JR:

Jeff came across your page on the Rockwall National Show.

Wow, you hit it on the nose. I had been accepted two years in a row, and consider it an honor, especially by Ted Pillsbury, and I was just aghast, surprised, dissappointed — oh use any of those descriptives, in how the show was hung! And so were many other artists I spoke to.

My two pieces were about 10 inches from the foor, and people had to bend down to view mine and other artists work who got theirs stuck at the bottom.

I sent a link to the page to Betty Foster. She is not only the new President for Rockwall, but also a member of A.R.T. If she had not taken the position, I hear, the group would have, might have, slowly died in a short time. I think your comments will be helpful to her for the next National show in Rockwall.

I know you have attended many art shows, and review many in Dallas. I don't take what you say as gospel, until I have seen the show myself, but I respect your opinion because of your experience.

I especially liked the suggestion for the Rockwall Show to not have artists comments. Thank you very much. The art should speak for itself.

Best regards,
Laurieann

March 1 2005

Dear J R,

Around midnight Saturday February 26, there was a huge fight behind the Ice House Cultural Center, and someone was stabbed. Now that's what I call ''Performance Art!''

Russell,
West Oak Cliff.

February 12 2005

First of all, let me say I love lists like this, whether I agree with them or not. I just want to point out a few things which should be taken into consideration in regards to the Fort Worth Community Art Center being listed as the Best Community Art Center.

First off, they are a City art center and receive funding from the City, yet they charge local artists high prices to show at their center. I've also heard of them raising the prices on artists just prior to signing a contract to show there. So perhaps consider listing them as the best and worst community art center depending on how one looks at it.

Anonymous

February 8 2005

Dear j r –

I just wanted to take a second to let you know how much I enjoyed the review you wrote of the show I curated at Plush last December, d.verz FLUXUS. This note is a tad late, but better now than never.

As a former journalist myself, I have always admired the approach of your reviews. In the cover story on Joan right now, she makes the comment about your views not always being complimentary. I applaud the fact that you try to give an HONEST impression of your perspectives.

The ugly truth is so much better than a beautiful lie. Sometimes it may bruise the egos of the people responsible, but that is the accepted risk of being in the public eye. Personally, I relish the feedback as a way to encourage positive growth in my work, both as an artist & a conceptual curator.

I’m glad you were entertained by the “robot projector” with its frenetic, kinetic activity. I would have preferred for it to encompass a room all alone, however that was not possible for the d.verz FLUXUS show. There was a slight misunderstanding in your review that the mail art was all text but one piece.

Just for the record, the postcards were taken from Aaron Barker (writer for ROUGH magazine & photojournalist) & I. Each of us brought 6 representative samples (3 image based and 3 text based) from the project.

Of course, I’m flattered that the marilyn postcard caught your eye. It is one of my favorites from the 5 year series.

Suza Kanon
d.verz

 

Re: The Joan Davidow Interview: February 4 2005 JR- You asked good questions. Not all of the responses are correct. anonymous February 4 2005 Jason Roskey here, whom you reveiwed last year. I wanted to forward the link over to you on a review of DCCA's Painting Attack show by Glass Tire — not too positive. They are quick to point out the "curatorial void." Anyways, I found it ironic and figured you might be interested. Jason

January 15 2005

Dear JR,

I came across your article on Gerald Burns. What a lot of memories that brought back! Seems like a lifetime ago. Hope all is well. I'm still living in Rome and I'm very happy here, but it was nice to remember old times while reading your article.

Alison Victoria

January 4 2005

No man or woman who tries to pursue an ideal in his or her own way is without enemies. -Daisy Bates (1863-1951)

Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not. -Elias Root Beadle

We think in generalities, but we live in details. -Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

I am not enjoying skiing among the trees at the moment.

About happiness There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it. -Christopher Darlington Morley (1890-1957)

They aren't enjoying running. I don't miss jumping for three or four weeks. That photographer isn't enjoying fighting. Mr. Hanson isn't practicing working.

About the necessity of compromise
About the necessity of compromise

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. -Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens] (1835-1910)

Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again. -James R. Cook

Merle O Baez

January 4 2005

JR:
if you are open to feedback, then please read below; if not, then please disregard.

initial impression of site not warm or user-friendly.

phrasing and/or word choice read as predominantly stated in the negative: don'ts, nots, rules/steps, etc. present a repellant vibe vs. a welcoming tone. this doesn't inspire positive experience of visit to the site or positive regard for the organization overall.

email subscriber link for visitors/public info is not immediately accessible in first part of home page for casual visitors. my original interest in visiting DARts' site was to find the subscriber link/join the email list to get a feel for the organization in order to see if membership/commitment would interest me.

sincerely,
LA Ragland

I checked. One has to scroll down six pages before encountering any negative statements on the How To Join page. I think that's what LA's talking about in paragraph 3. It's hard to tell when LA doesn't use verbs or subjects. I have heeded LA's gripes, and the home page now reflects it.

I agree there are a lot of DOs and DON"Ts on the Join page. I've learned that if I don't spell it out clearly, I don't get what I need.

The only E-mail list DARts has is for paid Members and Subscribers, 70% of whom resubscribe each year, so maybe I'm doing something right. Several have noticed how much easier they are to find on the Internet since joining DallasArtsRevue.

J R Compton, editor guy

January 4 2005

Hi JR

Thanks for the thoughtful look. I like to read your opinions.

Hope 2005 brings you great rewards,

Mary Vernon

Information about helping support DallasArtsRevue —
including a new, Easy Guide to Joining this site
is on the DARts Member Page Index.

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