So if you want to be in an art show here is the deal, I figure if you are reading my blog you are a great artist you can be in my $2 BILL ART SHOW – You send me a self-addressed stamped envelope. I send you a crisp real, legal tender $2 Bill. You make art on it. You send it back to me. The show opens July 12 (with a real art opening thingy in Downtown L.A.) but the Bill has to be back to me on July 1 so I can photograph your $2 Bill for the show’s catalog.

All artworks will be priced at $200 (50/50 split between gallery and artist) and when I send you the bill there will be display criteria so don’t pester me with “can I do this or that or the other” the answer is probably NO as I want to show the bills as close to the format as they are printed.

Are you worried about legal implications for defacing a $2 Bill? Then go away, I don’t want you in my show. If you are not afraid of exercising your free speech and talent on Thomas Jefferson’s face, send a self addressed, stamped (42-cents, by the way) envelope to:

Coagula $2 Show
2100 N. Main St #A8
Los Angeles CA 90031

The bills are in serial number order, so I am keeping track of which bill I send you – and yes, you will owe me $2 if you do not send it back. First mailed, first included. When I run out of dough, no more entries, so send me the envelope now.

And yeah, you can forward this link to find out if your artist friends are lazy or on the ball as far as their careers go.

Snoop was 14 and my brother’s dog before he moved and we took over his ninety-year-old house here South of Central Downtown in Huntington Park. My brother had to put her to sleep, she was in a lot of pain and the doctor said that the $5,000 cancer surgery wouldn’t guarantee that she would live another day. Plus on top of that, the vet said there were probably other cancers based on the MRI.

This is Coco, he is 11 or 12 (my brother cannot recall exactly - he had a large brood of dogs at one time all from one mother). Coco is the grandson of my brother’s original bitch (love the chance to use that word correctly). The reason I am writing this is that Snoop has been gone now for six days and I think I hear Coco crying his dog cry out there - it is a whimper as he breathes and then a yelp, one I have not heard among his vocabulary - and it is making me almost cry.

I think he realized that she is not coming back. I feel his alone-ness.

Is it wrong to surf the internet sites of the city shelters looking for a girl dog to bring home to my boy dog? It seems both primitive and yet totally right.

A link to Coagula Editor Mat Gleason’s recent reflection on the late American Master Robert Rauschenberg.

I have quite a few projects going on right now. My New Year’s resolution was to prioritize projects based on which ones made me money. But that isn’t necessarily what I end up enjoying. But I do like the way this recession is shaping up. It seems pretty equal opportunity. I moved to the ghetto for this type of fiscal rainy day.

I need to curate four Art shows in the next two months. Anyone know any good artists? I know quite a few but I never take notes and I can easily recall the great great ones but I just space out on all fo the really good ones. I call it Artzheimers. It is an affliction of curators.

Read the LA TIMES feature on Dream(land) at that link

L.A. author Brendan Mullen (Lexicon Devil) and curator Annie Wharton at the opening of her show DREAMLAND at Jail Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles.

Jail Gallery proprietor Lisa Nardoni and artist Leigh Salgado at the opening of DREAMLAND, a group show at Jail Gallery.