Artscape

He's a Jerry Garcia look-alike dressed in paint-splattered overalls. During the school year he teaches Irish studies classes at community colleges and at Christmastime he's a shopping mall Santa. But for all his pursuits, Conrad Bladey calls himself a "cartist," transforming old beat-up cars into wildly ornate works of art. Bladey is one of two Linthicum men who will parade their creations through Baltimore during tomorrow's 14th annual Art Car and Other Wheeled Vehicle Show as part of the huge Artscape festival.

Each year the organizers of Artscape, Baltimore's annual outdoor arts festival, boast that the event has gotten bigger and better. But this year that growth wasn't found in a larger crowd or a big-name concert act, but at the core of the festival's mission: the artwork on display. There are many explanations for the top-flight work, none of which presume to be scientifically objective. But people who have watched the city's art scene for years - and many of the artists themselves - all point to one common denominator: the Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize.

For years, the rap on Baltimore's annual outdoor festival of the arts has been that it's more about the food and drink on hand than about the actual artwork on display. Artscape was only a few years old when disgruntled artists countered with the light-hearted spoof, "Foodscape." Solely devoted to picturing good things to eat, the show was such a hit that it morphed into its own annual event at the nearby Mount Royal Tavern. ARTSCAPE In addition to the artists' kiosks in the food court, there will be art shows at many area schools and galleries, concerts on the mainstage by the Isley Brothers, Keyshia Cole, Clarence "Bluesman" Turner and others, a fashion show, films, dance, theater, opera and concert performances and the annual art car show.

Artscape, Baltimore's annual outdoor festival of the arts, returns this weekend to draw crowds from across the Mid-Atlantic region for a giddy three days of live music, theater, dance and visual art exhibitions. This will be the festival's 26th year, and organizers are hoping that it will be the biggest and best yet. More than a million people are expected to attend the weekend's events. There are several new additions to the festival this year, including a new vocal competition for men named after Baltimore entertainment legend Cab Calloway, a new dance troupe and workshops in the Lyric Opera House and a theater troupe that plans to write, rehearse and produce an original play -- all in 24 hours.

One of the nice things about the annual Artscape festival is the opportunity it affords to watch various artists evolve.The last time I talked to Jann Rosen-Queralt, for example, she was working with large, site-specific installations reflecting her interest in three-dimensional environments that evoke a vivid sense of place.Rosen-Queralt, 47, came to Baltimore 20 years ago to establish the undergraduate textile program at Maryland Institute, College of Art, where she still teaches. She exhibited an outdoor sculpture in the very first Artscape festival in 1981, and she has shown several similar pieces in the years since then.

People crowded around Dan Lohaus yesterday, asking all sorts of questions about his Toyota pickup truck decorated with 53 televisions -- some tuned to the women's World Cup soccer game -- and more than 400 remote controls that was parked at Mount Royal and Maryland avenues."

A merciful break in the heat made the weather glorious Sunday for this year's Artscape Festival. Wandering among the crowds, I noticed that many people were out with their pets.No one bothered them, but the sight of so many dogs with their masters reminded me of an incident from a previous Artscape involving my own beloved pooches.We had taken our two collies, Simon and Bridget, to Artscape that year, decked out with ribbons in their hair and colorful leashes. Lots of people came up to pet them, and invariably they compared them to the Lassies of television, movie and book fame.

This year's Artscape, even more than in years past, will have a lot of people asking themselves how to tell the artwork from the outdoor furniture.Both inside and outside the galleries along Mount Royal Avenue and at other locations around town, local artists will be presenting some of their most adventurous and challenging work.You don't have to be an expert to enjoy or appreciate what's offered -- so long as you're willing to keep an open mind and take some things with a grain of salt.Many of the artists in this year's show have taken a definitely tongue-in-cheek attitude toward the idea that everything they create must be a "masterpiece."

It will be hot. It could be wet. It will be crowded. There will be controversy, likely tempered by good humor. There will be people from down the street and across the globe. The lines for funnel cakes will be longer than those for the galleries. There will be high art and low, art for sale and art for art's sake. Everyone who is not an artist will be a critic. It will be, in short, another Artscape.Artscape, which runs Friday through Sunday, is a ripe old 18 now, having survived thunderstorms, political storms and endless debate over what it is and ought to be. Those who produce it have put an annual focus and a face on Baltimore's arts community; some of the faces of Artscape 1999 are pictured here.

To be part of the enormous crowd singing along with the Temptations at Artscape Friday night was to praise the familiar and the communal, to not ask anything new of the world, but to bask in its predictable pleasures for one simmering summer evening. It's fun to know so many people, so many strangers, can all chime in on the chorus of "My Girl."It is easy to approach the entire festival the same way: To return every year, knowing just where the stages are, where to get the best kebabs, where to ogle the same (more or less)

It's a safe bet that Artscape, Baltimore's annual outdoor festival of the arts, is one of the best things that ever happened to this city. This year the three-day event in July attracted more than 300,000 visitors for a dazzling weekend of art exhibitions, musical performances and tasty food along the Mount Royal Avenue corridor, and it seems to get better every year. It's also one of the most inclusive occasions in the city's civic life: Everybody's invited, and everybody shows up, ready to enjoy themselves and revel in the rich cultural life of this community.

A month after the annual Artscape drew record crowds to the streets around Penn Station and MICA, the Inner Harbor Art Festival will make its debut, spread out in two areas: the Power Plant near the National Aquarium and Power Plant Live a couple of blocks north. The free outdoor event will be held Aug. 22 and 23. Announcing the new venture at a news conference Monday morning in front of the Power Plant, Mayor Sheila Dixon described as "phenomenal" the group of 150 artists, regional and national, who will be offering more than $15 million worth of creative work for sale.

Gary Kachadourian is making a career move as bold as some of the exhibits he's championed in his 22 years overseeing the visual installations at Artscape. The 52-year-old has quit his job at the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts - his last day was Tuesday - to enroll in a master's degree program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Kachadourian will study digital imaging, teach part time and devote more time to his own artwork. "Gary has been a terrific asset," says his former boss, Bill Gilmore, executive director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts.

After an afternoon shower, the top of the Meyerhoff Garage was nice and breezy, matching the riffs from a jazz band playing on the stage below - a perfect setting for the Artscape Opening Night VIP Party. "This is cool," said Larry LaMotte, Immune Deficiency Foundation public policy director. "I mean, really cool." "It's a great vantage point for the music, and it's not a hundred degrees," added his wife, Shirley Bigley LaMotte, Baltimore Reads chief executive officer. It was also a great place for many of Baltimore's arts boosters to enjoy a cocktail, get a bite to eat and catch up with friends.

The oddest question one volunteer at Artscape heard repeatedly was, "Where's the art?" Maybe it was his location in the Family Park, where most of the art was hands-on and fledgling. Still, Josh Singer told visitors, "Art is everywhere." For three days in July, Baltimore turns its Mount Royal neighborhood into Artscape, the country's largest free celebration of the arts. The event has expanded over its 28-year run, still drawing newcomers and those who make it a tradition. Estimates this year could exceed 500,000 or more, given the cooperative temperatures and balmy breezes, Artscape organizers said.

I often find myself walking through the neighborhoods around Penn Station where Artscape is being staged this weekend. After years of not much happening, these blocks now seem to change before my eyes, even if so many of the buildings seem underused or boarded up. It's a curious part of Baltimore that often keeps its secrets to itself. Discovering what goes on here has proved a lot of fun. There are artists' lofts and studios scattered around the Mount Royal-North Avenue area. The talented people here tell me they like the modest rents and are not concerned with modest exteriors.

Artscape is raising the barre this year, by scheduling more dance performances than ever before in the 28-year history of Baltimore's free summer celebration of the arts. "A lot of people say that there isn't an audience for dance in Baltimore, but based on our experience, that certainly isn't true," says Bill Gilmore, executive director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, which runs the festival. "In the three years since we started featuring dance at the Lyric Opera House, every performance has been at capacity.

After a few albums, most bands like to mix things up. They'll write songs in a different setting or bring in a new producer to help find a fresh perspective. Not so for Cake. After almost 20 years together, the alt-rock group behind such '90s hits as "The Distance," and "Never There" stubbornly refuses to change for change's sake. John McCrea, Cake's founder and lead singer/songwriter, hates the idea of trying something different just to get new fans on board or make a media splash. He even has a fancy name for it: strident rejection of gratuitous innovation.

The men and women featured in Harrod Blank's Automorphosi s, driving cars that look straight out of some avant-garde artist's imagination, must be the happiest, quirkiest, most approachable bunch of exhibitionists ever. Several of them will be at Artscape this weekend to prove it. Blank's documentary, which gets a free screening at the American Visionary Art Museum today, features scores of art cars, automobiles adorned, adapted and otherwise added-to by artists holding to no rules but their own (and maybe just a few having to do with traffic safety)

J. Kelly Lane, a Baltimore artist, got a jolt of inspiration recently while walking down the produce aisle of the grocery store. Lane, a painter, was having trouble conjuring up an idea for her next piece. "I was coming up empty," she said." Then I was in the grocery store, Shopper's, and they put out these most beautiful artichokes. And I said, 'That's it!' " Lane told me. She bought an artichoke, took it home and worked its image into a painting called Flag of Artichokia. The work, she said, "has stars, stripes and artichokes."