As I write I am sitting in a small cafe in the plaza San Martin in Cordoba Argentina. I´m here for an exhibition of my drawings at Artempresa, a contemporary gallery owned by Maria Elena Kravetz. Maria is very dedicated to the artists she represents. She exhibits some great local painters, sculptors and glass artists from Cordoba and the region. Every year she also exhibits a few artists from around the world which is how I came to be here.

This is my 3rd visit to Argentina. I was invited to participate ina cultural exchange along with my colleague Stewart McKissick in 2000. We taught illustration at the Centro Cultural Recoleta of the City of Buenos Aires and lectured at the Foundation for Fine Arts founded by Sabat the famous Political Illustrator at Clarin the largest periodical in Argentina. We were invited back in 2001 to exhibit. I returned with C.F. Payne, also a very well known illustrator in the States, who currently does the back cover for Reader´s Digest each month and has illustrated two of John Lithgow´s children´s books. These exchanges were sponsored and funded by the City of Buenos Aires and the Ohio Arts Council. We also had some help from the Columbus College of Art and design.

Hermenegildo Sabat, our counterpart in the exchange, put me up in Buenos Aires on my way to Cordoba a few days ago. As I mentioned he is the political illustrator for Clarin and a cultural hero in Argentina because he continued to publish his astute, humorous and often pointed satire of the most prominant characters in Argentine and other South American politics even during the darkest days of the dictatorships of the 70´s. He continues to this day. Sabat is a painter, satirist, photographer ( he´s shot notables such as Castro, Marilyn Monroe and Louis Armstrong), pupblisher, educator, jazz and tango enthusiast and brilliant conversationalist. Sitting at his dinner table the night of my arrival in Buenos Aires with his lovely wife and supporter Blanca, we ate a great beef lomo, good Argentine wine a little scotch and discussed art, editorial commentary, the history of Argentina, Jazz and Tango and art education in general. While we didn´t solve the problems of the world we pretty well covered the gamut.

Since arriving in Cordoba and handing my work to Mari and her framer to prepare for the exhibition, I´ve had the chance visit with Pablo Caneta the president of the Cultural Ministry (also a great painter) and Ana Luisa Bondone, a wonderful landscape painter and Director of the Figueroa Alcorta Provincial College of Fine Arts. She took me on the tour of her school, introduced me to a number of students and faculty and spent nearly 2 hours discussing and comparing our schools, our art and our lives as artists. I´ve been invited to a number of openings, invited to visit studios of some faculty and generally made to feel very welcome in Cordoba for the month of my exhibition.

I like artists. No matter where they live, under what circumstances, successful or struggling they seem to rise above their own place in the world and live their lives as world citizens even if they never leave their own towns or provences.

Well...Now I am thinking I haven´t properly introduced myself. My name is Walter King. I´m a painter, illustrator, professor and former chair of the Illustration Dept. at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus Ohio, judged, curated and prepared exhibitions on a number of levels and raised a family at the same time. I keep a portfolio here at Absolutearts.com.

http://www.absolutearts.com/walterking

I´ll tell you more about the Art of Cordoba in my next blog. In future entries I´m liable to touch on any number of subjects whether painting or illustration, my own experiences in the studio or the art world (whether successes or failures), travels, teaching, colleagues, or personel opinions and insights from more than 30 years making art.

Walter King