MANDEM: Mythpunk Art Noir

At the artist reception and award ceremony for the juried Creative Tallahassee exhibit at City Hall Art Gallery, our painting “Skin Horse” received an Honorable Mention Award. A second MANDEM piece, “Giving Ground,” is also part of this exhibit.

Mar 12

Steampunk Chronicle Awards - Time to Vote!

MANDEM made the short list for best artist/illustrator in the 2013 Steampunk Chronicle awards! Please take a moment to cast your vote for us. After you vote, spread the word!

(Abney Park’s “Ancient World” is also up for best album of the year.)

Mar 09

Mar 08

FSU art student M. Arendsee (MFA, 2015), known by the art name MANDEM, is among the artists selected for the 2013 Creative Tallahassee juried exhibition, which was held at Tallahassee City Hall Art Gallery on March 6, 2013.

Creative Tallahassee is a highly-anticipated annual juried exhibition featuring the work of many well-known and emerging regional artists. According to the Council on Culture & Arts, ”Competition in 2013 was fierce. More than 175 individual pieces were submitted for consideration. And from those, forty five artists were selected by a special jury to have their work shown in this year’s Creative Tallahassee show.”

Two of MANDEM’s transdigital works, ”Giving Ground” and ”Skin Horse,” will be part of this exhibition. This is MANDEM’s second annual inclusion in Creative Tallahassee; the painting ”Marooned” was selected for Creative Tallahassee in 2012.

Creative Tallahassee will be on display from Wednesday, March 6th to Monday, April 29th, 2013. MANDEM invites fellow students and faculty to attend the reception and awards ceremony on Friday, April 5, from 6:00pm-7:30pm.

The City Hall Art Gallry is located on the second floor of City Hall at 300 South Adams Street and is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am – 5:30 pm.

Feb 24

Westcott Galleries Project
August, 2012 - May, 2013 (Tallahassee, FL)
Westcott Galleries at FSU / Juried Group Show
The first annual Westcott Galleries Project Exhibition will feature selected works by faculty, alumni, and students of Florida State University as part of the university’s new “Art on Campus” initiative. Lilian Garcia-Roig is Chair of the Art on Campus initiative and the Westcott Galleries Project. The James D. Westcott Building is a historic building on the FSU campus that houses the chief administrative offices. Our work will be found on display in the provost’s office.

Strozier Artbrary Spring Exhibit
February - May, 2013 (Tallahassee, FL)
Robert Manning Strozier Library at FSU / Group Show
Each semester, a selection of artistic works by Florida State University students, faculty, and staff are selected to be publically displayed for patrons of Strozier Library to enjoy. The exhibit is open to members of the public. Learn more at the Strozier Library website: http://www.lib.fsu.edu.

COCA’s Creative Tallahassee 2013
March 6 - April 29, 2012 (Tallahassee, FL)
City Hall Art Gallery / Juried Group Show
The Council on Culture & Arts hosts the annual Creative Tallahassee exhibition to highlight the work of both well-known and emerging regional artists. Competition was fierce, and MANDEM was honored to be among the 45 artists selected by the jury. This highly-anticipated annual juried exhibition is part of the City of Tallahassee’s Art in Public Places program. Learn more about COCA and the City Hall Art Gallery: http://www.cocanet.org/city-hall.

Show Title TBA: baade/mandem/mazza
September 17 - November 5, 2013, 2013 (Tallahassee, FL)
City Hall Art Gallery / Three-Person Show
The works of artists Carrie Ann Baade, Jim Mazza, and MANDEM will be on display for this show, which is being organized by the Council on Culture and Arts. Stay tuned for more details about this exciting event. If you’ll be in the area, don’t miss this.

(Photo: The MANDEM Family setting up the art display for the Southern Humanities Council Conference, held in Savannah, GA earlier this month. The Littlest MANDEM — Kitsuko, 24-months-old — is always eager to help with art!)

Jan 27

Jan 20

The next book in the Airship Pirates roleplaying game series is finally here! Pre-order your copy of Underneath the Lamplight today. The Neovictorian Sourcebook features numerous new works by MANDEM. (The image features the cover art by Bethalynne Bajema, as well as sneak peeks at two of our pieces from inside the book.)

Underneath the Lamplight – The Neovictorian Sourcebook

Under the dull lamplight, in eternal stasis, lies the Neovictorian world.

Trapped in great cities, crafted more like prisons than homes, live the survivors of the Great Rectification. They toil under the shadow of the Change Cage, forever told they are the lucky ones. They alone have been saved from an outside world now ruled by terrifying beasts. There is only death beyond the walls of the seventeen great Change Cage cities.

Inside the cities, the byzantine Administration rules the population with absolute authority. It roots out dissidence with an iron hand, turning neighbour against neighbour in its search for nonconformists and rebels.

But within these cities there is a faint strand of hope. Some understand the truth and fight the authority of the Administration. Some fight against the stratified society and seek an end to the eternal stasis. Some even dare to attempt escape…

Within this 240 page softcover book you will find:

An in depth look at life in the Neovictorian world, including the attitudes, traditions, fashions, religion and lifestyles of each of the classes.

A gazetteer of the seventeen Change Cage cities across the world, each with their own secrets and lies to protect, including a detailed guide to the city of Desolation.

Detail on the Administration and its ministries of Truth, Legacy, Hope, Diligence and Defence, as well as the Emperor and the Governors

Expanded options for Neovictorian characters, including additional traits for Automata and Misbegotten player characters.

The truth about the Change Cage and the mysterious Chuno Ggun, as well as notes for the Gamemaster on running Neovictorian adventures.

Jan 16

New art by MANDEM is featured on the cover of the new issue of eSteampunk literary magazine! You can also read about our creation of this painting, the ideas and imagery behind it, and our experiences working on Airship Pirates with Captain Robert (Abney Park) and Cakebread and Walton.

Jan 05

We’ll have art appearing in the upcoming horror anthology Postscripts to Darkness 3. An excerpt from the story “The Palm at the End of the Mind” by Patrick Roscoe (including a peek at MANDEM’s illustration) is online now. Check out the contributor bios, too.

Dec 13

“Marooned,” artwork by FSU Studio Art MFA student MANDEM (also known as M. Arendsee), has been accepted into the juried Valdosta National 2013. MANDEM invites fellow FSU students and faculty to attend the public reception at Valdosta State University on Monday, January 14, 2013 (7:00-8:30pm).

Dec 10

This past weekend, MANDEM was at The Fountain Art Fair (during Art Basel in Miami). One of our shows was an interactive performance art piece that featured these resin “pills” filled with bones, teeth, and hair that participants could take home with them.

Nov 23

Rations, 1 and Rations, 2 are currently on display at the Gadsden Arts Center in Quincy, FL, as part of the Out of Pocket exhibit. They are acrylics and oils on wood.

(Fans of the work we’ve done for Abney Park’s Airship Pirates may recognize the model as “Steambaby,” an affectionate title given to our daughter Kitsuko when Captain Robert met her at Dragon-Con in 2011.)

Nov 04

Out of Pocket: Small Art Invitational (during the 24th Art in Gadsden Regional Exhibition of Fine Art)

The photo is from the “Tarot Passport” performance art done at Railroad Square in October. Kitsuko (aka The Littlest MANDEM) played The Sun in a MANDEM-conceived costume.