Tuesday, October 30, 2007

who needs diversity? or even localized media?

meanlouise passes on the warning our impending monoculture of media.

but its not too late!



Rally for a Better Media
Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 9am
Outside the FCC, 445 12th Street SW
Washington, D.C.

calls for entry for dccah

"Artistic License"

DC Arts License Plate
Design Fee: $5,000
Submissions Due: Friday, December 7, at 5:30 pm

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in collaboration with the District of Columbia, Department of Driver and Motor Vehicles is seeking an artist or artist team to design a specialty arts vanity license plate for the District of Columbia. The theme for the license plate is "Artistic License". The design should inspire residents and visitors to support the arts and help bring attention to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This call is open to artists who live in District of Columbia.


Emerge

ArtWalk 2008
Design Fee: $2,500
deadline: Friday, December 7, 2007 at 5:30pm

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is seeking 12 artists to take part in a thought provoking large-scale outdoor exhibit entitled Emerge, the third phase of the ArtWalk exhibition. Through artist interpretation of Emerge, the premise and goal of the exhibition is to present 12 diverse artworks with a common theme that will draw the attention of both Washington, DC residents and visitors. ArtWalk is a project of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' downtown public art initiative, in cooperation with the Washington Convention Center. The ArtWalk features 12 display units each stretching 6 feet tall by 24 feet wide. Open to local, national and international artists with preference given to individuals residing or working in the District of Columbia. The ArtWalk is located between New York Avenue and H Streets, NW at a pedestrian friendly parking facility that was once the site of the Washington DC Convention Center.




Public Art Building Communities Grant (PABC)
Deadline: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.



Public Art Building Communities Program offers funds for the creation and installation of permanent public art projects with a life span of at least five (5) years. Projects must be installed in the District of Columbia and should encourage the growth of quality public art throughout the city, support local artists and non-profit organizations, and make public art accessible to District residents. Projects must provide exposure of public art to the broader community or to persons traditionally underserved or separated from the cultural mainstream due to geographic location, economic constraints, or disability. Eligible projects include, but are not limited to: sculpture, mosaics, murals, paving patterns, custom benches, stained glass windows, artistic gates and railing, etc. Funding is available for all fees associated with the design, fabrication and installation of the artwork(s) including: artist fees, materials, insurance, engineering, shipping, fabrication and installation services, permits, copyright registration, and photographic documentation. Projects with youth and senior involvement are encouraged.



For more information, please visit our website at www.dcarts.dc.gov. If you have further questions please email Deirdre Ehlen at Deirdre.Ehlen@dc.gov or call (202) 724-5613.

Icon.


portrait5565
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan
i really like playing with these old toy figures in my sculpture. here, i have cast an old woodturned person in colored concrete to create a classically inspired portrait.

even in its non descript nature is emminates a character and individuality.

Monday, October 29, 2007

erin antognoli this saturday



Erin Antognoli displays her unique style of Holga artwork in a solo exhibition titled Fragments & Ashes. This will also be the first photography exhibit hosted by the Dumbarton Concert Gallery. Meet the artist on Saturday, November 3, 2007 at the opening reception from 6:30 to 8 PM. The reception is free and open to the public.

Dumbarton Concert Gallery
3133 Dumbarton St. NW
Washington, DC 20007
(Located in Georgetown's historic Dumbarton Church, between N & O Streets off of Wisconsin)
http://www.dumbartonconcerts.org/



The show will run until November 13, 2007, and is viewable by appointment by contacting the gallery at 202-965-2000.

Link to this event listing in Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/283118/

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Art Whino

I went to the Art Whino opening last night and was really excited by what i saw. Cool work. cool selection of artists. great space with plans for expansion.

here are my photos of the show


or click HERE for a slideshow.



IMG_2151.JPG

Art Whino, 717 N. Saint Asaph St, Alexandria, VA 22314



I'm still adding photos to my flickr set. my internet connection has been nonexistent to very shaky this week.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Art Whino Space


IMG_2156.JPG
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan
the innaugural Art Whino show rocks. this space is kickin' and there and i was really impressed with the quality and styles of works represented.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

more on artists spaces.

This information was included in an email from the Cultural Development Corporation:

Other Opportunities



Solea. The Jair Lynch Companies is currently developing Solea, located at the northwest corner of 14th Street and Florida Avenue, NW in Washington, DC. The project will be comprised of 59 “Live-Work” condos, both affordable and market rate housing, in addition to 4,728 SF of ground floor retail. The condo units are designed to provide owners the flexibility to run a business from their home, though not specifically for the artist population. For more information about purchasing opportunities please contact Bill Highsmith or by phone at 202.462.1092. Please tell them CuDC sent you.

Artisan Condos. Three condos available for purchase by artists only. The condos are located at 915 E St NW and are listed at $289,900 with the developer prepared to offer $15,000 in down payment assistance or other incentives. These 574 sq ft apartments include large open kitchens with gas cooking stainless steal appliances, maple cabinets and granite countertops. There is bamboo flooring over the whole studio space, large closet and roomy full bath. Space also includes washer and dryer in each unit, 24/7 concierge, fitness room, and rooftop deck. Condo fee of $280/month includes gas, water, trash removal, snow removal, and building management and maintenance. Floorplans are available at www.artisancondo.com – Floorplan A1. Form more information, or to schedule a visit, please contact Kathy Olmstead at 202.253.2502 or kolmstead@mcwilliamsballard.com. Please tell them CuDC sent you.

Looking for Warehouse-style arts space in DC? Cultural Development Corporation (CuDC) is working with a developer to lease an 8,300 square foot, second floor warehouse space in NW. The space is great for a variety of artist uses and includes 12’ ceilings, windows on three walls and a freight elevator. Owner will provide some improvements but build out is required. Located only 5 blocks north of the Georgia Avenue/Petworth Metro Station, this space would be ideal for but is not limited to artist studio space, gallery space, costume/prop shop, rehearsal and administrative space. Asking price: $10/sf NNN (tenant pays all utilities, maintenance and taxes). For more information and to schedule a meeting with the developer, please contact Ilana Branda at ilana@culturaldc.org.



because of this post i was also notified that i probably didnt have access to the entire MLS. FSBO's notwithstanding, apparently there are more affordable units available. good news by my take.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Artdc.org sponsored show this saturday

artdc.org Exhibition at U Street Space

WASHINGTON, D.C.—artdc.org, a Washington, D.C., artist’s forum, presents “Art in Transition Continued” on Saturday, October 13, 2007, in the future Greater Goods building, 1626 U Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009. Doors open at noon; an art party is 6 p.m. to midnight.

“Art in Transition Continued” is the continuance of a group art show held in 2005. For the first show, “Art in Transition,” 27 Washington, D.C.-area artists displayed their work in four transitioning commercial spaces in Silver Spring, Md.

This year’s show is in the future home of Greater Goods at 1626 U Street, NW. This “empty” building provides the perfect opportunity for an organization such as artdc to host its own art show. Jesse Cohen, founder of artdc.org, explains, “Transitional space provides an opportunity to develop grassroots art shows, which currently aren’t available through existing spaces.”

The participating artists are: Steve Mead, Antoinette Wysocki, Jodi A. Patterson, John N. Grunwell, Dan Rosenstein, Alexandra Zealand, Alexandra Silverthorne, Kim Reyes, Emily Berl, Christie Ortiz, Rhett Rebold, Raju Singh, Steve Loya, Stephen T. Hanks, Matthew Best, Graham Meyer and Adam Eig.

“A unique feature about this show, aside from the great art,” Cohen says, “is that the artwork was selected by an external jury member who does not have ties to artdc.org artists.”

Mark S. Waskow, art collector and founder of the Waskomium in Burlington, Vt., is the juror for “Art in Transition Continued.” The Waskomium is a collection of contemporary art.
Waskow selected the work of 17 artdc.org members (there are more than 1,500 members of artdc.org). Pieces include 2-D, 3-D and installation art.

“He (Waskow) juried the art from artdc.org’s online gallery,” Cohen says of the selection process, “based on the idea that you can experience the presence of a work of art through its image.”

A fellow artdc.org member recommended that Waskow jury “Art in Transition Continued” because of Waskow’s support for the development of art communities.

Through events like “Art in Transition Continued,” artdc.org initiates artist discovery, encourages art discussion, advances creative development and promotes art collection, with the goal of developing movements in Washington, D.C. artdc.org provides virtual real estate for artists and art organizations. artdc.org aims to bridge the communication between artists of all mediums, galleries and collectors. With this goal in mind, the aim of artdc.org is to develop face-to-face relationships in addition to those in the virtual world.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

ballston arts market this saturday!

Ballston Arts Market.
This saturday!

Welburn Square in the heart of Ballston.
Welburn Square is between Wilson Blvd and Fairfax Drive on N. Stuart Street


10 am- 4 pm
metro accessible!

kristin holder at warehouse.

warehouse 1021 7th Street, N.W.

The Last Next is an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Washington-based artist Kristin Holder. Works from 2002 until the present will be included in the exhibition, including a site-specific wall drawing. In recent years Holder has been the recipient of the Second Place Trawick Prize, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, and a one-year fellowship from the British Academy in Rome. Her work is included in several public and private collections.

The exhibition will be on view at Warehouse (third floor) from October 11 through October 28, 2007. The opening reception will take place on October 13 from 7:00-10:00 p.m.

warehouse’s gallery hours are Thursday and Friday 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. The nearest metro stop is Mt. Vernon Square/Convention Center on the Green Line. Further information can be found at www.warehousetheater.com.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

just back from PA.

went to a wedding outside of philly and on the way back, stopped off at Longwood Gardens.
heres a flickr set
IMG_1620.JPG

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Renee Stout at Hemphill.


I stopped by Hemphill gallery today and briefly went through their current exhibit by Renee Stout. this is a really stunning show, go check it out.


RENEE STOUT:
Journal: Book One

In Journal: Book One, Stout expands her exploration of
personal and universal topics of romantic conflicts, financial pressures, and social ills through the fictitious life of Fatima Mayfield, her alter ego, root worker, seer, and healer. Mayfield's life story unfolds, in paintings, sculptures, photographs, and drawings, fueling Stout's continual exploration of self-discovery and an attempt to understand human motivations.

on the issue of artist spaces

gather a group of younger artists in the dc area and we always talk about studio spaces, and the difficulty in finding them. there are two live/ projects going on that i know of in DC
Artspace's Brookland Project

and the Douglas Street Project

There are three projects in PG county

When looking up real estate in DC i found:
7 houses on the MLS under the price of $160,000
8 commercial properties under $300,000
13 rental units under $1500/month, that may or may not be suitable for artists.


Many commercial properties and vacant buildings are not listed on the MLS.


specialized commercial studios are a possibility too.

the washington glass school offers open studio uses for those wishing to work in kiln fired and flameworked glass.

Pyramid Atlantic has resources for the book and paper arts

Union printmakers is heaven for those working in that medium.

the Lee Arts Center (government run, not commercial) has substantial resources for working in ceramic.


any other specialized open studio situations in the area?

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Erwin Timmers

Erwin Timmers brings his recycled window glass creations to the DC Green Festival on October 6th and 7th, 2007 at the Washington Convention Center. The world’s largest environmental expo celebrates its fourth year in Washington DC, and will explore what's next on the horizon for renewable energy, socially responsible investing, eco-tourism, green building, as well as the new category of ‘eco-art’. Timmers, noted ‘green artist’ teaches courses in recycling at the Washington Glass School and has worked with the EPA as the artist for showcasing sustainable environments. The scheduled list of festival speakers include legendary activist Ralph Nader.

Timmers will be exhibiting in booth 1249

DC Green Festival

October 6 & 7

Saturday 10AM - 8PM
Sunday 11AM - 6PM

Washington D.C. Convention Center
801 Mount Vernon Place, NW
Washington, DC 20001

For more information: Erwin Timmers (202) 255 1118
Email: erwin@washglass.com

For more information about the festival: http://www.greenfestivals.org

how important is a building?


i'm a huge fan of architecture. especially urban and industrial architecture.
I like row houses and apartment buildings and the crazy juxtaposition that the density of an urban environment can produce. I also love and am involved with community development, at both an economic, and design level.
the cross of art, culture and community bonding are very important to me.

There are two articles that i'm been hit with this morning that smack of each other and make me think of potentials in our area, in dc, in my own neighborhood. and also the pitfalls.

The first concerns Jane Jacobs, and a review of the exhibition Jane Jacobs, Foe of Plans and Friend of City Life

The other article
concerns itself with what the Bilbao Guggenheim ( and the architect Frank Gehry) did to the City of Bilbao, Spain.


both contain really interesting thoughts, both positive and negative about the impact of design on community, and a community's interest in integrating with that design.

Its funny, like the quote in the article concerning the Guggenheim:

“I've never been to the Guggenheim,” Ikel said between puffs, as mechanical street cleaners starting scrubbing beer and urine from the cobblestones. “It's for tourists.”

my first thought is.. i hate when reporters end articles that way, but secondly that i often hear this about the Mall and the Smithsonian. For me, my life is integrated with the Smithsonian. i love it and its one of the main reasons i love and live in DC. The buildings, grounds, and exhibits are a constant source of inspiration and respite for me.

The pitfalls of cultural development and rethinking urban design are obvious. Isolation. Design for non locals. Segregation of Communities.

The possibilities include community building, expansion of cultural horizons, and revitalized inner city neighborhoods.

Monday, October 01, 2007

two artists that have changed the way i worked. this friday!


I'm very excited about the opening of the Fall Solos 2007 at the Arlington Arts Center this friday.

here are the details:
FALL SOLOS 2007
October 2 - November 17, 2007

Reception: FRIDAY, October 5, 2007: 6 - 9 p.m.
Location: The Arlington Arts Center, 3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA (conveniently located one block from the Virginia Square Metro Station on the Orange Line)
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am - 5 pm


Please join us for a reception on Friday, October 5, 2007, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Arlington Arts Center on Wilson Boulevard to celebrate the opening of FALL SOLOS 2007.

This collection of seven solo exhibitions-each distinct, and occupying its own gallery at the AAC-encompasses everything from traditional representational painting, to wall mounted sculptural installation, to hybridized projects using video in combination with other media.

FALL SOLOS maps the boundaries of contemporary art practice, and introduces gallery-goers to some of the finest artists-emerging or established-currently at work across the Mid-Atlantic region:

Gillian Brown projects video onto translucent objects, breaking evocative images apart and refracting or reflecting them onto various surfaces.
Heidi Fowler paints images of everyday industrial objects on unconventional substrates-her recent work features networks of phone or power lines painted across collaged beds of junk mail envelopes.

Chawky Frenn's representational paintings are dense with art-historical allusions and violence in equal measure. His work has been formed by his experiences growing up in Lebanon, witnessing the atrocities of war firsthand.

Laurel Lukaszewski is a sculptor who explores pattern, rhythm, and line using black stoneware and porcelain. The abstract tangles projecting off of the walls in her installation at AAC, Kaminari, playfully represent brush strokes in three-dimensional form.

Timothy Michael Martin is an abstract painter who, in his reductive paintings, combines diagrams and schematics with oblique pulp sci-fi references. His work comments on the visual codes of modernism and on utopian and dystopian visions of the future.

Claire Sherwood creates mixed media installations with lace, concrete, wax and coal. These materials are combined to form objects that are paradoxically both decorative and crudely industrial--or both stereotypically masculine and feminine.

Alessandra Torres is a performance and installation artist. Her AAC project, Figure Study, draws elements from Zen painting and dance; in it, Torres presents flat, jointed, reductively rendered figures mounted on magnets that the viewer is invited to manipulate and reposition at will.
FALL SOLOS 2007 will continue through November 17th.
The Arlington Arts Center is a private, nonprofit visual arts organization dedicated to presenting and supporting new work from contemporary Mid-Atlantic artists. Founded in 1976 and housed in the historic Maury School in Arlington, Virginia, the AAC bridges the gap between the public and contemporary arts discourse-through exhibitions, educational programming, and subsidized studio spaces.



The two artists that have been influential to me are Claire Sherwood and Laurel Lukaszewski.




Claire, because i took a workshop in concrete from her a number of years ago that tipped my interest in concrete enough to begin focusing on its craft to create my own pieces.






Laurels influence has been more subtle, though again, was a tipping point for me. in terms of my narrative/ iconographic approach to object-making toward utilizing my imagery as installation, Laurel's series of works, and discussions with her as a studio mate pushed the new minimalistic abstract thoughts of the content of my work toward fruition. I have yet to exhibit these explorations, so you guys havent really seen this yet! ; )



i'm excited that both these artists have openings the same night and the same place!

upcoming.org

my page on upcoming.org.

if you have an account, and you like arts related events in the dc ( or daytrippable) area, send me your page, so i can see what what cool events to go to.