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.

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.

washington post mention- updated entry.

******thanks to all of you that pointed the article out and made such nice compliments! wow. i really appreciate you keeping up with me like that!*********




My decorative work is mentioned in a washington post article

you can see a panorama of the condo here.

more mention of crafty bastards.

Dcist spotlights crafty bastards and posts a picture and comments about gosh darn knit

and here is their promo video.

crafty bastards reminder.

Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair
Sunday, September 30, 2007

Marie-Reed Learning Center
18th and Wyoming Streets
Washington, DC
20009


Washington City Paper proudly presents the 4th annual Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair. The fair will be held Sunday, September 30, 2007, 10am-5pm at the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.

I'll be in booth 98!

office signage

office signage
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan

i just finished installing this sign at a local law firm that deals with energy issues. my lightbulbs were a perfect match!

i created a relief cast plate glass panel and 25 some odd floating concrete lightbulbs. it has a very installation-y quality about it and i'm very happy with the results.

John Everett Millais at Tate Britain

There are some paintings i can stare at for hours and hours. El Greco's work comes to mind as i always go to the el greco room everytime i go to the NGA.

I havent seen many of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in person but i imagine that many of their works are the type that i would find captivating to see up close.

The Millais show at the Tate is a show i'd really like to see.
we have till january 13th to go see it.

this weekend.

if i was able to, i sure would go see these guys sunday night at the 9:30 club:

in progress cork finish

in progress cork finish
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan

this is an in progress shot of a wall in a condo/row house development sales office in NE DC.








it will be this finish:

tour of wilson building art collection

i received this message from Sondra Arkin, currator of the Wilson Building Art Collection
Two of my sculptures are included in this collection.



Dear City Hall Art Collection Artist,
It's been almost a year since the collection in the Wilson Building opened to great acclaim. On behalf of the DCCAH, I have conducted several tours for visitors to the building.

I am inviting you and any guests that you may have to join us for a free 50-minute tour of the collection at 12 p.m. on Wednesday September 26. The tour is free, however advanced registration is preferred. Please RSVP to beth.baldwin@dc.gov with the number in your party. Meet at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance — the building is located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. You will need ID to enter the building. Sorry for the short notice!

Also, the DCCAH would like to make this a bi-monthly occurrence. As my official capacity as curator comes to a close, I'd like to hook up some of the collection artists to serve as "docents" for these tours going forward. If you are interested in leading a tour of the collection, please let me or Beth know. Beth is the new Art Bank Coordinator, and we are very excited about the energy that she brings to this position.

If you haven’t made it through to see the collection (and I know that some of you have not!), this is a great opportunity. Additionally, I promise to tell you what little I know about accession plans.
Hope to see you next Wednesday!
Sondra

--
Sondra N. Arkin
http://www.sondranarkin.com

reading series at Big Bear starts tonight. 8:00.

CHERYL'S GONE
{a reading series at Big Bear Café}
8:00 PM
Thursday Sept 20
Featuring

Mike Maggio
{author of deMOCKracy, a DC Poet Against the War}

Mike Scalise
{essayist on bad jobs, bad luck, & nyc}

Carolyn Joiner
{poet working with repetition; poet working with repetition; poet...}

Rocky Jones
{singer/songwriter/interior designer}
&, of course, Big Bear will be offering its full menu of food & coffee drinks

i like these buildings

i'm very drawn to the buildings in the photos here

Giving Artists Space to Create

washington post article

another shot

IMG_9375.JPG
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan

arts on foot.

IMG_9383.JPG
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan

before the crowds got there.... the only moment i had time to breathe.

art this weekend

friday night

Micahel Sirvet at Touchet Gallery
6-9.

536 S. Ann Street
Baltimore, MD 21231


Saturday.

Arts On Foot 2007
12-7
8th and f.



saturday night

Michael Janis at Neptune Gallery.
7-9
That Quadrant of Sky: New Works by Michael Janis
September 12 - October 6th, 2007
Reception: Saturday, September 15th from 7-9pm
Gallery Neptune
4901 Cordell Avenue
Bethesda MD 20814
www.galleryneptune.com

frank zappa

frank zappa on why the music industry has declined.

thanks john for passing this on to me.

words fail.

I'm sure lots of people have beautifully crafted statements to make today that express the depth of their feelings. i would only like to point you to an article in the washington post about a craftsmans faith in the healing power of art and work.

If he can make the metal shine brilliantly, they will feel hope. He wants people to run their fingers along the steel and find, in its clean, immaculate smoothness, something affirming, redeeming even, on a site now scarred by murder and death.

here is the full washpost series about the pentagon memorial.