The Art League is featured in this month’s Washingtonian Best Bet’s issue under “Zaniest Art Events” for “Best Art Fundraiser” for our Annual Patrons’ Show! Go grab an issue and check out the great review!
Month: June 2010
Mezz Gallery @ Artisphere
LAST WEEK TO APPLY!
MEZZ GALLERY @ ARTISPHERE
Deadline Extended to June 29, 2010
Artisphere, the metropolitan-DC area’s newest cultural center, is set to open in Arlington on 10-10-10 with multiple venues, including: a 4,000 square foot ballroom space, a wi-fi lounge, a café, three distinct gallery spaces, as well as three flexible theater/performance spaces!
MEZZ Gallery at Artisphere
CALL FOR VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITION PROPOSALS: Deadline Extended: June 29, 2010
The Mezz Gallery at Artisphere provides Arlington artists, arts groups, organizations and curators a new and exciting exhibition opportunity.
ELIGIBILITY: Proposals will be accepted from individual artists, arts groups, organizations, and curators who live, work, study or maintain a studio in Arlington County.
AWARDS: $500 honorarium will be awarded for each selected proposal.
ENTRY FEE: $25 application fee per proposal.
PROPOSALS: May include themed or solo exhibitions by Arlington artists. Arlington based curators may propose exhibitions featuring multiple artists in or outside of Arlington. Proposals may include single- or mixed-media. Media may include photography, hand-pulled prints, letterpress, wall hung sculptural installations, crafts, textiles, fashion, drawing, painting, etc. All proposals must be submitted via https://arlington.slideroom.
Who is Hygeia?
The Journey of Hygeia
In conjunction with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the juried show at The Art League Gallery in May 2010 was Curves, featuring works based on and celebrating the human figure. The Art League wanted to tie in a fundraising event for breast cancer awareness while maintaining a connection to the arts.
Art League member Paula Stern serves on the Board of Directors of Avon Products, Inc. and encouraged The Art League to donate the proceeds from the fundraising event to the philanthropic arm of the organization, which promotes a dual mission of supporting breast cancer research as well as domestic and gender violence awareness.
Lisa Schumaier, Torpedo Factory artist and Art League member, was approached to create a sculpture to connect the fundraising event and The Art League exhibit. She created a papier-mâché figure of Hygeia, the Greek and Roman goddess of health and cleanliness.
The Art League donated funds raised to the Avon Foundation through “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Ta-ta’s” team. Donations were collected as individuals wrote a message of remembrance or victory on a strip of pink paper. These strips were applied to the figure of Hygeia. Many Torpedo Factory artists donated pink paper in various shades, which was put to use overlapping Hygeia’s newsprint-covered frame. Lisa further encouraged the success of the drive by pulling the sculpture out into the middle of the Torpedo Factory on weekends, talking to people about the cause, and asking for donations. Throughout the course of the fundraising event, visitors to the Torpedo Factory and The Art League donated over $500.
View the journey of Hygeia here.
300 People Sweat it Out For "Paint" Alexandria 2010
June 19 was a blistering day in the DC area, but the heat did not keep artists and art appreciators away from coming to Old Town Alexandria for The Art League’s first FREE “Paint” Alexandria event. Seven demonstrations were held throughout the day in a variety of media, and over 300 people came to enjoy the event! Thank you everyone!
Peter Ulrich’s completed demo piece during “Paint” Alexandria 2010.
Upcoming Art League Workshops
The Art League offers tons of workshops throughout the year, but we offer even more in the summer when people don’t have the time to dedicate to a full eight or nine week class. Here’s a taste of what’s coming up. Check out our website and see what’s happening throughout the summer!
Gestural Florals with Jackie Saunders, June 26 and 27
Participants paint flowers as living, moving little people. The individual personalities of flowers are captured with rhythmic contour line and fresh washes of undiluted pigments mixing directly on the paper. Students are encouraged to strive for a lively expression, not botanical accuracy. A small model fee is charged.
This workshop begins with camera resolution and file formats followed by an overview of Photoshop interface- menu bar, tools, and palettes. Students learn how to use the adjustment tools for contrast and color correction, image sharpening, black and white conversion, and resizing of images for print and the web. Participants follow along by applying to their images the tools and techniques demonstrated.
Each day introduces a different medium, with the emphasis being on unusual and unique approaches to materials and their uses. The class can accommodate both the Realist and the Abstractionist in creating art that encourages exploration. Some techniques covered are: oil pastel and wax sgrafitto drawing, ink and crayon etching, multiple paper stencil monotypes, and multimedia collage. A materials fee payable to the instructor covers some items. Reception for David Carter at National Harbor TOMORROW!
David Carter— Drawings & Paintings
Currently on exhibit through July 3, 2010
Reception: Tuesday, June 8, 6:30-8:30 pm
Currently on exhibit through July 3, 2010
Reception: Tuesday, June 8, 6:30-8:30 pm
Artist’s Statement
There are worse torments than reading an artist’s statement. Some things ostensibly written for other people to read are even more tedious and less satisfying than a typical artist’s statement. Insurance policies, for example. The writings of Hegel come to mind. But statements like this one are usually high on the list.
Verbal explanations about visual experience often seem to miss the point. We (artists) know that. We’ve read our statements, and we don’t like them either. So, we clam up. It feels like less harm done that way. “Silence is so accurate,” Rothko said.
But there’s just no separating thought and sight. That’s my premise. We think with our eyes; we see with ideas. Words do what they can. And the images in my paintings are born of ideas – or questions – that, frankly, are difficult to express in any form. No mystery or distortion is invented along the way for artistic value; it’s all there from the start. The struggle is to be direct, clear, and vivid in expressing notions that by nature resist description, shed clarity and elude precision.
And yet the questions expressed in my paintings are questions anyone might find familiar. Familiar, but regarded as unimportant. Or not regarded at all. Some may have occurred to us first (and last) when we were children. Since then we’ve probably come to dismiss them as mysteries so fundamental, and so difficult, they should be ignored. We are fish; they become the water we’re unaware of.
Whatever your take on these images might be, I hope one or two stick with you.
If they give you something to still think about later – that would be even better.
The Art League at National Harbor
120 American Way
The Art League at National Harbor
120 American Way
Oxon Hill, MD