See below for upcoming exhibits, contests, and events. You can click the banner above to view past opportunities posts.
Printmaking Competition
Deadline: February 1, 2013. The National Society of Arts and Letters DC’s Dorothy Nicholson Stabell Competition in Printmaking offers a regional first prize of $4,000, with the winner advancing to NSAL’s national career award competition in printmaking. Applicants must be U.S. citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 on May 18, 2013. For more information and to enter, click here.
“Eden,” ink, mixed media, paper, and watercolor, by Rosemary Luckett.
Art League instructor Rosemary Luckett has a new exhibit of drawings, open through March 2 at the Ramp Gallery at McLean Project for the Arts! For the hours and location, click here.
“Virginia artist Rosemary Luckett makes works that spring from many diverse sources of inspiration, from wild American landscapes to Dutch paintings, to surrealism. Pulling these disparate factions and forces together into images that serve as metaphors for American culture and commerce, she explores and alludes to the connections she sees between and altered terrain and the absent people who have transformed it. Both playful and at the same time deadly serious, these images present a powerful commentary on contemporary life.”
Rosemary is teaching two classes at The Art League this winter: Sculpture From Scrap, which started Sunday, and Collage: Art of Transformation, which starts tomorrow (January 23) and runs for six weeks. Click here for her full teaching schedule at The Art League, and you can watch a video from her Fall term collage class here.
The climb to Debre Damo Monastery in Ethiopia. Photo by Andarge Asfaw.
Curious about joining The Art League’s upcoming travel workshop to Ethiopia with photographer Andargé Asfaw? Join us at the Madison Annex (305 Madison Street) outside room 8 for an information session, this Wednesday, January 23 at 7:00 pm.
The workshop, March 11–22, is open to photographers and artists in all media, who will go on a tour of the amazing historical sites of Ethiopia.
You can read more about the Ethiopia trip in our interview with Andargé. “You’re in paradise,” he said of Ethiopia, where he was born. “Everything is there for you. You’ve got culture; you’ve got architecture; you’ve got faces, animals — I don’t think you can ask for a better place than that.”
Patrons’ Show 2012 sent 687 pieces of artwork to happy homes.
It’s an art show, it’s a block party, it supports The Art League, and it sends hundreds of people home every year with original, affordable art. Are you ready for this year’s Patron’s Show?
Tickets for the 46th Annual Patrons’ Show, The Art League’s biggest fundraising event of the year, go on sale this Saturday, January 19 at 10:00 am ONLINE and in The Art League Gallery.
Make sure to visit the online ticket-purchasing page ahead of time and read the FAQs for online purchases. Please contact the Gallery (703-683-1780) if you have any questions! Tickets may also be purchased in the Gallery beginning at 10:00 am on Saturday. Checks, cash, and credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, and Discover) will be accepted in the Gallery.
Each $200 ticket entitles the bearer to a work of art worth $200 to thousands of dollars, selected when their number is called the night of the drawing — Sunday, February 17 at 4:00 pm. For a couple of weeks before the drawing, the available pieces can be viewed in the Gallery and online on our Flickr site. For more information about the Patrons’ Show and how it works, visit the Patrons’ Show 2013 page, view the FAQ for online ticket sales, and take a look at what happened at last year’s event.
On Monday, ACTion Alexandria, with support from the Bruhn-Morris Family Foundation, launched the “Make Us Your Favorite” Contest. They are awarding grants to the top three organizations that recruit the most supporters to their organization pages on ACTion Alexandria (between Monday, January 14 at 9:00 am and Friday, January 18 at 5:00 pm). The prizes are $1,000 for 1st place, $500 for 2nd place, and $250 for 3rd place.
We’ve dropped to second place but can still win the $1,000 prize! All you have to do is make us your favorite organization on ACTion Alexandria!
What is ACTion Alexandria?
ACTion Alexandria is the interactive engagement website of ACT for Alexandria, the community foundation that brings Spring2ACTion and so many other wonderful philanthropic fundraising events to The Art League and the Alexandria community each year.
How do I make The Art League my favorite? If you have an account…
1. Login to your ACTion Alexandria account: http://www.actionalexandria.org/user
2. Click on “Organizations” on the navigation bar or go directly to our page: http://www.actionalexandria.org/organization/art-league-inc
3. Search for organizations alphabetically or via keywords, issue and/or neighborhood
4. Select the organization you want to add as a Favorite (The Art League!)
5. Click the “Add to Favorites” graphic on our page just below our logo. You can like as many organizations as you want!
If you don’t have an account…
1. Create an ACTion Alexandria account at this link: http://www.actionalexandria.org/user/register
2. Look for your account verification email from [email protected]
3. Verify your account by clicking on the account verification link in the email.
4. Change your password by clicking on “My Account” link under “My Action Tools”.
5. Then follow steps 2-5 above.
This is an easy way to support The Art League without spending a cent! Thank you so much to everyone who has already voted! Let’s make this happen!
<em>Half as Old as Time</em> By Gwen Bragg “Half as Old as Time” by Art League instructor Gwen Bragg.
Have you dusted your paintings recently? Do you know what materials to use to keep your creations bright and colorful, year after year? In this installment of Artful Links, we’ve found some links for artists and collectors all about conservation — read on for resources on caring for artwork and repairing damage, and some stories from professional conservators. Continue reading Artful Links: Conservation Edition
See below for upcoming exhibits and events, and good luck! You can click the banner above to see past opportunities posts.
A Thousand Artists
January 20–21, 2013. A Thousand Artists is a public art-making installation on the Washington Mall, which will occur on January 20 and 21, 2013, to demonstrate the power of art and its importance to democracy. For more information and details on how to participate, click here.
This month in the Bin Gallery at The Art League, we have a special wall dedicated to Local Scenes — paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs of DC and Alexandria-area sights. We asked our Bin Gallery artists to bring in their cherry blossoms, their Old Town Alexandria, their monuments, their Rock Creek Park, and more, to coincide with January’s inauguration festivities.
The Bin Gallery is a great place to find affordable work by recognized artists. To display work in the Bin Gallery, an artist must have had work juried into three or more exhibits in the past year. There are dozens and dozens of pieces for sale, both framed and unframed — our local scenes bin is restocked with iconic DC scenes, too.
Whether you’re visiting or living here, it’s a great opportunity to take home something handmade and uniquely DC!
ACTion Alexandria, with support from the Bruhn-Morris Family Foundation, has launched the “Make Us Your Favorite” Contest. They will award grants to the top three organizations that recruit the most supporters to their organization pages on ACTion Alexandria between Monday, January 14 at 9:00 am and Friday, January 18 at 5:00 pm. The prizes are $1,000 for 1st place, $500 for 2nd place, and $250 for 3rd place.
It’s easy to help us win up to $1,000! All you have to do is make us your favorite organization on ACTion Alexandria!
What is ACTion Alexandria?
ACTion Alexandria is the interactive engagement website of ACT for Alexandria, the community foundation that brings Spring2ACTion and so many other wonderful philanthropic fundraising events to The Art League and the Alexandria community each year.
How do I make The Art League my favorite? If you have an account…
1. Login to your ACTion Alexandria account: http://www.actionalexandria.org/user
2. Click on “Organizations” on the navigation bar or go directly to our page: http://www.actionalexandria.org/organization/art-league-inc
3. Search for organizations alphabetically or via keywords, issue and/or neighborhood
4. Select the organization you want to add as a Favorite (The Art League!)
5. Click the “Add to Favorites” graphic on our page just below our logo. You can like as many organizations as you want!
If you don’t have an account…
1. Create an ACTion Alexandria account at this link: http://www.actionalexandria.org/user/register
2. Look for your account verification email from [email protected]
3. Verify your account by clicking on the account verification link in the email.
4. Change your password by clicking on “My Account” link under “My Action Tools”.
5. Then follow steps 2-5 above.
“Red Spot,” wool, acrylic, and cotton, by Tea Okropiridze.
Whether you’re an experienced weaver or you don’t know warp from weft, we have a new class for you to check out — The Art League’s new tapestry class kicks into gear Saturday, January 19. The seven-week course is taught by new instructor Tea Okropiridze, who previously taught a two-day workshop in tapestry this fall. Tea is a tapestry artist who started her career in the Republic of Georgia and more recently has participated in exhibitions with the Washington Project For the Arts\Corcoran and the Arts Club of Washington.
Tea told us more about the class, who can take it, and her artistic background, below.
What will students learn in your Tapestry class? What sort of finished product will they take home?
Tea Okropiridze: This class concentrates on basic and intermediate Gobelin tapestry weaving techniques, creating a miniature woven tapestry (a little less than a letter size page) on a small frame loom. This class will start with warping the loom, and then we will learn how to make horizontal lines, vertical lines (pick-and-pick technique), different types of interlock, color mixing and hatching, shading, shaping, outlining and more.
Each student will work on individual small tapestries and will be able to take home the sampler they completed during the class. Depending on students’ level of experience, they can choose to weave a sampler or some other designs of their choice.
Should students have previous weaving experience?
Students do not need to have previous experience, since I will cover basics as well; however, it will be useful if they do. In that case, they will be able to dedicate their time to more advanced techniques.
If you’re on Facebook, Flickr, or a blog to promote your artwork, you hopefully also have some images of your work. That’s great! In the low-attention-span world of the Internet, photos are the best way to grab someone’s attention — especially someone looking for art.
But what about when someone wants to steal your work? Most of the friendly people who find your site won’t even think of doing it. But some might, and while there’s no way to prevent a determined thief, there are easy ways to make your image less attractive to them. The only surefire way to keep your images to yourself is to keep them off the Internet — a valid option, but then no one would be able to see your work!
Here are two of the best options — and see the bottom of this post for links with more information:
Use low-resolution images: You can try to find a happy medium between an image that’s large and clear enough to convey the sense of the artwork, but small enough to prevent people from getting a clear image if they hit “print.” While you’re editing images for your site, try lowering the resolution to 72 ppi (pixels per inch) instead of the 150 or 300 that your camera might save. Then, you can decrease the dimensions to whatever size you see fit: maybe 500 or 1000 pixels across in the larger dimension. Here’s where to change the image size in Preview and Photoshop (on a Mac):
In Mac’s Preview application, go to “Tools” and then click on “Adjust Size…” below.In Photoshop, select “Image” from the top toolbar and then click on “Image Size…” below.
As always, don’t forget to save your changes to a new copy so you don’t overwrite your original! For directions on resizing using Microsoft Paint in Windows 7, click here.
Watermark your images: This can be a painful option, since it mars your image, but might be something you want to do to prevent theft — especially for photographers, whose work can be more easily replicated off the Internet. Watermarking is fairly easy to do with an image editor like Photoshop, and there are also online tools to do it — see below for a link. Note that someone skilled in Photoshop can still reconstruct your image — even if it won’t be exactly the same, it might be good enough for their purposes.
Solo Artist Coordinator Megan Fox and volunteer Tom Roberts hang a piece by Noah Williams, May’s solo artist, for the 2013 Solo Preview opening Thursday.
January All-Media Show (January 9–February 4) and 2013 Solo Preview (January 10–24) Opening Reception: Thursday, January 10, 6:30–8:00 pm
Tomorrow is the opening reception for the 2013 Solo Preview, with pieces from each of the nine solo artists that will be featured in The Art League Gallery this year. It’s also the reception for the January All-Media Show, which was juried yesterday and opened today!
Sabyna Sterrett’s solo exhibit will be the first of the year, opening in March. Sterrett’s art is made using recycled plastic bags, which have been woven, hooked, and crocheted together in unique ways. The year’s other solo exhibits will feature paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, and more found object art — by Noah Williams, above.
Detail from Sabyna Sterrett’s sculpture, “Danger: Do Not Enter This Environment.”
The 2013 Solo Preview opens tomorrow, so come in and see the rest of the work by this group of artists!
This month’s All-Media Exhibit, as always, includes lots of work by talented local artists in all media. Trace Miller, an artist and a professor at Towson University, was the juror. See below for some of the work he selected for the show, and please join us tomorrow (Thursday) for the opening reception! Continue reading Previewing the Preview (Opening Reception Thursday!)
See below for two upcoming opportunities at the Torpedo Factory! You can click the banner above to view past opportunities posts.
Torpedo Factory Visiting Artist Program
Deadline: February 10, 2013 (opens January 10). Emerging and experienced artists are encouraged to apply for residencies of one, two, or three months at the Torpedo Factory Art Center (June-August 2013). Visiting Artists are provided with workspace and are able to display and sell original work. This year’s juror is Maria Karametou. For more information and to apply, click here.
Torpedo Factory New Member Jurying
Artists working in fine arts and fine crafts are eligible to apply for the Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Annual Jury for new members. Upon selection, the associate artist member is eligible to sublease from resident artists and work toward joining a studio in the future. Information sessions: Sunday, January 20 and Sunday, February 24, 2:00–3:00 pm in Studio 31. Receiving is Monday, March 18. For more information, click here.
“3 Eyes,” oil on paper by Art League instructor Scott Hutchison
Happy New Year from The Art League Blog! If you’ve resolved to be more creative this year, or you’re just looking to be inspired, educated, and entertained, we’re here to help you with these videos and video collections. Click away!
YouTube: If you aren’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to The Art League’s YouTube channel for dozens of instructor demos, videos from events and exhibits, studio visits, and more!
MOCAtv: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles just launched this channel in October in a partnership with YouTube. Check it out for art, music, projects, interviews, studio visits, and a series where artists curate YouTube by talking about their favorite videos.
Francis Bacon: OK, they aren’t so much for watching as listening, but this collection of BBC radio interviews with Francis Bacon dates from 1963 to his last interview in 1991 and you can hear him discuss his own painting, his influences, including the Velasquez painting that inspired his “screaming popes,” and claim that he doesn’t draw.
ArtBabble:ArtBabble from the Indianapolis Museum of Art gathers together hundreds of art-related videos including demonstrations, artist interviews, and guides to exhibitions and art conservation. They’re all broken down by theme, medium, style, time period, and other information for easy browsing.
Stained Glass Tour: Ever wondered how stained glass like this stuff gets made? Spectrum Stained Glass has a video tour on their website with short videos about each step of the process.
Those Who Make: In case you missed it the last time it was featured here, this video blog gathers the best examples of artists and others doing what they do.
A new year brings a new term at The Art League School, and could bring a new direction for you. If you’ve taken classes with us before, why not try a different medium? Or you haven’t done any art since grade school, why not learn something new this winter, and something that could stick with you for years to come? It worked out for our art neophyte George, as chronicled in this series.
The Winter Term starts next week, January 7, though some classes have later starting dates and classes may be joined late depending on space. Read on for ideas!Continue reading Kick-Off 2013 With Creativity!
Even if you can’t make it to visiting instructor Linda Christianson’s Functional Pottery workshop this weekend, you can still come to the slideshow and potluck happening Friday evening — tomorrow! For a $5 donation, anyone can join the first night of the workshop, where Linda will kick things off with a slideshow presentation of her work. Linda has been creating, exhibiting, and teaching ceramic art for decades, and currently lives and works in Minnesota. You can visit her website here.
The slideshow and potluck starts at 7:00 pm this Friday, January 4, in the Madison Annex at 305 Madison Street. People attending the slideshow may bring any dish they like. The $190 workshop continues on Saturday and Sunday with demonstrations, discussions, and hands-on practice and feedback. You can register for the full workshop here, or join us Friday only with a $5 donation.
If you haven’t been by the Gallery yet to see our December exhibits, you still have time! The December All-Media Exhibit and “Up Close & Too Personal,” an exhibit of colored pencil work by Suzanne Vigil, are open through this Monday, January 7.
In “Up Close & Too Personal,” Vigil layers colored pencil on both sides translucent acetate to create her vibrant, captivating portraits. You can see our blog post about the exhibit here, including a studio visit video and more images of work from the show.
December’s All-Media show isn’t to be missed, either — for a preview, check out our interviews with the two award-winning artists, Elizabeth Loftis and Wendy Donahoe. We hope you’ll come by to see the show! Stay tuned for more about January’s exhibits in the Gallery.
