art collecting in washington dc - a quest to fill my home with visual coolness

so last year my friend and ultra talented artist sean hennessey made this post about his art collection made up of other local artists, and i had said that i should make one of those posts too. after all, i am a huge believer in supporting the local arts community, and most of my local friends are artists who live and create here.  fast forward a little over a year, and here i am, making good on my promise to share the goods on my own acquisitions, as well as info on some of the artists i'd someday hope to add to my small but growing art collection.

despite being an artist for decades, i only began seriously looking at collecting art after being more involved in the art dc art scene myself. to someone on the outside, the process of finding and purchasing art can be overwhelming, frustrating, and possibly intimidating. however, i can assure you that most local artists  are not only down to earth, but will be more than happy to talk with someone about their art and process. also, lots of people think you need a ton of money to be able to afford to collect art. this is not always the case! there are so many awesome yet affordable pieces out there that are perfect for all levels and tastes of art collection.  hopefully someone who has an interest in starting to collect local art and does not know where to begin can take something away from this post in that respect.

as with sean's post, this is highly subjective. just because someone is not on this list doesn't mean they aren't a good artist - that would be silly. i'm also not really concerned with the investment potential of art, but rather if it will be a good fit for my personal aesthetic as well as a good fit for the logistics of how and where it will be displayed.  in layman's terms, i buy art that moves me and will also fit within my budget and house and will not get knocked over by two huge and often crazy dogs.  :)

and yes, i own art by artists who are not from dc, but that is not the focus of this post. i am also proud to say that the bulk of my collection is made up of locals because honestly, there is so much talent right in this area that i rarely have to look elsewhere to find amazing art.

so up first, a list of many of the local dc area artists that i already own, and how i came to own them:



(the pictures really do not do these artworks justice, but if you like, click on the images to see them larger...)


1. sean hennessey: i'll start with sean since he made the original post which spurred this one. i have known sean for almost as long as i've lived in dc, and have always wanted one of his artworks. i saw this concrete relief sculpture at artomatic some years ago and figured it was finally time to add him to the collection. sean is now working with concrete and glass media combined, and his work is beautiful. later this year we will be in an exhibit together which will focus on the use of glass, steel, and other mixed media of that nature, and i am excited about that!

2. christian tribastone: i first saw christian's work at artomatic and thought it was incredible. unlike a lot of the other artists whose work i like, i had not heard of him before that event so i stalked his display space until i finally got to meet him. i've since participated in quite a few sketch crawls with christian, and am constantly amazed by his ability to capture the essence of a scene.  most of his work is architectural in nature, but the piece i chose is a bit different (from his inauguration series), though also typical of dc.

3. johanna mueller: i acquired this piece of johanna's from... yes, artomatic. do you see a theme here? ;)  i had seen her work for a few years and thought her intricate prints were very cool. finally, i decided to add one to my collection when i saw this piece - several members of my family collect camels, and i thought this piece would be a nice thematic tie-in to that.  johanna is the only washington dc artist whose work i own but who i have not met in person... and i will hopefully be able to rectify that in the near future.

4. sean welker: sean left dc for chicago a couple of years ago, but when i purchased this piece from him he was still right in the center of the dc art scene. sean is an awesome friend and wildly talented, and i knew as soon as i saw this pen and ink series that i wanted one of his pieces for my own. the one i chose was displayed at the last artomatic, and luckily was not ruined (vandals struck his space that year and several of his pieces were casualties).  in any case, i miss sean and being able to see this piece every day makes him feel a little bit closer in spirit.

5. dana ellyn: dana is a staple in the dc art scene and is quite a prolific painter. i had seen her work at artomatic for a few years running, but purchased this piece depicting president taylor from her president series directly from her downtown dc studio.  not only did i come away with this piece, but i got a personalized tour of her work space which was an added bonus.

6. todd gardner: todd is a friend of mine and is quite fond of puns and word play, which is apparent in his paintings.  while i had been a fan of his portraits as well as his paintings of sideshow robots for a while, this painting was actually a gift for my birthday from andy (my husband), and was a total surprise when i went to the gallery for the opening reception and found out that the red dot next to it was MY red dot. :)

7. gina tibbott: i am not sure if gina is still in the dc area or not, but i was absolutely mesmerized by her display at artomatic a few years back and just had to have one of these awesome faux fossil sculptures. the bizarreness of the piece just makes me incredibly happy, and i am glad i was able to track her down to purchase it (she did not have a web site or contact info at her space so i had to use the google machine on the interwebs to find her).

8. jeanette herrera: jeanette is an awesome person and an awesome painter. her work is so bizarre and colorful that i immediately knew i wanted one. last year we made that happen when we purchased this piece from an exhibit in virginia. but, i first saw her work (and later met her) at artomatic, where she has participated for the last few years.














artists whose work i hope to acquire someday:
all artists were first seen by me at... artomatic.  and i have been stalking their web portfolios and brick and mortar exhibits ever since!  this list is always morphing and growing as i am exposed to more local artists' work...

1. phil nesmith: phil works primarily in 19th century photographic plate processes, so despite being a photograph, each piece is unique and fragile. he's had several exhibits locally and i am always impressed. because they are one of a kind and labor intensive, i am saving up so that eventually i will be able to buy one before they are all snapped up.

2. michael janis: michael's work with glass and imagery was one of the main inspirations for me to pursue my own work in glass. i am hoping that someday i can say i own one of his exquisite pieces of art.

3. novie trump: novie's sculptures captivated me. i saw a piece of hers last year that i loved, but sean hennessey beat me to it. i forgive him... and can't blame him for buying it because it was a beautiful piece. i always check out her displays and open studios, and one day, i will find the piece i was meant to have.

4. gregory ferrand: gregory's paintings are very illustrative and full of narrative, which is a quality that i love. again, having the money in hand AND being the first one to the piece i want is the challenge there.

5. shanthi chandra-sekar: shanthi's work, especially her 6 foot tall spiral paintings, are intricate and mesmerizing. she also creates wonderful sculptures of wood and stone. additionally, the meaning behind the works are wonderful to hear.

6. erica riccardelli: being a photographer myself, i rarely feel the urge to buy photography. however, erica's work is eerie and stunning and i might one day find myself owning one of her artworks.


in case you missed it, my main source of finding and purchasing new art thus far has been through artomatic in some way. due to the volume and layout of artomatic events, they can be overwhelming, but they are also an awesome way to find new artists and get some pretty great art for not as much money as you think it might cost.

there are also some great gallery spaces in dc and it's a less overwhelming way to see art than some of the bigger art events. most galleries and individual artists will put out information about their opening receptions, artist talks, etc, and if you are interested in a particular artist or piece of work, you should definitely check out these events. you can get a ton of information about the artist and artwork straight from the source while simultaneously seeing the artwork displayed in person. owning art is a whole lot cooler when you have met the artist. you can't beat that!

lastly, most artists these days have web sites with methods of contact. as i mentioned before, most artists are more than happy to talk with or even meet with someone who is interested in buying a piece of work. everyone i've encountered while growing my art collection has been friendly and open in discussing everything from technique to materials to inspiration for their artwork, and many artists have studios that you can visit to see them in their natural habitat, if you will.  sure, there are some people who might cop an attitude, but for the most part that is a rarity in the dc area.. at least in my experience.

so, hopefully this very long post has been informative in some way. so go forth, find art that moves you, and don't be afraid to make it yours!

DCist Exposed Exhibit

i have not participated in the DCist exposed exhibit since the very first one several years ago. however, i was happy to hear that my image taken at the rally to restore sanity / march to keep fear alive last autumn was chosen to be a part of this year's exhibit.  though it was shot with film, it's one of my rare non-holga images that one can actually see displayed in person, so if you can, check it out.  

more info on the show, which runs from march 15-27, can be found HERE.

where: longview gallery

1234 9th St NW

washington, DC 20001

202.232.4788

  

business hours:

wednesday-saturday 11-6

sunday 12-5

+ by appointment

holga patterns

this is an extremely close up detail of a tile mural in adams morgan, washington dc.  we were heading home from crafty bastards in october and stopped to take a few photos (when i say "we," my husband is a photographer too).  using the manual holga film advance, i overlapped the frames to combine the tiles to enhance the mosaic feel.

dupont circle fountain holga

dupont circle fountain, taken at the end of our last sketchcrawl in october. i wasn't feeling my sketches that day (and was reluctant to post very much as a result), but i did get a few holga shots that i liked. this is a rare single frame, since i usually overlap exposures for a layered effect.

anyway, despite my seemingly impaired sketching ability, it was a beautiful day, i got to spend a lot of time outdoors with some talented DC artists, and made some nice photos. i call that a win!

finnish embassy holga

it is a little known fact that while in high school, i co-founded the finnish resistance movement in chemistry class with my good friend who now also lives in the dc area. it's a long story of how that came about, but can be summed up with us playing off of a spelling error on the part of our teacher. fast forward 20 years (yikes!) when we passed by the finnish embassy during our october sketchcrawl. needless to say i got very excited. it wasn't open, but the architecture was so cool looking, so i swung into the courtyard to make some exposures.

viva finland!

film fridays - follow the white rabbit head

the rally for sanity / keep fear alive march on the mall in washington dc last month was a bit of a challenge to photograph. for starters, i'm shorter than just about everyone else on the planet, so trying to get a decent vantage point above the crowds was pretty futile. in addition to that, i had my parents in tow from pennsylvania, so i didn't want to wander too far away from them or they'd be lost in the wilds of dc. i contemplated strapping a day's worth of food and supplies to them just in case, but decided i should be a good child and guide them myself. :)

in any case, i decided to wander a bit on the outskirts of the rally so that i could move around and get some photos that way. for the most part i was not terribly happy with any of my images, but i did come away with this amusing one of a guy parading around the head to his rabbit costume. i saw that and got in as close as i could to get a few frames. the feet from above were from people perched on a moving truck they had rented for the occasion - if only i had thought of that!

the specs: hasselblad xpan II and kodak tmax 400 film.

trust me

this is another holga photo i made during the july 31 sketchcrawl through washington dc. this was taken near the mall, where i saw this strange banner of the colonial drummer. while i wish i could take complete credit for the words overlapping like they did, i discovered the amusing juxtaposition after i developed the film. sometimes even i am a little surprised by what comes out of my holga. :)

museum of the americas holga

this holga photo was taken on the very last stop of our july 31 sketchcrawl through dc at the museum of the americas. i had never been there before, and that's one thing i love about sketchcrawls - we make pit stops in lots of places around the city, ranging from heavily traveled to more obscure and everything in between. anyhow, i was drawn to the minimal nature of some of the elements i was finding in and around the building, and thought it would be fun to combine them. the hunch paid off, and this is the resulting image.

DCCAH - permanent collection

a while back i entered some of my original toned silver gelatin holga prints to be considered for purchase by the dc commission on the arts and humanities art bank.  the work in this collection is purchased from local DC area artists and is displayed in a variety of government buildings throughout the the district. anyway, they accepted two of my images into the permanent collection, which is pretty awesome!  the images they chose are incidentally one of my oldest and one of my newest holga images: "chinatown" and "the mall."

so, if you are in any government buildings keep your eyes peeled for my contact prints, matted to 11x14 inches! if i ever find out where they are displayed i'll be sure to announce it.
:)

absence makes the heart grow something something...

i haven't posted here in a while. that's partly because i have film that has yet to be developed / scanned, and partly because i've been focusing on drawing a bit more recently. also, i got a bike for my birthday last month and have been working up to running errands with it (i procured energy bars and chick peas from whole foods today using said bike!).

last weekend i participated in sketchcrawl #28 around washington dc. basically, a group of local artists walks around the city, spending about a half hour at each location, and we all sketch.  it's cool because i get to meet new people, but also because it's neat to see how each person interprets a scene since we are all together for the duration of the crawl. this is also a worldwide phenomenon, and you can check out results from all over the globe on the sketchcrawl site.

here are a few sketches from that day (and hopefully soon i'll be back to posting some holga work or mordançage prints... i'm itching to get back in the darkroom!). click on the image to see in more detail.

(view from the salon on the second floor at the renwick museum)


(figure drawing at the corcoran museum)

(drawing myself drawing on the metro on the way home from the sketchcrawl)

check out all of my sketches from the day on flickr!

Brookland Holga

this is the last holga image from the brookland sketchcrawl in may. technically this is the first holga i took that day, and this is the corner of 12th and newton NE streets, underneath the CVS overhang. the sketchers all went their separate ways to sketch and arranged to meet at the CVS, and i was there earlier than most... so i whipped out the holga for the remainder of my time there. 12th street is the main drag in brookland, and there were a lot of signs, letters, numbers, and various other things we're probably supposed to be paying attention to. i like jumbling them all up together in my images. ;-)

Franciscan Monastery, Brookland DC Holga #2

this is the second holga image from my latest dc sketchcrawl outing, again taken in the franciscan monastery gardens in brookland, dc. i tried to showcase the architecture a bit more in this one, and i was immediately drawn to the door labeled "private". i find myself photographing doors and fences a lot with my holga work, and while part of the appeal is the aesthetics of these details, there is a psychological intrigue as well. i don't know what it is, but i always want to open doors that tell me i am not welcome there. ;-)

Franciscan Monastery, Brookland DC Holga

this is one of several holga images i made during the latest sketchcrawl on may 15 (#27, for those in the know) where we walked around the brookland neighborhood of dc. one of our stops included time in the franciscan monastery gardens, which are huge and gorgeous - definitely worth a visit whether you are religious or not, as it is a very peaceful and pretty place to chill out and enjoy being outdoors. the mosaic of mary in the center of this image was one of many pieces of art i found throughout the gardens, and you can also see the architecture to some degree in the photo.

it is official: i love brookland, and want to live there someday!

overlooked holga image

i shot this image a while back during a session in washington dc, but overlooked it because it did not fit with the theme of the shoot i was going for at the time. often times, when i have one goal in mind, i only collect / process / print the images that allow me to accomplish that preset goal and skip over the rest. fortunately, i kept this frame in my holga folder and came across it today while searching for holga images for another purpose. so yay for new found old images!

washington dc holga

another holga image taken in washington dc... i think this was around the portrait gallery.

holga images - the mall, washington dc

 more holga images taken during the february sketchcrawl in washington dc on the national mall...

washington monument / american indian museum holga

i made this image during the last sketchcrawl on the mall in washington dc this past february.  because it was cold, we chose to museum hop for most of the day to make our sketches, and this shows some of what we passed by throughout the day. :)

pictured are the american indian museum on the left side of the frame, which is where we ate lunch (their cafeteria is pretty awesome!), and the washington monument is in the center of the frame.

Wall Mountables at DCAC

(Cherry Blossoms - on exhibit at DCAC for Wall Mountables!)

I will be participating in 1460 WALLMOUNTABLES 2009 - DCAC's Annual Open Exhibit with 3 of my brand new Gelatin Relief pieces. Come and check it out!

When:
July 17 - August 30
Opening Reception: July 17, 7-9pm

Where:
DCAC (District of Columbia Arts Center)
2438 18th Street NW
Washington DC 20009
(in Adams Morgan)
http://dcartscenter.org/

The nearest metro is the Woodley Park Zoo / Adams Morgan stop on the red line. I'd recommend this as parking can be tricky in the heart of Adams Morgan.

Experience one of DC Arts Center’s favorite and longest lasting traditions at 1460 Wall Mountables! The gallery is divided into two foot by two foot squares and the artists do the rest. A DCAC tradition since 1990, 1460 Wall Mountables gives everyone a chance to show their work in DCAC’s gallery. Come to the opening, mingle with the artists and purchase some of the fantastic work for sale.

Holga Artist Portraits - Todd Gardner

Another artist I was able to Holga recently is Todd Gardner. Todd is a friend of mine, so he was included in my Artomatic Top 10 Friends list. However, I don't think that makes me biased - he's an incredibly talented painter and is displaying some freaky cool robot-plant-animal hybrid paintings this year.

This portrait was taken with Todd's display, which includes a large self portrait, in addition to the robots.

See his work at www.toddgardner.com.

And stay tuned for even more of my Holga Artist Portrait series, which is an ongoing project of mine!

Artomatic Top 10 (and then some)

Lists, lists, lists... anyone who follows Artomatic knows about the "Top 10" lists that are floating around out there. And I have some favorites that I'd like to share. But... it's more than 10. I've grouped them below!

(For reference, look up any of these artists at Artomatic's Artist Catalog)

Top 10 - Artists I do not know, or did not know prior to this Artomatic.
These are not necessarily new artists or new to the scene, but I was not familiar with their work.

1.) Paul Jutton - Floor 3
2.) Corwin Levi - Floor 3
3.) Stephen Beardsell - Floor 5
4.) Marty Ittner - Floor 5
5.) Syl Mathis - Floor 7
6.) Megan Van Wagoner - Floor 8
7.) Jessica Van Brakle - Floor 9
8.) Kira J. Appel - Floor 9
9.) Christian Tribastone - Floor 9
10.) David D'Orio - Floor 9


Top 10 - Artists I knew prior to Artomatic.
These are mostly my friends, or people who I am in contact with and am familiar with their work and the progress on their projects throughout the year. Since I have a lot of artist friends, I mostly chose artists who either switched things up a bit significantly from previous Artomatics (or other exhibits), or who have a display that is quite a bit "outside the box" in some way. Plus, I just plain love their work, so I think that even though I come in with this knowledge and bias, it's still worth checking out what they have to show this year.

1.) Andy Cleavenger - Floor 2
2.) Alexandra Zealand - Floor 3
3.) Sean Welker - Floor 7
4.) Jack Whitsitt - Floor 7
5.) Sherill Anne Gross - Floor 7
6.) Marcie Wolf Hubbard - Floor 7
7.) Sean Hennessey - Floor 9
8.) Rania Hassan - Floor 9
9.) Todd Gardner - Floor 9
10.) Kerri Sheehan - Floor 9


And, for the heck of it, the other artists who made my initial list. It was very hard to narrow down to my two lists above, so I figured I'd include the rest here. Depending on my mood, many of them could have made the top 10 as well. Their displays made me pause and take a bit longer than average to check them out, and I think they all deserve a closer look by anyone visiting Artomatic. Sorted by floor, they are:

Floor 2:
Phyllis Mayes
Susannah Parnin
Ben Tolman
Emily Green Liddle
JT Kirkland / Matthew Langley (they have adjoining walls, not sure if they planned it but they play well off of each other)
Dale Hunt
Jeannette L. Herrera

Floor 3:
Joseph Dailey
Pam Rogers
Caren Quinn
Michael Auger
Susan Chapin

Floor 4:
Brie Husted
Richard J. Bailey
Kelly McGovern
Jamea Richmond - Edwards
Rita Elsner

Floor 5:
Eeshan Meldar
Matthew Carucci
Phil Vickery
Steve Strawn
Paul Sharratt

Floor 6:
Hilary Woznica
Cedric Williams
Susanna Raab
Pat Goslee

Floor 7:
Shawn Helton
Johanna Mueller
Mei Mei Chang
M. Gert Barkovic
Malcolm Blaisdell
Emily Sloat Shaw

Floor 8:
Jorge Caligiuri
Will Mallon
Erica Ricardelli
Novie Trump
Michael Janis
Tim Tate

Floor 9:
Dana Ellyn
Peter Harper


I'm sure I've forgotten a display here or there that I reacted well to, but just either forgot to write down or got distracted. With over 1000 visual artists participating this year, that's bound to happen. There were a lot of displays I really liked, but didn't write down because I had the goal of a top 10 list in mind and wanted to keep it as concise as possible. I'd advise anyone visiting to check everything out for themselves because there is just so much, and art is subjective, and all that fun stuff. But, plan for a good chunk of time - it took me over 5 hours to go through 8 floors of art to compile this list. :-)

To see the show:

55 M Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

May 29 - July 5, 2009

Fri-Sat: Noon-1 am
Sun, Wed, Thu: Noon-10 pm

Take Metro! Located directly above the Green Line Navy Yard Metro Stop, West Entrance.