Mary Higgins – Distinct Studios

Irreplaceable at Workhouse Center for the Arts

What I reflect on with regards to climate change is my own naiveté. I began reading about the subject and meeting environmental activists over 30 years ago. My spouse equivalent now husband was working as an environmental activist and introduced me to a number of “big brain” activists who were sounding the alarm. I was naive because I never thought that the planet would be where it is today.

Extreme weather, the loss of ecosystems, the loss of beloved species.

It’s all here. It’s all now.

Sally Kauffman’s paintings can be viewed as beautiful works of art. You can enjoy them solely on the basis of her skill as a painter. I see them as a memorial that may lead to increased awareness of the level of loss. The hope is that awareness leads to action.

Sally’s show at Workhouse Center for the Arts continues through June 11th in the McquireWoods Gallery – W16.

I encourage a visit to the exhibit. Please reach out at info@distinctstudios.com with questions.

Mary Higgins2023-05-10T19:50:59+00:00May 10, 2023|

Score: Mixed Media by Joan Dreyer

Reception: April 8th, 2023, 4-6PM

Exhibition Dates: Saturday, January 14, 2023- Sunday, April 30, 2023

Location: Workhouse Center for the Arts, Vulcan Gallery, W-16, 9518 Workhouse Way, Lorton, VA, 22079, United States (Campus Map)

Score explores 20 years of the work of Virginia based mixed media artist, Joan Dreyer. While developing her MFA thesis at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA, Joan began taking tools, techniques and imagery that have been historically considered “women’s work” and transforming them into innovative, contemporary art that is responsive to the tone and tensions of our times. Created by combining fiber techniques with unexpected materials like X-rays, her work is a subtle art that asks questions about life, loss, symbolism and the impact of war instead of providing one size fits all answers . The artist’s work provides a space for the contemplation of life stages that we all encounter. The result is a body of work that allows for meaningful but also multiple interpretations by the viewer.

For more information about exhibits at the Workhouse Arts Center or artwork purchase inquiries, contact Audrey Miller audreymiller@workhousearts.org. Follow Workhouse Arts Center on Instagram at @workhousearts, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WorkhouseArts and Twitter at @Workhouse_Arts. The Workhouse Arts Center is open to the public Wednesdays – Saturdays from 11 am to 6 pm, and Sundays from noon to 5 pm. Free public parking is available. A map of campus can be found online here.

Mary Higgins2023-04-10T23:14:51+00:00April 6, 2023|

Irreplaceable by Sally Kauffman

Workhouse Arts Center Announces New Art Exhibition Opening
Irreplaceable: Paintings by Sally Kauffman
Curated by Mary Welch Higgins
March 25 – June 11, 2023
Second Saturday Exhibition Reception, April 8, 2023, 4 – 6 PM

Lorton, VA – ( March 2023) The Workhouse Arts Center announces the opening of the new exhibition, Irreplaceable: Paintings by Sally Kauffman. The exhibition is on view from March 25 through June 11, 2023, in the Workhouse’s McGuireWoods Gallery (W-16). There is a public exhibition reception Saturday, April 8, 2023, 4 – 6 PM.

Irreplaceable is an exhibit of abstract yet allusory paintings by DC area artist, Sally Kauffman. Kauffman works in series and is known for paintings depicting groups of people engaged in communal activities. In her most recent series, she turns her eye to the plight of endangered and extinct species. Her high contrast color palettes and adventurous brushwork are reminiscent of the abstract expressionistic movement of the 20th Century. Yet her goal to increase awareness of the species represented in her work calls to mind Romanticism, a late 18th century artistic and intellectual movement that promoted the power of the creativity and the arts to raise awareness and thus transform circumstance.

By memorializing the energy, diversity and beauty of birds and butterflies in flight, cats, turtles and fish, she honors their place in our ecosystem while drawing attention to their plight. She recognizes that some viewers may simply enjoy the beauty of the paintings and animals represented. There may be others that do not notice the plastic bags and ropes entangling the turtles that are painted to represent just one of the ways that humankind’s actions have impacted the endangered animals. Finally, others may enjoy the paintings and decide to dive deeper to discover that these extraordinary creatures are threatened or already extinct. Kauffman’s paintings remind us that art has the power to raise awareness and create change.

For more information about exhibits at the Workhouse Arts Center or artwork purchase inquiries, contact Audrey Miller audreymiller@workhousearts.org. Follow Workhouse Arts Center on Instagram at @workhousearts, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WorkhouseArts and Twitter at @Workhouse_Arts. The Workhouse Arts Center is open to the public Wednesdays – Saturdays from 11 am to 6 pm, and Sundays from noon to 5 pm. Free public parking is available. A map of campus can be found online here.

Photo Credit: Greg Staley

Mary Higgins2023-05-10T19:16:58+00:00April 4, 2023|

The Island Series by Sunhee Kim Jung

Reception: April 14th, 2023 4PM

Goodwin House – Alexandria from March 2 – April 14, 2023

Location: 4800 Fillmore Ave, Alexandria, VA 22311

Parking: Please park in visitors lot. You will need to sign in to enter the building.

On a recent trip to Seoul for a joint exhibition with Sunhee Kim Jung, I was asked what I most admired about South Korea. My answer was the connection between architecture and nature. The mountains surrounding Seoul, the trees, palaces, temples, traditional as well as contemporary architecture seemed connected – integrated.

After returning, I see Sunhee’s work exploring nature and our relationship to it in a new way.

Her series named The Island painted during the height of the pandemic is inspired by the Transom windows in her home. (The primary purpose of the transom window is to increase natural light. )

In this series, the viewer peers through the narrow window or “picture frame” to view nature.

Even when we are not in nature, the idea of it can create a sense of peace in the midst of solitude. Sunhee creates a visual poem by using color symbolically to represent different emotions that working together – create a haven for the soul.

I am please to announce that Sunhee’s Island series will be on exhibit at the Goodwin House – Alexandria from March 2 – April 11, 2023.

The Island Series paintings are available through Distinct Studios. Please visit Sunhee’s artist page to view details and to inquire about availability. Thank you for reading!

Transom Window at The National Contemporary Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

Window, National Contemporary Museum of Art

National Contemporary Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea. Photo Credit: Mary Welch Higgins

Mary Higgins2023-05-10T19:17:39+00:00February 28, 2023|

Slow Light Series by Chee Keong Kung

Mclean based artist, Chee Keong Kung was born and raised in Singapore where the rich diversity of the culture continues to influence the development of his art. His process defined by exploration and experimentation has resulted in an evolving body of work.

Within the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, he has developed a reputation as a painter whose works display a vast sense of light-filled space and dynamism through the use of geometry and mark making. This body of work was just the beginning of his development.

His work has pushed beyond the boundary of the canvas as he moves his paintings off the wall into the three dimensional space. He works in series where he extends an idea through multiple pieces. The Slow Light series are mixed media assemblages that utilize spontaneous mark-making on the surface of the wood with metal being added as a mark in 3D space.

Works from the Slow Light series are available through distinctstudios.com on Chee’s DS artist’s page.

Mary Higgins2023-02-24T18:54:33+00:00February 23, 2023|

Devotional Icon Series by Theresa Martin

Theresa Martin is an artist based in Arlington, Virginia with the ability to create collages with a poignancy that evokes memory as well as mystery.

Her influences include echoes of Jospeh Cornell, Kurt Schwitters, and Lenore Tawney. Using “found” portraits, she creates halos from numbers and symbols and thereby transforms the work into a secular devotional icon.

As a graduate of the Corcoran in the mid-80’s, Theresa has honed her creative skills utilizing a wide range of media. Most recently she has been experimenting with open source AI tools into her work.

The collages in the video are available through distinctstudios.com. You can see the collection of additional available work at her DS Artist’s page.

Thank you for reading!

Mary Higgins2023-02-23T20:52:46+00:00February 22, 2023|

Video Tour and Website for Joan Dreyer

Score explores 20 years of the work of Virginia-based mixed media artist, Joan Dreyer. While developing her MFA thesis at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA, Joan began taking tools, techniques and imagery that have been historically considered “women’s work” and transforming them into innovative, contemporary art that is responsive to the tone and tensions of our times. Created by combining fiber techniques with unexpected materials like X-rays, her work is a subtle art that asks questions about life, loss, symbolism, and the impact of war instead of providing one size fits all answers. The artist’s work provides a space for the contemplation of life stages that we all encounter. The result is a body of work that allows for meaningful but also multiple interpretations by the viewer.

Please visit Joan’s website and plan to see the exhibit.

Mary Higgins2023-02-20T23:46:01+00:00February 20, 2023|

Building Blocks – Agility

Remember the word “Pivot” from early 2020? We pivoted to Zoom and online social interactions. Everything changed over night. In March of 2020, I was working with a team to install art exhibits at NOVA, when we were told to leave the building and go home. We left the art on the wall. Just like that.

As I head into a new year with the Distinct Studios project, I am grateful for my family, friends and clients but I am also certain about my word for 2023 – “Agility”.

I learned Agile Development while building interactive media in the early 2000’s.

The agile practice is this:

Have an idea? Design it on paper and then prototype.

Test the prototype, make changes and then repeat until the concept is fully formed.

The goal is to “Fail Fast” but also efficiently and at a lower cost. The same iterative principle can be applied to creating art and small agile businesses.

“Fail Fast” is an entrepreneurial term. “Learn Fast” is my preferred mantra.

After we went into lockdown in 2020, I was constantly making adjustments. Plans were made and then the pandemic changed those plans. Did you ever have the thought in April of 2020 “We’ll open up again in a few months”? I can’t remember how many times I did.

I was “Learning Fast”.

As we shift away from the pandemic, it appears that we are in a new world. Art will continue to inspire and lift us but the economic environment is tougher than it’s been in years.

In the coming year, I will continue my agile practice as I test concepts, revise and build.

Thank you for your support this past year. I look forward to sharing news of upcoming projects and travels in 2023.

Stay Safe and Well over the Holidays!

Theresa Martin 2015, Private Collection

Mary Higgins2023-03-16T20:29:24+00:00December 15, 2022|

Adjoa J. Burrowes at Virginia Moca

Adjoa J. Burrowes’s work, “Run Down and Run Over” was selected for the juried group exhibition “Made In Virginia 2022” at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art where she won second prize for Best in Show. She was also asked to contribute tools and process materials to the museum’s educational Art Lab. Congratulations to Adjoa and to all the participating artists from the state of Virginia!

Installations shots by Echard Wheeler, Courtesy of Virginia Moca

Mary Higgins2023-03-16T20:32:16+00:00November 28, 2022|

Long Front of Culture

My mother, Helen Schrider Higgins earned an MFA from Catholic University in Washington DC in 1955 at the age of 25. She was the first woman to be admitted to the MFA sculpture program at CU. ( She become a student at CU in the late 40’s not long after they admitted women to the school. )

As a child you don’t contextualize your parent. My memories as a child of the late 60’s and 70’s was one of being around art, artists and books. In lieu of dolls, I received pastels and sketchbooks as gifts. This was my norm. My context.

In her later years, she and I would – at least once a year – find ourselves having lunch in the courtyard cafe of the West Wing at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. While we always talked about art, at these courtyard lunches we starting to go deep into her story and her experience around the emergent Washington DC art community of the 1950’s.

Our National Gallery conversations gave me a strong foundation when I had the opportunity last year to delve into the time period of the 1950’s while collaborating with Catholic University on an exhibit of her art work.

In my research, I did a deep dive into Black Mountain College, the Bauhaus artists, Bernand Leach, Shoji Hamada and other influences.

One of the most interesting insights for me came from a book that I found at the Phillips Collections museum shop in a moment of serendipity.

It was “The Free World, Art and Thought in the Cold War” by Louis Menand, an English Professor at Harvard.

He did extensive research and wrote about culture in the time period that she came of age as an artist.

The insight from Menand was regarding the art critic/art world power broker Clement Greenberg. Yeah – that guy.

I was not aware that Greenberg received plenty of what we call today “pushback” during his heyday.

Greenberg constructed a top/down art world structure. In his peak years, Greenberg championed the abstract expressionists as the pinnacle of art. Later in the 60’s, he was overwhelmed by the popularity of pop art and his power within the art world of his time declined – although his writing maintained a strong hold on academia for decades.

The key point that I learned from “The Free World” was that the term “The Long Front of Culture” that was coined by the British art critic, Lawrence Alloway.

Alloway argued for the arts to be viewed as part of a continuum. There are multiple genealogies of art – not one.

I am simplifying the argument about what constitutes high art but my point is that there are and have always been many different ways to create.

There are so many more artists now than there were in the 1950’s. The art world is much more diverse.

What moves you? What excites you? What do you want to see everyday?

Bibliography

The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War, Louis Menand, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 97803741584158453,

Mary Higgins2022-09-27T18:20:07+00:00September 27, 2022|