CULTURE – Distinct Studios – Washington DC Area

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!

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

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

By Mary Higgins|2023-03-16T20:32:16+00:00November 28, 2022|

Seeing Slowly

In the US, Labor Day signals that summer is over!

Announcements for art gatherings, openings and lectures are streaming into my email box and onto my social media feeds.

Before the art season starts again, I’d like to share an experience that jarred me.

It’s about social media.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Instagram. I post about art and artists.

Recently, I realized the need to slow down and return to the reason that I find art an essential part of my experience. I was looking at a large “coffee table” size art book of works on paper by the artist, Do Ho Suh. I stopped myself suddenly because I realized that I was flipping through the pages as if I was randomly scrolling through Instagram. I was scanning not seeing.

After multiple sessions of scanning the book, I had become aware. I slowed down. I began to experience his drawings and prints. The work began to reveal itself. It was an intense experience.

How do you look at art – both in person and online? How have social media platforms impacted the way you look and see?

During conversations about social media, I often advocate for social media as “Marketing” with a capital M. That’s it!

Until recently I had not considered its subtle but real impact on the way that I look and see.

For lessons in slowing down, I recommend a valuable book in my art book collection entitled “Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art” by Michael Findlay. You may know his book “The Value of Art”. If you are new to the art, I recommend reading “Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art” first before going on to “The Value of Art”. Both are well written but “Seeing Slowly” is more personal.

Check it out!

Bibliography

Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art
Michael Findlay
Prestel, 2017
ISBN: 9783791383835

By Mary Higgins|2022-09-07T16:48:38+00:00September 6, 2022|

Before, During, After: Art Shaping Resilience

Dates: February 14th – March 22, 2021

Angie Newman Johnson Gallery
Episcopal High School
3900 West Braddock Road
Alexandria, VA 22302

For appointments contact Michael Windsor at maw@episcopalhighschool. org

Before, During, After: Art Shaping Resilience showcases the work of nine contemporary visual artists who communicate through art their personal experience of a world that has been altered by concurrent global challenges.

A key objective of this exhibit is to explore how the art object can shape and strengthen resilience. These nine artists create work that communicate universally shared feelings of loss, fear, and illness but also of cultural identity, renewal, and hope. We contend that the creative act itself strengthens an artist’s ability to comeback from difficulties but also that their work can shape resilience in the viewer.

The artists exhibiting in Before, During, After are Adjoa J Burrowes, Gail Shaw-Clemons, Alonzo Davis, Joan Dreyer, Mary Welch Higgins, Sarah J Hull, Akemi Maegawa, Alexandra N Sherman, Elizabeth Vorlicek.

Curated by Mary Welch Higgins

By Mary Higgins|2022-02-16T20:42:21+00:00February 16, 2022|