Category Archives: art

artomatic

Washington Post’s Michael O’Sullivan thinks you should put “participate in Artomatic” on your list of New Year’s Resolutions.

So you’re looking to show your art somewhere, and you haven’t a clue where to begin.

I have one word for you: Artomatic.

Is that even a word? It is now. After 10 years in operation, the open-to-all-comers art institution (which began life in 1999 in a former laundry, hence the name) is expected to return next summer to the neighborhood near Nationals Park.

How many eyeballs can you reliably count on to see your work during the show? According to Artomatic honcho George Koch, a whopping 52,500 people visited this year’s roundup of roughly 800 area visual artists in the NoMa, or north of Massachusetts Avenue, neighborhood in Northeast. Like that one, the 2009 show should also include live bands, along with a host of other performances.

The criteria for entry are easy: Scrape together one C-note, give or take (the exact registration fee is to be determined). Other than that, there’s no aesthetic gatekeeper. Which means that, yes, you’ll be hanging with the sublime and the ridiculous.

Still, there is no better way to shake off the studio cobwebs and get your work out there.

If you don’t want to show your art you can always volunteer, you know.

Friday Five: fabric edition (mostly)

Thanks to JenInMaine, I’ve been coveting some fabrics by Amy Butler. Which ones? All of them, I think.

If you love quilting-weight cotton you can always have your own designs printed on-demand by spoonflower. I’m lazy so I haven’t ordered any, but it’s a very nice idea.

I’ve been coveting Jenae Michelle’s amazing purses, hand-crafted with gorgeous vintage wool. She had her summer line of super-cute quilted bags marked way down last I saw her at the Downtown Holiday Market, but I’m holding out for one of this winter’s bags. You really need to see them in person to appreciate the depth of the textures and the luxuriousness of the fabrics. Plus, you get the added bonus of a surprise each time you open a bag, because the linings are as beautiful as the exteriors. She’s also at the Torpedo Factory and Eastern Market.

As I was writing this post I clicked over to panda head, a local fashion blog, to find a post from last week I wanted to link to in the fabric round-up. I immediately got derailed by this post about local artist Johanna Mueller, who is not a fabric designer. I was just introduced to her at the Sackler Museum by Michele while we were checking out the Garden and Cosmos: the Royal Paintings of Jodphur at the Sackler Gallery. Small strange world.

Now I’ve been derailed from my original subject, and more specifically from the last link that I picked for today’s post, ecostilleto’s list of Things that Suck. Cotton’s on the list, so maybe I didn’t end up as far afield as I thought.

My Reputation & the Hamiltonian Gallery Opening

I don’t have much to say about our jaunt over to the hipster-infested Hamiltonian Gallery opening . It was a worthy outing, though we didn’t stay long. It was nice to go to an opening where we know maybe 10% of the crowd, 15% tops. The show was packed, which was great, but it was hard to see the art so I don’t have much to say about it right now. I’d really like to install Nao Matsumoto’s “8” but Husband won’t let me buy it. (Go here and click on the thumbnails of the big yellow and black insect heads in the sculpture section, you can’t miss them). We chatted briefly with the artist, who seemed like a nice guy. It was also nice to chat with an artist who didn’t use the conversation as an opportunity to tell me everything that’s wrong with the DC art scene and then stand there staring at me as though I could snap my fingers and fix it with my magic powers. OK, I could snap my fingers and fix it, I just choose not to. I think I’ll say that next time the opportunity arises.

So, instead of discussing the art I didn’t really see, I’ll mention something amusing that happened recently. Husband was gone for a week and, not an hour after I put him on the plane, I got the first phone call from one of our friends making sure I had things to eat in the house. I probably got two to three calls a day from people making sure I was eating. We have very nice friends. Polite ones, as well, ’cause lets be real – I’m not exactly going to waste away to nothing in a week. I’m apparently the human equivalent of Paris Hilton’s chihuahua. I just sit around looking adorable and waiting for food to appear before me. Most of the time, it works. Now if you’ll pardon me, dinner just appeared before me…

glass show at Maurine Littleton Gallery

A very nice show opened last night at the Maurine Littleton Gallery on Wisconsin Avenue (Georgetown). The show is all new glass work by Allegra Marquart, Michael Janis, and Tim Tate. The show is up until October 18th, when it moves to SOFA (Sculptural Art and Functional Objects) in Chicago for the month of November. You can visit the website of the Washington Glass School and Washington Glass Studios for more information about all three of these artists. It was a rainy, crappy evening but it was worth the trip.

We missed Crafty Bastards but ran into a friend at the opening who gave us one of the best capsule reviews ever, “It was hot, it was crowded, and I bought a cookie cutter shaped like a fetus.”