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Pat Goslee at DCAC

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 22, 2008

Wilt

Pat Goslee has a great new haircut

Pat Goslee has been a busy, busy girl this year; it seems to me that she's had a burst of energy that animates her new work and sort of cosmically pulls people to it. Her newest show opened last night at DCAC, which is a pretty cool place and a story in itself. DCAC (DC Arts Center) was founded almost 20 years ago as a response to the general lack of interest shown by the official DC arts industrial complex to local artists and has thrived since then in the heart of scene-y Adams Morgan largely due to the use of rent-free space owned by Herb White, himself a local DC arts institution who sadly died last year. (That last sentence grossly exceeds the international length standard.) But I digress.

His Directorship B. Stanley

Exhale

I first became enamored of Pat's encaustics years ago - they were dense, thick, ropey pieces involving strands of colored wax in a deconstructed woven effect. I even scored one at an indecently cheap price from a local benefit auction. Her current work is oil and mixed media and the layers have moved from the physically actual to the virtual - condensed physically on the surface of the canvas, but somehow deeper than before. Her color has always been beguiling and complex. In Pat's own words: "We tend to think of our bodies as solid things, but what are we other than energy? And what does that energy—that concrete space that is both here and not here—look like, feel like?"

Karen Topping, Gallery Director and her successor

20 X 20 champagne send-off

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 22, 2008

Anna Davis and Peter

John Adams and his very nice friend

It's too late for you to see the 20 x 20 show if you missed it, but I'm going to post some pictures anyway to give a flavor of the merriment Thursday evening at the champagne closing party given by the fabulous folks at Coldwell Banker in DuPont Circle. Thanks, happy real estate guys (athough I can't imagine how you stay happy these days. Maybe it's the champagne?) They put on a truly memorable opening reception two months ago, with better food than some weddings I've attended and they donated their share of the proceeds of sales to charity. So good on you, Coldwell Bankers.

Tar on plexi with reflection

Sondra the Curator and Anna

My piece was one of my new tars on wood, mounted on shiny black plexiglass.The photography sucks and i couldn't get rid of the reflection. sorry.

My Resource List for New DC Artists

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 18, 2008

I just put this together for the panel on Survival and Art at Montgomery College tomorrow night and I thought it might be useful to post it here.

Ellyn Weiss’s Resource List

You must get on the email lists for:
Washington Project for the Arts – WPA (this one you should also join), www.wpadc.org
slide directory, Artist Directory, calendar

D.C. Cultural Development Corporation, www.culturaldc.org
studio space/ live-work space, calendar, opportunities

Arts and Humanities Commission of Montgomery County, www.creativemoco.com
grants, public art, opportunities

D.C.Commission on the Arts and Humanities, dcarts.dc.gov
grants, public art, opportunities

You should participate in:

Artomatic www.artomatic.org

periodic, unjuried arts free-for-alls

artdc.org

discussion groups, post images,informal get-togethers

Artist-owned (co-op) galleries
Touchstone Gallery (7th and D Sts, NW, DC), www.touchstonegallery.com

Studio Gallery (2108 R. St NW, DC), www.studiogallerydc.com

Waverly Street Gallery (Bethesda), creativepartnersart.com

Miscellaneous
VisArts (115 Gibbs St., Rockville), www.visartscenter.org, studio space (open to public),exhibition and teaching opportunities

Greenbelt Arts Center, (Centerway, Greenbelt) , www.greenbeltartscenter.org
studio residencies, exhibition and teaching opportunities

Torpedo Factory (Alexandria), www.torpedofactory.org

Black Rock Center for the Arts (Germantown), www.blackrockcenter.org
exhibition opportunities

Blogs:
Daily Campello Arts News, dcartnews.blogspot.com

DCist.com

http://annemarchand.blogspot.com, she’ll post your notices

Me - www.eweissart.com/index.php/News

Make Art and Survive - Wednesday night panel

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 16, 2008

I am a panelist on this program to be given Wednesday evening from 6 - 9 at the truly impressive new Cafritz Foundation Art Center at Montgomery College in Silver Spring. The official press release is below. Come on by - there's a nice reception planned pre-program and the facility itself is definitely worth seeing.

Working and Surviving as an Artist Seminar

When: Wednesday November 19, 2008 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Working and Surviving as an Artist: Establishing and Maintaining Professional Relationships: The seminar will examine strategies and practices needed to work and survive as a visual artist. The seminar panelists: June Linowitz, artist and founder of ArtSeen, Inc; Ellyn Weiss, artist and curator; and Claudia Rousseau, PhD, art historian and critic.

The panelists will draw on their professional visual arts experiences as artists, curators, gallery directors, art historians and art critics to provide valuable strategies for conducting business in the visual arts world. Susie Leong, Director of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County's Public Arts Trust will serve as moderator for the seminar.

This seminar is the first in a series on working as a visual artist. Reception & Tour 6:00 - 6:45pm Join them for a reception with light fare, open gallery, Cafritz Art Center tour and viewing of the Cafritz Art Center exhibition American Psyche, curated by the Brooklyn Arts Alliance and sponsored by Pyramid Atlantic and Montgomery College's Takoma Park/Silver Spring Visual Arts Department.

At the Lecture Hall of The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Art Center, 930 King Street, Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus of Montgomery College.

Registration is required. Advanced registration $20. Day of registration, $25.

Please visit www.creativemoco.com for more information, or contact Mark Puryear at 301-565-3805, or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Open Studios Report

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 16, 2008

We had open studios in Mt. Ranier today, including Sinel/Stewart/Weiss. I neglected to give advance notice here because I like to keep these events as intimate and sparsely attended as possible. Or maybe it's because I'm an idiot. Yeah, that would be it. But anyway, despite my best efforts, we had a good crowd coming through and I met some really interesting people and had some throught-provoking conversations triggered by the manifesto statement from the "Under Surveilance" show that was in the window at Nevin Kelly and which is now on my studio wall.

November 5, 2008

Continuing the idiot theme, I also forgot to take pictures (although the forgetfulness would also have been aided by the wine flowing throughout the afternoon). But I do have this picture of my newest big guy on the studio wall. I have been having kind of a blockage the last month or so, so in order to try and work through it, I put a 12 foot long piece of paper on the wall and just started to play. It started before the election but afterward, it got much happier. It's called "November 5, 2008." Yay. See all the "O"s?

And BTW - If you missed this one - or even if you didn't - we have another open studios event on Saturday, December 13 from 2 - 6. This time the Washington Glass School , home of the fabulously talented trio of Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers and a bunch of their terrific students, will be holding its famous annual holiday sale at the same time, an event which is not to be missed.

Sinel/Stewart/Weiss is at 3706 Wells Ave, Mt. Ranier, just across the driveway from the Glass School and a scant two blocks from the DC line, for all you suburb-phobes. Come on out to the land of affordable studio space.

Aquifer at Edison Place

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

November 11, 2008

Gail Gorlitzz's Rain

The Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) and the Washington Sculptors Group have put together an engaging exhibit at Edison Place, Pepco's expansive gallery space at 702 8th St. NW, (around the corner from my favorite DC "official art" museum, the American Art and Portrait Gallery.) And a shout-out to Pepco, our local electric utility and arts benefactor, which has been loaning this beautiful space to arts groups for many years, and not always the usual established artworld suspects, either. So thanks for that, but I'm still turning my lights out when I leave the room. But, as usual, I digress.

As the title indicates, this juried show is themed around water, broadly construed. There's a lot of worthy stuff here and it's beautifully presented, lighted in a way that is not often seen and uncrowded, so that each work can inhabit its own space and is not adversely affected by its neighbors - a common problem in group shows. I particularly loved Gail Gorlitzz's two pieces. Rain is made up of three light-as-air ceiling-hung constructions of plastic, filament and beads that look like celestial jellyfish. Eye Sea is a shimmering underwater creature knitted of cord, metal wire and plastic and studded with jeweled eyes, beautiful and creepy at the same time, like so many creatures of the deep sea. Both are both beautifully conceived and meticulously crafted.

Betsy Stewart and friends at the opening (I'm behind the camera.)

Also not to be missed is the work by my friend (and co-studio inhabitant in Mt. Ranier) Betsy Stewart. Here is Betsy at the opening, (please excuse my inability to deal with that klieg light on the ceiling. But isn't that clumsiness with the camera all part of my charm?) Betsy's piece is a beautiful pillar- like painting pulsing with organic imagery so watery you can feel it.

Judy Jashinsky at Reyes + Davis

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

October 26, 2008

Fisherwoman Ascending

Bridget Reyes at the opening

No, I don't do publicity for Reyes + Davis; Bridget Reyes just keeps showing terrific stuff by artists who have been working in this town for a long time and I think it's important to recognize those often called the "mid-career" artists who've been turning out the goods consistently but sometimes get crowded out by the performing kiddies. Does that make me a codger? Tough shit. But I digress.

detail of a huge piece

Judy Jashinsky was my next-door studio neighbor at the late, lamented Millenium Arts Center (the subject of previous rants on this page). She has long been painting about real events, often those which feature the roles of strong but under-recognized women in history. I would classify it as broadly within the conceptual framework, but unlike much thematic artwork, Judy's work is always visually arresting and done with sensitive thoughtfulness and consummate technique. I mean, the girl can paint.

Mark Planisek was there

bad picture of Judy (soooo sorry, girl)

This current series is about the Ama, Japanese fisherwomen whose superior skill and stamina underwater have made them the breadwinners of their rugged, austere island communities. The fisherwomen Judy depicts in their most familiar underwater environment are fearless, strong and graceful. These gorgeous paintings, rendered in glowing blues, give them the dignity and status they deserve.

Laurel Hausler at Nevin Kelly

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

October 19, 2008

The Divine Ms. H

Laurel Hausler's new show, "A History of Dogs and Witches" opened Thursday night at Nevin Kelly. The young Ms. Hausler has put together a show that combines content, sometimes scary and mostly provocative, with an old school painterly technique that perfectly suits the imagery. The pictures are full of women styled in the kind of 1950's aesthetic I associate with Harper Lee (think lunch in the Garfinckle's tearoom in Richmond), but these ladies are haunted by fear and dread and are barely suppressing their anger at a situation they can't control. They are poised on the verge of letting it all go, unleashing the violence of their terrors.

Department Store Witches

One of my favorites is "Department Store Witches", depicting two of the ladies who lunch. One of them is on the edge of dissolution, both visually and viscerally, and the other seems to be hanging on by a thread.

Hanging "Earth in the Balance"

Latest News and Thoughts from Ellyn Weiss

Oct. 14, 2008

Leila Holtsman and The Flood

Elliott Kvetch

We hung the "Earth in the Balance" show at the Union of Concerned Scientists Sunday afternoon. (That's the one I co-juried) From about 120 submissions, space considerations limited us to selecting 16 and a lot of spectacular art couldn't be taken because either it was just too big or my co-jurors the Theme Nazis couldn't see the connection to the theme. (just kidding, guys. Kind of...) Anyway, the show is pretty great. Perhaps my personal favorite is Leila Holtsman's steel and ceramic wallpiece, "The Flood" that evokes islands being slowly submerged by the rising sea level. It actually changes over time, as the rust on the steel surface expands, devouring more of the islands. She had to come hang it herself since it weighs a boatload and a half and she has a system for doing it. There are lots of other great pieces, which I'll talk about later, after the opening reception. The show will be up for a year and it can be seen during business hours at the Union of Concerned Scientists' very green office space at 1825 K St. NW. UCS won the highest LEED certification for environmentalI design at this space, so if you're interested in how to green an existing plain vanilla downtown office, it's worth a visit just for that.

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