We are so fortunate to have a Ann Barbieri’s work in our gallery! She is a color abstractionist who generally works with florals and landscapes. she site explains,
Ann Barbieri is an exceptional visual player of texture, color and light. She spent her evening explaining her thoughts on the creative process. “I like color and texture. my work has been called exuberant and sensual. I do like moving paint around, the thickness and gooeyness of it. Using collage gives me the texture that I like.”
Ann also answered questions about, When did you know you wanted to be an artist? Where do you get your ideas?, and of course, Can you make a living at it?
To contact Ann in order to see her work or get prices, visit http://www.annbarbieri.com/
Ann’s Studio resides at the Torpedo Factory at Studio 322.
Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 N. Union St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
The faculty Art Show, this year, was a joy! Everyone is working on incredible work!
I really enjoyed hanging the show. Everyone’s art really complimented the space.
This year’s show included some of our NOVA volunteers. Dick White is an exceptional ceramicist and helps the program with creative firings.
Jim McClellan, our Dean of Liberal Arts is an avid photographer and has been traveling the world each year, amassing and beautiful portfolio.
Our student volunteers were also included and everyone is thrilled with the talent and wonderful eye they each have.
Bikki is a master a crystaline glaze. Her work and glazes just glow. She sells her work through the Torpedo Factory and is enjoying a wonderful professional life.
Charl Anne Brew teaches drawing in our Fine Art department.
Mark Roth adjuncts for our Photography Department.
Britt Conley, our Studio Assistant for Fine Arts and Admin Assistant for Music specializes in drawing and painting music. Her studio resides at The Workhouse Arts Center and her work can be seen at The Torpedo Factory and The Arts Club of Washington as well.
Lisa Hill doesn’t just teach Graphic Design, she is also a full artist and her work has, “been been part of numerous museum and gallery shows and invitationals” Her studio resides in Kensington, Maryland.
Christian Hand is the instructional assistant for the Photography Department. She works with large format printing and her visuals are memorable.
Jessica Gardner, our 3-D faculty, is a ceramicist who works with issues of motherhood. Her work can be seen in various venues. and is currently on tour.
Ireene Clayton-Jones is a wonderfully whimsical artist and works as an assistant to our ceramics program.
Pete Van Riper has been teaching art at NOVA for a long time. He specializes in the figure, and currently teaches drawing 1-4.
Amanda Sauer is a an adjunct for the Photography Department.
Amy Reed is an assistant to the Ceramics Program.
Zach Reddin is the Instructional Assistant for Graphic Design. He also has an equally impressive background as a chef.
Greg Eckler is not only a designer, and amazing faculty, he’s also an expert letter artist. That’s where his passion lies.
Angela Terry teaches Design for Web, Typography, Introduction to Graphic Skills as well as running our NOVA studio, an internship opportunity for students to work with real-world clients on projects before they graduate. She is an amazing print maker as well.
Bob Laubach is our Photography Department office manager. Photographing architecture is his passion. His show submissions are from a recent trip to Florida.
Stacy Slaten is our 2-D faculty. She loves birds and especially parrots. She has an upcoming show at the Schlesinger Arts center in 2020.
I was fortunate to get an opportunity to curate a show at The Workhouse Arts Center for July and August. I decided to feature our over 50 community who are in the Arts at Northern Virginia Community College.
We are lucky enough to have adult learners in nearly every class at NOVA. Older students come with a tremendous amount of experience and where-with-all. They are generally very creative and passionately jump into projects. This mindset is shared to the younger students by their simply being in the room with them. Their art is often at a high level of quality, craftsmanship and most importantly, concept. For this reason, it was easy to pull out some examples of what this community has to offer.
The exhibit features the art of JoAnn Ackerman, Britt Conley, D’Arcy Dean, Ireen Cleaton-Jones, Stephen Kohashi, Miyuki Matsuoka, Elizabeth Noguchi, Amy Reed, Tuyen Stricker, Wesley Walker and Dick White. This is a mix of students and varying art department assistants from Ceramics, Fine Art and Photography.
The show will be up for another second Saturday art walk night in August. Please come down to see the show and all of the other artists at The Workhouse Arts Center.
To contact any of the artists email Britt Conley at bconley@nvcc.edu.
Stacy Slaten, our Alexandria 2-D Faculty Arts Professor, put together an incredible opportunity for our students with the Chinese students of Xingtai Polytechnic College.
The exhibition, titled The Great Design Exchange is helping forge international ties between our two countries.
Stacy explains, “The art exchange started with a Alexandria Campus, group visit, by Xingtai’s administrators and professors last Spring 2018. Using an English translator, I started talking to the art and media professors, discussing similarities and differences in our programs and sharing images of NOVA student work. We started a conversation on how our students and colleges could participate in potential projects with economical means. We continued the conversation through email and received an invitation from XPC to share student class images digitally through OneDrive to exhibit at Xingtai in one of their student festivals during summer 2018, eliminating the cost of shipping artwork and keeping the cost to ink and paper at the exhibiting college. I sent ART 131, Design I, 2D collage images to the Xingtai festival and invited the equivalent 2D class at Xingtai to respond to the work and create and send back through OneDrive collage images to exhibit summer 2019. We printed out the Chinese student artwork and hung the show in the Fine Arts Gallery.”
The students have even exchanged feedback and comments on their respective work in critiques.
The students also worked with Lisa Hill in our Graphics program to exchange works between her illustration class and Xingtai’s.
Lisa Hill explains, ” Designers worked with NOVA’s Chinese professor, Dali Tan, in connection with the Department of Arts and Media of Xingtai Polytechnic College to illustrate/design book covers for two compilations of poetry by Emily Dickinson that were translated into Chinese. The books the students could select from were either I Dwell in Possibility or Bring me the Sunset in a Cup. The process included research, thumbnail and refined sketches, final artwork, the typography for the book’s title, author, and relevant information in English and Chinese.
The student work from China was beautifully conceived and produced. Gallery visitor conversations were ongoing as visitors marveled at the beauty and overall aesthetics of the Chinese students. The project is a perfect pairing between two cultures.
Thanks to everyone at Xingtai Polytechnic College!
The Fisher Gallery is featuring three amazing artists, Nataliya Gurshman, Jonathan Ottke and Norma Schwartz, on view from April 27th-June 9th, 2019.
Nataliya Gurshman, adjunct for our Alexandria Fine Art Department filled the main Forum Gallery with her bold and colorful exhibit, My Russian Soul.
As a native of the former Soviet Union, Nataliya brought her childhood memories of Leningrad into her city scapes and energetic abstracted color work. The both provide a sense of place and feeling. My favorite piece of the exhibit sold outright at the opening reception.
Her exhibition offered the opportunity to connect with former students and find out how everyone is doing.
The second artist residing in the upstairs hall Passage Gallery is Jonathan Ottke. His photography exhibit, In a Drop of Water, looks at nature and views of water droplets.
Jonathan wandered Lake Braddock to focus on, “Raindrops falling on a leaf, a blooming flower after a rain, the frozen lake” with inspiration from William Blackes, “see a word in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower.”
He kept Mary Welsh Higgens, the curator for the arts center, busy dolling out red ‘sold’ dots.
She did manage to get a lot of quality time with nearly everyone for all three shows.
The exhibitors were also accompanied by some phenomenal musicians. The lovely sounds, filled the foyers and rooms.
The third artist showing this month is Norma Schwartz. Her exhibit, Shape of Memories: Sculptures by Norma Schwartz is on view in the Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery, also on the 2nd level of the arts center.
Norma’s work can be seen on her website as well. She explains, “As a sculptor, developing the technics, exploring new materials, creating new ways of inhabiting a three-dimensional space, realizing the importance of light, gave me the opportunity to express what for me was impossible to express in a different language; a language with no words.”
Norma was born just before the end of the World War, in Argentina. She spent much of her adult life in Spain, working with women and women’s issues from a psychoanalytic perspective and working on her art. By the 1990’s she moved to the U.S. and began undertaking a greater sculptural approach to her art. Her work beautifully carves into wood, creating all new spaces to explore.
Creating a show that moves the eye through the space and within each work is an artist’s dream. What a wonderful accomplishment!
The work for this and all three shows are still one view until June 9th! Come to campus and head over to The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center. The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday
For additional information about art shows and concert hall events, call the Schlesinger Center at 703.845.6156.
To join the NOVA Alexandria Fine Art Facebook Page, for more information on Campus Arts Department art exhibits visit www.facebook.com/TylerArtsLife
Another year of amazing student work and a great time had by all!!!
This year’s show was headed by our Fine Arts faculty and ceramicist, Jessica Gardner. Jessica is also an artist in her own right and teaching has allowed her to pass on her professional experience to the students, for both creating and showing your work.
Our Juror, Blare Clemo, is a professional ceramicist as well and works as an Assistant Professor of Craft and Material Studies at VCU. He was absolutely wonderful with our students. Great advice to everyone he met.
We had many submissions for this year’s show and his job was challenging. He was impressed with our student work. “Shy Love” by Monique Gurruchaga uses cut out paper and phenomenal craftsmanship!
Xueting Tong’s wonderful, “Scent of a Curve” installation guides the viewer into the gallery by having half of the curving swirl, on the each side of the window.
The gallery at The Center of Design, Media and the Arts, still feels brand new, even though this is our 2nd year since moving into it. The gallery is wonderfully designed with separate alcoves to view the works.
The Show is based on student work that fulfilled an assignment for at least one of our classes over the past year. One of my favorites is the Tie-Wire Project, where students learn about thinking in 3-D and how to see line in a more deliberate way. Sydney Strickland’s rebar tie wire piece asks, “Why Are You Like This?”
It’s always a joy to walk around and see what our students are doing and amazingly talented they are!
The Ceramics were lovely as always! Dogwood Casserole Dish by Britt Brooks.
The show allows many of our students an opportunity to exhibit for the first time. They invite family, friends and support one another.
One of my favorites from the show is the “Robed Guardian” by D’Arcy Dean. I just love the texture.
The great aspect of the show is that the visiting art audience really delves into the works. Every year, the art matters. These viewers are enjoying “Reflected light” a pastel, by Thuy Le Chung Nguyen.
Rightfully so, the students are so creative! This teapot by Katherine Gaynor mixes ceramic and string to express, “War of the Mind.” On one side the teapot looks normal, but when you turn it around you see the inner workings of the mind.
Our students are all passing through this school. They are working hard and deciding what to do with their lives, careers and artistic voice. This show is also a great place to see the creative output of other students and get inspired for new ideas.
It’s a great chance to see varying techniques and processes, up close. This is especially true of Christopher Hanley’s “Swells” sculpture.
Students get to voice their tastes and opinions for the night and put their own work in a new context. Thuy Le Chung Nguyen discussing her art.
Overall, its a wonderful evening. Students visit throughout the evening and in-between classes.
The big draw, however happens at 6:30, when the Juror in introduced and the winners are announced!
This year Jessica wanted to give a huge thank you to the Cafferky family. Tanagra Cafferky is the daughter of Lois Long and she and her family are the ones who are generously donating the art supplies from Lois’ estate, to the students here at NOVA. Louis Long had an inspiring career in the arts exploring ceramics, metal enameling, photograph and much more. She was the author of two books about ceramics. Her passion for the arts will be continued by the continued use of her tools, supplies. Thanks so much Cafferky Family!
3rd prize went to Cecilia Bergh for her lovely pastel self portrait.
Ishta Hurtado won Second Place for her “Chess Inspired Trio.”
Ishta Hurtado’s “Chess Inspired Trio.”
The First Prize went to Oz Bender for “Skelefem.”
His “Skelefem” is made of painted steel.
Everyone had a GREAT time. The food was great, the art is great and everyone came to enjoy a wonderful opening reception.
Jessica and Clemo pose with our honorable mention winner, Xueting Tong.
She won for her Blue and White Tea Pot.
Jeff Pounding also won an honorable mention for his work titled, “Generations.”
We had some visiting teachers from Annandale as well! Thanks to Michael Dowley for supporting us tonight!
Nathan Johnson enjoying speaking with students at the opening reception.
Our Dean, Jimmy Mclellan came by to visit with the students as well as Dr. Haggray, our Provost. We are so fortunate to have such supportive people helping make the NOVA experience a wonderful one.
Jennifer Webster created a lovely small vase in clay. The glaze is just beautiful.
Art asks for conversation and tonight started many new ones. Joann Ackerman’s vase, “My Kind of Woman” is a engaging piece.
Bavarian Vase in oil by Elizabeth Good
One of my other favorites are these wonderful figurines created by Miyuki Matsuoka. She made these in response to visiting the Terracata Warriors show in Richmond. She decided to create new ones and put them in a different context, relaxing around a fire. Their new world is titled, “Once upon a war time in China”
The show work is fun, rich with color and texture! Malik Stanley’s Autobiography Project as wonderfully charming.
So great to find friends at the reception! Mary sings in our NOVA Community Chorus and Elizabeth is our is an amazing photographer and volunteer for our photo department.
Tim Buffalo poses in front of his very cool album cover style artwork, T3rminal 3rror above Emily Schneider’s “Neutral” collage.
Stephan made a sale!!! Need I say more.
Taryn Lyons was thrilled with the show!
Every artist should be very proud. This is the start of many new opportunities! Marjorie Henriquez rocked her, graphite “Interior Design Project.”
The show is up until March 4th! Come on by! It’s worth the visit!
Xiomara Fontanez posses in front of her work, “Heaven’s Gate Memorial.”
The Cafferkys were thrilled to see the art supplies having been used in our student artwork already!
Yohan Cho created a lovely pastel work titled Plush Reflection.
For more information about department events, please visit our Facebook Page! www.facebook.com/TylerArtsLife
Our Associate Dean, Karly White enjoying Lyle Priddy’s “Provence House.”
Haruko Greenberg discussing her work, “Tea for Three” to a very appreciative audience.
Well, I’d say this year’s show was a hit! For all of you students that are currently working away… Anything from this semester to Spring 2020 is eligible to enter the 2020 Student Fine Art Show. We hope to see you next year, even if you are graduating before then!
Blog post by Britt Conley, Studio Assistant to the Fine Art Department, Admin. Assistant to the Music Department.
A very fun exhibition featuring Artists who Teach from the tri-state area of Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
Joseph Wade instructs at St. Stephens and St. Agnes School. He submitted multiple 3-D works. His Wooden Chipboard Boxes and ceramic cups are wonderfully paired.
High Water Mark at the Spring House, a monoprint by Emily Shepardson, began, “as a silkscreen print of a small outbuilding,” before she used Akua inks with stencils of her own creation. She says, “I particular like the interplay of orange and turquoise inks and the way of the path take s you into and out of the image.” Emily teaches at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
Hiromi Isobe created “Hot Step” a lovely Acrylic on Canvas painting that fills the visual space with a seemingless endless journey. Hiromi instructs art at Washington and Lee High School.
Drew Mulligan, an instructor in Arlington created this lovely salt print, Untitled #26. The shapes dialog across the space in a lovely way, where negative space is darker and the whites move the eye.
It always nice to see our Provost, Dr. Haggray. She attends our arts events on a regular basis and engages with everyone in her quest for meanings in everyone’s artistic intent. She and our Dean are wonderfully supportive of all our students efforts.
Amy Bruce, an instructor from Edison High School, created this incredible mixed-media, 100 day project. Each day, she created another 6×6 panel using paint, wax paper, ephemera and digital paints to support a new quote. The students loved this and everyone read through each day’s quote.
Kate Elkins, who also teaches at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School, drew this beautiful portrait, titled, Paige, a high school art student. The medium is charcoal on hand-toned paper.
Opening’s offer a great opportunity for our arts community to get together, say hello and get excited about how the semester is going. Our Associate Dean for the Arts, K.V., (seen walking as she views the work), loved the show.
Virginia Teaford, who teaches at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, came with her family. Her painting is displayed with Beth Coast’s beautifully shaped ceramic bowl. The color and curves in each complement one another. Virginia’s 30×40 painting was inspired by the Kennilworth Gardens in D.C. She explains, the gardens are “Mysterious and overwhelming in scope.” She wanted to capture how the garden’s, “lead you in and encloses the viewer.”
Jade Xia, a teacher from St. Stephens and St. Agnes School, loves botanicals. Her oil on canvas, “Blackberry” is palpably juicy. You can almost taste the fruit. She describes herself as, “a faithful pupil of nature and constantly in awe of it’s great work. If I lived in J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth, I’d be a Hobbit – not only, because I am short and love food, but also because I share their love of “good tilled earth, things that grow and peace and quiet.” With her greater work she describes “the tensions between branches of plants,” as being, “comparable to human relationships, their stories are growth and decay echo the fundamental human concern with life and death.”
Our visiting artists from this exhibit work at both public and charter schools, teaching in the arts. The reception offered a wonderful opportunity to meet up. Hiromi Isobe, from Washington and Lee is photographed by Faylinda Kodis of H.B. Woodlawn.
George Laumann, who also teaches at H-B Woodlawn, created this photograph, titled, “In Memory of Haley.” He explains, the work is from, “a series of digital photographs reflecting the loss I felt when my niece tragically died in a traffic accident, several years ago. In the photo I’m represented by my shadow and the reflection over Haleys image in the cell phone.” This powerful image was placed on it’s own wall in the gallery.
Faylinda’s mixed media work, Cisco Bay is wonderfully narrative. The color appears to jump off the monocromatic background. A wonderful mix for movement of the eye. Faylinda teaches at H.B.-Woodlawn.
One of the anchor pieces of the show is Cecily Corcoran’s, “This is What Democracy Looks Like.” Cecily teaches at Swanson Middle School and her oil on canvas painting pays homage to the Women’s March.
Students really enjoyed the opportunity to meet some of the artists this night. They were able to ask them about the works, as well as their life as an artists and teachers.
Julie Gilmore is a ceramicist who teaches in Alexandria at Mount Vernon High School and at the Workhouse. Her, “Teapot Red Amour” opens the exhibit space with an intimate and detailed ,two piece work. The deep red glaze, called Randy’s Red, offers a lovely warmth.
Kenmore Middle School’s, Jeff Wilson created this wonderfully structured, mixed-media, lit sculpture. He incorporates, lids and fencing material with thread and micro LED lights. He explains, “I have been collecting lids for 30 years and have a collection of about 30,000. Lids have become my medium of choice.”
Jeff spent much of the reception explaining his work to eager ears.
He thanked Stacy Slaten, our faculty 2-D teacher for the organizing the show. Each year we put on a topic show which brings in artists from the community to show in our gallery and give the students the opportunity to see what professional artists are doing, meet with them and learn about how create, manage their work and time.
T.C. Williams, Minne Howard’s, Anna Davila stands with her poignant, oil on canvas work, titled “The Protector.” The work speaks volumes.
Julie Gilmore takes a look at Miriam Cutelis’ mixed-media painting, “First Signs of Spring,” which is created with glue and acrylic paint. The work perfectly pairs with Beth Coast’s wheel thrown and altered Raku vase.
Raku is always a very interesting ceramic process. This work by Beth Coast is another show stopper. She has numerous works in the show and they all show variations on lovely folded form.
Rachel Albert’s “Back Where it Begins,” is a colorful mixed media sculpture created with copper wire and fused glass. The linear quality of the wire with glass beads, wonderfully reflects the lined fussed glass base.
Rachel also created her, “Book of Life” which she illuminated from the underside with LED lighting. The ceramic book with glass overlay offers a wonderful effect with the light. Rachel teaches at Bryant High School.
Rachel also created, “On Culture,” made with Clay, Acrylic and Sand on Wood. The coloring is fantastic. All, small elephants lined up in rows. The work, she explains, represents, “Reflections of race, culture and privilege.
Anna Davila and Amy Bruce discuss their art at the opening reception.
Joseph Wade, also created this ceramic, “Wood Fired Pottery” set.
Another stunning mixed media drawing is Sara Bukoski Lovelace’s “Pink Plants.” Sara teaches at Mount Vernon Community School. “Creating quickly and wildly in mixed media, with many materials at once,” she explains, “is my favorite way to create and where I feel most natural and at home creatively.”
Green Spring, by Janice Rollins, is an acrylic on paper work of the famed Green Spring Gardens, in Fairfax County. Janice teaches at George Washington Middle School.
Julie Gilmore also created this serene watercolor titled, Grandma’s Barn. Julie teaches at Mount Vernon High School and at the Workhouse Arts Center.
Another Mount Vernon High School teacher, Lauren Strummer works with dry point etching. “Home,” is a lovely etching of two lambs, “gently nuzzling.”
Watching my Back is an incredibly colorful and energized oil painting on wood panel. Angelika Schafer instructs at Mount Vernon High School.
Students photographing Allen Beland’s Strange Fruit, a digital, infrared image, printed on canvas. Allen teaches at Yorktown High school.
Jordana Rochkard created, “I Wish,” an encaustic painting with text. She teaches at Patrick Henry Elementary.
Rebecca in Wonderland, Portrait of the Daughter is an oil on canvas work from Ksenya Litvak who teaches at Commonwealth Academy.
The opening was a real treat for us. To meet many of our area artist-teachers and hear about their work and artistic lives was beneficial for all of us. A big thank you and a round of applause to ALL the artists who participated!
What a phenomenal night! The Graphic Design Department put on an amazing topic show, American Stories American Stamps, for our gallery in the Center for Design, Media and the Arts. American Stories, American Stamps features the Art/Design work of Antonio Alcala, Greg Breeding, Ethel Kessler and Derry Noyes who are the master minds behind many of the commemorative artistic stamps for the U.S. Postal Service.
The exhibit showcases the work of four American stamp designers, showing the process of how stamps are created. There is a great deal of research during the creative process. The individual stamp subjects always come with fascinating histories. Trying to cull down the essence of a subject into one iconic stamp can take a great deal of time and resources before the first designs are even made.
There is so much to take in and learn about with this exhibition, including some insight into timelines, and how and when the stamps are issued.
The exhibit provides a well rounded education about the idealism of the American stamp, the creative process and the individual artistic efforts of each artist’s creative mind.
The show also illustrates each artist’s “timeless design principles” and how these, “stories… shape our collective identity as Americans.”
The first half of the reception a chance to absorb all the incredible stamp stories and designs.
The Forever Stamp doors offered up the perfect selfie spot! It wasn’t long before people took advantage of a great opportunity!
One of the other big hits of the night were reading the stories from students, staff and faculty. Many of us created our own stamps and told our own American Story.
These personal tributes to people, places, moments and historic events were compelling and unique to each contributor.
After our initial gallery viewing opportunity, it was time to move over to the next venue to get a chance to learn from them during the AIGA DC Design Week Designers’ Talk.
Lisa Hill, the head of the Graphics program moderated an informative session with three designers: Greg Breeding, Ethel Kessler and Antonio Alcala. The evening’s program states, “Ms. Kessler has designed educational materials for the U.S. postal Service and in January 1997, she was appointed design consultant to the USPS for the creation of commemorative postal stamps. She has spent the last 25 years working with museums, corporations, public and private institutions and professional service organizations.
Greg Breeding studied typography at VCU before beginning, “his career working for non-profits. in 1992 he co-founded the Journey Group, where he is currently president. Mr. Breeding has taught design courses international and is the recipient of Print’s Regional Design Annual, Communication Arts, the Society of Publication Designers and the Florida Magazine Association. Breeding’s first stamp as art director for the U.S. Postal Service was the 2012 issuance, The War of 1812.”
Antonio Alcala served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010-11, before becoming the art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program. The program continues, “After working as a book designer and freelance graphic designer, Alcala opened Studio A in 1988. Since then his stido has won awards of excellence in design from local, national and international design institutions including AIGA, Print, Communication Arts, and Graphics. His clients include: The National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gallery, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection and Smithsonian Institution.”
Everyone loved hearing their stories about the stamp creation process, the team of people that help in research and how they came to be where they are. It was an incredible panel!
For those of us that were lucky enough to pop in and out while at work, we had a great chance to really soak in the various stamps and stories.
There was one designer who could not be here for the panel. Derry Noyes. Noyes, created the Disney Villains stamps.
Noyes’ bio states, “She has provided art direction for dozens of United States postage stamps and stamp products for more than 30 years. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundation and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine and Graphis.”
This exhibit was possible due to help of many people!
including:
Studio A
The Journey Group
Ethel Kessler Design, Inc.
Derry Noyes Graphics
Dodge Chrome
AIGA and AIGA Design Week
NOVA Graphic Design
NOVA Alexandria Student Life
NOVA Studio
NOVA Alexandria Languages, Arts and Social Sciences Division
and
The Alexandria Provosts Office.
Blog post by Britt Conley
For more information about this exhibit please contact Lisa Hill at ehill@nvcc.edu
Every Month or so, you can find amazing art, right here on campus and down the hill from Center for Design, Media and the Arts. The place? The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center!!! Artists from all over the world display here and come for opening receptions and gallery talks.
This past Saturday September 22nd, there were dozens of people hobnobbing and absorbing all the art, between 2-4pm at the opening reception for three artists, currently on view at the Schlesinger’s various galleries: Saya Behnam, Teresa Jarzynski and John d. Antone.
Saya is an Iranian artist who moved to America to flee the war and revolution. Her work is not political but a means for universal experience from the essences of color.
Saya Benham who’s stunning color work, currently graces the Forum Gallery show tremendous forethought and effort before the brush ever moves across the canvas. Saya doesn’t just paint, she hunts and forages forests, gardens and other countries for had picked flowers, spices and minerals to boil and extract into her own colors, much as they did in prior centuries and still do in many countries around the world.
She explains her particular piece, made entirely of hibiscus colorants.
The flowers often produce different coloring that varies according to their extraction processing. Reds for example, can be run the gamut between deep red to a lighter mauve.
After viewing the main gallery we journeyed upstairs to the Passage Gallery to meet the artist Teresa Jarzynski’s and view her lovely landscape paintings.
Teresa work revolves around the ‘beauty and mystery’ of nature mixed with the particular visual elements of shape and form.
Between these combinations, resides the “ephemeral, a dream come and gone, a moment in time captured and then dissipated like the passing of a cloud.” A perfect description of her art and show: “The Inscape of My Landscape: Clouds Revisited.
Along the passage is the opening to the Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery which is featuring the amazing bronze sculptures of John Antone.
His studio resides at the foot of the Alps, in Komenda, Slovenia. He uses the, ” lost was technique’ for his bronze castings.
John, explains, many of his sculptures are, “Created by gathering branches through walks in the forest, imagined and transformed in bronze, my sculptures invites us to reflects upon the beauty of the natural world and our humanity. I often use the universal symbol of the house in my work as an abstract way to invite people to think and to dream.”
All three artist’s work is on view now through November 4th and the gallery hours are from 10:00-4:00pm weekdays and weekends and during public events. Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center, 4915 East Campus Drive, Alexandria, VA 22311
For more information contact Mary Higgins at Mhiggens@nvcc.edu
And while you are looking for artistic events, this is where our Music Department FREE concerts occur among the many regional shows the concert hall provides.
Please come to our NOVA student and community concerts at the hall:
Tuesday, Oct. 16: NOVA Community Chorus & the GMU choruses, 8-9:45pm, Schlesinger Concert Hall, 8pm
Thursday, Oct. 25: NOVA Alexandria Concert Band & the GMU Wind Symphony, 8-10pm, Schlesinger Concert Hall. Come here both bands perform compositions by NOVA students! Also hear French horn guest artist from the Air Force Band, Kate Fitzpatrick.
I love being able to see what everyone is up to creatively. This annual show collects those creative works from the Photography, Fine Arts and Graphic Design department faculty and staff. This year proved to be another amazingly prolific year for everyone.
The show runs August 27th – September 20th, 2018.
Although more are busy teaching, everyone still carries on with their creative lives. Nataliya Gurshman is a specialist in color.
There are numerous amazing graphic design works including a wonderful one from Angela Terry, which she created for Mount Vernon.