Gateway Arts & Brentwood Arts Exchange Gallery Events

Gateway Arts Center and The Brentwood Arts Exchange feature a number of WGS artists in shows opening this weekend.

WGS' photographic dynamic duo of Alison & Pete Duvall are each featured in the "The Sky's the Limit, the 2011 Prince George's County Juried Exhibition", presenting art in all media that incorporate photographic techniques. Juried by Michael Platt, the exhibition features purchase prizes by the Prince George's Ars Councial and The M-NCPPC Prince George's Department of Parks and Recreation.

Arrow of Potential, Robert Kincheloe 2011; cast and torchworked borosilicate glass

Robert Kincheloe - our head of the lampworking department - will be the first artist showcased in the Brentwood Arts Exchange's new 'Feature Artist' program. Rob will be presenting many of his cast borosilicate glass artworks. His work will be exhibited in the Crafts Showroom area.

Opening Reception:

Saturday, September 10, 5-8pm

Exhibition Continues:

September 5 - October 31

Brentwood Arts Exchange @ Gateway Arts Center

3901 Rhode Island Avenue

Brentwood, MD 20722

301.277.2863

Upstairs @ the 39th Street Gallery

WGS artist Debra Ruzinsky, and ceramic artist Novie Trump are two of the of the artists curated by Phil Davis for the 39th Street Gallery show " Trade. An art exhibition based on exchange portfolios."

Joan Belmar, Serena Perrone, Debra Ruzinsky, Justin Strom, Jon Swindler, Laura G. Thorne, Novie Trump, and Tom Wolff.

“Trade” is exchange; it means “commerce” and “profession.” The exhibition Trade at the 39th Street Gallery intends to be all of those things. It’s about working in the arts, meant to be transparent about placing the gallery and the Gateway CDC are at the center of all the things galleries do: supporting artists, building relationships, creating discourse, and yes, funding the continuation of those efforts. Based on the concept of an exchange portfolio and curated by Phil Davis, Trade brings together eight artists to each create a new edition of 12 artworks. Every artist will receive one work by each other artist, becoming one another’s collectors and inevitably also one another’s promoters. The remaining four works in each edition are available for sale – all at the same price of $250. It’s a rare opportunity to collect work by established artists at such an affordable level. Proceeds go directly to the artists and also benefit the Gateway CDC, which in turn supports arts programming in the 39th Street Gallery as well as work to continue developing the Gateway Arts District.

September 10 – October 29, 2011.

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 10. 5:00 – 8:00pm

39th Street Gallery

www.39thstreetgallery.org

Gallery Hours:
7pm – 9pm Thursday – Friday
12pm – 4pm Saturdays

Update on WGS Collaborative Artwork

Above grid includes work from top, L to R: Allegra Marquart, Jennifer Lindstrom, Jackie Greeves, Robert Kincheloe, Evan Morgan, Dave Cook.

As mentioned in a posting earlier this year, the Washington Glass School's will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary with the creation of a collaborative artwork that will be mounted on the front facade of the glass school.

WGS Director Tim Tate organizes and sets out the artwork tiles into the steel grid framework.

Copper & glass panel is collaboration between metalsmith Chris Shea and glass artist Don Daniels.

Glass panels made by filmmakers Jon Gann and Kerri Sheehan.

Installation of the glass panels will take place in the next week or so (certainly after the Hurricane Irene is has passed).

Proposed artwork location at the front of the glass school. The author of this article is depicted as leaving the studio.

When Keyboards and Waffles Mix

It's National Waffle Day!
Waffle Day is the holiday that you can waffle on issues and decisions. And, it certainly is a day to eat waffles.

The "holiday" marks the anniversary of the first U.S. patent for a waffle iron, which Cornelius Swarthout received on August 24, 1869.

A Quick Waffle History Lesson

13th Century A.C. - Ancient Greeks cook flat cakes between two metal plates. These early waffles were called obleios and were primarily savory in nature, prepared with cheeses and herbs.
1620 - The pilgrims bring Dutch "wafles" to America.
1735 - The word "waffle" - with two "f"s - appears in English print for the first time.
Late 1800's - Thomas Jefferson returns to the U.S. from France with a long handled, patterned waffle iron.
1869 - Cornelius Swarthout patents the first U.S. Waffle Iron.
1953 - Frank Dorsa's Eggo Frozen Waffles are sold in Supermarkets for the first time. (A dark day)
1964-65 - Brussels restaurateur Maurice Vermersch brings his wife's Brussels Waffle recipe to the World's Fair in New York. The fluffy yeast-infused waffle becomes a huge hit and becomes known as the Belgium waffle.

And how bad do you want a waffle right now? Be sure to honor the waffle today.

Installation of Safeway Supermarket Public Art Project

Safeway Bethesda site construction photo August 22, 2011

Earlier posts on the Washington Glass School Blog featured the design and fabrication of Safeway supermaket's first public art project - located here in Bethesda and created by the Washington Glass Studio.
Installation of the public artwork has begun. The cast glass panels were made from recycled glass taken from the original supermarket during the demolition phase, and the salvaged glass was cast in a bas-relief method to create translucent panels that referenced fresh herbs - perfect for a new LEED Certified building that would house the trendy Safeway supermarket.

Erwin Timmers installs the cast glass & steel panels.

Evan Morgan affixes the glass panels to the steel framework.

Interior view of the artwork - looking out towards Bradley Ave. Bethesda, MD.

The concept of the panels was to have the artwork allow openings to allow the interior and exterior blur - approx 25% of each building bay is open to allow air flow.

Hardware still-life.

Roche Constructors are the builders of the project - and they have a Safeway webcam. Click on the link and at the top is a time-lapse feature that allows one to see the project's demo-to-current construction status. Click HERE to jump to the Roche webcam site.

UPDATE: Click HERE to jump to finished project images.

Kris Coronado Dishes on the Story Behind Erwin Timmers

Kris Coronado's article about Erwin Timmers and his eco-art that uses recycled glass and salvaged components for his artwork and the classes he teaches was in the Washington Post magazine this weekend.

Kris writes more about the experience and has more images on her blog - click HERE to jump to her blog.

Washington Post Magazine Features Environmental Artist Erwin Timmers

photo by Ben Tankersley / Washington Post

The Washington Post Sunday Magazine has a great article about how Erwin Timmers is able to source artwork from ordinary cast-offs. Washington Post writer Kris Coronado interviewed Erwin for the "Closer Inspection" column of the magazine, and spent the day at the school with photographer Ben Tankersley, wanting to know the story of seemingly every piece of glass they found.

Washington Post's Ben Tankersley sets up an impromptu photo studio for Erwin Timmers work

Kris writes: "Erwin Timmers, artist and co-founder of the Washington Glass School in Mount Rainier, has taken recycling to heart. “That’s my carbon footprint,” he jokes, pointing to a depression of his boot set in the large slab of repurposed green glass hung on the wall. “I like using objects that everybody recognizes that are everyday, common items,” he says, “that people don’t really realize what value they have ... until they end up in the trash heap."

Washington Post Magazine "Closer Inspection" Sunday, August 21, 2011

Get your paper this weekend! Or for those looking to minimize their carbon footprint - click HERE to read the article online. Want to know more about Erwin's upcoming class on fusing with recycled glass or making tables with recycled glass? Click HERE to jump to the Washington Glass School online class list.

Penland Auction Makes New Record

View of Penland Auction tent. Photo by Sean Hennessey.

Penland School of Crafts held its 26th Annual Benefit Auction this past week. The gala weekend in the North Carolina mountains featuring the sale of more than 230 works in books, clay, drawing, glass, iron, letterpress, metals, painting, photography, printmaking, textiles, and wood. The auction is one of the most important craft collecting events in the Southeast and helps support Penland's educational programs, which have helped thousands of people to live creative lives.

Artists, Museum Directors and Curators, Collectors, and Art Aficionados were in attendance during the weekend.

Under the tent, the auctions are preceded with cocktails and dinner.

Evan Morgan and jeweler/artist Lola Brooks.

Noted wood art collector Fleur Bresler and her son Ed Bresler.
Glass artist Susan Taylor Glasgow.

Wyona Lynch-McWhite, Executive Director of the Fuller Craft Museum and glass/concrete artist Sean Hennessey.

Collectors had a chance to look thru the Penland catalog at amazing works.

This summer's Penland Auction made a record amount of over $600,000 raised with over 550 people attending, not to mention a hundred local volunteers!
One of the highest bid pieces was Tim Tate's "Four Seasons"....a cast glass and video series sculpture, tying the record amount for a non-commissioned with, set by Penland's favorite potter, Cynthia Bringle.

Tim Tate's "Four Seasons"

Showcasing the artwork during the auction.

Tim's work on the auction screen.

Want to see a vid of the actual record-tying auction? Click on image below to watch the auction of Tim's artwork.

New Class Added to Schedule - Basic Arduino!

A new class has been added to the class schedule for the Washington Glass School Fall/Winter Schedule:
Class 1125- Using New Technology in Your Artwork - Basic Arduino For Artists

Here's a class is specifically designed for artists who want to incorporate programmable electronics into their existing artwork. The Arduino is a small, versatile and simple controller that's been been used and tested by the tech savvy crowd and is now ready for artistic use. Use this new technology to make your artwork more interactive, add a 4th dimension to your 3-d sculpture, or have motion controlled sound emanate from your paintings!

Its time to enter the 21st century!

We will be focusing on work that will contain movement, light or sound. The first day we will survey what's out in the world, while dissecting its components. Day 2 will focus on your designs and how to incorporate these interactions into it. This is the day you need to come in with ideas! Day 3 will be the final assembly so that you will be able to go forth into the new millennium of artistic expression! No prior programming or electronic experience is neccessary, but always helps of course!

Instructor: Chris Petrelli / Erwin Timmers / Tim Tate

Dates : Sundays in Oct. (2,9 & 16)

Time : 9:30am to 1:30pm each day

Tuition : $500 per student

For more info on classes and to pay online- click HERE.

CMOG "New Glass Review 33": A Call for Entries

Corning Museum of Glass has posted its annual Call for Entries in the museum's New Glass Review publication.All glassmakers, artists, designers, and companies are invited to participate in New Glass Review 33. Only glass designed and made between October 1, 2010, and October 1, 2011, may be submitted for this annual survey.

From CMOG's website:

Each year, The Corning Museum of Glass conducts a worldwide competition to select 100 images of new works in glass. A committee drawn from designers, artists, curators, and critics makes the selection. The publication is intended to keep its audience, which includes museums, artists, libraries, collectors, scholars, and dealers, informed of recent developments in the field. Objects considered excellent from any of several viewpoints—such as function, subject matter, aesthetics, and technique—will be chosen. The objects selected will be published in color with the names of the makers and brief descriptions of the pieces.

Participants are requested to complete the entry form, submitting a total of three digital images illustrating one work per image. Slides and transparencies will not be accepted. Three images of different pieces are preferred, although participants may send multiple views of one or two pieces. Digital photographs, which should be made using the highest-resolution setting on the camera, must be of actual objects designed and made between October 1, 2010, and October 1, 2011.

The New Glass Review competition will be judged in early December. All entries, accompanied by a $20.00 USD entry fee, must be postmarked no later than October 1, 2010, and sent to: New Glass Review Curatorial Department The Corning Museum of Glass, One Museum Way Corning, New York 14830-2253, USA.

For more info - click HERE.
For a look at some of the winners of New Glass Review 31 - click HERE.

The Process: Setting Up a Museum Solo Exhibition

As part of an ongoing series, we focus on the process of an event or artwork as the basis for the blog posting. Today, the blog posting is a two-fer where the photo documentation is both about Michael Janis' creative process and info about Michael Janis' solo show at Fuller Craft Museum, opening this Saturday, August 6, 2011.

The Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts

The lead time for a museum show is very long - the Fuller Craft Museum contacted Michael in 2009 requesting a solo show at the museum in 2011, so Michael has been planning some aspect of the work for well over a year and features twenty five of his glass artworks. This posting will focus on his site specific sculpture in the show - titled "Unpredictable Factors".

To help visualize the space, images of previous exhibitions and a floor plan of the gallery space within the museum were sent to Michael to help plan out the show.

Floor Plan of Fuller Museum's Tarlow Gallery

Marc Petrovic's exhibition in Fuller's Tarlow Gallery 2007.

Michael said that he wanted to create a large scale work for the museum show, and had focused on using one of the 8' wide floor-to-ceiling window areas as the location, with the idea that the light and view beyond could be integrated into the work.

Concepts for the sculpture were sketched by Michael, and details of the steel work were outlined.

Sketches were integrated with photos of the gallery as the studies advanced.

Michael focused on the design with a central image sculpture and proceeded forward with creation of the other artwork pieces for the show. Working with noted metalsmith Chris Shea, the architectural metal work for the large sculpture was created.

Firing of separate layers of the components within the sculpture and the fitting to the metal framework took place in late spring of 2011.

In August, all 25 works by Michael Janis were crated and packed for shipping to the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton - about 20 miles south of Boston, Massachusetts.

Upon arrival at the Fuller Museum, the artwork is opened, inspected and cataloged by the Museum staff.

Fuller Registrar Donna Eleyi inspects the incoming work.

The condition of each piece is noted and the packing is documented. Here Donna Eleyi photographs the unpacking by Preparator Jason Ram.


The works are placed to allow for the arrangement by Fuller Museum curator Perry Price.

Installation of the steel framework for Michael Janis' large sculpture "Unpredictable Factors" proceeds.

With completion of the wall mounting the artworks, the remaining tasks for the museum show are to install wall text for the show and artwork wall labels.
The exhibition opens Saturday, August 6, and there is a public reception August 7, from 2-5 pm. For more info on Michael's lecture at the museum- click HERE.

Michael Janis: A Lighter Hand

August 6 - November 6, 2011
Reception Aug 7, 2011, 2-5pm

Fuller Craft Museum

455 Oak Street
Brockton, MA 02301