The James Renwick Alliance will also host a reception at Artomatic on Saturday, June 2 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM in the JRA Education Room, #1106, on the 11th floor. Many of artists whose work was selected the JRA as recipients of the Award of Excellence will be at the reception - starting around 6 PM. At the Prince George’s County Parks and Recreation Room on the 3rd floor @ 7:30pm, they will announce the Department’s purchases of artwork by Prince George's County artists for the Department's permanent collection - for a bit of art excitement!
With the Memorial Day Weekend here, a blog posting that touches on themes of American Art & history is in order.
Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Adams Building
The Process looks at how the Washington Glass Studio artists are recreating the original, historic bronze doors from the Library of Congress (LOC) Adams Building in kiln-cast glass. As mentioned in an earlier post, the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) oversees this landmark building, and they sought out ways to provide up-to-date functional aspects for their structures, all while balancing the requirement for maintaining the artistic legacy of its buildings - a daunting task in an ever changing world. Their design for the LOC Adams building was to have the historic bronze entry doors (that could not be brought up to code) set in the "open" position, and install new code-compliant functional glass doors for the public access - with the glass doors designed to reference the original door sculptures. (Click HERE to jump to link post of sculpted bronze door features.) Washington Glass Studio is creating the new cast glass panels, and this edition of The Process looks at how the molds are being taken from the original doors in-situ.
Sean Hennessey, the master caster, sets up his mold making equipment and preps the doors.
The LOC was very concerned that the mold taking process could adversely impact the patina of the bronze doors, so before any work on the doors was completed, testing of the materials and release agents were conducted on an inconspicuous section of the backside of the doors.
A section of the door backside was tested for any reaction to the materials.
The sample came off with no residue or impact to the original bronze finish.
Given the go-ahead, Sean enjoys a day in the sun.
The bronze door area surrounding the bas-relief is masked off.
Care is taken for the surrounding area. Sean shown here assisted by Erin Cumbo.
The layering of the silicone rubber mold material starts.
The mold is allowed to set-up until firm, and then peeled off.
"Mother Mold" material is added to give structural strength to the casting.
The finished rubber mold.
The molds will later be used to create the original forms for the kiln-casting process - more about the glass casting process in later postings!.
Sean Hennessey leads a tour of Sculptural Glass at Washington, DC's Artomatic Art Fair
The Washington DC Metro area has a robust sculptural glass community spearheaded by the Washington Glass School and DC Glassworks. Sean Hennessey, resident artist at the Washington Glass School will be giving tours showcasing select examples of the works coming from these studios, as well as works of other glass artists in the DC region.
Date: Sundays thru June 17, 2012
Time: 3:00 - 4:00 pm
Location: Meet in Lobby of Artomatic @ 1851 S. Bell Street, Crystal City, VA, 22202 (one block from Yellow Line Metro - Crystal City stop)
The recent issue of Glass Art Magazine features all of the Washington Glass School's co- directors in the latest issue and online.
Michael Janis' work on the cover and his profile as the centerfold story, and the same issue also features Erwin Timmers work across a five page story on his work in ecologically sustainable artwork. The magazine's online websitenow features a new story on Michael and Tim Tate's work as Fulbright Scholars in England, while at the University of Sunderland, the National Glass Centre, the London AAF, and Creative Cohesionstudios.
The article has a great synopsis of the differences between the US & UK approach to the artistic medium of glass and also has some photos of Jeffrey Sarmiento joining Michael's sgraffito class. Click HERE to jump to Glass Art Magazine's downloadable pdf of the article.
The Fulbright program has announced its new awards - have a read!
The Fulbright Commission US Scholar Awards for 2013-14 are now open. The US Scholar Awards offer US academics and professionals the chance to undertake research and/or teaching at any accredited UK higher education institution. Opportunities are available for college and university faculty as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars and many others. As well as an All-disciplines award they also have specific partner awards.
If you in going to a UK university through the Fulbright programme to contribute to research and/or teaching then please take a look at the awards on offer - or if you know of any US scholars or professionals that would be interested then pass this information on to them.
Fulbright Awards offer generous financial support for academic projects in the UK. Additionally, Fulbright scholars in the UK are invited to participate in a wide range of events, and benefit from a variety of additional opportunities and support provided by the Fulbright Commission. Fulbright scholars also benefit from an extensive range of alumni and global networking opportunities after their exchange.
The panel discussionHow Experts Determine What Works of Art Stand out was organized by Giselle Huberman, left. Panels were Nancy Weisser, Judy Weisman, Tim Tate and Cynthia Boyer, not pictured.
The James Renwick Allinace (JRA) held a fun talk at Artomatic this past weekend - titled "How Experts Determine What Works of Art Stand Out". Some other JRA events coming up at Artomatic at the JRA Education Room, 1106 (on the 11th Floor) incude: ·June 2 at 5:00
to 7:00 PM – a JRA reception scheduled for Artomatic’s
“Meet the Artists” Night planned for 7:00 to 9:00 PM.
··June 22 at
8:00 PM – The public is invited to join a panel of JRA Award of Excellence winners as they discuss their work.
Check out all the Artomatic events coming up - click HERE!
The James Renwick Alliance (JRA) is an independent national nonprofit organization
dedicated to advancing scholarship and education on contemporary American
craft, to supporting activities directed toward this purpose, and to
encouraging connoisseurship and collecting. The JRA
assists the SmithsonianAmerican Art Museum in adding to its
permanent collection of American craft. For over 25 years, the JRA has supported
activities and programs involving hundreds of artists, art supporters,
galleries, and partnering institutions from across the nation and around the
world. As part of their mission for the arts, the JRA are sponsors of a workshop/reception "Renwick Alliance Room" in the huge DC Arts Fair - Artomatic. Located on the 11th Floor of the festival, the JRA has planned workshops and talks throughout the month long run of the show (thru June 23).
Members of the JRA has also went thru the 10 floors of artwork - selecting their Top 10 media-based artists for their 2012 Artomatic "Award of Excellence".
Congrats to the WGS/DC Glass artists & all the artists involved in the huge event! And a big hug to the James Renwick Alliance!
The James Renwick Alliance welcomes the public to join them in a pre meet-the-artists-night reception. Mingle with other craft lovers! The JRA will be distributing maps they have created to help you find the media-based artists of Artomatic. Saturday June 2 5:00pm-7:00pm The Renwick Alliance Room, 11th floor
Artomatic is a month-long art festival in the Washington, DC area that is "by artists, for everyone." It is an unjuried arts show that features 10 floors of art by more than 1,000 artists. The artists have taken over a building in Crystal City (right at the Crystal City metro stop - yellow line). The diversity of artwork and performances attract the broadest range of people, providing a forum to come together and illustrate the energy, vitality and strength of the arts in the community.
DC area artists take over 10 floors of Arlington, VA office building
No matter what kind of creative events you like, you will find something for you at Artomatic - visual arts, music, performance, film, fashion, and more. There will be workshops, tours, art seminars and other events held there all month long.
Artists have been working to transform the mundane into into an arts space that is choc-a-bloc with treats that require discovery.
No matter what kind of creative events you like, you will find something for you at Artomatic.Sean Hennessy's mixed media artwork combines glass, concrete and LED lighting. Sean is on Level 9
From the chaos of art - a moment of sublime. Tim Tate and Pete Duvall's video installation on Level 10.
This (free to the public) show mandates that you visit more than once - there is simply too much to see and do in one visit.
Acts of Translation Between Art, Science, and Medicine
As mentioned in earlier post - Smith Center for Healing and the Arts has been host for SOFAlab - "Science of Art Laboratory" - created to initiate the spark of communication and to look for commonalities that can bring out new understanding and develop new tools of interactions from both the sciences and arts. The collaborative project created will be unveiled this coming Friday - at 7 pm. SOFAlab Panelists: Caroline Wellbery, Medical Doctor, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, PhD in Comparative Literature
Erwin Timmers, Green Artist, MFA Design Arts and Architecture, Co-founder Washington Glass School
The panels intended to illuminate new ways of thinking by showcasing conversations that bridge the healing arts, environmental realities, neuro-sciences and collaborative networking in the creation of art; and conversely to examine effective new scientific and medical observations, answering questions about how art and science instruct and help one another in raising awareness about environmental responsibility in the area of health care.
Looking at the collaborative efforts of three teams of artists and scientists, the evening will unfold their various conversations and inquiries as they have worked together to explore new avenues of awareness.
The collaborative team led by Caroline Wellbery and Erwin Timmers considered medical waste and its environmental impact. By looking at areas of concern that mutually affect artists and healers, they have developed conversations and questions about how art and science instruct and help one another in raising awareness about environmental responsibility in the area of health care.
The panel is funded by George Mason University's Center for Consciousness and Transformation and coordinated by Shanti Norris, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts; Paul So, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University; Helen Frederick, School of Art, George Mason University; and Hamiltonian Gallery. Interns Alex Giller, Aaron Van Andel, Scott Jemielity and Erwin Thamm assisted the program in 2011-12.
Opens Friday, May 18, 7-9pm
SMITH CENTER FOR HEALING AND THE ARTS : community. creativity. cancer support.
1632 U Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009
Erwin Timmers finishes up the mounting of the collaborative artwork that deals with issues of medical waste.
Aerial view of US Capitol on the Mall, Washington, DC. Library of Congress is center bottom of photo.
The Washington Glass Studio (WGS) has started the creation of the new cast sculptural glass doors for the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, DC. The design of the project started in 2004, when the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) first asked WGS about advise on their initial proposal to replace the original historic bronze doors of the LOC Adams Building, as the doors required security and changes to be code-compliant. The AOC also sought to reference the artistic heritage of the original doors in this important United States building.
One of the original bronze door pairs by sculptor Lee Lawrie
The original (11'-0"H) bronze
doors had functional issues and will be retained in their present hold-open position, recessed into architectural niches. The 16 sculpted bronze doors feature high-relief
sculptures by American artist Lee Lawrie, whose best known work is the architectural sculpture on and around New York's Rockefeller Center. Lawrie's bronze doors were designed to commemorate the history of the written word, depicting gods of writing as well as real-life Native American Sequoyah.
Lee Lawrie,
1877-1963, American sculptor, best known for his architectural work at NY's Rockefeller Center, especially for the free-standing "Atlas" sculpture.
Ogma and Sequoyah, sculpted bronze figures by
Lee Lawrie. Door detail, Library of Congress John Adams
Building, Washington, DC.
The new door design incorporates cast glass panels mounted within a bronze framework, incorporating current egress and security requirements. The kilnformed sculptural glass will be made from molds taken off the original door sculptures. Using clearBullseye glass to cast, the sculpted glass panels will then be laminated to tempered glass for safety. The new glass doors will create a contemporaryluminosity to the building entrances, while keeping thecharacter of the historiclandmark structure.
original bronze doors - east side (top)
Design of new bronze and cast glass doors - west side (bottom)
The scale of the project has prompted a collaboration between Washington Glass Studio and Fireart Glass Studio in Portland, OR. The project "dream-team" includes (Bullseye Glass co-founder) Ray Ahlgren, Erwin Timmers, Michael Janis, Tim Tate and Sean Hennessey. Master mold caster, Sean Hennessey, has started the project, creating the molds from the existing bronze doors in-situ. Some photos of that process will be posted later.
Boyce Lundstrom - one of the co-founders of the Bullseye Glass company and fused glass leader - answers questions about vexing glass fusing issues on his website. Recently he posted on other ways to detect the tin side of float glass. As glass fusers know, the tin side of float is contaminated with tin during the float glass making process, and locating the tin side is useful for the artisan.
Boyce writes:
"The most accepted way to tell which side was floating on the tin is
to use a short wave black light. A small device often referred to as a
Tin Scope is available and costs approximately $55. When the black light
is placed against the glass, the tin side will appear cloudy. (Mark
that side with a permanent marker.)"
M L Duffy checks for tin side as he creates the cast glass for Safeway supermaket's Bethesda public artwork.
"Another way to test is with cutting and firing. First mark one side
of your glass with a line made with a permanent marker. Cut off a strip
of the glass that has the marker line and fire the strip to 1450º. The
tin side will not devit or haze. The side without the tin will haze, or
get a satin finish. Match up your tests and mark the larger glass as to
the tin side for later identification. The cost will be about $.50 for
the firing in any 120 volt kiln."
"This feels like float..."
Boyce continued -"I recently tried a third method of discerning the tin side of Float
glass with my students at a workshop in Kansas City. I explained how
Float glass was made, and then I asked them to identify the tin side by
using only the sense of touch. They were encouraged to feel the two
previously cleaned sides of the Float glass with their fingers and
discern a slight difference in the surface texture. Without further
instruction or explanation, every one of the students was able to tell
me which side of their glass sample had the tin finish. One side was
smooth but the other side is “smoother.” The less smooth side is the tin
side. The cost is “0.” Trust yourself!"
Interesting premise - I have not tried it yet. I am sure that I will feel the cut side of the float glass.
Ow.
Click HERE to jump to Boyce Lundstrom's Q & A section of his website.
The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities offers several funding programs for individuals and nonprofit organizations located in the District of Columbia. Individuals are not required to provide matching funds. Organizations are only required to provide matching funds as indicated
Commission staff conducts general workshops where participants learn useful information about the Commission and the steps to take to submit a grant application. At these workshops, staff and applicants discuss each grant-making opportunity. Workshop dates, times and locations are subject to change.
Artomatic is a multi-week, multimedia arts event held in the Washington, DC area since 1999. Washington Glass School has a long relationship with the DC-area arts showcase of visual art, music, film, performance, poetry and fashion. Tim Tate's artwork at Artomatic 2000 was seen by the curator of the Smithsonian's Renwick Museum, and that show both got his work into the Museum's permanent collection, and his sales at the show provided the seed money that started the Washington Glass School. Artomatic at Tenleytown's old Hechinger's space is where Tim Tate first saw the sculpture work of Erwin Timmers and they later teamed up to start the School & Studio. Michael Janis' first showing of his glass artwork was at the glass room at Artomatic 2004, where the Washington Post's art critic Blake Gopnick slammed the show in his review "Hanging is too Good For It" - but noted about the glass: "Some of the glasswork looked all right. (Glass is such a gorgeous medium
it's hard to screw it up, and you need some basic training even to
begin to work in it.)" High praise indeed. In 2007, the show was held in Crystal City, VA, in the old Patent Office. As a result of this Artomatic, Maurine Littleton Gallery began showing Michael's artwork.
Photographer Tracy Lee captured the essence of the Artomatic mystery.
At that Artomatic, drama ensued after Tim Tate's artwork "The Rapture" disappeared under mysterious circumstances. After the Washington Post "Reliable Source"reportedthe disappearance of the artwork, and newspaper reporter Amy Argetsiner, was sent a ransom demand ($10,000 in monopoly money) from someone named "The
Collector " - along with a "proof of life" photo of the
rocket from the artwork in front of the previous day's newspaper. The reporter went to the late night ransom drop in a city park and tried to catch the perpetrator as it all went down. In the next day Washington Post, the story was almost full front page of the Style section, along with their prime suspects.
The Artomatic ransom note sent to the Washington Post's Reliable Source
The Post cast dispersions (along with thumbnail mug shots) onto : "Tim Tateglass sculptor, original
victim
Why him?: With a well-known
flair for publicity, Tate was suspected by many at Artomatic of faking his own
sculpture's disappearance.
He says:"I categorically
deny it."
Alibi: Tate was by our side
when we met The Collector at the ransom drop last year, so unless he's part of
a broader conspiracy . . .
Michael Janisglass sculptor, friend of
Tate's
Why him?: Artomatic gossips
theorize that Tate's Washington
Glass School
colleague may have helped pull off the stunt.
He says:"I'm denying
any kind of involvement."
Alibi:"Michael is too
serious" for pranks, says DCArtNews blogger Lenny Campello.
Jesse Cohen art photographer, overseer
of the Artdc.org forum
Why him?: Like the author of
The Collector's manifestos, a big booster of the local arts scene; resembles
the man at the ransom drop (young white guy, dark hair).
He says:"No . . . I
thought it was really crappy of anyone [to take Tate's art]."
Alibi: Skinnier than the man
we saw.
Kirk Waldroff printmaker and glass artist,
colleague of Tate 's
Why him?: Has The
Collector's build, coloring; his voice mail sounds like the man we talked to on
the phone; Tate is a little too insistent that Waldroff can't be The Collector.
He says:[In a voice mail
message] "No, I'm not The Collector"; says he'd be glad to talk more
but he's leaving town in a few minutes. (Hmm, getting too hot around here?)
Alibi:"He seems too
cool to be pulling stuff like that," says a fellow artist. "He's in a
band.""
Tim Tate created a new sculpture from the returned component, and the work was auctioned for the benefit of Artomatic.
Tim Tate later
created a new sculpture made from the remains of the old, and it was auctioned for the benefit of Artomatic; the drama of "The Collector" was never solved.
UK artist Stephen Reveley's fused glass, photo by Caroline Angelo
In 2009 the Artomatic was held at a new building near the new Nationals Baseball Statdium near Navy Yard Metro. This exhibition featured many glass artists from England. That year the Sunderland City Council had sponsored artists represented by Creative Cohesionto show glass, ceramics, paintings, bands and more, as part of the Sunderland, UK / Washington, DC Sister City agreement.
Artomatic 2012 is set to open May 18 - who knows what will be the result of this year's show!
Have a look a the great video made by 2012 Artomatic :
