Friday, July 31, 2015

Artists' Websites: Anne Cherubim

Anne Cherubim is an abstract contemporary landscape painter. She works predominantly in acrylic. Her art is rooted in real life images and textures, with a modern abstraction, often in a limited colour palette.
Her art is a reflection of contemporary art as portrayed by someone who is a product of a myriad of cultures: a Canadian girl, born of Sri Lankan parents, now residing in the US. 

This unique 'lense' through which she sees the world informs her work, undeniably. ‘Tolerance’ is the word we use to talk about being open to, and welcoming of, one another.  

Anne believes ‘embrace’ is a much better word for talking about cultures, and the ways in which we can coexist. Art and music transcend language - among other barriers- and create commonalities, harmony. They are universals that can be appreciated no matter where you come from, or what language you speak. 

This is the type of experience Cherubim hopes that her art allows for.
Though she has been an artist for many years, her professional pursuit of it began more recently.  
Anne has exhibited her work locally around the DMV and internationally. She currently resides with her husband and children in the USA, and is a Resident Artist at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, MD and later this year at the Affordable Art Fair in New York City.

Her work can be seen at: www.cherubim-arts.com

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The touch of darkness

Every once in a while, the possible terrifying touch of evil passes by, leaving behind a wake of fear and also (in this case) relief that it just went by.

A few days ago a man approached our five year-old-son while he was playing in our front yard.

My wife had just gotten home about five minutes before, and she was unpacking grocery bags inside while our son was playing soccer on the front lawn.

A man approached in a dark gray 4-door sedan on the opposite side of the street, closest to where my son was playing. He rolled down his window, called my son over and told him about "a boy who lived down the street and who had a tiger in his house" and asked if my son knew him.

My son's inner alarms went off and he ran inside and told my wife, and when she came out, the car was gone.


We called the police and provided the following description based on what my son could see from the yard into the man's car: age 50s, black straight short hair, white skin, brown eyes, and fat (this is a 5yr old's description!).

My son  also mentioned that the license plate had an American flag on it, and then pointed to one of the Maryland plates with the American flag in our neighborhood as an example.

We shared the information with our neighbors via our listserv, and discovered that just down our street, a couple who has a three year old son, has a giant stuffed animal tiger in the boy's play room; a tiger that could easily been seen by someone walking around their house and looking into their windows. 


Disturbing beyond belief. 
 

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

2015 Trawick Prize Finalists

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and the Bethesda Urban Partnership will showcase the work of The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards eight finalists in a group exhibition. The exhibit will be on display September 2 – 26, 2015, at Gallery B, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E.

2015 Trawick Prize Finalists

 
Selin Balci, Annapolis, MD
Lynn Cazabon, Baltimore, MD
Catherine Day, McLean, VA
Jason Hughes, Baltimore, MD
Timothy Makepeace, Washington, D.C.
Sebastian Martorana, Baltimore, MD
Jonathan Monaghan, Washington, D.C.
Nara Park, Washington, D.C.

The award winners will be announced on Wednesday, September 2, 2015. The first place winner will be awarded $10,000; second place will be honored with $2,000 and third place will be awarded $1,000. A “young” artist whose birth date is after April 7, 1985 may also be awarded $1,000.

The public opening reception will be held Friday, September 11 from 6-9pm in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 6pm.
 
The 2015 Trawick Prize jury includes Stefanie Fedor, Executive Director, Arlington Arts Center; John Ruppert, sculptor, Professor and former Chair of the University of Maryland’s Department of Art and Richard Waller, Executive Director of University Museums for the University of Richmond.
 
The Trawick Prize was established in 2003 by Carol Trawick, a longtime community activist in downtown Bethesda. She is the past Chair of both the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and Bethesda Urban Partnership, and also the Founder of the Bethesda Painting Awards. In 2007, Ms. Trawick founded the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation to assist health and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County.

The Trawick Prize is one of the first regional competitions and largest prizes to annually honor visual artists. To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded $175,000 in prize monies and has exhibited the work of more than 100 regional artists. Previous Best in Show recipients include Richard Clever, 2003; David Page, 2004; Jiha Moon, 2005; James Rieck, 2006; Jo Smail, 2007; Maggie Michael, 2008; Rene Trevino, 2009; Sara Pomerance, 2010; Mia Feuer, 2011; Lillian Bayley Hoover, 2012; Gary Kachadourian, 2013 and Neil Feather, 2014. 
For more information, please visit www.bethesda.org or call 301-215-6660.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Elise Campello nominated for best actress!

Congrats to my Klingon daughter Elise L Tor-Cam, who just got nominated for "Best Actress" in a South Sound (Tacoma, WA area) theatrical performance during the 2014/15 season!
Details here.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Naomi Wolf on Vocal Fry

Young women, give up the vocal fry and reclaim your strong female voice...
   --- 

Read it here.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Bader Fund

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund invites grant applications from visual artists who are aged 40 years and over and who live within 150 miles of Washington, DC. Artists working in performance, video, and film are not eligible for Bader Fund grants.

To download an application form, visit the Bader Fund's website.

In 2014, the Bader Fund awarded eight grants totaling $120,000.

Details: 202-288-4608 OR http://tinyurl.com/oaejhvb OR grants@baderfund.org

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Your artwork on a billboard

Embracing Our Differences is accepting submissions for its 13th annual outdoor juried art exhibit celebrating diversity and inclusion to be displayed spring 2016 in Sarasota, FL USA.

42 artists will be selected. National and international submissions accepted.

Final selections will be made by a 3-judge panel. $3,000 (US) in awards. There is no submission fee nor limit on the number of entries. Details: 941-404-5710 OR http://embracingourdifferences.org OR Info@EmbracingOurDifferences.org

Friday, July 24, 2015

The two Laurens and vocal fry

A while back I accidentally discovered the curious case of vocal fry, a unique vocal affectation which is common to most American (and apparently only American) women.
 
As I noted, it has affected my listening habits, especially radio listening, as I now eagerly await the throaty sentence ending staccato of the affectation.
 
This morning, WAMU's Lauren Ober (the very talented reporter for Metro Connection) was in full swing (in a really interesting report on swimming and DC African-American kids) with what I've now catalogued as partial vocal fry. That is when about a third of the sentences are delivered in a "normal" voice and the rest have the characteristic feline vocal fry ending.
 
Then Lauren Landau came on with an Art Beat report (I wish that they'd just let Ms. Landau talk and get rid of the annoying background 1960s beatnik-type music). Landau has a very elegant, soothing voice, but even she dives into vocal fry land once in a while - maybe in a third of her sentences - which is also interesting in that some women are 100% vocal fried, while others, such as Ms. Landau, seem to be able to float in and out of it.