Sauna Lee Lange on the One Word Project

By Shauna Lee Lange

Kudos to J.T. Kirkland and the fine curating job he performed in his One Word Project which opened Friday night at the Arts Club of Washington. To explain the show simply, Kirkland assigned artists with a single word as a thematic launching point. The idea was to create a triangular dialogue for visual and language communication between artist, viewer, and work. Three works in the show that caught my attention were:

(a) Gregory Ferrand's "Experience." - the work was titled Judge Me Not (For I Judge Only You), acrylic on canvas, 22x28, 2006, (b) Marsha Stein's "Pride," is a drawing of St. Jerome, a haunting and technically gorgeous execution of charcoal cast drawing, 24x36, 1999, and (c) Gregg Chadwick's theme on "Responsibility," which drew the most evident enthusiasm.

Chadwick traveled from Santa Monica, CA to explain the meaning behind his Marine in a coffin surrounded by monks. Chadwick served in the Armed Forces and was deeply impressed that relatives of the deceased service member attended Friday night's opening. Chadwick said that his own father was a Marine, and as a son, he felt he had the responsibility to paint his own military experience. As a self-professed Buddhist, Chadwick eloquently spoke about how responsibility is a common thread among all people and what it meant to him to participate in the show. He is pictured here in front of his work.

Honorable mention for layered meaning in story telling has to go to the Right Reverend James W. Bailey of Reston, Virginia for his burnt photo montage/collage of a church. Bailey's original explanation of meaning and his updated revisionist explanation are fascinating reading. One really does come away understanding that in New Orleans, A.K. (after Katrina), all is not okay.

The show runs to September 29th. More than 30 artists are featured, including Andrew Krieger's sculpture on Imagination, Baltimore's Rosetta DeBerardinis' 2007 work on Fluid , Alexandra Silverthorne's print on Forgotten, Angela Kleis' Hatteras Lighthouse silver gelatin print, and James Coleman's mixed media on canvas, seno utero matriz.

The Arts Club of Washington reminds us that their third floor studio is open Tuesday through Saturday, with free arts classes open to the public every Saturday.

Katzen Openings Tonight

There are multiple openings at American University's Katzen Arts Center tonight from 6-9PM.

The new exhibits include: "Carol Goldberg: Listening to Ivy," "Keiko Hara: Topophilia Imbuing," "Song Without Words: The Photographs of Countess Sophia Tolstoy," and "All in the Family: A Juried Show of American University Alumni."

An hour before the reception, internationally known artist and master printmaker Keiko Hara will give an informal talk on the creation of her 42-foot long homage to and very personal translation of Monet's Water Lillies.

All free and open to the public.

Wanna go to a Baltimore Opening today?

With a reception full of people, good wines and their trademark sushi Light Street Gallery in Baltimore opens "Trompe L'oeil Artwork of Bernard Scholl."

The reception for this French artist is from 1-5PM. See his work online here.

Tiny Alien

Below is another tiny little drawing with a big title. It's about 1.5 inches high by one inch across or so. Charcoal on paper.

"Illegal Alien running across the border street in Brownsville, Texas, hoping that he won't be too late for his job at the Fort Brown Golf Course"
Charcoal on Paper, 1.5 inches by 1 inch.
c. 2007 by F. Lennox Campello

And another new DC gallery

New to me anyway, is the R Street Gallery at 2108 R St. NW, in DC's Dupont Circle area. They will be having an opening reception on Sunday September 16th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm for the exhibition of Tom Wolff’s portraits and images of the famous and powerful, and Tracey Friedlander’s portraits and documentation of the people of Cuba.

Step One

I'm looking to open a new gallery space in the Philly area... maybe... maybe... and so far I am only working on a draft website.

Here's what and who I am thinking about.

First step: sell my own work to raise funds to pay the exorbitant cost to do some fancy art fairs.

Second step: hopefully make some bucks from the art fairs to open a "bricks and mortar" space.

Third step: Lose money for a while until I establish a Philly presence.

Fourth step: Become a respected Phildalphia gallery.

Fifth step: Open a gallery in Sedona, Arizona.

Sixth step: back to second step.

Oh God!

Move the damned Barnes

After reading this, I join the camp that says move the damned Barnes to Philly and stop whining.