But is it archival?

As part of Hamiltonian Artists' Artist Speaker Series, the Smithsonian Institution's Nora Lockshin will lend her incredible expertise and present a slide talk and open discussion about methods, materials and preservation of art in any media form, from creation, through exhibition, to acquisition and conservation.

This is something that all artists should know and which is seldom discussed or taught in art schools.

On Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 7pm at Hamiltonian Gallery. Please RSVP to Gallery Director Jacqueline Ionita at 202.332.1116.

DeBerardinis returns to DC

"Coming Home: A Collection of Works by Rosetta DeBerardinis" opens at The Corner Store, 900 South Carolina Avenue, S.E. @ 9th Street near the Eastern Market.

Reception: Friday, March 19th from 6 to 8 pm.

"Coming Home: A Collection of Works by Rosetta DeBerardinis" marks the artist's return to the D.C. market upon the completion of a three-year artistic residency at School 33 Art Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The work demonstrates her expansion from color field painting to abstract expressionism to urbanscapes, monoprints, sculpture and to drawings while retaining her signature energy and strong use of color.

DeBerardinis has exhibited at commercial galleries and art venues throughout the Washington metro area, Richmond, Dallas, New York City, Houston, New Jersey, Delaware, Michigan and internationally in Croatia, Madrid, Beijing, India and France. She has shown at the Dallas Women's Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Woman's National Democratic Club, The African-American Museum in Dallas, the City Museum of Varazdin in Croatia and the Yaroslavl Art Museum in Russia. Her work and words have been published in Washington Spaces magazine, the Virginia-Pilot Ledger Star, SoBo Voice, Radar Redux magazine and u-tube, Thinking About Art:The One Word Project, the Hill Rag, Voice of the Hill and in catalogues with comments by art aficionados like Doreen Bolger, Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. A recent work is part of the Art on Call public art project in the Trinidad neighborhood in the District of Columbia.

During the residency, DeBardinis began to meld her ceramics with objects found on the streets of Baltimore and drove the finished sculptures back to DC for exhibition at Zenith Gallery last year. Her responses to Charm City's rawness and grit are reflected in much of her studio work. While there, she temporarily abandoned painting 9 ft. canvases to create work suitable for tiny Baltimore row houses. After downsizing in response to the architectual limits of the city, she began to exhibit surfaces as small as 2 1/2 inches, or the size of trading cards. She found compressing her energy into tiny space took practice and amazing focus and welcomed the challenge.

The former Washington, D.C. and Bethesda art tour guide, Liquitex Artist of the Month and frequent contributor to DC Art News is busy reinventing herself. An artist with academic credits and/or degrees from the following institutions: Vassar College, The University of Baltimore School of Law, Rice University, London School for Social Research and the Fashion Institute of Technology. It is appropriate that Rosetta DeBerardinis begin her artistic revival on Capitol Hill where she resided for more than a decade and maintains close ties with former neighbors and friends.

Don't miss this show!

Drawing from the model

In the otherwise empty center of the studio, Mary Anne Tom slams down the egg timer she had been trying to set to go off in two minutes. For the first thirty minutes or so of tonight's session, that is how often she is supposed to switch poses.

"I never have any luck with that thing," Tom says, slightly frustrated.

She then disrobes and takes her spot, completely naked, in front of a room scattered with friends, acquaintances and strangers. It's all in a day's work for a figure model.

Classical music plays quietly in the background as a half-dozen pairs of eyes dart between her nude form in the center of the room and the not-long-to-be-naked sheets before them.

Mike Peccini's pencil begins to move along his pad like the pen on a seismograph mid-earthquake. The rapid strokes he makes now will become the shading on his depiction of the model's body.

Tacked to one of the room's walls, two posters illustrate both the body's skeletal and muscular systems.

Drawing the human body has been a staple of artists for centuries. Instructor Oscar Fairly says that learning to draw the human form is a challenge for both novice and experienced artists.

Read the cool article by Alex Thompson in AU's American Observer by clicking here.

Wanna go to an opening in Laurel this weekend?


The 41st Annual Laurel Art Guild Open Juried Exhibition at the Montpelier Arts Center was juried by my good friend Michael Janis. The reception and his talk about the artwork is on Sunday, March 7th, from 2 - 4 pm. He will also announce the various awards then.

Michael says that "the artwork (up to two submissions from each of the 160 artists that submitted work) was in all styles and media, and there were many hard decisions on what would be selected. The resulting show is a strong survey of the area's painters, sculptors, photographers and mixed media artists. Many of the artists selected are familiar names - some are faculty at some of the area universities and colleges of art."

In da book!

I've just been notified by the editor of the new soon-to-be-published coffee table art book "100 Mid Atlantic Artists," to be published by Schiffer Books, that I have been selected to be included in the book.

When it rains it pours :-)

DCist Exposed is this weekend!


This year's opening reception for this top photography show will be bigger and better than ever, and will be held on Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 6 to 10 p.m. At the bar, mixologist Scott Palmer from Dino will have a special punch, Leopold Brothers will host a liquor tasting, Downey Selections has some wine for attendees, and Pabst Blue Ribbon will hold down the fort with plenty of beer. Nage will provide hor'dourves, while DJs v:shal kanwar and Sequoia spin tunes. Reception is $5 per guest at the door.

Long View Gallery is located at 1234 9th St. NW, just a few blocks from the Mt. Vernon/Convention Center Metro.

Amateur Stripper Contest at MOCA DC

Kitty Victorian, the "quintessence of Burlesque," will perform at the opening of the annual MOCA DC Erotic Art Show in Georgetown on March 5, 2010. Miss Kitty will emcee an amateur stripper contest and will open the show with a performance of her own featuring "extravagant costumes draped in rhinestones and feathers and wrapped in sultry boas."

The annual erotic art show at MOCA DC has become one of DC’s top crowd pleasing shows with over 300 in attendance at last year’s reception. Erotic art from artists throughout the region will be on display throughout the month.

MOCA DC’s executive director, Dave Quammen said, “All ladies from throughout the Washington, DC region are welcome to fashion their best erotic costume and come on down to shake their stuff for our crowd. By crowd response, we’ll be selecting the top three performances of the evening with three cash awards of $100 for first place, $75 for second place and $25 for third place. But regardless, win or lose, everyone will be a winner! It will be an evening with the best entertainment in town. After the amateur stripper show, the ladies are welcome to serve as human-canvases for our body painters.”

The Washington Post has called Kitty Victorian a “burlesque dancer extraordinaire bringing the saucy, seductive world of burlesque dancing to D.C., one bump and grind at a time.” Now headquartered in Chicago, Miss Kitty returns to Washington, D.C. regularly. Speaking about her upcoming performance at MOCA DC, Miss Kitty said, “Darling, I am just so excited to be coming back to Washington, D.C. and I can’t think of a place I’d rather perform than at the beginning of MOCA DC’s annual erotic art show! I’m also excited about serving as emcee for the amateur stripper contest. I might even allow myself to be body-painted after the show!”

Kitty Victorian founded Washington, DC’s Burlesque University and serves as the Headmistress teaching erotic arts to everyone. At the “university’s” website (www.burlesqueuniversity.com), Miss Kitty makes an offer most ladies can’t refuse. “What I’m saying folks is that if you want to learn the art of the tease, I’d love to teach it to you.”

On March 6, Miss Kitty will be available for a two-hour photo session with area photographers from 10 a.m. until noon. She commented, “Darling, I want to do my best for your photographers, but I really must hustle on over to my university class where I’m teaching the art of burlesque that afternoon.” Dave Quammen said, “The two-hour photo session the morning of March 6 at the MOCA DC gallery will be offered at a cost of $50 per photographer. Just contact me to sign up.”

Doors will open for the March 5 event at 6 p.m. Attendees are invited to see the special erotic art on display throughout the gallery. Then, at 7:30 p.m. when the familiar sounds of “The Stripper” begin to play, the show will open. Following the show at 8:30 p.m., the gallery will be open for body painting, art viewing, and networking with your favorite artist (or stripper). MOCA DC is located at 1054 31st St. N.W. at Canal Square in Georgetown, Washington, DC. For additional information, call (202) 342-6230 or send email inquiries to mocadc01@comcast.net.