Michal Hunter and the power of vision

I've been lucky enough to have met and admired Michal Hunter's artwork for decades now. And the first meeting, way back at the very beginning of the second decade of the 21st century,  during the glory days of the iconic Fraser Gallery, still remains as vivid as the last time that I saw her work in person a few months ago.

Hunter is a master painter. She will forget more about painting techniques, skills and applications than most artists will ever learn.  

But it takes more than immense technical skill to make a great artist. It takes the vision to recognize a moment on time, which in life may be mundane and ordinary, but once elevated to the canvas, becomes sublime and unique.

Hunter has that vision, and when married to her immense skill, it delivers artwork that would have astounded centuries ago, and will astound in centuries to come.

Behold "Floating", 37" x 60", 2018 oil on canvas. It will be at the Women Artists of the DMV survey show.

"Floating" by Michal Hunter
37" x 60", 2018 oil on canvas

Vintage 2013 Campello original at auction!

Vallot Auctioneers in Rhode Island has a cool 2013 framed Campello original at auction starting at only $50!

Bid for it here.

Diane Cooper Cabe and scent

Another one of the super powers of artists is the ability to get influences, ideas, subjects, etc. from nearly any and everything in the Universe.  And if you also have the super power to deliver narrative artwork, then your work stands out as more than just a visual gem.

Diane Cooper Cabe can do that and more. She writes about her work:

Through my sculptures, I tell stories that appeal to our senses. My current series revolves around the idea of scent as a medium of artistic creation. We appreciate art with all our ve senses, and our olfactory perceptions are no exception. The artists who create perfumes appeal to many of our senses: Look Feel, Smell, Touch. To add to the glamour, perfume designers make beautiful glass vessels to hold the lovely aromas. Many scent artists are also designers, painters and sculptors who are considered masters of their craft. Glass blowers, painters and sculptors created containers to hold scents throughout the centuries. Recently, Corning Museum of Glass held a symposium on the historic relationship between glass and scent.

Madame Zed is in homage to the legendary perfumer who lived and worked in Paris in the 1920s. She created many perfumes for JeanneMarie Lanvin, founder of the Lanvin Fashion House and gained fame with the formulation of the perfume My Sin. Madame Zed features Bas Relief glass sculptured panels adorned with glass owers that highlight the beauty of the perfume bottles and evoke the aura of scent and its effect on our mood.

Behold Madame Zed by Diane Cooper Cabe, Glass and Steel, c. 2024, 27 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches.

Madame Zed by Diane Cooper Cabe
Glass and Steel 27 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches

Wanna go to an opening today? Sheila Giolitti at Adah Rose Gallery

"Any Season Will Be The Finest Hour" - with the spectacular work of Maremi Andreozzi and Sheila Giolitti at Adah Rose!

February 8-March 9

Opening Reception: Saturday Feb 8 5-7pm

Open All Week..please call first

​301-922-0162

Adah Rose at Art Seen/Tri Graphics

12115 Parklawn Drive

Rockville Md 20852

 

Anthology of memories #8 by Sheila Giolitti
20”x40”

Wanna go to an art opening in Rockville tonight?

 

Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville Presents

Steve Wanna and “Line, Circle, Ground”

for the Month of February

Opening Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, February 7th, 2025

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville is thrilled to host Steve Wanna in the Invited Artist Gallery for the month of February 2025. The exhibit runs from February 5th through February 26th, with an opening reception on First Friday, February 7th, 5 – 8pm. This exhibition features experimental techniques that push materials past their limits to yield unexpected, not entirely controllable results. Almost all the works use paper, pigment, and water as active mediums in an almost performative process. 

There’s a defining element shared among all the works of pigment that is pulled apart in unexpected fractures and bifurcations, creating organic patterns reminiscent of those in nature, such as in lightning or the branches and roots of trees. These works also speak to the behavior of water in different terrains such as sudden river formation in arid land. In some cases the paper is treated similar to soil, at times approached while completely dry and other times presoaked, each causing dramatic changes as the paper and the media that is applied to it react to water. 

"In keeping with my general approach of balancing elements of chaos and order in my work, I wanted to create in this series works that teeter on the edge of chaos while seeming to appear confined to simple or repeating shapes. This helps showcase the process by highlighting the myriad variations that unfold to create unique results in the same underlying shape. An important aspect of my aesthetic is to give up control over the process and end result without completely giving up agency and to negotiate with the materials and media to generate works in a collaborative process, which I find exciting despite inevitable frustrations."

Enjoy additional exhibits “Languaging Feelings in the Month of Hearts and Flowers” with Resident Artists, a mini-solo with Elizabeth Davison in the Lounge Gallery, Pop-Up with Naan Pocen, along with nineteen Gallery 209 Member Artists exhibiting their latest work. Open Studios building wide will welcome visitors to visit and learn. Shop and support local working artists, makers, and professionals. Light fare is sponsored monthly by The Chesapeake Framing Company – celebrating their 45th year. Wine by the glass and bottle by Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard.

Steve Wanna - “Line, Circle, Ground”

“Languaging Feelings in the Month of Hearts and Flowers” with Resident Artists

Mini-Solo with Elizabeth Davison

The 19 Member Artists of Gallery 209

Theremin Music by Arthur Harrison

Opening Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, February 7th, 2025

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Meet the Artist 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Saturday, February 15th, 2025

Hold On, Change is Coming at Zenith

 Hold On, Change is Coming

January 17 – March 1, 2025

CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

View Exhibition

ARTIST TALKS AND BOOK SIGNING

SATURDAY, February 8, 2:00 PM

Artist Talks: Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Francine Haskins, and Luther Wright

Book Signing: Adrianne Lind, CYT, MSc, MA, BA “Wellness on The Weekly: 52 Fun

Prompts for Mindfulness, Movement, and a Whole Lot Less Stress!”

FEATURED ARTISTS: Doba Afolabi, Ram Brisueno, Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Buzz Duncan, Cheryl Edwards, Carolyn Goodridge, Francine Haskins, Paul Henry, Bernie Houston, Hubert Jackson, Ibou N'Diaye, Sabiyha Prince, Qrcky, Patrick Smith, Curtis Woody, Luther Wright

SAVE THE DATES:

Saturday, Feb 15, 2:00 PM

Artist Talk: Paul Henry

Book Signing & Author Talk: Kellee Baker & Clifford William Jr. "In God We Trust"

How to use trusts to create, build, and protect your financial legacy." Authors Kellee Baker, Esq. and Clifford Williams, Jr. will reveal the conventional and lesser-known uses of trusts for wealth-building and asset protection. In a special black history lesson, they will breakdown the hidden wordplay used in the 14th Amendment that denies US residents the inalienable rights reserved for the "people" in the Declaration of Independence—unless you know how to operate through trusts, that is.

Saturday, Feb 22, 2:00 PM

Artist Talks: Cheryl Edwards, Carolyn Goodridge, Hubert Jackson

Book Signing: Adrianne Lind, CYT, MSc, MA, BA

At 1429 Iris Street NW, Washington DC, 20012 | Hours: Wed-Sat 12-6 PM, or by Appointment

Rosemary Feit Covey

About 20 years ago I wrote about Rosemary Feit Covey that "if there's a better wood engraver on the planet, I do not know who he/she is... as far as I am concerned, no one is better than this modern master, who continues to surprise me, gross me out, enlighten me, and always impress me with both her enviable technical skills and her super-sharp ability to cut deeply into my psyche."

And over the decades, I continued to be awed by the extraordinary printmaking super powers of this fantastic artist.

Behold "Lisa at twenty-two with Baby," c. 2003, 14 x 10 inches, wood engraving on paper.

Rosemary Feit Covey - "Lisa at twenty-two with Baby," c. 2003, 14 x 10 inches, wood engraving on paper