Using Instagram for connecting with art collector

Nothing can replace an in-person art experience, but Instagram’s newest features allow you to connect with art lovers and collectors online more authentically than ever.

Tune in as Artsy’s social media experts, Mark Rosen and Susi Kenna, share strategies for using Instagram’s newest features.

What: A LIVE discussion and Q&A about Instagram for the art world

Who: Artsy’s (@artsy) in-house social media experts—Mark Rosen (@markatthemuseum) and Susi Kenna (@susikenna)

When: Wednesday, March 15th, 2017 at 10:00 AM EST

Where: Watch from any location or device. After you RSVP, you’ll receive a confirmation email with more information. Spots are limited—register now to claim yours.

Hirshhorn Elects Two New Trustees

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced the election of two new trustees, Sonny Kalsi (New York) and Ellen Susman (Washington, D.C.). Now comprised of thirty active members, the board has grown to be the largest in the museum's history, having more than doubled in size under the direction of Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu.

 

These newly-elected Trustees are a reflection of the Hirshhorn's ongoing focus to engage philanthropists, entrepreneurs and luminaries from around the world. In recent years, the museum has solidified its place as the preeminent national institution for contemporary art, and its continued engagement with a diverse group of international perspectives has served to strengthen the museum's voice within the global landscape.

 

"The board has seen tremendous growth over the past two years, both in terms of numbers as well as its cultural and geographic diversity," said Board Chair Daniel H. Sallick. "This expansion is a testament to the Hirshhorn's global reach, and the important work the museum is doing to champion contemporary artists both within the city and around the world."

 

"We are so pleased to welcome Sonny and Ellen to the Hirshhorn's board," said Chiu. "Their expertise will be invaluable as we continue to expand our exhibition purview and prepare to host major shows by some of the most significant and influential artists working today."

 

About the Board Members

 

Sonny Kalsi is a Founder and Partner of GreenOak Real Estate, an independent real estate principal investing firm. Kalsi was previously the Global Co-Head of Morgan Stanley's Real Estate Investing business and President of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds until early 2009.

He was recently named by PERE as one of the 100 most influential people in private real estate from the past decade. Kalsi is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in Business Administration and is a member of the Georgetown's Board of Regents. 

 

Ellen Susman served as Director of the U.S. Department of State's ART in Embassies (AIE) program, an office of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations from 2013-2016.  Before that, Susman served as a Member of President Obama's Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

She previously served on the boards of the MoMA's Latin American Fund, The Blanton Museum, The Texas Tribune, The Democracy Alliance, and the Women's Leadership Board at Harvard Kennedy School, among others. 

Currently she serves on the Yale University Art Gallery Board and is an Advisory Member to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Aspen Art Museum and K9s4COP'S.  

Wanna go to an opening this weekend?

AMY LIN: baby thoughts

March 11 - April 15, 2017

Addison/Ripley Fine Art

Opening reception for the artist: Saturday, March 11, 5-7pm

BABY THOUGHTS: TOWARDS A VISUAL PRE-LANGUAGE

 

In this most recent exhibition at Addison/Ripley, Amy Lin focuses inward, taking the birth of her first child for a personal, pure and elemental examination that, nevertheless, remains stylistically tied to her familiar pointillist and cut paper techniques. The artist offers a view, in her words, through a baby's eyes, glimpses at first tiny and new which eventually evolve into sophisticated patterns and complex compositions. 

 

A new born child sees, at first, simply colors and shapes, makes associations with them, forms her world with them. In a very short time those same shapes and colors begin to differentiate and become associative. So too, Lin's art works, begun with basic marks and colors, are built up, layered and increasingly complex. While the artist's current work is certainly, by intent, childlike in its perusal of early human perception, it is also measured, careful, sophisticated and disciplined, presented, as in previous exhibitions, on pure, white fields of paper. Impeccably crafted and highly personal, these new works of Amy Lin seek to highlight the visual and intellectual spaces before we put words to them.

 

The artist is currently living and working in Washington, DC. She has had more than 13 solo exhibitions including ones in New York, Tokyo and Houston. She was featured in the recent book, "100 Artists of Washington, DC", by Lenny Campello.  Notably, she was the recipient of a John Anson Kittredge Grant and a Strauss Fellowship Grant. Residencies in Tokyo and Singapore have allowed the artist to interact with other art professionals and collectors in Asia and to refine and inform her work.

Pondering, Amy Lin 2016, mixed media, 14 x 14 inches

Please also come for coffee & conversation - Saturday, March 18th, 11am

 

Please join Addison/Ripley for the next in their ongoing series of artist conversations in the gallery, on Saturday, March 18th  from 11 to 1.  They are thrilled to welcome Dr. Anne Collins Goodyear, co-director of Bowdoin College Museum of Art and former Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in conversation with artist Amy Lin.  Enjoy coffee, bagels and a guided, open ended discussion regarding work, technique and inspiration.

Please rsvp for this event: addisonrip@aol.com or 202.338.5180

 

The gallery is located in Upper Georgetown at theintersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Reservoir Road and isopen Tuesday through Saturday from 11 until 5:30 and byappointment.

18th Annual High School Student Art Exhibition

The Friends of The Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery's

18th Annual High School Student Art Exhibition

March 18 and 19, 2017

Saturday, 12 to 5PM and Sunday, 12 to 5PM

Reception Sunday, March 19 from 4:00 – 5:00pm

The Friends of the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery is sponsoring an art competition for all high school sophomores, juniors and seniors from Montgomery County, Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington DC. Click here for an application form.

The Friends of the Yellow Barn, with support from Plaza Artist Materials, will award a First Prize of $500, second prize of $250, and Third prize of $150. $25 gift certificates will also be awarded to the other 37 works selected for the exhibition. Selecting the work this year will be Lenny Campello, outstanding artist and arts promoter for the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. Award ceremony and judge’s comments take place Sunday, March 19^th from 4:00 – 5:00pm.

The Friends of the Yellow Barn is also pleased to recognize three Outstanding Teachers with a monetary prize of $250. This is our third year of enabling high school students to nominate and award their high school art teachers with a monetary prize of their own. Three outstanding art teachers will be acknowledged the night of the reception for their year round hard work in cultivating and inspiring young minds.

Snap Frida

My daughter Elise as Frida via Snapchat filter... cough, cough...

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this mutant trying to rip off artists!

From: Kenneth Freeman <supplyshop51@gmail.com>

Subject: Mail Inquiry....

Date: March 8, 2017 at 8:30:12 AM EST

Hello,

My name Ken owner of KEN SHOP PLACE we hear about you through the internet and am very interested in some of your products. I have a shop in the Fiji Islands in this case are you authorized to ship out worldwide or accept private pick up by a freight forwarder.

Do you have a minimum order?
Do you accept credit card for prepayment on your terminal machine manually?
A price list if possible?

I await the requested information so that i can proceed with the ordering.

Respectfully,
Kenneth Freeman

KEN SHOP PLACE
768 Avon Place
Suva
Fiji Islands
679 937 3421

 This is how the scam works and how to protect yourself... 

ARTundressed 2017 Call for Entries

Deadline: March 31, 2017

ARTundressed - They are accepting entries in the following categories:

Fine Art | Photography | Digital Art | Sculpture* | Mixed Media

Art Installation | Interactive Art Presentation | Artistic Short Film and Videos | Literary Art (Poetry, Short Story)

Registration / Submission for all other International Artists is FREE!!!

NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS ALLOWED: Each artist is allowed to submit up to 5 entries for consideration, with a possibility of 0 – 5 submission(s) to be selected by the jurors/curators of the art exhibition.

NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS ALLOWED: Each artist is allowed to submit up to 5 entries for consideration, with a possibility of 0 – 5 submission(s) to be selected by the jurors/curators of the art exhibition.

APPLY HERE

SUPPORT OUR CAUSE:

To put and end to FGM (Female Genital Mutilation)

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is defined as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGM has no health benefits and is in fact very harmful to health in many ways.

Every year, over 3 million girls have their human rights and dignity violated, and their innocence brutally compromised by unwillingly being subjected to undergo a vicious and violent procedure that involves cutting their external genitalia off and stitching their womanhood. As graphic as this might sound, it is very common and real, and it's happening all over the world, including the United States where this ritual right of passage is in fact currently growing at an alarming rate.  We need to end this and protect babies and young girls from this devastating experience.

ARTundressed will be donating a portion of the event proceeds to fund organizations helping to eradicate such barbaric practices and also providing education and help to victims of FGM.

ARTundressed 2017 INCLUDES:

• Art Exhibition showcasing over 250 exceptional curated art pieces

• More than 100 artists representing many different countries

• An impressive collection of creative erogenous artworks rarely seen

• More than 80 participating artists are planning to attend this year's Exhibition

• Participation by local and international artists, performers, and Art Masters

• Live music and deejays, amazing shows and performances; Chic and Provocative Fashion

• Art Installations, Workshops, and Interactive Art Wall for audience participation

• Art contests for Body Painting; Live Drawing and Photoshoot Sessions

• Catering Services offering appetizing, delicious food, beverages, and cocktails

• The Closing Party: “the GOOD, the BAD, and the NAUGHTY” (Saturday night)

• And much more...

Jarrett Gregory is Newest Addition to Hirshhorn Curatorial Team

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announces the appointment of Jarrett Gregory as curator as of Monday, March 6. Serving under the leadership of Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu and Chief Curator Stéphane Aquin, Gregory will be responsible for the development of the museum's contemporary international collection as well as a rotating schedule of exhibitions, commissions and special programs.

"We are very pleased to welcome Jarrett as the Hirshhorn's newest curator," said Chiu. "Jarrett has organized exhibitions of some of the most consequential international artists working today, including Pierre Huyghe and Stephen Prina, and we look forward to the experience and expertise she will bring to the Hirshhorn as the national museum of contemporary art."

"This is an exciting moment for the Hirshhorn," said Aquin. "As the fourth curator to join the museum in the past two years, Jarrett will contribute to a diverse and dynamic group of individuals, all of whom play an integral role in shaping the cultural conversation in Washington, D.C. and beyond."

Gregory most recently served as Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where she oversaw LACMA's iteration of Pierre Hyughe's retrospective, awarded the Best Monographic Exhibition Nationally by the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). Previously, Gregory held curatorial positions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, working on exhibitions of work by Lawrence Weiner, Urs Fisher and Dorothy Iannone. This year, Gregory curated the Focus section of the 2017 Armory show.

Gregory sits on advisory board for the Lusanga International Research Centre for Art and Economic Inequality (LIRCAEI) in Lusanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as on the advisory council for The Gogova Foundation and Artist Residency in Baku, Azerbaijan. Additionally, Gregory has guest lectured for USC and UCLA's MFA programs.

Ellyn on The Hill Rag



American Gentrifiers by Dana Ellyn
26"x30"
oil on canvas
$1000

DMV artist Dana Ellyn's painting, "American Gentrifiers", is on the March cover of the Hill Rag newspaper. The original painting is currently on exhibit (and still available!) at the HillCenter which has an opening reception this Wednesday March 8th 6-8pm.

Wanna meet the artists?

Before the show (from 4:30-6), you can find the artists at Mr. Henry's (601 Pennsylvania Ave SE) – join them for a few drinks.

United/Divided at Photoworks

UNITED/DIVIDED

A JURIED PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

JUROR

Robert Miller

Deputy Director of Photography

The Washington Post

 

EXHIBITION DATES

March 3 - April 2, 2017

 

RECEPTION | GALLERY TALK

Saturday, March 11, 5-7PM

 

PhotoworksGallery, located in Historic Glen Echo Park, is proud to present United/Divided, a juried exhibition of photography. As an art institution showcasing photographers in the Washington Metropolitan Area, Photoworks is in a unique position to initiate a visual dialog that explores the connections and divisions that currently exist in our nation, and in our nation's capitol.

Robert Miller, Deputy Director of Photography at The Washington Post, serves as the juror for the exhibition.

Miller's journalistic focus is on the news and news images.

He is currently covering the new administration, and for the last eighteen months covered the presidential campaign, as well as national enterprise for The Washington Post.

The exhibition features 23 local photographers, who artistically and effectively document the twin themes of unity and division.

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Richard Batch

Cristina Frey

Bob Friedman

Gina Genis

Ernesto Giron

Ari Golub

Natalie Fay Green

Susan Green

David Heagy

Michael Jourdan

Chip Kahn

Bridget Murray Law

Geoff Livingston

Josh Marks

Kathryn Mohrman

Tom Mullins

Victoria Pickering

Sarah Hood Salomon

Steven Steury

Chris Suspect

Gayle Rothschild

Ginger Werz-Petricka

John J. Young

PHOTOWORKS GALLERY

Gallery Hours: Saturdays 1-4PM and Sundays 1-8PM

(and anytime a photography class is underway)
7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, MD

www.glenechophotoworks.org

A collection of bad things...

Bad things galleries do to artistsUnethical galleries will take in a piece of artwork by an artist, and when the price is discussed, the gallery says: "What's the price?" and the artist says: "$1000" The gallery nods OK and the artist leaves, knowing that if sold, he'll get $500 (most commercial galleries charge 50% commission -- in NYC some are as high as 70%). The gallery then sells the piece, but for $2,000, sends the artist a check for $500 and pockets the extra $1,000. That is why artists should insist on having a contract with a gallery, and the contract must specifically address that the artist will get 50% of the actual sale price.

Bad things artists to do galleries

A reputable gallery gives an artist a show, and goes through all the various expenses associated with doing so (rent, electricity, staff salaries, publicity, ads, post cards, opening reception catering, etc.) So far the gallery has put forth a considerable investment in presenting the artist's works. An interested novice collector meets the artist at the opening and expresses interest (to the artist) in buying some of his artwork. The artist, wishing to stiff the gallery for their commission says: "See me after the show and I'll sell it to you directly and save myself the gallery commission." This is not only unethical, but it's also guaranteed to ruin the artist's reputation in the city, as these things always come out in the wash, and soon no gallery will exhibit any work by this artist.


More Bad Things Artists do to GalleriesThis actually happened to a gallery in Georgetown, in Washington, DC in the 1990s:

Back when there were eight galleries in Canal Square, one of the galleries had given a show to a local -- at the time "hot" artist -- who was a painter (I say "was" because I haven't heard of the dude in years).

The artist was supposed to deliver and help hang all the paintings on a Wednesday, in order to be ready for the Georgetown third Friday openings. He did show up on Wednesday with about 50% of the work, and brought some more (freshly finished) on Thursday and to the gallerist's horror, even brought some more on Friday, and even as the show was opening at 6PM, was adding the last painting touches to several of the works.

Needless to say, several of the oils were actually wet when people starting showing up. On opening night, it was crowded, and someone apparently rubbed against one of the paintings and smeared some of the oil paint.

Now the gallerist was faced with a very irate person, demanding that his suit be cleaned (it eventually had to be replaced) and with a furious artist, demanding that the gallery pay him in full for the damaged painting.

If I am to believe the gallerist, the case actually went to court, where the judge threw it out.

More Bad Things Galleries do to Artists

This has happened to artists several times in my memories, both in the US and in Europe:

Artist and gallery owner agree to do a show of the artist's work. The gallery, like many all over the world, also has a side business as a framing shop, and tells the artist that they will take care of the framing.

The artist agrees on a handshake, and never asks for a contract, or costs, assuming that the gallerist knows what he is doing.

On opening night the artist shows up and is not too keen about the framing, but it's too late for any real discussions, as people are beginning to show up. Several pieces are sold, and the artist is very happy with the opening.

At the end of the show, the artist gets a letter in the mail from the gallery. Excited to see the payment for the sold work, the artist opens the envelope and finds a framing bill.

The bill details the cost of the framing, substracts from that amount the artist's commission from the sold work, and bills the artist for the remaining amount, as framing is very expensive.

Anger follows...

More bad things that (a) galleries do to artists or (b) artists do to galleries or (c) galleries do to collectors here, and here and here.


Bad things galleries do to art collectors...

Our area, like most major metropolitan areas, is peppered with stores that have the word "gallery" in their business name, but are very much far removed from what one would consider a true art gallery.

You will always find them in high traffic areas; main thoroughfare streets where "real" galleries could never afford the rent. You also often find them in malls.

I am speaking of the places that sell mass produced decorative works, either by Kinkade wannabes, Spanish-surnamed painters and worse still, the following scam:

Some of Picasso's children inherited many of the plates used by Picasso to create his etchings. Since them, some of those plates have been printed ad nauseam by the current owners, and are sold around the world as Picasso prints.

And then, to make matters worse, some of the plates are signed "Picasso" by his offspring owner, who is (of course) technically also surnamed Picasso.

The sales pitch, which is not technically illegal, but certainly unethical, goes something like this:

"This is a real Picasso etching, printed from the original plate and it is signed."

Note that they never state who signed the print.

Hapless buyer purchases the print for a pretty good chunk of change, takes it home and brags to his friends about his signed Picasso.

This will be a hell of a mess for the Antiques Road Show experts to detangle in a couple of hundred years.

And don't even get me started on the great Dali art fraud.

Opportunity for DMV high school sophomores, juniors and seniors

The Friends of The Yellow Barn Studio & Gallery's

18th Annual High School Student Art Exhibition

March 18 and 19, 2017

Saturday, 12 to 5PM and Sunday, 12 to 5PM

Reception Sunday, March 19 from 4:00 – 5:00pm

The Friends of the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery is sponsoring an art competition for all high school sophomores, juniors and seniors from Montgomery County, Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington DC. Click here for an application form.

The Friends of the Yellow Barn, with support from Plaza Artist Materials, will award a First Prize of $500, second prize of $250, and Third prize of $150. $25 gift certificates will also be awarded to the other 37 works selected for the exhibition. Selecting the work this year will be Lenny Campello, outstanding artist and arts promoter for the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. Award ceremony and judge’s comments take place Sunday, March 19^th from 4:00 – 5:00pm.

The Friends of the Yellow Barn is also pleased to recognize three Outstanding Teachers with a monetary prize of $250. This is our third year of enabling high school students to nominate and award their high school art teachers with a monetary prize of their own. Three outstanding art teachers will be acknowledged the night of the reception for their year round hard work in cultivating and inspiring young minds.

DC Gallery Show Opportunity

Deadline: March 15, 2017.

Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC will host a guest solo exhibit for the month of August 2017. This call is open to artists residing in the US working in 2-D media. Proposals by both individuals and groups will be considered.

$40 Entry Fee. Details: https://foundrygallery.submittable.com/submit
or www.foundrygallery.org

 

Chris Shea at Strathmore Opens Tonight

DMV artist Chris Shea is easily one of the great masters of the almost arcane art of metalworking...


His work is included in a new exhibition focusing on contemporary craft and design at Strathmore. Along with several pieces on loan from a major private collection, this will be the first public showing of his recent collaborative project with ceramic artist Sarah Nikitopolous

Interiors

Opening: Thursday, March 2
7pm - 9pm
THE MANSION AT STRATHMORE

10701 Rockville Pike

North Bethesda, MD 20852-3224

Amy Lin opens in NYC tonight!

The interesting story of my American flag

The American flag that I sometimes hang outside my house has a most interesting story. As you can see below, it is a gold-fringed flag, which we used to call "a Navy flag" back in the days, because of who knows why... when I was an Executive Officer at the Naval Security Group Activity Skaggs Island, California in the 1990s, I was told that it was because it represented the ability to execute/hold a Captain's Mast.

But I meander away from the history of this flag... my flag.

In 1983 I was the OZ Division Officer for USS Virginia (CGN-38), and the ship was assigned Naval Gunfire Fire Support (NGFS) patrol off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon, in support of the US Marines ashore in Beirut as part of the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force.

We would routinely fly ashore for meetings, etc., and one day I will scan and show you a description that I put on my journal (in pre-blog days) many years ago where I described one such meeting and the interesting event that happened, with 50 cal bullets flying all over the place. Below is a picture of me, ashore in Beirut with the USMC.

From HistoryNet:

At 6:22 on Sunday morning Oct. 23, 1983, a 19-ton yellow Mercedes stake-bed truck entered a public parking lot at the heart of Beirut International Airport. The lot was adjacent to the headquarters of the U.S. 8th Marine Regiment’s 1st Battalion, where some 350 American soldiers lay asleep in a four-story concrete aviation administration building that had been successively occupied by various combatants in the ongoing Lebanese Civil War. Battalion Landing Team 1/8 was the ground element of the 1,800-man 24th Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU), which had deployed to Lebanon a year earlier as part of a multinational peacekeeping force also comprising French, Italian and British troops. Its mission was to facilitate the withdrawal of foreign fighters from Lebanon and help restore the sovereignty of its government at a time when sectarian violence had riven the Mediterranean nation.

... Marine sentries initially paid little attention to the Mercedes truck. Heavy vehicles were a common sight at the airport, and in fact the BLT was expecting one that day with a water delivery. The truck circled the parking lot, then picked up speed as it traveled parallel to a line of concertina wire protecting the south end of the Marine compound. Suddenly, the vehicle veered left, plowed through the 5-foot-high wire barrier and rumbled between two guard posts.

By then it was obvious the driver of the truck—a bearded man with black hair—had hostile intentions, but there was no way to stop him. The Marines were operating under peacetime rules of engagement, and their weapons were not loaded. Lance Corporal Eddie DiFranco, manning the sentry post on the driver’s side of the truck, soon guessed the driver’s horrifying purpose. “He looked right at me…smiled, that’s it,” DiFranco later recalled. “Soon as I saw [the truck] over here, I knew what was going to happen.” By the time he managed to slap a magazine into his M16 and chamber a round, the truck had roared through an open vehicle gate, rumbled past a long steel pipe barrier, threaded between two other pipes and was closing on the BLT barracks.

Sergeant of the guard Stephen Russell was alone at his sandbag-and-plywood post at the front of the building but facing inside. Hearing a revving engine, he turned to see the Mercedes truck barreling straight toward him. He instinctively bolted through the lobby toward the building’s rear entrance, repeatedly yelling, “Hit the deck! Hit the deck!” It was futile gesture, given that nearly everyone was still asleep. As Russell dashed out the rear entrance, he looked over his shoulder and saw the truck slam through his post, smash through the entrance and come to a halt in the midst of the lobby. After an ominous pause of a second or two, the truck erupted in a massive explosion—so powerful that it lifted the building in the air, shearing off its steel-reinforced concrete support columns (each 15 feet in circumference) and collapsing the structure. Crushed to death within the resulting mountain of rubble were 241 U.S. military personnel—220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors and three Army soldiers. More than 100 others were injured. It was worst single-day death toll for the Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

Aboard USS Virginia, the ship's crew went into action, and within minutes our helo was airborne, carrying our ship's doctor and his Navy corpsmen to help with the wounded Marines. Minutes later the helo came back, looking for people and equipment to help assist with digging out the people from the collapsed building. Because my division was the only one that had an Arabic linguist, they came to us to see if he (Sgt. Bobby Jack Irvin, an amazing linguist and as far as I know the only Marine ever to qualify for the Enlisted Surface Warfare pin) could go ashore to help facilitate our doctor's mission, as he had radio'd that several Lebanese doctors had already come up to help him, and he might need language help.


Irvin and I had been ashore the day before (that's him in the photo a few paragraphs above - Irvin is to my left and to my right is Warrant Officer Carnes), but because of our shipboard mission, I felt that he could really help more by staying on the ship and doing what he did best.

Later on, they asked for volunteers to help ashore, and together with some other crew members, we headed to Beirut - other than Irvin, I was the only person on the ship who routinely flew back and forth between Beirut and the ship, and thus I wanted to ensure that I was part of the volunteer crew.
When we arrived at the airport, it was essentially controlled chaos, and dozens of bodies were already being tended to, and our ship's helo - along with others - began taking the wounded to a hospital in Sidon. There were also plenty of black body bags already filled.

With our doctor frenetically working to triage the wounded Marines, and since most Lebanese doctors actually spoke English, after donating blood, I left the medical area and began to help with the digging operations.

This story is not about that part, which was brutal and heart-breaking. This story is about the flag that I found in the rubble.

My American flag.

At the time, it seemed like a natural thing to "rescue" it from the rubble. I brought it back to the ship, where it flew often, as our mission shifted from routine patrol to Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS). When I left the ship, it was given to me, along with a ship's plaque. When I retired from the Navy two decades ago, I used it as my retirement flag and it was presented to me again, after flying over the Capitol - I never put it in a shadow box, as is the custom, but kept it flying every once in a while, as a flag deserves to do.
Last Saturday, when I hung it outside, it dawned on me that the history of this flag should merit some notice, and thus now I'm going to reach out to the Navy and/or the USMC to see if they are interested in receiving it back.

Time to apply for the Trawick Prize!

It’s time to apply to the 2017 Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards!


Entries are due 4/7/17

Application: https://bethesdaarts.submittable.com/submit 

 

The jury will select up to 10 finalists for a group exhibition in Bethesda in September 2017. The Best in Show winner will receive $10,000.

 

Applicants must be 18 years of age or older and permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. All original 2-D and 3-D fine art including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media and video will be accepted.

The Art of Legacy Exhibit

The Art of Legacy Exhibit, in the historic former space of the Georgetown Theater 1351 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC.


Sponsored by Marsha Ralls Founder & CEO of Closed Monday Productions LLC along with architect Robert Bell.


Cocktail reception Thursday, March 9 from 6 and 8 PM. Hours are 12 noon until 5 PM or by appointment March 9th- March 19, 2017.
See https://www.facebook.com/events/1050411408417740/ for more info.

How do you mend a broken heart by Barbara Januszkiewicz -Acrylic on metal panel with resin, 42x44

Closed Monday Productions LLC presents the Art of Legacy exhibition at the newly renovated Old Georgetown Theater, a former silent movie house from the 1900s.The exhibition features Washington DC artists, John Blee, Barbara Januszkiewicz, Anne Marchard, and photographers Tom Wolff, Marissa White and Matt Leedham. 

The Pop up exhibition will be on view from March 9-19, 2017. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, March 9, 2017, from 6-8 pm at the newly renovated space located at 1351 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Washington DC, Georgetown.

“I’m delighted to welcome spring with these iconic DC artists and photographers, and share their work in this historic space that has been lovingly restored,” says Martha Ralls, “It’s a perfect meeting of historic DC with artists whose work reflects the very nature of the city.” Ralls, the curator and CEO of Closed Monday Productions, worked closely with architect Richard Bell to create a showcase for some of her favorite artists.

Closed Monday Productions LLC was established in 2014 as a private art dealership. CEO Marsha Ralls was the former owner of the Ralls Collection Inc. an art advisory group that expanded in 1991 with the opening of a gallery bearing the same name. The gallery specialized in contemporary painting, photography, prints, and sculpture.