At Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville

From Judith at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville:

The Gallery season is in full swing and as we celebrate our 10th anniversary through March. We are offering wonderful exhibition programming with a new gallery coming online. Our Invited Artist Gallery – featuring well known artists from the DMV and beyond features monthly openings. Gallery 209 is next – hosting 19 member artists, the Gallery Hall with monthly themed exhibits for Resident Artists, and now the Lounge Gallery which will offer mini-solo exhibits for our residents so that they can plan and execute an exhibit from start to finish. 

With a relaxed atmosphere we hear that there will also be coffee and hot chocolate for the taking. Our First Friday opening offers open studios, light fare sponsored by the Chesapeake Framing Company and craft beer for sale by Third Hill Brewing Co. of Silver Spring. Please come and join us to celebrate community. 

Exhibits can be viewed all month long, six days a week. Please find embedded below the release, also attached along with an image for your use. Let me know if you need anything more – we are here to help. You can also browse information on our site: https://artistsandmakersstudios.com/december-2024-in-the-galleries-with-olney-art-association/

Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville Presents

Olney Art Association and “Small Works for a Big Anniversary”for the Month of December

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville is thrilled to host Olney Art Association in the Invited Artist Gallery for the month of December. The exhibit runs from December 4th through December 18th, with an opening reception on Friday, December 6th, 5 – 8pm. This Small Works exhibition features members’ work. In 1974 rural Olney was considered to be out in the country, with many active farms. Five people with a passion for creating original artwork started talking to each other about art.  They didn’t have much formal art training. 

Meeting in each other’s homes they shared ideas about art and started inviting local artists to participate and demonstrate art techniques. Over time Olney Art Association evolved as an organization. Art shows were planned and the public was invited and more people wanted to join to grow and share their creativity and love of art. With 70 member artists, the Association is now considered to be one of the premier art groups in the DMV. Enjoy additional exhibits “The Blues” with Resident Artists in the Gallery Hall, a mini-solo with Mark McAlister in the Lounge Gallery, a Pop-Up Shop with Colleen Darkow, along with nineteen Gallery 209 Member Artists exhibiting their latest work. Open Studios building wide will welcome visitors. Shop and support local working artists, makers, and professionals. Light fare sponsored by The Chesapeake Framing Company and craft beer will be offered for sale by Third Hill Brewing Co.

Olney Art Association - “Small Works for a Big Anniversary”

“The Blues” with Resident Artists

Mini-Solo with Mark McAlister

The 19 Member Artists of Gallery 209

Pop-Up Shop with Colleen Darkow

Opening Reception

5:00pm – 8:00pm, Friday, December 6, 2024

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

 

Meet the Artists – Saturday December 14th, 1-3pm

Viewing hours are 10:00am – 4:00pm, Monday-Saturday, and Sundays by chance or appointment.

Two artsy and remote jobs

 See below two job opportunities from Artwork Archive - good peeps!

About Artwork Archive At Artwork Archive, we're artists and innovators building the world's most trusted art management platform. Since 2010, we've helped creators, collectors, and organizations worldwide catalog, track, and showcase their artwork with confidence. Our platform has evolved from a simple cataloging tool into a complete art business solution – from inventory tracking to professional presentations and seamless sales management. As artists ourselves, we've built the tool we always wanted – making it simple to run an art business and protect a creative legacy so  artists can focus on creating. As our global community grows, we're expanding our passionate team to help shape the future of art management. Ready to make an impact? Product Education Specialist (Remote, Full Time) Artwork Archive is looking for a Product Education Specialist to translate the product’s features into clear, actionable guides. You'll create engaging tutorials, webinars, and resources that help artists master our tools and achieve their creative goals. Learn More + Apply Email Marketing + Content Specialist (Remote, Full Time) We're seeking a Marketing & Content Specialist to drive platform growth through compelling campaigns, blog posts, and social content that supports and engages artists, collectors, and art organizations. Learn More + Apply

Under $2500 - A quick look

I dropped off my two entries at Maryland Art Place's Under $2500 exhibition and sale, and chatted for a while with hardworking MAP Exhibitions Director Caitlin Gill about Picts and Scotland and The Lillith.

I walked around the gallery and checked the works that had been delivered -- I have no idea who most of these artists are, but here are some of my top picks for the show.  If anyone knows the name, send me a note or leave a comment, so that they can get credit.

The below three pieces also caught my eye, and so I asked Gill about them.  They are gorgeous works on reclaimed, repurposed solar panels.

I was told that the solar panels were part of MAP's last show reGenerate and were part of "a MAP initiative to produce a show related to energy and sustainability."

The panels came from a local solar company, Lumina Solar via one of MAP's former employees, Robbin Lee, who so kindly made the introduction. Lumina was looking for ways to discuss the waste surrounding solar -  it was a win-win in terms of MAP's goals and theirs. 

This is good on several levels - not only because it is high quality, smart and intelligent art, but also re-employs discarded solar panels, which are the most toxic thing produced on planet Earth today when they are no longer of use and discarded. HUGE kudos to Lumina and MAP!

By the way, the artist with this wonderful work and superior artistic skills: Caitlin Gill.

UNDER $2500 Benefit Exhibition and Sale:  Friday, November 22 | 6 to 10 pm  | Tickets $30

Purchase UNDER $2500 Tickets HERE

Last Chance (physical): Saturday, November 23 | 12 to 4 pm

Virtual Exhibition & Sale: Saturday, November 23, 10 am – Black Friday, November 29, 12 am

To view the virtual exhibition click HERE | Live on Saturday, November 23 @ 10 am | REGISTER HERE

ABOUT UNDER $2500 

UNDER $500 and FIRST EVER UNDER $2500 affordable art sale where artwork is sold on a first-come-first-served basis right off our gallery walls! Newly rebranded as UNDER $2500, this event promotes the purchase of artwork by artists in the Maryland region. Guests can expect to mingle with other artists, collectors, patrons, and general art enthusiasts at the event. Take your purchases home with you the night of the event. Gift wrapping will be available on-site! 

The opening night sale (physical) will take place Friday, November 22 from 6 pm to 10 pm (ticketed) and then again on Saturday, November 23, 2024 from noon - 4pm (free). Saturday is a ‘last chance’ opportunity to snag any artworks that remain on MAP’s walls. Tickets are $30 for opening night and can be purchased at the door or in advance  HERE.

This year’s theme is Black and White! MAP will have holiday trees on display. Enjoy a cheerful atmosphere with an open bar, light fare, and some holly jolly tunes.

A virtual sale and exhibition will also take place and will be featured online HERE from Saturday, November 23 at 10 am – BLACK FRIDAY, November 29 at MIDNIGHT. Artwork will NOT be available to view online until November 23 at 10 am. Be sure to register in advance in the interim! Registration is free.

As I've noted many times before, Michele Banks is one of the hardest working and most talented DMV area artists that I know.  And she goes Terminator on art scams, which are one of my fave subjects - click here if you want to read the vast collection of them that I've accumulated over the years!

Here's Michele on the subject:

The Subtle Scam

Artists, beware of these "opportunities"

This week I got a message on LinkedIn from a gallery offering to project my artwork on a dome at a major art fair. Sure, sounds cool! But my Spidey scam senses were tingling, because the message said nothing about my work or where the gallerist had seen it, which meant this invitation had likely been sent blind to thousands of artists. So I started digging through the gallery’s website, eventually unearthing the expected nugget of dung. The “invitation” was for me to submit jpegs of 30 of my paintings to be projected for five minutes total, for which I would pay $5,000. Want ten minutes? They’ll give you a deal, only $9,500.  BRB, gotta retrieve my eyeballs from where they rolled across the floor. “Artist opportunities” like this one abound. They’re not full-on scams like the ones where thieves try to get you to share your bank details or sell you a booth in a festival that doesn’t exist. Instead, they’re what I call scam-adjacent: models that are set up to extract value from artists while giving very little in return. Here are a few to look out for.   Contests Art contests can be appealing for several reasons – they’re usually free to enter and they offer the possibility of winning prizes and getting your work seen by big brands. But most of them are a bad deal for artists, for several reasons: a) because artists must often create new work to fit the contest theme, b) because the odds of being chosen are terrible, and c) because in many cases, artists sign away the rights to their artwork when they enter.   My friend Maki Naro brilliantly summed up the hazards of art contests and other types of “spec work” in this comic. Click through and read the whole thing, it’s worth your time. A caveat: although contests sponsored by big brands are worthless for most artists, smaller contests for specific types of art, where the organizers give cash awards and prominently feature many of the entries, can be great.  And some major contests, like Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Nikon Small World, are truly prestigious. My advice for artists:  read the contest terms carefully, think hard before producing new work just for a contest entry, and check online to see if previous winners have been properly credited and promoted. Feature Articles There’s a well-known company that produces free feature articles about artists and other creative people. Sounds great, right?  The catch: You do the whole thing yourself. They send you a standard set of questions and publish your answers verbatim, along with some images of your work. Besides the lack of editing, the real problem here is that they don’t distribute or promote the articles at all - they expect artists to send them to their email lists and post them on social media. In other words, the model relies entirely on artists to create both the content and the audience for it, while the publisher collects the clicks and sells the email addresses. And that, my friends, is a pretty lousy deal. The “Prestigious Collector” Grift Playing on the fantasy that an esteemed collector will see your artwork and be bowled over by it, this little scamlet is breathtaking in its audacity. Artists are invited to apply for the opportunity to have their work collected by a famous art collector. One example: artists pay $50 to enter three pieces, creating a pool of entries from which the collector will purchase a piece with a value of up to $10,000 for his collection. In other words, 200 poor people pitch in to buy a painting for a rich guy. this works out for exactly two people out of 201 – the collector, who gets a free painting, and one artist who essentially wins a lottery. Just say no. Pay-to-Play Galleries and Art Fairs It’s tough to generalize about these types of opportunities, because there’s a huge spectrum here, from perfectly legit to deeply shady. The legitimate ones offer artists a chance to display and sell their work in exchange for upfront payment, as opposed to the traditional gallery model of commission on art sales. This can be a practical alternative for artists who are good at selling their own work, or who just want to get their art on a wall somewhere without running the gauntlet of rejections. Where it gets murky: the many “galleries” with fancy names that invite unknown artists to exhibit with them, sometimes at a fair, often in another country. This is, of course, flattering to artists who don’t often get these kinds of opportunities. Several emails later, the artist accepts the invitation, at which point the gallery sends a bill for thousands of dollars in exhibition fees. Beware, beware, of any invitation where they won’t tell you the costs upfront. When in doubt, ask explicitly what expenses the artist is expected to cover.  A legitimate organization will have no problem telling you. One that avoids giving you a direct answer is a big red flag.  And now a word about Michele - when I told you that she's a super hard-working artist, I was not kidding! You can find her art at the following venues coming up! Glen Echo Holiday Show and Sale - She’ll have a small selection of watercolors, scarves and ties for sale at this show, which runs from November 23 - January 5 Dupont Circle Holiday Pop-up - She’ll be there Saturday, December 7 only District Bridges Holly Jolly Holiday Market - December 14, Logan Circle And as always, if you can’t make it in person, you can shop online

Jack Boul - RIP

 Jack Boul  | 1927-2024

Veterans Day 2024

Thank you!


To all US veterans, both those who have served and those who are serving in all corners of the planet while we're home with our families. A well-deserved thank you to all the soldiers, sailors, airmen/women, Marines and Coasties. And to all the American sailors at sea - we've got your back!

Below is Petty Officer Third Class Lenny Campello back in 1975 while stationed aboard USS Saratoga (CV-60) in Mayport, Florida. 

And then Lieutenant Commander Lenny Campello back in 1992 while assigned as the Executive Officer (XO) of NSGA Skaggs Island, California.

The Stormtrooper Scandal

Ben cajoled well-known artists, including Jake and Dinos Chapman, David Bailey, Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor, into decorating stormtrooper helmets. These were auctioned off for charity.

But fed up of seeing people making fortunes when he was living in a council flat, Ben hatched a plan — the mendacity and illegality of which was outdone only by its sheer stupidity.

He sold online photos of the helmets, certifying each as unique with an NFT. That's a 'Non Fungible Token', though it could equally stand for 'Not Flipping There' . . . because when lawyers at Lucasfilm, which owns all the rights to Star Wars, got wind of Ben's racket, they ordered him to delete all the images.

Read a very enlightening article by Christopher Stevens in The Daily Mail here.

Adah Rose has a new location!

New Location:

Art Seen/Tri Graphics

12115 Parklawn Drive

Rockville Md 20852

​301-922-0162

and

Project Space

3766 Howard Ave

Kensington MD 20895

Next opening:

Night Shift

Screenprint by Anne Smith

Nathan Loda and Anne Smith - Two Solo Shows

Vernissage/Opening at the new location!

Nov 16, 2024 5-7 pm

Artist Talk 4:30-5:00