Non-Virtual Arts Festivities (Hopefully) Upcoming!

Some of the Collective intend to show up in-person at a nonvirtual Playa del Fuego Mid-Atlantic BurningMan Regional festival at the end of May. (May 2022, we hope!)

We plan on making art beforehand that can be reassembled on-site. I learned this the hard way when I made the Cabinet of Extinct Curiosities for the 2012 spring PdF -- I think I spent two full days of a 4 1/2 day festival working on the thing. It was really fun but I could have had MORE fun if it had been more pop-up book, less house of cards.

Art grant applications have been submitted! We are waiting to see what happens with that, but at least some of us are going to be there either way (if it happens!) and will make art, make merry, and hopefully not superspread anything but joy.

Artistic Jumpstart, with safety goggles

2021 brought me several instances of fierce creative elation, and I will write more about that. All physical art things, not writing. Mainly instances of sharing art/creativity with other people. (I did not get into the DCAC Sparkplug thing, but that feels fine to me because I am at a creative juncture and might not be cranking out a lot of finished pieces right away. I just want to play with materials -- including hot metal!)

Step 55: "aim flame into pig's nose to burn out excess oil"

Donna Reinsel teaches welding at the Art League in Alexandria, VA. (Her portfolio features, in addition to jewelry and furniture, some of her amazing lamps and chandeliers. If you have ever had the misfortune of hearing me go on and on about the fantastic lighting fixtures that used to hang at Perry's in Adams Morgan, and now presumably hang in the owner's house, which is so unfair to the rest of us, then you may have some small inkling of the elation I felt when I realized that my impending instructor was in fact the creator of the Vanished Chandelier I Was Obsessed With.)

Omichrome

Jamie (Irreverent Rhyme) told me that every time she heard "Omicron," she got Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" stuck in her head, so...

[original song for reference] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rlDTK6QI-w

Mettle

 Filth & I had been talking about learning to weld, and the notion continued to smolder in me... then I happened upon the course listings for The Art League (at the Torpedo Factory), and now I am going to learn how to weld. (Details to follow!)

Also, I got in my application for the DC Arts Center's Sparkplug Collective. I started to type, "so I'm waiting to hear," but I'm not waiting. I've decided to behave as if I am in. Deadlines and shared projects energize me, so I am tapping into that energy as much as I can. Getting my atelier/aerie more organized in the direction of making more art. And making more art.

Rust, glass, wings -- and paper

 Realizing I haven't bragged enough about being in the paper.

This was in the Washington Post's what's-in-the-galleries-this-week roundup [a few weeks ago] ...

No Appointment Necessary!

DC Arts Center is holding its annual Wallmountables right now -- it's like a tiny Artomatic, all in one room! -- and you no longer need an appointment to visit (though I think you do need a mask).

Wed-Sun. 2-7 pm

through August 22nd

My stuff is on the front wall. "I'm Not Trying To Move You."

If We All Go (djh, 2021)

Utopia Monster: Initial reports from the VDF2.0 Biohazard Containment Facility

 

As long as I have to work the graveyard shift in this place, you may as well get a tour. Come see the nonrecyclable monstrosity the authorities have wisely quarantined in this isolation tent. Hairnets provided upon request.