December Open Studios and sale

We had our last open studio/sale in late October. Then we decided to have a follow-up for the holidays, which is next weekend. Come on out and have wine and fun in this old building while we are here; and you have the chance to see how we get work done (despite so much!). FB page here.

Holiday sale and Open Studios
1716 14th Street NW, second floor
Washington DC 20009
(also address for Harmon Art Lab)

December 10 & December 11 (Saturday/Sunday)

public hours: 12 to 5 both days

Featuring the studios of:

Sally Kauffman

Dafna Steinberg

Dave Peterson

Thomas Drymon

Joren Lindholm

Print Sessions - Research Done in Spontaneous Mode (video)

On June 2, 2011, I was filmed by photographer Tara Kocourek at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, MD during one of my mono-type printing sessions.

Tara has an interest in artists, and for some time has been one herself. I was asked to be the subject of her documentary right there and then; I accepted and 15 minutes later the filming began. What resulted is a pointed glimpse of my working methods and state, intertwined with some nice shots of the studio space and material. In this instance I was making a draft version of an image interpreting an urban space that I know.

The filming was followed up by an interview which probed the theme of overcoming artistic ruts (which is supposed to be of local interest in DC?). This is heard in the voice-over.

Many thanks to Tara for the collaboration, and for what she brought to the table; she's very dedicated. Created during Bill Gentile's Backpack Journalism Workshop. Filmed on Canon 5D Mark ii, 24-70mm.

Pressed from tarakfoto on Vimeo.

Peter Bonner & his work, "At Service..."

Visit to Peter Bonner's studio - Brooklyn, N.Y.

The last time I had been to Peter's ("PB", for short) studio was New Year's Day, 2008. Last week I stopped by again for what must have been my third visit (and the first since PB got a fine arts Masters degree through the University of Melbourne, which is very near to where he's from).

For this post I wanted to show some pictures of his recent, plentiful work. The above oil on canvas is a portrait of one of his friends that he said took him a few years to resolve. It's stunning. He mentioned to me at least once, as I strolled about and took photographs, that for the past two years his process of creating and finishing paintings has found its connection to their raison d'etre. In the case of PB, their reason for being is usually the resolution of actual experiences via memory, many of them from the desert in Australia. I heard him say this about the new stage of his work: "at service to something" (that sounds a bit like a golden award for painters). What each piece is specifying (in terms of the experiences that PB is getting at) may not be instantly evident upon first view. They take some good looking. I hope we get to see them in person sometime soon.

PB creates enough space in his life to lead a sizable amount of inter-disciplinary activities, let alone managing to be a full-time painter. He has a choir to sing in. He meditates. He's a new daddy.

By the way, it's possible for people like you and I to be written about on Wikipedia.
See the wiki page on Peter.

The Sutdio Visit & Studio Activity

Lately it seems that the walls to peoples' art studios have been metaphorically dissolving. The studio - the haven for creating, which can typically be counted-on for being a source of focus and undisturbed muse for artists to work out their projects and problems, is to a degree, going public. I've noticed people are gaining access to trace evidence of how artists are at, and get to work, thanks to our technology. Technology that gives us a sense of being pretty close to the center of what we call the artist's studio.

Artists should be able to have it both ways.

Of particular note is Isabel Manalo's web magazine The Studio Visit, and its rapid growth. In a few short years it morphed from Isabel's D.C. based side-line thing into an established internet artist studio database, whose coverage, both local and nation-wide, seems to be full-throttle and viral.

D.C. photographers Robert Heimplaetzer and Darren Santos had each stopped by a few times during the latter half of 2010 to visit my current studio and take pictures. When each were here we got along as mates, and I worked on paintings while the camera constantly clicked away. Here are some of the resulting shots:




all photos above by Robert Heimplaetzer

About a year ago, The Studio Visit paid me a visit. Isabel came to my then-current space, at a time when I was working on about seven oil paintings on canvas, all at once. Most of them were newly begun and about 30% complete. I haven't even finished them all to this day. That was an ugly time. The resulting page had lots of photos of what those unfinished canvases looked like, and my Color-Aid thumbs, plus a video interview of me about my work. Looking at the posts of other artist visits, I find The Studio Visit's standard to be very consistent, yet the nature of the coverage to be quite incidental - which is a good thing.

What can I say for artist-studio access (open studio events, photos, videos, etc.)? They display personality of the artist(s) working in them that's connected, yet unattached to the objectivity of the stuff that comes out. In journals like Art in America, established art galleries sometimes use photos of an artist studio (sometimes with, sometimes without the artist's presence) for advertising their exhibits of the work that was made in it. The appearances of the studio and the artist at work in it hook interest for sure. Perhaps the studio will remain a charming, personal entity. Yet I suppose it could turn into a 'product' someday.

Open Studios at new 'Mid City' Location

Washington D.C.'s Mid City Artists Open Studios took place on Sat, May 22nd & Sun, May 23rd 2010; it featured 27 participants, 5 new members and a whole plethora of work.

(from l to r: Joren Lindholm, David Peterson, Hannah Naomi Kim, Thomas Drymon)

Featured throughout the whole 2nd floor studio was the work of my studio colleagues Thomas Drymon, Hannah Naomi Kim, David Peterson as well as mine. Most of the art I displayed were framed oil colors which I made throughout 2009 and a few new ones from this year. In addition to that there were one or two viewer surprises, including a wall installation of drawings that I had done in different styles. My work has been described as 'surprising humor and irony, and emotive fields of color alternating with lyrical imagery'.

view of 'Isabella Etruscan' and 'Stationary Girl' (photo: Kim Vu)

Among the hundreds of attendees were a number of french families (painting appreciators invited through a local french mothers' network), people from the fitness center, staff members from DC Commission on the Arts, art & culture critics from The Washington Post, fellow area artists and lots of friends and local professionals. Also making the rounds were photographers from ReadySetDC and Borderstan. Within the two weeks that followed, Tom, Hannah, David and myself were each the subject of online artist features. See mine via the Logan-area Borderstan blog, here.

We have been at 1716 14th Street NW #2 (between R & S Streets) since February. Consequently, in conversing with some of the open studio visitors we found out some locals knew more about the building (and former occupants) than we had up to that point.

(photo: Liz Medina Chiomenti)

The event was relief-inducing for me; it completed a period of transition that started in February, when I moved out of my former space at Takoma Park's A.Salon building, subsequently readjusting to and customizing the new one. It was a busy springtime, in the middle of which I was completing and framing the 12 pieces which I contributed to Tom's premier group show at Dupont Circle's Studio Gallery.

View of Tom Drymon out back from my window (photo: Kim Vu)

We do this twice a year.

Our next Open Studios event (in the same location) is November 6th & 7th, 2010.

Studio Relocation Immanent

The plan is to, by March, relocate my work studio to the DC's most active gallery district of the 14th Street/Logan Circle area (around 14th & S Street to be exact)! Here is a photo of my current DC studio. I've been here for close to 3 years, and I am enjoying the recent tweeks (such as getting the walls and floors painted in December) that are customizing it. Alas, it's time to adapt to, and mold another space - this time closer to where I live, which has long been Mt. Pleasant.