Showing posts with label Artists and Makers Studios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Artists and Makers Studios. Show all posts

21 July 2017

Dana Ellyn

Another Dog Day Afternoon by Dana Ellyn
Dana Ellyn, whose art is widely known and collected throughout the animal rights and vegan communities, will be exhibiting her work alongside fellow DC-artist Matt Sesow at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, MD from Aug. 4 to Aug. 30. The opening reception is on Aug. 4 from 6pm-9pm.

1. What is your art about?
My art most often focuses on animal rights and veganism and pretty regularly strays to politics and current events. And for fun I throw in some more light hearted scenes of drinking and debauchery. I also have an ongoing historical series of work, started in October 2013. I am using the Cultural Tourism DC Neighborhood Heritage Trail guides to inspire paintings, creating a visual history of Washington’s most fascinating moments. (dc.danaellyn.com)

2. Within the framework of your own work, what is the purpose of art?
The purpose of my art is to make people think. I don’t expect to convert everyone to being a vegan (or vegetarian), but I know my art is affecting people. It's helping them to open their eyes to the plight of the animals and encouraging them to give more thought to the food they put on their plate. When I paint about politics, half my viewers probably disagree with the opinion I’m expressing.  But I believe that’s the beauty of art - to engage the viewer, not just placate them with pretty pictures.

3. How has your work changed over time, and what should we expect to see at Artists & Makers?
To go way back …. I was first attracted to the ‘pretty’ art of the Impressionists when I was in grade school and high school. My earliest art was purely realistic and proper, garnering good grades and praise for my technical skill. Once I started to study art history in college, I gained a great love for art that had stories to tell - whether historic-, allegorical- or religious-themed. But it took me a long time to inject what I’d learned into my own art. It wasn’t until about 10 years after I graduated from college, when I quit my corporate job to pursue art full time, that I truly started to explore and grow as a painter. Over the past 15 years of full time painting, my style has evolved from pure realism to be more expressive. My subject matter has run the gamut from religion to politics to what it means to be a woman. The past few years, I’ve turned my focus to be about veganism and animal rights, creatively posing the question, “why do we love some animals and eat others.”

25 May 2016

'Summer Burners' at Artists & Makers Studios: ChrisRWK

Apparently, love is not always the answer.

ChrisRWK (Robots Will Kill) is an artist who is inspired by his childhood comics from the 1980s, popular culture as presented on TV, movies and books, and by chance encounters. He takes the images produced in the media, processes and stores them in his mental "cache," and creates his own language out of them, expressed in his artwork. In 2001, Chris founded Robots Will Kill, a popular website that collects and presents the work of graffiti artists across the world. Chris will be presenting his work at "Summer Burners," opening June 3, 2016 at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, MD.

1. How would you describe your work?

My work can be described as a healthy mix of illustration, graffiti, layers and the raising of questions. The layers tell of the history and time that has passed. The content usually relates to the everyday person that you walk by each day. They are the people who have a story to tell, something to say, but you just don’t know it because the encounter is so brief. So, my aim is to make the viewer look at these people and start to wonder what their story is.

2. What is the function of street art?

For me, it's always been a way to invite anyone to enjoy art and not just the people who can afford to collect artwork. 

3. How do you think your work will translate to a gallery setting?

I've always liked that in a gallery setting, "street" work is put directly in front of people — the same people that would most likely walk past it on the street and not care to look at it. I feel that my work creates a discussion with the viewers and helps them to realize that what they've walked past a number of times could be considered art. 

Artists & Makers Studios is presenting two shows for the month of June 2016:
"Summer Burners" (Graffiti) and "Best of the Art Leagues" (Work by the Art League of Germantown)
Opening Reception (for both) 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, June 3, 2016
Artists & Makers Studios is located at 11810 Parklawn Dr. Suite 210 Rockville, MD 20852

18 May 2016

'Summer Burners' at Artists & Makers Studios: Victor Ving


Victor Ving, a Chinese-American artist born and raised in New York City, will be presenting his work in a show titled Summer Burners at Artists and Makers Studios in Rockville, Maryland alongside 36 other graffiti writers and street artists. The show runs from June 3 to June 23, 2016. Since May 2015, Victor, who is inspired by 1940s postcards and mid-century modern design, has been traveling across the U.S. in an RV as part of the Greetings Tour project, painting onsite large-scale postcard murals of major cities across the country.

1. How would you describe your work?

I think that the medium of spray paint (especially water-based spray paint) is a technology of my generation that really defines the aesthetic of modern "graffiti/street art." I always try to incorporate spray paint into my canvas pieces even though it's a medium/tool that's not formally taught in art schools. I feel that it's an important aspect of my artwork. For this particular piece in the show, I wanted to tie in the Greetings Tour project (I have been traveling the country for a year in a RV painting large letter murals - http://greetingstour.com)

2. What is the function of street art?

These days, people seem to call any kind of exterior mural or something done with spray paint "street art." I don't always agree with this. I think that true street art is done without permission and without the intent of making a profit at the end of the day. Also, staying completely anonymous is an important aspect for me. That said, I wouldn't even consider what I do "street art" but more "public art." I consider artists like REVS and READ MORE BOOKS as the true street artists of our generation.

3. How do you think your work will translate to a gallery setting?

I came from a background of graffiti, which really taught me to work quickly and on a large scale. To this day, it's still very hard for me to try to constrict my artwork to a small scale. I never went to art school and taught myself through graffiti. Personally, I got tired of just writing my name over and over again, so I decided to do something more positive with my time, which is how I came up with the Greetings Tour (http://greetingstour.com) project. As of now, I'm not actively looking to enter the world of fine art in a gallery setting, but if it happens as a natural progression, I'm open to it in the future.

Artists & Makers Studios is presenting two shows for the month of June 2016:
"Summer Burners" (Graffiti) and "Best of the Art Leagues" (Work by the Art League of Germantown)
Opening Reception (for both) 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, June 3, 2016
Artists & Makers Studios is located at 11810 Parklawn Dr. Suite 210 Rockville, MD 20852

01 June 2015

Anne Cherubim

 This article appeared in the Gaithersburg Patch on February 19, 2011.

Update: Anne Cherubim has moved studios and can now be found at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, MD. Her new studio is at 11810 Parklawn Drive, Studio 15, Rockville, MD 20852. She and the other artists at Artists & Makers Studios are hosting an open house on June 5, from 6-9 pm.

Born in Montreal and of Sri Lankan descent, Anne Cherubim recycles her own artwork. She creates fascinating 3-dimensional spaces out of sections of old paintings, drawings and monotype prints. The outcome is unrecognizable as a piece of the original. It opens up a whole new world of extruded geometry.

Zooming in on a small section of a digitized piece of artwork she has created in the past, Cherubim breaks up the sample into pixels, which she then extrudes at different angles in Photoshop.

Short of revealing her entire working process, she says that the work can be both addictive and "something you can get lost in."

Regardless of the motivation behind its making, Cherubim's Recycled Art Project, recently on exhibit at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, is a sight to behold.

Subtle color shifts and neutral tones explode into perspectival spaces, from a distance, reminiscent of JMW Turner's turbulent seascapes. Color schemes in the Recycled Art Project are in part determined by the original sampled artwork that Cherubim chose to focus on, but the artist does not hold to any steadfast rules of production. Sometimes, a closer look at one of her Recycled Art Project pieces reveals an added layer of linework or a new color overlay executed in Photoshop.

"I do all my work on my PC," said Cherubim, who is patient, talented, and has a tremendous creative vision.

Before starting the Recycled Art Project she was working on a series of landscape paintings. In her home studio, which is conveniently located next to her kitchen, she has a rack of Recycled Art Project, as well landscape paintings. A few small pieces on canvas board are demonstration paintings, she has completed as part of a workshop series for Michaels stores in the Gaithersburg area. They feature woods in purple hues and are well-rendered for quick demonstration paintings.

The rest of her landscapes are large-scale acrylic paintings that are primarily abstract.

"At an art festival I was in a few years back, where I displayed my landscapes, people would walk into the booth, and some would say things like 'Wow. They’re so zen. They’re so calming.' Someone beside them would say, “No, I see a lot of motion.” I enjoy the contradictions that they are," said Cherubim. "I see them as energy."

Compositionally, the landscapes are vastly different than the Recycled Art Project in that they do not have a perspectival vanishing point and read more horizontally and less centrifugally. Both the landscapes and the Recycled Art Project have a certain smokey airy lightness about them.

"Since my kids were born, I only paint in acrylic," said Cherubim, who is equally invested in her children's upbringing as in her art creation.

She moved to Gaithersburg with her husband in 2003 and has devoted herself to painting full time ever since.

Self-taught, Cherubim began painting because she did not have a job that she would be giving up in order to pursue her passion. She was familiar with the starving artist scenario, but decided to take advantage of what she came to see as good timing to delve into painting.

"I would consider the Recycled Art Project digital painting," she said. "People usually come up to me and wonder how I did it. They want to know how long it takes."

The level of abstraction she attains in her recent work is about letting go of preconceptions and delving into an unknown territory. Cherubim is pushing the limits of her medium in the Recycled Art Project.

Besides teaching painting at the Kentlands, Rockville and Germantown Michaels arts and crafts supply stores, Cherubim is a member of the Art League of Germantown, the Rockville Art League and the Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association.