On Saturday, Nov. 14 from 6-9 p.m. and on Sunday, Nov. 15 from 2-5 p.m., the Columbia Pike Artist Studios (CPAS) located at 932 S. Walter Reed Drive in Arlington, VA welcomes all to an open house event and party. Tour studios and meet artists working in a variety of media, including oils, pastels, acrylics, collage, encaustic, watercolor, printmaking, photography and sculpture.
Below is a sampling of the artwork on view and what some of the artists had to say about the role of art and CPAS in their lives.
Barbara Wolcott
1. How long have you been involved with with CPAS and how has it helped you in your artistic endeavors?
I have been at CPAS for 22 years. I joined while finishing my junior year at the Corcoran School of Art and Design and was worried I would have to give them money that day (I had only $2.00 in my pocket ). After graduation, CPAS was where my "art community" lived. It encouraged and enabled me to dare move my process and learning further. Art can not just stay on one rung of a ladder.
Movement is a major issue for me, and I am curious to observe the variety of shapes that are created by dance or work in humans and machines, how they produce their products. I am also interested in the shapes created as they produce. Gesture drawings of humans acting out their dramas of life. these initiate my paintings and are fun beginnings.
I have really thought about this before. It just seemed necessary. I will answer by saying that life is so important, but words rarely express the necessary depth needed to describe the emotion a person is feeling. This makes art extremely important for reaching that depth of feeling, whether by visiting an art gallery or creating the art yourself (which is always challenging).
Maria Panas
1. How long have you been involved with with CPAS and how has it helped you in your artistic endeavors?
I first sublet a studio at CPAS nine years ago and became a member and got my own studio one year later. It's been great. The encouragement, warmth and friendship I experience at CPAS is priceless.
2. How would you describe your work?
Observing all art gives an education and pleasure, but the works of the New York Abstract Expressionists put me on fire, so that is the genre I have developed. I also like the peacefulness and depth of Zen paintings and develop that feeling on paper and canvas in my quiet moments.
3. Why is art and art-making meaningful to you?
Being an artist has given me great pleasure. Painting offers a wealth of self-knowledge. It is a venue for self expression, a place of refuge, an escape when needed, and a chance for pure fun.
Jay Young Gerard
1. How long have you been involved with with CPAS and how has it helped you in your artistic endeavors?
I had to wait two years after moving to the Columbia Pike neighborhood before I could get off the waiting list and into a CPAS studio! It was worth the wait. I have been here for over two years now, and it is exactly what I hoped it would be. It is three blocks from my house! It has provided a collegial atmosphere among similarly-minded artists. It has given me not only dedicated space, but incentive: I think if my studio were more difficult to get to or unwelcoming when I got there, I would not feel as supported as I do here. It is a community and a refuge and an ongoing education.
2. How would you describe your work?
I have been a design professional for 40 years. In my professional life, I had to be able to justify every mark, color, word, decision to the client, and every single thing had to be perfect. There could be no errors in concept or execution. Painting for myself has proved to be a challenge: letting go of both concept and perfection is an ongoing goal. My ultimate goal was stated by Rothko: "The purpose of my painting is painting."
3. Why is art and art-making meaningful to you?
I can't sing! Less facetiously, it's what I've done my entire life, every day of my life, in one way or another. I also write. Between words and pictures, I am constantly expressing myself, my world view, my feelings, my memories. It is frustrating, thrilling, satisfying, ridiculous. Sometimes I stand back and look at my work and cannot remember how I did what I did, how I got there. It's eerie, and the biggest high ever. It's also extra wonderful when someone else values my work. That is the cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae I made after having churned the ice cream and melted the fudge and whipped the cream all by myself. It is the best stuff of life.
Sarah Bentley
1. How long have you been involved with with CPAS and how has it helped you in your artistic endeavors?
I have been at CPAS for one year, exactly since last Nov. 1. Having a community of supportive artists of all types has been invaluable, almost as invaluable as having a space dedicated just for working on art!
2. How would you describe your work?
My work has yet to settle into a theme. I am a classical realist working with oils, exploring still lives and allegories, and coming back to portraits again and again.
3. Why is art and art-making meaningful to you?
Through making art, we are bringing something new into the world with every piece. It's a way to safely emote and decompress in a world where we are constantly aware of dangers around us, or a way of finding a small portion of peace in a chaotic life. Art is an expression and sharing of ideas in a visual language that surpasses a need for words.
Nan Morrison
1. How long have you been involved with with CPAS and how has it helped you in your artistic endeavors?
I have been a CPAS member for six and a half years. Being a member of CPAS has enriched my artistic endeavors immeasurably. It is inspirational and educational to be in a community filled with diverse artists, multiple points of view, and various approaches to creativity. I have learned so much about technique, style, materials, resources and mediums from my fellow CPAS artists. It is great fun to compare notes with my friends at CPAS about composition, scale and framing regarding my paintings and how they evolve along the way to finality.
2. How would you describe your work?
First of all, I am a colorist. My paintings are very intuitive and expressions of how I feel in the moment. My abstract works reflect my interest in color, line, shape, texture, pattern and form.
3. Why is art and art-making meaningful to you?
Art is a huge and incredibly valuable part of my life. I love the individual nature and unique qualities of creativity. My paintings are a wonderful and important extension of who I am and how I feel. I am a docent at the National Gallery of Art and teach the art of the Renaissance for Georgetown University. The special thing about my own paintings is I can do whatever I want: my work reflects an important part of my overall well being. Art is great therapy!
Anne Hancock
1. How long have you been involved with with CPAS and how has it helped you in your artistic endeavors?
As one of the three founders of CPAS, I have been at the studio from the beginning, through the process of incorporating, leasing, fundraising and renovating.
2. How would you describe your work?
My work is largely personal and reflects my interactions with and memories of places, family and friends.
3. Why is art and art-making meaningful to you?
Creating art is my way of expressing my thoughts and reactions to the world where I live and the people with whom I interact. It is a way of capturing and paying tribute to those small, everyday activities that collectively define who I am.