In June of 2019, to my utter surprise and delight, my proposal was selected to move to the next round of the submission process for the U.S. Botanic Garden Exhibition “It’s Hip to be Square: The Mint Family.” I had a good reason to be anxious proceeding to this next phase. I have experience drawing and painting but the extent of my sculpting experience is making neon colored playdough figurines with my kids. I had one month to make a vessel out of porous terra cotta clay no bigger than eight inches in any direction that could hold water and was striated to grow Chia.
Once the award recipients were selected, I got to work on my speech for the award ceremony. My speech needed to be relevant to both the students and their families. I wanted to address the creative process and provide sound career advice in an engaging format. I found my voice but could I keep my public speaking nerves in check to effectively deliver the speech?
Teaching Art in the Classroom at Taylor Elementary school is probably one of my favorite and most challenging volunteer commitments. Despite my deep discomfort with public speaking, watching a child awed by a painting, connect to a story about an artist, and activate their creativity through a hands-on art project makes all the butterflies I have speaking in front of over a hundred kids, teachers, and parent volunteers worth it.
This commission started with a theme, billiards, and a location, a burnt orange fabric covered wall set in an alcove above a billiards table in the roof top lounge of 930 Pike and Rose. The client was struggling to find artwork that referenced the game of billiards in a way that challenged and intrigued viewers but also used a color palette that integrated with the location.
The series of paintings that were ultimately installed in the new Pike and Rose development in North Bethesda, Maryland started with a “one shot” opportunity. In the fall of 2016, after two and half years of not painting, I was anxious to get back to my brushes, a sentiment I had shared with my friend and mentor David Freeberg on a visit to his shop A&D Custom Framing.
On May 5, 2018 Country Day School (CDS) held its first Children’s Art Walk Auction in conjunction with the school’s annual Spring Fair. We hoped that the auction would be a fun and creative way to bring the community together and raise enough funds to offset the expensive of hosting Spring Fair. I worked in collaboration with CDS staff and parents to help classes produce artwork that was both created by the children and something parents would want to hang on their walls.
Artomatic Takes Flight brought together visitors traveling through Reagan National Airport and Artomatic art festival artists. Just like the festival, this show was not curated in the traditional sense; artists were selected on a first-come, first-served basis, from a pool of artists who had previously participated in an Artomatic.
