Open Studio This Sunday, No foolin'!

Everyone is invited to the Greenbelt Community Center for the monthly "Artful Afternoon". These events consist of open studios , a performance, a hands-on activity, and a gallery show. This Sunday, the event will feature Mark Jaster in a one-man show called "A Fool named O" at 3pm. The Greenbelt Museum will also have a craft workshop (along with tours of the Historic Greenbelt Museum) and the Greenbelt Writers group will have a reading and anthology release. I will be in my studio from 1-5you can come by and see this new piece titled "Blackout"

This all takes place at 15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD from 1-5pm on Sunday, April 1st. See you there!

for more information, you can visit www.greenbeltmd.gov/arts

Greenbelt Elementary School Spring Fair

I will be doing a festive hat booth at the Greenbelt (MD) Elementary School Spring Fair on Saturday, March 31, 2007 from 10am-2pm. This project is a lot of fun. I originally did it as part of the MICA Summer Institute of Community Arts in the Summer of 2005 with two classmates. Since then, I have done these festive hats three times,once during The Greenbelt New Year Party at the Greenbelt Community center, once at Twin Peaks Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah (the elementary school I went to as a kid) and the other time as part of St.Andrew's Episcopal Church's Shrine Mont activities. It is always a winner, and so easy.

So, come out and make a hat!

Art-O-Matic Space Chosen

I found a very nice space at Artomatic with some lovely guys. I will be in room 6R01 red on the column in the middle of the room. I am hoping to display my DIGEST series (pictured here). Half of the series is currently at DCCA, but will be free as of April10th. The others are in my studio, but I have entered them into a Philly show. So, I am in a holding pattern to see if I am, indeed, displaying DIGEST. If not, I'm sure I will come up with something

I am also going to teach a workshop at Artomatic on making coiled paper baskets on May 13th from 3:30-4:00. It should be a fun time, bring you paper and staplers and learn how!

LOVE LOVE LOVE Artomatic. It is Community Art in the TRUE sense of the word. Thanks to everyone who makes it happen.

XYZ in "At Home" Magazine

The Spring 2007 issue of "At Home" Magazine, a publication of the Washington Post, has done a nice article about Fred Ognibene. He is a local Art collector and has been a huge supporter of my work. In the article there is a mention and a picture of "XYZ" a piece of my work Fred has in his collection. He has a beautiful home and a wonderful Art collection. Congratulations Fred!

The KVITL Project ......lives on

On March 25th, 2007 after the 10:30 service at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in College Park Maryland, I will continue a project I started at the JCC of Baltimore called the KVITL project. Kvitl is a yiddish word meaning "A little message". It is often used to refer to the notes people put into the cracks in the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
In this project, participants are asked to write a message on a piece of parchment paper. This message can be anything, a hope, wish, dream, etc. Once the paper is filled, it is rolled into a scroll and placed into a suitcase along with other participant's kvitls.
Last year, during my residency at the JCC, I collected 2,500 kvitls from many individuals and filled 6 suitcases with them. The project was on dispaly at MICA in the "Two Way Street" show and now they are on continuous display at the Park Heights JCC in the Senior "Eating Together" room.

ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH

These three baskets were created using vintage zipper packages and glue. They measure 20" tall and about 8" wide. I just loved the colors of the packages too much to throw them out. So, what do I do? Make Baskets, what else?

Maryland State Arts Council Artist in Education Conference

I have been working with the Maryland State Arts Council through the Artist in Education Program for about ten years now. This is a photo of a weaving project I did with Thunder Hill Elementary in Columbia Maryland. If you are an artist, this program is well worth looking into. You do 20 day residencies with schools throughout Maryland. The best part is the amount of respect the AiE staff shows to their Artists. Built into the grant is paying for your mileage, material/supply purcahasing, and per diem if you work far from home.
The annual confrence is on Thursday. During the confrence, school representatives visit artists they might like to work with. It is great because it only takes half a day and you get to meet some really incredible people.
I offer three residencies through Aie; Weaving, Basketry, and Felting. Working with schools is rewarding for all of the obvious reasons, but, an unintended benefit is that it often informs my studio work.

The Conference will be held at the Chesapeake Arts Center, 194 Hammonds Lane, Brooklyn Park, MD 21225 from 10:00-2:00 on March 22nd. For more information aboout the program you can contact Angela Lohr at lohr@msac.org

PROCESS OVER PRODUCT

On March 20th, 2007 I am teaching a class for the Howard County Office of Children's Services (Maryland) called "Making Art:Process Over Product". This workshop will teach Family Child Care professionals how to use a variety of art supplies to stimulate the young mind. In this workshop, participants will learn art making through two hands-on activities. The first will be creating an imaginary insect using recycled materials (egg cartons,water bottles, etc). The second activity will be felting. We will felt bowls by using hollow balls as a base. For more information about this class contact the Howard County Office of Children's Services at (410) 313-1940

Cover Art?

I hope so. I sent images of the DIGEST Installation to Fiberarts Magazine today. I would be happy with even a mention of my work, but, a cover would be nice. This particular piece (VILLI #18, constructed using old textbooks, thread, staples, and wax, measuring 11"x8"x5") has had a 'meltdown' of sorts. I have been storing these pieces in the window of my studio. The wax melts not down or off the piece, but instead, melts INTO the paper, making it even cooler to look at because you can see the words and letters more clearly. I am able to control the melting by rotating the pieces and what side gets the full sun (much like sunbathing, I suppose) So, the cool thing is that these photos are like a moment in time kinda picture which I think is pretty cool.

Felted Self Portrait

This is a student with his self portrait in felt. We are working on this project in three sessions. The first session we prepare the flat felting (background, face). The second we felt the wool using warm water, soap, and friction. The third session we amke the facial elements (eyes, nose, lips, and hair) Then, we sew them on. It is fun tosee the results.

Cedar Lane School Felting Residency PICTURES!

Here are some pictures of my current residency working at Cedar Lane School. During this residency we are doing several felting projects. The first project is making felted balls. We work with the students by holding their hands and rubbing the soap into the wool.
The second project is portraits. The students pick colors and help place the wool on fabric squares. Then they put head shapes on the wool and felt the pieces.
The third project is felted vessels. We are doing this project with a class from the local elementary school. It is going very well. I will post more pictures as the projects continue.

WYE OAK BASKET

Here is the Wye Oak Basket (#1) in it's new home. My good friend Rachel sent me this photo of the piece up in her apartment. This basket was created using wood from the Wye Oak and copper wire. This tree was about 350 years old when it fell after a fierce lightning strike. The state of Maryland let artists come and gather pieces of the wood to make it into artworks. The initial plan was to have a show with many diverse works made from parts of the tree, but that seems to have fallen through. But, the good news is that I created three works from the wood, and one of them is now hanging on a happy wall in Baltimore. Thanks Rachel!