Location, Location, Location

image via the pink line project

Did you know that there are series of abandoned tunnels under Dupont Circle? D.C.'s original streetcar system was  put to rest in the early 1960's when buses became the newest form of public transportation. A couple of businesses have attempted to set up shop in the tunnels, including a food court called Dupont Down Under and a health club chain, but financial complications and city bureaucracy ultimately thwarted development. 

Now the Arts Coalition for the Dupont Underground has secured exclusive rights to a development plan, which will include gallery and performance spaces, along with a few boutique cafes slated to open as early as next spring! Although the plan will require formal letters of commitment and an estimated 15 million dollars in funding, the development board recently swore in Lionel Lynch, one of the key development consultants behind New York's wildly successful High Line.

New York's High Line transformation from abandoned trolley track to public park

I think that there is an allure to transformed spaces. They are nostalgic without being precious or stale, because they mix old memories with new life. (Think Glen Echo or the old Walter Reed Hospital that used to be a girls boarding school.) I can't wait for this new space!

If I hadn't become an artist, I think I might have studied cognitive science or neurobiology. As someone operating with a heavy right-brain lean in a left-brain dominant world, I am particularly interested in the interaction between the brain hemispheres. I love the fact that someone who is not musically inclined can listen to a piece of music with his right brain, while an expert musician switches seamlessly between his experiential right-brain and his analytical left-brain in hearing and categorizing particular notes. 

I spend a lot of my time in the studio listening to public radio as I paint. That way I can catch up on the news and hear interesting interviews as I work. (This post was inspired by one on Michael Gazzaniga’s new book, Who’s in Charge?, which addresses questions about the relationship between freewill and the mechanics of the human brain.) Anyway, I've noticed my style becoming a little tighter and cleaner in recent years, and I'm starting to wonder if what I'm listening to has any effect on how I'm painting. Namely, is listening to language arranged in logical constructs encouraging a more representational/ less abstract, inventive style? 

What do you think? Do you find that what you listen to affects the type of work that you do? I'm planning to bring my ipod to the studio tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Monday Match: Collectors' Edition

{Every week I post an image of an interior that reminds me of a work of art either in its palette, composition or mood.}

The home of Hollister and Porter Hovey via Design Sponge

William Merritt Chase, The Studio Corner

* The Thanksgiving holiday is over and my neighbors are hanging up their Christmas lights. Every year I make grand plans for decluttering before I start flinging my tinsel. Then I see spaces like the Hovey home, or paintings like the one above and decide that there is something comforting about living amid piles of interesting things.

Art and Advertising

{"Publicity images often use sculptures or paintings to lend allure or authority to their own messages" - John Berger}

Whether your family looks like this

Norman Rockwell

or more like this

Modern Family

I hope that you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

*Clearly this was intended to post yesterday. I hope that you had as much fun as we did here!

Hi, Friends! A few of you have e-mailed asking about where you can buy prints and greeting cards of my DC cityscapes. I sell prints and packs of five different (blank) cards and envelopes at the following Chevy Chase, DC locations:

*Periwinkle

3815 Livingston Street

*The Broad Branch Market

5608 Broad Branch Road

*Brook Taylor Interiors
On the corner of Brookville Road and Taylor Street 

All originals represented in the prints and cards have been sold. Of course, you can always make an appointment to visit my studio (39th and Northampton) to view a wider selection of my prints, or to discuss a commission of an original painting. I am booked through the winter holidays, but it never hurts to start thinking about Valentine's Day!

The Physicality of Sound

Imagine walking to the bus without being able to hear your shoes hitting the street, cars screeching silently by you. Christine Sun Kim lives in this world. She is a deaf performance artist who has decided to take ownership of sound, and I am FASCINATED by her!

Here's why: Real artists are explorers -- sometimes in the brave pioneer sense, but often in the messy utterly-focused way of children at play. Christine may or may not be setting out to create finished works of art, but her exploration is BEAUTIFUL! She records sounds and plays them back on specially-crafted machines attached to balloons, paint and neon string in order to examine the physicality of sound. Seriously friends, this one is worth watching!

My favorite quote: "I love creating feedback. It is my favorite sound."

Monday Match: Self Dissected Edition

{Every week I post an image of an interior that reminds me of a work of art either in its palette, composition or mood.}

 photo credit: Jean-Marc Palisse. Designer ?

Frida Kahlo, Le Due Frida

* This room reminds me of Kahlo's painting not only because of the obvious references to human organs, but also because of the mirror as a symbol of self reflection, and the two chairs (red and blue) as stand-ins for the two sides of oneself. I also like that Kahlo's palette is a keyed-up version of the interior's palette, and that both images include a set of outstretched hands.