Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Vote For Pyramid Today!





Pyramid Atlantic Art Center has been nominated for "Best Arts and Culture Nonprofit" and "Best Art Class" in the Metro DC Area.   Now, we need you to go and vote!

We have the best supporters and if all of you vote today (then send the links below to a friend) we will win for sure!

Cast your vote by clicking on the links below



Let your collective voice be heard and vote today! Voting ends March 1.

Image Credit: Washington City Paper

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

What's Going On: What's New in the Studio

Pyramid Associates Allison Bianco and Helen Baribeau have been busy!

Allison has given a screenprinting lesson:

 

And Helen has been making huge sheets of paper:




Thursday, February 14, 2013

Meet the Interns!

Hello! We're the interns: Daniella Napolitano and Maria Victa, we are Gretchen's interns and we just wanted to share a little bit about us by answering this set of questions.

1.) Is there anything quirky/ interesting that you want people to know?
2.) Weirdest/funniest thing that happened to you while you were doing art?
3.) Preferred medium and why?
4.) Where do you draw inspiration from?
5.) Who is currently your favorite artist and why?

Daniella Napolitano:

1.) I am a twin and my younger brother and sister are also twins. No, I am not identical but both my twin sister and I have never seen Forrest Gump and don’t really care if we ever do. I just don’t get why people like that movie.

2.) I once made a giant purple octopus chair for a sculpture class. It was for a “self-portrait chair” project.  The strangest critic I’ve ever encountered was a six-year-old girl who visited our undergrad open studio. I overheard her saying she hated my paintings and drawings because I painted animals my cat killed and drew figure studies of naked people. She said, and I quote, “Daddy, what did she do to those animals? I hate it! I hate her. Why are those people naked? That’s dumb. I don’t like it.” I caused a little girl to hate me with my art.

3.) Currently, I like working with pen and ink. I love the versatility of the medium; you can make really delicate lines or bold graphic ones. I also like how portable pens are as compared to other mediums.

4.) I draw inspiration from animals and nature. My interest in nature started at an early age when I habitually watched Animal Planet and nature documentaries. Everything about the natural world fascinates me from cute animals to more morbid subjects. I’m also really fascinated in how people interact with and think they interact with “nature” in general.

5.) It took a lot of narrowing down but two of my favorite artists are William Kentridge and Kara Walker. I like the way they address difficult topics such as race and apartheid and create a narrative. I admire Kentridge’s beautiful charcoal animations and Walker’s bold installations.

Maria Victa:

1.) I am a huge nerd. Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings? Yeah, all those book are super awesome. I'm, also a huge fan of John Green, who writes for young adults and conveniently enough, calls his fans: nerdfighters. But it's not just books, I watch nerdy shows like Doctor Who and Sherlock and Downton Abbey.

2.) The weirdest thing that happened to me was when I was painting a picture for my friend and my mom was under the impression I was painting a picture of Jesus, when really, it was a picture of Ned
Stark from Game of Thrones.

3.) My preferred medium is probably graphite. I like the ease of shading opposed to when you have to use acrylic or oil.

4.) I draw most of my information mainly from the books I read. I get the ideas from text as short as a sentence to even the whole entire book. I like to bring a visual aspect that goes along with reading.

5.) My favorite artist right now would have to be Andy Warhol and his pop art style. I'm going through this minimalism phase right now, and seeing his painting kind of influences the way I break do something (think Marilyn Monroe)

Left: Daniella, Center: Printing Press, Right: Maria

Monday, February 11, 2013

Artist in Residence: Michelle Dickson


Michelle is currently one of our resident artists at Pyramid Atlantic. She received a BFA from the University of Florida and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts. She currently lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. 

"I like to think of my work as an extended contemplation on the passing of time and all that entails. Memory plays a large role in my work. I'm interested in the interconnectivity of everything around us - how the structure of rivers are like highways are like veins and tree roots. How deteriorating walls become a portrait of time and a record of human touch, and how the fragility of the body can be experienced in the crumbling of buildings I see when I walk downtown. 

My process is rooted in exploration. I am a mixed media artist and I'm constantly looking for new ways to express my ideas. I don't do a lot of planning before beginning a body of work. My process is very intuitive. I start with an idea or a feeling and what follows is a series of responses. 

Currently I'm working on a body of two-dimensional work at Pyramid Atlantic titled "palimpsestic tendencies". Each piece begins with a digital print of a photograph taken from a previous sculpture project. I have been doing silkscreening, collograph printing, and drawing, on top of these prints. This body of work will be shown at Jordan Faye Contemporary at 823 Park Ave in Baltimore on March 1st. 

I am inspired the most by nature and my surroundings- especially by abstractions and patterns. A few artists that I admire are Kiki Smith, Doris Salcedo, Ann Hamilton, and Eva Hesse."





Visit Michelle Dickson's Website at http://michelledickson.com/home.html

Visiting Artist: Desmond Beach

Pyramid Atlantic is glad to have artist, Desmond Beach, visit for two weeks. Desmond will be working in the Paper Studio and the Printshop.

Visit him on his website: www.desmondbeach.com






Monday, February 4, 2013

CALL FOR ENTRIES!


CALL FOR ENTRIES

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center
Call for Entries: Annual Members Juried Exhibition for Prints, Works on/in Paper and Book Arts. Selected works will be considered by juror and exhibited in The Washington Printmakers Gallery from April 2-25, 2013.
Application Deadline: March 1, 2013
For exhibition prospectus visit:
www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org
or email Gretchen at gschermerhorn@pyramid-atlantic.org

Artist is Residence: Lisa Moren


I came to Pyramid with a specific project using pigments that I had collected last summer in South Australia along an aboriginal "songline" that's now run by big mining companies. So all of my prints are red and yellow ochre.

For a few years I've been collecting pigments from pollution, mostly water pollution, and probably the most insane experience was being in the Gulf of Mexico during Deep Water Horizon rig's oil spill that devistated that region.

I got sick while playing the tidy bowl man out in a little white fishing boat amongst chemically inundated oil blobs floating in Bastian Bay LA, I documented it in a book coming out by the Center for Art Design and Visual Culture. For that project I was inspired by the arial videography that was all over the news which is why I made marbleized paper out of the BP pigment.

As far as inspiration, I recently curated an exhibit with artists Nina Katchadourian, Paul DeMarinis, Ingrid Bachmann and artist team Émile Morin & Jocelyn Robert entitled "Artists Working with Phenomena and Technology." They make a flame sing, popcorn talk, shoes tap, a grand piano play poems like rain is falling on the keys, I love them all and look forward to touring the show and catalog distributed by D.A.P. this spring. Other than technology artists I also like Fluxus artists, Happy Birthday Allison Knowles who just celebrated her 80th birthday!




Lisa's 'Harmano' project


Saturday, February 2, 2013

Pyramid pays a visit to Velatis


Helen enjoyed the yum-yum dust--a lot

We enjoyed a sweet evening last night at Velatis Caramels, located just up the street from Pyramid, on 8408 Georgia Avenue.
After a great tour from Dana, we all learned how to 'paint' chocolate with opalescent edible yum-yum dust and how to make their famous sea salt turtles!
Stephanie watches Dana explain the fine art of casting hot chocolate























So, the next time you're visiting Pyramid Atlantic or Washington Printmakers Gallery, or eating dinner downtown......make the most of your time here in good ole' Silver Spring, and pop into Velatis.
Patty Lee learned how to cast a chocolate bunny
My recommendations: dark chocolate sea salt turtles, Amy's toffee with nuts, or vanilla chewy