Friday, April 20, 2012
Our featured artist this month – Gallery Lafayette owner Todd Healy – epitomizes what Handcrafted Alexandria is all about. When Todd first visited Alexandria in the 1970s from his hometown of Virginia Beach, he fell in love with the city and found his artistic muse in its architecture and unique history. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife made a home in Alexandria, and the love affair blossomed.
Working originally in pen and ink, and later in watercolor, Todd set about capturing the sense of home and ever-present history in Alexandria. “When I walk along the footpaths of George Washington who first surveyed these original lots of Alexandria, I often think of the artisans who built these homes and public buildings, by hand, using minimal tools, and how almost 300 years later they are still in use.” His vibrant watercolors and illustrations of the city’s residential and commercial architecture are dedicated to these artisans and their significant contributions to this city. "I want to give people a sense of who built and lived in these houses and what their lives were like. You could say that I am looking beyond the doors and windows and seeing a home where real people live."
Todd Healy sells his paintings, along with calendars, mugs and cards with prints of his work, at the Gallery Lafayette in Gadsby Arcade across from City Hall. More information is available at http://gallerylafayette.net.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Using beeswax from her own hives, artist Georgia Nassikas creates intriguing textures and layered surfaces in her encaustic paintings. Her intricate, abstracted landscapes acutely capture the ephemeral quality of light flickering across the land. “Elemental,” a solo exhibition of her work, runs through April 2, 2012, at The Art League Gallery.
Nassikas uses a combination of beeswax, mineral pigments, and oil sticks to create her encaustic paintings. Encaustic, a method reaching back to ancient times, is by definition a technique consisting of layers of wax fused together with heat. “What I love about this medium is the energy involved – the process of scraping, layering, and scoring is active, engaging, and challenging,” says Nassikas. This additive and subtractive process is what gives Nassikas’ work its rich surface texture.
The result is a series of luminescent images, often at the intersection of natural and abstract, in which forms interact and landscapes reveal their elemental essence. Light shifts from foreground to background, adding to the depth and transient quality captured within these pieces. Texture varies between smooth planes of wax and rough, scraped surfaces. The abstraction creates a fleeting quality, evoking the elemental characteristics of the terrain.
Raised on the Rhode Island coast and classically trained in art and design in Boston, MA and Florence, Italy, Nassikas currently works out of her studios in Virginia and New England. She has exhibited throughout the United States, and her work is held in both private and public collections internationally. This is her first solo exhibit at The Art League.
Monday, February 27, 2012
For a brief period of time following the epic Patrons’ Show fundraiser each year, The Art League Gallery walls belong to the students and faculty of The Art League School. The walls and pedestals are filled with pieces created over the past year by current students, with a special section of the gallery reserved for faculty works. Paintings, drawings, printmaking, stained glass, jewelry, ceramics, pottery, fiber, mosaics, sculpture, and more are placed throughout the gallery, giving viewers a glimpse into the creativity that takes place throughout their many classrooms. The exhibit is up through this Sunday, March 4.
Handcrafted Alexandria
Friday, February 10, 2012
Made with love and so much more, a handmade gift warms the heart. Buy handmade for Valentine's Day.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Francine Villaneuva hadn't set out to be an artisan; she was a graduate student, research assistant and U.S. Army veteran. But sometimes wars, love and necessity intervene. That's what happened back in 1991, when Francine's husband John returned from the first Gulf War. John, an Operations & Intelligence Advisor assigned to the Special Operations Community, had been on the ground when the retreating Iraqi forces set fire to 700 oil wells in Kuwait, exposing John and his fellow soldiers to its choking black smoke and thick residue. Within days of the exposure, John and others developed a variety of skin disorders that resisted and were made worse by conventional medical treatments. Francine, putting her research skills to play, learned that traditional treatments contained some type of refined petroleum oil, which probably made things worse!
Shortly thereafter, while visiting John’s family she came across his grandmother’s recipes for making soaps and compresses with herbal and plant extracts, which had been widely used in those days to treat everything from bug bites to sunburn. Using these recipes as the starting point, Francine began to make soaps and creams from plant-based carrier oils, essential oils and herbal extracts for her husband. To her amazement, the rashes on his head, face, neck and back started healing, his skin discoloration faded and his complexion took on a healthier tone and texture after only two weeks of use. She shared these handmade soaps and creams with other soldiers, friends and family and a handcrafted artisan was born.
Fast forward to January 2008, Francine, with John's assistance, launched ZENCASTLE®, the name and logo of which were inspired by a visit to the lavender fields of the Senanque Abbey in Provence, France in 2006. Today, Francine's products are still made by hand -- here in Alexandria -- using only the natural and organic ingredients and used by people around the world.
Handcrafted Alexandria
Monday, December 19, 2011
Handcrafted Alexandria
Thursday, October 27, 2011
El Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, on November 2, is an important religious holiday in Mexico. Also called All Souls Day, it is an occasion marked by festive celebration to honor the dead. Cemeteries are cleaned and decorated, special food and candies cooked, picnics held graveside, and home altars are designed in homage to one's ancestors. It is a day of joyous remembrance, not of sadness. The special songs, poems, food, art and toys created for El Dia de los Muertos reflect this outlook.
Gossypia offers a sizeable collection of true Day of the Dead folk art, including retablos created by an artist workshop in San Miguel de Allende, pictured right, and pottery by the artists Ortega who create lively pieces in their home near Guadalajara as well as traditional items used to celebrate the holiday. And Gossypia will hosts its own Day of the Dead celebration from October 31 through November 2, serving traditional bread and welcomes all.
American artists are now lending their creative and inter-cultural interpretations to these Mexican folk art traditions. Locally, the Torpedo Factory's Target Gallery is hosting its 3rd Annual Altar Exhibition, exhibiting the works of numerous local and regional artists. One of the participating artists, painter Kathleen Kendall, created her altar, pictured left, in homage to her mother who died three years ago. In her statement, Kathleen explains that she worked in subtle and not-so subtle details into the altar of her memories of her mother. She ends saying "The experience of making this piece has helped me come to terms just slightly with how much I miss her." The Altar Exhibition runs through November 4th. The gallery has invited Shane Pomamjambo, owner of DC-area gallery, Art Whino, to select his top three altars. Awards will be announced at the Costume & Dance Party on October 29th.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
It's that time of year again when more than 300 shops and restaurants across the metro-DC area, including Mindful Hands, proudly support the Children's National Medical Center by sponsoring the "Care for Kids" Card campaign.
The program is simple:
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Buy a "Care for Kids" card for $50 here
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Get 20% off ALL purchases at more than 300 local shops and restaurants during the campaign period, from Oct. 21 through Oct. 30.
That's it! It's a great way to start your holiday gifts shopping while supporting a worthy non-profit. All proceeds from sales of the cards go directly to Children's National Medical Center, while the savings go directly to you!
In past years, the Care for Kids Campaign has contributed more than $1.5 million towards:
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a clinical simulation training laboratory
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a portable ultrasound machine
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summer camp for sickle cell patients
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a bright and cheerful playroom for patients in the respiratory care unit
Your purchase of the Care for Kids Card includes a catalog detailing the more than 300 shops and restaurants throughout the DC-area that are participating in the program. Purchase yours today!
Friday, September 16, 2011
As the ever-changing relationship between the United States and Pakistan continues to headline the news daily, Ten Thousand Villages in Alexandria realizes that these tensions are between governments, not between the people of these countries who do not choose them but whose lives are affected forever by them. To help build a positive peace in Pakistan, Ten Thousand Villages is holding its First Fair Trade Oriental Rug Event from September 29-October 2 in Old Town, 915 King Street in Alexandria.
Approximately 300 rugs, each handmade in Pakistani homes by fairly paid adult artisans, will be available for sale in a variety of unique designs and sizes ranging from 2' x 3' to 10' x 14' and runners. An Introduction to Oriental Rugs Seminar will be held at the store on Thursday, September 29 at 7 p.m.
The rugs all come from an artisan group in Pakistan known as Bunyaad. The name meaning "foundation" in Urdu, Bunyaad works to create strong foundations that create peace in the villages of Pakistan by paying a fair wage to its artisan families. Bunyaad has grown to include over 850 families in roughly 100 villages throughout Pakistan and is gradually building a positive peace.
A positive peace, not just the absence of violence, happens only when people earn a living wage, have access to education, have their human needs met, have social and political equality, are respected and involved with their community and can see opportunities for a brighter future. These conditions help build trust between people who begin cooperating with each other and working toward common goals that will improve their lives.
Bunyaad builds peace by breaking the cycle of poverty for the artisans. Bunyaad artisans, male and female, receive the same living wage for their work, allowing them to build better homes and living conditions and create educational opportunities for their children. If not paid a living wage, artisans need to borrow money from high-interest local lenders to afford family necessities and begin a downward spiral of debt. Bunyaad offers a no-interest loan to the artisans to pay off other creditors, a loan that is repaid at a rate that their family finances best allow. Money from loan repayment is invested in improving the infrastructure of the village.
"Bunyaad builds peace by showing rug artisans respect," explains Yousaf Chaman, director of Bunyaad. "Bunyaad artisans choose the color and design of each rug they produce. They allow nature, tradition and inspiration to guide their creativity. By respecting each artisan's creative ingenuity, our rug events and year-round rug galleries showcase a collection of handknotted rugs in which each rug is a unique piece of functional art crafted to last for generations."
"When asked what they like about working for fair trade, artisans will always say that it is the respect that they receive from Bunyaad," said Chaman.
Bun
yaad's attitude of respect was shown most recently when they paid the artisans lost wages from the devastating floods of August 2010.
Bunyaad builds peace by giving women an equal opportunity as men. With looms located inside artisans' village homes, this project gives equal opportunity for women to work, earning the same wage for their work as their male counterparts. In the villages, there is very little opportunity for employment, especially for women. Work on the looms gives women year-round, stable employment over which they have control. With this income, women are finding increased financial independence and can financially contribute to the success of their family. They are able to send their children to school and plan for the future. Having a wage-earning skill gives these women a sense of pride as well as an avenue to true social change for themselves and their family.
"By working with women in their village homes, we are not only empowering women and their families but their entire communities," said Kate McMahon, Ten Thousand Villages store manager. "There is a great transformative power that women with a living-wage income possess."
Bunyaad builds peace by welcoming Christians and Muslims into their program. Working side by side toward a goal of a good living for their families, commonalities are realized rather than differences.
Bunyaad builds peace by supporting 10 schools throughout Pakistan, helping many children, especially young girls, have easier access to education. Sometimes the distance to the school is so great that parents do not feel comfortable letting their young girls walk to school. Bunyaad both builds and supports schools to reach such students. One example is the Darianwala Girls High School, located in the village of Darianwala in northeast Pakistan. This school educates over 650 girls from grades K through 12. These girls dream of becoming teachers, doctors and other professionals, dreams that are now possible to achieve. Both Muslim and Christian students attend these schools, learning their commonalities in spite of religious differences.
"It may sound simplistic but it works. Every Bunyaad rug that we sell means that an artisan in Pakistan has a fair paying job that supports their family - Kids go to school - People can plan for their future - Artisans feel good about those who are purchasing their product because they have been treated fairly. A peace is created. It's that simple," said McMahon . "The ripple effects of fair trade are truly transformative. Being intentional about how you shop can truly change the world!"
An Artisan's View of Attaining Peace
Liaqat, a village supervisor, lives in the village of Lengha, Pakistan and began working for Bunyaad eighteen years ago. The economy of Liaqat's village is struggling because of its proximity to the Indian border. The possibility of unrest deters businesses from locating there. Working for Bunyaad has enabled Liaqat to give his four daughters an education through high school. Liaqat expresses how education holds the key to peace in Pakistan.
"All the children should be educated. Once they are educated, I don't care if they become farmers or employees or start their own businesses, but they need to have an education. An educated person won't get into disputes, won't start arguing about anything. (With) a lack of education you don't know how to communicate and a lot of misunderstanding goes on," said Liaqat. "With education, a person knows right from wrong. Education is like jewelry, you wear it and it transforms you as a person."
Friday, September 09, 2011
Originally posted The Art League's blog (September 7, 2011)
Written and photos by Lauren Hodges.
For the past few years, the number one complaint from students and teachers alike at The Art League School has been the easels. The old holsters really were a wonder. Somehow, they managed to be too flimsy and too heavy at the same time. The hardware was constantly falling off and disappearing, and they took forever to set up and break down. In short, they were notorious for cutting into both class time...and people's patience.
"We had a full-time volunteer just to maintain the easels," says Suzanne Bethel, The Art League's deputy director of operations. "It was a never-ending job, like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Just when you thought you were done painting at the end, it was already time to start painting the beginning again."
Staff decided to take action. Buying a new fleet of easels, however, was going to be expensive and complicated. Despite having tried four different models in the school before, none of the designs was popular. "There was something to not like about each one," says Bethel. "So what we decided to do was design our own."
From there, "Franken-Easel" started to form. Working with facilities manager, Chuck Mills, the school office began to piece together the best parts from all the designs, leaving out the faulty ones. They built five and placed their experiments in various classrooms around the school. "We wanted to get feedback from the teachers and students about our design," says Bethel. "Once they were used a couple of times, we were able to go back to the drawing board, perfect the design and start production."
A few vital improvements were made based on past complaints and difficulties with the old easels. Franken-Easel was made to "telescope," or adjust inward, in order to reduce glare on the paintings. The footprint was also reduced to make the classrooms less hazardous. "So many people were tripping on the legs of the old easels," says Bethel. "And they were crowding each other. The smaller base solved those problems." They also used poplar wood, which is both sturdy and lightweight, and the chosen hardware was much bigger to prevent loss.
The easels, which are patented and branded with The Art League logo, are now for sale at a bargain price: $175 each. All proceeds made from the easel sales will go straight into growing the school's personal fleet. "This project was done with the students and teachers in mind," says Bethel. "It was designed to meet their needs specifically...and also so we never have to hear someone say their easel is broken again!"
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