“When They Were Kids: Artists Talk About Their Childhoods” resumes this fall with an interview with the prolific Washington, DC artist Matt Sesow. Almost anyone who makes art in the DC area knows Matt for his ability to produce insane amounts of art which he successfully markets locally and around the world. So where does someone get this kind of drive? Was Matt Sesow an art kid like Studio Neptune’s sixteen other previous interviews? Actually, he wasn’t that at all. Growing up in a rural area of Lincoln, Nebraska, Matt’s childhood was filled with sports, a great family, plenty of friends and a fascination with computers. In the early 1980’s he taught himself programming language and eventually those childhood skills developed and led him straight into the corporate world of Internet technology. No one in Matt’s family had a career in the arts, no family friends had art studios to visit. Drawing and playing with creative toys were minimal. Visits to art museums were rare. It became clear in our interview that one significant incident became the catalyst for Matt’s artistic expression. Read more …
I’m back in the studio working away at new paintings for a children’s book of poetry. It’s critical to remain productive when you are involved with educating others to be creative.
Without a doubt, cartoons shaped our childhoods. I was fortunate to grow up with Fractured Fairy Tales, those witty interpretations of classic fairy tales made in the late 1950′s and early 1960′s created by Jay Ward Productions. The sarcasm and humor appealed to me. It was like adding a little salt instead of the typical sugar that coated most things primary. And this was a good thing, it was a spicy way to view the big world through my little eyes. Characters often possessed one or more of the following qualities: they were fed up, overly romantic, crafty, exasperated, cunning, stupid, naive or ambitious. The outcome was always ironic and each cartoon closed with a cursive drawing of the words “The End”; a sparkly, fairy wand ending to what was really more like latter day Borsch Belt humor. Beyond the dialogue and plot, we noticed much more about Fractured Fairy Tales: characters were drawn with limited palettes, strong lines and sassy expressions. The timing of the jokes was impeccable.
For the past two summers, students at Studio Neptune were treated to episodes of Fractured Fairy Tales. Fifty years later and these cartoons haven’t lost any of their off-kilter attraction.
This fall the PeriPoint Building, which houses both Studio Neptune and the architectural firm of Michael Belisle Design, AIA who designed the PeriPoint, will enter its fourth year. We often notice people stopping to photograph the building and last week we came across Monica Alley one evening with her camera. Visiting from the Boston area, Monica was doing what she loves to do when traveling – photographing interesting architecture. It was fun to meet her and hear her reaction to our building as a sculptural form. Here are some of her images of the exterior stair at night:
Here is another amazing shot taken this past Wednesday during the day by Stacie Kirby from Reston, Virginia:
Have you taken any inspired pictures of the PeriPoint? Let us know! Send your image to info@studioneptune.com.
Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting the very dedicated artist, Victoria F. Gaitan. Known for her extreme tableaux of excess in flesh and food, her studio reflected all things Ziggy while her temperament was gracious and light. I loved the combination and was inspired to learn more about her.
I first met Michael Janis in 2004. His work was impressive: sensitive, realistic drawings were being fused into glass sculptures. I was fortunate to offer this most original artist a chance to exhibit several times in my former gallery. A few weeks ago I caught up with Michael in his studio at the Washington Glass School, where he became a co-founder and instructor after spending years as an architect. Our conversation was spirited! Michael recalled numerous details about growing up as an art kid in Chicago. The youngest of three boys, his early attraction to drawing was realized with the used art supplies of an older sibling. Read more …
In about a week Studio Neptune will publish its 15th interview where artists are asked “What kind of kid were you?” It’s a project that started back in January with the first post on this blog regarding a distinct memory I had about a small orange toy chair. Since then I have been all around the DC art community with this interesting project, having a wonderful time getting to know artists I never knew before and revisiting some who were part of the Gallery Neptune stable. Since the project started with no real introduction I thought it was time to offer one, and to give this documentary a name. So it is with great satisfaction that I offer you “When They Were Kids: Artists Talk About Their Childhoods”.
My work in visual art education started many years ago when I was asked by a group of adult friends to create an art class for them. They knew my dedication to making art was so solid that whatever I came up with would be rewarding. I took on the challenge and we all had an unforgettable time with it. In fact, the experience revealed something unexpected; I saw what a natural role it was for me to inspire people to be creative. Soon after those first classes, I created an art program for children. Fast forward to today and Studio Neptune has had more than a thousand children pass through its program. An amazing fact due to an unexpected invitation.
Working with kids in a studio setting almost every week of the year is in a word, splendid. Splendid: Latin splendidus, from splendēre to shine. Art kids are great company. They are curious about materials, eager to draw whatever they are thinking about and often have a great sense of humor. It really is the most natural thing in the world for children to use art to say who they are and so I wanted to get to know the kid inside of artistic adults. I wanted to trace the patterns I saw in the art of adults back to their child-selves.
“When They Were Kids” has some interesting themes already. We like small worlds when we are little, a place to be in charge, to invent and tell stories. We like to stare at textured paint on ceilings, collect moss for mini carpeting, make full course dinners out of clay and use Fisher Price record players to scratch Rap music.
For the rest of this year I plan to continue making studio visits, adding to this project. And then it will be exciting to see if “When They Were Kids” grows into something bigger. If the posts ring a bell because of how you think or the work you do, let me know! I’d love to see this conversation stretch beyond the interviews.
Today’s blog post about creative childhood influences spotlights an artist who became strongly attracted to fine art a little later on, in his high school years. Joren Lindholm grew up in Hyde Park, Chicago and although drawing was an early fascination, when we sat down to talk about his childhood an eclectic list emerged of people, places and things that he readily remembered. That list ended up making a lot of sense to me as I first met Joren during one of DC’s Mid City Artist Tours and was attracted to the unusual compositions, palettes and unpredictable quality of his paintings right away. Read more …
J. Jordan Bruns is currently the artist in residence at The Yellow Barn Studio in Maryland’s Glen Echo Park. In the turret of the Yellow Barn, Jordan occupies two floors where he produces bright, architecturally inspired abstractions and graphite drawings. I had a chance to visit Jordan last week. Read more …
When I arrived at Bridget Sue Lambert’s studio in the Arlington Arts Center, the very first thing I saw were two dollhouses packed with a jumbled assortment of furniture, objects and dolls. The dollhouse on the right was given to Bridget as a child.
In the exhibition hallway nearby was Bridget’s latest exhibit I Had Fun Last Night. Large scale photographs transport us directly into the dollhouse rooms where they have been purposefully arranged and documented to evoke the drama of romantic human relationships. Read more …
Yesterday Studio Neptune wrapped up classes for the 2010-11 school year. 32 weeks, 24 projects and 50 talented art students have kept our creative current flowing. We may leave the studio but the studio does not leave us. Here are some project highlights from the year made by children ages 6-13.
Let’s start off by attributing the early creative years of artist Kristina Bilonick’s life to the fact that she had a Montessori education. My Montessori education is one of my brightest memories. The teachers treated you more like an adult than a kid. There were so many choices you could make on your own. You could gravitate towards subjects you liked more and spend more time learning about them. Today I find that my studio process is related to that whole Montessori method. Read more …
Last week I visited Pleasant Plains Workshop in Washington, DC where I had a wonderful time interviewing print makers Anthony Dihle and Kristina Bilonick. Read on about Anthony’s early creative influences and check back next week for my interview with Kristina.
Anthony Dihle, Fire Studio
Anthony operates Fire Studio from Pleasant Plains and has screen printed concert posters for local and internationally known bands such as Greenland, Exit Clov, Elvis Costello and Jay-Z. He was raised in a 1970’s subdivision of Frederick, Maryland where he and his younger brother would make art together: We would sit down with huge pieces of paper and draw things like floor plans of gigantic houses. We would say “Can you imagine the greatest house in the world?” and on these great big sheets of computer paper from the 1980’s with the perforated holes on the sides we would indulge in these floor plans and say “This is the movie theater, this is the swimming pool, this is the go-cart track”.
Ellyn Weiss is an abstract painter whose studio is located in Mt. Ranier, Maryland, close to the Washington, DC border. I visited Ellyn in her studio and learned about her childhood which was steeped in reading.
Ellyn Weiss grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania and had an early opportunity to watch someone make art in a studio. That person was her mother, who carved stone sculptures and the studio was part of their house. Although petite, Ellyn’s mom took on the challenge of working with large pieces of stone using power tools.It was amazing to me that she would take blocks of stone and make something appear out of them. She would work on one sculpture for six months at a time. Read more …
It was time for a special summer trip when twelve year old Christen Carter, the founder and owner of Busy Beaver Button Company, was asked by her parents “So do you want to go to a dude ranch or do you want to go to London?” It was a no brain-er and London became the first place where Christen bought her very first pin-back button. The Snoopy and Woodstock button, so easy on a twelve year old’s wallet, was in fact a unique piece of wearable art. Now Woodstock and Snoopy were a part of Christen. They could go anywhere together. Read more …
Now here are some interesting shoes. Interesting for their colors and shapes but most interesting because they are a by-product of a process. Read more …
In the early spring of 2009, Gallery Neptune presented the lush paintings of Washington, DC artist Freya Grand. Included in the exhibit’s introduction was this paragraph: “Although we are immediately presented with imagery large and strong, the artist takes great care to have us investigate her work slowly and at close range where we examine the spray of water, the arid crumble of rocky terrain, mist as myst and other phenomenon that evaporate and disappear into the unknown.” My recent studio interview with Freya recalled memories of the close examination of things and the drama of creating miniature environments, key aspects to the work she produces today. Read more …
Yesterday I visited the studio of Ellen Hill. Ellen works with wood surfaces which are carved or treated with acrylic paint and various mediums. For the past four years she has assembled fragments of these wood elements to create dense rhythmic fields of color and pattern in both intimate and large scale wall pieces.
Comfort Series: WEB, 9″ x 9″
The immediate impact of her work is orderly, yet close investigation presents a range of organic design within each small tile or carved surface, yielding a thoughtful interpretation of the natural environment. And the natural environment is exactly where this artist’s early artistic awareness begins. Read more …
Washington, DC artist Joan Danziger grew up in Queens, NY. As a child she felt a strong attraction to the visual arts. Acknowledging Joan’s early talent, her parents sent her to Parson’s School of Art and Design in Manhattan, yes, at age eleven: I was always doing art. When I was about eleven I used to take the train, at that time an eleven year old could take the train to Manhattan safely, and go to Parson’s School of Design for figure drawing on Saturdays, and then I went to Provincetown in the summer for watercolor camp. I used to go to museums a lot and look at art, I was very young and I was fascinated by the surrealists, Dali, Tanguy, Peter Blume. Although no one else in her family was interested in art, Joan’s parents remained very supportive of her creative pursuits. Read more …
Artist Marie Ringwald makes sculptures using an assortment of wood, metal, plastic and paper. Her main interest is in architecture and her studio is in an 1890′s row house in Washington, DC. Everywhere you look in Marie’s studio you see surfaces of beautifully aged wood or revealed layers of paint. An abundance of paintbrushes clustered in glass jars, sheets of aluminum, brass and copper and boxes of corrugated paper, hand tools and swatches of paint surround you. All the various ingredients that appear in the superbly balanced compositions of her art.
I asked Marie to talk about the creative influences of her early childhood.
I recently added “13 Words” a new picture book by Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman to my library. I love the drama of the picture book, those little theaters of truth, irony and humor! Each page turn is a curtain rising. Over the past ten years I have collected numerous books by Maira Kalman which she both illustrates and writes, although “13 Words” is written by the uber talented Lemony Snicket and together they make perfect collaborators. Kalman’s books are easily some of the best picture books that I share with my art students and here is why: she understands the way kids think and learn. By weaving funny, skillful artwork with witty ruminations about life, Kalman’s work stands apart from the plethora of mediocre picture books for children.
When you read these books aloud to kids, there is instant engagement! Three cheers for Maira Kalman , who maintains true curiosity and helps make learning fun and real for children.
“The artist whose life is similar in many ways to that of a child, can often realize the inner sound of things more easily than anyone else”.
– Vasily Kandinsky
In 1991 I decided to make a slide show presentation of children’s art which was set to three selections of music and interspersed with two interviews. The interviews captured my then six year old daughter Jocelin who left us with these pearls:
“When you make a picture it’s in your mind and it comes from your mind and it tells your hands. Your hands think about it. And they tell your mind what their answer is. If it’s “NO”, then the mind has to think about another thing that the hands might like. If the hand says “YES”, then the hands will take a piece of paper and a pencil and start drawing something. And when they’re done, they’ll be coloring it in and maybe using some shadow and detail and then when you look at it you’ll think “Well that’s a nice picture, I’m glad I made it”.
I also recorded my eight year old son Gabriel.
Fast forward to 2011 and Gabriel has found a new use for the wonderful ideas he expressed in our home-made production. You can hear his young voice in the concluding section of “The Future of Art”, a video by KS12 which was created at Berlin’s Transmediale 2011.
Washington, DC artist Joan Belmar who grew up in Chile, produces symbolic paintings and drawings that can clearly be traced to his childhood. Here are two of his recent paintings Volver (to turn back in time) and Spinning Web.Read more …
Walking my dog after the biggest snow storm we have seen in the Washington, DC area last February, sparked a fascinating new art project. The sun was out as we wandered along shoveled paths. Mounds of snow to our left and right cast shadows on these paths, imitating the distinct look of city skylines. And not only in a few places, but everywhere.
I returned with my camera and recorded over forty images which became the basis for Snow Fallen Cities. The images were turned upside down and the shadows were transformed into imaginary cities using colored markers and paint pens. Our students were given this project during a drawing class and here are some of the exciting results: Read more …
This is the start of something new. With the start of something new we bring the old, the familiar, the reliable, the unknown, the hypothesis and the mystery. A great way to be creative.
You could say that Studio Neptune’s story begins with this little chair. I received a whole box of these when I was 5 years old. They came in several colors. Read more …
I’m back in the studio working away at new paintings for a children’s book of poetry. It’s critical to remain productive when you are involved with educating others to be creative.
Comfort Series: WEB, 9″ x 9″
I asked Marie to talk about the creative influences of her early childhood.
Washington, DC artist 
This is the start of something new. With the start of something new we bring the old, the familiar, the reliable, the unknown, the hypothesis and the mystery. A great way to be creative.