Solomon Wondimu, Kodak Moment

Solomon Wondimu, The Flag in Black & White

Solomon Wondimu, Sojourner Truth

Solomon Wondimu, Skin Color Swatches

September 2011

SKIN: America in Black and White

Born and raised in Ethiopia, Solomon Wondimu is an Assistant Gallery Director and Adjunct Faculty for the School of Art at George Mason University. For the past five years Wondimu has been working on Human Skin Color Project. Wondimu has always been perplexed by the signifying system which references the human race. Wondimu questions the distinct classifications of “Black” or “White” which describe an opposition that does not actually exist in nature.

Using a digital camera, Wondimu took forearm pictures of hundreds of participants. In Photoshop he then cut a square-inch section from each forearm finding an average of fifteen different colors in each of these sections, leading him to the discovery that no person is one single color. To accurately measure and record this, Wondimu took eight skin-color swatches, to represent the multi-coloredness of each participant. Based on the data, he has collected about 3,000 different colors that have become his palette to create digital and traditional artwork. Wondimu’s work includes video, painting, digital print, and sculpture.

Wondimu’s work goes beyond the physical attributes of SKIN. It is also about the conflict between the eye and the perceiving mind over the color of human skin. The eye sees its world without bias; however, the mind takes that information from the eye and translates it into social, political and religious master signifiers in order to further agendas, particularly subjugation of the Other. Wondimu perceives the mind as an abuse of the noblest sense of all: the eye. Wondimu’s work describes and exposes this conflict as it exists in both the micro and macro levels.

Visit Wondimu’s website at www.solomonwondimu.com.

Watch the artist interview here.

September 2011

Sanctuary

Commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Alison Sigethy’s Sanctuary attempts to bring the viewer closer to achieving inner peace by taking them on a journey inside the human body. Sigethy’s belief in the power of the inner-self, a place where one can truly find peace, healing and forgiveness, has been the foundation in creating this work.

In Sanctuary, the body is represented by two multi-piece sculptures, each portraying a different internal system. Breath, six large glass panels with undulating fabric and shadows, represents the respiratory system. Life, four bubble tubes filled with intricate glass components, represents the cardiovascular system. Both sculptures incorporate sound and movement as an essential part of the experience. Sigethy’s choice in glass is largely environmental—structural glass, which makes up the majority of all manufactured glass, is not recycled but buried in landfills—so using building glass is part of her mission. However she also enjoys the challenge of taking a cold, hard, sterile material and giving it new life as an organic form.

Sigethy studied theater and lighting design at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and received degrees in Interior Design and Art History from Marymount University. She was a commercial artist and art director before taking up glass full time in 2003. From 2003 to 2006 she was a studio artist with the Washington Glass School. Sigethy has exhibited at the Smithsonian Craft Show and been a speaker in the Smithsonian Presents series. She is on the faculty of the Washington Glass School, is a Torpedo Factory Resident Artist, and was the Torpedo Factory Artist of the Year with Marsha Staiger in 2010.

Visit Sigethy’s website at www.alisonsigethy.com.

Watch the artist interview here.

August 2011

Opposing Planes

Matt Crooks uses photography as a means of exploration. He tries to find the overlooked, forgotten, or decaying parts of our everyday environment. Crooks’ is fascinated with pattern, form, and texture and the interplay between them on different scales. He sees the simple beauty that is abundant, perhaps only evident if you are willing to take a second look. The variations of texture in particular can amaze the viewers. From a simple checkered wall next to a bus stop in rural Colorado to the first tracks on Vallée Blanche Glacier in the mountains of France.

Travel has been a major part of both his professional and personal life. Crooks’ considered it as important a tool-if not more so-than his camera. The images in this show have been gathered from all corners of the country and represent the back alleys, dark corners, and abandoned lots of some of our country’s most interesting places.

Visit Crooks’s website at www.crooksphotography.com.

David Emerick, 6756, 2010

David Emerick, 7127, 2010

David Emerick, 6848, 2010

David Emerick, 6857, 2010

David Emerick, 6805, 2010

David Emerick, 7054, 2010

August 2011

Variations

Born in Upstate New York, David Emerick graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BFA in Photography and continued his education at the University of Nebraska where he received an MFA in Photography. He has taught photography at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, Northern Virginia Community College, the Smithsonian Institution, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He is currently the Director of New Media at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

In creating his work for Variations, Emerick sought out compelling compositions in the mundane architecture of commercial structures. Emerick finds his inspiration in the works of mid-twentieth century color-field and abstract expressionist painters like Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn, and Hans Hofmann, as well as the classical rules of composition. Emerick’s photographs are his attempt to find transcendent beauty and tension in these overlooked and utilitarian architectural forms.

Visit Emerick’s blog at emerick.blogspot.com.

July 2011

Selected Work

Betsy Packard continues to use the found or saved object as a mold or as material for sculpture—re-using, recycling, and transforming this material for reasons of economy, history, and aura. Often employing a mass-produced type of packing container as a mold, she sometimes adds significant material to the casting, and leaves traces of her process visible in the work. Packard is moved by the extreme quietness in the simple forms, and their startling inherent power. She uses what is abundant in her environment: newspaper, old clothing, hair, glass.

In her textile-based work she is interested in re-used, recycled, “green” materials—no waste and new utilitarian functions, the fabric having a long and storied history of its own. Sewing, quilting, weaving coverings and blankets—how to keep warm—this motivates Packard. Small scale, portability, conservation of materials, and thrift are important considerations. She is drawn to these hand-crafted processes of working for the intrinsic human value of such activity and a need for the meditative calm it provides.

Visit Packard’s website here.