March, 2009 Newsletter

NEXT MEETING: March 16^th

Patricia Zannie is a local collage artist, and a firm believer that creativity is intuitive and  innate in all of us.  Patricia “paints” with papers from all over the world as well as images from contemporary magazines.  She uses ink, oil pastels and watercolors, drawing and layering on top of the papers.  She uses glazes, wax and varnish as well as found objects and dried natural materials to enrich surface textures and create the illusion of space in her work. 

Patricia is a member of the Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC, where she will be having a solo exhibit this May.  Patricia has been an instructor at the   School  of  Art   and   Design  in  Montgomery 

College for over ten years, including a class on upgrading Professional Skills of Artists at the Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center in Silver Spring.

She will discuss some of her techniques and give us the opportunity to decorate our own cards, envelopes and matching gift bags inspired by her approach to Art.

NOTE: Linda Brauer is looking for speakers or suggestions for potential speakers.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE:

Several things have happened over the holidays that should make this year an exciting one for MAL.  First, through the initiative of Brenda Mosso, we have initiated a recruitment drive for new members.  Although we are sound and secure at our present membership level, we recognize that the addition of a dozen or so new artist members will enhance the organization.  As most members are aware, we started our drive at the end of 2008 and have had some success.  Nevertheless, the recruitment activity must be an ongoing one if it is to succeed.  Fortunately, Brenda will continue to play an active role in spearheading this task.  Be ready to help her.

The second event is the launching of an updated web site. www.marylandartleague.com was an early exercise in using the internet to communicate with members and the outside public.  Over time, its look and feel became dated, and the functionality it provided was limited.  A revised web site is now available at the same address.  It adds two major features:

(1)  A members’ gallery of MAL images, one from each artist.  The gallery pages can link to an artist’s gallery of up to 16 additional images by that artist.  The main objective of this members’ gallery is to provide an easy-to-use, attractive tool for managers of prospective exhibiting venues to review the work of MAL artists.  We believe that this will help us in arranging additional shows.

(2)  An online list of MAL members including an email address as well as links to an abstract, individual gallery, and external web site where they are available.

The current calendar and notice of the next meeting have been moved to the home page, the information about MAL and information for prospective new members has been revised, a page on exhibits has been added, and the number of people who can be contacted from the site has been extended.  Newsletters continue to be available on line, but they have been edited to remove addresses, phone numbers, and information already available on the home page.

Each member now must do two things.  First, look over the site and feed back suggestions and corrections.  Second, review what I have (or don’t have) for your abstract, gallery, and/or page on the members’ gallery.  In making this first cut of the new web site, I used only images that were already available to me.  In many cases, some of the images were too small or unclear to reproduce well, and I did not use them.  If you have slides that you want to use, mail them to me and I will scan and return them.  If you send me images, make them JPEG, at least 6 inches in the longest dimension.  Your images should be sharp, distortion free, and limited to the image (with or without a frame.)   The abstracts in the present version are still crude, and I will come up with standards to revise them at some later date.  Until then, if you don’t have an abstract or members’ gallery page, be sure to send me an image plus a short artist statement for the abstract.  I plan to update the site on a quarterly basis; errors and gallery pages will be corrected as soon as they are reported.

I look forward to seeing you in March.

Meeting Schedules for 2008 - 2009

Membership Meeting Schedules: Apr 20, May 18, and June 15

Board Meetings: (all members are welcomed to attend) Mar 9, and June 1

EXHIBITION NEWS:

Future Exhibitions:

Wells Real Estate: May and November 2009

Carroll Community Collage:

Hanging: Week of November 1st -7th, 2009

There will be no reception. The exhibition will run officially from 11/8/09 through 12/18/09 in the Great Hall Public Gallery

Sandy Spring Museum for 2010:

Hanging: January 4th 2010 at 9:00 AM

Official Opening January 6th

Reception: January 10th from 2 to 4

(They provide paper products and punch. We provide food.) Wine if we wish.

Take down: March 29, 2010 at 9:00 AM

Community Art Gallery at Holy Cross Hospital, Spring of 2010 with Senior Artists Alliance, April 1st to May 31st 2010. Each group may hang 15 paintings of an average size of 16 by 20. This certainly is not many. They want a framed biography of each artist plus information for a press release. They also will have a reception.  They ask for a 10% commission.

On Going Exhibition at Dr Ratchford’s office:

The 3rd consecutive show is on display, consisting of 7 paintings, and was hung on Feb 5^th and will remain up until April 2^nd.  Any members interested in showing paintings 16x20 or larger may contact Diane Prather for the next display.  There is no hanging fee but MAL will take a 10% commission for any works sold and apply it towards the scholarship fund. 

MEMBER NEWS:

This is not news of a member but a sad notice of the death of an artist who presented his approach to art at a recent MAL meeting:  Robert C. Kirkpatrick and his wife Pauline were killed in a motor vehicle accident on Thursday, February 18, 2009. They were vacationing in Florida at the time of the accident.  Robert taught art for Baltimore County, as well as at The Muse Gallery and at Mitchell School. They are survived by a son, daughter and three grandchildren

A Painting was sold at Dr. Ratchford’s Office:

A watercolor, Red Shoe by Linda Brauer, was purchased by Dr. Ratchford.  The doctor said she wore red shoes to her office on the day it was hung and thought that was a sign that she should buy it!  Congratulations Linda!

Harold Walpert has one of his pictures published as a cover of the book “Etymology”. Check it out.