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Artists' Statements and Bios

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Lynda Andrews-Barry

 

Heaven & Hell artist statement

 

My parents never had me baptized. This was upsetting to my grandmother who repeatedly told me I would be stuck in “limbo” between Heaven and Hell if I was not soon christened. In Catholic theology, limbo is the afterlife condition of unbaptized babies who are relegated to this nether region on the edge of Hell. But, I liked the idea of limbo, and imagined I was floating amongst the clouds, enjoying the view from above. My included works contemplate the space between Heaven and Hell, referred to as 'Limbo' by my grandmother.

 

The DeadZone artist statement

 

The Deadzone is a place In & Between. Negotiating the path through this threshold often requires a guide, and birds, especially Ravens, have been portrayed as the supernatural creatures - the psychopomps - whose responsibility it is to escort the souls from Earth through the deadzone of Limbo to the afterlife. In this installation, an image depicts a murder of ravens circling their roost near an un-rooted tree stump that is the conduit connecting the living and the nether world below. Sitting atop the stump is a cage with a golden bird who offers advise and encouragement to those passing through with the ravens on their way to Limbo and beyond.

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Lynda Andrews-Barry Bio

 

Mid-Atlantic-based artist Lynda Andrews-Barry has a multidisciplinary practice encompassing time-based media, installations and sculptures created from found and fabricated objects that reflect the often unseen or ignored beauty of our world. Lynda’ work has been featured in books, won numerous awards, and been shown and sold at various art venues including the National Building Museum, The National Women’s Museum, as well as the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. Her public art projects have been installed in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Florida. Originally from Berkeley, California, Lynda lives in and maintains her studio in Reedville, Virginia.

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Gloria Vasquez Chapa

 

WHAT. HAVE. WE. DONE?  artist statement

 

All infants are a blank canvas ready for imprinting with a life to come. The lattice of a chain link fence is a memorable first image for new hopeful young immigrant minds.  The spaces on either sides of that fence are distinct realities worth consideration.

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Gloria Vasquez Chapa Bio

 

Gloria is presently an Artist-in-Residence at the Otis Street Arts Project (OSAP) in the Washington, DC Metro area.  Gloria has been instrumental in the development of a nurturing and successful art environment at OSAP.  She has over 20 years experience as in active artist in the Washington DC area.

The rich multi-cultural environment of a Catholic upbringing in South Texas helped develop Gloria’s analytical and creative skills that allowed her to venture into seemingly unrelated disciplines.  She exited a ten-year career in telecommunications engineering to immerse herself in another world. A world that had been beckoning intensely – ART.  The development of her practice was fast paced. It included extensive world travel (Russia, England, Colombia, Iceland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico) and a multi-disciplined art experience (metals, resins, glass, 3-D printing, wood, 2-D, performance, olfaction, and casting).

Gloria, initially, earned a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics at the University of Houston, in Houston, TX.  After her engineering career she earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at San Antonio, in San Antonio, TX.  Gloria was then awarded a scholarship to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.  Gloria has taught at the University of Richmond (Richmond, VA), Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA), Mary Washington University (Fredericksburg, VA), and at the Universidad Distrital Jorge Caldos (Bogota, Colombia).

 

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Jacqui Crocetta

 

Revealing the Invisible: My Cloak of Privilege artist statement

 

In response to the abrupt awakening I had with the onset of the Black Lives Matter protests, I began to investigate my White privilege. I focused on listening and learning by tuning into podcasts (such as Code Switch, Throughline, Seeing White, and Reveal), reading books (such as Between the World and Me; Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor; and Americanah), and attending a workshop (The Inheritance of White Silence). With both White and non-White friends and family members, I immersed myself in deep discussions and reflections about experiences centered on race. I’ve only just begun what will be a life-long journey in understanding my role in racism, how my actions have harmed others, and how to move forward as an anti-racist.

 

One evening, in the summer of 2020, after the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, I turned to my White daughter’s Black partner of many years and asked how he was doing? And did he feel any more hopeful in light of the protests? I expected David to confirm my feeling that there had been a shift, that this time there would be real momentum in moving toward a more just future. David just paused, looked into his dinner plate, then raised his head to quietly say, “I’ve seen this before.” That moment crystallized my resolve to be more vigilant, less complacent.

 

Until recently, I never fully understood systemic racism and how my unearned advantages as a White woman contribute to oppression. I have been apathetic about race, which is particularly confounding when you consider the number of people in my family who have had to grapple with racism, whether due to a mixed-race relationship or the color of their skin. This awakening has motivated me to make a life-long commitment to acknowledging both my unearned advantages and my role in the system, while identifying more equitable ways to move forward. I ask myself how can I dial up empathy and minimize apathy? How can I use my privilege to help others, or give away my privilege?

 

My installation was inspired in part by feminist, anti-racism activist and scholar, Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D. In her 1989 essay “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” she identifies some of the many daily effects of skin privilege in her life. I see my unearned advantages as an invisible cloak that has protected me throughout my life. Many of my unearned advantages, including a large number I share with McIntosh, have been incorporated into this work. The lack of progress since 1989 has inspired me to amplify McIntosh’s groundbreaking work through my own expression.

 

The cloak form in my installation is comprised of starched cotton and steel wire that has been stitched together with waxed floss. Hand stitching is a meditative process that slows down time and facilitates a reflective state of mind.

 

Stitching connotes healing.

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frayed artist statement

 

The precarious and dynamic state of our democracy is a threshold that has extended over time. In “frayed," the textured collagraph print of the flag is faded, the stars barely discernible. The double sided torch suggests the potential for distinctly different outcomes. Some of the threats to democracy that I am reflecting on are: the refusal of election deniers to accept election results; the insurrection; voter suppression; and the disconnect between public opinion and government policy set by those in power (such as recent Supreme Court decisions). I ask myself, what will it take to overcome the polarization and distrust that is fueling our country’s decline?

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Jacqui Crocetta Bio

 

Jacqui Crocetta works in both painting and sculpture. Her socially engaged practice has aimed to bring attention to both the human condition as well as the environmental crisis, while celebrating resilience and the capacity for healing. She has exhibited her work regionally in venues such as Arts in Foggy Bottom, McLean Project for the Arts, and Otis Street Arts Project, and received frequent recognition in the Washington Post and East City Art. Crocetta was a fellow in 2021 and 2022 at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and an artist in residence at the Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center in association with the Smithsonian Institution. She has been awarded several Artists and Scholars Project Grants from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Md. In 2019, she was recognized as Cornerstone Montgomery’s Volunteer Champion for her work with artists living with mental health disorders. Crocetta maintains a studio in Kensington, Md. Her work is included in private, corporate and public collections and will be featured in a forthcoming book of essays on forests by members of the Society of Woman Geographers.

 

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Pierre Davis

 

Artist statement

 

Transformations and new growth points from discarded materials. This displays life's ability to find new paths and flourish.

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Pierre Davis Bio

 

Pierre Davis is a visual artist. He was born in England to Guyanese immigrants in 1978, who once again immigrated to the United States when Pierre was aged 5. Exposure to multiple cultures led to an appreciation of the overlying similarities between different cultures. At times, Pierre's work comes from viewing this cultural uniformity. It’s direct oneness with the oft perceived disconnected, Nature. 
Pierre attended school at George Mason University and received a BA in anthropology. Years later, as a GMU library employee he began his formal visual arts education. His initial sculptural studies led to investigations of form through wood medium. Sculptural objects were derived from connecting dozens of sketched ellipses on paper. Conversations of nature slowly began to evolve from the organic form and wood material compositions. Forms transformed in to conversations about various aspects of nature. From the human hinderance on nature to the power of nature.

 

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Zofie King

 

Artist statement

 

My pieces depict psychological cabinets of curiosity, inspired by all that is Gothic. Flattened architectural elements, drawn in acrylic pen and painted with ink and gouache, are loosely based on parts of sections and elevations of ancient cathedrals. These feature openings with photographic images I have turned into digital collages and exposed as cyanotypes, overlaying parts with solvent transfers. The images depict animals, fungi, plants, parts of the body, and medieval instruments, placed within ruined and deteriorated architectural interiors that no longer serve their intended function. Just as in Gothic literature, the work is reminiscent of disused architecture, mysterious omens, and decay. Roots symbolize both a sense of rootedness and of being stuck in place, while fungi rejuvenate through decomposition: creation through destruction. Animals move through their life cycle; they are memento mori as well as memento vivre. I think of the compartmentalized architectural elements as an organizational tool, allowing the mind to wander through and to discover what is within. It can feel a bit ominous, similar to the sensation of going through a haunted house or taking in horror fiction, eerie, yet also safe because it is contained in a way to evoke excitement and curiosity rather than fear. These surrealistic vignettes are an invitation to project and experience emotions, especially anxieties.

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Final Thoughts artist statement

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My sculptural work examines psychological processes, such as perceptions; I’m interested in the human mind. When I made this piece I pictured someone trapped (literally caged) in their way of thinking. The inspiration for Final Thoughts was that humans ascribe certain thoughts, emotions and actions to historical or mythological figures. Even though these may have been fabricated (or were at least more nuanced), they nevertheless become the basis for doctrine that guides human behavior.

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Zofie King Bio

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Zofie King zofieking.com

 

Bio Born in Poland and raised in Germany, Zofie King came to the US in 1998. After graduating with a psychology degree in 2002, she studied interdisciplinary craft at Towson University, then worked in interior design while taking classes at MICA and the Corcoran, and devoted herself to her studio art practice in 2012. King works in found object sculpture as well as works on paper, incorporating various media. She assembles pieces into psychological cabinets of curiosity that are gothic in both style and theme. King has had solo shows at the NVCC Margaret W. Fisher Art Gallery, DC Arts Center, Mount St. Mary’s University Gallery, and Hillyer. She was part of the Sparkplug Collective from 2017-2019 and is currently a member of the Washington Sculptor's Group. Her work is part of numerous private collections, as well as the DC Art Bank and the Hepburn.

 

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Kirsty Little

 

Fall(ing) Fail(ing) 2023 artist statement

 

This installation work hopes to highlight the difficulties we are facing with the current climate

situation.

 

Mankind’s, sometimes unintentional, thoughtlessness has denuded our landscapes to the point

of permanent eradication of some plant, tree’s and animals.

In this work the branches are cut, the flowers are vibrant, but as the life drains out of the

branches so the flowers whither and fade, till they drop to the floor. The stiff straight line

galvanised steel rods down which they fall are manmade, a shape not found in nature. They

symbolise man’s intervention in nature, single minded in thought.

 

Surging 2022 artist statement

 

Each work of the Piercing Collection involves drilling, measuring, cutting, cleaning, dipping in

wax 4 times, piercing, and bending. Thousands of times. Each individual act, simple, repetitive,

laborious, echoing the trials and repetitions of daily life. But, when completed, a beautiful

organic form is created, over a lifetime a legacy is left. We move forward with hope.

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Kirsty Little 2023 Bio

 

Born in England and presently living in DC.

 

Kirsty Little is a former Circus aerialist from the UK for two decades when a move to USA in 2011 led her to find a new path to sculptor in the art world. She is drawn to working with themes of womankind, organic anatomy and the struggling environment. She makes sculpture with porcelain, wood and wire, and plastic installation. Her art activism focuses on raising awareness of the world plastic pollution crisis and Women’s Equality through huge installations. She is Artist in Residence at Otis St Studios. She teaches aerial dance and yoga. She is in the Guinness book of World Records for directing the most aerialists choreographed on silks. She is Chair & founding member of Ch/Art – a thriving Chevy Chase artists group. Recent solo shows of fine art include The Phillips collection DC, The Fisher Gallery NOVA, Honfleur gallery and Zenith Gallery DC.

 

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Sarah Stefana Smith

 

sarahstefanasmith@gmail.com

IG: SarahStefanaSmith ~ W: www.sarahstefanasmith.com

 

Project statement

 

In my visual practice, abstraction, materiality, space, and ecology are explored using barrier materials—deer, bird, safety netting, chicken wire, and fishing line—to comment on boundaries between humans and species, lines of demarcation around difference—race, gender, sexuality, and how modes of difference are used to constitute and congeal belonging. Threshold of Dissent No.1 proposes a portal of dissent from dominant belief systems. It claims the site as a space that can both enact practices of unfreedom and freedom–to think, plan, and imagine towards other enactments of freedom. 

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Sarah Stefana Smith Bio

 

Sarah Stefana Smith is an artist-scholar based between western Massachusetts and Washington D.C. who works predominantly in photography, sculpture, and installation. Their scholarly work communicates between the areas of Black art and culture, Black feminisms, and queer and trans-of-color critique. 

 

Smith has exhibited in spaces, including Luna Anais Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), IA&A at Hillyer and DC Art Center (Washington, D.C.), Arlington Art Center (Arlington. VA), Borland Project Space (State College, PA), Waller Gallery and Gallery CA (Baltimore, MD), David Spectrum (Toronto, ON), and Hammond House (Atlanta, GA). Smith will be an artist-in-resident at Mass Moca in North Adams, MA (February 2023) and was an artist-in-resident at the University of Pittsburgh with The Creativities Project (2020). Sarah has published writing in the Journal of Women & Performance (2018), The Black Scholar (2019), and Handbook on Race in the Arts in Education (2018) to name a few. Smith received their Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and their MFA from Goddard College. 

 

They are currently an Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at Mount Holyoke College. Learn more here: www.sarahstefanasmith.com

 

 

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Ira Tattelman

 

IraTattelman@gmail.com

Instagram.com/tattelman ~ IraTattelman.tumblr.com ~ vimeo.com/user32800179

 

Artist statement

 

Using found materials for Moving into Frame, I combine, juxtapose, manipulate, and disguise the remnants of people's daily life. I show a path one can follow: the carefree beginnings, ups and downs, precarious edges, and fluid boundaries. As we mature, we pass through thresholds, acquire possessions, meet goals, and feel the weight of responsibility. The accumulation of knowledge, experience, and things can get crowded. But all we observe, encounter, absorb, occupy, and record makes us who we are. 

 

My artistic work is a dialogue with and reinterpretation of the environs we inhabit. I observe, respond to, and interpret the built surroundings. My multi-disciplinary practice makes physical and emotional connections to the constructed environments in which I live and travel. Since the physical world is constantly changing, I call attention to the planned and unplanned outcomes of human actions.

 

I find inspiration in the everyday, cluttered world, prioritizing idiosyncratic and unexpected details. I focus on the "footprints" that mark the spots of our activities. The interventions we make are the record of our movements, play spaces, and gathering spots. Our actions leave traces; we write our stories on the landscape.

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Ira Tattelman Bio

 

For Earth Day 2023, I will introduce FOUND, bringing temporary found-object sculptures to Alethia Tanner Park in Eckington, DC. Community members will attend free workshops and make art from waste. The project is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH). Currently on view at Oxon Hill Manor through September 2023 is my sculpture ‘Constellation' (part of the show Past and Present). 

 

Recent residencies include Arctic Circle Expeditionary Residency, Svalbard, Norway, 2022; Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL, 2021; and Brashnar Creative Project, Skopje, North Macedonia, 2019. I received Sister Cities Travel Grants with Rome, Italy, through DCCAH for 'Where We Gather,' 2020; 'Etching the Tiber onto the Anacostia,' 2019; and 'learning from laborintus,' 2018.

 

I initiated a photographic correspondence on Instagram entitled 'on_the_elephant_path' with Tessa Groenewould (Ghent, Belgium), Jose Witteveen (Rome, Italy) & myself (DC), 2019-2021.

 

Solo exhibitions include 'Surf–an exchange about climate change,' Open Gallery, Montgomery College, MD, 2019; 'Space Around Us,' Photoworks, MD, 2018; and 'Human Traces,' Warehouse Industries, DC, 2018.

 

My Art All Night public participatory installations include 'Twister,' Shaw Main Streets, 2021; 'Hedge,' Shaw Main Streets, 2018; 'Messenger' & 'Universe,' North Capitol Main Streets, 2017; and 'Night Angel,' DSLBD, 2016.

 

I have a Master in Architecture from Harvard's Graduate School of Design.

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Curator's Spotlight

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Steve Wanna Bio

 

Steve Wanna is a multi-disciplinary sound and visual artist whose work includes music, sound design for dance collaborations, sculpture, installation, photography, and works for mixed media. His work showcases the hidden, often ignored beauty he finds in chaotic and seemingly random phenomena. Abstract, experimental, and multimedia, his work is inspired by science, nature, and philosophy, often incorporating elements of controlled randomness—uncertainty is built into the process. Born and raised in Lebanon, he immigrated to the US with his family as a teenager. He holds a doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Maryland. Wanna’s works have been presented at venues and galleries at home and abroad. Recent exhibitions include a 2-person show at the Delaware Contemporary featuring an installation of eight sound sculptures from his series Inner Spaces and a solo show at Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC (reviewed in the Washington Post.) His work was presented at Context Miami in 2022.

 

 

 

Veronica Szalus Bio

 

Veronica Szalus lives in the Washington DC metropolitan area where she creates installation art and designs and develops exhibitions. Veronica received a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship and has shown her work throughout the mid-Atlantic including the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria VA, IA&A at Hillyer in Washington DC, Arts in Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Washington DC, The Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda MD, Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel MD, University of the District of Columbia and the Buchanan Partners Art Gallery at George Mason University.

 

Veronica has a Bachelors of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and an A.A.S. in Jewelry Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is currently employed as the Executive Director at the Athenaeum | Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association. She was formerly employed at the National Children’s Museum as the Director of Exhibits and has served as President of Artomatic, a large Washington DC based multi media arts organization dedicated to building community among artists. She has also served as a co-chair of PIC Green, an American Alliance of Museums professional network focusing on environmental sustainability.

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