"Fathom": exploring another world at Waverly Street Gallery

When glass artist Alison Sigethy and sculptor Liz Lescault met through their mutual interest in kayaking, they discovered another odd and wonderful coincidence: both of them had an affinity for making forms that looked like otherworldly life.

Lescault quickly invited Sigethy to participate in an upcoming show at Waverly Street Gallery in Maryland, but despite the artists' shared enthusiasm, they faced a problem that called for an imaginative solution.

"Because we both have very busy schedules, we couldn't actually work on pieces together, so we started a process that worked really well for us," Sigethy explains. "One of us would make something, then hand it off to the other to complete."

That's the premise of "Fathom," in which several of the pieces combine the work of both artists to create a beautiful and eerie new body of work that merges the organic and the abstract. A soundscape by John Vengrouskie acoustically frames the installation, immersing visitors in a "contemplative refuge" where they marvel at the most beguiling life forms that never existed.

Look closely at these incredible creations and you may discern hints of a creative process that isn't easily put into words: two artists learning from each other while seeing their own work anew.

"We had so much fun working together that I'm sure we'll do it again," Sigethy says, "with one addition. The collaborative work is so seamless, people viewing the show can't tell who did what. Artistically, that's what we want—but adding a small photo of the original piece next to the completed work might make the finished piece even more compelling. We'll probably do that next time.”

Explore "Fathom" at the Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 12 to 6 p.m., through June 8, 2013. See the work of Alison Sigethy at the Torpedo Factory in studio 307 and online at alisonsigethy.com; see the work of Liz Lescault at the Scope Gallery in studio 19 and online at lizlescault.com.

Art, architecture, aprons: new Torpedo Factory artist McCain McMurray

Visitors to the Torpedo Factory are often delighted by the accessibility of the artists who work here—but last Friday, a painter who was juried into the Torpedo Factory only six weeks ago learned just how appreciative the public can be.

"A woman came in and was admiring my work," explains McCain McMurray. "Then she started admiring my apron. She complimented me on it—and said she'd like to have it."

After a brief and friendly negotiation over price—which included the purchase of a replacement at the Art League Store—the artist removed the paint-stained, three-year-old apron and bequeathed it to his happy visitor.

"She asked if I would sign it," he says. "So I had a bunch of paint on my palette and got a palette knife and signed it. I told her it would take several days for the paint to dry, and to be careful because oil paint won't come out if it gets on clothes. We folded it once, and she and her companion each took a side and headed off with her new treasure."

Construction 4.5: Landing Strip

Other artists might have been bemused by such an introduction to our "working artists, open studios" concept, but as it turns out, McMurray has long had a unique insider's perspective on the Torpedo Factory.

Construction 4.1: Tower

"As a young architect, I worked for Keyes Condon Florance, the architect of the building, and got to do some design work on it, as well as on the office building next door," the artist recalls. "I remember doing a pre-design survey and going through the building when it was in its 'homestead' phase, when artists had claimed and delineated their own spaces with their own expedient—and usually artistic—materials."

As McMurray settles in to his new digs, he's basking in the light that streams into his studio and is excited to be working among fellow artists, but his chats with the public are quickly defining his time here.

"I love being here," he says. "Since I’m subletting from Larry Morris, and his work is a big draw for adults and kids alike, it's particularly fun to take kids behind the curtain to see Larry's tools and machines. And, of course, it's a real pleasure to sell my work—a pleasure I could use some more of."

Meet McCain McMurray in studio 4 at the Torpedo Factory every Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and check out his painting online at www.mccainmcmurray.com.

Seeing Sweden by way of Japan: Lisa Vershbow in "Artfully Connected"

Torpedo Factory jewelry maker Lisa Vershbow may currently live in Brussels—her husband is a U.S. diplomat—but for the past year, her mind has been on Sweden and Japan. Later this month, she'll participate in a show that opens on May 20 in Tokyo: a craft exhibition of eight international artists at the Embassy of Sweden.

"I'm the only American and one of two metalsmiths," Vershbow explains. "Each artist was presented with a challenge: to study Swedish design and culture over the past year and make works of art which demonstrate that influence."

Emergence series (brooches)

Called "Artfully Connected," the exhibition runs through June 2, 2013, and will feature fiber art, photography, basket making, painting, enameling, jewelry, and paper weaving—and a technological twist.

"The Swedish Embassy in Tokyo has a beautiful modern gallery where the exhibition will be on display," Vershbow says. "Each artist is being assigned a QR code which will enable Japanese visitors to see the 'story' that each artist wrote about their works, complete with links to the Swedish websites they explored during their research."

Corsages

For others, imagining Swedish design for Japanese eyes from faraway Belgium  might have been disorienting, but Vershbow embraced the opportunity to communicate across cultures through art.

"It was a wonderful project," she says. "The results will be pretty exciting."

"Listen to your soul": an interview with photographer E.E. McCollum

"Cocoon Series #17"

Juried into the Torpedo Factory in 2012, E.E. McCollum has achieved renown for his photographic studies of light, shadow, motion, and especially the human form. While getting ready to join the Multiple Exposures Gallery on the third floor, McCollum paused to chat with us about the past, the future, and the artistic importance of now.

How did you get your start as a photographer?

I was fascinated by photography as a child, beginning at around six, when my parents gave me a Kodak twin-lens reflex for my birthday. I soon got started in the darkroom and loved how the image emerged from the white of the exposed paper. I was active in taking photos on and off through college and also had the pleasure of taking a course in the history of photography from Beaumont Newhall when he was at the University of New Mexico. Newhall started the photography division at the Museum of Modern Art and then was head of Eastman House in Rochester for many years. He had just come from Eastman when I took the class. He really helped me see how photography could be more than snapshots or pretty pictures, and that serious people had devoted much of their lives to getting it accepted as an art form.

Which led to a once-in-a-lifetime encounter?

Yes. One day, Newhall showed up for class accompanied by a guy with a cowboy hat, glasses, and a goatee. It was Ansel Adams.

What's the story behind your Cocoon series?

The series began with a wonderful figure model, Katlyn Lacoste, showing me a body cocoon she had. The body cocoon is a tube of stretchy fabric that can encase the entire person. For me, figure work is really a collaboration, and the models bring a lot to the work. Katlyn and I were near the end of a studio shoot and were casting around for something to finish up with, and Katlyn got into the cocoon.

"Cocoon Series #38"

I was initially struck by how the fabric defined the sculptural space around the body—and it all went from there. I also became interested in how the figure was only partially visible through the fabric, lending a feeling of mystery, and then how details showed up: seeing a face or part of the body through the mesh.

Most recently, I've been working with adding texture to the fabric by coating it with mud. The texture follows the contours of the fabric in really interesting ways. I'm especially pleased that a portfolio of the Cocoon series is appearing in the May/June 2013 issue of LensWork, a prominent fine-art photography journal.

Have you encountered any unexpected reactions to your nude photography?

I was surprised, but very pleased, when my work was included in LensWork. I've been surprised to find how many people appreciate my figure work and aren't put off by it. The nude figure can be controversial and not to everyone's liking. Maybe it's just the company I keep!

How is your new project photographing dancers coming along?

What amazingly talented folks! As a starting place, I took a workshop in New York with Lois Greenfield, who is a very well known dance photographer. We worked with top-tier New York professional dancers with affiliations like Alvin Ailey Dance and Paul Taylor. It was a wonderful experience—and I'm finding some equally talented dancers here in D.C.

"Shore Trees"

What would you say to Torpedo Factory visitors who can't shake that nagging urge to make art?

I came back to photography about ten years ago, when a colleague and dear friend was diagnosed with a terminal illness. While I was happy in the work I was doing, the illness made me wonder if it was all I wanted to do with my life. The urge to make art had been dormant a long time, but it re-emerged. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like had I not listened to the lesson of my friend’s illness and ultimate death. Time is short. Listen to your soul.

Thanks to E.E. McCollum for taking the time to chat with the TFAA blog! See more of his work in the Multiple Exposures Gallery (studio 312), explore his photography online at azeneye.com, and follow his blog, A Zen Eye.

Lori Ehrlich Katz juried into "Game, Set, Match" at Baltimore Clayworks

If you've seen the striking black-and-white ceramics of Lori Ehrlich Katz, you've encountered a beguiling interplay of elegance and functionality that draws the eyes of curators and the general public alike. Katz's work was recently included in "Tribute to Ceramics," an exhibition of non-functional clay works at the Black Rock Center for the Arts in Maryland, and is featured at Wantoot, a gallery of modern art and craft in Wisconsin.

This month, Katz is prominently represented in "Game, Set, Match," a juried exhibition at Baltimore Clayworks focusing on service wares, "objects that contain or deliver food, drink, or seasonings"—a subject that perfectly suits her artistic process.

"Sometimes I work with the idea of a group from the moment I pull out my clay in the morning," Katz says. "Other times, individual pieces become a group as I consider the balance and relationship of one component to another."

According to Baltimore Clayworks, this new exhibition "will feature the best in ceramic design: hand-made objects that have a playful twist on functionality or that possess a quiet craftsmanship." Chat with Katz for a while in her studio and you'll soon discern that it requires incredible thoughtfulness and skill to find a combination of playfulness, functionality, and beauty that brings smiles to the faces of Torpedo Factory visitors.

"I work in sets," she says. "Whether functional, tableware, or decorative wall pieces, my work is 'of a family,' related by design and process—components of the greater whole that is the body of my work."

Check out "Game, Set, Match" at Baltimore Clayworks through May 25, 2013. Come meet Lori Katz at the Torpedo Factory in studio 8 and view her work online at LoriKatz.com.

"EVERYTHING IS AN ART PROJECT (and so are you)": Kathy Beynette to speak at Morrison House

How do you build a career—and a life—in the arts? Tomorrow night as part of the Morrison House Cultural Discussion Series, Torpedo Factory artist Kathy DeZarn Beynette will answer that question by way of her own personal journey—a path blazed by wild and wonderful creatures.

Beynette has had quite a year: Her delightful, rhyme-packed When Your Porcupine Feels Prickly was a ForeWord Reviews finalist for 2012 Children's Picture Book of the Year and was recently nominated for a 2013 Library of Virginia Award. In her Tuesday-night lecture, she'll discuss how writing led her to painting, which led her back to writing, with storytelling always serving as the guiding passion.

"I hope my paintings stand alone without explanations, but a lecture like the one at Morrison House really connects the dots between the artist, the art, and the viewer," she says, adding that inspiring others to chase their creative spark is a big part of being a Torpedo Factory artist: "This glimpse backstage happens every day for our visitors. They have the opportunity to ask questions and watch our process. It's the great, unique experience that keeps people returning to our studios."

Beynette will also discuss the surprising turning points that define a career. In her case, the earliest collectors of her work boosted her confidence—and confirmed that her artistic world of stubborn raccoons and bee-sized children, where you might just meet a skunk with a human face staring down a cupcake, was a place that others were eager to visit.

"They changed everything," she says, "not just by purchasing paintings, but by letting me know, time after time, that they 'get' me!"

Come hear Kathy Beynette explain that “EVERYTHING IS AN ART PROJECT (and so are you)” on Tuesday, May 7, 2013, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Morrison House, 116 South Alfred Street in Alexandria, just seven blocks from the Torpedo Factory. Admission is free! Look for Beynette at the Torpedo Factory in studio 5 and online at beynette.com.

Art without borders: the many stories of Matthew Tito Cuenca

When Torpedo Factory artist Matthew Tito Cuenca moved to the United States from the Philippines at the age of three, he was having trouble with English vocabulary—until his father bought him a comic book.

"He figured that the artwork and storytelling would help me identify better with the words and develop my imagination," Cuenca says. "He was right."

Ever since, Cuenca has imbued all of his creations with a strong sense of narrative. In his 15-year career as a fashion designer and professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he sculpted fabric to convey stories and emotions through texture and color. Indulging his lifetime love of science fiction and fantasy, he's currently illustrating a new historical role-playing game for Iron Throne Publishing and developing life-sized promotional cutouts of zombies for WorldWorks Games while also putting the finishing touches on 30 oil paintings for a summer exhibition—all proof of his incredible comfort moving between the worlds of commercial and fine art.

Lately, Cuenca has been crossing more literal borders as well. He's currently on his second three-year tour of Cambodia, where his partner is the U.S. Deputy Ambassador—and where local artists learn to be profoundly resourceful. "Paint and canvas materials are very hard to come by," Cuenca says. "Wood is such a rarity that in order to construct stretchers for canvases, you have to use recycled wood from demolished buildings or discarded furniture."

Cambodian artists use natural and recycled materials not because it's fashionable to do so, but out of sheer necessity. "Using unconventional materials in place of traditional ones has opened my understanding of art and added texture and depth to my work," Cuenca says, even as far older traditions catch his well-trained eye.

"The Wedding Machine,"
oil on moving stacked panel

"Cambodia is also the home of Angkor Wat, one of the largest temple compounds in the world," he explains. "Ancient artists were masters of stone carving; they depicted religious stories, battles, and parables on thousands of temples. I'm influenced by their ability to tell an entire story through signs, patterns, and symbolic characters"—a clear echo of the comic books that once set a remarkably versatile artist on his path.

See more of Matthew Tito Cuenca's artwork at matthewcuenca.com. Cuenca is currently a consultant and curator for projects to promote Cambodian art through the French-Cambodian art agency ReCreation. Future projects include an exhibition sponsored by UNESCO in Paris, the current CLA "Season of Cambodia" in New York City, and CHRISTIE'S Benefit Auction in 2014. (Cuenca was also one of the auctioned artists with CHRISTIE'S Benefit Auction in Phnom Penh in 2012.) This summer, his Public Trust-commissioned historical painting based on the Timucua-Moacama Indians will go on display in Florida.