Art and Healing

Featuring -
Artist Spotlight




Art & Healing


It was humid on Saturday morning as I made my way to the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at the Smith Center for Healing & The Arts located at 1631 U St. N.W. Washington, D.C. (closet metro-U St./Cardozo). I walked from 14th & U St. metro exit and enjoyed the slight breeze that occasionally blessed me and others while walking down the street.  Staying on the shady side of the street helped me keep cool too.

Charlie Lucas

The U Street corridor has been revitalized with its many restaurants, local corner stores and Starbucks (2 within 3 blocks).  I was happy to see the many people walking about taking in the sites as well.  There was a Farmer's market across the street on 14th. There were people setting up for the day to display their merchandise. It was a lovely walk to the Smith Center.


The Gallery visit was a Women's Caucus for Art, D.C. Chapter event. Being the first one to arrive, I met with Brooke Seidelmann, she is the Gallery Director.  Brooke explained the purpose of the Smith Center which is a health, education and arts nonprofit and D.C.'s only stand alone cancer support organization.  It's a small gallery with big things going on.  There was a workshop in the back, the participants were making "flashies" which are glass string mobiles that hang. How cool!  There were some hanging up in the front of the gallery, hanging like glass wind chimes, they can be purchased starting at $20.  While waiting for others to arrive, I walked around the gallery and took pictures of  some of the works.

The artwork in the Gallery was made by "Visionary Artists."  These are artists who use whatever they have available to create and have no formal training.  The work was beautiful.  One of WCA-DC member and  friends Jane Pettit is in the exhibit.  She uses broken china and tile to create her pieces, they resemble mosaic style art.

Jessie Montes

Soon, my co-president Cindy, and Vice President Jane arrived and we looked and talked about the work in the gallery. They took pictures for our blog site and facebook page. The most stunning part of the exhibit was the 1000 paper cranes in the workshop room.  It was a little difficult  to get a photo because they was a class going on. It was a lovely exhibit of visionary work. This piece called "A New Day" by Jessie Montes was done with painted corrugated cardboard. the detail in this piece was fantastic.


The doodle below was done by J.J.Cromer all with pen, ink and markers on paper. He did this work at night after work. He also incorporates a little collage element in his pieces.

J.J.Cromer

J.J. Cromer has several pieces in this exhibit and his work is full of abstract lines and collage pieces so intricately done that every time you look at it, you see something new.  Other works in the exhibit included a petrified forest of sorts, brightly painted wood pieces on bases that are grouped together. My weird mind correlates it with a photo negative of some creepy forest for the old TV program "Dark Shadows."  The pieces are painted in such a way that they almost  look like a color photo negative.

 I was totally fascinated by a piece in the front window. It is reminiscent of some weird bird house contraption with legs and wings.  Something about it reminded me of the movie "A Nightmare Before Christmas."The piece seemed fitting in that type of scene. It has a prosthetic eye in the front. It was just so cool to look at.


The Smith Farm Center holds a variety of workshops that are healing to mind, body and spirit.  They have Yoga and Qigong classes which reduce stress; lectures and discussions by experts on  integrative health, illness and more; cooking and nutrition workshops and art and creativity workshops.  They also have programs for people with caner and their caregivers. Everything is centered around healing and being healthy. The Gallery is an inviting place for all to be uplifted  and engage themselves in the healing of art through creative expression. To learn more visit www.smithcenter.org.


After the gallery visit, we went to Bus Boys and Poets on 14th & U Street, and had a nice lunch.  Despite the humidity, we had a great time, saw some great art and learned about a place of healing that uses art as therapy. If you get a chance to check it out, do so.


The rest of my Saturday, was spent trying to keep cool and run errands. People watching is always on my list of things to do, and there was plenty to see out and about in D.C.
















ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Renee Stout-A local artist who uses found objects in her work and combines them together in installations.  She also creates scenes designed to show how different elements of life,relationships and spirituality play a part in her every day life. She uses Nkisi's and other reliquary figure pieces in some of her installations to deal with the issues of life, death and rebirth.

Fatima's Desk

Renee's work had a big influence on me during my undergraduate time while exploring sculptural elements to include in my own installation narrative. I met her briefly but would be able to talk with her during graduate school, because a classmate was doing an internship with her.  I talked with her about her work and her concepts and ideas she explores when creating. Our paths would cross again several years later at an opening. The exhibit included local female artists with a theme that depicted strong female imagery in the media.  I was there listening to these amazing women artists talk about their work. It was definitely a pleasure to be able to attend the event.


Being a busy artist, Renee is a hard person to keep up with.  We are now Facebook friends and I can keep up with her that way.  She definitely helped me define my art in the realm of sculpture. Even though she does not fit within the definition of Visionary, She is an accomplished visionary  in her own right.

This is what the Reverend Said

This past weekend, Renee won the Sondheim Artscape Prize 2012 from the Baltimore Museum of Art.  An award well deserved. Congrats Renee.





























It is always a pleasure to share my experiences with you and I hope you enjoy reading them. Next post will be filled with more exciting local arts to share.See you...

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