Our recent trip to DC

(Above:  Reception for Full Circle at the Strathmore Mansion in North Bethesda with Dominie Nash, Eleanor Levie, me, and Linda Syverson Guild. Click on any image to enlarge.)

I've been meaning to write this blog post since we returned from a whirlwind trip to Washington, DC and to the opening reception of Full Circle at the Strathmore Mansion in North Bethesda.  It's been good intentions for just over a week.  I guess the adage is correct:  Better late than never. 

 

(Above:  A couple looking at one of my Found Object Mandalas.)

I had three of my Found Object Mandalas in this juried show.  One of them earned an honorable mention.  Steve and I had a great time watching people look at my work.  We had a better time hanging out with some of the other artists, especially the fiber artists!

(Above:  Whistler's Peacock Room at the Smithsonian Asian Art Museum.)

We spent all day on Saturday like tourists.  Of course we visited my favorite room in the world, Whistler's Peacock Room!

The Smithsonian Asian Art Museum is connected underground to another favorite place, the Smithsonian African Art Museum.

 From a distance, I though this large, circular sculpture was some sort of giant tire.  On closer inspection, it was a giant snake eating its own tail ... made entirely from recycled, plastic gas containers.  I forgot to snap a photo of the label but I was very impressed by the statement.  This artist said that he's expected to make masks ... just because the assumption is that all African artists make masks.  So ... he makes masks but this sculpture is what comes from his soul.

Nearby was a glorious piece by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui.  I've seen others but never one so close at hand.  I was mesmerized.
 

We ordered time entry passes (free, of course) for Osgeneos, a major exhibition at the Hirshhorn by Brazilian twins who started out as graffiti artists.  It was incredible ... so very detailed, colorful, and imaginative.

I was enchanted with Mark Bradford's enormous installation called Pickett's Charge.  It went entirely around the inner circle at the Hirshhorn.

Yet it was Laurie Anderson's installation that captivated me most.  At age seventy-eight, this multi-discipline artist worked ten hour days for over two weeks to totally cover the floor and all the rooms of a very large space with stream-of-consciousness paintings, quotations, symbols, and signs.  We also went to the Kennedy Center for a free concert on the Millennial Stage and to Wooley Mammoth Theater for a one-man performance billed as a comedy despite the fact that it was a presentation focusing on the hideousness of gun violence and the aftermath of life after losing a child. 

(Above:  Image from GUAC ... and yes ... photography, videos, and any other way of sharing the experience was allowed ... in fact, it was encourage.)

The show was called GUAC and was written and performed by the father of a young student murdered in the Parkland school mass shooting.  I laughed and I cried.  Below are just some of the other artworks we saw during the trip!