From Sunday’s column:

Cornelia Marin of Saint-Lo, France, standing before one of her murals.

A French artist visiting through an arrangement with Roanoke Valley Sister Cities will take part in Roanoke’s Art by Night studio tour from 5 to 9 p.m. this Friday.

Cornelia Marin of Saint-Lo in Normandy, France, just arrived in town Saturday. The Roanoke-Saint-Lo Sister City committee received a Mini-Arts and Cultural Plan Implementation Grant from Roanoke and the Foundation for Roanoke Valley to help fund Marin’s trip.

This is Marin’s first visit to the United States, according to a news release from the Roanoke-Saint-Lo Sister City committee.

Marin will create a temporary installation at the Wilson Hughes Gallery at 117 Campbell Ave. S.W. called “L’Evolution de la Femme (The Evolution of Woman).” Marin brings a lot of excitement and enthusiasm to her work, said Roanoke-Saint-Lo committee chairwoman Mary Jo Fassie. It’s been 15 years since the committee last brought an artist to Roanoke from Saint-Lo, Fassie said.

Marin’s artworks include paintings, sculpture, mosaics and performance pieces. Her subjects are usually women. A native of Romania, she moved to France after Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown in 1989. She’s exhibited in Paris, Germany and Italy.

She’s staying until May 13, and has a full itinerary ahead. She’s taking part in an “Explore the Galleries” program at 4 p.m. Thursday at Taubman Museum of Art and the museum’s Spectacular Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Roanoke-Saint-Lo committee member Janice Kaufman will be on hand as a translator.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

Over the past weekend, the Roanoke Destiny youth group helped make the latest Roanoke Art Mural Project a reality. To read more about the project, click here.

Click the picture to see photos of the project in progress.

Click image for an enlarged view of the tour map.

Click here for a Google Map tour of Open Studios of Roanoke 2013.

Spring has come to Roanoke, which means it’s time for artists to open their studios once again to a weekend’s worth of visitors.

This year’s Open Studios of Roanoke tour features 26 artists at 13 stops, including new arrivals and familiar faces in new places.

Max Mitchell, 26, has opened Roanoke Art Works, abbreviated “R.A.W.,” at 26 Church Ave. S.W. His father, potter Steve Mitchell, has been a mainstay of the Open Studios tour for many years. Max Mitchell, a painter, has moved back to Roanoke after attending Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and living in Philadelphia for seven years.

“I never really liked being in the city,” he said. “I always liked being in the mountains.”

Steve Mitchell will have work on display in Roanoke Art Works this weekend, as will Roanoke painter Greg Osterhaus.

The father-son duo made waves in the regional art scene even before Max Mitchell moved back — in 2011, he won the grand prize at the Biennial Juried Exhibition at Roanoke College, and his father won second place.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

From Sunday’s column:

Painter Elizabeth Sauder is one of the artists taking part in the Lexington/Rockbridge Studio Tour. Photo courtesy of Jean Tremmel.

The Lexington/Rockbridge Studio Tour has added a few more artists and a bit of barbecue to its second go-round.

The free self-guided tour features 11 studios along a 20-mile loop. Participating guest artists from North Carolina, West Virginia, New Mexico and several cities around Virginia bring the total number of exhibiting artists to 36. The tour hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and April 21.

Artist Susan Harb, whose treehouse studio is part of the tour, said that the Effinger Volunteer Fire Department on Collierstown Road will be selling barbecue dinners “to add even more authentic Rockbridge County flavor to the tour.”

Harb organized the first tour in April 2012, acting on a suggestion by fellow Lexington artist Marsha Heatwole, who will demonstrate printmaking in her studio at 1125 Sugar Creek Road. Other ongoing activities include portrait painting by Marcia Germain at Harb’s studio at 62 Brushwood Place and photo shoots at Ellen Martin’s photography studio at 876 Enfield Road.

The kinds of arts and crafts for show and sale on the tour include painting, sculpture, silversmithing, pottery, photography, hand-loom weaving, basket weaving, stained glass and jewelry making, with prices ranging from $20 to $20,000.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

The Roanoke Art Mural Project (RAMP) is preparing to paint a new mural at the Garden City Center. The proposed design has been finalized:

Here’s more information from project director Mim Young, taken from the RAMP Facebook page:

This project is thanks to a mini-grant from the Roanoke Arts Commission, and is made possible by a partnership with Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia, City of Roanoke Parks and Recreation, and the Garden City Civic League. Painters will include artist TOOBZ, a JA program teen, and select volunteers from the Roanoke Destiny youth group. Huge thanks go to Susan Jennings, Arts & Culture Coordinator for the City of Roanoke’s Department of Economic Development.

From Sunday’s column:

Courtesy of BanG Studios. “Phantom,” by Genesis Chapman. India ink on yupo paper.

A slightly out-of-the-way downtown Roanoke studio is providing a showcase for a Southern art superstar.

BanG Studios, run by Roanoke artists Gerry and Betsy Hale Bannan, has opened a show by former Floyd County resident Genesis Chapman.

Chapman, who now lives in Richmond, sculpts wooden puzzles shaped like fantasy creatures that can sell for more than $1,000.

But BanG Studios has a different strand of Chapman’s art on display. “I’d call it ink painting,” said Gerry Bannan.

The show, which opened Friday, gathers finely detailed drawings made in ink of rivers and streams that appear abstract at first glance but are in fact hyper-realistic renditions of the surface texture of running water. It’s these drawing that earned him recognition from literary magazine Oxford American last year as one of the top 100 “New Superstars of Southern Art.”

Many of his images record places around Bent Mountain, where he grew up and still visits. His father, Peter Chapman, also makes handcrafted wooden puzzles, which have also received national attention through Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living and other glossy magazines.

Genesis Chapman was active in the Roanoke art scene, co-organizing the yearly “Stick To Your Guns” art shows with Roanoke artist, dancer and promoter Beth Deel in the early 2000s. The Bannans also helped out with later shows.

The couple moved to Roanoke from Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1992, and have been fixtures in the art scene themselves. Betsy Bannan’s paintings were the centerpieces of the “Roanoke on the Road” performance art project in 2010, in which a group of regional artists and musicians traveled to New York and staged surprise street performances.

The name “BanG Studios” incorporates the couple’s initials, as in “B. and G.” They started renting the building at 425 Fourth St. S.W. a year ago. After much clean-up, they held their first show, an exhibit of their own work, last summer.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

Last year’s octopus float will be a giant sugar skull this year in the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival Parade, which starts at noon on Saturday, March 30 at Community High School in downtown Roanoke. Anyone is welcome to join in.

MIKE ALLEN | The Roanoke Times. Marginal Arts Festival founder Brian Counihan demonstrates one of the Easter Egg masks he’s making for the festival parade on March 30.

The Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival decided not to take chances this year.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be odd, bizarre, cutting-edge art experiences mixed into the festivities. It’s the weather they don’t want to gamble on.

For the past four years, the festival has tied its schedule to Mardi Gras, which meant it sometimes has taken place in the heart of winter. Founder Brian Counihan counts his blessings that the colorful and strange Marginal Arts Parade through downtown Roanoke has never been snowed out.

“We dodged a bullet every year,” said Roanoke artist Ralph Eaton, another of the festival’s organizers. So the artists running the festival decided to move it back a few weeks. (Eaton joked that he wished it could be held April Fool’s Day.)

The lineup this year includes an appearance from the Society for Creative Anachronism, famous for wearing medieval garb and battling with rattan swords, a contest to write a novel in 48 hours, experimental poetry, experimental art, experimental theater, and workshops that might help you understand what all these experiments are getting at. “We have a lot of professional artists involved,” Counihan said.

Of course there’s the parade at noon March 30 and the absurdist street carnival that immediately follows. This year, the festival ends with Vaudeville Night, a performance at the June M. McBroom Theater in Community High School at 302 Campbell Ave. S.E. Themes for the festival include Easter eggs, the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, and lucha libre, the sport of Mexican professional wrestling.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Festival organizers could use help decorating this giant clown shoe. Click the image to go to the Marginal Arts Festival page on Facebook.

Roanoke-based artist Susan Jamison has curated a new art exhibition, “Circus Pony,” that will open 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28 in Liminal: Alternative Artspace as one of the kickoffs of the official Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival events and last through Friday, April 12.

“Fine Young Cannibal” by Lori Field

Here’s a description from the exhibitions Facebook event page:

A circus inspired group exhibition of art from national and regional artists along with vintage circus ephemera organized as part of Roanoke, Virginia’s Marginal Arts Festival. Including works by Edward del Rosario, Lori Field, Marla Rutherford, Rob Tarbell, Jack McCaslin, Jessika Dené Tarr, John Reburn, Ursula Dilley, Rabiah Khwaja Gohar and others. During the reception there will be a performance by Tif Robinette.

Here’s Susan providing further elaboration on what’s gone into this show:

It is called “Circus Pony” and it includes contemporary art alongside vintage circus ephemera on loan from Appalachia Press. Artists in the show are from New York, DC, Colorado, and around VA: Lori Field, Edward del Rosario, Jessika Dené Tar, Marla Rutherford, Jack McCaslin, Rob Tarbell, and some regional artists as well, John Reburn, Ursula Dilley, Rabiah Khwaja Gohar. Also a strange clown pillow by an unknown artist has been loaned to the exhibition by Amy Moorefield, the director of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. The reception will be on March 28th from 6-9. At the opening we will have a performance by regional artist, Tif Robinette who will be dressed like a pony and Tyler Godsey will be there making cotton candy.

“Exquisite” by Edward del Rosario

I selected the circus theme because people in circus culture are marginalized in a similar way that artists can be marginalized, the people involved in these professions have been seen historically as outsiders or freaks. To the general public artists can be oddities. I remember this every time I try to make cocktail party conversation and people ask me what I do for a living. Perhaps that is why so many artists are drawn to circus or side show imagery. I also selected this theme because this festival itself can be a bit of a three ring circus with many activities going on at once. It can be hard to focus on any one thing. All the activity and chaos create excitement for the art community though, so the analogy is a positive one.

“Goat and Girl” by Jessika Dené Tarr

I planned the exhibition to be a great mix of regional art, art from around Virginia and DC, along with work from artists with national profiles from New York and around the country. In other words, the best work I can get my hands on from emerging artists to the more established artists, in our region and beyond. The exhibition includes a wide variety of media; oil painting, encaustic, graphite drawing, drawings done with smoke, photography, printmaking, textiles and performance.

The show runs from now to April 12 at Liminal Artspace, but I curated it specifically for the festival. The reception during the festival will be the only time that you can see the performance piece by Tif Robinette, get your cotton candy and your letter pressed take-away souvenir of the exhibition made by myself and John Reburn of Appalachia Press.

From my Inbox to you:

Dan Estabrook Artist-in-Residence and Tanja Softić: Migrant Universe open on March 14

Dan Estabrook, Small Fires (detail), 2012. Gum bichromate with watercolor and gouache. Courtesy of the artist.

Tanja Softić, The Map of What Happened (detail). Acrylic, pigment, charcoal and chalk on handmade paper mounted on board. Courtesy of the artist.

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University is pleased to announce the opening of two new exhibitions.  Dan Estabrook: 2013 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence and Tanja Softić: Migrant Universe will both open on Thursday, March 14, with an opening lecture by artist Tanja Softić at 6:00 pm, in the Niederer Auditorium of the Visual Arts Center.  Artist-in-Residence Dan Estabrook will present a lecture on Thursday, April 18 at 6:00 pm, also in the Niederer Auditorium.

Estabrook is a leading expert on 19^th century photographic processes.  In recent years, he has added pencil and paint to his negatives and prints to create contemporary work that explores universal themes such as love, sexuality and death.  Estabrook attended Harvard University and earned his MFA from the University of Illinois.  He has exhibited widely and received several awards, including an artist’s fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.  Estabrook lives and works in Brooklyn. The Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows Hollins University to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus every year.  While in residence, the artist creates work in a campus studio and teaches an art seminar open to all students. During their time at Hollins University, the Artist-in-Residence is a vital part of the campus and greater Roanoke community.

While many Americans think of immigration in terms of recent politics, Tanja Softić focuses on human migration in a global sense.  Merging appropriated visual material within her drawings and paintings, she addresses concepts of cultural hybridity, chaos and memory.  Softić earned her MFA in Printmaking from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, following study at the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Sarajevo.  She received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2009 and her work is included in collections worldwide. Tanja Softić: Migrant Universe was organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston School of the Arts.

EVENTS:

Thursday, March 14, 6:00 pm

Exhibition opening and lecture by exhibiting artist Tanja Softić, who will discuss the concepts, influences, and process of making the Migrant Universe cycle.  Niederer Auditorium, Visual Arts Center.  Reception to follow.

 Thursday, April 18, 6:00 pm

2013 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence Dan Estabrook discusses his artistic process in conjunction with his exhibition at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. Niederer Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. Reception to follow.

For more information visit www.hollins.edu/museum or call 540.362-6532.

From my Inbox to you:

The Market Gallery

Featured Artists:

Little House” by Barbara Norman Lashley

“Among the Copper Field for the Queen” by Kim Lashley Sutliff

Ann Hale, Barbara Norman Lashley, Kim Lashley Sutliff

March 26 to April 27, 2013

Opening Reception: Friday, April 5, 2013

The Market Gallery featured artists are Ann Hale, Barbara Norman Lashley, and Kim Lashley Sutliff. Please join us to meet and chat with the artists at their reception Friday, April 5, Art by Night, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Hale will provide a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. and Lashley at 6:45 p.m., and Sutliff at 7 p.m.
Mother-daughter artists Barbara Norman Lashley and Kim Lashley Sutliff will be featured in a joint exhibit.  Their show is titled “Book Ends”. Lashley and Sutliff have collaborated by making sculptures and collages from discarded books. Some of the works are books which have been cut, torn, folded or have added collage elements to make unique wall pieces. Other works are collages using torn or cut pages from books or magazines.

Lashley graduated from Averett University with a B.A. in art.  She also holds a M.A.L.S. from Hollins.  Sutliff also graduated from Averett with a B.F.A. and also completed her M.A.L.S. at Hollins

“Millennium Square” by Ann E. Hale

Ann E. Hale is currently at work on color-filled new paintings in a variety of sizes and media for her April Featured Artists show titled, “Cycles in the Universe.”  Ann is known in the Valley as primarily an artist who draws and paints realistically.  Her lively abstract artwork is often in intimate sizes, and includes her popular fold-out “personal galleries.”  The work in this upcoming show exhibits a new approach for this 70-year old artist. Ann is the Market Gallery’s co-president and a charter gallery member.

The Market Gallery, a regional artists’ cooperative, is open 10 am to 5:30 pm Tuesday – Saturday. And is located at 23 Salem Avenue, Roanoke, VA 24011, the corner of Wall St and Salem Ave in Roanoke’s historic downtown market.

For additional information call The Market Gallery (540) 342-1177 or visit www.marketgalleryroanoke.com