Hill Rag | April 2007 | Art and the City

Art and the City

Artist Profile: Marcus Lundell

by: Jim Magner

You’re looking through a window and some fun-loving guy is looking back, waving. Or a couple of happy ladies you might be related to are peering in your kitchen window like they just dropped over for tea and cakes.

There is a story here, but even Marcus will admit that he’s not completely sure what it is. “I don’t know what is going on between these two people.” In some cases, the characters appear to be writing their own stories, but holding back on personal secrets. They’re comic but not cartoonish and decidedly upbeat.

For Marcus Lundell, painting is a process of getting to know his people as they are creating themselves. He becomes more familiar with them as he works, but he still has many questions after he is finished. And so will you. That’s the fun of it.

He paints them all on glass, in their original frames, found in dumpsters, junk shops or flea markets. The composition is determined by the size and shape of the frame, whether it is square, rectangle or oval. He also does boxes and odd things picked up here and there.

Marcus grew up in Oregon and has been a flight attendant for 27 years. He needed a creative outlet and naturally went to painting; he had been doodling since childhood and took a couple of art classes in college - and was a cartoonist for a couple of years in Oregon. He started with acrylic paint on glass because, “They were cheap to do.” He didn’t have to buy paper, canvas, frames, mats, etc.

Acrylics dry fast so he has to work quickly: applying, scraping and reapplying layers of color…and it works well. Painting backwards is a challenge, but it adds to the looseness. The color compositions can be excellent, and the overall work has subtle sophistication.

You still have a week to see the show at Hoopla Traders, 733 Eighth St., SE, and don’t miss the wrap party on April 7. You just might end up looking at yourself through a glass starkly. 202-544-3620, hooplatraders.com.

Jim Magner’s Thoughts on Art

“Moving Pictures” is a moving experience, like witnessing the birth of a god, and perhaps at the same time, the diminished power of still pictures and paintings. (See “At the Museums.”)

The people in the moving pictures, on both sides of the camera, were there at its inception. It was like watching the Wright brothers take off. Seeing humans being alive on a flat screen was even more fascinating than watching live humans. The total magic of it all - pure marvel!

There are paintings in the show, including a few great works, which would get undivided attention in a room full of paintings. But watch the watchers; measure the time spent looking at the art and watching film clips, and it’s no contest. Viewers today are still mesmerized by the moving pictures.

And why not? It is all about motion - bodies in action - people being people and having fun. And, as today, sexuality. Much of the fascination is comparing then to now. Not just clothes and cars, but the mores of the early 1900s to a century later. In the frolicy beach scenes, a woman could sit on one shoulder of a man, but not put her legs around his neck. A public kiss could capture international buzz, but today…well, you know.

Despite the obvious social evolution, not much has changed in the power of film since these remarkably clear and well-staged early treasures. Great stories have been told, and perhaps recent technology leaps have made the movies a little less human and more gee-whiz, but it is the same magic: watching light dance on a “canvas,” ensnaring our attention and our emotional involvement with the drama of life.

Walking around this exhibition, it is easy to see how movies became the great American art form in a very short time. Although still photography had competed with, and caused painting to change, it didn’t diminish nor displace it as the primary artistic focus. But moving pictures? Is there an Academy Award for painting?

At the Museums

“Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1880-1910”
The Philips Collection
1600 21st St., NW
It was a time of magic. It was a time of power. But most of all it was a time of great change. These were the decades when the world was reinvented by giants. The top giant was Thomas Edison, especially in film, beginning at his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, NJ, in 1892.

The first publicly shown moving picture was an Edison “Kintoscope,” featuring three models posing as blacksmiths and comically passing around a bottle of beer…and the rest is mesmerizing history. This is the first exhibition to explore the inter-relationships between these early experiments in film and American painting of the same period.

Monitors play 60 of the most famous and fascinating explorations of motion, including Niagara Falls, running horses and dancing nymphs, alongside 100 paintings and illustrations of similar subjects and themes. The relationships and cross influences are illustrated vividly. Artists include George Bellows, Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sergeant and John Sloan.

A 1911 painting by George Bellows, “New York” practically moves in front of your eyes. There is no obsession with straight lines or detail - images float - and he wonderfully captures the dynamic flow of the city. However, it is hard to compete with the real thing for pure fascination. In “Lower Broadway, 1902,” all the men are in three-piece suits and derbies. Streetcars and horse-drawn wagons surge freely in their own directions - and one horseless carriage crosses Madison Square. 202-387-2151, www.phillipscollection.org.

Artomatic

2121 Crystal Drive
Crystal City, Va.
April 13-May 20
ART-omatic returns to the area in all of its glorious chaos of expression for the first time since December 2004. It opens April 13 with a party and ends on May 20 with a blowout. And don’t forget Cinco De Mayo. This time it is over the river and through the Crystal City hotels to the former Patent and Trademark building.

For those of you who have been to one of these events in the past, and there have been several over the years, I need not say anything. If you have missed them, I can only say that you need to get to this one. It’s wild, wonderfully raw and FREE. Hundreds of visual artists, musicians, actors, poets, dancers and what-all are accepted on a first-come-first-served basis and get to do practically anything they want - parents be advised.

If the free-for-all artistic expression appears chaotic, the event itself requires incredible coordination and structure - not to mention responsibility for the site. Dozens of volunteers have been working night and day to make this possible and deserve tremendous credit. Check out www.artomatic.org for times and other information, and for the first time this year, profiles of the artists who will be exhibiting.

Artists: if you haven’t registered yet, there may still be time…go to the site and do it; the opportunity to be seen by thousands and the on-line exposure is more than worth the fee.

At the Galleries

“From Beethoven to BB King:
WVSA Unplugged”
WVSA ARTiculate gallery
1100 16th Ave., NW
Through June 14
Visual arts are fused with performing arts to present an “unplugged” version of favorite musicians, instruments and concert moments. The show is comprised of one-of-a-kind portraits of music images created by WVSA ARTiculate artist apprentices. The show features a melting pot of genres: rock, jazz, hip-hop, pop “or something more exotic.”
The WVSA ARTiculate gallery produces eight original shows each year, and each show highlights the work of an artist apprentice in the ARTiculate Employment Training Program. Artist apprentices receive a commission on all artwork sold.
This is a community-based nonprofit organization for arts and education, designed to serve youth with special talents and special needs from diverse backgrounds. It’s a good program to support and the art and performances are fun. gallery@wvsarts.org, 202-261-0233.

“29 years 29 artists”
Zenith Gallery
413 Seventh St., NW
Through April 29
Zenith showcases 29 gallery artists for their 29th Anniversary Exhibit. Included are weekly interactive discussions with individual artists. 202-783-2963, www.zenithgallery.com

Bos - Ahart
Gallery plan b
1530 14th St., NW
April 4–May 13
Tanja Bos moved to DC from the Netherlands 18 years ago, and her atmospheric oils carry those traditions and influences. Shoshanna Ahart recently moved to Germany from DC, and her works in this exhibit offer images of Bavaria with its distinctive architecture. She has developed a unique pastel technique that gives her work a painterly quality. Reception: April 7, 6-8 p.m. 202-234-2711, www.galleryplanb.com.

“Spring Fling”
The Results Gallery
Results the Gym
Capitol Hill
315 G St., SE
April 3-May 13
This is a very interesting mix of experience and technique and includes 90 paintings by Washington area artists, Joe Angel Babb, Wesley Clark, Wynn Creasy, Sharon Geraci and Len Sloup. Artists Reception: April 5, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 202-234-5678, www.resultsthegym.com.

“Specimen”
Project 4
903 U St., NW
Through April 21
Ten internationally selected artists explore themes of preservation, evolution and documentation in cultural, biological and historic contexts through a wide variety of media. They explore the concepts through a common process of investigation making use of documentation in their approaches. Viewers are allowed to create the reality they are led to by the resulting groups of works. 202-232-4340, www.project4gallery.com.

“Prints of Old Europe”
Touchstone Gallery
406 Seventh St., NW
April 11-May 6
Mary D. Ott captures images with a digital camera that she makes into original, hand-pulled prints. Images of the Czech Republic, France, Crete, Germany and Italy are present-day, but she evokes a sense of history with overlays of color and design. Screen prints sometimes incorporate oil paint and wax. Reception: April 13, 6-8:30 p.m. Third Thursday reception: April 19, 6-8 p.m. 202-347-2787, www.TouchstoneGallery.com

Judith Thompson
Long View Gallery
1302 Ninth St., NW
April 14 - May 5
Thompson’s paintings of regally appointed ladies of class and distinction are celebrated in the confines of color and symbol yet appear to be searching for something. Reception: April 14, 6-8 p.m. 202-232-4788, www.longviewgallery.com

“The Edge of Abstraction”
Foundry Gallery
1314 18th St., NW
April 4-29
This is a solo show of paintings and drawings of Mina Oka Hanig, a Washington area artist born and raised in Japan. She tells stories through representational forms that play in abstract compositions built with layers of translucent paint - but color is really the subject here. Reception: April 6, 6-8 p.m. 202-463-0203, www.foundrygallery.org

Jim Magner is a Capitol Hill artist and writer. He can be reached at Artandthe City05@aol.com.


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Art and the City
Artist Profile: Marcus Lundell
by: Jim Magner
You’re looking through a window and some fun-loving guy is looking back, waving. Or a couple of happy ladies you might be related to are peering in your kitchen window like they just dropped over for tea and cakes. There is a story here, but even Marcus will admit that he’s not completely sure what it is. “I don’t know what is going on between these two people.” In some cases, the characters appear to be writing their own stories, but holding back on personal secrets. They’re comic but not cartoonish and decidedly upbeat. For Marcus Lundell, painting is a process of getting to know his people as they are creating themselves. He becomes more familiar with them as he works, but he still has many questions after he is finished. And so will you. That’s the fun of it. He paints them all on glass, in their original frames, found in dumpsters, junk shops or flea markets. The composition is determined by the size and shape of the frame, whether it is square, rectangle or oval. He also does boxes and odd things picked up here and there. Marcus grew up in Oregon and has been a flight attendant for 27 years. He needed a creative outlet and naturally went to painting; he had been doodling since childhood and took a couple of art classes in college - and was a cartoonist for a couple of years in Oregon. He started with acrylic paint on glass because, “They were cheap to do.” He didn’t have to buy paper, canvas, frames, mats, etc. Acrylics dry fast so he has to work quickly: applying, scraping and reapplying layers of color…and it works well. Painting backwards is a challenge, but it adds to the looseness. The color compositions can be excellent, and the overall work has subtle sophistication. You still have a week to see the show at Hoopla Traders, 733 Eighth St., SE, and don’t miss the wrap party on April 7. You just might end up looking at yourself through a glass starkly. 202-544-3620, hooplatraders.com. Jim Magner’s Thoughts on Art “Moving Pictures” is a moving experience, like witnessing the birth of a god, and perhaps at the same time, the diminished power of still pictures and paintings. (See “At the Museums.”) The people in the moving pictures, on both sides of the camera, were there at its inception. It was like watching the Wright brothers take off. Seeing humans being alive on a flat screen was even more fascinating than watching live humans. The total magic of it all - pure marvel! There are paintings in the show, including a few great works, which would get undivided attention in a room full of paintings. But watch the watchers; measure the time spent looking at the art and watching film clips, and it’s no contest. Viewers today are still mesmerized by the moving pictures. And why not? It is all about motion - bodies in action - people being people and having fun. And, as today, sexuality. Much of the fascination is comparing then to now. Not just clothes and cars, but the mores of the early 1900s to a century later. In the frolicy beach scenes, a woman could sit on one shoulder of a man, but not put her legs around his neck. A public kiss could capture international buzz, but today…well, you know. Despite the obvious social evolution, not much has changed in the power of film since these remarkably clear and well-staged early treasures. Great stories have been told, and perhaps recent technology leaps have made the movies a little less human and more gee-whiz, but it is the same magic: watching light dance on a “canvas,” ensnaring our attention and our emotional involvement with the drama of life. Walking around this exhibition, it is easy to see how movies became the great American art form in a very short time. Although still photography had competed with, and caused painting to change, it didn’t diminish nor displace it as the primary artistic focus. But moving pictures? Is there an Academy Award for painting? At the Museums “Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1880-1910” The Philips Collection 1600 21st St., NW It was a time of magic. It was a time of power. But most of all it was a time of great change. These were the decades when the world was reinvented by giants. The top giant was Thomas Edison, especially in film, beginning at his Black Maria Studio in West Orange, NJ, in 1892. The first publicly shown moving picture was an Edison “Kintoscope,” featuring three models posing as blacksmiths and comically passing around a bottle of beer…and the rest is mesmerizing history. This is the first exhibition to explore the inter-relationships between these early experiments in film and American painting of the same period. Monitors play 60 of the most famous and fascinating explorations of motion, including Niagara Falls, running horses and dancing nymphs, alongside 100 paintings and illustrations of similar subjects and themes. The relationships and cross influences are illustrated vividly. Artists include George Bellows, Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sergeant and John Sloan. A 1911 painting by George Bellows, “New York” practically moves in front of your eyes. There is no obsession with straight lines or detail - images float - and he wonderfully captures the dynamic flow of the city. However, it is hard to compete with the real thing for pure fascination. In “Lower Broadway, 1902,” all the men are in three-piece suits and derbies. Streetcars and horse-drawn wagons surge freely in their own directions - and one horseless carriage crosses Madison Square. 202-387-2151, www.phillipscollection.org. Artomatic 2121 Crystal Drive Crystal City, Va. April 13-May 20 ART-omatic returns to the area in all of its glorious chaos of expression for the first time since December 2004. It opens April 13 with a party and ends on May 20 with a blowout. And don’t forget Cinco De Mayo. This time it is over the river and through the Crystal City hotels to the former Patent and Trademark building. For those of you who have been to one of these events in the past, and there have been several over the years, I need not say anything. If you have missed them, I can only say that you need to get to this one. It’s wild, wonderfully raw and FREE. Hundreds of visual artists, musicians, actors, poets, dancers and what-all are accepted on a first-come-first-served basis and get to do practically anything they want - parents be advised. If the free-for-all artistic expression appears chaotic, the event itself requires incredible coordination and structure - not to mention responsibility for the site. Dozens of volunteers have been working night and day to make this possible and deserve tremendous credit. Check out www.artomatic.org for times and other information, and for the first time this year, profiles of the artists who will be exhibiting. Artists: if you haven’t registered yet, there may still be time…go to the site and do it; the opportunity to be seen by thousands and the on-line exposure is more than worth the fee. At the Galleries “From Beethoven to BB King: WVSA Unplugged” WVSA ARTiculate gallery 1100 16th Ave., NW Through June 14 Visual arts are fused with performing arts to present an “unplugged” version of favorite musicians, instruments and concert moments. The show is comprised of one-of-a-kind portraits of music images created by WVSA ARTiculate artist apprentices. The show features a melting pot of genres: rock, jazz, hip-hop, pop “or something more exotic.” The WVSA ARTiculate gallery produces eight original shows each year, and each show highlights the work of an artist apprentice in the ARTiculate Employment Training Program. Artist apprentices receive a commission on all artwork sold. This is a community-based nonprofit organization for arts and education, designed to serve youth with special talents and special needs from diverse backgrounds. It’s a good program to support and the art and performances are fun. gallery@wvsarts.org, 202-261-0233. “29 years 29 artists” Zenith Gallery 413 Seventh St., NW Through April 29 Zenith showcases 29 gallery artists for their 29th Anniversary Exhibit. Included are weekly interactive discussions with individual artists. 202-783-2963, www.zenithgallery.com Bos - Ahart Gallery plan b 1530 14th St., NW April 4–May 13 Tanja Bos moved to DC from the Netherlands 18 years ago, and her atmospheric oils carry those traditions and influences. Shoshanna Ahart recently moved to Germany from DC, and her works in this exhibit offer images of Bavaria with its distinctive architecture. She has developed a unique pastel technique that gives her work a painterly quality. Reception: April 7, 6-8 p.m. 202-234-2711, www.galleryplanb.com. “Spring Fling” The Results Gallery Results the Gym Capitol Hill 315 G St., SE April 3-May 13 This is a very interesting mix of experience and technique and includes 90 paintings by Washington area artists, Joe Angel Babb, Wesley Clark, Wynn Creasy, Sharon Geraci and Len Sloup. Artists Reception: April 5, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 202-234-5678, www.resultsthegym.com. “Specimen” Project 4 903 U St., NW Through April 21 Ten internationally selected artists explore themes of preservation, evolution and documentation in cultural, biological and historic contexts through a wide variety of media. They explore the concepts through a common process of investigation making use of documentation in their approaches. Viewers are allowed to create the reality they are led to by the resulting groups of works. 202-232-4340, www.project4gallery.com. “Prints of Old Europe” Touchstone Gallery 406 Seventh St., NW April 11-May 6 Mary D. Ott captures images with a digital camera that she makes into original, hand-pulled prints. Images of the Czech Republic, France, Crete, Germany and Italy are present-day, but she evokes a sense of history with overlays of color and design. Screen prints sometimes incorporate oil paint and wax. Reception: April 13, 6-8:30 p.m. Third Thursday reception: April 19, 6-8 p.m. 202-347-2787, www.TouchstoneGallery.com Judith Thompson Long View Gallery 1302 Ninth St., NW April 14 - May 5 Thompson’s paintings of regally appointed ladies of class and distinction are celebrated in the confines of color and symbol yet appear to be searching for something. Reception: April 14, 6-8 p.m. 202-232-4788, www.longviewgallery.com “The Edge of Abstraction” Foundry Gallery 1314 18th St., NW April 4-29 This is a solo show of paintings and drawings of Mina Oka Hanig, a Washington area artist born and raised in Japan. She tells stories through representational forms that play in abstract compositions built with layers of translucent paint - but color is really the subject here. Reception: April 6, 6-8 p.m. 202-463-0203, www.foundrygallery.org Jim Magner is a Capitol Hill artist and writer. He can be reached at Artandthe City05@aol.com.