William Allen Poe, The Last Tobacco Farmer, photograph, 2007
This exhibit is now on loan to the Banneker-Douglas Museum in Annapolis.
To learn more, CLICK HERE!
Annmarie After Hours Opening Reception, Friday, April 20, 2012, 6-9pm
As Calvert County's rural landscape began to change and the farming community was rapidly waning, I wanted to capture as many stories as possible from the local African-American families in an attempt to help preserve their culture.
In 2000, I began documenting my African-American community with photographs, video, and oral histories. In the decade that followed, I had the honor of capturing the stories of some of Calvert County's longtime residents and felt obligated to share their accounts.
-William Allen Poe, Photographer
About the Artist:
William Poe is a published writer of poems and essays. He is also a published documentary photographer. His book, African-Americans of Calvert County was awarded the Calvert County Public Education Award in 2009.
The creator of Voices of Calvert County, Poe hosts a local cable program featuring video vignettes of local African-American residents. He was also a part-time oral historian for Calvert County, helping to record stories of the local farming community. He has been a Maryland home-improvement contractor for 24 years.
Art Blooms is a three day show featuring the work of floral designers from across the region. Each floral designer is assigned a work of art in the Main Gallery or the Mezzanine Gallery and asked to create an arrangement inspired by the art. The results are surprising, beautiful, and provocative - and not to be missed. 2012 will mark the third year for Art Blooms, an event co-hosted by the Calvert Garden Club and Annmarie. Proceeds from the Friday night gala opening reception will benefit a project at Annmarie. Tickets for this year's event will go on sale later in the spring.
Art Blooms Gala Reception, Friday, July 13, 2012, 6-10pm; tickets required.
Tamar Assaf Tamar Assaf
Annmarie After Hours Reception, Friday, March 16, 6-9pm
As a complement to t he studio portion of The Living Gallery program, an exhibit of works by the eighteen Living Gallery artists will open March 2 and run through April 29 in the Main Gallery at Annmarie. Guests are invited to attend the Annmarie After Hours Reception for the exhibition and sale on Friday, March 16, 2012, from 6-9pm. The exhibit and sale will include works created during The Living Gallery, as well as works created in the artists private studios. The Living Gallery Exhibition & Sale is your opportunity to return to Annmarie to see the artists completed works and to purchase a work of art that you observed being created.
Candace Law Jacqui Crocetta
Carol Waite Carol Waite
Rachel Castle Herzer
David Berry Anna Showers Cruser Jimmy Cintron
About the Design and Installation of the Living Gallery Exhibition
The 2012 Living Gallery Exhibition was designed and installed by Annmarie Gallery Assistant, Allie Snyder. Allie participated in the Living Gallery program from January 30-February 5. She is a recent graduate of St. Mary's College of Maryland where she studied fine arts. She has worked at Annmarie since June of 2011 during which time she has helped teach summer camps, assisted the Curator of Exhibitions, helped maintain our new website, worked in the Gift Shop, and helped staff our new Superheroes of Recycling Field Trip program. In everything Allie does, she generously shares her creativity, talent, and gentle sprit.
Congratulations Allie for doing a beautiful job designing and installing this exhibit!
Allie painting during The Living Gallery 2012
Members of the Color & Light Society will host a spring show and sale featuring paintings, sculpture, watercolors, and more.
Annmarie After Hours Reception - Friday, March 16, 2012, 6-9pm
Hydrangea by Carol Thieme Tobacco Barn by Elizabeth Bygler
Hats On! by Mary Blumberg
ABOUT THE COLOR & LIGHT SOCIETY
The Color & Light Society began as an informal group of artists taking an advanced oil painting classes with Elizabeth Bygler of Leonardtown, Maryland. The group developed a passion for painting fueled by the belief that exhibiting one's art encouraged learning, development, and pride of original work. They began exhibiting their work in the Annmarie Garden Community Gallery in the early 2000's. After formalizing their organization in 2004, many more art students and other local artists joined the group. Today, there are 24 active artist members. The group has exploded into an artists' haven, showing an impressive variety of oils, watercolors, sculpture, photography and more multi-media. They have exhibited their work at a variety of venues across the region and can often be found volunteering at Artsfest, Annmarie’s annual fine arts festival held every September.
Annmarie After Hours - Opening Reception, Friday, October 14, 6-9pm.
John Lennon's song "Imagine" expresses a shared passion of these artists. They too have a story to tell about a world where food is plenty, animals and their habitats are respected, where personal histories are art, and where people love the communities in which they live.
Mimi Little, intrigued by the traditions and culture of food, has produced paintings that tell the story of family traditions and community gatherings with the common thread being the cooking and partaking of food.
Abbey Griffin has a passion for preserving natural habitats and the creatures we love /or not (e.g. the turkey vulture). She also imagines a world with her father alive and sailing in the boats he built.
Suzanne Shelden is well known for her vivid depictions of local scenery, but plans, for this event, to see where her imagination might take her.
Color and narrative drive each artist to create series of work that are at once personal and universal. This is a show of stories they have to tell. Annmarie is a special place, a magical place. The artists are honored and grateful to the board and staff for all they do to give art a great place to thrive in Calvert County.
Located in the Mezzanine Gallery, the artists will be on site during the following events:
Annmarie After Hours - Opening Reception - Friday, October 14, 6-9pm
Sunday, November 6, from 1-4 pm. Mimi, Abbey and Suzanne will host a second reception for "imagine a..."
December (visit again for update on date and time) coinciding with Annmarie's award-winning "Garden In Lights"
Annmarie After Hours Reception for Living Gallery - Friday, March 16, 6-9pm
Annmarie's Main Gallery will be transformed into artist studio space from January 9 through February 25, 2012, during The Living Gallery. For the next seven weeks, eighteen artists, including painters, sculptors, ceramicists, and others, will set up their studios and work in the gallery. Guests are invited to observe the artistic process, and if desired, talk with the artists about their work. Questions about any aspect of the artistic process - techniques, tools, materials, subject, and inspiration – are highly encouraged.
As a complement to the studio portion of The Living Gallery program, an exhibit of works by the eighteen Living Gallery artists will open March 2 and run through April 29 in the Main Gallery at Annmarie. Guests are invited to attend the Annmarie After Hours Reception for the exhibition and sale on Friday, March 16, 2012, from 6-9pm. The exhibit and sale will include works created during The Living Gallery, as well as works created in the artists private studios. The Living Gallery Exhibition & Sale is your opportunity to return to Annmarie to see the artists completed works and to purchase a work of art that you observed being created.
LIVING GALLERY - Studio Schedule:
Dates |
Media |
Artist |
Home Town |
January 9-22 |
Painting |
Suzanne Shelden |
Prince Frederick, MD |
January 16-22 |
Painting |
Rachel Castle Herzer |
Portland, ME |
January 16-22 |
Painting |
Inja Cho |
Kalamazoo, MI |
January 19-22 |
Fiber, Recycled Rag Rugs |
Beverly Jackson |
California, MD |
January 20-27 |
Oriental Brush Painting |
Carol Waite |
Fredericksburg, VA |
January 22-27 |
Mixed Media |
Norma LeVally |
Lusby, MD |
January 23-29 |
Ceramics |
Tamar Assaf |
Cupertino, CA |
Jan. 30-Feb.5 |
Painting |
Allie Snyder |
Leonardtown, MD |
Jan. 30-Feb.12 |
Beadwork, Polymer Clay |
Liz Printz |
Lusby, MD |
February 1-12 |
Painting |
David Berry |
Morgantown, WV |
February 6-12 |
Painting, Sculpture |
Jacqui Crocetta |
Rockville, MD |
February 10-18 |
Equine Sculpture |
Colleen Lochausen |
Hollywood, MD |
February 13-18 | Watercolors | Mary Blumberg | |
February 16-25 |
Encaustic w/mixed media |
Candace Law |
Berkley, MI |
February 19-25 |
Painting |
Anna Showers Cruser |
Baltimore, MD |
February 19-25 | Jewelry | Jimmy Cintron | |
February 19-25 |
Fiber |
Kay Collins |
Lusby, MD |
February 19-25 |
Life Mask Collaboration |
Mickey Kunkle |
Solomons, MD |
|
|
Diana Manchak |
Solomons< MD |
|
|
Ann Crain |
Solomons, MD |
Juror: Andrew Wodzianski, Professor of Art, College of Southern Maryland
Annmarie After Hours Opening - Friday, Oct. 14, 6-9pm
We all hold fond memories of beloved toys that yielded hours of entertainment and joy, toys that we treasured and kept years beyond our childhood. For these reasons and more, toys can be a powerful art medium, conjuring up a myriad of memories of childhood, past friendships, and other recollections. From the utterly outrageous to the sappy and sentimental, the exhibit includes works that are created from toys, inspired by toys, or are toys themselves. With the holidays in mind, Annmarie invites guests of all ages to immerse themselves in the playful spirit that these artists have evoked!
To DOWNLOAD a copy of Juror Statement & Price List, CLICK here!
Eve Hoyt, Toys I Loved Merri Ellen Kase, Tomato, Tomatto - Potato, Potatto
Juror Statement - Andrew Wodzianski
The artists in this exhibit are breathing time machines. While their chronological age may be mature, their artworks’ envelopment of toy iconography suggests an age much younger. Yet, these toy images are not immature. Instead, they reflect the skill set of an artist, the imagination of a child, and the perspective of a time traveler. This ability to shift time in particular is nothing short of kung-fu grip awesome.
Experiences in childhood leave lasting impressions. While many early experiences are traumatic, others are resplendent with joy. Happiness associated with familial nurture, delight revealed with confectionaries, and specifically for this group – enchantment discovered with toys. Adult access to these memories can often be challenging. The grown-up world of responsibility can quickly obscure recollections of play. But these artists adeptly preserve that journey from youth. For them, it is not a one way path. While pulling from a reservoir of nostalgia, they also embrace their present. Powerful and fantastic toy images of gender, sport, warfare, or the future influence their practice. But these bits of plastic, metal and wood once marketed as tools for socialization, role modeling, or stewardship are now totems for metaphor and allegory. The results are sometimes provocative, sometimes challenging, and sometimes just pure whimsy.
This exhibit cradles an adults’ mastery of craftsmanship with a child’s sensibility of play. They keep one foot in the studio, and the other in the sandbox. Meanwhile, they’ve left their watch on the kitchen counter and mom keeps calling them for dinner. Pablo Picasso said, ““Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” These artists have uniquely answered his query.
Richard Moore, Carnival Pull Toy Matthew Olson, Whirl-Y-Bird
Evelyn Davis, Real Estate Housing Market Jennifer Hecker, Mother Barbie 2
Exhibition Jurors:
Carolyn Egeli, artist
Lynn Heidelbaugh, Curator, National Postal Museum
About Face explores the artist as storyteller. How does an artist develop and arrange the elements of a good story—character, setting, plot, conflict, climax, and resolution—through the format of a portrait? Though we all have a story to tell, what is gained or lost when we are rendered through an artist’s point of view? Do the completed works represent the person we are, the person we strive to be, or the character the artist sees? How do traditional and new media types affect the impact of a portrait? This exhibition highlights portraits that tell a compelling story in a visually interesting way.
Annmarie After Hours Reception - Friday, April 15, 2011, 6-9pm
Emily White, American Bison Model, oak, bronze, felt, 2011 Michelle Carollo, Wastetube, mixed media, 2011
Exhibition Jurors:
Nancy Davis, Curator, Division of Home and Community Life,
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
James F. Langley, Curator of Exhibitions,
Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland
About SUPERSIZE: Bigger Is Better?
What fuels our fascination with obscene quantities and obsessive amounts? From supersized to overstuffed, from bulk to buy-one-get-one, we are in a constant quest for more, yet we decry the after-effects of over-consumption. SUPERSIZEexplores the art of the supersized; art that tackles the absurdity of life on a grand scale. Many of these outrageous works will make you smile and laugh out loud, but take time to explore the entire exhibit – both indoors and outside - and to read the artist statements. Taken as a whole, the diverse works included in SUPERSIZE contain important messages about our relationships with our stuff, and how we consume the Earth’s resources. This complex and entertaining exhibit is a celebration and critical commentary, full of beauty, humor, and some really big stuff.
Annmarie After Hours Opening - Friday, June 10, 2011, 6-9pm
Images from the 2010 Friday Night Opening Reception for Art Blooms
Art Blooms is a three day show featuring the work of floral designers from across the region. Each floral designer is assigned a work of art in the Main Gallery and asked to create an arrangement inspired by the art. The results are surprising, beautiful, and provocative - and not to be missed. 2011 will mark the second year for Art Blooms, an event co-hosted by the Calvert Garden Club and Annmarie. Proceeds from the Friday night opening reception will benefit a project at Annmarie. Tickets for this year's event will go on sale later in the spring.
Opening Reception for Art Blooms, Friday, July 29, 2011, 7-10pm; tickets required.
CLICK here to enjoy photos from Art Blooms 2010.