Taking steps to revive a historic district
Strolling the streets of Richmond’s historic Jackson Ward with a bounce in his step and a snazzy bowtie, Gary Flowers greets almost everyone, waving at drivers and (pre-pandemic) giving bear hugs to bank employees leaving work for the day. Flowers, who hosts a Richmond radio show, loves meeting people, which is partly why he leads “Walking the Ward” tours. “My purpose in life is... READ MORE
Life-long learners with love for the arts
Art means something different to everybody: paintings, music, theater, cinema, photography, architecture, even quilts. The 400 members of the Art Seminar Group (ASG), based in Baltimore County, try to provide access to a deeper understanding of each of those aspects of art. The group started in 1956, when several Baltimore women, hoping to learn more about abstract expressionism, hired ... READ MORE
Structure in the wintertime garden
The leaves have fallen, nothing is blooming, the garden looks forlorn. Can you stand three more months of this? If not, how can you create beauty in the winter garden? Structure provides the interest you need now as well as the framework for all seasons. Of course, structure can mean literal structures: pergolas, potting sheds, garden gates, stacked stone walls. However, structure... READ MORE
A winning artist paints the town at night
“Set up your easel and paint the town!” the Howard County Arts Council told artists during the Paint It Ellicott City event this summer. Local landscape painter Bruno Baran sometimes works from photographs. But on a sweltering Saturday in June he situated his easel on a sidewalk in historic Ellicott City and painted the old town directly from life. The painting he produced, named... READ MORE
Artist tries to recapture family’s lost past
Walking into the third-floor gallery of the American University Museum feels like stepping into a painterly vision of a family photo album, that of Brooklyn-based, Filipino-American artist Maia Cruz Palileo. Most Americans have a familial origin story rooted in immigration; perhaps a great-grandfather arriving at Ellis Island from Ireland, or a grandmother passing through the port of... READ MORE
Sculptor found art after many careers
Paul Steinkoenig has pursued many interests and careers in his 59 years. The Hyattsville resident has been a Methodist minister, a psychotherapist, a state department intern, and a United Nations volunteer in Afghanistan. But he feels he has now, finally, found his true calling: art. And the Howard County Arts Council seems to agree. In August, an eight-foot sculpture by Steinkoenig... READ MORE
Multimedia artist pursues universal truths
At age 15, Oletha DeVane accompanied her mother to her job at an agricultural research center in Maryland. When one of the doctoral students there learned that DeVane was artistic, she was hired to draw various insects the lab was studying. Over the next 50-plus years, DeVane continued her artistic growth, exploring universal spirituality through multimedia art, while also drawing... READ MORE
Free art classes at the Visual Arts Center
Sue Nelson, a retiree who moved to Richmond several years ago, was looking for a hobby. “I had worked for 55 years,” Nelson said. “It was time to play.” Although she had always been crafty, Nelson had never created with stained glass. On a whim, she signed up for a class at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond — established in 1963 and nicknamed VisArts — and quickly grew to ... READ MORE
Mother and daughter artists share exhibit
Baltimore sculptor, printmaker, performance artist, bead-worker and jewelry maker Joyce J. Scott, 70, said one of the greatest influences on her art was her mother, quilter Elizabeth Talford Scott, who died in 2011 at age 95. Some of the younger Scott’s work is currently being displayed next to her mother’s in a new exhibition, “Hitching Their Dreams to Untamed Stars,” which... READ MORE
Inspiring youth through his art
When Maryland artist Normon Greene was a child in southwestern Virginia, he watched his mother sketch and vowed to be just like her one day. “I was inspired by her drawings, so I started drawing,” the 69-year-old painter and sculptor said. “Then she gave me clay, and I thought, ‘Wow, I can draw three-dimensionally!’” Now Greene, a retired youth counselor and artist whose... READ MORE
