An Abundant New Year To All!

"Light At The End Of The Tunnel" photograph by ©Anne Marchand

I'm wishing for you an abundance of love, peace, joy and all things that stir your soul to be creative, fearless and a positive human being linked with all "others" on our amazing planet. Thank you for being in my world as family, friend, patron, collector, mentor, artist, fellow blogger, community member, organization, vendor, acquaintance and any connection we have made in support of the arts dream.

It's been an amazing year of growth and I'm expecting next year to be as adventurous. Steve and I topped off the afternoon today with laughter at the movie, "The Producers". Dinner and dessert with friends and we're calling it a Happy Ending and a Happy Beginning. Sweet Dreams.

Art and Artists Proliferating in Mid City Washington, DC

Imagine how delighted I was, when I picked up The December issue of THE INTOWNER to catch up on local community news. I took the InTowner on a flight for the holidays and read it front to back. I found the front page lead article Art and Artists Proliferating Throughout the Inner City as Recent Open Studio Events Attest a wonderful complement to the local art scene and a commitment to supporting local artists. Writer, Anthony Harvey wrote an inspired and heartening article about two groups of well attended Artist Open Studios this Fall in Washington, DC. As members of Mid City Artists, my studio colleagues, Angela White, Freya Grand and myself participated in the November Mid City Artists Open Studios. Anthony Harvey likens the burgeoning art scene in DC as "heralding a resurgence of the “Mid-Town” Washington art scene reminiscent of the lively art scene in those areas during the 1970s and 1980s." Harvey's article starts with a review of the October NOMA Artists Open Studios and continues with Mid City Artists Open Studios in November. Read the full InTowner article here .

Thank you Anthony Harvey and Peter Wolff for supporting the local artists and art scene, recognizing the contribution of the arts to the revitalization of our neighborhoods. As I stated in my letter to the editor, your support and recognition helps turn out record attendance to the Open Studios events and contributes to the dynamic partnership of the arts and business communities. The informative nature of the article heightens awareness for community residents of the burgeoning arts scene in their midst. Harvey states, "Coupled with the steadily increasing number of commercial art galleries opening in the 14th Street corridor between Thomas Circle and U Street, residents are finding themselves living within walking distance of a virtual cornucopia of fine and decorative arts -- for both serious art collecting and that of home decoration, or simply for the visual enjoyment of the walker and the "looker."

We have a diverse and talented pool of artists living and working in the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and Shaw neighborhoods who are committed to showcasing the lively art scene that exists in our Nation's Capital. Put us on your calendars for Spring 2006 Open Studios. Keep up on the news from Mid City Artists by signing up on our website to get our periodic news bulletin.

www.midcityartists.com
www.annemarchand.com

Aeromatic: Artomatic at the Heliport.

LAST CHANCE - Entries due January 2
 
You still have a few days to get your entries in for this Artomatic opportunity for emerging artists. The Heliport Gallery in the vibrant Silver Spring area announces Aeromatic: Artomatic at the Heliport.

Who’s Eligible? Any Artomatic participant who has never shown in a commercial gallery. Jurors: David Fogel, Director of the Silver Spring Gateway Project and manager of the Heliport and Nevin Kelly, owner of the Nevin Kelly Gallery on U Street in DC. When: Entries due January 2, 2006; show will take place in February, 2006. How: Send up to 3 jpeg images to David Fogel. Make sure to note title, size and medium and include your phone number. JPEGS are strongly preferred by the judges but if you absolutely can't manage an electronic entry, you may send up to three slides to David Fogel, Heliport Gallery, 8001 Kennett Street, Suite 3, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Slides must arrive by January 2, 2006.

Garvan Woodland Gardens "Holiday HIGHlights 2005"

Photographs by ©Anne Marchand


Our holiday adventure was filled with views of the Ouachita Mountains near Hot Springs, Arkansas and the sweetness of visiting mom and dad. The night after Christmas, we visited a transformed Garvan Woodland Gardens. The magical light show reminded me of Diwali, the Festival of Lights in India. Hindus, Jains and Sikhs celebrate Diwali and use the occasion to celebrate life and strengthen relationships. Our stroll through the gardens was a similar celebration. I love a good metaphor and this enchanting display capped off a wonderful visit with family.



Over twenty acres of prime Garden real estate is transformed into a holiday wonderland, featuring a million plus lights, animated characters, and hand-made structures. "Holiday HIGHlights 2005". The seven-week festival of lights is enhanced with the addition of musical entertainment including choirs, quartets, vocalists, and instrumentalists.

Garvan Woodland Gardens is a dream of Verna Cook Garvan, described as a brilliant businesswoman by those acquainted with her, who realized she could not solely succeed in preserving her private woodland garden or provide an accessible place of repose for the people of Arkansas without help. In 1985 she donated the land under a trust agreement to the University of Arkansas School of Architecture. The U of A department of landscape architecture, a division of the School of Architecture, began the daunting task of documenting every plant species. Garvan Woodland Gardens is an example of The Natural State at its best: a canopy of pines reaching skyward providing protection for delicate flora and fauna, gentle lapping waves that unfold along the 4 ½ miles of wooded shoreline, and rocky inclines that remind us of the surrounding Ouachita Mountains. The Gardens are a beautifully crafted response to those who may have doubted one determined woman's vision for a world-class botanical garden.

Garvan Woodland Gardens
550 Arkridge Road - P.O. Box 22240
Hot Springs National Park, AR 71913
800-366-4664 • 501-262-9300
info@garvangardens.org
www.garvangardens.org/

Arkansas highlights

Photographs by ©Anne Marchand

We're back in DC for the New Year Celebrations. We got our fill of the rolling Ouachita mountains in Southwest Arkansas, visited the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock which boasts a Dale Chihuly sculpture and Clinton's memorabilia in the Presidential Library.Little Rock, the geographical center of the state, is the hub of business, arts, government and healthcare in Arkansas.


The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park is the perfect addition to what was already a diverse offering of museums, unique shops, and other neighborhood attractions. Located on the banks of the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock’s River Market District, the Clinton Center houses the largest archival collection in American Presidential history. Designed by award-winning architect James Polshek and his firm, Polshek Partnership of New York, the main building takes the form of a glass bridge symbolizing President Clinton’s theme of “Building a Bridge to the 21st Century.”


Exhibits in the 20,000-square-foot museum are designed by Ralph Appelbaum and Associates of New York. Among its numerous notable achievements, Appelbaum and Associates created the powerful exhibits at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Clinton Foundation
The Clinton Presidential Center

Red Eye to Washington, DC USA

"Streaming" photograph by Anne Marchand

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

"Ornamental" Photograph by ©Anne Marchand

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here were are as in olden days,
happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
gather near to us once more.

Through the years we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane, 1943

Christmas Eve and Flying off into the skies

Christmas Eve and we're flying off into the family skies. For a few days, we'll be visiting with family and friends, taking a respite from the usual pace to pay attention to the sweet things of life, the intangible connections that make traversing this planet a real joy.
Enjoy the holidays and I'll catch up with ya before the New Year begins. And Happy Birthday to all you Capricorns out there! Shine baby shine!

"Toward 16th Street NW," 36" x 48", oil on canvas, Copyright © Anne Marchand. All rights reserved. Photo Credit: Greg Staley
www.annemarchand.com

"Call for Nominations: 2006 Coming Up Taller Award"

12-23-2005 until 01-30-2006
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Washington, DC, USA United States of America

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, invites you to nominate outstanding arts and humanities youth programs in your community for a 2006 Coming Up Taller award. Each year Coming Up Taller awards recognize and reward excellence in after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs for underserved children and youth. Award recipients receive $10,000 each, an individualized plaque, and an invitation to attend the annual Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement Conference.

We encourage programs initiated by libraries, museums, community service organizations, schools, universities, colleges, businesses, arts centers, performing arts organizations, and eligible government entities to participate. If your organization, or a program that your organization manages, meets the criteria for a Coming Up Taller award, we welcome your nomination. If you know of other organizations and programs you believe warrant consideration, we would be grateful if you would share this letter and nomination form with them.

The postmark deadline for nominations is January 30, 2006. For guidelines and nomination application, visit Coming Up Taller. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities at 202-682-5409.

Andrea Way, DC Artist exhibits in San Francisco, CA USA

Andrea Way is represented in Washington, DC by Marsha Mateka Gallery with a solo exhibition this year. She also spends time in San Francisco and is showing work at the Brian Gross Gallery in the Bay Area.
From a 2001 press release at Marsha Mateka.... When asked to discuss her paintings, the artist says "The only way I can talk about any of my work is to tell you how I made it". An avid practitioner of Zen meditation and an equally devoted admirer of the natural sciences, Andrea Way finds meaning through the way in which she works - sometimes visualizing spiritual principles, other times paralleling natural processes... all of the works begin with the action of ink dropped into shaped pools of water or into one large pool covering the entire surface. The artist loves this thin, delicate and unpredictable surface which she can then slowly develop through multiple layering.

"Andrea Way: Drawings"
12-15-2005 until 01-28-2006
Brian Gross Fine Art
San Francisco, CA, USA United States of America

Andrea Way opened her solo exhibition, Drawings, at Brian Gross Fine Art on Thursday, December 15. Way elegantly systematizes naturally occurring patterns in her intricate and lyrical ink drawings. In her second exhibition at Brian Gross Fine Art, Way presents her characteristically abstract drawings that deftly articulate complex organic patterning. Her compositions are comprised of intuitively structured layers, nuanced color, and playful geometries to create richly detailed, textural works on paper. The dynamic combination of linear and non-linear elements activates both foreground and background resulting in a powerful vocabulary constantly in flux. These rhythmic, multifaceted drawings are formally sophisticated and ultimately engaging.

Also featured in the exhibition will be Andrea Way's contribution to Magnolia Editions' 20 Year Drypoint Project. The project consists of a series of mixed media pieces created on drypoints pulled from the cutting board used at Magnolia for the last twenty years. Way's 38 by 84 inch drawing on drypoint is the first of the series to be exhibited and is a compelling graphic work.

Andrea Way was born in San Francisco, CA in 1949 and received her BA from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN in 1971. Her work has been featured in many gallery and museum exhibitions and is included in the public collections of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI; Achenbach Foundation, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, CA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC; and the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., among others. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. The exhibition continues through January 28, 2006.


www.annemarchand.com

Left or Right - no it's not politics, it's art!

Seems like even art is weighted to the left or right. To keep yourself fresh, alert, and creative...mind your compositional habits and don't always weigh in on the same side.

From Canadian Artist, Robert Genn's studio.....
Right and left weighting

"Yesterday Ken Flitton wrote: "It has been pointed out that all
of my paintings have a center of interest on the right-hand
side. Generally there's a dark blob on the right because that
seems to be how I like to compose. Is this something to do with
one side of the brain? Do other people have the same problem?
Is it serious and in need of correction? I'm sure it occurs
entirely unconsciously."

Thanks Ken. This is known as right or left weighting and you're
right, it's unconscious, but it's also a habit due to
handedness. We all favor one side or the other. I don't think
it has anything to do with right- or left-brain dominance.
While there are exceptions, right-handed people tend to start
on the right-hand side of the painting and work toward the
left. The reverse is true for lefties. Particularly for those
who use a mahlstick or other hand-leaning device, the habit can
bring a stultifying regularity to compositions.

Getting control of and understanding right-left weighting is a
valuable compositional ploy. Compositions-in-progress are
puzzles that need to be worked out. To hit the reset button,
you've got to consciously put that "dark blob" in a different
spot. And you've got to do it early on. This sets the old brain
into neural paths that enlighten compositions in a new way. If
you produce a lot of similar works in a series, just
alternating your rights and lefts is valuable. Weightings tend
to run in flocks. Particularly when sending a bundle of recent
paintings to a dealer, it's a good idea to line them all up and
give them the old "boring" test.

A problem that arises with habitual placement is the tendency
toward traditional and tired academic ideas of balance. I call
it "standard plonk" because you plonk down a compositional
element in a habituated way. The antidote is to consciously
think out and invent variations--extreme decentralization,
edgemanship, symmetry, interlock, patterning, action outside
the picture plane, and other devices. While it's okay to just
let it flow and to depend on intuition for your compositions,
it's also worthwhile to know that all of our individual
pictorial pathways are loaded with traps. When I'm on jury
duty, indeed, when I'm looking at my own stuff, I'm constantly
amazed at how we fall into these traps with stunning
regularity."

"A work of art is a collection of signs invented during
execution to suit the needs of their position." (Henri Matisse)

"Composition is the art of controlling the observer." (Robert
Henri)

"A composition is the organized sum of the interior
functions of every part of the work." (Wassily Kandinsky)

Read more at
The Painter's keys

When it Rains it Pours

As I brought soup to my friend on Saturday, I swore I wouldn't end up flat on my back following the doctor's prescribed RICE method - Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate...my ankle. I took a tumble yesterday from a seemingly simple task on a ladder - going over backwards, spraining my ankle and bruising parts of my behind. I mused as I limped home thoughts that I got off easy. Five of my friends are laid up around the metropolitan area with broken ankles and sprains. Mine is a category 1 minor sprain. I have been tending to some of the worst ones over the last few weeks wondering how in the world so many people could be in the same predicament at once! Irony of all ironies...here I lay me down to sleep with ice to keep my sprain at rest.
Taking these REST times to heart....It's a good time to do some goal setting for the New Year. My computer still works and I'll be reading, writing and thinking over the week, no walking to gallery openings or friends exhibitions. My "party" is over for a few days and then maybe I'll see you at the next one. You can't keep an artist down for long especially one with a sense of the humor of it all.

FREE STUDIO SPACES - NEW YORK CITY - MANHATTAN

OFFERED BY

THE MARIE WALSH SHARPE ART FOUNDATION 
Along with a Consortium of funders including: Basil Alkazzi, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc., The Richard Florsheim Art Fund, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Robert Gould Foundation, The Greenwich Foundation,  New York, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc., The Judith Rothschild Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Visual artists 21 and over are invited to submit proposals for FREE Studio Spaces. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. Residents, and not in school at the time of residency. Emerging, mid-career and older artists are encouraged to apply.  The 14 studios are non-living spaces for the making of new works of art. There is no stipend or equipment provided. Juried by a panel of artists. Studios are available beginning Sept. 1, 2006 for periods of up to one year. Artists who presently have a studio larger than 400 sq. ft. in New York City are not eligible.

Proposals should include (there is no application form): 
1.  8 slides (35mm) of recent work (on slides write: slide number, name and show top of work with arrow).  Or CD of 8 images (maximum height or width 1240 pixels, file format must be .jpg or .gif, 300 dpi resolution, file size should be no larger than 1.2 MB).  Or, if needed to portray art work (installations), a video/DVD (3 minutes or less). 
2.    An annotated list: image number, title, size, medium, date of work. Or, for video/DVD, a brief paragraph describing work, include date of work.
3.   A resumé.  Please include a phone number, e-mail address and date of birth.
4.   A concise statement (no more than 1 page) indicating why studio space is needed. 
5.   Specify desired starting date (after Sept. 1, 2006) and length of stay (up to one year). 
6.   A self-addressed, stamped envelope for returning slides, CD, DVD or video.

Postmark Deadline -- January 31, 2006 All applications will be notified by the end of April, 2006. 

Send Proposals to: The Space Program
                                The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation 
                                 830 North Tejon Street, Suite 120
                                 Colorado Springs, CO 80903
                                 (719) 635-3220
                              www.sharpeartfdn.org    

Maryland Art Place call for artists celebrating the diversity of mixed media artworks.

As part of Maryland Art Place’s 25th Anniversary programming scheduled for 2006, MAP announces a call for artists who wish to be considered for an exhibition celebrating the diversity of mixed media artworks. Works will be selected by Sarah Tanguy, currently curator for the ART in Embassies Program as well as an independent curator and critic based in Washington, DC. Tanguy’s current projects include: transrealities, a joint US/Lithuania photography exhibition; and Taken for Looks, an all-photography, food-inspired exhibition; Breaking Bread, a joint Cuba/Russia/US exhibition. In addition, Tanguy has written numerous exhibition-related essays and reviews in The Washington Times, Sculpture, New Art Examiner, Glass, American Craft, Metalsmith, Hand Print Workshop International, Turning Points, Mid-Atlantic Country, Baltimore, and Reader’s Digest.

Application Deadline: January 27, 2006

For application and prospectus, please visit: A CALL FOR ENTRY to ARTISTS


www.annemarchand.com

Mentor and Protégé - a young artist's year with a master painter

Here's an exciting look at a comtemporary mentor and protégé program by Rolex. Rolex has paired British artist, David Hockney and German artist, Matthias Weischer in a full year of mentoring in the Visual Arts. Read here

Holiday Music in Public Places –2005 Washington, DC USA

Holiday music anyone? Here's a taste to enlive your holiday spirit and it's FREE!

The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities
announces a performance series of holiday music from December 19-23, 2005. There will be free music all week at different times and locations.
Free Week of Music

Tuesday, December 20: 4:30-6:30pm
Whole Foods Market, 2323 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Visions of Jazz, Latin jazz

Wednesday, December 21st
Noon – 2:00pm
The Pocket Band, reggae ensemble

4:30 – 6:30pm
Passing Notes, a cappella choir
at the Downtown Holiday Market
Old Convention Center Site
Enter at 11th & H streets

Thursday, December 22nd: 5-7pm
Eastern Market Metro Plaza, SE
Visions of Jazz, Latin jazz

and

Friday, December 23rd: 4:00 – 6:00pm
Narek Bell Choir, hand bells
outside
Hecht’s Department Store

DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities
Fifth Floor
410 Eighth Street, NW
Washington, DC USA
202.724.5613

View the performance schedule Holiday Music in Public Places –2005 for times and locations.


www.annemarchand.com

May your days be Merry and Bright

This the season for joyous song! I went to hear my favorite men's choir at Church of the Epiphany this afternoon, the Washington Men's Camerata.

The choral ensemble includes our very own Chuck Baxter. Chuck sings Second Tenor in the Camerata and is also a Washington, DC visual artist who works with found objects. The performance this afternoon was lovely, graceful and sung with heavenly men's voices!

The program "Christmas with the Camerata" delivered delightful Traditional Carols as well as unusual selections such as a 16th Century Slovenian Carol. Winter Wonderland and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas capped the performance and left me and the full house feeling in the holiday spirit. Frank Albinder, Music Director for the Washingon Men's Camerata has performed in all fifty states and in twenty foreign countries. He is also Music Director of the Woodley Ensemble and Conductor of the Virginia Glee Club, University Of Virginia in Charlottesville.

I am looking forward to their next performance on March 26, 2006.... The Camerata Sings Songs of Love including a beautiful sonnett by Elizabeth Barret Browning.

For info go to Washington Men's Camerata and support the Arts.
202-364-1064

Here's a review of the one of the concert's that came out in the Post today. The reviewer was at the concert Saturday in Bethesda.

Washington Men's Camerata

"The Washington Men's Camerata sang Christmas songs on Saturday night at the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, in a program ranging from a carol in the Huron language to Renaissance chorales to "White Christmas." What unified the diverse program was not only the seasonal theme but also the sound of the camerata under its music director, Frank Albinder: evenly balanced throughout the men's tonal spectrum, luxuriantly blended, gloriously full and rich, yet crisp and nimble when the music demanded it.

It was, in short, a sound sure to put anyone who heard it in a festive mood. For the most part, the program mixed extremely adventurous choices with ear-catching arrangements of familiar tunes. The haunting, contemplative melody of the Huron carol, " 'Twas in the Moon of Winter Time," provided a fine setting for its images of hunters at the manger, and a robust 16th-century Slovenian carol received a jubilant performance. The ambiguous, reflective harmonies of Healy Willan's touching "The Three Kings" were handled with memorable delicacy by the camerata and three fine soloists, Patrick McMahan, Chris Johnson and David Evans. Two of the arrangements came across especially well: Patrick Dupre Quigley's jolly "Wassail" and Mark Riese's take on "Christmas Comes Anew," which pumped up the carol with complex antiphonal effects and extensive demands on the accompanist. Plenty of genial banter from music director Albinder and two unusually sonorous audience singalongs gave this fine holiday concert some extra sparkle."
-- Andrew Lindemann Malone

www.annemarchand.com

MORI - An Internet-based Earthwork at the Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA USA

I stopped by the Arlington Arts Center today.
I still love Arlington even with the disneyesk fabricated Americana retail district that has developed in the heart of the old city. I hope they keep some of their charming small businesses...but that's another story.

Today, I was on a mission to see the exhibition, MORI! I wanted to hear the groan of the Hayward Fault, to hear the earth body moving, heaving and sending out sounds. I wasn't disappointed in sound or imagination. Who knew a slightly lit, subtle theatric web concept could conjure up so much symbolism! I was in the darkness alone - me, the subtle seismic light graph and the earth groaning sounds for a moment in time. Eerie, spacey and connected.

MORI - An Internet-based Earthwork by Ken Goldberg, Randall Packer, Gregory Kuhn and Wojciech Matusik.
NOVEMBER 15- JANUARY 7, 2006

MORI is an internet-based earthwork that engages the earth as a living medium. In this installation, minute movements of the Hayward Fault in California are detected by a seismograph, converted to digital signals, and transmitted continuously via the Internet to the installation.

Visitors follow a fiber-optic cable to the center of the resonating enclosure where a portal through the floor frames the installation's focal point. The live seismic data stream drives an embedded visual display (an "earth drawing"?) and immersive low-frequency sounds, which echo the unpredictable fluctuations of the earth's movement. The title links the Japanese term for "forest-sanctuary" with the Latin "reminder of mortality." In MORI, the immediacy of the telematic embrace between earth and visitor questions the authenticity of mediated experience in the context of chance, human fragility, and geological endurance. For more information go to Zakros or
Berkeley.edu

Also of note exhibited as part of Drawing: Tradition & Innovation
on the Main Floor, Chairman's Gallery
Stephanie Lanes's drawings that look 3 Dimensional
and Richard Dana's "Narrator" charcoal on paper

and on the Lower Level in the Truland Experimental Gallery
two installations;

SOLO EXHIBITION: Brece Honeycutt, Works on Paper and Sculpture
COLLABORATION: Maria Anasazi and Zoe Leoudaki, Tell Me More Stories, an Installation.

Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22201
(703) 248-6800


www.annemarchand.com

Graffiti - Is it art. An alternative to Borf. Washington, DC USA

Graffiti, is it art? I'm not debating that issue.

I do know that it is not a person's right to deface the property of others with paint, markers or any other tools of the trade of professional artists. Would it be right to take any other craftsmans tools and use them to inflict property damage? I don't think so! Our city can develop a program similar to the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia as a model for rehabilitating young teens to rechannel their energy into creative projects that support the community in which they live. The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program(MAP) started in 1984 as a component of the Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN). PAGN is a city-wide initiative to eradicate destructive graffiti and address neighborhood blight. As part of this effort, PAGN hired mural artist Jane Golden in Philadelphia, to reach out to graffiti writers and redirect their energies to mural-making. Muralists like G. Byron Peck of City Arts in Washington, DC are already working with inner city teens to help create alternatives to destructive behaviour.

I think it is more than fair that Borf learn his craft before carrying around the tools of the trade and while making amends through community clean up service. I also think its fair that our city address a larger community issue. As MAP states "Murals are excellent catalysts for youth development. Murals challenge and affirm on a variety of levels, and provide a unique opportunity for young people to actively participate in a process that enhances their community. In addition, the impact of healthy relationships with adult role models-both in the arts and in the community-gives young people great pride in their own capabilities as artists and activists." Education is a key.

This from a homeowner in the District....

"As a Borf victim myself I agree with many of my other neighbors...
The obnoxious mural he left on the side of my house just says his name in three foot high letters....he tagged the Harrison School building as well, one of the oldest historic sites in our community, built in 1890 ... Power washing and painting are out of the question because of the delicate original unpainted brick.
.... the best suggestion yet, that the vandal should meet his victims and understand the damage he has done. Residents who literally put their life savings into a home, lovingly and painstakingly repair it, and then see it vandalized like this are crushed when they come home and see the damage. For small business owners, it's even worse. When the damage is to our historic treasures, we all suffer."

THE WEEKLY DISH unveiled at VIRIDIAN RESTAURANT, Washington, DC USA

It seems another great vegetarian friendly restaurant has opened it's doors reviving the menu of Ruppert's. What's life without art? or good food.

(Provided By Derrick Bullock)

TOM SIETSEMA DEJA VU ON THE MENU:
Rupperts closed three years ago, but the spirit of the minimalist American restaurant on Seventh Street NW -- revered by its fans for its purity and criticized by others for its preciousness -- resurfaces at the recently unveiled Viridian (1515 14th St. NW;...

To view the entire article, go to WaPO article here