DC Guide

I am so impressed with Grace Bonney, who has become a huge success with her design blog (and book), Design*Sponge. In the relatively small art department where we both went to undergrad, she fortunately found a prof. who got her interested in design, decorative arts, and the like...now look! I especially admire the help she and her co-bloggers give to women entrepreneurs.

On Design*Sponge is a DC Design Guide. I love that people hee and all over are seeking out unique furniture, handmade decor, craft pieces, DIY project opportunites, and the like... I swim around in the (not mutually exclusive) ponds of 'fine arts' and 'craft' and 'design', and sometimes I wish that 'fine arts' might be a bit more accessible, locally, in the commercially robust way that craft and decor have become. (As an educator, I want art to be accesible in general, too -- a whole 'nother pond o' fish.) Ayway, I do love how "ambassadors" like Kristina Bilonick of Pleasant Plains Workshop promote local art and craft, how Chandi Kelley of Project Dispatch makes art collecting affordable and fun, while helping working artists support their creative endeavors.

For what is is worth, I added the comment below to the D*S DC Design Guide -- I know it isn't an 'art guide', but there is such an intersection, and the more the merrier in generating new and creative ideas and making DC a place where original visions thrive!!

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Great guide, and I'm glad to see DCAC included and Crafty Bastards mentioned, above! I'm a DC artist and would love for more folks to discover our creative scene. Here are some other great spots:

Check out Pleasant Plains Workshop, an artist-run studio/gallery space/store near Howard University. Cool silkscreened items and other crafts and art by local artists: http://pleasantplainsworkshop.blogspot.com/

Industry Gallery features international design: http://industrygallerydc.com/Site/Home.html

52 O Street Studios is a decades-old studio building with dozens of artists and crafters, from painters to furniture makers to filmmakers and more. There are occasional open houses: http://www.52ostreetstudios.org/

Check out Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring! In addition to their awesome gallery and papermaking and printmaking studios for resident artists, they offer classes in letter press, papermaking, and more. Upstairs is the Washington Printmakers Gallery, with some beautiful (and relatively affordable) work. http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/

The annual Capitol Hill House Tour is great and occasionally also includes a peak into work spaces, like the one I share with decorative painters, custom furniture makers, photographers, and florists! http://www.chrs.org/Pages/1_Projects_11Tour/2011-chrs-tour-brochure.pdf

Flashpoint, Transformer, Civilian, Hamiltonian, Project 4, Harmon Art Labs, The Fridge (near Eastern Market), Heiner Contemproary (in Georgetown) and Conner Contemporary are some galleries that feature work by emerging and mid-career artists from DC and elsewhere, often inculding work at all sorts of price points for those interested in buying original art. There are also some artist-curated 'house galleries' and alternative spaces like Bloombars, and the Washington Project for the Arts presents the work of area artists. For an extensive list of art goings, the Pinkline Project is a great resource, http://pinklineproject.com/.

Going Postal

Yes, I have a stamp collection -- well, I did as a kid, when my grandpa gave me a stamp album and I had a few international penpals! Here are some of my favorites.

International House of Food Packages

One thing I love about travelling abroad is going into foreign supermarkets and loving the product packaging and thinking that everything must be better and tastier because it is all new and different and, you now, just cooler! When I was a high schooler I went to Canada and saw an aero bar in a vending machine; I just had to buy it and save the wrapper since I'd never seen one before! What can I see, easy kicks. Here's a quickly assembled collection of other favorites:

1.Cola Cao. Like Ovaltine but so, so much better, maybe the second national drink of Spain after Sangria (okay, and after cava, and sherry, and that barfy stuff high schoolers drink, wine mixed with soda...). All my American friends in Spain liked this stuff. One even made brownies with it. The bright yellow and red package is pretty cool: I've superimposed an image of the current package over an old poster that shows the really, really, horrendously racist imagery of ye olde Cola Cao. 2. El Arosa tea. Egypt's Redrose equivalent, but far more exciting, because it is named for a traditional type of cute little doll, pictured on the box. 3. Russian Candy. I was excited to find a Russian grocery store near me, the candy label assortment is dizzying. But, to my palate, the candies taste as nasty as the wrappers are cool. 4. Gal. Another Spanish classic: Gal lip gloss in Art Noveau tins. 5. Weetabix. An image of a vintage Weetabix collectible, but I like the bright current packaging of the actual cereal, too. This British cereal looks and tastes like wicker furniture.

Happy Birthday (early) to Me

Just an excuse to toot my own horn and also post this sweeeet illustration from "I Know How to Cook," illustrations by blexbolex.