Take a Saturday Journey to Crystal City: Artomatic Ends Today

From Kate Hays. Follow her on Twitter @kateyhays and email her at [email protected].

Featured image is of a piece from DC Creepers; photo by Kate Hays. 

I know, I know. Artomatic 2012 is in Crystal City. Not only is Crystal City not in Borderstan, it is (gasp!) across the river in the wilds of Virginia. The location is 1851 South Bell Street, to be exact — and yes, Crystal City is in Arlington. There’s also music with DJ Cosmo on the Jam Stage from 4 to 10:30 pm.

But here’s why I went, and why you should go, too: Four Borderstan-area artists are displaying their work.

Local Artists at Artomatic

• My first stop was to pass by Mark Parascandola’s booth. His one piece, La Chanca, shows Almeria, Spain. At first glance, it’s a photo of a city. But take a look from different angles, get close, and look at what’s happening. A closer inspection shows life underway – a deflated kiddie pool on a roof, a man in his backyard. And every angle is a different view of life in this Spanish town.
• Right there, I turned to Sally Kauffman’s display. Sally does large, abstract pieces — sorbet swooshes, which come to animal life in Piggy.
• Moving down to floor 9, I swung by Dave Peterson’s gallery. Whimsical, cartoonish, and funny, I loved both his tongue in cheek t-shirts, and his bossy Squirrel and mantis playing Monkey.
• Our last Borderstan stop was on floor 4, to check out Chuck Baxter’s work, made from found objects. His pieces included daisies made from old cassette tapes and a spinning ceiling mounted plastic piece (aptly titled Faux Chihuly).

And if those four aren’t enough, plenty of others in the show are taking a look at our neighborhood and our city and are displaying their interpretations of city life. The DC Creepers, as the name might imply, creep around, sketching people on buses and and metro lines, and they turn these studies into art. I’m not pointing fingers, but if you’re a “Missed Connections” lurker, these sketches snatched in passing might appeal to you. And of course, you should not miss the ever famous kitschy Peeps, and Borderstan makes the cut with “Black Peep” — a model of our beloved Black Cat.

So take a deep breath, pull out that SmarTrip card, and take a trip over to Crystal City for some local art. Brave the wild suburbs to see and support some of our local artists.

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