Hello everyone, February marks the One Year Anniversary of Soulstrong Arts Blog. I am proud and thankful to look back over the last year and chart my growth and memories as I look back on my travels and ventures. Beginning soon, I will be posting blogs featuring interviews, quotes, photographs, and video of studio visits I’ve had the pleasure of doing over the last year. I will also begin brand new visits. For a year now, I’ve been saying I want to visit local artists’ studios, find new theatre houses, and explore more art centers, yet I’ve haven’t been so studious, so now’s the time! For the last month, I’ve been wanting to write a few blog posts, and have only had notes and a vague acknowledgment of what I want to focus.
So… If you’re like me and you tend to procrastinate, here’s some ‘give’ for you. Cut yourself some slack and instead of pushing yourself to work, make to-do lists and keep them around. THEN, push yourself. For example, I need to post studio visits of Joren Lindholm at Harmon Art Lab, Liz St. Rain of Milkweed Studio at Gateway Arts Center, Erica Riggio of Riggio Design, Cheryl Edwards of c.d. edwards studio and other artists I’ve seen over the last year. I need to post photos I’ve salvaged from my lost harddrive and share them. Lastly, I need to begin fleshing out new topics so I can balance between exploring the arts in our community and having a happy home life.
Home life, remember that? I’m getting back to it now that my Artist in Residency at Gateway Arts Center is coming to an end. Please join me for my concluding Artist’s Talk , Saturday the 25th of February at 1:00pm. This will be a casual, intimate gathering of friends and family. We will discuss past works, created over the last three months, and discuss various perspectives and inspirations about the creative process of creating art. I am also working on a new series of mixed medium (pastel, crayon, charcoal, acrylic) drawings entitled Rejuvenation, which will be on sale. Refreshments will be provided! The event is open to all and free!
The last bit of news I’d like to share, is unrelated to Soulstrong except that I’d like to share some of my newest findings here. As part of my position as Content Manager for MyGatewayArts.org, I will be interviewing local business owners so our community can hear more about each business in order to promote patronage across the Gateway Arts District. I am looking forward to debuting this guest-written series that will feature stimulating literary, photo, and video testimonials of local quality restaurants, theatre houses, cool hangouts, galleries, salons, and more. Currently, www.MyGatewayArts.org is under construction, but once it is updated, I can’t wait to start publishing information on our great local businesses.
So, remember to keep 2012 intriguing and inspiring. Keep on keeping on! You too can be soul strong! (womp.)
It’s a festive evening tonight at the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center’s Gallery 110! The reception, at Gallery 110 and at the Brentwood Arts Exchange at Gateway Arts Center, is full of people. The exhibition features the four incorporated towns of Prince George’s County, North Brentwood, Eagle Harbor, Fairmount Heights, and Glenarden. The reception will open to the public at 7pm, please come on out!
For more information, go to PGAAMCC’s website.
Justin Fair Live Performance of “Conduit” @HillyerArtSpace’s “Soapbox” Thu 1/19, starts at 7pm @soulstrong
My friends, please join me next Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at the Hillyer Art Space for their January Soapbox performance art series. Please join me as I perform one of my newest performance art pieces live, called Conduit, at the Hillyer Art Space. I am very fortunate and honored to be invited to perform alongside two fellow performance artists (Carolyn Becker and Celeste Merie Welch) in the first of Hillyer Art Space’s 2012 Soapbox series. The Soaphox series is a monthly performance art series at Hillyer Art Space, which seeks to bolster and expand performance art in and around Washington, D.C. $5 suggested donation. For more information, please click here. The Hillyer Art Space is located at International Arts & Artists (get directions). Please RSVP on the Facebook event page to let us know if you’re coming!
January Soapbox at Hillyer Art Space
–> Thursday, January 19th, at 7:00pm 
Conduit is a performance piece crafted to allow the performer to communicate melody and raw emotion through his movement and sound alone. By suggesting steady rhythm through dance, the sound of human breath and the beats made by hitting the ground are emphasized to exalt the power of being “in the moment.” Conduit‘s concept illustrates the mantra, “If I can do it, You can do it: If I am a conduit, you are a conduit.” The purpose of the piece, while autobiographical, has an easy to grasp universality. Its symbolic gestures become its tool so its live audience can easily grasp that message. Many of my pieces speak about the growth-process after emotional strain, yet unlike the rest, Conduit does not address reflection, instead it reinterprets the ‘from bad comes good’ by focusing on the good: specifically, why being a messenger of good is so important.
