Mt. Airy Arts Garage celebrates diversity and family in new exhibit
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<p>Volunteer Erin Mishkin gives Yingci Chen some pointers on digital editing. (Jeanette Woods/NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Volunteers Matthew Graber and Erin Mishkin with PYR founder Yowei Shaw. (Jeanette Woods/ NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Dinh To rehearses her narration with Yowei Shaw and Elizabeth Perez Luna. Engineer Charlie Kaier was at the controls. (Jeanette Woods/ NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Philly Youth Radio alum Thien To dropped by to visit her sister Dinh. (Jeanette Woods/ NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Yowei Shaw reads over Jaya Montague's script. (Jeanette Woods/ NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Jaya Montague editing her narration tracks at WHYY. (Courtesy of Philly Youth Radio)</p>
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<p>Dinh To (left) and Yingci Chen practice their interview skills on on each other. (Courtesy of Philly Youth Radio)</p>
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<p>Bob Finch stands next to his painting, titled "Cynthia," a portrait of his friend of the same name who Finch says is, "an inspiring person." (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Karl Hanson stands next to his portraits, one of Miles Davis (right) and the other of Tina Turner. He says he saw both as photographs in magazines and that, "they just said, paint me." (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Doris Lane Grey standing between her paintings, "Apple Pie Brunch" (left) and "Stone Harbor Brunc" (right) at the Mt. Airy Art Garage. (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Claudia Mcgill shows off her collages, "House With a Purple Door" (right), and "First Thing in The Morning" (left). (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Melissa Hamilton stands next to her literature-influenced cartoons, "Secrets of Living" (right), and "The World Was a Symphony." Hamilton is an English teacher by day but has been cartooning since she was a child. (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Loraine Dunn, art director for Mt. Airy Art Garage, standing next to her drawings, "Young Jerry" (left) and "Kathryn." (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Arlene Olshan shows one of her handmade leather bags, She has been making them for 45 years. (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Arlene Olshan stands next to a portrait of herself, her best friend and her partner from when they were in art school. Olshan titled it "Monumental." (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Sarah Bond stands in front of one of her quilts displayed in the Mt. Airy Art Garage. Bond has been quilting for 30 years. She says it runs in the family and that she is carrying on the tradition. (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Sarah Bond stands in the studio where she makes quilts in the Mt. Airy Art Garage. Bond has been quilting for 30 years and says it runs in the family. (Brad Larrison/for NewsWorks)</p>
Mt. Airy Arts Garage cofounders Linda Slodki and Arleen Olshan wanted to celebrate the diversity of the Northwest with their new exhibit, “Faces, Families and Relationships—A Legacy of Diversity and Harmony.” The exhibit will feature works in various forms by member artists.
“We wanted to launch the year celebrating us and how our artists view the faces of their families,” Slodki said. “We thought: ‘What better opportunity to celebrate who we are?'”
Doris Lane Grey, member artist at the Mt. Airy Arts Garage, created the painting that has been used on the promotional material for the exhibit. Done in acrylic on canvas from a photograph, the work shows the artist, her son and her daughter at a family breakfast.
Sarah Bond, a master quilter who rents one of the “Artist in Residence” studio spaces, submitted a quilt for the exhibit. Her work, done in the traditional tumbling blocks pattern, is titled “Mudblocks,” and includes several types of cloth such as mudcloth from Africa, wax prints with African themes made in Holland and a reproduction of Civil War era dress fabric.
While Bond said family means many things to her, her quilt is representative of one very important family member: her great, great grandmother, Jane Arthur Bond, who was a slave in Kentucky until the Civil War freed her. After she was freed, she went to work for her former master’s sister. Her quilts have been published in “Stitched from the Soul” by Gladys Marie Frye.
For artists like Bond and Grey, the Mt. Airy Arts Garage is a place where they can enjoy a space dedicated to the pursuit of the arts.
“The Mt. Airy Art Garage is becoming a beacon to artists and people living in the area,” Grey said. “I love having a place where I can draw from the model, take classes and have the opportunity to get to know other artists, to see their work and to share my work with them and the community.”
The “Faces, Families and Relationships” exhibit will be open from Friday, Feb. 22 until Friday, March 29. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. See mtairyartgarage.org for more details.
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