My recent DCist Studio Visit article on Art Enables is a must-read.

Art Enables is DC's home of "outsider art inside the beltway," and supports 27 talented disabled artists by providing a supportive studio environment, helping them sell their artwork, and organizing exhibits nationwide.

I was so in love with their work that I even bought two paintings by artist Charles Meissner. One of the pieces is featured in the article, and you can view both by checking out his page on the Art Enables website. The two pieces I bought are titled "The Status Game" and "Status Moves to the Suburbs." They will be living in my new office, in Scott and I's new lovely and huge apartment. Yay!

Got a few new articles on DCist:

>> May Museum Roundup

>> DCist Preview: 52 O Street Open Studio Weekend

>> Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture @ the National Portrait Gallery

>> The Divas and Iron Chefs of Encaustic @ the McLean Project for the Arts

>> DCist Studio Visit: Michael Janis @ the Washington Glass School

And, tomorrow, I'll have another Open Studio preview of the Mid-City Artists Open Studio event this weekend. Whew... Check it out, ya'll.

See for yourself: Washington City Paper readers have voted DCist as the Best DC Website, beating out the Washington Post. Wowsa.

>> Browse the rest of the best.

Continuing my theme of reviewing shows about man's influence on nature, I've reviewed the Warehouse Gallery's newest exhibit, The End of Nature, for DCist.

>> Check it out here.

Oh, Warehouse, we will miss your beautiful peeling walls. I secrety want someone to turn the place into condos so I can see that crazy view out of the back windows daily. There are some seriously secret alleyways back there, and something about them fills me with awe.

Holy crap, I bet you forgot I wrote for DCist! Nope, just been busy with some arts agendas, some Unbuckled graphics, and a whole trillion tons of design work.

Amidst the mayhem, I managed (several weeks ago) to see Amy Sillman’s artist talk at the Hirshhorn, and checked out her exhibit to boot. I had met Sillman back in the Arizona days, and found her kind of amusing. Mostly, I found it amusing that she made one of my colleagues cry. I am so cruel. But, that’s what arizona will do to you.

So, after much ado, I have finally written an article for DCist on the talk.
Check it out here.

In other news, the Berlin Arts Management trip is a GO! Super duper. The trip is a full two weeks, however yours truly will be in Daytona for the first few days, meeting up with some cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, siblings, and their respective children. And, Scott, but we won’t be meeting up there as much as we will be flying there together.

Regardless, I’ll be in Berlin from Thursday June 26 through Saturday July 5, and will be getting my art on. I’ll be meeting up with a bunch of arts managers and touring the city and checking out the opera, the cabaret and the galleries. Ooh la la! Ooops, wrong language. Joobiloo!

Tomorrow (Saturday March 15) is your last chance to see DCist Exposed at Civilian Art Projects.

Last Friday was the opening, and those of you who got there early or roughed the rainy 500-person line know that it was a packed house. We sold a bunch of the work, got a bunch of press, and made DC gallerists stop and go "huh? A BLOG put on an art exhibit for the 2nd year running? How come 500 people don’t stand in line to go to MY gallery openings?"

See and read what the fuss was all about:

>> Oh, Jessica Dawson, Washington Post’s most sarcastic art critic. And she wasn’t even too mean. Wow.

>> The roundup from DCist.

>> The plethora of pics on Flickr.

>> DCist Exposed in video.

>> Supposedly we are mentioned in today’s Weekend Pass in the Washington Post Express, but I can’t find the mention in the online version.

>> Ditto above for Philadelphia Style magazine, but not sure why this mag would cover a DC event?

So, there you go. Was a great event. It was nice to see so many folks interested in -- and buying some of -- the arts in the District. The opening was filled with a variety of folks -- in fact, I didn’t even see most of the typical gallery goers. Perhaps they arrived fashionably late, saw the 500 person line, and went to Oyamel or Zaytinya for drinks and yums.

DCist Exposed opens tonight [Friday March 7th] from 7 to 9pm at the Civilian Art Projects, located at 406 7th St. NW on the third floor (right above Touchstone Gallery), between the Archives and Gallery Place metro stops.

Heather Goss, Nestor Diaz (one of the featured photographers, who also shoots for Spin Magazine) and I hung the show yesterday, and it looks amazing.

The opening promises to be packed; we got a pick in the Washington Post, and are listed on the City Guide on their home page today! We also got picked by Washingtonian Magazine in their Weekend guide.

So, come out and see what the fuss is all about! Touchstone Gallery is also going to be staying open late, so you can check out their All Media show while you're at it. Free wine and beer, if you can find a path to the DCist staffed bar.

Photos are priced to sell -- ranging from $100 to $250 -- so bring your checkbooks. We've already had a couple sell, and the show hasn't even opened yet. The 47 exhibited photos were selected out of 601 entries, and represent all that DC has to offer. So, you'll see shots of the High Heel Races, zombies at the Washington Monument, metro, the National Gallery of Art, protests, Dupont at Dusk (sold!), burlesque, sports, and more.

See you there!

Recently, I met with local artist Laurel Hausler at her studio in Fairfax, to discuss her artwork and feature her in an article for DCist. In December, I wrote an article highlighting her drawings featured in the Attainable Art exhibit at the Nevin Kelly Gallery, and wanted to get a closer look at her work.

> Read the Studio Visit article.
> Read the original article on the Nevin Kelly show.

In other news, another upcoming arts space, Hamiltonian Artists, is popping up in my neighborhood shortly. And when I say "popping up," I mean just that, quite unfortunately. If you've been to my apartment, you know my view is not so great. And it's about to get much, much worse. Currently, my windows look out onto a handful of rooftops, with the Reeves Center a block away in the distance. Not fantastic, but I can see the sky, the occasional sunset, a couple of trees, passing birds, and some wacky rooftop piping.

However, by the end of February, my view will be of the Hamiltonian Artists Center. Period. That's it. I will still be able to see one rooftop, but then up will pop a floor full of Hamiltonian offices, and then a 2nd floor full of (because god knows we need them) condos, all only one narrow building over from me. That will be quite a view. I'm all for new arts spaces, but this is a bit of a depressing slap in the face.

Hello my new creative neighbors, I'm wearing my pajamas. Meet my cats, Oscar and Focus. We are here to stare at you all day, with long faces and a box of tissues, remorsing our loss of skyline.

>> Read my review of the new exhibit at the Phillips Collection, which highlights 120 of the museum's recent acquisitions.

Stay tuned to DCist next week for my article on my recent studio visit with Laurel Hausler, a quite prolific painter represented locally by the Nevin Kelly Gallery, as well as by galleries in Vermont and South Carolina.

Yay CQ! Yay DCist!

A blogger from Congressional Quarterly and DCist's very own Sommer Mathis are featured in a live broadcast on reason.tv discussing Super Tuesday.

>> View it here.

Go Sommer!