by Jeff Maisey | Oct 14, 2024 | Art, Art News, Art Reviews, Current Exhibits
(MAMA-Girl, Woman Giraffe. Photo by Mark Atkinson) By Betsy DiJulio “Cullen, I think we ought to do a MAMA-Girl show,” said the voice at the other end of the line. It was 2023 and Cullen Strawn, Ph.D., ODU’s executive director for the arts, had picked up the phone to...
by Jeff Maisey | Sep 22, 2024 | Art, Art News, Art Reviews
(Hank the Aquarian, “Wash Me & Comb Me,” 2023. Acrylic paint & latex house paint on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. ) By Betsy DiJulio It could be argued that a juried show, even one mounted by a professional organization, is a capricious act of subjectivity. ...
by Jeff Maisey | Aug 23, 2024 | Art, Art News, Art Reviews, Current Exhibits
(“Talking Heads”) By Betsy DiJulio Jackie Merritt puts color where it doesn’t exist. But where it most surely lives. Recently, as I perused some 20 of her portraits (and one still life)–rendered in chalk pastel, charcoal, and watercolor—I smiled to myself...
by Jeff Maisey | Aug 1, 2024 | Art, Art News, Art Reviews
(Anthropocene Reliquary: ebonized ash, crushed coal, found bone, digital image) By Betsy DiJulio I look at my work as a distillate of experience. Life events, travel, relationships, politics and dreams all condense to varying degrees into my sculpture. I synthesize,...
by Jeff Maisey | Jul 15, 2024 | Art, Art News, Art Reviews, Current Exhibits
The cash-award winning mural went to “Bull” by Nico Cathcart. (Photo by Nikki Park.) By Betsy DiJulio “Portsmouth is dope.” You don’t hear that often, laughed Nikki Park, one of the 4-member subcommittee of Support Portsmouth Public Art (SPPA) who recently mounted...
by Jeff Maisey | Apr 21, 2024 | Art, Art News, Art Reviews
By Betsy DiJulio If you are an educator—or even if you’re not—and find yourself envious of this capstone assignment for art students at Virginia Wesleyan University (VWU), the brainchild of Professor John Rudel, you would be forgiven that deadly sin. How he managed to...
