Adult and Team art
March 9 - 29, 2024
Brothers and a Cousin
Five-year-old Kiran and two-year-old Niam with cousin Mila on the piano
My name is Kiran, and I am 5 years old. I am in kindergarten. My teachers’ names are Ms. Xavier and Mr. Chris. My brother’s name is Niam. He is 2. We like to make cool and beautiful stuff. An example is a rainbow. I went to the National Gallery and saw some clay things there, so I decided to make things I like out of clay. Our art is so beautiful. I think somebody else will like it too!! My cousin, Mila played the piano for this exhibit, and I think her music is really peaceful and pretty.
Audio Gallery
Mila - High School Freshman
Piano Composition
My name is Mila, and I’m a freshman in high school who grew up overseas in the Foreign Service, and now I live in Chevy Chase. I love to travel, read fantasy and sci-fi, and play the piano. I started playing when I was eight because my older sister played the piano and it seemed fun, but now I play because I love that I can make something beautiful just by pressing some keys and a whole lot of practice. Some of my favorite songs that I’ve played are “Rhapsody in G Minor” by Mary Leaf, “I Giorni” by Ludovico Einaudi, and “Love Story” by Francis Lai. I had so much fun playing all of these, and I hope you enjoy music too!
January 27 - March 9, 2024
Mother and Daughter
Upper Gallery
Crystal World
Seven-year-old Hazel from Friendship Heights
Hazel has lived in the neighborhood for close to 3 years and is a big craft and art enthusiast. She likes gems and treasures. For this exhibit, Hazel wanted to show some of the gems that she usually displays in her room.
Nature is a big inspiration for Hazel and she builds up stories, drawings and craft objects around it.
Enjoy some of this magic!!
Lower Gallery
Test Sample Collection
Bettina from Friendship Heights
Hazel’s mom, Bettina is a ceramic artist. She is currently working on some large pieces which often require tests for glazes, colors or materials. Bettina likes the test samples a lot. Each one is unique and has its own character as you can see in this small collection. She is thrilled to share these pieces with you and hopes you enjoy them as much as she does.
(Porcelain, fibre, color stains and glaze)!
January 3 - 27, 2024
Brothers: Max and Noah
An Interview with the Artists
Watercolor Paintings
Six-year-old Noah from Friendship Heights
Noah (5) is an enthusiastic drawer, colorer, and painter. In this painting, Tree of Life, his brother Max (8) drew the tree and cactus, and Noah painted it in the brightest colors he could find.
3D Pen Creations
Eight-year-old Max from Friendship Heights
Max (8) loves his fun 3D pen. He has experimented with following templates as well as making his own creations. His favorite piece he has made so far is the Eiffel Tower.
December 9, 2023 – January 3, 2024
Art for the Holidays
Ieva Alm in Herndon
I grew up in Riga, the capital of Latvia. I finished art school and then moved to Kiel, a German town on the Baltic coast, where I went to university and started a family. I’ve lived in this area for some years now. I’m happy to be here and to get to know your ways of life, your kindness in your experiences. I enjoy the nature and wildlife here and i love to watch it and paint. I hope you enjoy my work! Merry Christmas to you!
Email Ieva if your are interested in cards at Ievadaniel@inbox.lv
December 9, 2023 – January 3, 2024
Holiday Cheer
Betsy Edelmann on Fessenden Street
Along with painting bisqueware (unglazed pottery), I enjoy making little creatures out of terracotta clay. Here are some ornaments I made. The baskets are from Mexico. The ornaments and other things I’ve made are for sale at Coffee Nature up the street. Happy Holidays!
November 18 – December 9, 2023
Hand-painted China by Christine Ray
from her daughter, Kathryn Ray’s collection.
In the 1970s, painting china was a popular hobby for my mother, Christine Ray, and her friends. For years they gathered every Tuesday evening at the home of the friend who owned a kiln. They always enjoyed convivial conversation while embellishing white china with flowers, acorns, mushrooms, or a seasonal design. The first steps were to sketch the design with a special pencil, then mix ground colored glass with oil, paint the background to create the illusion of depth, then fire it in a kiln heated to over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit to melt and fuse the ground glass to the china. The next week, the second coat with the design detail was painted and fired again. Sometimes they edged the glass with a “gold” rim, but my mother didn’t like to do it. Getting the rim just right required a lot of patience and skill. Each of her three daughters have a complete set of china and many cherished items. She always had a lovely little box painted for all of my friends. Over fifty years later, they still enjoy them.
My mother was born in DC (at the old Sibley Hospital!) in 1915. She met my dad in kindergarten. Although she was barely 5’2″, During WWII she drove an 18-wheeler Red Cross blood donor van which she said had to be “double clutched”. She graduated from Wilson Teachers College here in DC and taught First Grade in DCPS for 10 years. During the summers she traveled to NYC to earn a master’s degree from Columbia. It was her first time away from home and she relished the big city. She left teaching when she started a family. My mother was a great Girl Scout leader, community volunteer, and friend to all. She passed away in 2000 and is buried with my father at Arlington National Cemetery.
Lower and Audio Gallery
"A Sunset Fire", a poem by Chrissy Horansky
A Woodley Park resident, Chrissy is a writer and communications consultant working with UN agencies. A lifelong advocate for education,
creativity, and the global advancement of women and girls, her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, MTV, and international media
outlets. She is the author of Girl Power in the Age of the Millennials: Essays on Women, Youth and Global Social Change. She holds a master’s from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College. Connect at cehorans@gmail.com or @MissMillennial on Twitter.
Author’s comments: There is a time in the fall when the setting sun catches the leaves of the trees and sets them afire. For me, it is one of those flashes of brilliance that reminds me of our one life here on this earth, and how the most breathtaking moments can stretch into what feels like eternity. When I am feeling down or disconnected, I can find myself in the Rock Creek Park. My head and my heart clear of the weight of this world. And I remember that my life is more than the sum of my failures and accomplishments. We are that endlessly burning sunset fire.
November 1 - November 19, 2023
"Third Culture"
A curated exhibit on how "culture travels in your luggage" when you live outside your home country
Mauricio Chavarria Iglesias (Dad), Anabell Iglesias Chavarría (Mom) and 10-year-old Andrés (Son)
Upper Gallery
This exhibit includes a selection of books from our library that connect us to our home country and also connects our home country to our wherever we are. Featured here “El pais de donde vengo/The country I come from” from Francisco Andres Escobar, “Mutual Impressions: Writers from the Americas Reading One Another”, “Latinos in the Washington, D.C. Area”, “The Tale of the Rose” by Consuelo de St. Exupery- the Salvadoran beauty, intellectual and artist who married Antoine de St. Exupery and inspired his book “The Little Prince”, “Postales de Viaje/Postcards” by Vilma de Chavarria, Mauricio’s mom. Also featured to the side of the Upper Gallery are two pictures taken by Mauricio, and very much in line with the poem in the Audio Gallery by Claudia Lars: The “beaches of sun” in Sonsonate, El Salvador and the “rivers of ice” in Great Falls, Maryland.
The other side has a book open to the biography of Salvadoran-American poet Claudia Lars.
Lower Gallery
A selection of traditional Salvadoran toys and books from Andres’ collection. The wooden toys are capirucho and two trompos. Behind, a modernized loteria game with Salvadoran slang Salvadoran candies and sorpresitas/surprises which you would find in goodie bags given to children after a birthday party. A book written in English on San Salvador, small books with selected quotes from The Little Prince, and a translated version of stories from the Brothers Grimm in Spanish gifted by Abuela Vilma.
Audio Gallery
Initial verse from the poem Ballads of the North and South by Salvadoran-American poet Claudia Lars (pen name for Carmen Brannon). The translation was done by Prof. Philip Pardi at Bard College and the voice is Anabell’s, who reads it first in English and then in the original Spanish.
Claudia is one of El Salvador’s most beloved poet. Claudia’s father headed the construction of El Salvador’s railroad, fell in love with Claudia’s mother and built a life in the Tropics. Claudia grew up at a large rural estate the province of Sonsonate, El Salvador – surrounded by nature, and volcanoes- yet visited the US and learned about Irish traditions. As an adult, she resided in the US, Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, combining her literary work with motherhood, translations, heading a literary magazine and as a cultural attache abroad.
Claudia and Consuelo de Saint Expurey (nee Suncin) where childhood friends. In one of Consuelo’s biographies, it is told that as young girls, Consuelo would say she would be a princess when she grew up and Claudia would say he would be a writer.
Ballads North and South, No. 1 – Claudia Lars
For many years I couldn’t choose
the land of my song.
Two lands, throbbing within,
were mystery and gift.
I carried both in my blood.
I gathered both in my embrace.
A dual love held close
opposing landscapes:
on the right, proud crests
of galloping palm trees,
and on the left, gray breezes
over sleepless ships.
Here, beaches of sun…
There, rivers of ice…
From the south, bees arrived
pursuing the spikenard’s pollen.
Vague nostalgias
and the urge to weep.
From the north, crashing surf,
blossoms of lightning.
Smoke from bonfire and pipe,
sweet isles and seaweed.
Such beauty could not exist
beneath my eyelids.
I found it in my veins
and on the wide horizon:
a stag astray in the snow,
an iridescent bird,
the heart’s compass
seeking north, seeking rest.
For years I couldn’t bring myself
to choose the land of my song.
Today I know it holds
the paths of barefoot men,
blue volcano folds,
thatched roofs on plains,
a tapestry of ivy and nests
along cliff walls,
deep water rocking
childlike clouds and lizards,
a great effort in chains
and a prolonged groan.
Immersed in what was mine,
I finally chose, but slowly,
the land of absolute love
to one day shut these eyes.
And yet my northern song,
urged on me by the dead,
reels like a comet,
rocks like a ship.
Claudia Lars (1899-1974) El Salvador
Translated by Philip Pardi
September 23 – October 12, 2023
Pharmacy Artifacts
Bonnie Levin, AU Park
Bonnie Levin manages all pharmacies for MedStar Health, a 10-hospital system in Maryland and DC (that includes Georgetown University Hospital). A pharmacist herself, Bonnie got her start working in her dad’s neighborhood drug store in Baltimore, Md and later got her graduate degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.<p><p>
Known as “Doc Levin,” Bonnie’s dad owned Leeds Pharmacy, established in the 1930s. This display includes many of the “tools of the pharmacy trade.” Doc Levin was well-respected in the community and dispensed health care information, medications, and good cheer.
The mortar & pestle is the most recognized symbol of pharmacy. It was used as early as 35,000 BCE to crush and grind ingredients into a fine paste or powder and then be made into tablets, capsules, and liquids.
The ceramic inhaler, probably from the 1920’s was used to deliver medications directly into the lungs for asthma and other breathing disorders. other breathing disorders.
- Prescription from 1895 for an iron supplement
- Apothecary glass bottle from late 19th century
- Pill box from Leeds Pharmacy
- 1972 US Postage Stamp commemorating Pharmacy – value 8¢
- Pill tiles depicting 17th century pharmacists
August 18 – September 23, 2023
Home-made cards for friends and family
Aldo Benini, AU Park
Aldo is a Swiss national who has lived in AU Park since 2000. Now retired, one of his hobbies is making unique birthday cards for friends and family. His creations combine an image, a poem, and a personal message in English or German, and sometimes French. His images are often his own photos. His biggest challenge is finding an image and a poem that meaningfully relate to each other. Empathy with the individual recipient is the key driver. Aldo shared three different cards with Little Gallery.
July 21 – August 18, 2023
Salt-N-Pepa Collection
Emma Keyes from Fessenden Street
Emma grew up on Fessenden Street but she now lives in Luxembourg all the way in Europe. When she was a kid, she was an avid collector of salt and pepper shakers, starting with her first set shaped like the Capitol and Washington Monument (featured in this exhibit). She doesn’t actively collect them anymore, but she was happy to dig out a few of her favorites to put on display.
July 21 – August 18, 2023
Succulents
Sean Casey from Fessenden Street
Sean grew up in Wisconsin where he had little opportunity to experience succulents. Here is a selection from his current collection. Sean says he’s attracted to the variety of shapes succulents take while all facing the same challenges of living in a hot, arid environment. “Look to the succulents – this could be our future.”
May 27 – June 19, 2023
A one-woman exhibit!
Painting, Photography and Music
Zaira Chowdhury
Zaira Chowdhury is a photographer based in Washington D.C. Drawing from her graphic design aptitude, Zaira aims to convey intricate and multifaceted perspectives through her dynamic composition and framing. Her pieces were featured in the international 2022 Advanced Placement (AP) Art and Design Exhibition (which displayed works of a select 50 out of 64,000 applicants) and have earned over ten Scholastic Art and Writing Awards including a Gold Metal Portfolio Award in 2023. For all inquiries concerning purchasing, please contact zairachowdhuryphotography@gmail.com
Painting, Photography and Music
Painting:
This selection of watercolor paintings by Zaira Chowdhury were completed during the pandemic to address some deeper effects it had on our community. The center painting, Delusion, projects the universally disorienting and destructive experience of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 lockdown. The watercolor on the left and the watercolor on the right is an observation of a scene in Bangladesh where the impact of the pandemic negatively affected shop owners.
Photography:
Beginning with a simple fascination with her environment, Zaira Chowdhury’s photography now focuses on her distinctive and individual perspective of basic surroundings. From focusing on how shadows can create shapes out of the jagged edges of a marble staircases to noticing the dissective reflections made by a subject and two mirrors, she is able to distill a scene to find the most striking details to amplify in her composition.
Audio:
“On my Own” is a composition that details how one reconciles with themselves after the pandemic, and how one manages self growth and progress while in the absence of others. Trained in instruments spanning from electric guitar to classical violin, Zaira Chowdhury has been creating original music since the age of eight. For her senior project, she took on the challenge of writing, recording, and producing a song by herself with little knowledge of how to mix and master a melody. This is the product of those efforts.
May 8 – 27, 2023
Snow Globes
Jane Mandelbaum in Tenleytown
I have lived in Tenleytown since 1986. I still have the first snow globe I started with. It is a Washington snow globe I bought on a school trip, and which my parents tried to sell years later at a yard sale. I had to buy it back from them for 25 cents.
I like snow globes because they are like a little view into another world. I am exhibiting some globes with animals, because May is when we see all the new baby animals around our own little world.
April 17 – May 8, 2023
Collage
Barbara Kraft on Upton Street
I’m a retired lawyer, artist and resident of Ward 3. I previously served as president of the Washington Studio School Board of Directors and have studied art at WSS and other institutions. I work in collage, acrylic, oil and sculpture and use found objects and materials including fabric, cardboard, plastic and metal. The collages on display at Little Gallery were created each day over the past 11 months for a young friend hospitalized at Children’s National Hospital. Acknowledging that I was powerless to affect her cure, I tried to express my love for her and her family by texting daily an image of the collage I’d created that day.
March 25 – April 17, 2023
Orchids in Bloom
Stacey Marien on Fessenden Street
Stacey is a retired librarian and living her best life in the Art District of Fessenden St NW. She’s been knitting and crocheting since she was a kid. She made knitted trees to hang from a garland for Christmas and loved them so much, she decided to try her hand at crocheting flowers. She made the daffodils first followed by the daisies and blooming flower. Her partner Sean is the orchid master in the house so she tackled crocheting some orchids and was very pleased with the outcome. No water or light needed!
March 4 – 25, 2023
Here comes spring!
Betsy Edelmann on Fessenden Street
I returned to pottery during the pandemic after a 25-year break! Our cat wakes me up early and that’s when I get to work. I am inspired by nature and the thought of spring and Easter inspired my newest creations.
January 12 – February 8, 2023
Sculpture
Elizabeth Ashe – sculptor and poet
Elizabeth Ashe is a sculptor and poet, who earned her MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MFA in creative writing from Chatham University. Her public art projects have recently been on view at Canal Park for the National Cherry Blossom Festival and several Art All Night DC locations. Ashe’s poetry has appeared in Bourgeon, Tribes, Yellow Medicine Review, Vagabondage, and Badlands Literary Journal, among many others, and art reviews in Artscope Magazine, the Washington Diplomat, and upcoming in Art Lantern. Her work is included in Studio Visit Magazine, issue 46.
Ashe has received several grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for curatorial projects and her studio practice. She and two artists were interviewed on the Kojo Nnamdi Show in August of 2019 for “Play, Protection, or Peril,” an exhibit that addressed gun violence in our culture. Ashe is a board member of the Washington Sculptors Group, and serves on the Tenleytown Public Art Sub-Committee. Ashe lives in Washington, D.C., where she has an active studio practice. She is the Exhibit and Event Technician at the Katzen Center, American University.
“Playgrounds” series
I began playing with copper wire when I was young. I love its flexibility, visual warmth, and patina. In the “Playgrounds” series, I began using copper wire in a new way – basing organic shapes off the proportions of wrapping wire around my hands – and using the wire as a maquette view for working larger. I enjoy playing with them, setting them in new places and orientations, and how the circles, shadows and connection lines talk to one another. The conversation within each piece, reminds me of how we speak and tell stories, especially how children ask questions. While the series has taken the dimensions leap of a few inches to several feet, I still love the intimacy and wonder of these small sculptures.
December 17, 2022 – January 12, 2023
Mom, Dad, Son!
They're all here! What a talented family!
Photography
Dad – Mauricio Chavarría Iglesias – Westbrook
Mauricio started taking out his cell phone to capture scenes that caught his attention and fancy. Beyond the usual family and pet pictures, his albums were slowly populated with architectural details, snaps from nature, and simple everyday life scenes. Mauricio was encouraged to show his photographs by his wife, Anabell, who discovered his work as it started to appear on his computer and phone backgrounds. Initially thinking it was cool stock photography, Anabell applauded Mauricio’s eye for great angles once she learned it was his work. Mauricio’s passion is rooted in water projects, and shown today at the Little Gallery are two photographs with a striking contrast- the Pacific ocean on a peaceful beach day in the Central American tropics, alongside the Maryland and Virginia sides coming together at Great Falls. It is a tribute to water and to the global North and the South, places Mauricio calls home. The third picture is from a lone cherry blossom at DC’s tidal basin and taken in Spring 2022. The cherry tree, quite thin and a with a single branch, offers its blooms amongst lush trees around it. It is a reflection on how everyone has something to give in all seasons of life and they can bloom just as they are and choose to offer something to the world. Finally, the fourth pictures presents Cheasapeake Bay.
Painting and Photography
Son – 10-year-old Andrés – Westbrook
From fingerpainting as a toddler to watercolors, sketches, and photography, 10-year-old Andrés is a budding artist. Pieces today are a combination of works from his production at 5-7 years old to recent works influenced by life in DC: a night photograph at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and a sketch that he produced this Spring when the conflict in Ukraine began. Originally a large poster, it was reproduced as a postcard that was sold during a bake sale at Westbrook Elementary to raise funds for World Central Kitchen’s work supporting Ukraine refugees. This is Andrés’ second exhibit, with his first one being a collection of drawings on post-its he showcased at 3 years old in his dining room after visiting a museum with his parents, Mauricio, and Anabell.
Audio
“Andrés” by Mom – Anabell Iglesias Chavarría in Westbrook
Anabell started writing poetry in high school at the Escuela Americana de El Salvador. She first shared her work at its Arts Festival when she was a junior in 1993 and then it went back to living only in her journals- until Salvadoran poet Maura Echeverría accepted reading them and took her on as a mentee in 2006. The poem here, “Andrés”, was one of two pieces that Anabell showed Maura on their first encounter and which thankfully Maura liked enough to agree to work with her. She is grateful to Maura as a mentor and to Prof. Philip Pardi at Bard College for providing helpful pointers that allowed for the poem to be presented today in both English and its original Spanish. ¨Andrés¨ was written in 2002, 10 years before the birth of her son. It is presented at The Little Gallery in 2022, the year Andrés turns 10 years old. Anabell says she always knew she would have a son that would be named Andrés, and discovering his creative, curious, and resilient spirit has been her favorite adventure to date. ¨Andrés¨ is a piece on becoming a mother and of motherhood- even if that moment is still a dot in the distance.
November 27 – December 17, 2022
Pencil Drawings
Robert Burchard – Faraday Place
Robert Burchard lives on Faraday Place with his wife. He has 2 grown daughters that have flown the coop (at least for now!). The drawings in this exhibit were made when Robert took art classes as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin. The person in the drawings is Glenn Gould, Robert’s favorite classical pianist. The other is a copy of Van Gogh’s Bedroom At Arles.
Though he has a life-long love of art (and art museums), this hobby has taken a back seat to work and family. With retirement on the horizon, Robert hopes to start drawing again, either in a class or on his own. Robert’s only medium is pencil drawings, and he prefers to draw people.
Art runs in the family on both sides. His mom is a terrific artist, and on his Dad’s side was a rather well known commercial artist named Gerd Grimm. Gerd’s work can be found on the Grimm Foundation website.
November 27 – December 17, 2022
Collage
Carolyn Morrow Long, Tenleytown
Carolyn Morrow Long has always been a practicing artist. After graduate school she moved to New York City and then to rural Middlebury, Vermont, where she made collages in her tiny apartment and made and taught pottery at the Frog Hollow Craft Center. After moving to DC in 1980, she worked for eighteen years as a conservator of paper artifacts and photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. It was only after retiring in 2001 that she had time to pursue her own interests. Inspired by many visits to New Orleans, she has written three books about the history of the city, and has also returned to making collages. Many of the collages are inspired by New Orleans and its iconic characters. Since 2013 Carolyn has each year created a holiday card that always includes an image of her beloved cat Jacques. Her display at the Little Gallery features these holiday cards, which are for sale. If you are interested, connect with Carolyn by clicking the button below.
November 5 – 27, 2022
Childhood Memories in Embroidery
Ana Patiño – Faraday Pl.
My name is Ana Patiño and I’m from Mexico. I’m in a cultural exchange program as an Au Pair. I’ve been here for 2 years. I have an excellent relationship with my Host Family; they all are so warm and they have a special place in my heart. I chose embroidery because I love this kind of art expression. The process brings me peace and I feel passionate about it. These are some of my childhood memories of the cartoons that I used to watch with my family when I was a little girl. We had a lot of fun and good moments watching them
November 5 – 27, 2022
Original Art Inspired by Mary Oliver’s Poetry
Martina Sestakova, Kensington MD
Martina Sestakova is a Kensington artist who is fascinated by words and their powerful imagery. For this exhibit, Martina enjoyed Mary Oliver’s poem – “Wild Geese” – as inspiration for her visual explorations in acrylic inks on Yupo. Each artwork is a meditation on the perceived meaning of the title (a word taken out of the poem).
Press the audio button below to listen to Martina reading the poem for its overall message and then imagine how you would capture each selected word.
To learn more about Martina, click below to visit her website.
Audio
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver read by Martina Seskatova
October 15 – November 5, 2022
Water/Flower Arrangements: Sean Casey on Fessenden Street
Sean first saw this type of water/flower arrangements on a trip to Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania. He started doing his own during the pandemic as a treat for the people coming by the house for the weekly CSA pickup. He’d do a new arrangement each week, and when he wasn’t inspired, neighbors Mandy, Coco and Max would fill in with their own designs. The Halloween display with boiling carbon dioxide is a little more lighthearted than what you’d see at Chanticleer.
September 24 – October 15, 2022
Oil on Canvas: Marge Koblinsky on Fessenden Street
In the 1970s I traveled to Afghanistan to see the 6th Century AD Bamiyan Buddhas. The Buddha statue depicted here was about 180 ft high—about 18 stories high. A staircase up the side of the Buddha allowed you to climb to the top of the statue. And then you could be immersed in some of the earliest drying oil murals in the world. Here I depict two of the paintings on the ceiling above the statue. This magnificent statue and murals lay on the Silk Road. One can hardly imagine how they were constructed way back when—now sadly, the original statues and murals no longer exist.
September 3 – 24, 2022
Bird Houses by Nancy Malan on Butterworth
I use the high-end table saw my father bought in 1952 to cut scrap wood into components of a birdhouse. My designs are based on samples found on Google, E-Bay, Craigslist, with variations to make each house unique. I have yet to buy any lumber. The scraps I use are throwaways from construction sites, curbs, alleys, and neighbors emptying basements and garages. Most are oak, barn wood, cedar, ash, or a rare bit of chestnut. Such gifts of nature deserve a fate better than landfill.
I know little about birds; I just love making houses for them. Figuring out how each birdhouse will look–dimensions, shape, kind of wood, finish–and how to put it together with glue, screws, nails, latches, and hinges, is a rewarding pastime on days when it is too hot or too cold for outdoor adventures. I find the combined use of brain and hands to be challenging and satisfying.
I have no website, no Facebook account, and no Tweets–just a cellphone number, 202-306-2300. Text me if your homeless birds need accommodations. Prices range from forty to sixty-five dollars.
August 12 - September 3, 2022
Father and Daughter
Daniel and 7-year old Elise Abramoff in Friendship Heights
Elise and Daniel Abramoff are a father/daughter artist duo in Friendship Heights and have been making art together for over 5 years. Daniel has been painting for 15 years and is a self-taught abstract artist. When his daughter, Elise, was only 2-years-old she started becoming interested in painting and started creating an excellent selection of paintings and mix media art.
What motivates them to keep making art is the joy they receive when painting and using colors to express their imagination and overall feelings.
Elise
Daniel
July 24 - August 12, 2022
Blossoms, Buildings and Surroundings
Maria Morga on Ellicott Street
Maria can be seen walking her dogs Ella & Felix while checking out the wonderful architecture & gardens in our neighborhood. As a professional artist with studios here and in Aldi VA., Maria loves to create wonderful scenes in watercolor and acrylic. She welcomes painting commissions of homes, creating interior décor or teaching art. Many of her paintings become greeting cards that are available for sale. Contact Maria by clicking here:
July 2 – July 24, 2022
Mugs, Mushrooms and More: Betsy Edelmann on Fessenden
Mugs, Mushrooms and More: Betsy Edelmann on Fessenden Street
I returned to pottery during the pandemic after a 25-year break! Our cat wakes me up early and that’s when I get to work. I am inspired by nature and thought a “Walk in the Woods” sounded like a nice theme for steamy July in Washington, DC.
June 12 – July 2, 2022
Printed Patterns of Nature: Meg Greene from Tenleytown
Meg is a global health and gender equality researcher and casual potato and linoleum block printer. She takes delight in visual patterns that can be transformed by alternating colors, pigment density, image size, and so on. As Thelma the chicken illustrated so beautifully in her exhibit, with every iteration, something fresh can be created.
Meg loves writing letters, so most of her prints are done on card stock, so they can be shared and sent to others.
She is happy to be commissioned to carve or print new prints reflecting interest in specific images or colors. She can be contacted by clicking below.
May 21 – June 12, 2022
Thelma from Tenleytown
Fowl Art: Thelma from Tenleytown
Thelma is a 3-year old golden comet chicken who lives in Tenleytown. In addition to her creative work, she enjoys laying eggs, visits from neighborhood children, and chasing crows.
Thelma’s Art
Drawings of Thelma
Thelma Inspired Limericks and Comments
April 9 – 30, 2022
Grandson and Grandmother
Graham Sczudlo and Deborah Sams on Burlington Pl.
Graham
Graham, who turned two years old on April 18, 2022, paints mostly in watercolor. He recently experimented with gouache at his satellite studio space, which his grandparents, Jaja (Ray) and Jinki (Deborah), set up for him at their house. Graham’s abstract paintings have fresh color, shapes, and patterns.
Deborah
Deborah paints mostly from life. Her plein air work is inspired by the mountains of North Carolina, her home state, and pockets of city living in Washington and American University Park, where she and her husband Ray Sczudlo have lived since 2000.
Deborah works in oil with a painterly impressionistic style. She mixes most of her colors with a limited palette, which includes a cool and a warm red, yellow, and blue.
For more information, visit DeborahSams.com, or send her an email at deborahsamsart@gmail.com.
March 20 - April 9, '22
Stamp Art: David Wong on Harrison Street
David Wong is Chief Designer at ChinaWongArt.com which specializes in creating art pieces with stamps to highlight nature, history, and everyday life, including world events. David started stamp collecting at the age of nine. His craft uses discarded items and repurposes them to illustrate joy that can come out of pain and sorrow.
David’s next art exhibit will be at the Gaithersburg International Christian Fellowship Spring Festival (Gaithersburg, MD) on April 23.
February 26 - March 20, 2022
power. beauty. social justice.
Shakti is a social venture with global reach that was founded by Mohini Malhotra on Ellicott Street. Shakti:
- Curates art from women artists globally, with visual narratives of social justice and a just world
- Helps collectors get original and affordable art with a social narrative and purpose
- Invests 100% profit in causes that help women and girls in DC and emerging markets better their lives (women’s health access across Africa; college scholarships for DC students; girls’ education in Nepal; legal services for immigrant women in DC as examples).
Shakti at The Little Gallery features works by
SONAL VARSHNEYA. Agra, India.
Etching and Aquatint on paper
Sonal (b. 1985), MFA in print-making, Lalit Kala Sansthan, Agra, India 2007; BFA fine arts (with distinction), Dayal Bagh Educational University. She has participated in several solo and some 30 group exhibitions across India, China, Taiwan, Poland and Serbia since 2005, She has received numerous awards and recognition of her work – International Award at International Biennial Print Exhibition, Taiwan (2012); All India Women Contemporary Art Exhibition (2012), All India Fine arts & crafts society (2011), and more recently national awards in India. She’s been referred to as the Engraver of a new Gender Mythology. She depicts goddesses as modern women and vice versa, weaving mythology and feminism with a quirky sense of humor.
February 4 – 24, 2022
Mother and Daughter
Bettina and Hazel Ammann on 45th street
Bettina
I am a ceramic designer who moved to DC in late-2021. When I move to a new place, ceramics are always what I come back to. Ever different conditions, require that I change my way of working over and over again and do a lot of experimentation. Ceramics have also always helped me connect with new people.
With my organic objects, I focus on the beauty of small things like seeds, dried plants or weeds. These things are often found in places that we don’t normally visit, or consider as beautiful. Most of the objects in the Little Gallery were found along busy streets or in trash dumps. I have turned them into porcelain treasures.
If you are interested in my work email me at info@rohbrand.ch, follow me on Instagram or click the link below.
Hazel
Hazel is 5 years old and loves crafts, in general. But, more than anything, she likes joining in when Bettina is working with clay. She started making ceramics from an early age. She likes to carefully observe her environment and then create her own world.
Her objects can be figures, water plants, precious stones and animals.
January 9 – February 4, 2022
Sisters
Oil on canvas: Their Eyes Are Watching Us
Tatiana Belenkaya on Garrison St
Our father was an artist and taught us to paint. In creating these pictures for the Little Gallery, I tried to capture beauty and innocence of animals in the habitat we share with them. Each picture is of my fleeting encounter with these animals as I observed them and they observed me in December 2021.
- my cat, Matilda by our house;
- a deer, two ducks, and a blue heron on the Capital Crescent trail; and
- a rooster at the National Gallery of Art.
I hope your fleeting encounter with these pictures brings you joy and encourages you to take actions to preserve our environment!
Ceramics: Svetlana Belenkaya, Rockville
This work is inspired by nature and by the countries where I have lived.
December 16, '21 - January 9, '22
Sacred Shards & Miscellany
Jane Varner Malhotra on Verplanck Street
I create relics from local salvaged pieces of something greater—for example, broken terra cotta tiles from the roof of historic Saint Elizabeths Government Hospital for the Insane, or a neighbor’s old slate. The object is made sacred through loving artful attention, anointed with water and blessed with oil, bringing good energy to the one who treasures it.
I enjoy sketching, writing, teaching and learning. I have an interest in theology and spiritual practice. I care deeply about mental health and art as healing.
November 20 - December 16, 2021
Advent Calendar with Knitted Ornaments
Stacey Marien on Fessenden Street
For many years, my kids and I would make an advent calendar out of paper, paint and colored pencils. When my daughter went off to college, I decided to make her a calendar with knitted ornaments. Since I knit and don’t sew, I enlisted the help of her stepmother, Beth to sew the calendar part. The one on display is what we made for my son when he went off to college. He is an avid basketball fan, so it was natural to have that as a theme. Each day is represented by the jersey of a professional player.
#1 – McGrady Tracy – Toronto Raptors
#2 – John Wall – Washington Wizards
#3 – Bradley Beal – Washington Wizards
#4 – Marcin Gortat – Washington Wizards
#5 – Kevin Garnett – Boston Celtics
#6 – Julius Erving – Philadelphia 76ers
#7 – Kevin Johnson – Phoenix Suns
#8 – Kobe Bryant – Los Angeles Lakers
#9 – Tony Parker – San Antonio Spurs
#10 – Walt Frazier – New York Knicks
#11 – John Wall – University of Kentucky
#12 – John Stockton – Utah Jazz
#13 – Wilt Chamberlain – Los Angeles Lakers
#14 – Oscar Robertson – Cincinnati Royals
#15 – Vince Carter – Toronto Raptors
#16 – Bob Lanier – Detroit Pistons
#17 – John Havlicek – Boston Celtics
#18 – Phil Jackson – New York Knicks
#19 – Willis Reed – New York Knicks
#20 – Gary Payton – Seattle SuperSonics
#21 – Tim Duncan – San Antonio Spurs
#22 – Clyde Drexler – Portland Trail Blazers
#23 – Michael Jordan – University of North Carolina
#24 – Rick Barry – Golden State Warriors
November 2 -20, 2021
Oil on Canvas: Marge Koblinsky on Fessenden Street
I have wandered far afield—from the labs of hormone biochemistry in the 60’s-70’s, to health systems research to ensure the lives of mothers and newborns in SE Asia in the 80’s-2000’s, to being entranced with color on canvas in retirement. Homebound during Covid has only enhanced this focus on color—and the excitement of following the lead of artists such as Carla Rosenberg and Jane Wilson.
October 19 - November 2, 2021
Spooky Art: Arachna Potter somewhere in Tenleytown
Arachna Potter lives in an undisclosed location in Tenleytown. Her work is inspired by spooky things. She loves bats, cats and ghosts. Arachna hopes you enjoy her scary artwork. Thanks for visiting!!
September 25 - October16, 2021
Stamp Art: David Wong on Harrison Street
David Wong started stamp collecting at the age of nine. To fund a middle school summer camp, he created a large collage of a Tiger from postage stamps and sold it to a mahjong-playing friend of his mother. David gets his inspiration from Isaiah 61:3 “Beauty for Ashes”. His craft uses discarded items and repurposes them to illustrate joy that can come out of pain and sorrow. David honors his Chinese heritage and introduces his creative work as ChinaWongArt.
August 28 - September 25, 2021
Acrylic on Clayboard: Emily Attwell on Brandywine
I am a neighborhood piano teacher on Brandywine Street who paints and draws as time allows. When the pandemic dramatically affected my teaching schedule, I established a daily morning art practice for mental survival! My work often focuses on observed organic patterns and the natural world. Growing up amid the lush vegetation of the Texas Gulf Coast, I was raised to be passionate about plant life. But I also love to explore abstraction and find it connects quite naturally to my musical brain. You can see some of my art on Instagram. Much of it is for sale.
Ranunculas 2020
August 7 - 25, 2021
Crepe Paper Flowers: Cynthia on Faraday Street
I have been making paper flowers as gifts for friends and to keep me occupied and out of trouble during the pandemic. Immersion in the detail work is therapeutic! Some flowers are meant to be realistic (cosmos, poppies and tulips) and others (“Van Gogh” sunflowers) are a bit odd. If you would like to commission a flower or two contact me below. Possibilities are not limited to the ones on display in The Little Gallery.
July 17 - August 4, 2021
Ceramics: Betsy Edelmann on Fessenden Street
I have loved making pottery since my childhood in Northern California. Growing up with many pets and nature-loving parents, my creative inspiration has always been the natural world of animals, birds, and plants. During the pandemic, I found that pottery gave me hours of pleasure and inspiration. My creations are available for sale. Click below.
