Above: Abstracts by Katherine Kisa (mixed media on paper)

For those who missed the Artist Talk and Reception for Sympathetic Vibrations last night, hosted by and Gallery West @ The Goodwin House Bailey's Crossroads missed a real treat.

Katherine Kisa gave an informative talk about her life, travels and inspiration for her unique paintings and vinyl record assemblages. Her art work which consists mostly of mix media on canvas and paper, and discussion delighted the audience, many of whom were residents of the Goodwin House Bailey's Crossroads.

The reception featured great food and a wonderful musical performance by jazz keyboardist and his guitarist, Ted.

Be sure to check out Sympathetic Vibrations before it close on March 30, 2006!


A guest checks out some of Katherine's abstracts.

Katherine addresses the audience about her art...

Then mixed and mingled with her new "fans" of her work...

Melvin (on keyboards) and Ted (on guitar) provided smooth jazz...

Jackie Thompson (left) of and Sherry Ways (right) of stopped by...

(L to R) Katherine Kisa, Lynda Smith-Bugge, Gallery Director of Gallery West @ Goodwin House Bailey's Crossroads and Yours Truly.
Special thanks to Gallery West @ Goodwin House Bailey's Crossroads for making this exhibition and reception truly extraordinary.

My perspective was a focus on the "collecting and selecting" side of purchasing art while my colleagues focused on the interior decorating end of displaying art.

A great balance in the way the materials were presented and of course, just interacting with the participants was fun!
Here I am doing my presentation on the art collecting piece..

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Susan did a wonderful job sharing tips on how to match the colors of your upholstery, curtains, etc. to your art's frame and matting.

Susan talks more on color coordinating...

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Great networking and mingling during the break..

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and of course, good food!
Sherry demonstrates tips on measuring walls to hang art.
Local artist stopped by to check us out.

Here we pose with one of my favorite acrylic pieces of his entitled All Bluesed Out, which is available for sale in the gallery.
We all fell in love with one of Wesley's new acrylic pieces, simply titled "Fro"..

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Each artist discussed their work and their inspirations (Camille discusses her photography here top left) . As we oooh and ahhed we learned a little about their techniques.

We had an opportunity to view young and up and coming artists such as the talented Amber Robles-Gordon who uses a variety of colored paper and other materials to create wonderful and thought-provoking collages such as the one viewed on the left.
Other artists, such as Summer Dye, provided a visual imagery based on Biblical and other inspirations to create her paintings. All of us provided feedback on the painting that she discussed below on some of the imagery that we saw and how it may be interpreted.

After our artist talks in the mini-gallery, we all stepped out into the February cool weather to the back of Aziza's house to her personal sancturary, her actual studio. There we viewed larger than life paintings that are part of a new series focusing on the "boxes" that society places African American women. Aziza provided detailed information on her techniques, including using found objects, African Adinkra symbols and other images to create these stunning visuals.

Special thanks to the Aziza for hosting such a wonderful event, members of DC Black Artists for sharing your art and my 14-year old mentee, Ariel for helping your mentor out while she installed the art for viewing. Extra special thanks to WCA/DC member artist, for sharing these photos of this event.