Hello Readers Happy Monday!

Yesterday I was fortunate to check out the art exhibits over at Artomatic where a bunch of local artist came out and do art exhibits in an old abandon building. This event has been going on since October 30th and goes on until December 12th. ARTOMATIC is a non-profit, volunteer-run 501(c)3 organization that organizes and hosts a large arts festival occurring every 12-18 months in the DC metropolitan area, usually in a commercial location slated for demolition. The event is unjuried (first-come-first-served) and showcases creative work in visual art, music, film, performance, and fashion. There are over 500 artist and about 5 floors this year and artist even sell some of their art.

This year the collective of women that weave and reconnect communities to Mother Earth called Ecohermanas that I am apart of put up an exhibit on the 3rd floor. Our exhibit is some of the art, poetry, alters, and healing that those in our collective do. Ecohermanas has done a few different events at our space like our opening night event, a poetry night where local poets came and resided some poetry and tours of the different art around Artomatic among other things.

 

My mom Rabiah Nur made a beautiful alter which lines the window seal of our space and up top in the middle of our space is some art that our resident artist Carly Henry Alexander made as well as some of her work to the right side of our space is a piece she made for Ecohermanas. Then on the left side is a piece that was made at the Chesapeake Herb Gathering this year that over 100 people contributed to.

 

Next to that is a piece that another of our artist and clan mother Penny Gamble Williams who also has an exhibit of her own.

There is also some other amazing artist showing their work this year like a lady named Lanai Macklin who did art of women in amazing poses and wearing elaborate jewelry it’s amazingly beautiful.

Another really amazing artist is Gloria Tarasca from Mexico who makes portraits of famous people to educate young people and people in general. One beautiful portrait that she drew was of Dolores Huerta the wife of Cesar Chavez the famous farmworker advocate. Now she did a lot for the farmworker cause and still does in her old age but a lot of people know little to nothing about her as her husband gets all the praise. Gloria also drew a picture of the Mexican man who invented the TV and remote control. She says it makes her happy to know she is bringing light to these often times forgotten figures.

A lady made a sculpture of a chair dress and a man’s abs and a basket of balls all out of recycled plastic bags.

My favorite though was a lady who made these amazing portraits of beautiful representations of women like one portrait is a women naked reading a book tiled I Am Women. She also drew pictures of women with beautiful afros and natural features and was just a celebration of women in all their glory. Two of my favorite pictures besides the afro and naked women ones is these pictures of Frida the Mexican artist.

There was also one that spoke to me right now as I am in this phase where I really wanna travel places but have a lazy mentality but this piece was basically just a map with a person’s travels all over the country and it just spoke to me.

There are some really beautiful ones that people made and some that are more a vanguard but when you walk in the doors of this place you can just feel the artistic vibes.

But I must warn you to really get a good look at a lot of the art you must make a day or a few days out where you dedicate solely to this as there are a lot of amazing art being displayed. Like I said this event will be held until December 12th so come out and support. There is a full bar and food you can buy or you can bring your own food and make a day of it and bring your friends and family to come check it out.

This event is being held at 8100 Corporate Dr. Hyattsville, Maryland and you can check the Artomatic website for more info: http://www.artomatic.org/