Art on the Walls

The New Deal Cafe provides a venue for local artists to exhibit and sell their work. We have two showrooms, and each month two new shows are launched. Join us the first Sunday of every month from 7pm to 9pm at our artists' reception to meet the creative talent behind the next exhibit. Refreshments are served.

If you're an artist, we'd love to talk to you about having a show at the cafe.

The cafe's monthly art exhibits are mounted by the New Deal Cafe Art Committee and sponsored by the Friends of New Deal Cafe Arts with support from Prince George's County. Your tax-deductible donation to FONDCA supports art at the cafe.

Upcoming Group Shows

In April and May, the cafe will have group art shows. If you're interested in participating, we have a list of qualifications and important dates.

March 2008

Student Exhibit

Artwork by people taking art classes.

February 2008

Their Pretty Life

Marshetta Davis

"Their Pretty Life" will feature mostly acrylic artworks ranging from subtle to bright and bold. Marshetta is a representational artist whose artwork reflects simple human enjoyment and beauty.

Painting is my joy as well as my release of emotion from within me. I started at the age of nine years old doing water colors after receiving a water color set from "Santa". But I later discovered that watercolor was just a door for me to eventually open to the world of acrylic. As I continue my love affair with acrylic I find that painting has allowed me to experiment with texture and bold color that bursts out from my soul. My art is bold, beautiful and free. My art represents love, life and me.

Marshetta was born in North Carolina and raised in Montgomery County, MD by loving parents who recognized her early love and talent for the fine arts. At the age of nine she received her first nice water color set for Christmas that added life and color to the sketches she had mostly been doing previously. This was just the tip of the iceberg because Marshetta later on discovered the wonderful world of acrylics and that was it. The love affair began. Marshetta is known for painting bright uplifting scenes of couples celebrating. Marshetta Davis is a self taught abstract representational artist who loves to depict happiness and beauty in her paintings.

Also at the cafe this month, art by Thomas Wicizer.

November 2007

Artista Emergente

Rafael Corzo

Corzo's exhibit, featuring between ten and fifteen mixed media pieces, will be displayed in the front room throughout next month with an open reception in early November.

This is not Corzo's first exhibit. Aside from participating in four student exhibits at Prince George’s Community College where he is a fine arts major, Corzo had a solo exhibit displayed at The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and was their Cover Artist of the Month for October. His New Deal show will feature a variety of pictures using oil, acrylic, watercolor and graphite, as well as two sculptures, which will only be visible to the public during his reception.

A Laurel resident, Corzo is a native of Mexico City, having moved to the United States almost five years ago. He supports himself through the profits of his art sales, having sold artwork in New York, California, Mexico, and Iceland. Corzo experiments with a range of techniques in his art, including a three-dimensional series he is preparing for an upcoming show in Baltimore. He is ambidextrous, writing with both hands and can write backwards and forwards; he even signs his pieces backwards. Though his works feature a variety of subjects, his seven year old daughter is his favorite subject, he says, and unlike the rest of his pieces, pictures featuring her are not for sale.

Corzo's exhibit will be hung in the front room of the New Deal Cafe on Friday, October 26th. A reception will be held there on Sunday, November 5th from 7 to 9pm. All are welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided.

October 2007

Mysteries and Meditations

Ted Kliman

Kliman's "Mysteries and Meditations", a large body of works consisting of large black and white oil paintings, newer smaller Paintings on Paper, and Conte crayon/Charcoal Drawings, have most recently been seen at Harmony Hall Regional Center and the U.S. District Courthouse in Greenbelt. Many of the large works, representing 12 years of Kliman's dedication to this series, have been exhibited across the U.S. in various venues.

Kliman has often been asked, "What is your inspiration?" He replies, "I didn't set out to make these paintings, but as happens so often in art, things occur accidentally." As he began this series, Kliman said, "I realized that I was embarking on a difficult artistic path: the fusion of realism and conceptualism." Although the images were conceived in a sense of suffering, of affliction, provoked by the inconceivable horror of the Holocaust, Kliman says, "...grief and suffering are universal. I feel these paintings are symbolic and identifiable for people of all religions and cultures." Ori Soltes, professor of Art and Religion at Georgetown University has said that these paintings, "convey the emotional content of memory...they take on the contours of figures...which are eerily absent...these are texts without words, caught between the realms of the natural and the preternatural."

Contact Ted to purchase a painting or drawing:

http://www.tedkliman.com/
tedkliman@mindspring.com
(301) 345-3945

September 2007

A Little Ways Down the Path...

Paul Downs

Yes, that's right, just past the garden, and down the path some. There you might find a branch in the path. Not just any branch. This one has a certain color, maybe a hint of silver or red. And, over there, some clay and a few small pebbles. Keep going and you'll see more of the gifts the forest path offers. As you leave the forest and enter the fields you may find grasses of various hues. Look out there and you just might see someone else – someone looking closely at roadside bushes, seemingly searching for a gem where others may pass by without a second glance. That would be local artist Paul Downs engaging with his medium.

Paul Downs' latest show at the New Deal Cafe displays his exquisite ability to bring nature to you. His work, in the medium of found natural materials, brings the viewer refreshing and enticing images of a life lived without the trappings of modern times. Down this path you may see a canoe paddling by, a serpent slithering through, a falcon in a steep dive, or, you may hear the lone whistle of a train passing in the night, the crackle of a storytime campfire, someone splashing into the water, maybe the voice of the "King" or ... the silence in the spaces between.

So, please, come a "little ways down the path" to the New Deal Cafe this month from August 26 to September 26. And make a point of coming by on Sunday, September 3rd, 2007 from 7-9pm for an artist reception to meet Paul Downs at the New Deal Cafe.

Photographs

Linda Siadys

Linda Siadys is a professional photographer based in Greenbelt, Maryland and her body of work focuses on Nature, Contemporary Art, and Photojournalism, especially Sports. Her show at the New Deal Cafe A la Carte exhibit showcases a sampling of all her work.

In 2001 Linda picked up a camera, and with no formal education in photography or art, but a desire to be a good photographer, decided with a free spirit to photograph whatever she wanted. This approach has led to a solid portfolio in three different styles. More importantly she discovered for the first time a realization of a connection to her calling and purpose in life.

Although a lot of her images are straight-forward, typical shots, many are more abstract and artistic. A common thread through all of her work is a particular focus on the symbolism or archetype nested an image. She has always been fascinated with symbolism, because she feels it invites and engages not just the mind, but the unconscious and senses to experience what lies beyond the visual. Her Contemporary art has been embraced by the Metropolitan Arts community and DC Art Bank has purchased her work and one of her pieces is showcased at the Department of Forestry in DC.

Linda is a participating artist in the annual Two Rivers Gala, an event that raises funds and awareness for Two Rivers School. This year she had a solo nature show at the Hollingsworth Gallery at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge and was part of an impressive group show at the US District Courthouse in Greenbelt. Currently Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission is showcasing her boxing photography in a solo show at 6600 Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale Maryland. To view more of her work, please visit her website at http://www.lindasiadys.com or her collections at her online gallery: http://photodawg1.smugmug.com/.

August 2007

Oils

Elizabeth Barber

Oil paintings of flowers, and views of Greenbelt Lake and Scotland, the latter dating from her trip there last summer researching her ancestors.

Elizabeth studied music in Europe on a Fulbright Scholarship and has a doctorate in vocal music from the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Papua and New Guinea. In Greenbelt, she likes to paint local scenery, and she is an active singer with her church. She has just had a book published in England in which she matched Biblical passages and other sacred writings with the melodies of great musical masters.

The reception for the August show on Sunday, August 5, will be very special. Elizabeth will have her works on exhibit, but the reception will also reflect her musical talents and enthusiasm for world music! Not only is she planning to sing, but her sister will play the flute and a new neighbor of Elizabeth's, Yuli Wang, will play traditional Chinese music on the Chinese zither. Please join us from 7pm to 9pm!

Artwork

Eva Kritt

July 2007

Expressions of One in Tissue Paper Collage

Jan Garland

This self-taught artist works in tissue paper collage to create painting-like results. Included in show are several pieces done with only recycled tissue paper from shoe boxes, stores, and gift bags—helping to reduce our landfill if only by a slight bit! Until July 29th.

See something you like? You can reach Jan at 301-351-8022 or janlaughs@att.net to purchase a piece!

Expressions in Stained Glass

Richard McMullin

Richard teaches stained glass and mosaic classes at the Greenbelt Community Center.