Over 30 Visual & Literary Artists and More Than 20 Environmental Groups, Parks and Museums Join Performing Artists at River Artsfest on June 11!
Paintings, sculptures, afghans, jewelry, woodcarvings, ceramics, quilts, photography, novels, poetry and more… These are the types of artwork you will find for viewing and for sale at the Charles County Arts Alliance's River Artsfest on the Village Green in the Town of Indian Head, June 11th from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm. Yes, visual and literary artists from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. will convene to share their artistic talents with all who attend. With tables both indoors and outdoors, there will be plenty of exhibits to make the trip worth your while. Add to that the 20+ environmental groups, parks and museums that will also be on hand representing their work and educating us about the value of the rivers, waterways, Chesapeake Bay, natural resources, and various wildlife species in our Southern Maryland locale, and you'll be busy for hours! Of course, there'll be performing arts groups on two stages continuously throughout the day, food vendors, and activities for the kids as well. What's even more amazing…admission is free! Let's meet some of the artists:
Connie Miller is a native Maryland artist now living on Cobb Island. Although she has worked in multiple media, Connie prefers working in watercolors because of their transparency, spontaneity, and freshness. Her work has been exhibited throughout Maryland in Charles, St. Mary's, and Prince George's counties, and in Virginia. Connie's watercolors have won an array of art awards and are included in both private and corporate collections. Additionally, she has painted numerous commissioned paintings. Connie teaches watercolor classes at the Charles County Richard R. Clark Senior Center and is excited to be a part of the new CCAA Visual Artists Workshop Series.
Susan Boarman's pencil drawings reflect her Charles County roots, where she grew up on a large tobacco and cattle farm near La Plata, on the edge of the Zekiah swamp. As a child, she enjoyed sketching the barns, woodlands and fields that make Southern Maryland one of the most beautiful places on earth. As an adult with a full lifestyle, Susan's sketching became an all but forgotten pastime, until recently, when Susan decided she wanted to capture the rural landscape, especially the tobacco barns where she spent so much of her childhood. Once again, she found time for drawing. "I had forgotten the simple joy of drawing."
Lucretia Dewey Tanner is an artist who paints with strong and vibrant colors. Her medium is acrylic and her subject matter is eclectic, ranging from flowers, landscapes, people and abstracts. None are executed traditionally. Lucretia is a member of the Southern Maryland Art League and has exhibited her paintings throughout the Southern Maryland area. Her works are in private Collections from Connecticut to Florida as well as Colorado. For several years, she has donated paintings to the annual Cerebral Palsy fundraiser and to the Baden Library. Lucretia and her husband have traveled extensively and have visited all the major art museums of the world, which have influenced her passion for art.
Allison Merriweather is a dreamer and a visionary. Her highly charged instantly recognizable style has gained wide acclaim among the viewing public. Reality is rearranged and transformed in her mind into intensely personal visions, which she then transfers to canvas with directness, freshness and a "passionate uniqueness" as one critic put it. Obeying no rules but those of her imagination, Allison's paintings possess a mysterious poetry. Above all she is a masterful storyteller, putting elements within our grasp and counting on the viewer to draw the correct conclusions. Allison lives and paints in Gaithersburg with her family including a boisterous menagerie of beloved pets.
Jane Deborah Vincent was born in Washington, D.C., spent her schooldays in the public schools of Chevy Chase and her summers on St. Clement's Island in Maryland. As a teen, Jane numbered among her closest friends many young men who made their living as watermen by harvesting fish, oysters, and crabs from the local rivers, as well as children of tobacco farmers; good, down-to-earth religious people who were tied to the land or made their living from the local waters just as their fathers and grandfathers had done before them. These people and their daily lives contrasted sharply with her schoolmates and neighbors with whom she had grown up in Northwest D.C. That contrast in cultures is the basis for Jane's novel, Hard Crabs and Cultured Pearls: A Southern Maryland Love Story. Jane has had several short stories published locally, has worked as a freelance writer for Charles County's Maryland Independent and as a reporter and an editor of the St. Mary's Beacon. Jane is now working on a new novel and a work of nonfiction.
Ed Neville is primarily a "nature photographer." He has traveled extensively and taken advantage of such opportunities to beautifully capture on film some of nature's most brilliant moments, including many found within the Potomac River Watershed. He avidly states that travel is one of the best types of education available to us. Some of Ed's work can be seen on his website at http://www.edneville.com. Ed is a contributing photographer to Nature Photographer.
Kurt Plinke is a wildlife artist and naturalist. When most people look at a fallen tree in the woods, they see firewood, but Kurt Plinke sees things differently. When he peers at a log, he sees an entire ecosystem, and might spend hours exploring the interrelated species that call the dead tree 'home.' His intricate watercolors and egg tempera paintings represent this view. Careful observation and creative interpretation are hallmarks of Kurt Plinke's artwork and his teaching style. A working artist for over twenty-five years, Mr. Plinke has developed in his work a personal style and message. This personal imagery is a continuing thread throughout his art. For a preview of his work, visit his website at http://www.anywheregourmet.com/kurtplinke.
WHEN: June 11, 2005, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
WHERE: Village Green, Indian Head, Maryland
DIRECTIONS: Take Route 210 South into Indian Head; Turn right onto Lackey Drive for parking;
If you reach the Navy Base, you went too far.
MORE INFO: For more information, contact the Charles County Arts Alliance at 301-392-5900
Schedule of Performers
All times are approximate and acts are subject to change
Tent Stage (outdoors)
10:00 am—Opening Ceremony
10:15 am—Tom Wisner with J.C. Parks Elementary School Chorus
11:00 am—Magpie
12:00 noon—Joseph Norris
1:00 pm—Hard Bargain Players
2:00 pm—Nanjemoy Creek Boys
3:00 pm—Chesapeake Song Swap: Tom Wisner, Joseph Norris, Magpie, and Grace Griffith
4:00 pm—Grace Griffith & Friends
Pavilion Stage (indoors)
10:30 am—Seahawks Jazz (Milton Somers Middle School)
11:15 am—Solid Brass (CSM)
12:00 noon—Port Tobacco Players Encore Teens/Kids
1:00 pm—Southern Md. Modern Dance Collective
2:00 pm—Judy's Studio of Dance
3:00 pm—Southern Mix Barbershop Chorus
3:45 pm—Chesapeake Choral Arts Society
4:45 pm—Chesapeake Bay Floating Theatre
Lawn Performances
Piscatawa Spirit Dancers
Mark Giufridda, Strolling Musician
10:45 am—Michael Callahan "Raptors Rule"
Noon-3:00 pm—Popcorn the Clown