Ashley Dequilla is a Filipina-American artist and educator who currently resides in Washington DC. She attended the College of William and Mary and the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has shown her works in the United States and in the Philippines. She is published in the Filipino American Artist Directory, and is currently training as a Visionary Responder for the Sanctuaries, a non profit organization in Washington DC whose mission is to ignite the power of the sacred arts for social and political change. 

http://www.ashley-dequilla.com

As the Director of Howard University’s Community Association and the former chair of the DC Zoning Commission, Maybelle Taylor Bennett, is always up for a challenge. While the Shaw neighborhood is not her neighborhood of residence she has shown a deep commitment to the community through her work and exemplary service. It was through this commitment that she learned about ArtSpace.

Maybelle got her start with fibers early in her life from her mom, Ruby Mills Bennett. Since then she has developed an incredible set of skills in the fiber arts. She has graced the ArtSpace program with something she loves to do…getting her hands tangled in thread and teaching others what she has learned. She has an incredible sense to detail and a special sensitivity to working with others who are realizing their creative potential. All of her students know her as the “take it out queen”. She can spot the slightest deviation from a pattern a mile away. Her attention to detail also means that she knows what it takes to intricately bring threads together. Therefore she is the first to praise each student for the success in each step of the project. She has not only taught students to do amazing work, but she has produced many masterpieces, as well. The fiber arts class often takes time for “show and tell”.

For 15 years, Maybelle has faithfully taught many, many students at ArtSpace voluntarily. She has a knack for gathering “heavy” equipment and supplies needed to make a successful fiber arts program. She has remained dedicated thru the many changes and challenges of the ArtSpace program.  Watching her students succeed and grow in their own creative endeavors is what she is most proud of. But what is most impressive about Maybelle is the way she is able to weave and knit a community through her fiber arts classes. This community that she has helped to create becomes more important than completing a project.  

Local photographer and visual artist Daniel Nathan shared his talent and love for portraiture with the Shaw community in a recent Community Portrait Project. ArtSpace welcomes you to come experience what it’s like to have your portrait taken by someone with a love for people and a true passion for the craft.  http://www.daniel-nathan.com/

Andrew Williams is a MD-based artist who uses acrylic paintings to spread the Good News of Jesus. His new project, (GOOD NEWS BUGLE) consists of a series of paintings that shows the gospels in a cool and fun way. Simple pictures inspired by The Bible, pop art, graffiti and stained glass art can cause the viewers to observe themselves and start a new walk of life. Andrew was blessed at the age of 4, with a natural gift of creating art work.  With no certifications, just faith in God and the desire to share with the world the marvelous things that Jesus has done, he’s going to exhibit the Word of God. 

The Good New is on exhibit at New Community Church - ArtSpace gallery through March.  Exhibit open house is Sunday, March 6, 2016 from 1-4pm and artist talk is from 1:30-2:30pm. 

Drew Feith Tye, 27, is a local artist. her acrylic and mixed media paintings speak to the transformational events and emotional experiences of her life while living in Philadelphia, Australia and Washington, DC. Themes of her work include: the death of her father, her battle with depression, divorce from her husband, abandonment from her mother, and the enduring beauty of falling deeply in love with a woman and coming out as lesbian. Her abstract artistic process has provided an intimate, creative outlet through which to articulate her truest self.

John Barlow graduated from the University of Washington in 2007 with a bachelor of fine arts in ceramics. After graduation, John worked for the Seattle-based artist Mary Van Cline where he learned glass casting. Specifically, John honed his technical skills in mold making, sculpting and firing techniques. John's work focuses on creating narrative through the use of psychologically-engaging environments. In undergraduate, John created mixed-media, small-scale sculptures and photographed them so that the spaces appeared to be real. By using photography, John could control how viewers engaged the spaces he created and encourage them to create a story for what they saw. More recently, John has begin working in smaller glass pieces and drawing. 

The castle/house with trees/hallway/stairway landing are all small scale sculptures I made using mixed media. The pieces are made of things like cardboard, clay, burlap, paper, and balsa wood, and then photographed so that they evoke the feeling of a space that really exists. Typically, when I photographed the sculptures I set them up in a pitch black room and take a picture using a very long shutter speed (30+ seconds). I would use flashlights/candles/etc. in the room to "paint" the sculpture with light and keep doing this until I got an exposure that I liked. The instillation piece is a light box covered in amber resin. The box is made of an old, repurposed window. The drawings are just things I've done recently. They are inspired by Alfred Kubin, a surrealist who did drawings for Poe's books. 

Peter Guttmacher exhibited at ArtSpace in 2014.  "Snapshots of the Almighty" was an elegant, often playful and sometimes disturbing series of visual moments that look for the hand of something....greater -- in the natural world, in the built environment, and in the faces of both its inhabitants (human and other).  Spanning  several decades of travels and encounters, this was film author Peter's first venture into the world of solo photography at New Community ArtSpace. 

www.zacharyflynt.com