DC Day 3 part 2

Friday night while John fed the girls dinner and then took them to the Capitol grounds for the dress rehearsal of A Capitol 4th, I metro-ed over to Artomatic to meet Deb and see her exhibit in person.

Deb is Deb Jansen, my dear friend and ex-studio partner at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, a wonderful fiber/mixed media artist and one of the funniest, most creative people I know. Deb was also the inspiration for my participation in the walk to benefit Lyme Disease.

Having recently gone thru a rather nasty divorce, Deb decided to use her Artomatic space to have her say on the whole sordid affair by way of a thank you letter to the other woman fully aware that it would be viewed by tens of thousands of people including potential customers, art critics, gallery owners, etc.

I must admit that when Deb first told me what she planned to do...and yes, even once her Facebook photos of the exhibit had been viewed...I thought she had totally lost her mind. I mean, why? Why waste one's time on the other woman? Why dedicate an art exhibit to her? Why waste one's amazing creative energies on producing such a thing?

Well, the title says it all: Catharsis&Karma. Cathartic for Deb. And what goes around sooner or later will come back around to Elaine....ooops....the other woman..

Arriving before Deb afforded me the opportunity to view her exhibit at my leisure. I sat on the bench and read the comments left in her guest book. People began to gather around me so

I stood back and watched others congregate. I inched forward and listened to their comments. Even talked to one group who came back twice so they could meet Deb and congratulate the artist herself. Afterall, Catharsis&Karma was what they'd come to see after it had been featured in that mornings' Reliable Source column in The Washington Post.

I ventured to floors 9 and 7 to check out the art there and returned to find one lone person entranced by Deb's installation.

However, that one was soon joined by others.

And so it went until Deb arrived and we ventured to other floors.

Deb's revenge installation, as someone dubbed it, garnered much attention - not only from visitors to Artomatic, but that of art critics and gallery owners. Catharsis&Karma is moving to the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, MD today as part of the gallery's Best of Artomatic exhibition.

Yes, I'm behind in posting again. Today is actually July 6 and we're home. I know...shame on me for not posting in relatively real time. Bad Jennifer. Enjoy.

http://www.torpedofactory.org/artists/jansen_d.htm

http://www.artomatic.org

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2009/07/rs-artomatic3.html