A Mini-Reunion of Corcoran Artists

 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012 – A Mini-Reunion of Corcoran Artists

For the past couple of days, we’ve awakened to the sweet sounds of a summer morning:  birds chattering outside the window, and chainsaws ripping through downed trees.  The situation, in the aftermath of the recent derecho, is slowly improving throughout the DC area.  The extreme heat continues unabated, and it’s keeping us indoors as much as possible.  However, we spent most of Tuesday in DC visiting some of Elliott’s artist-friends from the time when he taught at the Corcoran School of Art (the late 60s through the early 80s). 

I was relying on Elliott to be my navigator into an unfamiliar part of the district, and he proved to be a quite capable, avoiding traffic circles while directing me through the back streets up to the Cleveland Park neighborhood where Lou and Di Stovall have their art-filled home.  It was so good to catch up after many, many years and to see the work that Lou, Di, and their mutual friend, Paul Reed, have been doing.  Both Lou and Di are younger than Elliott by at least a couple of decades.  Lou, a print-maker, showed us some of his silk-screened collage work from a recent show at American University.  Paul is closer to Elliott’s age, but he continues to work in the studio in his Arlington home, despite serious vision problems.  (In the photo below from left to right: Robin, Elliott, Di, Paul, Lou)

Of course, there were a lot of reminiscences about their experiences at the Corcoran.  In addition, we discussed the bleak situation facing local artists today.  Not surprisingly, when the economy is bad, not many people are going out to buy art.  I was especially interested in learning how artists are marketing their work today, using methods that didn’t exist when Elliott was exhibiting thirty-plus years ago.  Elliott and I were both really excited about the possibilities of making copies of our art with one of the high-quality printers available today.  When we dropped Paul off at his home in Arlington later in the afternoon, he gave us a demonstration using one of my smaller collage pieces.  We are definitely going to look into acquiring a machine of our own.  Also, just seeing the work of his friends inspired Elliott and he now has an idea for a new art project.   He hasn’t explained the details yet, but I’m eager to hear all about it.  As soon as we have a chance to get over to Utrecht for the materials he needs, he’ll get started.  

Today, the 4^th of July, Elliott celebrated our nation’s birthday with an all-American favorite, a hot fudge & marshmallow ice cream sundae (served in a bowl made in China).  I wasn’t willing to consume that many calories, so I munched on a patriotic kosher dill pickle.