Artists Emerge from 'Hidden Rockville'

"Hidden Rockville," a seven-person exhibit at VisArts that runs through Friday, is a collaborative effort between and the City of Rockville to provide a prominent exhibit space for the city's emerging artists.

A group that included VisArts gallery director Brett Johnson and members of the city's Cultural Arts Commission selected artists and pieces for the show, said Betty Wisda, the city's arts programs supervisor.

The group solicited entries from artists who live or work in Rockville or who are members of the Rockville Art League, Wisda said. "In keeping with our desire to showcase the work of artists who might be underrepresented at other venues, we did not ask for an application fee," she said.

Works in the show include oil and watercolor painting, photography and mixed media. Featured artists include painters, illustrators and photographers—and two married couples, with each spouse featured individually. Each artist is showing two pieces in the Regional Gallery at VisArts.

Kai and Ming Hu, residents of Rockville and both architects, share an illustrative quality in their work. Kai is showing two watercolors he completed while taking an architecture course in Rome in 2003. Loosely painted, they capture the density of structures and movement in two small piazzas in the Italian capital.

At a "Meet the Artists" reception on July 21, Kai Hu said that he chose to showcase the particular pieces in order "to raise the question [of] why can't we build our urban environment in America this way? The Town Center in Rockville is just the starting point for our city. Perhaps we can expand this walking-friendly, dense development pattern strategy."

Kai Hu is currently involved in a community planning effort to create a sense of place at the intersection of Wootton Parkway and West Edmonston Drive in Rockville, he said.

His wife, Ming Hu, is showcasing two pieces from a project undertaken with our common future in mind as well. She is working on a children's book centered on the theme of the destruction of our planet, and what we can do to stop it.

"I am still developing the storyline," she said. "At the moment I have six pieces but I imagine I will have 12 or 15 by the time I am finished. Each painting will have its own color tone, which should help the kids to identify the theme of each piece." Hu uses a combination of ink, marker and Photoshop to craft her illustrations. The two illustrations exhibited in "Hidden Rockville" depict the destruction of the forest and massive flooding through earthy greens and blues, respectively, and demonstrate a tranquil pictorial sensibility despite their calamitous message.

Husband and wife photographers Rollin S. Fraser and Susan Maldon Stregack met in the darkroom at  where Fraser teaches Basic Photography, Introduction to Digital Photography and Advanced Color Photography. The couple pratice commercial photography through their firm Dancing Moose Photography, shooting portraits and special events.

"When left to our own devices, we travel off the highway wherever we can," Stregack said. "We yell 'Photo opp!' and jump out of the car!"

Fraser's pieces in "Hidden Rockville" were shot at Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY and were featured in a recent show at . The couple traveled to Coney Island five times in the past year. The photographs, which were shot with a hybrid digital/film camera, show recent developments at the iconic amusement park in Brooklyn's southernmost tip.

Stregack is exhibiting two digital photographs. One was taken at a salvaged goods depot and the other at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY. While her compositions focus attention on the objects at hand, her husband's treat their subjects as viewfinders into the horizon.

"Our pictures are always very different even if we are looking at the same thing," Stregack said.

Eileen Crowe is based in Olney but has been doing nonprofit work in Rockville for the past 14 years.

"Painting gives me a nice chance to use a different part of my brain," said the artist, who works from photographs and en plein air. Her pieces in the show are nocturnal scenes: a Florida waterscape at dusk and a night scene of the cherry blossoms in Washington, DC.

"In 'Last Light on the Gulf' it was a challenge to get the colors right in the water," said Crowe, who paints primarily landscapes and has been recently trying her hand a night paintings. "So I painted multiple layers of greens and yellows and blues to capture the reflections of the sunlight. In 'Cherry Blossoms Nocturne' the blossoms and city lights are lit but but everything else is pitch black."

Jeanette Wyckoff is a Rockville resident who is inspired by light and color. Her two watercolors in the exhibit were painted while on vacation in Maine and Michigan. She believes that watercolor is more challenging than oil painting. Her pieces show a facility with drawing, layering, value and light control and have unusual compositions.

A photographer and printmaker who takes fine art courses at Montgomery College, Dena Balistocky captures local colors with her digital camera. She is exhibiting two photographs shot in Rockville Town Square. Balistocky studied printmaking at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC and is looking forward to delving into set design for the theater department at Montgomery College.

The "Hidden Rockville" legacy does not end when the show closes on Friday. The city hopes to repeat this opportunity for emerging artists next year. For now, "Found in Rockville," an exhibit of objects found in the Rockville area, will showcase the work of three Rockville artists who submitted their entries through the "Hidden Rockville" pool of applicants. "Found in Rockville" opens in the Portfolio Gallery at VisArts on Aug. 16 and includes the work of Olena Lar, Frank Kowing and Sandi Atkinson.

Admission to "Hidden Rockville" is free to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To learn more about VisArts, click here.