Visiting Artists Bring New Creativity to Torpedo Factory Art Center

The Torpedo Factory Art Center invites artists both emerging and experienced from around the nation to become a part of its art-making community with its Visiting Artist Program. This year’s juror, F. Lennox Campello, international award-winning artist, author of leading art blog Daily Campello Art News, curator, art critic, and writer in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, PA, chose 11 artists for this 2011 summer’s residency, which allows artists to create from June until August in a Torpedo Factory studio for one, two, or all three months.

While this program’s mission is to aide the artists in developing their vocation further, they in turn enrich the Alexandrian community with demonstrations and lectures on their art and enlighten veteran Torpedo Factory artists with novel ideas and projects.

Target Gallery, international exhibition space for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, is an occasional blogger for Patch and keeps Alexandria updated on the happenings at the TFAC. With the influx of this summer’s 2011 residency, Target Gallery is taking this opportunity to feature the Visiting Artist Program. To inform the public on this program, Target Gallery thought what better way than to talk to the actual artists participating. With the format of a Q & A, Target Gallery’s hope is that the visiting artists’ insightful answers will illuminate this great program.

Q: How did you hear about the Visiting Artist Program hosted by the Torpedo Factory Art Center?

Fierce Sonia (Alexandria, VA): One of my mentors brought the program to my attention last year.

Emily Moorhead (Cincinnati, OH): I heard about the program through mailings sent with the Target Gallery. Each month I receive show cards where I teach, Miami University. Colleagues mentioned their relationships with the gallery and I got interested in the Visiting Artist Program.

As you can see, these artists hear about the program through a variety of ways whether it be through word of mouth, snail mail, or even Internet sites, such as art blogs or websites.

Q: What made you want to apply to the Visiting Artist Program?

Katie Latona (Bayport, NY): I was graduating from the MFA program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and looking for a residency as a bridge back into the real world, for another community of artists, and for time and space to complete some projects I was currently working on.

Heather McCaw (Washington, DC):  I have been a huge fan of the Torpedo Factory for a long time. In fact, I remember visiting with my family when I was about 15 years old. It was my first visit to Washington, DC from my hometown of Columbus, OH. I remember thinking that being an artist at TFAC would be the greatest thin in the world and I dreamed that one day that could be me. Of course, the years intervened and I had many other goals and ambitions along the way. Art did not even bring me to the DC area; it was having studied in the Middle East, which earned me a job at the Pentagon. But, eventually, art became the stronger call in my life and now I’ve come full circle. When I heard about the Visiting Artist Program, I jumped on it.

Linda Morrell (Castleton, NY): The Visiting Program at the Torpedo Factory afforded me the opportunity to focus on my work in a unique setting. I am surrounded by a multitude of artists working in varied media. All studios are also open to the general public on a daily basis. The interaction with both fellow artist and the public allows me to receive valuable feedback on my imagery. 

Q: How did you apply for the Visiting Artist Program? What was the process like?

Emily Moorhead (Cincinnati, OH): I submitted images, a project proposal, and a CV. After submitting I just had to wait for the juror to make decisions before I was informed of my acceptance. Then I worked with a few committee members to secure a space.

All of the artists come from different backgrounds with varying desires they wish to fulfill. Despite these differences, they all came together under the unifying force of art and commitment to art-making and applied to the Visiting Artist Program to satiate their hunger for the creative process.

Q: As you create in your studio, how else do you plan to utilize your time here at the Torpedo Factory Art Center?

Allison Long Hardy (Woodbridge, VA): I am hoping to meet other artists that inspire and motivate me. A lot of times I feel like a hermit working in my studio. I find talking and meeting other artists really helps me to get a new perspective on my work and help to push me onto the next project/venue. It is always helpful to hear someone who knows nothing about you or your art’s reaction to your work. It helps me to gain a new perspective of my art and pushes me to try new things or develop certain elements more. I also get inspired by other artist’s art. They may do something I have never seen before, or executer areas of the art differently than I do, and I find that this really helps develop my work further.

Most of the visiting artists agreed that they are also looking forward to being in an artistic environment that is stimulating and thought provoking. Other artists did mention going to the surrounding areas of Alexandria, such as DC to view art at museums and other galleries. These are all benefits that this residency program garners for its participating artists due to the unique milieu of the TFAC both within the factory and around it. 

Q: The Torpedo Factory Art Center houses 165 visual artists that produce a large variety of work. How do you think being surrounded by a wide range of artists spanning from welders to photographers and their art will affect you as an artist and your art-making process?

Heather McCaw (Washington, DC): I think learning about the processes of other artists always opens up new avenues for art-making. I am also hoping to learn more about the business of art from artists who have been selling directly to the public for many years. There is a tremendous self-sufficiency in that. The difficulty of attracting the notice of a gallery is creating a growing trend of artists who take matters into their own hands by becoming curators themselves or by using the Internet to reach buyers directly. TFAC certainly has something to teach about this, given that it has offered a similar model for decades.

Q: Visitors are encouraged to go into the artist’s studio and inquire about the art, the artist, etc. For an artist, the visitor is seemingly getting a peak at the artist’s perspective. What do you want your visitors to leave with from your studio once they have gotten to see your style of work and your outlook that permeates through it?

Liza Myers (Brandon, VT): My work is about how the natural world connects us on many levels. I’m somewhat of a romantic in that I choose to focus on the beauty and complexity. As the world around us becomes more covered with concrete and artificial structures I hope to provide a moment of that connection to the wild voice within us all, and to show how that connection transcends political and geographical limitations.

Allison Long Hardy (Woodbridge, VA): My sense of experimentation. I think that one of the stronger aspects of my art is my exploration through the media I use. I am always trying new things, trying to represent the same type of line or mark through different ways of creating my work. I use a lots of different mediums because of the characteristics of the mediums. I find this experimentation keeps my art fresh, and hopefully, facilitates experimentation.

Q: Besides being surrounded by the many artists’ studios, the TFAC also has six galleries, the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, the Art League School, and more. Do you think these neighboring areas will influence you artistically?

Kazaan Viveiros (Alexandria, VA): I am very interested in natural history, and I am sure I will check out the Archaeology Museum, fishing for ideas; the Target Gallery has had some fantastic solo shows. I still have the works of Shawn Richards in my head from last season. Those of us who use a great variety of sources for inspiration in our work are sure to be influenced by the flourishing community and multitude of exhibitions and events at the TFAC.

The Torpedo Factory Art Center allows visiting artists to experience and explore not only the TFAC artists and their creations, but the work from students learning at The Art League, being shown in the galleries, displayed in The Archaeology Museum, etc. The many Alexandrians that visit the TFAC and the tourists also shape each visiting artist’s experience. These defining characteristics of the TFAC create a Visiting Artist Program that is an open adventure for these artists to fill with productive studio time, memorable conversations, lasting camaraderie, and, most significantly, artwork.  

Q: A major part of this program’s mission is to foster growth vocationally. How do you think this program will help you further develop your professional career?

Drew Parris (Stevensville, MD): I think it’s a great opportunity to have a larger number of people exposed to my work and to pick up ideas about how to reach people with my art by seeing how other artists market and survive as artists.

Liza Myers (Brandon, VT): Being an artist is lonely. You spend a lot of long hours in the studio staring at a canvas or hunk of clay or whatever your medium is. And most of your friends, neighbors and family think you are crazy. The to be immersed in a community of artists where creativity is the norm is not only validating, it spurs you on. It is stimulating and exciting. Not to mention that the opportunity to focus entirely on my work without the complexities of other responsibilities is something every artist dreams of.

Q: Lastly, what is one thing that you are especially looking forward to as an artist here at the TFAC?

Fierce Sonia (Alexandria, VA): I am looking forward to falling deep down my rabbit hole with time and space to pursue ideas all the way to their end.

Drew Parris (Stevensville, MD): Just being in a first class art venue with other artists is the thing I am looking most forward to.

Kazaan Viveiros (Alexandria, VA): Two months of total productivity, beautiful, inspiring views of the water out the studio window, conversations with other artists, like the amazing and talented Anna Shakeeva and Craig Sterling…

These artists’ answers are testament to the unique qualities the Torpedo Factory Art Center brings to its residency program, the Visiting Artist Program. It is evident that the VAP fosters an unforgettable experience for participating artist, established TFAC artist, and any visitor local to Alexandria and abroad. These interviews give the public a glimpse of what these artists will be doing under the program and the summer, overall, explains what the Visiting Artist Program is all about.

Mark your calendar on July 17^th for the upcoming Christmas in July, an event that all of Old Town participates in by hosting festive activities. VAP will be holding its own merry event! 

To view more about the Visiting Artist Program go to http://www.torpedofactory.org/vap/

Target Gallery, national exhibition space of the Torpedo Factory Art Center, is located on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria. Gallery is open daily 10-6pm and until 9pm on Thursdays.

                                                                                       --Sidney Mullis, Target Gallery