Saturday is the Ballston Arts and Crafts Market

If you find yourself in the DC/Northern Virginia Area this Saturday, DO take a stroll around the Ballston Arts and Crafts Market! You'll get a chance to take home one of these Grumpy Haters:

Happy Birthday Frida!

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality." - Frida Kahlo


Today google honors the 103 birthday of Frida Kahlo with their main page illustration. Arguably never has their been a more honest female artist than Frida, who painted her intimate experiences with love, loss, drug addiction, bisexuality, chronic pain, and more of the misfortunes in her life. Her self-portraits are brilliantly expressive with passion and pain. We cherish her impact on the art world.

Volunteering at the Virginia Fine Arts Festival

The 2010 Virginia Fine Arts Festival, produced by GRACE, is being held this weekend at Reston Town Center. This morning, GA+ E and some of GA's work colleagues joined the fun in the children's tent. There were four kinds of crafts, including a Calder-inspired mobile-making station and a magnet-moving paint station! For a fun and rewarding experience, we recommend seeking out volunteer opportunities with your local art organizations. If you have one that you love, we'd be happy to feature it on our site!

Our vote for Best in Show goes to Jenny Pope, an eco-conscious printer whose woodcarvings of endangered and invasive species are both bright and thoughtful.

dc meanderings

What started as a visit to the Smithsonian Craft Show became a day of impromptu wandering and cultural finds. Start to finish: We began at the National Building Museum with our friends, Lauren and Corey...

We had our first Chinatown (more like ChinaBLOCK) lunch at Chinatown Express, where they hand make their noodles and dumplings in the window! It was recommended to us by Lawrence, Eric's photog friend (and eating buddy!) and it was delicious. Thanks Lawrence!

Then we found THIS dude on Constitution Ave.......

Who IS he? If you've seen him around town, please let us know. Eric has also seen him on K street by the Georgetown Waterfront. We like him!

Also said Hello to this guy. What a HOOT!

Eric enjoyed this hydrogen fuel cell car in the Earth Day tent

At the Hirshorn, we found andy warhol and marilyn's lips

and sculptures

We went to the Air and Space Museum in search of the illustrious Astronaut Ice Cream. Eric was thrilled to see the Spaceship One aircraft - the first commercial space craft to be launched into space, and then relaunched two weeks later. Seats are available through Virgin Galactic, but hurry - they are booked until 2011!

Our day concluded with a metro ride. Oddly enough, it was our first metro trip together, even though we've know each other since we were 15. We really enjoyed wandering together. Sometimes it's nice to be a tourist in your own city.

Smithsonian Craft Show

This weekend we met our friends at the National Building Museum in DC for the oh-so-fancy Smithsonian Craft Show. Photos by Eric Kemp Photography!

The pricing demographic was slightly beyond our budgets - nevertheless, we admired and enjoyed the quality of workmanship that went into every piece. Then we went to Chinatown and enjoyed handmade dumplings! But we'll save that bliss for another post...

Cherry Blast

Last Friday, we went to dc for Cherry Blast, a 2010 Cherry Blossom Festival event produced by The Pink Line Project. Not knowing what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised to find the entire show in two stories of a large warehouse, with themed rooms of VERY abstracted concepts...

Case in Point, The Makeout Room

5 bucks to the first person to correctly guess what the entryway is...

The room had plush velvet pillows, shag carpet, a make out bench and "suggestive" murals...

An Aquatic Life Gallery shown with UV Light

As you can see in the background, there were illustrations of organisms, jellyfish, and anthropods - but I did not find them very interesting.

Eric did.

Impressive Murals - notably a pink cherry blossom-themed Samurai Warrior

A freight elevator carried visitors to the second floor, and they made sure to entertain with a ceiling installation of buttons and wire and a female duo singing 90s alt. rock! 

The oddities continued with a trance tunnel, random performance artists in closets, djs and small bands in every room, a Pac-man station, bruise creation station (literally, they painted bruises on people!), and

The Marshmallow Room

YES! PEEPS GALORE!!*

*As a design professional, I realize that this pile of Peeps and glitter breaks many rules of GOOD design. However, Eric would like everyone to note that he used COMPLIMENTARY COLORS on all the wires! He was so proud of our "creation" that he insisted we take it home! It is currently on display on the dining room table.