Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A Warrior Came to Eastern Market: The Art of Tsolmon Damba

Sculpture, painter, print marker-Artist- Elizabeth Catlet wrote "Art as a human endeavor"...
Art as a medium of international and cross generational communication? It happened ... a La salle a manger en Le College International de Cannes 2005. I was in the south of France trying to get my eat on, sitting at a table with sexagenarian Japanese folks. I don't speak Japanese, they spoke little English, and we were all supposed to be speaking French. I put on my "Sunday goin' to meetin' manners" and lanced into the fray of conversation. We asked each other " vous avez fait quoi aujourd'hui? "What did you do today?" The idea was to recount one's day in the passive French tenses of passe compose (terminal past) or l'imparfait (the continuous past). This was deadly dull, until I said I had gone into Nice to see Le Musee Matisse. It was as if a vista opened before us onto the beauty that is art. We saw each other; our differences of age, cultures and linguistic abilities had been mitigated-they dissolved in the face of our interest in French Impressionists, Picasso, Chagall, Renoir, Cezanne, Miro etc. Our love of art allowed us to come to a place of meeting and communication.
(Art Books in Tsolmon library)
We, talked after dinner for about an hour. At the end I looked up at this older Japanese lady and said " j'ai aucune idea pourquoi j'aime l'art de Matisse" ( I don't know why I like Matisse's art). She looked me in the eyes and said " We do not know why we like art, we just do".
(water color, on paper "Horses")
I felt and feel the same way when I view, stare at, an am fascinated by the works of Tsolmon Damba at Eastern Market. I love his paintings. One sees the line, percious, spare, curva linear, direct and black. The fluid, and graceful accuracy of water color. And finally the ancient iconography of his use of images, the horse, landscape and the warrior. Mr. Damba was born in Darkhan City in Northern Mongolia. He studied Monumental art at the college of Fine Art in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia and later earned a master's degree in Traditional Mongolian Painting from the Mongolian Institute of Fine Arts. His mastery of technique is such that he has done live demonstrations at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. His work is in numerous private and public collections, most notably he did a mural for The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.
(finished pieces in the process of being mated)
Damba came to Eastern Market about eleven years ago. He was immediately made to feel at home. The first person he met in walking into the North Hall (Market 5 Gallery) was internationally renowned photographer and Eastern Market bedrock Jim Spillane. Damba said that he was impressed by Spillane because of his knowledge of Mongolia. It was Spillane who introduced Damba to the founder of the arts and crafts festival outside Eastern Market, and the founder of Market 5 Gallery inside the North Hall, John Harrod. Tsolomn Damba had found a new home for his art.
(water color on paper)
What is seen primarily at Eastern Market is Mr. Damba's mastery of watercolor. The detail in his work is incredible. However, Damba is also a scultptor of leather, and he paints in oil, ink and acrylic. With these facts as foreground recently he was challenged by the Gallery Caos on F (http://www.caosonf.com/) to create a new body of work on silk panels using ink as the medium. The result, to quote the French Impressionist Claude Monet ,"est une fete pour les yeux"-a feast for the eyes.
On walking up the steps to enter Caos on F one is stopped by a landscape painting made on a panel of silk that hangs nine feet tall, refined, subtle and elegant. All I can say is one must see the colors and the beauty of the gestural pose of the branch, reaching and reaching. Then, when one enters the gallery, on the left side are four smaller works on silk panels called "seasons." They are a meditation on change and the passage of time. If at this point you can take your eyes off these pieces, you are again stopped by the four-panel piece on the back wall, set off a bit from the wall so that the each of the four nine-foot silk panels are allowed to billow-this work is a must-see. The opening reception is Friday December 4, 2009 from 6-8:30 and the show Tsolmon Damba runs at Caos on F until December 23, 2009.
(detail acylic on canvas)
(handmade stone and wooden stamps that are dipped into a red ochre for signing each piece)
(leather sculture)
(a four panel warrior series, acrylic on canvas)
(Tsolmon Damba working on a small silk panel on his patio on one of the four pieces, in the "Seasons" series)

(silk panel-"Seasons"-series)
(silk panel series artist mark and signature)
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

An American Classic: An Eastern Market Icon-The Bowie Family at Eastern Market

The founding of the United States was a field holler, a jazz rhapsody, an orchestrated de- and re-construction, a Gospel moan, a torn down blues song ("ain't nobody's business if..."), a really sad, long and funny country song with many an operatic high note. One thing is clear: the backbone of early American life was the small family farm. My first memories are of my granddaddy's "place" in Humboldt, Tennessee. He had two barns, one with stalls for the pigs and cows and another for the hay, a tractor and equipment. Then there were his gardens. My brother and I called one "the big garden" (rows and rows of corn, sweet corn and white corn) and the other "the small garden" (the vegetable garden where most of our food came from.)
These farms grew vegetables, chickens, dairy cows, maybe goats or sheep, a mule (or, if they were wealthy, a horse). The small family farm is an original American classic. Eastern Market was built in part to give small family farmers from rural Maryland, and from northern Virginia and West Virginia, access to an urban market (Washington, D.C.) in which to sell produce and products.
Eastern Market was thought into existence by Pierre Charles L'Enfant in 1791. In 1805 President Thomas Jefferson issued a proclamation designating that an Eastern Market be built in Washington, D.C.; the Eastern Market that we see today was built in 1873, and the "Farmer's Shed" was built around 1906. At its inception, an Eastern Market open to all, with some families being merchants there for 90 or 100 years, was inconceivable.
The death knell of the small family farmer began to chime during the Industrial Revolution. As the twentieth century progressed, the concept of a small family farmer producing produce for sale directly to consumers was deemed outmoded, old-fashioned and inefficient. Of course, today we realize that "oldschool is new school"--we in the vanguard of the Green Revolution know that mega-farms and agribusiness are dangerous to our physical health and our environment.
Fortunately, today at Eastern Market we still have one family that has endured, thriven and prospered, the Bowie family of Camp Springs Maryland (now called Temple Hills). Ironically, neither L'Enfant nor President Jefferson had in mind the possibility of this "free" small farming family--
the Bowie family selling its homegrown produce at Eastern Market.
Teresa Bowie carries on this proud family tradition. Ms. Bowie, when asked, told me that she had been at the Market since she was five years old. She didn't give her age, but she said that meant about fifty years. The business was established by her great-grandfather, then kept by her grandfather and father; today, Ms. Bowie is still there every Saturday. When asked what her family farm's specialty was, she said "vegetables."
To locate Ms Bowie's stall under the farmer's shed, just look for another American classic, her Ford truck.
Okay, let's talk dirty:
there's eggplant Parmesan,
or baba ghanouj,
mais, le meilleur est
Ratatouille.
2 aubergines ( eggplants)
1 oigion (onion)
3 grosses tomates
2 courgettes (zucchini)
1 poivron rouge ( red pepper)
huile d'olive (3 cuilleres) ( olive oil)
herbes de provence, sel, poivre (salt, pepper)
________
Faire revenir tous les legumes
(sauf la tomate, apres les avoir coupes)
dans l'huile d'olive puis ajauter la tomate
coupee en morceaux-
saler- poivre et mettre les herbes de
provence. Se deguste chaud au froid.
__________
To wash it down?
Rose de Provence!
(Merci ,Madame Coudret,
pour la recette!)
( Ms. Teresa Bowie)
( On a cold winter day
there is nothing like
stewed tomatoes with
hot buttermilk biscuits.)
( I know what you're thinking: soup!
and, on the side, a piece of sourdough bread
for sapping. But do you know
that butternut and acorn squashes can make a fine
pie as well?)
( These babies would taste good steamed,
with a little salt, or stir-fried in sesame
oil, with hot peppers.)
(Did someone say stuffed peppers, with ground chicken or turkey, and
bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, olive oil
and maybe some feta or ricotta cheese? Or maybe you're seeing roasted red peppers, preserved for the winter in olive oil, a little vinegar, salt and pepper? There's nothing better in a sandwich, especially a pressed and grilled one.)
The Bowie family's long history as small family farmers says something wondrous about them, Eastern Market and the community that supports and cherishes us all. Happy Thanksgiving!
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Brocanteuses y Le Marche aux Puces

I came to Eastern Market in 1991. By then the Flea Market at Eastern Market http://www.easternmarket.net/ had been in full swing since 1984. I started setting up on Sundays in the summer or fall of 1991--to be absolutely sure, one would have to ask Tom Rall founder of the Flea Market, since his records are up to date and accurate. As a professional artist, I realized rather quickly that setting up one day a week at the Arts and Crafts Festival at Eastern Market was not enough to keep my pet cat in kibble, let alone allow me to pay rent sometime during the month. (I mean really, what artist really needs heat, food or electricity anyway?)
I thought I had left antiques and collectibles behind me in Baltimore. There was this little shop right of Antiques Row in Baltimore on Madison Avenue called "Antiques and Things" owned by my fath...but we will not talk about that. Or my love of vintage jewelry. I won't mention my senior prom pictures, but someone had a high top fade, a pink ball gown and of course bright pink rhinestone vintage earrings and a necklace of the same subdued hue to complement the look, which might best be described as "Cindy Lauper meets Prince" (if Prince was feeling in a Kid-n-Play mood.)
But speaking of antiques, collectibles and vintage Jewelry, at the Flea Market at Eastern Market we have had a fabulous dealer in vintage and collectible jewelry in the guise of Ms. Mavis Jackson since 1984. She looks like Lena Horne and sells classic church lady 'bling'.
(The vintage "Bling" of Ms. Mavis Jackson)
Ms. Jackson's collection of vintage glass jewelry has me trying to remember...do y'all remember last year during The Election...there was this woman, who came on this show called "The View"? Seems like she wore this cute little dress and said that if you put a pin on it, that could really make the outfit? Well, now that this chick, Michelle O...something ( I just cannot remember her name!) lives in this big white house not far from Eastern Market, maybe one of y'all needs to tell her about Ms. Jackson's fine vintage pin collection, so that she can come up to the Market and get her shop on. Ms. Jackson can be found in her traditional space under the Farmer's Shed on Sundays.
(Antique glass pins and earrings )
(Ms. Mavis Jackson)
When one is in the antique business and grows up around old fine things, one develops an eye. In my mother's house when I was growing up, the holidays were the time to break out the old glassware, fine china and silver service. As a child, all I knew was I liked that those pink and green colored glasses better than the cut-glass clear stuff. Pink and green glass did not break as easily when one had to wash all the Thanksgiving or Christmas dishes. And let's not talk about china, crystal or cleaning the silver..oh, I just loved the holidays as a child. Did some of you just get to sit around and watch TV? Well, not I, and, worse, I can cook, too. At Eastern Market, several exhibitors sell antique glassware, two of whom are business partners, Ms. Arlene Hawkins and Ms. Cheri Lyon. In the antique world what I am talking about (the beautiful pink, green and transparent glassware) is known as "Depression Glass." Ms. Hawkins and Ms. Lyon exhibits a fine selection of these pieces. They have a bit of everything vintage: objets d'art, furniture and collectibles. Look at that chicken: is it not just darling? They have been at the market for thirteen years.
(Ceramic chicken)
( Pink "Depression glass")
( Hobbs-Bruckiner, hobnailed "Depression glass")
Now, people, let's dream a little bit: let's visit my fantasy house {home} on the Hill ,with the swimming pool, jacuzzi, a cutie and some really fly furniture. I am talking eclectic on the style--I mean, like Prince said, let's go crazy. We'll start with a table and mirror from Adiante Franszoon, the Surinamese furniture artist, a room divider, chairs, and maybe one or two other things from Matthew Falls (functional sculpture) of Caos. Then maybe a taste of the East from Shizen furniture and Eka Himawan. Add in a piece or two of recycled wood patio furniture from Greenfield Furniture Co., then some turned wooden bowls from Aaron Grebeldinger and cutting boards as art from Blue Ridge Cutting Board Company...but wait, I am just getting hot! Check out the antique oak, 20th century Federal style and bird's-eye maple furniture of Steve Reiner ( The Furniture Meister)--we're talking some kinda good lookin' here: just say Mission furniture and I start to get the vapors. By the by, Mr. Reiner, he has skills: he can repair furniture as well. Steve Reiner, like Mavis Jackson, is a founding member of the Flea market at Eastern Market and has been at Eastern Market on Sundays since 1988. This, of course, is just the beginning of how one can do exterior decorating of self and interior decorating of home with Eastern Market style. The whole world sells at Eastern Market! Look at that hand made ceramic bowl from...
( Steve Reiner, Chillin' at the Flea
Market)
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
( Bird's Eye Maple dressers, with oak chairs)
Turtle's Webb
( Mission, oak bench )

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Tom Rall Founder of the Flea Market at Eastern Market: A Preamble

American Poet Langston Hughes wrote:
When a man starts out with nothing,
When a man starts out with his hands
Empty, but clean,
When a man starts out to build a world,
He starts first with himself
And the faith that is in his heart-
The strength there,
The will there to build.
First in the heart is the dream.
Then the mind starts seeking a way.
His eyes look out on the world, ... *( excerpt from "Freedom's Plow")
American historian Paul J. Giddings wrote a book called, When and Where I Enter. Her work spoke of the history of a certain segment of American women and their contributions to history. I entered the scene in August of 1967 on a Saturday morning.
I remember that a couple of years ago, a whole bunch of us Eastern Market artists woke up and it was 2007. We had just be bopped, strolled, sashayed, shimmied, hopped, walked, break-danced, moon-walked, and done the bump, the robot, the electric slide, the cabbage patch, the Soul Train line dance into our fourth decade. We had all benefited from those who came before us, who, through their work, lives, protests and struggles, changed, improved and reinvigorated our world.
One of those people was Tom Rall, founder of The Flea Market at Eastern Market. In 1967, he had finished at Kent State with a BFA in journalism and was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune.
(Tom Rall, at work at
The Flea Market at Eastern Market, 2009)
In 1969, the North Hall of Eastern Market was a Washington, D. C. government storage facility.
Johh Harrod and Tom Rall would bring a real "change" to Eastern Market, the Capitol Hill community and the nation's capitol.
Tom Rall came to Capitol Hill in 1969, one year after the 1968 riots. The "Hill" looked different then, and in 1969, I was running around barefooted on my granddaddy's farm in Humboldt, Tennessee. Mr. Rall came from Middleport, Ohio, a very small Midwestern town between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati on the Ohio River. He came to Washington, D.C. to work at the Methodist Board of Christian Social Concerns, whose headquarters was in the Methodist Building. He was a conscious objector to the war. Thus, his work with the Methodists was alternative service to military service. In 1970 Tom Rall worked with Reverend Walter Fauntroy and David Clarke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference promoting a benefit showing of the film, King, a Filmed Record: Montgomery to Memphis.
At this time, John Harrod (founder of Market 5 Gallery) was doing community organizing at Friendship House. One of the struggles at the time that Tom Rall, fought for at the Methodist Building was "home rule" for the District of Columbia. Rall stated "One benefit of home rule was the establishment of Market 5 Gallery." Market 5 Gallery, founded by John Harrod in the North Hall of Eastern Market, was a community arts center open to everyone. During its time, Market 5 hosted political events for the DNC as well as local plays written by neighborhood schoolchildren; local music, dance, and art exhibitions of Eastern Market artists and others were regular occurrences. Moreover, Market 5 Gallery was the "mother ship" for all outside operations (expect the farmers' line) at Eastern Market. It was John Harrod's idea to begin an outside Arts and Crafts Market and a Flea Market.
Tom Rall told me that he had "dropped out". What he means by this, I think, is that instead of rejoining the corporate, nonprofit or political mainstream world, he had decided to create something that allowed him to be "free". Funny, that--in 1991 I left a PH, D. program in history to become an artist. That desire to be "free" and independent is a driving force in American History and is also a motivating factor for many of the artists and exhibitors that come from all over the world to Eastern Market to show, share and sell their art and merchandise. Mr. Rall did not "drop out"; he "checked in" to the lifeblood that has made America a symbol of freedom throughout the world.
By the mid 1970's, Rall had moved off the "Hill" to the Shenandoah Valley and had started going to auctions, buying and selling antiques; as he states, "I got hooked". He figured that one could support oneself in rural America by selling in urban America. By 1975, he was selling primarily antique furniture (that is, Empire, Art Deco, and quilts) at the Georgetown Flea Market.
By 1978, John Harrod and Ted Gay had started the Arts and Crafts Fair at Eastern Market. Ted Gay was co-founder of Market 5 Gallery at Eastern Market, later a board member of the Gallery. Mr. Gay became chair of the D.C. Commission of the Arts and later still Chair of the Washington D.C. Democratic Party. Tom Rall was introduced to John Harrod in 1978 by Ted Gay. By this time, Tom Rall had also become an auctioneer. Between 1981 and 1991, Tom ran auctions at Market 5 that not only benefitted the community arts space but also other Capitol Hill community organization--for example, Capital Hill Arts Workshop (C.H.A.W.)
The idea for the flea market was John Harrod's, so in 1983 Tom Rall was the only flea market exhibitor on Sundays. By 1984, ( I have been told that their agreement was made on a handshake) Tom Rall was the manager of the flea market and he named it The Flea Market at Eastern Market.
*
( The first "informational flyer" establishing the Flea Market at Eastern Market in 1984)
(* Tom Rall archives)
*
( Tom Rall's stand 1984 in front of Market 5 Gallery, the north hall at Eastern Market)
(* Tom Rall Archives)
And that was the beginning. Today, Tom Rall's efforts have born copious fruit, as can be seen at http://www.easternmarket.net/ He did this through hard work, attention to detail, marketing, advertising, friendships, integrity and, over time, developing a team of like minded individuals...
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Before and in the Morning

Coming full circle, in the mid 1980's many of the students at my college in southern Maryland came to D.C. to see, hear and watch artistic expression: now I and others recently showed our artwork at ARTS ON FOOT in D.C. Downtown Washington was different then: no multimillion-dollar sports complex, no ever-expanding theatre district. What it did have was individual artists and small art spaces to see or hear their work. In 1987, I heard jazz percussionist Max Roache play at D.C. Space. Later, while attending graduate school in Washington in the late 80's and early 90's, I discovered that downtown D.C. was a rabbit's warren of art galleries and artist studios. I found and went to exhibits at Washington Project for the Arts, BR Kornblatt Gallery, Wonderful Things, Zenith Gallery, Baumgartner Gallery, Maya Gallery and others. While "change," in the form of economic renewal and "gentrification," was coming to downtown Washington, there were those who fought for artists to remain a part of that landscape. ARTS ON FOOT is a victorious outgrowth of that fight. ARTS ON FOOT has become Washington D.C.'s premier outdoor art event with live music, wine and food tastings, an art market and other cultural demonstrations. The art market at this year's ARTS ON FOOT was managed by Diverse Market Management--that is, Eastern Market's own Tom Rall (founder of the Flea Market at Eastern Market) and painter Michael Berman and their team.

There where ninety four total exhibitors at the arts market of ARTS ON FOOT, thirty four of which where from Eastern Market. Under the leadership of Tom Rall by 2008 the average number of exhibitors at Eastern Market on Sunday was one hundred and seventy-five. He founded the Flea Market at Eastern Market in 1984 with one.

Before and in the Morning is a photo essay and meditation on mostly Eastern Market folks in the of process... on the morning of September 12, 2009 at ARTS ON FOOT in the downtown Penn Quarter in front of the National Portrait Gallery. However, it is also typical of what one could see any morning at Eastern Market and at any other art exhibition, festival or market anywhere in the world. William McDougle (on site staff) came to Eastern Market at twelve years old, is now twenty-two years old, and comes back and lends a hand when he's not attending college in Virginia. William "Rudy" Coates (on site manager) has been part of the Eastern Market "family" since 1974. "The Eastern Market guys" getting it all together for the big day.
Behind his back, we call him
"Tom Junior."
or "Little Tom."
He grew up at Eastern Market:
On site staff
Brady Rall.
(Tom Rall's son)
Micheal Berman
(artist at Eastern Market since 1993)
director of the
Artist Market
He was moving so fast his hair came out of
the ponytail.
"The guys around the market"--on site staff.
Charles Ellis and David Wright
"It girl" and all around "on it sister"
Emily Todd (downtown BID)
with Donna Fletcher,
entertainment programmer
for the Art Market.
Community "Diva"
Jo-Ann Neuhaus (Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association.)
"The guys," on site staff members
Charles Ellis and Andre S. Mack.
The display stands of Jenae Michelle (fiber art)
and Cherie Lester (collage).
Donna & Keith Ellingsworth
Blue Ridge Cutting Boards (woodworking.)
Display of Sola Ope (Scarvelous.)
Display of Lori Flanders, Isabelle's Rose (glass.)
Nancy Wasserman
(glass.)
Jean-Louis Monfraix (photography.)
Paul Bierman, Box Boy
(collage.)
Val Proudkii (photography.)
Tsolmon Damba (painting.)
Leah Sturgis (jewelry.)
Zakhar Sasim (painting.)
Paul Bierman
Box-Boy
(collage.)
Leah Sturgis (jewelry.)
Sola Ope,
Scarvelous
(fiber art.)
Jenae Michelle
Range of Emotion
(fiber art.)
Cherie Lester
(collage.)
Joseph Snyder (painting.)
Matthew Parker
Reinventing Reality
(collage.)
Chul Beom Park
(printmaking.)
DeDe Faller
(photograpy.)
Courtey Gillen
( jewelry--not an Eastern Market artist,
but I have known her for twenty years,
a wonderful metalsmith I am
always glad to see at shows.)
Thomas Bucci
(printmaking.)
Joel Traylor,
Jet Gallery
(painting.)
Steve Miller
(photography.)
Caitlin Phillips
Rebound Designs
(wearable art.)
Pablo Martone,
Reloje Arte
(collage.)
Carol Savage
Traveling Savage
(jewelry)
and
Mary Belcher
(painting.)
Us before coffee!
Tom Greaves
(collage.)
(Before and in the Morning) Before and in The Morning
Before and in the morning, we come to set up our stands, plan our layout, rethink the placement of the objects we have labored hard to make in the hopes that you will...
Before and in the morning, we eat breakfast, drink coffee or tea, arrange and re-arrange, stop, reflect, we remember we forgot, the clips, the pins, the ribbons, the boxes, the credit card slips, change for a twenty, we...
Before and in the morning we ask out vendor neighbors, can I borrow an extra pin, can you loan me a dollar, do you have an extra sales slip, do you have an asperin, what did you hear about...
Before and in the morning, we listen to the weather report, we pack extra..., we look up at the sky, we call home, we make sure we have...
our dreams, our prayers, expectations, our hopes, our lives, our work ready.
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb