Upcoming DC Creepers exhibition + Final weekend of Meet the Mascot
Upcoming Exhibition
An Exhibition + Sketch Lounge by The DC CREEPERS
April 7 - May 22nd, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, April 7, 7-9pm. Light refreshments !
Gallery Hours: TBA each week & by appointment.
Sketch Lounge Hours: TBA each week
Delivering multiple styles in the forms of portraiture & storytelling, action sketching, gesture drawing, abstraction, creature-making, and re-purposed materials, the DC Creepers espouse the belief that anyone can draw anyone at anytime and without permission. This approach to creating results in standalone artworks that naturally read as comics.
Copies of “Comic Book Millionaires,” the hilarious retelling of a summer internship at Marvel Studios will also be available.
Registration Opens this weekend!
Upcoming Artist Residency
DWIGHTMESS is proud to announce
The 2023 Swekt & Drang Cartooning & Comics Arts Resident, MAX HUFFMAN !
Max is a cartoonist & illustrator based in Carrboro. NC.
Join us for Community Events, including a One-Night Exhibition, and Artist Talk + Dinner during Max's stay & follow his inking progress along here in 'The Graffo Broadsheet' and our Instagram account from April 15 - April 27 !
Tomorrow Night - EUGENE EYESOAK !
Twisted mystery screening series of animation / cult film
Courtesy Beyond Video (a nonprofit video rental store in Baltimore)
Friday, March 31st
8pm-midnight + BLACK LIGHT viewing of current Exhibition !
Snacks provided, BYOB! $5 suggested donation.
Final Weekend - CURRENT EXHIBITION
MEET THE MASCOT
Paintings by Trei Ramsey
BLACK LIGHT viewing this Friday night, March 31st, 8pm-midnight !
Trei Ramsey humorously explores the fictional origin story of the 'unofficial DC Mascot,' The DC Rat, serving as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on what it’s like to be a resident in DC. Ramsey recreates pop culture in his own image and frequently combines his rat motif with various cartooning references as a way to dive into broader conversations about our feelings and experiences as city dwellers.
**Trei’s paintings, prints and sticker packs are all available via
the DWIGHTMESS webshop »
DWIGHTMESS
Cartooning & Comic Arts
805 Silver Spring Ave.
[entrance on Ripley St]
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Featured Artist - Athena Naylor
A Chat with Athena Naylor (continued)
DWIGHTMESS: Your cinema watercolors, mostly of women and women-centered popular films are sort of hilarious in their eerie accurateness and beauty. What is it you are seeking to capture with these paintings?
Athena Naylor: I love doing those paintings, and the motivation for them is simple– I just love movies!
There’s also a lot to learn from film in terms of visual narrative, so I like doing the studies for that reason as well. Things that you don’t consciously think about in viewing a movie suddenly become very clear when you’re painting a screenshot, like the color palette of a scene, or the composition of a shot. I started doing a lot of these film studies in October 2020 and focused on horror films, so that adds another dimension to the paintings because horror tends to play with intense lighting situations. Though I didn’t paint it, one example I always remember is this shot from Rosemary’s Baby where Mia Farrow is standing in a doorway and she’s lit in such a crazy way that her face looks like a skull. Like, no apartment would likely have a lighting situation like that, but it’s an incredible image that fits right into the story.
To start those paintings I’ll start by pausing a movie when something on screen catches my attention and take a photo of the TV with my phone. It’s genuinely such an awful way to record an image. The colors get all messed up, but sometimes that’s useful because you feel more freedom with your color choices when you’re painting. Google images can always fill the gaps when your phone has really blown out the values of a screen capture.
In terms of what captures my attention when watching a movie, it can be a variety of things– composition, values, costuming, whatever! I do like portrait shots because I’m rather character focused and enjoy painting faces. Also, films tend to have great character design! What about a character distinguishes them? How can you recognize a movie from just a single face?
In deciding what moments to paint, sometimes you have to do the iconic moment of a film. With a movie like Jennifer’s Body there was only one image I could imagine painting, which is the classic tongue burning scene. But typically I do try to find less definitive moments to paint. For Annihilation I didn’t want to paint anything regarding the alien environment the characters explore, instead focusing on shots that reflected emotional beats with Natalie Portman’s character. I refused to do the iconic carpet from The Shining, but how could I pass up painting Danny Torrance’s Mickey Mouse sweater? And there’s a lot of frightening action in The Exorcist, but I think painting Father Karras sinking into a couch in despair captured something essential about the existential dread of his character. (Also, this moment made me laugh out loud when I was watching. The moment was simultaneously so mundane– he was politely waiting for a cup of tea– and so extraordinary, because he was about to admit that a child was possessed by the devil. Hilariously absurd.)
DWIGHTMESS: It’s been so wonderful learning about you and your work process, Athena! All the best to you in your future endeavors.
**Athena’s paintings and comics are still available via the DWIGHTMESS webshop»
Next Featured Artist: Veronika Rossi
Veronika Rossi is a D.C. based print-maker and comic artist. She currently attends George Mason University and will graduate this June. There, she studies screen-printing, risograph printing, and also publishes her own comics and cartoons. Her work focuses on the mundane and everyday aspects of life, and finding the extraordinary in them. She enjoys exploring themes of family and relationships through both verbal and physical humor.