Books on Display

Displaying my books for Holiday giving.

Kaleidoscope Exhibit

Kaleidoscope, an exhibition of Black Artists of D.C. curated by Adjoa Burrowes, will open January 6 at Publick Playhouse in Prince George's County, MD. The show will feature 7 D.C. area artists - Daniel Brooking, Maria Marable-Bunch, Adjoa Burrowes, Carolyn Goodridge, Russell Simmons, Magruder Murray, and Jeffery Boston Weatherford.

The Opening Reception will be on Saturday February 7, 2015 @ 6:45 pm.

Kaleidoscope Featured Artists

The Gift of Words

Photo by Shereen Williams

Children's book author and illustrator, Adjoa Burrowes reads the picture book Destiny's Gift to students at Seaton Elementary school in Washington D.C. during Literacy Night. Destiny's Gift is a contemporary story about a young African American girl and her love for books. When her favorite neighborhood bookstore is threatened to go out of business, Destiny, along with her family and community, devise creative ways to save it. During Literacy Night, Burrowes, along with Seaton art teacher Terry Thomas and Corcoran student teacher, Indigo lead students in a step-by-step hands-on art workshop in which they created portraits using cut papers.

Behind the Scenes Freedom Prints

Hand printing from the woodblock using Japanese paper.

I gave a presentation called Freedom Prints on Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design auditorium. The wood cut prints were the result of my summer independent studio work. The imagery grew out of interviews I conducted over the summer with selected family members including my daughter, youngest son and niece on their conceptions of freedom. In the presentation I shared initial sketches, cut-paper stencils, journal entries, and poetry. 

Opening Exhibition Carving Out Freedom

I was so thrilled to see the fruit of our collective hard work at the opening of the exhibition at the University of Maryland, College Park. John Shipman did a fabulous job curating the exhibition and thoughtfully incorporated not only the monumental size steam roller printed woodcuts, but also proofs, writings, working notes from sessions, photos and the actual wood plates. 

This collaborative community project created by students and faculty from the Corcoran, the University of Maryland, and members of THEARC community will be on display in the back gallery through October 17, 2014 - See more at: http://www.artgallery.umd.edu/exhibition/carving-out-freedom-piecing-community#sthash.paRy6yCg.dpuf

Carving out Freedom Exhibit

I was so lucky to be involved in this fabulous collaborative community project this summer that culminated with the "Carving out Freedom, Piecing a Community" exhibit. This exhibition examines the essence of "freedom," or lack thereof, through visual imagery, stories, poems, and oral interviews. Monumental steamroller-printed woodcuts were created by students and faculty from the Corcoran, the University of Maryland, and members of THEARC community and are displayed in The Art Gallery’s back gallery. On view through October 17, 2014. - See more at: http://www.artgallery.umd.edu/exhibition/carving-out-freedom-piecing-community#sthash.paRy6yCg.dpuf

Community Print Day

Steamroller Woodcut Printing 

Join us on Saturday, June 21 to watch or assist in the steamroll printing of the large-scale woodblock prints created by the Corcoran College of Art and Design, University of Maryland, ArtReach, and members of the community.

Location: THEARC parking lot (1901 Mississippi Ave SE) Washington DC

Time: 10:00am - 2:00pm

Carving, Carving and More Carving

The large-scale wood cuts are progressing well. Just a few more days before our big Community Print Day using the steamroller.

Community Based Class

This inter-institutional, intergenerational course provides an opportunity for participants to learn a new medium (we are creating mammoth woodcuts--4ft x 8ft and printing them with a steamroller), and work collaboratively with learners across the lifespan [the youngest is 11 and the oldest is 74] envisioning the concept of "freedom" or "lack of freedom" through visual imagery, stories, poems and oral interviews.

Corcoran art education students and UMD students in art education, English, and elementary education are partnered with members of the community and through discussion created a collaborative vision of freedom (or lack of) for their woodcut.

The four week course/project ends with a community print day in the parking lot at THEARC in SE Washington, DC

on Saturday, June 21 from 10am -2pm (rain date, Sunday, June 22)

All For One, One For All

Fourth graders in my art and writing residency at a D.C. elementary school created collaborative abstract paintings using bright liquid watercolor and sprinkled salt on the paintings as part of their studies on paper decorating techniques. Afterwords, students looked at the textured paintings from a variety of angles and visualized images that were suggested by the colors and shapes. A theme was chosen by each group. Each student then wrote one sentence about what they saw, thought about or felt when looking at the artwork and tied it into the theme. A title was then chosen and all the sentences written together to form a group poem. At the end, each collective poem was read aloud and the artwork shared with the whole class.

Expressions 2014 @ the Corcoran

Displaying the 7th grade collagraphs of Brookland at Bunker Hill students.

The Expressions 2014 exhibition allows DC students in the Corcoran's ArtReach in School and after School program a rare opportunity to exhibit their creations in the Corcoran Gallery. The ArtReach program capitalizes on the rich resources of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design to reach underserved communities in Washington, D.C. Art teachers and teaching artists use the Corcoran's collection as a primary resource. While I was teaching art last fall at Brookland at Bunker Hill School in D.C., teaching artist Kristine DeNinno collaborated with my students to create rich collagraphs that incorporated their own personal symbols. ArtReach promotes visual literacy, critical thinking skills, and creative expression, but more importantly allows students to make meaning between art and their own lives. Expressions 2014 student work will be on exhibit through June 15, 2014 .

Playing With Texture

In my residency at Brightwood Elementary School students experiment with creating textured affects using salt.

Snow Stories

It was a tough winter in DC. Second graders at Simon Elementary painted, tore, cut and pasted papers to create their original illustrations to accompany their snow accordion books.