Artist Profile: Alma Selimovic

Otis Street Arts Project Artist

Name: Alma Selimovic

Website: www.almaselimovic.com

Contact Info: selimovic81@gmail.com

A Short Bio

What question about your work do you hate getting asked?

ugh  “How long has it taken you to make this piece.” I just don't react well on questions like that. I don't think time is relevant, being an artist is a skill that you learn trough years of practicing and trying to find yourself and your way of expressing. The most accurate answer would be 30 years, from the moment I grabbed my first play-doh and made a wobbly dog .

Why do you use the materials and techniques that you use?

I love experimenting and finding new materials and discovering different ways of using it. I use metal a lot because it gives me strong structure(base), then I can be more free in building and glueing other materials on top of it. Recently i started incorporating color in my work and now i am trying to find materials that are easily painted and/or have different surface. Foam, fiberglass and plaster are also easily transformed and dried pretty fast so you can keep working on the piece.

What do you like the most about the Washington DC area art scene?

I read recently online that DC is currently #4 place to live for emerging artist, NYC is 3rd on the list, I think thats pretty good reason for loving it from the start. As a new maker in the area i am still getting to know the scene and the art world and I am hoping it will be the good base for me and my work to grow.

What drew you to working in Mount Rainier, MD and the Otis Street Arts Project ?

I was lucky that i had great timing in finishing my school and OSAP getting new space available. I live very close to it and i really like that artist group there is very enthusiastic and new. I was trying to find space where I can get feedback on my work and also where i can give something back. OSAP sounded perfect for that .

When did you start calling yourself an artist? or how did you come to be an artist?

I never called myself and artist, but my family started doing that long ago when i started opening all the radios and Walkmans in the house and trying to “fix’ them and make them “better”. They never worked after. (They said, be an artist, you better not be a surgeon.) 

If you weren’t an artist, what would you currently be doing?

Operate? lol, just kidding, i would work with animals, or build houses.

What do you think is the most important influence on your art?

World around me, all that I experience daily. My art is my whole life.

Artist Profile: Gloria Chapa

Otis Street Arts Project Artist

Name: Gloria Chapa
Website: http://gloriachapa.com/

Contact Info: gloriachapa@msn.com

A Short Bio:

     Gloria Chapa has realized many of her life goals by utilizing resources at her disposal in unexpected ways.  Texan, Catholic, Mexican, matriarchal and mathematical are a few of the influences that define her character.

      Originally Ms. Chapa was destined to be an engineer due to her mathematical abilities and a strong parental affinity for the sciences. Early on, she had a fascination with making and drawing, but she was dissuaded from taking any sort of fine arts classes as a child. Her engineering career allowed her to exercise some of her creative abilities, but after 10 years the difficult decision was made to pursue degrees in art.  Not surprisingly, one of her first art professors commented that she was like an insatiable sponge.

      After graduate school, there were several university positions that Ms. Chapa held (Virginia Commonwealth University,University of Richmond, University of Mary Washington). One of the most rewarding of these teaching positions was in Bogota,Colombia at a District University in the city center. Third world art student views/ideas were beyond anything encountered in US schools. There was also a short period of graduate studies in Moscow that reinforced this aspect of art outside the US.

      Gloria Chapa has a wanderlust that she has been able to indulge. Her creative center has benefited from the many varied environments that she has allowed herself to experience. Recently, she has made an effort to remain inWashington, in order to reflect, examine, organize and utilize the events of her life in her work. The last couple of years have been extremely productive. Her amalgam of mathematics, domesticity and cultural variety  results in art work that is contemplative, revelatory, unexpected and yet very accessible.

Questions and Answers

What question about your work do you hate getting asked?

What is this about?

Why do you use the materials and techniques that you use?

Exploring materials and inventing new techniques is what feeds the engineering side of me. This  helps me open up the creative flow of ideas.  

What do you like the most about the Washington DC area art scene?

Diversity of cultures, professional disciplines, and influences.

What drew you to working in Mount Rainier, MD and the Otis Street Arts Project ?

I live in the area. Love the homeyness of the neighborhood so close to the DC center. The very visible presence of a working art community.

When did you start calling yourself an artist? or how did you come to be an artist?

I was always an artist. I still remember relishing the smell of my first box of Crayolas.  I always have a bin full in my studio.

If you weren’t an artist, what would you currently be doing?

Engineer.

What do you think is the most important influence on your art?

Analytical skill and femininity.

Our Studios

Currently Available Studios: 1

Otis Street Arts Project will serve as artist studios and a creative incubator for those interested in a dynamic, supportive, and community oriented work environment of professional artists. Situated among other group studios in a light industrial space, including a glass studio, ceramics studios, painters and public artists. We aim to create an active space open to visitors, guest artists, collaborations, critiques, interactions, and other events. The space consists of subdivided empty studio areas roughly 11' x 11' with 9.5' ceilings and concrete floors. There is a bathroom, community area, flex space, kitchenette, utility sink, and exhibition space that will be used to showcase rotating exhibitions. The studio has a loading dock and parking. 

It is located in Mount Rainier, MD, just over the DC line.

Studios are $400/month each 

If interested please contact otisstreetartsproject@gmail.com 

Include your contact info, website, and give us a sense of what kind of work you want to do in the space. Studios are ideally suited for sculptors and mixed media artists. 

Exhibition Series: Cory Oberndorfer and Jeff Huntington

In starting the Otis Street Arts Project, we knew that a component of our endeavor would be bringing in artists to show their work. We wanted to have a gallery. We are very pleased to have two fantastic artists to share with you for our Inaugural Exhibit.  

Cory Oberndorfer

Bio 

A lover of popular culture and Americana, Cory Oberndorfer’s work fixates on the simple pleasures in life. Oberndorfer received his MFA from American University in Washington, D.C. and BFA from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. His work has been exhibited at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, CA, Redux Contemporary Art Center and Jericho Arts in Charleston, SC, Flashpoint Gallery, G Fine Art, and the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C.

Jeff Huntington

Bio

Jeff Huntington received an MFA in 1997 from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in 1995 from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. His work has been included in more than eighty exhibitions nationally and internationally over the past 25 years. His paintings are in private and public collections throughout the world, including The Rockford Art Museum in Rockford, Illinois and in U.S. embassies in the Philippines and Panama. Reviews of his work have been featured in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The New York Times, Juxtapos, The New Art Examiner, as well as a features on CNBC and NPR. Some awards received include The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Fellowship (Canada), The Jacob Kainen Award for Excellence in Figurative Painting, a Maryland State Arts Council grant and The Ethel Lorraine Bernstein Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting. Huntington is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Corcoran in Washington, DC. His paintings are represented by Porter Contemporary in New York City, Reyes+Davis in Washington, DC, Gallery 1301 in Baltimore, MD, and The Annapolis Collection Gallery in Annapolis, MD.

www.jeffhuntington.com

The exhibit will be up for the next few weeks.  
The works are available for purchase
For inquiries and viewing appointments please contact

Sean Hennessey
202.550.4634
or Email

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What is The Otis Street Arts Project

The Otis Street Arts Project is a collaboration between artists Sean Hennessey and David Mordini. It is a studio space, an exhibition space, a performance space, and an incubator for artistic creativity.

Located in Mount Rainier, MD, a hot bed of artistic activity, and with a large density of artists just outside of Washington, DC Otis Street Arts Project aims to further the bonds of the creative community in the area and create great art and art experiences in the process. Within our section of warehouses includes many other professional artists and institutions including The Washington Glass School, White Point Studios, Orange Door Studios, Blue Door Studios, and a slew of other individual artist spaces. 

Otis Street Arts Project will create a series of exhibits, group critic opportunities, studio visits, lectures, musical events, staged readings, cabarets, and workshops.  

Otis Street Arts Project has studio space for artists. 8 Spaces roughly 130 square feet, including shared flex space, utility sink, a small kitchen, loading docks, and tall ceilings. We are primarily a space for mixed media sculptors. There is 24 hour access to the space. At the time of this writing each space is $400/ month, including utilities.

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Otis Street Arts Project
3706 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
otisstreetartsproject@gmail.com