This Side of Silver

Last Saturday, invited by a mutual friend of mine and Albert Ting, I visited Aperture apartments in Reston, VA. I knew Albert from an Instagram meetup in D.C. and we talked about photography in general. He is one of the public figures in the D.C. area with extensive follower count on his Instagram profile. During our discussion, I mentioned something about how I some times go days, weeks without posting on the Social media. 'I can't afford to do that', he replied. 'This type of social media detox doesn't actually help me. In fact, it hurts my psyche and engaging with my audience helps me do better in my life anyway'. I guess when you have thousands of people looking to hear about your life, it becomes a nature of living. Albert surely is living that life. And unlike many people I hear and see, he is actually enjoying it. On Saturday, he with other artists in D.C. organized an exhibit to showcase their artistic talents and I took some pictures of the event and the artist. Below is an excerpt from the event page about the artists.

Goutham - 01/16/2019

Featured artists include:

Holly Ahrens (@hollyahrens): Holly’s originally from North Carolina, but has lived in the DMV for 8 years. She studied Studio Art in college at UNCW. After 6 years in corporate real estate, Holly quit her job to be a stay at home mom and to start pursuing her art again. Holly started a project to document her experiences in DC by painting visited locations. Her inspiration comes directly from the incredibly talented local photographers of the DMV. Almost every painting is based on one of these photographers’ photographs. Holly’s medium is acrylic paint.

Jarrett Hendrix (@jarrett.hendrix) is an artist from Washington, DC who specializes in many types of art and photography. His photography has been featured in such magazines as GQ and Capitol File Magazine. His artwork has been displayed in numerous art exhibits, and he has worked with companies such as Bose, and Capital One Careers. Jarrett believes that the practice of creative expression should always be approached with care and precision, and attempts to do this in all of his work.

Kasey O'Boyle (@kaseyoboyle): Kasey O'Boyle is a teaching-artist; a working educator and a working artist from Washington DC. Kasey received a BFA in Art History and Painting from Syracuse University. In all of her work, Kasey carefully considers the effects of natural light, color relationships, and qualities of paint. Her process involves constant sketching in order to record and understand personal experience.

Justine Swindell (@justineswindellart) is a freelance artist creating illustrations, paintings and pattern designs. Justine is based in and from Washington D.C. She spent several years living in New York City and Los Angeles with frequent travels to cities in sub Saharan Africa. Justine’s wide spectrum of experiences in cities influence the characters and scenes that show up in her work. As a result, the mood of her subjects are often pensive and grounded against her warm and whimsical use of color and pattern.

Albert "Pootie" Ting (@pootie_ting) is DC-based photographer who has exhibited his work in shows as part of DC's Rooftop Collective. He is also a community manager for IGDC, DC’s first Instagram community. His focus is to capture the diversity of the city’s culture through food, environmental portraiture, architecture, and street photography. Observing locals in candid moments in the context of the space in which they inhabit, work in, and walk by is a recurring theme of his work.

Steve Wanna (@steve_wanna) is a multi-disciplinary sound and visual artist whose work includes music, sound design for dance collaborations, sculpture, installation, photography, and works for mixed media. Born and raised in Lebanon, he immigrated to the United States with his family as a teenager, eventually receiving a doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Maryland in 2004. Most of Wanna’s work generally falls into one of two broad categories: the first category includes works that highlight or capture the moment of their creation, a process frozen in anticipation of the potential of unfolding. The second includes works that are in constant flux, perpetually in states of becoming rather than being. His compositions have received national and international performances and his artwork has been presented in galleries and venues across the United States.