Portico Studios include a diverse group of artists who are committed to their art and their place in the Gateway Arts District. This experience includes a willingness to grow in their practice, support their fellow artists, and engage the community in dialogue.
John Paradiso, Resident Artist/Curator, studio 4
My art is an ongoing exploration of gay male identity and the intimacy between men. At times the work is a statement about my experience navigating a sex-positive lifestyle among a prevalence of sex-negative messages. At other times the work is my way to process and honor my feminine side while striving to be more masculine.
https://www.instagram.com/john_paradiso_artist/
John Paradiso earned a BFA at the State University of New York (Purchase) and his MFA at the State University of New York (Buffalo). He is a mixed media artist and describes his work as metaphorical and based upon such issues as identity, sexuality, health, and love. He has worked in private and public collections including the Kinsey Institute and a portfolio of seven photographs in the National Picture Collection at the Library of Congress, (AIDS portfolio). John served as a health educator and caregiver in the HIV/AIDS community for over twenty years where he developed educational programs and provided peer-based counseling. More recently he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Washington Hospital Center working with adult cancer patients, their families, and caregivers. He is currently the Resident Artist-Curator at Portico Gallery and Studios in Brentwood MD, part of the Gateway Arts District, Prince Georges County. Contact: SewManyMen@gmail.com
Tom Hill, Studio 5
I aim to achieve a balance between process, materials, and content. In these non-objective works, geometric scaffolding forms the basis from which organic forms emerge and interrelate. I am drawn to intense colors and build up translucent layers of paint and glitter through brushwork, pouring, and squeegeeing. Controlled accidents play a joyful part in the painting process, resolved through a process of rethinking, reworking, and refining. The resulting panels demonstrate currents of fluid and explosive movement, tempered by moments of calm restraint, and attain an odd and somewhat awkward elegance in balance, depth, and design.
Imani Russell, Studio 3
I am Imani W. Russell, creator of Indigo’s Friends Art Dolls and Notions and owner of Indigo’s Friends Studio in Brentwood, Maryland. I consider myself a maker, designer, and fiber artist. I am largely self-taught but my influences emanate from the talents of my creative mother and maternal grandma. Both created hand-stitched utilitarian quilts and other wonderful things from worn clothing, found fabrics, and unusual objects.
I created Indigo’s Friends cloth dolls in the early 1990s. The passing of a dear friend and the fascination with a character in an extraordinary novel I read in the late 1980s, “Sassafras, Cypress, and Indigo” was the inspiration for my creations. This fictional story still informs my work. Indigo was (and remains) my muse. Ntozake Shange’s fiction novel,” Sassafras, Cypress, and Indigo”, was my introduction to the Gullah culture. However, filmmaker Julie Dash’s, “Daughters of the Dust,” beckoned my travels to Beauford, South Carolina, and the Georgia Sea islands. Seriously magical. The history, beauty, and strength of the women engaged my spirit. The Gullah are a distinctive group of African Americans originally rooted in the southeastern United States during the 18th century. It is the story of slavery, of course; rice growers from Sierra Leone, primarily labor over rice plantations. Their immunity to malaria often left them without the “masters or slave drivers” around so they were able to cultivate their own forms of communication such as hand signals and the language known as gee-chee. They were weavers and indigo dyers. To date, gee-chee is still spoken amongst some in the region and many customs are still employed albeit in small measure. The Gullah culture is a national treasure.
Mary Turpin, Studio 1
Mary is an accomplished fiber artist and a juried artist in the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria Virginia, a juried artist in the Arches Gallery at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia, and was the Artist in Residence at the Mosaic Gallery in Fairfax, Virginia (October 2019).
Jaleel Davis, Studio 2
Born and raised in Washington, D.C. I’ve been an artist since the age of 3. Coloring inside of the lines because I could and outside of the lines because it was more interesting. I mastered the basics at Duke Ellington School of the Arts now I make and break my own rules. I’m a visual artist that finds inspiration everywhere and I’ll find a creative solution for you one brush stroke at a time.
https://www.instagram.com/jaybirdsart/
Born and raised in Washington, D.C. I’ve been an artist since the age of 3. Coloring inside of the lines because I could and outside of the lines because it was more interesting. I mastered the basics at Duke Ellington School of the Arts now I make and break my own rules. I’m a visual artist that finds inspiration everywhere and I’ll find a creative solution for you one brush stroke at a time.
Ellen Cornett, Studio 6
In meticulously detailed drawings, I create layered, ambiguous narratives. Through my fascination with transformation, artifice, and disguise—often themes or vignettes plucked from folk tales and stories—I build unsettling scenes that gain energy from unresolved endings. In uncanny depictions of humans and animals, absurd possibilities lurk behind everyday moments. People and animals wear masks, discover supernatural powers, and interact in ways that may delight viewers or upend expectations. Carbon pencil and charcoal allow me to create work that is clearly hand-drawn, but realistic enough to be disorienting. My art expresses my own unanswered questions about identity, memory, and the stories that profoundly affect our lives. Artwork: This Is the Priest, Shaven, and Shorn from the series This Is the House That Jack Built. Carbon pencil, 16”x20”.
