Category Archives: Community

Olly Olly, a New Alternative Art Space, Opens in Old Town Fairfax

By Posted in Art, Art Gym, Art Studio, Community, Fairfax Art, Olly Olly Tagged , , , , Leave a comment

Happy New Year! Get ready to flex your art muscles in 2015! Olly Olly, a new alternative art space, is now open in Old Town Fairfax, Virginia. Dedicate time to your art and we’ll dedicate space for you to create it. Bring your latest artwork and create alongside other local artists in our open studios. Join us January 6 and January 13 from 6pm-9pm for free drop-in Art Gym open studio nights for artists 18 and older. Art Gym open studio nights are hosted by local artists Jason Davis, Jessica Kallista, Javier Padilla, and more. Space is limited. You can also sign up for special new membership rates for the Olly Olly Art Gym while supplies last. Visit our Support Olly Olly page for details about Art Gym memberships, plus tons of other super cool opportunities to get your hands on incredible local art!

Olly Olly Logo

Experimentation and exploration are at the core of every thriving arts community. We know that the artists we need in order to have a thriving arts community in Old Town Fairfax City are already here, but are often hidden away in their own separate studios and homes. Exceptional local and regional artists working in disciplines of painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, collage, appropriation art, performance art, installation art, conceptual art, street art, video art, and other bleeding edge media and practices need a dedicated home base that supports and challenges them to experiment and explore together.

Olly Olly is a call for local artists to come out from their hiding places to make and show their art in a nurturing, creative, community art space. Olly Olly is also a call to the community to come out, support, and benefit from an art scene that will help our community prosper and help to provide an authentic sense of community. Olly Olly will promote collaboration rather than competition and provide studios, an incubator space, and art gym for local artists, as well as a gallery, open studio, and event space.

We’re gearing up for a full year of exceptional arts programming in 2015. Create with us at Olly Olly, and make local art happen!

Olly Olly Curators --photo by Gopi Raghu

Olly Olly is located at 10417 Main St., 2nd Floor, Fairfax, VA 22030. We are currently open Tuesdays from 6pm-9pm, Saturdays from 11am-4pm, and by appointment.

Special thanks to Gopi Raghu for taking these fabulous photos of our open studio night this past November!

Gratitude for an Art Filled Life

By Posted in Art, art exhibit, Collage, Community, Events, Exhibit Opening, Fairfax Virginia, Gratitude, Jessica Kallista, Mixed Media Art, Olly Olly, The Bunnyman Bridge Collective Tagged , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I’m blessed to be surrounded by incredible artists and gorgeous art. This past year has been filled with nonstop art and constant love, and I’m truly grateful. Creating art continues to teach me that, with a solid set of supplies, imagination, community, collaboration, love, persistence, patience, and dedication, magic can be made. We have the power to co-create our lives and our world.

Every day I’m meeting talented local artists. Opportunities to experience and create art are overflowing everywhere–including right here in suburbia. I’m grateful to be making and showing more art than ever before. Coming up just this week my work will be included in two exhibitions.

Thursday, December 11, from 6-8 pm join me for the opening reception of 5 x 5 x (5), an all media exhibition featuring small works, at Target Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. I love little pieces of art that leave an impression far beyond their size. The exhibition features the work of over 30 artists from the U.S. and abroad.

Bunnyman by Jessica Kallista

On Saturday, December 13, from 8 pm-midnight, join me for a night of art and music at Epicure Café in Fairfax, VA for the opening reception of Divine. Curated by The Bunnyman Bridge Collective, Divine brings together 11 local artists, from across the DMV, working in a variety of media from stencil art, calligraphy, poetry, painting, drawing, mixed media, textiles, and more. Spend an evening with artists Jason Davis, Abner De Jesus, Michael Fischerkeller, John Grunwell, Matin Haji, Toni Hitchcock, Hks181, Joseph Nicolia, Javier Padilla, Mojgan Yaghmaei and me. Music for the opening reception will include the ever so transcendent and intoxicating jazz sounds of Dreamsville. You’ll want to be a part of this art and music filled event!

Heartmind by Jessica Kallista

Before you know it the new year will be here, and with it even more art. In January 2015 I will be opening a new alternative art space in Fairfax, VA called Olly Olly. Stay tuned for more news about exhibitions, open studios, and art events–all right here in suburbia.

Olly Olly

Total love and gratitude to all of the artists and art lovers who fill my life with art, love, and magic. So many awesome people. Thank you!

Learning to Let Go

By Posted in Art, Community, Fairfax Virginia, Free Art Friday, Free Art Friday NoVA, Gratitude, Jessica Kallista, Transformation Tagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

This week marks the one year anniversary of my very first Free Art Friday drop. Letting go of that first piece was an anxiety filled experience. I honestly did not believe I would ever put another piece of free art out into the world. The entire process stirred up so many questions and debates within myself (and a bit of debate outside of myself as well). Would this helpless little piece of art be safe? Would it find a happy art loving home? Am I crazy to keep giving away art? Who owns art? What is ownership? How are artists connected to the communities in which they live and work? Can the surprise of finding a piece of free art on a sidewalk or a park bench disrupt the isolation experienced by many people living in suburbia? Soon enough, however, the second piece was out there in the world, and then the third. I kept making the pieces. I remained determined and dedicated to placing these pieces out in the world for anyone to find. Through the year my world changed in ways that I never could have imagined. With more than 50 art drops over the past year, I am grateful for all of the love and art, for the amazing friends I’ve met along the way, and for the incredible opportunity to learn about chance, interconnectivity, love, and surrender.

To celebrate my one year Free Art Friday anniversary, today in Fairfax I’ll be placing three of my little lovelies out in the world for anyone to find. Keep a look out! Happy Free Art Finding!

 

Free Art Friday One Year Anniversary Drop

 

And I also have to say, I have immense love and gratitude for all of the awesome Free Art Finders. Here are a few of them. Please post photos if you find a Free Art Friday piece. Here’s to another year of Free Art Friday NoVA! xoxo

 

Awesome Free Art Finders Awesome Free Art Finders

 

“Wake Up Call” Opening Reception at Epicure Café Saturday August 9

By Posted in Art, Bliss, Community, Epicure Cafe, Events, Exhibit Opening, Fairfax Art, The Bunnyman Bridge Collective, Wake Up Call Tagged , , , , Leave a comment

Wake Up Call by Javier Padilla 72dpi

 

Epicure Café is pleased to present Wake Up Call, a new collection of contemporary art curated by The Bunnyman Bridge Collective. Epicure Café and The Bunnyman Bridge Collective nurture a growing community of artists and creatives in Northern Virginia.

Art and bliss surround us in our everyday lives. It is time to for a Wake Up Call! For all of us to open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the art and bliss that are available to us if we simply open our eyes and attend to our surroundings. For their latest exhibition, Epicure Café and The Bunnyman Bridge Collective want you to know that art is here for all of us to create and share.

Wake Up Call sounds an alarm for the discovery of local art and artists in the wilds of Suburbia. Saturday, August 9, from 8pm to midnight, spend an evening with artists Abner De Jesus, Michael Fischerkeller, Jessica Kallista, Javier Padilla, Jorge Vascano, and Nadya Warthen-Gibson. Music for the evening will be provided by the intensely vibrant and energetic Earth’s Music Project.

Epicure Café, located at 11104 Lee Highway in Fairfax, VA, is open 7 days a week from 5 – midnight. Wake Up Call will be on view at Epicure Café from August 9 through October 4.

 

Free Art Friday As Performance and Street Art

By Posted in Art, Community, Fairfax Art, Free Art Friday, Free Art Friday NoVA, Performance Art Tagged , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

As part of the worldwide phenomenon that is Free Art Friday, I’ve placed at least one piece of free art in Northern Virginia for anyone to find and keep nearly every Friday since August 2013. Think of it as street art that anyone can take home. Imagine it as a way of building and engaging community. I view this project as a way to disrupt the isolation of  living in Suburbia by creating situations of chance and surprise, and instigating dialogue about ownership, creativity, commodity fetishism, community, and connectivity. The transitory, ephemeral, and unpredictable elements of my Free Art Friday experience have come to feel very much akin to aspects of performance art. Through these eight months or so, the process of creating art specifically designed for Free Art Friday, scouting out locations, leaving my art out in the world, taking photographs of my free art in a variety of locations, posting the photographs to social media, and engaging with the audience have evolved into an ongoing, elaborate, documented, and joy-filled performance. The audience is key. Finders, admirers, and even critics of this project have helped to form and influence its evolution in ways I had never imagined. I’ll be leaving another piece somewhere in the world today. You can view past Free Art Friday pieces and look for clues to find pieces yourself by following me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Happy Finding!

Here’s a look back at a few of my Free Art Friday drops from the past eight months: