Hutchinson and Haimelin Opening Reception

Menocal Art Studio

Submitted by Andrea on March 16, 2010 - 5:56pm

Venue Address: 

256 M Street SW

Washington, DC 20024

United States

See map: Google Maps

MAS and the ROM-RAM Art project (an experimental art project initiated by Cuban artists, Ramon Menocal and Romelio Rivera) focus their attention this month on women’s creativity and the extreme importance of feminine presence in the world. The Art’s paradigm is changing on this new century and the presence, voices and spirituality of women will be more important each day.

Catherine Hutchinson has a M.A. Art Education by New York University. She received a undergraduate degree in Interior Design in 2003. After working for 4 years in corporate design, she moved to New York to study art education. Currently she teaches and creates art in Washington D.C. While in NY, she began to create art around the changing ideas of femininity in today’s society, particularly the dynamics created within a mother-daughter relationship. Recently, she has started working with the image of a single flower. In many cultures and over centuries, flowers have often been used as a symbol relating to female reproduction, fertility and sexuality. Like the silky feeling of a rose or lily petal, women have been portrayed as soft and sensual by male artists. When this metaphor is looked at in the context of patriarchy, we might draw parallels between expectation of women-sensuality and softness becomes analogous to silent.

Lauren Haimelin is a natural artist who started creating as a very young child. She has a broad artistic experience and skill set. She pursued art in high school and received numerous honors and subsequently went on to study art education in college with a concentration in ceramics. She has established creative arts programs at West point Military Academy’s Youth Services Center and at DC’s Community Academy Public Charter School where she taught art for four years. She is currently working mostly with chalk pastels and creates work that expresses her understanding of energy medicine of the Peruvian Shamanistic tradition. Her work come from visions seen vividly in her dreams, meditations, and healings, and describe visually the character of the inner self including her emotions, sensations, spiritual inclinations and energy.

Romelio Rivera was born in Havana and move to Europe being a child. Later he and his family moved to The United States where he has been involved with literature, photography and painting. His devotion to art is the cornerstone of his life. Last year one of his screenplays was adapted into a play and performed on Broadway. Currently he creates art in his studio in New Jersey and in conjunction with Ramon Menocal works intensely to develop the ROM-RAM art project.

Ramon Menocal was born in Havana, Cuba Earned a degree in Fine Arts, specializing in painting and drawing, from the Academy San Alejandro of Havana in 1976.Earned a degree in Art History from the University of Havana in 1989 He won the ARTIST FELLOWSHIP GRANT in 2009 from the DC Commission on the Art and Humanities. .His main goal always is to be questioning the process of creating images, being aware that in art, the object and its representation can be similar but they are definitely not the same. The "thing" in itself differs from "the thing for us" being the latter an aspect of the first and therefore, the world depicted in his paintings has a highly subjective component.