Local artists featured at Birdie’s Cafe

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Photo by Lyndi McNultyPictured from left, back row: Phil Grout, Carolyn Seabolt, Linda Van Hart; front row: Gordon Wickes, Mary Decker, Judy Goodyear, Kevin Dayhoff, Charlotte Laslo and Gail Elwell.

Posted: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 9:31 am| Updated: 9:37 am, Tue Feb 15, 2011.

By Lyndi McNulty, Eye for Art | 0 comments

The well-received Off Track Art Co-op artists’ exhibition, featured at Birdie’s Café in Westminster, continues through Feb. 27.

The show, “Lucky 13,” opened Jan. 7 with a bang and plenty of new artworks by some of Carroll’s favorite and most well-known artists. Birdie’s Café opened last year in the old Pour House space at 233 E. Main St.

The featured artists include Kevin Dayhoff, Mary E. Decker, Gail Elwell, Judy Goodyear, Phil Grout, Charlotte Laslo, C.Z. Sawdey, Carolyn Seabolt, Linda Van Hart, Robert J. Waddell, Gordon Wickes, and Pam Zappardino.

The coffeehouse, run by local artist Sherri Hosfeld Joseph, of Westminster, has been holding art shows bi-monthly to promote local and regional artists. The artists from Off Track Art, known as “the Co-op,” are showing new works in addition to their ongoing, changing shows at 11 Liberty St., next to the railroad tracks and across from O’Lordans Irish Pub in Westminster.

Former Mayor Kevin Dayhoff, artist and writer, is showing new collage works and a wooden sculpture never shown before. Dayhoff has been a collage master for more than 30 years and just keeps getting better.

Dayhoff is exhibiting three pieces. Dayhoff said he “explores colors and shapes and various social themes through collage, mixed media assemblage, drawings, and photography.

“I like the patriotic theme of ‘The Union Bridge College Bell and Flag,’ photograph as well as the history and tradition of the image…” he explained.

According to Dayhoff, he is also particularly fond of “Insaniacs,” a digitally enhanced photograph. He likes the juxtaposition of the Bo Diddley quote about how insane society can be - on top of the tranquility depicted in a scene from his farm in Patapsco.

The most interesting piece in the show by Dayhoff is “Nosakhere,” a religious wooden sculpture from his African mask series. This piece, which is nearly 3 feet tall, is a commanding face and has an organic feel. The name is an African one that means “One with God.”

“So much of art is about beauty and harmony and juxtaposing the various themes that make us human. All of those gifts come from my sense of faith…”  http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/advocate_of_westminster/columns/eye_for_art/local-artists-featured-at-birdie-s-cafe/article_706b5dd2-3910-11e0-a5e3-001cc4c002e0.html

Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/) http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/

20080716 Being and artist and growing up in Carroll County by Lyndi McNulty

20080716 Being and artist and growing up in Carroll County by Lyndi McNulty

16.JUL.08 Eye for Art: Being an artist and growing up in Carroll

Eye for Art: “Being an artist and growing up in Carroll” by Lyndi McNulty

“There is no better place to be an artist than Carroll County,” exclaimed Kevin Dayhoff of Westminster. “Lots of people have asked me what it is like to grow up an artist here. It’s great. Growing up in Carroll County you learn self-sufficiency, independent thinking and personal responsibility. You learn that the world doesn’t owe you a living because you are a writer and an artist,” he said.

“There is a great sense of artistic collaboration in Carroll County that comes from our agricultural heritage, such as when folks got together and did barn raising,” he said.

“I grew up an artist and a writer. My mom, my dad and my friends were very supportive. My father was a painter and a woodworking artist, creating both art and beautiful furniture out of wood, and mother is a culinary artist,” Dayhoff reflected.

“One of my earliest discoveries with art was drawing cartoons and caricatures. I used to sit in class and draw caricatures of the teachers. Even today, I continue to draw postcard size caricatures of daily events, vacations and people in the news. I make my own vacation ‘mail art’ postcards,” he said, laughing.

“‘Mail art’ opened up the world for me long before the internet. After almost two decades, I still have a collaborative mail art partner in Japan.”

Combination of talents

“My main preoccupations growing up were reading, art, writing short stories, and plants. I was very fortunate to put them all together and make a living. That is how I got into landscaping. After all, landscaping is a 3-D mixed media assemblage with plants,” Dayhoff said.

“I also learned that if I spent hours doing a collage I ended up with a storage problem. But, if I drew a landscape design and did a landscape collage with plants, I got paid for it.” In 1974 Dayhoff started a landscaping, designing and nursery business. That business also gave him time to do art and write.

Dayhoff’s work from the 1980s and 1990s included art created on copying machines, color experimentation, collaging and new technologies.

Since his first art show at the Theatre Project in Baltimore in 1981, Dayhoff has been exhibiting art, including mixed media collages, drawings, sculpture and photography.

“I have had a lifelong interest in color [and] spatial relationships putting together incongruent objects. In recent years I have expanded my use of technology to collage with a digital camera, a scanner and a computer. I was inspired by Sue Bloom, a McDaniel art professor, who uses computers to create art,” he said.

“The collages are about putting seemingly disparate items and qualities together to give them a new meaning and a new purpose,” Dayhoff explained. “A lot of the collages began to come off the page into a much more sculptural element as a result of the inspiration of Wasyl Palijezuk, a now retired art professor at McDaniel College.”

Dayhoff has taught art, horticultural and landscape design as an adjunct faculty member for Carroll Community College.

On display

He has exhibited his art for the Carroll County Arts Council for the past two decades as well as at other venues.

“There are so many opportunities for art and culture to flourish in Westminster,” he said. “Capitalizing upon the successes of Common Ground on the Hill, the McDaniel and Carroll Community College Art community and the Carroll Arts Center Carroll, Westminster is the perfect place for art studios, art galleries and artists to live and work, especially on Pennsylvania Avenue and Main Street.”

“Growing up an artist has always been an advantage in my life as it teaches you to be a collaborative and creative problem solver and think outside of the box,” Dayhoff said.

He can be contacted at kdayhoff AT carr DOT org.

— Lyndi McNulty is owner of Gizmos Art in Westminster.

Art, Art – Eye for Art Lyndi McNulty Advocate, Dayhoff bio and disclosures

http://westminsteradvocate.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=3728&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1322&hn=westminsteradvocate&he=.com

20080514 Eye for Art: Young photographer has high hopes for artistic future by Lyndi McNulty

Eye for Art: Kasey Keefer - Young photographer has high hopes for artistic future by Lyndi McNulty in The Advocate

May 14, 2008

http://westminsteradvocate.com

14.MAY.08 Eye for Art: Young photographer has high hopes for artistic future

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Kasey Keefer has grown up on the outskirts of the City of Westminster. He is a creative 17 year old who will soon become an Eagle Scout on May 28. Keefer is also a talented photographer.

“My Dad, Andy, has always been the family photographer for all five children for school, sports, and scouts,” Keefer remembered. “He has been an amateur photographer as long as I can remember. Anytime there is a family event, he is there taking his ‘15’ shots so that he can get the right one. He believes that someone will blink,” Keefer laughed. “Dad puts up with all the derisive comments on the length of time all this takes because he knows that everyone will love the photographs when they are finished.”

“I picked up some of his skills by being around him. One Christmas, my parents bought me a digital camera to take on my scout trips since I go so many places. After using for a while, I realized that I enjoyed taking photographs and that is when I got serious about it,” he said.

“One of the times I really started to play around with the camera and explore with it was when I went to The Bahamas High Adventure Seabase with the Boy Scouts,” Keefer said. “We met with the captain of a tall sailing ship who taught us how to sail.”

“For 10 days the Captain and 10 Boy Scouts sailed the ship around the Abaco Islands doing everything from swabbing the deck to raising sails. Sunsets, water, and native plants made great subjects. One evening the boat was keeled a little bit, and the flag was illuminated by the sunset. I had fun playing with that as a photographer.”

“After that, I started to shoot and learn more and more. I would read photo magazines, study other photographers’ work, and examine my own to figure out what I did or didn’t like about it, and what would make it better.”

“Last summer I went to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico with 12 Boy Scouts. I saved up and got a more capable camera for that trip. We backpacked through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains for ten days. It was just amazing. I was looking forward to that trip as a way to really take some good photos. The last day of the trip, we got up at 3:30 a.m. to climb to the top of Schaeffer’s Peak; we watched the sunrise as if it were a movie. Everyone was standing there, looking in the same direction, just waiting silently. I moved around and shot a series of photographs so I could stitch them into panoramas on the computer. That means I took the photographs, lined them up side by side on the computer screen, and made them into one long photo,” he said.

“Anything and everything is a possibility for a photo for me. Every time there is a sunset or an ice storm I would grab my camera and go outside and take photos. I would spend hours just shooting and learning. Now I take my camera everywhere with me. I do macro photography which means that you get really close to an object such as a flower or a leaf.”

“Currently, I want to keep shooting and learning about photography,” Keefer said. “I want to do a photo show and I have just started selling my work.”

You can contact Keefer at Klunkymunky@comcast.net.

— Lyndi McNulty is owner of Gizmos Art in Westminster.

20070207 Eye for Art Ruchlewicz an avid photographer by Lyndi McNulty in The Advocate

Eye for Art: Ruchlewicz an avid photographer

by Lyndi McNulty in The Advocate

February 7, 2007

http://westminsteradvocate.com/

http://westminsteradvocate.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=75&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=1783&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1322&hn=westminsteradvocate&he=.com

07.FEB.07 Eye for Art: Ruchlewicz an avid photographer

Stan Ruchlewicz is the administrator of Economic Development for the City of Westminster, and he has an artistic side, too. Ruchlewicz is an avid photographer.

He said his first love is teaching and judging high school marching bands and drum and bugle corps.

Through traveling as a judge, he said he visited many interesting places.

“So, I took pictures,” Ruchlewicz said. “Back in the dark ages, I was using a small Instamatic. Eventually, I grew out of the Instamatic into a 35mm camera.”

In 1989, Ruchlewicz was hired in Havre de Grace as director of Planning. He was also appointed to the governor’s Save the Lighthouse Commission.

“Then, I really needed to get a good camera to take pictures since we toured the various Chesapeake Bay lighthouses on our annual visits,” he said,

Also at that time, Ruchlewicz began to take photographs of downtown buildings, streetscapes and events for promotional and reference materials for his job, he said.

Later, his financee, Pat Miller, converted him to go digital.

“Now, I can take hundreds of photographs at a time and not worry about printing costs since I can view the shots on the computer and choose to print only the best,” he said.

Ruchlewicz and his fiancee both take photos.

“I do the large scale photos, such as buildings, landscapes and event crowds, while she enjoys doing architectural details, like gargoyles and grotesques and individual people,” he said. “Grotesques are the funny little guys that are on old buildings but don’t put out rainwater like gargoyles do.”

Today, Ruchlewicz is still shooting buildings and street scenes along Main Streets, events in downtown Westminster, lighthouses and his world travels.

“A lot of the photos I take are of streetscape features such as signage, trash cans, benches, streetlights, window displays, storefronts and building facades,” Ruchlewicz said. “I use them as examples of how to improve local buildings and to give local store owners new ideas on how to improve their businesses.”

Casey Willson, retail industry manager for the Maryland Small Business Development Center, uses some of Ruchlewicz’s pictures for his presentations to small business owners around the state.

Ruchlewicz’s work is everywhere in town.

The postcards of downtown Westminster, such as the view of Main Street from the roof of the old fire house, the downtown mural, the McDaniel College entrance, City Hall and the train passing in front of Johannson’s are all his work.

The postcards are all copyrighted by the City of Westminster under the Downtown Westminster Main Street Program.

Ruchlewicz’s photographs also appear in the new Westminster brochure, and recent Hickory Stick and ArtWorks billboards used his photographs, too.

Additionally, his photos from the Corbit’s Charge event can be viewed on the Pipe Creek Civil War Round Table Web site at http://www.pccwrt.addr.com.

“The most utilized image of mine is of the old clock tower in Westminster that is currently the symbol of our town. It is being used as a brand for people to remember us when they visit,” Ruchlewicz said.

Ruchlewicz’s newest project is converting his photographs into digital art.

“For example, I take photos of England and convert them into images that resemble old etchings and engravings from the 19th century,” he said. “Besides creating art, it also helps me learn how to use some of my new computer features.”

In the future, Ruchlewicz said he would like to put his photographs in an art show and perhaps sell some commercially.

And his travels continue.

“I plan to go to Budapest in the spring to continue my photographic adventures and to bring some new ideas back to Westminster’s downtown,” he said.

— Lyndi McNulty owns Gizmos Art in Westminster.

Art – Eye for Art by Lyndi McNulty in The Advocate