Alice Lees

Daughter of the Stars

November 3, 2025 by Alice Lees Leave a Comment

Daughter of the Stars opened at the Melissa Ichiuji Studio Gallery in Front Royal, VA, on October 18. 72 artists and several times that number of artworks lined the walls and floor of the spacious gallery, filled to capacity with an enthusiastic and appreciative crowd of art lovers. Art on view encompassed painting, drawing, sculpture, mosaic, and jewelry. Music was provided on Cloud Street by Kate McLeod and her band. A fine time was had by all.

The show is part of a larger Washington area show, Women Artists of the DMV, that encompasses galleries in DC, Bethesda, McLean, Arlington, and Alexandria, showcasing many fine woman artists.

Numerous additional activities are planned for the duration of the Front Royal show: Seven Sunday afternoons will each feature 10 artists discussing their work with an interested audience of gallery-goers. Additionally, eight films about exceptional woman artists, living and deceased, are being viewed on Wednesday evenings at the Royal Theatre. Following the screening, filmgoers will repair to an adjacent wine bar to sip wine and nosh while unpacking the significance of what they have seen.

To the left, is a photo-collage of three of my mosaics included in the show: “Moonlight”, “Atlantis”, and “Polar.” I feel honored to have this work hanging next to that of so many accomplished artists. Thank you, Melissa!

Kudos to Melissa and Doug Ichiuji, as well as to Sally Price, Melissa’s assistant, for mounting such an extravaganza of a show. It was no small feat to hang so many, and such varied, pieces of art. Additionally, by founding her non-profit organization, Front Royal Project for the Arts, Melissa has helped to create a warm community of artists in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as putting Front Royal in the forefront of small Virginia towns supporting the Visual Arts. Excelsior!

Needlepoint in Rock

April 24, 2012 by Alice Lees Leave a Comment

This lively dog still guards his long-dead master’s house in what remains of Pompeii, Italy, centuries after Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in molten ash. He has endured because he is fashioned of stone–of many tiny stones, meticulously cemented into place. The method by which he was made is mosaic, an intriguing art form that thrives today as it did then. It is my new art medium, and I refer to it, somewhat wryly, as “needlepoint in rock.”

My late mother was a needlepointer. Over many years, I was the beneficiary of her prodigious output–needlepointed chair seats, footstools, Christmas ornaments, and stockings. I loved the giver, so I received them gratefully, and respected the perseverance that produced them. But a craft that demanded many hours of labor for very little return was not for me, a carefree, devil-may-care, action (as I thought!) draftsman. Too painstaking, too time-consuming, too tight a finished product, for someone accustomed to drawing with abandon on huge rolls of paper tacked to the wall.

I had similar feelings about the wonders of Ravenna, site of some of the most sublime mosaics ever made. They were awe-inspiring, but inhibiting.

Well. That was then, and this is now. From classes and books, I discovered more contemporary methods of making mosaics, and the veil was lifted. The deliberative process of choosing and shaping pieces of glass induces, not tedium, but the state of timelessness that social scientists nowadays call “flow,” long recognized by monks the world over, as contemplation. Nip. Nibble. Glue. Place. Suspended in the eternal moment, I am thoroughly converted to needlepointing in rock.

“A light exists in spring . . .”
— Emily Dickinson

April 10, 2012 by Alice Lees Leave a Comment

Suprasensorial, Hirshhorn Museum, February 23–May 13, 2012

Organized by MOCA, LA, and curated by Alma Ruiz

Light shows attract art moths, and Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space, the current show at the Hirshhorn Museum, has a terrific one you shouldn’t miss if you live in Washington or environs, or are visiting in the DC area.

Five Latin American artists are showcased: Lucio Fontana; Julio Le Parc; Carlos Cruz-Diez; Jesús Rafael Soto; Hélio Oiticica.

The entire show is a standout. Pictured above left, is Lucio Fontana’s neon swirl, Structure for the IX Trienniel of Milan, installed on the museum ceiling (gaze upward as you ascend to the 2nd floor on the escalator!). In the center photo, Chromosaturation, by Carlos Cruz-Diez, is comprised of three connecting rooms illuminated by blue, magenta, and green fluorescent lights.

On the lower level of the museum, prepare to be wowed by Magnetic Movie (right photo), an HD video projection created by Semiconductor. Imaginary animations filmed over a laboratory setting, the linear images relate amazingly to Fontana’s neon.

Also very much in keeping with Suprasensorial, although not an integral part of it, is a splendid fluorescent sculpture–a “barrier” by Dan Flavin, installed on the third floor.

Last, but far from least, is Doug Aitken’s enthralling nighttime video with music, SONG I, projected on the outside of the museum. As a friend remarked to me, the Hirshhorn’s squat cylinder has never looked so good! Nonetheless, it has already managed to offend a reader of the Washington Post, although I fail to see why. It lights up the city and cheers the soul, and Washington could use some of that! If Parisians and Berliners are unafraid to project light artworks onto their far more ancient structures, such as Chartres Cathedral, I don’t know why Americans need be so inhibited. SONG I isn’t spray paint, after all: just flip the switch at midnight and it disappears!

Spring forward to the Hirshhorn while there is still time to see this deLIGHTful show.