Marlin Mural Festival at VWUm

Marlin Mural Festival at VWUm

By Betsy DiJulio If you are an educator—or even if you’re not—and find yourself envious of this capstone assignment for art students at Virginia Wesleyan University (VWU), the brainchild of Professor John Rudel, you would be forgiven that deadly sin. How he managed to...
ODU Students Shine in 2024 Exhibition

ODU Students Shine in 2024 Exhibition

(Avery Keys’ Static ) By Betsy DiJulio “Is it my imagination or is ODU student work considerably stronger than in the past?” I asked John Roth, professor and chair of the ODU art department, via messenger, pressing further, “If the latter, to what do you attribute...
Threshold Rides Symbolism

Threshold Rides Symbolism

By Betsy DiJulio Janus, the two-faced Roman god, is featured on the discreet, but rather baroque, medallion mounted above the entrance to the American Academy in Rome’s main building (c. 1914) with its austere, symmetrical, and orderly Renaissance architectural...
As Goode as it Gets

As Goode as it Gets

(The exterior is aglow with European charm. Photo by CPix Aperture.)  By Betsy DiJulio Gone are the pungent aromas of hay, manure, and gasoline.  But in their place, as of January 13, are faint whiffs of damp clay, oil paint, and linseed oil. Nestled into the...
McCartney’s Gift of Photography

McCartney’s Gift of Photography

(Self-portrait. London, 1963 © 1963 – 1964 Paul McCartney under exclusive license to MPL Archive LLP) By Jeff Maisey Paul McCartney has provided longtime fans a gift this holiday season. First there was the brilliant roll out of “Now and Then” —...
ART NEWS: Remembering Anne Iott

ART NEWS: Remembering Anne Iott

(Anne Iott’s “Fallen Tree II,” Watercolor, 1998) By Betsy DiJulio On October 8, this community lost someone who has been called a “lodestar of my better self,” “a force of nature” and “a pit bull for her faculty.”  As five people who worked with Anne Iott for decades...