Apr
15
Volunteer Art Showcase: Volunteers are the Spirit of the Smithsonian
To continue our celebration of Volunteer Appreciation Month, today we’re sharing artwork created by Smithsonian volunteers!
In February, the Office of Visitor Services and Volunteer Management hosted the first ever Smithsonian Volunteer Art Showcase, calling for original art as a response to the prompt: Capture the spirit of the Smithsonian in the springtime. With more than 50 submissions, volunteers enthusiastically answered that call!
The submissions were featured during last week’s 2nd Annual Smithsonian Volunteer Appreciation Event with Secretary Bunch. Now, we’re displaying them on Volunteer Voices so that you can take time to enjoy every piece.
Scroll through the collection below to view the work of our talented and passionate volunteers.
John T. Allen
National Museum of Natural History
RD01: 03.21.22
Title: RD01: 03.21.22
Adelle Banks
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Anne Brill
Smithsonian American Art Museum
National Portrait Gallery
Tourist’s Delight
Title: Tourist’s Delight
Kim Carter
Smithsonian Associates
A mixed media piece on newspaper and canvas (36×36).
Cynthia Cox-Grollman
National Museum of African American History and Culture
A painting I made that captures the essence of Spring on the National Mall with Cherry Blossoms, community, kites soaring in the air and freedom…and the museum in the background watching and welcoming it all.
Donna Cramer
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Renwick Gallery
Glads in Alma’s Garden
Title: Glads in Alma’s Garden
Artist Alma Thomas donated many of her wonderful paintings to the Smithsonian, what a priceless gift to our Nation! As a Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) docent I have been fortunate to share her work with visitors. Last spring, unable to visit SAAM in person, I found a way to appreciate Thomas’ work, reflect the season and capture the strange times we are living through. This painting’s background is based on Thomas’ “White Roses Sing and Sing” (SAAM 1980.36.3). Note the addition of Covid looking red spheres. Thomas grew roses in her garden, my red gladioli are homegrown.
Camilla Day
National Museum of Natural History
William (Bill) E. Dasch, Jr.
National Museum of Natural History
Joanne Dea
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Deborah D. Dixon
Smithsonian Gardens
This is a hibiscus grown in my home garden in Washington, D.C., in the Brookland neighborhood.
Angela Draughn
National Museum of African American History and Culture
J. Echiverri
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Walter J. Faillace
National Museum of Natural History
The photo is of Arcella, a genus of amoebae that forms a shell around it. This genus lives in fresh water, mosses and rarely in soil. The circular shell has a central pore where stubby pseudopodia (feet) emerge, as visualized at 3 and 6 – 7 o’clock. The shell darkens with age as it accumulates more minerals without debris. (Photo was taken with an Olympus CX 23 microscope and Apple 11s iPhone camera using a free hand technique).
Harold Goldstein
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Magda Gomez
National Air and Space Museum
Fun Colors – Latin American Carnival
Title: Fun Colors – Latin American Carnival
Spring Time
Title: Spring Time
Ann Gordon
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Kew Gardens, London
Title: Kew Gardens, London
Watercolor, 19” by 25″
John Grimsley
National Air and Space Museum
It’s Always Springtime Under the Sea
Title: It’s Always springtime under the sea
The work is a 12”x21” stained glass work that hangs in our sunroom. A majority of the work is traditional stained glass; however, each fish was fused individually from dozens of pieces of colored glass to make each fish. Each completed fish was then inserted into the piece using traditional stained glass lead came processes to arrive at the complete project. Kind of looks like something from the aquarium or at one of the Smithsonian’s oceanographic research facilities.
Gargi Gupta
National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
National Portrait Gallery
Spring Ikebana Arrangement
Title: Spring Ikebana Arrangement
Vase made with silk fabric, Dried whole and pressed flowers with dried fig leaves in the background
Julia Holloway
Smithsonian Castle
A photo of a peachy-orange hibiscus flower I took in one of the Smithsonian gardens
A needlework picture that I did based on a pattern I found reprinted in a book that had collection of patterns from early 1900s. It wasn’t printed on the canvas. I had to do it by counting stitches. The subject (a prancing horse with ferny plants around it) makes me think of the Smithsonian–handicrafts, historic design, nature subjects (horse and plants).
Katherine Hrechka
National Museum of Natural History
Micromineral Diamonds
I desire to share my hobby of collecting microminerals. These are four micromineral diamonds from my collection.
Thomas Kibalo
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Michelle LeTourneur
National Museum of Asian Art
The Speckled Lotus
Title: Speckled Lotus
Painting on cold press watercolor paper with sumi ink and watercolor, 10” x 14”
Layered Lotus
Title: Layered Lotus
Painting on hot press watercolor paper with sumi ink and watercolor, 8-3/8” x 13″
Suzy McIntire
National Museum of Natural History
Peter McSwain
National Museum of Natural History
Renee Miller
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Title: Signs of Spring Reflected
Sharon Y. Ogunfiditimi
National Museum of African Art
Title: A Circle of African Women
Renelda Peldunas-Harter
National Museum of Natural History
Title: COVID Bucky Ball
Marla Redwine
National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Power of a Woman
Title: The Power of a Woman
Painted in acrylics.
Serena Reeder
Smithsonian Associates
Maria Paula Rennis
National Museum of the American Indian/George Gustav Heye Center
Stephen Roberts
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Ashley Robertson
National Museum of African American History and Culture
If/Then
Title: If/Then
Dimensions: 24″ x 24″; Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Rebecca Rose
Smithsonian Associates
Becoming
Title: Becoming
We are all in the process of becoming, evolving into a higher, greater version of ourselves. We are constantly changing, yet we don’t even notice we are changing until its already happened, because change is the act of becoming. We see it happen so naturally every day. The sun sets, the night rolls in, the stars shine and the moon glows. We continue to change, tethered to time and influenced by everything and everyone around us. As we are all on our way of becoming – something, someone else.
Lori Niland Rounds
Smithsonian Associates
The Smithsonian in Spring
Title: Smithsonian in Spring
Medium: Carved encaustic painting with India ink; Size: 12″ x 12″
Molly Kelly Ryan
National Museum of Natural History
Carol Schoenfeld
Smithsonian American Art Museum
National Portrait Gallery
Look What Popped Up in the Garden
Title: Look what Popped up in the Garden
Helen Silberminz
Smithsonian Associates
Rajeshwar (Roger) Swarup
National Air and Space Museum
In Search of Soul
Title: In Search of Souls
I am a new teenager
Title: I am a new teenager
This was written for my granddaughter when she became a teenager. It captures the new world of use of iPhone and other high-tech tools extensively used by the teenagers.
Jaya Viswanathan
National Museum of Natural History
An ephemeral moment
Title: An ephemeral moment Ink and color pencil on paper.
Glasswings are hard to spot in the rainforests where they live, with translucent wings.
Soar
Title: Soar
Ink on vellum.
James E. Wesley
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Looking at the times!
Title: Looking at the times!
Gretchen Whitney
Smithsonian Associates
Collection of Spring Things
Title: Collection of Spring Things
20 ” × 15″, Acrylic on canvas paper, March 2022
Anna-Maria Wilder
National Museum of Natural History
Ethyl Payne’s Hat
am submitting a collage of my interpretation of Ethyl Payne’s Hat from the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. Ethyl Payne was a civil rights activist and journalist. For me, Payne’s hat captures the spirit of the Smithsonian in the springtime… the color of the flowers in her hat remind me of the cherry blossoms in spring. Collage consisting of newspaper, pencil-drawn, and water-colored paper cut-outs and ink.
Ray Womble
National Air and Space Museum
Lilies of Springtime
Title: Lilies of Springtime
It is oil on pre-treated canvas, about 6” x 9”. I was inspired by flower paintings I had seen at SAAM and NGA where I liked to sketch.
Dorothy Yuan
National Museum of Natural History
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Posted: 15 April 2022
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