An Event Not to Miss - Artomatic through May 20

I'm not an artist; nor do I have a great appreciation and understanding of art. But I like it. One of my favorite things to do is to pick an art exhibit, and go mill around it for a while; just taking it in.

I can't tell you the technical details of what makes great art. For me, I enjoy art based on any of the following criteria:

• I just like the way it looks


• I have an emotional reaction to it - happy, angry, sad, whatever


• I can keep looking at it, or go back and look at it again and still enjoy it


• It makes me thing

Artomatic is a simply fantastic event that will satisfy the art lover, hater, indifferent in all of us. It's got something for everyone. My untrained art critique would say that most of the art in the show tends towards the modern side, but by no means all of it. I even ran across a room of paintings by a classically trained artist - think Rembrandt look alikes. There's paintings, sculpture, PostSecret, and more.

And of course to top it all, you have a constant array of live performance. So when your brain needs a break from the art, check out a live performance.

If I have a complaint about Artomatic it is that is is so large it can be overwhelming. But for me, that means I a)move quickly past the things that don't immediately strike me and b)will go back multiple times.

Oh, and it also has late hours - so you can make an evening out of it, rather than trying to squeeze it in to normal museum type hours.

Below is the basic 411. For more info, including a performance schedule visit the Artomatic website. To see samples of the work in Artomatic visit the Flickr photo pool.

ARTOMATIC 2007

April 13–May 20, 2007

2121 Crystal Drive, Arlington, Va.

Metro stop: Crystal City

Free admission.

HOURS

Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Noon–10 p.m.Thursday: Noon–11 p.m.Friday, Saturday: Noon–1 a.m.Closed Mondays

Photo by Flickr User: Daquella Manera

Go to Artomatic Now!

This will be a quick post. I'll write more next week, but I just got a preview of Artomatic and all I can say is go, go now. If you can make it this weekend, go, and keep going back. It's absolutely fantastic and you can spend days cruising around.

The hours are great and there are lots of performances in connections. Check out the details at http://www.artomatic.org/

To see some photo highlights, check out the Flickr photo pool

DCist also has a good write-up up.

What's Up on Fresh Aire

I'm guest blogging today. Check out my post on riding the bus over on Fresh Aire.

And if you're not already a subscriber to the What's Up! newsletter. You can read the latest edition, and subscribe by following this link.

There's some cool coming up that's highlighted in this issue including Artomatic, Balkan Beat Box, Films in the Forest, and a spring flag football league.

Also, I'm getting a sneak peak at Artomatic today. I'll get my comments and thoughts up as soon as possible - probably Monday.