Artomatic in Washington DC is more alive than ever

Samuel Lora 2009: One of Dana's paintings futured at the Artomatic exhibit.

From May 29th of this year many have enjoyed the pleasures of being exposed to amazing visual treats. The Artomatic exhibit, located by the Navy Yard metro station by the Nationals Stadium, has been entertaining an estimated audience of more than 70, 000 people. The month-long festival is celebrating its tenth year anniversary in a big way. With more than 1,500 participants, the exhibit is taking over an entire building, showing in no less than nine whole floors. There is everything in there for all the creative types. Whether paintings, caricatures, installation art or theatrical productions and poetry readings, anything can be found in Artomatic. Alongside the artist’s exhibits, the festival has four stages, four bars and a lounge on each one of the floors. There is no reason to pout while visiting this amazing event. The great news is that this will be going on until the 5th of July.

The event, which was started back in 1999, has grown astronomically since its humble beginnings in a laundry building with only a handful of artists interested in allowing the Washington DC area’s art to come to the masses. Eventually, the first festival brought in roughly 20,000 visitors, a little less than a third of this year’s audience. Thanks to such sponsors as Monument Realty, Red Bull: Energy Drink, and Suntrust Bank, this festival is stronger than ever.

One of the standouts of the second floor exhibits, is Chris Bishop, an artist who, in his own words, states that his art is an “homage to pretty girls and robots” (his two favorite things).He uses bold lines, simple cartoons and strong colors to bring these to life.

The most provocative exhibit belongs to Dana Ellyn, whose oil paintings leave a mark upon any pair of eyes that dare be exposed to them on the ninth floor. As she explains herself, being half Catholic, half Jewish, really didn’t make the topic of religion any easier. Now she describes her religious observations as atheistic agnosticism. Wanting not to offend but to offer a giggle here and there, Dana wants her works to be a source of discussion.

From Tracey Clarke’s mystical oil paintings on the third floor, to Twisted Tiding’s twisted greetings cards on the eighth floor (“I would do anything for you! But first, could you wax, or shave, or something?”), to The Sarah Palin Tribute Band (whose special performance is tonight at 7:00pm on the first floor), the Artomatic Festival is a mesh of both gay, straight (and the in betweens), mixed with artists from the UK to Mexico, and it’s likely to lift everyone's spirits by the end of its run