It is pretty hard to find someone on the Mid-Shore that has had such a remarkable professional life as Bryan Christy. Lawyer, reporter, and now author, the full-time resident of Talbot County plans to talk about these different career paths as the featured lecturer at the Oxford Community Center on August 2.

From a kid growing up in a funeral home family (think Six Feet Under) who would grow up to be a lawyer, award-winning journalist, and finally a rising star in the crime novel genre, Bryan has made it a habit to go against the grain of traditional professional expectations.

Bryan expects to talk about this remarkable journey at the OCC next week, but the Spy thought our viewers would enjoy a sneak preview.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the Oxford Community Center please go here. Bryan Christy’s books can be purchased here.

It’s not that I didn’t believe Mary Carole McCauley in her excellent story in The Sunday Sun just after the opening of the eye-popping Joan Mitchell retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). I’d just seen Guarding the Art, a show curated by museum security staff members, and couldn’t resist asking one of the security guards if anyone had asked them something along these lines: “I didn’t know Joni Mitchell painted?”

Satisfying my curiosity, a couple of security guards verified the Joan v. Joni confusion among some of those viewing this show. Apparently, a few of Joni’s fans never realized that the singer, perhaps best known for her colorful “Big Yellow Taxi” single, was also an artist who considered herself a painter first and a musician second (although these days, she rarely sings in public due to a brain aneurysm).

Joan Mitchell in her Vetheuil studio with two of her 1983 paintings

The other Mitchell — Joan — whose monumental-scale, multi-panel abstract paintings explode with colors off entire walls of several galleries that struggle to contain the power of her brushstrokes, suffered lifelong mental health challenges. Possibly breaking Woody Allen’s record, she was treated by the same psychoanalyst for 30 years who died a decade before Mitchell succumbed to cancer in 1992.

Born in 1925 to wealthy parents in Chicago, Mitchell had the advantage of skipping out of Smith College to study art in Paris. It changed her life and might’ve changed the lives of many women artists who came after her, especially in the abstract movement that was the focus of her career. Perhaps reflecting jealousy over the attention and success of such female contemporaries as Helen Frankenthaler and Baltimore’s Grace Hartigan – Mitchell criticized them as “those two bitches.” Not to mention male counterparts to whom she was later compared, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning, Mitchell was not genuinely recognized in her 67-year lifetime. But in 2021, nearly 20 years after her death, her 1962 painting 12 Hawks at 3 O’Clock sold for $19.5 million at auction. Not that Mitchell necessarily needed the cash, but the affirmation of her artistry might’ve been nice.

This is a not-to-miss retrospective and afterward, take the time to stroll through the museum’s sculpture garden and then reserve a table for lunch at Gertrude’s elegant café. Joan Mitchell’s exhibition continues at BMA through August 14. But if you can’t make it there, don’t despair. In the fall, the show opens in Paris, Mitchell’s expatriate home. (Hey, it’s worth the voyage. Tell them you heard about it on Talbot Spy.)

I recommend starting Mitchell’s show with her first diptych, The Bridge. This 1956 abstract makes the relatively obvious one-side-to-the-other connection. It may not be realistically observable, but let your mind’s eye, enhanced by a bird’s-eye perspective, decipher the imagery.

Mitchell’s moods, reflected in both mind and place, depending on her mental state and physical surroundings, are evident in artistic periods skillfully delineated by BMA curator Kathy Siegel. It is most apparent in the brilliant sunny yellows of her Sunflower VI triptych painted near the French village of Vetheuil, where she bought a home once owned by Claude Monet with inheritance from her mother. Compare that vividness to her later darker period, 1987-89, represented in part by No Birds, suggestive of Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows, reflecting his torments while living in a creative frenzy, like Mitchell’s, near Arles.

This is a not-to-miss retrospective and afterward, take the time to stroll through the museum’s sculpture garden and then reserve a table for lunch at Gertrude’s elegant café. Joan Mitchell’s exhibition continues at BMA through August 14. But if you can’t make it there, don’t despair. In the fall, the show opens in Paris, Mitchell’s expatriate home. (Hey, it’s worth the voyage. Tell them you heard about it on Talbot Spy.)

JOAN MITCHELL
Through August 14, Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays, until 9 p.m. on Thursdays; artbma.org

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About this time last year, Daniel Weiss served as competition judge of the 17th annual Plein Art Festival Easton. And now he’s back, this time judging Fabulous Forgeries at downtown Easton’s Troika Gallery during the week of the 18th annual Plein Air Festival. His encore comes barely a week after Weiss announced his intention to retire from one of the most prestigious art jobs anywhere on the planet.

Daniel Weiss judges paintings in the Fabulous Forgeries at Troika Gallery

“Leading the Met has been an extraordinary honor,” Weiss understated in his retirement announcement, giving the board of directors about a year’s notice before leaving his post as president and CEO of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In May, he gave a personal tour of the Met to an Easton Elementary School art teacher, Anna Matachik, who conducts after-school programming for her students related to the Avalon Foundation’s annual Plein Air Festival.

So what brings Weiss back to Easton and Plein Air year after year? For one thing, he and his wife Sandra have a home in Oxford where they’re likely to spend more time than occasional weekends starting next June. For another, he’s a distinguished art scholar and appreciator who recognizes that Easton’s Plein Air is a premier art happening of its kind.

Meanwhile, you can see Weiss’ winning selections of the Fabulous Forgeries daily throughout the festival and during regular gallery hours through late August, when favorites among audience-choice voters will be announced. The so-called “forgeries” are honest copies of famous-artist paintings by Troika’s roster of regional artists whose works are regularly up for show and sale. The Judge’s Choice award went to Laura Era for her Watching the Breakers after Winslow Homer. Weiss also recognized Mark Hiles as the Most Believable in the show for The Brook after John Singer Sargent and Deborah Elville as the Most Creative for her Irises after Van Gogh.

Troika Gallery, 9 S. Harrison St., Easton. “Fabulous Forgeries” and “Raoul Middleman, a Life Well-Painted,” through August 29, troikagallery.com. Plein Air Festival Easton, through July 24 at various locations in and around Easton. pleinaireaston.com

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When the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra introduced its next maestro, it became the first major American symphony orchestra to hire an African-American as

Conductor Jonathon Heyward

its music director. Jonathon Heyward, 29, will succeed Marin Alsop starting in the fall 2023 season. When she took the BSO job in 2007, Alsop became the first woman to lead a major American symphony orchestra, loosely defined as one of the top 25 in the nation in terms of size and reputation.

Heyward, a native of Charleston, S.C., originally studied and played cello, but turned his attention early toward conducting, winning podium positions with orchestras in England and Germany. In the U.S. he won acclaim as guest conductor for symphony orchestras in Atlanta, Detroit and San Diego, catching the attention of the BSO search committee tasked with finding a worthy successor to Alsop.

Heyward won rave reviews in his BSO debut in March with a challenging program embracing both diversity and classical tradition. Before his five-year contract as music director begins, Heyward will conduct the orchestra at its main concert venues in Baltimore and Bethesda, Md., as music director-designate near the end of Alsop’s tenure.

Heyward’s appointment comes on the heels of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s announcement last month of Michael Repper, 31, as music director, succeeding Julien Benichou.

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The Loston Harris Trio plays at the Carlyle

Chesapeake Music will present a treat for jazz lovers at the sumptuous Ebenezer Theater when they host the Loston Harris Trio, the resident jazz ensemble of Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle in New York City. Bemelmans Bar is famous for headlining greats like Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Elaine Stritch, and John Pizzarelli..

The Loston Harris Trio will perform for one night only. Expect to hear Harris’ soulful vocals and piano virtuosity accompanied in his trio by Mike Lee on tenor sax and Gianluca Renzi on bass. Together they play their interpretations of great American classics. Harris combines familiar jazz riffs with gospel and blues as you’d expect of a protege of Ellis Marsalis, father of his famed family of musicians, including Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Harris is also reminiscent in his vocal and piano stylings of another elder Marsalis protege – Harry Connick Jr.

The Loston Harris Trio concert, 8 p.m. August 13, Ebenezer Theater, 17 S. Washington St., Easton. chesapeakemusic.org

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts journalist now living in Easton.

Shari Smigo, owner and Director of Mid Shore Dance Academy (MSDA), hadn’t really considered owning a dance studio. She had taken ballet classes as a youngster and danced through high school and college. She even danced while working full-time. But then kids came along, and dancing and family became too much of a balancing act. Suddenly, the idea of having a dance studio began to make sense. It was something she could do during the evenings when her husband was home and could be with their four kids. 

Shari Smigo, owner and Director of Mid Shore Dance Academy

So Mrs. Shari (as she is known at her school) chose a safe way to start by teaching at the Academy Art Museum, where there would be no overhead or rent for her to worry about. But 13 years ago, after outgrowing the space, she took the plunge and opened a location in Easton. At the time, she was the only teacher to the thirty kids attending the school.

As the business grew, she added additional instructors, more studio space, and even a new location in Centreville. She still considers expanding, but not without the proper staff. “Here’s the thing,” says Mrs. Shari, “I limit myself because of the caliber of stock of instructor that I prefer to have. I want them to have more than, ‘Oh, I took ballet once a week until eighth grade, and I’m now ready to teach.’” She’s proud that her teachers have a mix of pre-professional/university training and professional performance experience; even prouder, some are former students, including one of her daughters. “Some have done great things,” she said. “such as dancing with the Washington and Joffrey Ballet. Many dancers have continued their dance training at various prestigious universities, including both of my daughters.”

The caliber of instructors is only one of the reasons why MSDA is successful. The studios offer a variety of options to dancers from 2 ½ years of age and up in Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Hip Hop, Contemporary, and Jazz. But it is ballet that is the basis of all they do. “I believe in that classical foundation, although we teach a broad range of things,” says Smigo. We are aware that not everybody wants to be a ballerina, they may love to dance, but ballet may not move fast enough for them.”

Whatever the format, all this dancing is really good for a child’s mental and physical development. It is why performing arts is at the top of every list of the best extracurricular activity for a child or a teen. It also builds self-confidence and creates lifelong friendships, added Mrs. Shari. “I think the biggest thing I see with those that have been together for a long time is that they grow, function, and work as a group. If one person doesn’t get a particular step or choreography, somebody else does. So they start to share a brain, for lack of a better word. It’s one of the neatest things to watch them grow into these cohesive groups.”

COVID, of course, put a pause to that development. “We’ve definitely seen a difference in the kids,” she said. “They didn’t have the opportunity to learn or practice for a while, and they lost some of those skills. Children benefit greatly from being engaged in a group activity, goal setting, and teamwork. Something we missed during the pandemic. It’s a relief to be together again.”

However, some changes instituted during the COVID restrictions have been kept. Before the pandemic, MSDA had a couple of observation weeks where parents could come in and watch their children practice in the studio. It would get very crowded, and with COVID, this no longer was appropriate. So now, the studio live streams the classes in the waiting room while parents wait. It’s turned out to be beneficial for both parents and their children. “It’s good for the younger kids,” says Mrs. Shari, “who may be a little unsure. So we tell them, ‘Mommy’s right out there and seeing you,’ and it gives them that little confidence boost. Then for the ones that may not be paying attention in class, it’s also a reminder that Mommy’s watching them. Of course, for the parents, it gives them an understanding of the formal dance world that not everyone gets to see.” 

Embracing technology appeals to–what Mrs. Shari calls–her tech geek side. One area where she says she ‘gets lost for days’ is music selection from streaming services. Dance studios years ago would hire a pianist who would play a melody with the appropriate tempo to go with the exercise during classes. There is a certain nostalgia for dancers who were part of the live music generation.

“Every once in a while, when I take a workshop, and they use live music, my heart just sings, and I grin like the village idiot the whole time. Yeah, I miss live music. But we’ve gone from records, cassette tapes, and CDs to services like Spotify, which will give me anything I want. If I’m looking for music that goes with pirouettes (turns across the floor), there will be a long list of options, and I spend hours listening to pop tunes or musicals that have been transcribed–I guess that’s the best word–into a dance class format.”

So for those interested in the available programs, most classes are offered in four 8-week sessions, culminating in a June recital. They also do a showcase for family and friends and a smaller holiday show with the performance company students (who are selected through an audition process). However, depending on how COVID will be in the fall, she hopes to expand that to a larger group of dancers. The troupe is open to performing at other opportunities as well.

If all of this seems like fun, it is. It’s difficult not to feel the passion for dancing evident when Mrs. Shari speaks about “her” kids and her commitment to their development as dancers. But it’s more than that. She also hopes to instill in them a lifelong appreciation for the arts. “I am so lucky,” she says, that I get to do what I love. I love to teach, and I love to work with the kids. I love all of those aspects of it.” 

For additional info: https://www.midshoredance.org

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

Jill Basham in her studio

Jill Basham of Trappe anticipated a sky that would develop like an old-fashioned photograph in the darkroom magic trick of dunking glossy paper into a pan of chemicals. The sky above Harris Creek didn’t look much like the one Basham was painting at the moment. Nor that of most others spread out along the shoreline in the hours leading up to Plein Air Easton’s “Meet the Artists” party Saturday evening at historic Langdon Farm between Sherwood and Tilghman Island.

Basham has been a regular at the Plein Air Easton Festival, now in its 18th year, since 2012. “Events like this can make painting a career for us. Absolutely,” she says. Basham’s paintings can be appreciated – and purchased – at Trippe Gallery in Easton year-round. But the roiling turbulence of gray and atmospheric gloom on her canvas did not reflect the sunny sky-blue interrupted by cotton-ball puffs of white clouds that I saw, shading my eyes.

“I’m anticipating a thunderstorm,” Basham explained.

Jill Basham’s framed Langdon Farm View oil painting

Just up the creek from Basham’s easel, a Plein Air first-timer from Wisconsin was painting a beach-and-estuary vista with a treeline anchoring the horizon. Marc Anderson’s sky was as yet undefined. “A bunch of my friends have painted here and did pretty well,” he said. “So I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m told that people here really appreciate art.”

Debra Huse of California should know. This is her 14th year at Plein Air Easton. She won a “Best Light” award one year and a quick-draw prize another. (Sort of sounds like a scene from “Gunsmoke,” except the “weapon” is maybe a watercolor brush.) “Waterways and boats, architecture and agriculture, you find beauty everywhere,” Huse says as she’s painting a tree she cannot identify. “It’s deciduous,” I offered unhelpfully.

Christine Lashley of Reston, Va., says, “It’s wonderful to be able to do what we do. I

prepare for a festival like this a week ahead. It’s kind of like a concert performance. When it’s on, you’ve gotta bring it.” She’s doing a sky-meets-water-and-lawn scene, trying like Basham, to forecast what the sky will look like by the time her painting is mounted for show-and-sale under the sponsoring Avalon Foundation’s tent. Yes, it’s almost a live concert event.

Kim VanDerHoek, also from California – yes, it’s a big state, but in the smaller world of plein-air vagabonds, she and Huse know each other – is a big fan of Easton’s festival. “It’s an incredible show. And they treat us really, really well. They help out in any way they can,” she says as members of the Avalon staff pull up in one of the ubiquitous golf carts to ask if Kim needs a bottle of water. “They believe that artists can do their best work if they feel appreciated. We get that here. Even the watermen notice us. ‘Oh, you must be here for Plein Air,’ one of them said as I painted near a dock.”

Moving away from the shoreline, I encountered a very different painting style. Beth Bathe of Lancaster, Pa., was creating an up-close, impressionistic interpretation of a tree branch in an apple orchard near the Langdon Farm pool and enclosed standalone dining room. She was going for a monochromatic image with strokes of green-to-red shine on immature apples. This is Bathe’s eighth year at Plein Air Easton. “I sold ten paintings last year,” she said and would sell another on this day. “It’s like the most prestigious event of its kind in the country,” she says, adding that a friend who didn’t make the final roster of artists this year got a call just hours earlier allowing him to enter due to another’s cancellation. “If you get that call from Plein Air Easton, you get here if you possibly can.”

Prices set by the artists are not negotiable, as a share of the sale goes to Avalon Foundation’s support for its myriad arts programs.

When Jill Basham’s Langdon Farm View went up under the party tent next to the circa 18th-century manor house, her sky looked just like the one then hovering overhead with the portend of an ensuing downpour — which ensued. Her painting sold for a whopping $5,400. Christine Lashley’s similarly anticipatory Cloud Progression went for $2,100. Debra Huse’s Artist Paradise, depicting an unnamed tree, fetched $1,500, while Beth Bathe’s An Apple a Day impressionist painting went for $950. I’m no pricing expert. But I consider that a steal. The barns near the entrance were one of the most popular subjects of the one-day sale of fresh paintings. Renaldo Dorado’s Langdon Farm Life watercolor, first up under the tent, sold for $1,800.

But this was just a preliminary. Now the Plein Air Easton competition begins with artists spread out to sites they have, no doubt, already selected around Talbot County or nearby regional sites. Their paintings go on view day by day this week at the Waterfowl Building in downtown Easton with the smell of wet oil permeating the gallery space. Winning entries will be exhibited at Academy Art Museum across the street starting on Saturday. Those will likely be dry by then.

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts writer and editor now living in Easton.

Plein Air Easton Festival

Art show and sale, Waterfowl Building, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 40 S. Harrison St. Easton

Quick Draw Competition, in and around downtown Easton, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday

Artisan’s Market, outdoors near Waterfowl Building, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday 

Competition and Winner’s show and sale, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Academy Art Museum, 106 South St., Easton
Local Color exhibit and sale, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Christ Church, 111 S. Harrison St., Easton, pleinaireaston.com

Judge’s Choice: Walters Art Museum CEO Julia Marciari-Alexander discusses her choices for Plein Air Easton competition winners, 2 p.m. Sunday, Waterfowl Building

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Pictures: Jill Basham in her studio