The I N VOL.30, NO.9
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More than 200,000 readers throughout Greater Washington
Celebrating Area Artists
SEPTEMBER 2018
I N S I D E …
SEE SPECIAL INSERT WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8
From limestone sculptures and stained glass, to photos from as far away as the Galapagos, to paintings that detail faces old and young, to poems that evoke love and loss, more than 900 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and poems poured into the Beacon’s Celebration of the Arts — our art competition for amateurs over 50. Not only was the number of entries impressive; the quality of the works was also outstanding. A selection of entries appears below. To see
the winning entries and read about their creators, as well as our panel of judges, look inside this issue for a special Celebration of the Arts pull-out section. You will also have an opportunity to see their artworks in person at gallery exhibitions later this year. Details are inside. Don’t forget to keep this special section and share it with your friends. We hope to see your artistic skills in the next competition!
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Say you saw it in the Beacon
Winning photographers’ unique worldview By Carol Sorgen Whether they’re exploring the world at large or right outside their window, the award-winning photographers of the Beacon’s Celebration of the Arts see the world through a different lens — both literally and figuratively. Whether you’re inspired, entertained, enchanted or awe-struck, you will be sure to be touched by what they have seen and chosen to show us. The following winners were selected from among 208 entries.
First Place Vella Kendall, Monkton, Md. A r etir ed nurse who worked for many years at the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s dedicated HIV unit, Kendall’s development as a photographer was sparked one day when she was asked to take photos of her colleagues on the night shift. Since then, the 71-year-old has taken photography classes through the Community College of Baltimore County and Johns Hopkins’ Odyssey Program. But she says she is largely self-taught, “with help from my husband, who would have to change my lenses because I was afraid to!” “I found photography was a great stress reliever from my job. I would come home after my shift and photograph flowers that my husband would plant for me,” Kendall said. “Then I noticed the little bugs on the flowers, and became fascinated with them, especially after enlarging [their images] on the computer.” When her husband put up bird feeders and Kendall bought a telephoto lens to photograph the birds from a distance, she found she fell in love with wildlife photography. She continues to hone her technique, using as subjects her dog, backyard birds,
flowers and local wildlife at Conowingo Dam and the national wildlife refuges. Now, Kendall and her husband have a small trailer in which they travel around the country, photographing landscapes, birds and wildlife, as well as traveling abroad for culture and photographic opportunities. Kendall has traveled to Africa three times, and that’s where she took the image that won her first place in the Celebration. She was visiting a small, rather primitive village in the countryside that had no running water or electricity. The family would trek to the local well for water to wash clothes and to cook with on the open-fire outdoor stove. The woman whose face Kendall photographed was one of the family’s elders. “I felt [she] proudly showed her life on her face, and the depth of her soul in her eyes,” Kendall said. Kendall’s photography has won many other awards, including First Place in Photography at the 2015 Baltimore County Baby Boomer/Senior Expo Art Show and Second
A Hard Life
By Vella Kendall
Place in the Open Category at the 2018 Mar yland Photographic Alliance Show. Kendall belongs to the Baltimore Camera Club (which is part of the Maryland Photographic Alliance) and to the Photographic Society of America.
Second Place Rich Isaacman, Edgewater, Md. Rich Isaacman, 65, spent most of his career at NASA as an astronomer which, he said, feeds directly into two other loves: travel and photography. “Astronomy, of course, is famous for its spectacular imagery. And astronomers also tend to travel a lot, since observatories tend to be located in remote places,” he said. “Of course, now we have many [observatories] in orbit as well, but we don’t get to travel to them!” Isaacman attended graduate school in the Netherlands. After he earned his doctorate there in astrophysics, he spent three years doing a post doc in Hawaii. There he worked at an observatory at 13,800 feet atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island. “Living in that spectacular place really sparked my interest in photography, and it became an integral part of my travels,” Isaacman said. He began to become serious about photography in 2011, when a family event in Bangladesh made him especially appreciate the colors, people and rituals of such faraway places. Since his time in Hawaii, Isaacman has traveled to more than 50 countries. “I try to capture the landscapes, ‘humanscapes,’ and street scenes that make such
places exotic and special, and which often form our most crystalline memories of a trip,” he said. “In short, exotic travel and photography are very deeply intertwined for me.” In the past six months, Isaacman has become interested in augmenting his usual travel photos with drone photography. When circumstances allow, he now shoots aerial landscapes in addition to his street scenes and ground-based landscapes. Isaacman also writes a monthly travel column, accompanied by his photos, for a local magazine, South River Living, as well as a travel blog featuring his travel journal and photos, at https://richandalice.wordpress.com. His blog has 500 followers in more than
Rainy Day at the Greek Cafe
By Richard Isaacman
a dozen countries. He sells his photos at various local art exhibitions and online at https://rich-isaacman.pixels.com.
Third Place Richard Weiblinger, Laurel, Md. Richard Weiblinger, 70, has enjoyed a lengthy career in the scie nces. A bi olo gist, who also pursued graduate work at Johns See PHOTOGRAPHY page B3
CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS WINNERS following page 26
L E I S U R E & T R AV E L
The simple pleasures of Jamaica; plus, Montana’s glaciers and grizzlies, public transit with a view, and Bob Levey’s love of station wagons page 40 TECHNOLOGY k Telemedicine comes home
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FITNESS & HEALTH 10 k Review drug coverage now k New Alzheimer’s developments LAW & MONEY k Finding forgotten assets k Stock-picking computers
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SPOTLIGHT ON AGING k Newsletter for D.C. seniors
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ADVERTISER DIRECTORY
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