5 Oct 2022

Home » Arts/Entertainment » Update on Greenbelt Artists: Amanda Spaid, Poetry+Art Show, and Paul Downs, Too!

Update on Greenbelt Artists: Amanda Spaid, Poetry+Art Show, and Paul Downs, Too!

by Susan Harris | posted in: Arts/Entertainment |

Show of Amanda Spaid’s Bird Paintings at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge

Now through the end of October, catch Amanda Spaid’s wonderful paintings of birds in the Hollingsworth Gallery at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel. She’s also created an online version where we can listen to individual bird songs and read stories about individual pieces. Here’s an example:

Screen shot of Chickadee painting and info, with audio of its song.

Amanda moved to Greenbelt less than a year ago, when she immediately got involved in our arts community, including joining the Greenbelt Arts Advisory Board. Amanda has also joined Greenbelt Online’s Creatives Directory – here’s her page.

Innovative Ekphrastic Fantastic Art+Poetry Exhibit at the New Deal Cafe

Examples of poems and the art they inspired – or vice versa!

Don’t miss the innovative art show on display at the New Deal Cafe through October 24!. It’s the “Ekphrastic Fantastic” Art Show, with 9 artists creating works illustrating 9 poems, and 9 poems that were written to tell stories about 9 works of visual art. So cool! (“Ekphrastic” poems are those that illustrate works of visual art.)

A big thanks to Julie Winters and Friends of New Deal Cafe Arts for the ingenious idea of the show, plus the many creative Greenbelters who participated. Many of the artists and poets gathered for this group photo during the October 2 reception for the show.

Paul Downs Joins “Greenbelt Creatives” Directory

One more Greenbelt artist joined our Creatives Directory recently – popular stick artist Paul Downs. After one of his fans alerted us that he was missing from the group we quickly remedied the situation with the Paul Downs Stick Art page. He now joins 14 other visual artists as well as 48 others – musicians, writers, filmmakers and more. There are 63 Greenbelt creatives in the directory!

(Paul was Greenbelt’s 2017 Citizen of the Year for his work in saving the Greenbelt Forest Preserve. Story in the News Review.)

If you’re a creator of artistic works of any kind who lives or works in Greenbelt and would like to join this group, just email editor@greenbeltonline.org.

Some of the 15 visual artists with listings in the Greenbelt Creatives Directory

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Susan Harris

Susan started blogging about Greenbelt soon after moving here in 2012, and that blog has grown into this nonprofit community website. She also created and curates the Greenbelt Maryland YouTube channel. In 2021 Susan joined the Board of Directors of Greenbelt Access TV. Retired from garden writing and teaching, she continues to blog weekly at GardenRant.com.