First Friday Art Opening – Scott Jost

by cbhendricks | Oct 1, 2018 | artwork, community, First Friday

Each month on the First Friday we host a new artist art opening in our building’s 2nd floor gallery at the Chesapeake Western Depot at 141 W. Bruce St. (second floor entrance is on Chesapeake). Artwork will remain on exhibit through the month. Come view the show and get a tour the Depot! We will have food and drink available!

October 5, 2018

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Gaines Group Architects

141 W. Bruce St. Suite 201

Harrisonburg, VA

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Confluences

Scott Jost

The Chesapeake Bay and its watershed extend over parts of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Chesapeake Bay is the third largest estuary in the world, and its watershed is home to more than 17 million people. In these photographs and my forthcoming book, Confluence: Rivers and Streams in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, I am creating a portrait of this vast historical and ecological treasure by focusing on its river and stream origins and confluences. To date, I’ve photographed approximately 180 sites in 6 states.

Differences in the landscapes surrounding places where rivers and streams originate reveal the Chesapeake Bay watershed’s tremendous range and diversity. Confluences are the points at which waters originating in varied geographies and ecosystems within the watershed meet. They are often historically important in relation to settlement, industry, commerce, transportation and defense, and represent important intersections of nature and culture.

Confluence: Rivers and Streams in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, expected from George F. Thompson Publishing in fall 2019, will include 70 full-color panoramic photographs, an essay on the photography by Seth Feman, Curator of Photography at the Chrysler Museum of Art, several additional brief essays written by environmental historians and others with specific expertise in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, maps, and interpretive captions.

Through these photographs, I hope to contribute to a greater understanding of the historical and contemporary Bay and its watershed, and to reflect on its prospects for the future.

Ultimately, I hope my work can contribute to an enhanced awareness of and appreciation for our local, regional and national waterways.

First Friday Art Opening – Viktoriya Samoylov

by cbhendricks | Sep 3, 2018 | artwork, community, First Friday

First Friday Art Opening with Viktoriya Samoylov

“Significantly Cheaper than Therapy”

September 7, 2018

5pm – 8pm

Gaines Group Architects

141 W. Bruce St. – Second Floor

Harrisonburg, Va

Acrylic, Oil, Digital Drawing, and Resin Art.

I am Viktoriya, a Ukrainian-American in the Shenandoah Valley.

This current selection of pieces is a reflection of personal changes within myself specifically in the past few years. Local places, places I’ve traveled, portraits of family, and art experiments are included.

Subject matter and mediums are consistently changing. With time, I’ve begun creating pieces that carry an emotional connection to me, as opposed to simply a visual appeal or statement.

Though I no longer own most of the pieces I’ve created in the past fifteen or so years, I begin the arrangement with a self-portrait of myself that I created as a preteen, of myself, age 10.

It ends with another, of myself, age 29, and 11 months.

Follow my journey: Instagram @onepixelcreative

Past First Friday Events

Community means helping each other without expectation of anything in return

by cbhendricks | Aug 17, 2018 | citizen architect, community

I have heard that true service is when you help someone who can never help you in return. It is a call to action to reach out a helping hand to others. It is the Rotary calling card – service above self. It drives us to support one another without worry of labels, politics, or greed. This has become a main focus for my design work through my career. I want to build a better and stronger community through design. This means designing houses for clients that are energy-efficient. This means reducing overall demand on our power grid and our impacts on climate change through fossil fuel consumption reduction. This means capturing rain water to reduce erosion and flooding downstream. This means designing apartment communities in ways that bring neighbors together to meet each other. Design can solve a lot of problems, and it can also build good. To me, this is why I design. As Sam Mockbee said “everyone, rich or poor, deserves a shelter for the soul.” This comes in all forms of service and community work. It comes as drawings of a new project. It also comes in the form of sharing advice on how to improve your building to reduce your utility costs. It comes from teaching young people the value of design. It comes through service to my community. To me community means helping each other without expectation of anything in return.

A story of impact from design

Renew Rocktown arranged for Our Community Place to get a free energy audit through the Sustainable Building Coalition in Harrisonburg. Energy Audits is a service our firm is able to provide in partnership with equipment provided to us by HEC. We offer residential audits in Harrisonburg through HEC and outside of Harrisonburg through our firm. We can also help non-profits and small businesses by providing free energy audits.

The energy audit provided a list of strategies to help this community organization reduce their energy consumption.

OCP then partnered with volunteers to install LED bulbs in their building, the fastest return on investment we identified. Then Renew Rocktown, through the efforts of Jeff Heie helped them get a grant to solarize their roof. This could provide 70% of their energy needs through a clean energy source. For a non-profit, reducing utilities bills allows them to better serve their community. This work that started with an energy audit, then volunteers working on lights, then solar pv on the roof will have a ripple effect in our community for years to come. This is my community!

First Friday Art Opening – Caroline Conlon – Connecting the Dots

by cbhendricks | Jul 30, 2018 | artwork, community, First Friday

August 3, 2018, 5pm – 8pm

141 W. Bruce St. Suite 201,

Harrisonburg, VA

Facebook Info

Each month we host a new artist in our building’s 2nd floor gallery at the Chesapeake Western Depot at 141 W. Bruce St. (second floor entrance is on Chesapeake). Artwork will remain on exhibit through the month. Come view the show and take a tour of the Depot! We will have food and drink available!

Bio:

Caroline Conlon has been living in the Shenandoah Valley area for the last decade. In association with her recent graduation earning an Advanced Studies Diploma from Wilson Memorial High School, she also excelled at Shenandoah Valley Governor’s School in the two-year Arts & Humanities program where she received the Art Achievement Award for most fully embodying the subject in her endeavors. Caroline is a multimedia, abstract artist who uses mainly acrylics, watercolors, liquid inks, and pens to create her art. Inspired by the unpredictable shapes and patterns of the Abstract Expressionist movement, Caroline’s process involves the spontaneous application of materials followed by a more careful and deliberate approach to unify and finish. She finds art to be a comfort and stress relief as it allows her to express herself in a productive, beautiful fashion.

Description:

Connecting the Dots by Caroline Conlon is a collection of expressive, abstract work ranging from 2016-2018 which attempts to capture and document the process of embracing the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of splattering, pouring, flicking, and smushing. Whether it be utilizing traditional media in a non-traditional fashion or the creation of random patterns and working to unify them, Caroline works outside the box to not only archive but build upon these images as she reacts to them. The art combines the harsh and erratic with the soft and delicate. Brightly colored and vibrant, this show is bold and immersive for the viewer as they observe this interesting technique.

Media:

Mixed-Media including but not limited to acrylic, micron pen, graphite, ink, spray paint, and watercolor.

Conlon’s mixed-media work enhances the Chesapeake Western Depot’s lineup of previous First Friday artists, which most recently displayed works with photography, watercolor, ink, and gouache.

First Friday Art Opening – Greg Versen – Southwest Visions

by cbhendricks | Jul 3, 2018 | artwork, community, First Friday

First Friday Art Opening – Greg Versen – Southwest Visions

July 6, 2018, 5pm – 8pm

Gaines Group Architects @ The Depot

Each month we host a new artist in our building’s 2nd floor gallery at the Chesapeake Western Depot at 141 W. Bruce St. (second floor entrance is on Chesapeake). Artwork will remain on exhibit through the month. Come view the show and get a tour the Depot! We will have food and drink available!

Bryce Natural Bridge

Artist Biography

Greg Versen was born and reared in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He received a BA in Sociology from Mississippi College, Clinton and an MSSW from the University of Tennessee School of Social Work. After serving four years as a Captain in the Army Medical Services Corps, with tours of duty at Fort Riley, Kansas, and 97th General Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany, he taught in the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program at Mississippi University for Women, Columbus for five and a half years before moving to the BSW program, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia. He retired from JMU as Professor Emeritus after 25 years and continues to live in Harrisonburg. He also developed and hosted Blues Valley on public radio WMRA for 32 years.

Versen is an award-winning photographer and has been an active photographer for more than 50 years. He has attended workshops at the Maine Photographic Workshop, Rockport, and the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, Missoula, Montana. In 2003 he switched from film to digital photography and uses Nikon cameras and uses a Canon printer with archival inks.

Among Versen’s photographic interests are architecture, travel and landscapes. He enjoys putting together programs that provide education and information with complementary imagery.

Soap Box Derby 2018 in Harrisonburg, Virginia

by cbhendricks | Jun 10, 2018 | citizen architect, community, Rotary

Each year, the Rockingham Rotary Club sponsors the Harrisonburg All-American Soap Box Derby to bring science, technology, and math lessons to young racers ranging in ages from 7 – 21.

The Soap Box Derby is an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to build knowledge and character, and to create meaningful experiences through collaboration and fair and honest competition. The core values learned from this event include: leadership, family engagement, honesty, integrity, perseverance, innovation, entrepreneurship, teamwork, collaboration, and sportsmanship.

There are three classes of racers: stock, super stock, and masters. The winners of each division from Harrisonburg will have the opportunity to move on to Akron, Ohio. Soap Box Derby champions from around the world come together in Akron each year to compete in the First Energy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship at the world-famous Derby Downs Track.

The day of the race, set up started at 5 am with a few dedicated Rotarians and friends.

The Adult Soap Box Cars are ready for the celebrity race.

Race day t-shirts are handed out with sponsors on the back. We rely heavily on sponsors to make this event financially viable.

Matt starts the race day safety meeting with drivers. We work hard to make sure everyone has fun, but most important is safety.

The parade of drivers to their cars.

Drivers ready for the race day picture with all the cars lined up in the pit.

This year we added a Super Kids race so that kids that cannot drive a car can partner with another driver to race. Our Super Kids sponsor, Harmony Square Dairy Queen will help make it possible for our champion to travel to Akron.

Our track has a curve making it unique. Most Soap Box Derby tracks are straight.

Sophie in the CW Flyer sponsored by Herr & Co. Suter Engineering, and Gaines Group Architects (dad).

Of course Sophie’s car is #girlpowered

On the ramps ready to race.

We added a banner at the start finish line to highlight our sponsors.

Heading down the hill. Our Rotary Club supports Boys and Girls Club by providing cars.

The kids support one another and help everyone have a great time.

Everyone has a great time! I mean everyone, even the out of shape volunteers.

The finish line: the goal to get there first for each driver, but if you do it is simply the start of something else. The kids showed incredible sportsmanship that day. Each encouraged the other to do even better. This is why we do it. This is the heart of Rotary Club of Rockingham County (Virginia) This is service above self.