The Howard County
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VOL.2, NO.4
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The studios offer ample room and natural light for the visual artists, who have 24/7 access to their working space. Today, studios are difficult to come by because most of the artists have been renting their spaces for 10 years or more. Nevertheless, openings do occur from time to time, said Elizabeth Berman, a center staff member. To rent a space, an artist must submit works, which are considered by a jury from the Howard County arts community.
APRIL 2012
I N S I D E …
PHOTO BY FRANK KLEIN
A studio of one’s own
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A space for artists to flourish By Robert Friedman Nearly every day at her studio at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City, Mary Jo Tydlacka works on her vivid canvases and charcoal drawings, some of which depict outdoor performances of Shakespeare. She is one of 14 artists who rent space at the center. More than half of them are over 50. “I do what I love,” said the 67-year-old Woodstock resident. “Art can be isolating, but here at the studios, it’s almost like we’re a protected species.” Tydlacka turned to a career in art after teaching English at Pyle Junior High School in Bethesda for several years. She started taking art classes at the University of Maryland and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, then spent a year studying classical art in Rome. She’s had a studio at the Howard center since 1984. Tydlacka combines her love of language and art by painting scenes from Shakespeare plays, starting with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company performances at the ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute in Ellicott City. One of these paintings hangs in the storied Globe Theater in London, a gift from Tydlacka after the theater’s manager came to a local production. Tydlacka also has works in the Folger Theater’s permanent art collection. Michael Kahn, the D.C.-area’s classic theater guru and artistic director of the Shakespeare Theater Company, owns her painting of a scene from an outdoor production of As You Like It.
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ARTS & STYLE
Mary Jo Tydlacka paints vividly colored theatre scenes in her studio at the Howard County Center for the Arts. She is one of 14 artists who rent space at the Ellicott City center.
Columbia Pro Cantare brings county residents of all ages together to sing a varied musical repertoire at area concerts page 27
Rents range from $160 to $500 a month. Located in a former elementary school off High Ridge Road, the center supports a wide range of the county’s arts activities. There Howard County residents of all ages take classes in the visual and performing arts, galleries exhibit the works of local artists, and a small “black box” theater offers its stage for dance and theater groups. Howard County performance groups, such as the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, the Columbia Orchestra and the Howard County Ballet, also have office and working space at the center.
Varied art forms Another resident artist, James Adkins, taught art at Howard and Mount Hebron High Schools for 17 years. He now directs the non-digital visual arts classes at Howard Community College. Adkins, 64, also attends from time to time the weekly sessions where artists draw live nude models. Adkins’ paintings of nudes grace the scores of easels in his studio, and his female-figure drawings fill up the drawers of his flat files. He said he started out doing mostly See ARTISTS, page 28
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