Artist

Students in Jack Dillinger's art classes at the University of Maryland University College often ask him after final critiques if they can see some of his artwork. There isn't enough time, he tells them. Besides, he doesn't want to show his painting and drawing students just a few of the pieces he has done throughout more than 45 years as an artist and have them think that's the kind of creativity he's looking for. But now the longtime Columbia resident has invited his students and the public to see a collection of his life's artwork in a retrospective at Mill River Gallery in Ellicott City.

Shirley H. "Mickey" Hutton, a homemaker and artist, died May 12 from complications of dementia at Heron Point retirement community in Chestertown. The former Ruxton resident was 92. Shirley Herring was born in Baltimore and raised on Aigburth Road in Towson. After graduating from Towson High School in 1939, she earned a bachelor's degree in art from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University. During World War II, Mrs. Hutton worked at the Bendix Corp. and volunteered as a driver for the American Red Cross, which she continued doing until the 1950s.

Pamela C. Florenz, a retired commercial artist who also painted landscapes in watercolors, died Sept. 15 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The longtime Timonium resident was 85. Pamela Callahan, the daughter of dairy farmers, was born and raised in Easton. She was a 1940 graduate of Easton High School. After graduating in 1944 from the Maryland Institute College of Art , she worked as a commercial artist with a specialty in women's fashion.

There is so much constant movement in our world that it takes an artist to translate some of that motion into a lasting image. In the aptly titled exhibit "Motion" at the Artists' Gallery in Columbia, painters Rana Geralis and Nancy Lee Davis encourage you to linger and look at the animals, people and cars that ordinarily don't slow down for inspection. This pairing of two artists is at its most concentrated in the side-by-side installation of two very small works that amount to portraits of individual animals: Columbia resident Geralis has a watercolor, "Paint Pony," and Clarksville resident Davis has an oil painting, "Cow Eating.

Mary M. Stallings, a former hairstylist and artist, died Tuesday of heart failure at a daughter's Woodstock, Va., home. She was 98. Mary Margaret Francis was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and moved in 1919 with her family to Forest Park. She attended city public schools. Before World War II, Mrs. Stallings owned and operated a beauty shop in the old Emerson Hotel at Baltimore and Calvert streets. She later styled her customers' hair from her home. The former longtime Timonium resident, who had lived in Woodstock since 2003, was a self-taught artist.

ROBERT HENRI: HIS LIFE AND ART. By Bennard B. Perlman. Dover Publications. 176 pages. Illustrated. Paperback, $14.95. ROBERT Henri -- born in 1865 in Cincinnati, died in 1929 in New York -- is still considered one of the best U.S. painters, a great teacher and the man who initiated and organized the display of "modern" art that shoved aside "conservative" academic art in America.But as this fine biography by the Baltimore artist and scholar, Bennard Perlman, notes -- but doesn't emphasize -- Henri himself was considered conservative soon after his revolution began, and he became part of the artistic establishment for the last 15 years of his life.

AS BUSY as he is, [violinist] Isaac Stern will make time to see people. Here I am, exactly half his age, with, supposedly, a lot more energy, and I try to do the same thing. But wherever I go to hear people, he has already heard them somewhere.Why does he make that effort? It's not ambition or mere physical energy. Mr. Stern is deeply moved by things, by people, by music, by events. He cares about violin playing and about the profession, and he gets excited when he sees talent. He reaches out, and he gets something in return: understanding.

The Harford County Cultural Arts Board has an exhibit by Harford County artist Lin McLain is on display at the Council Gallery, 212 S. Bond St., Bel Air. The exhibit features oil paintings with the focus on scenes from nature. The show, which runs through March, is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. McLain's work is inspired by nature and the desire to "capture the beauty and amazing wonders of it all," according to a cultural arts board press release.

Visitors celebrating Virginia's 80th Historic Garden Week at the Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont might not immediately see a connection to Baltimore. The American painter, known for his portraiture, hailed from Detroit. His home, recognized as a National Historic Landmark, is just outside Fredericksburg, Va. It is Melchers' wife, Corinne, who provides the link. Born into a socially prominent Baltimore family in 1880, she married the middle-aged Melchers when she was in her 20s. So what was a nice Baltimore girl doing in Falmouth, Va.?

Original works by Annapolis artist Nancy Hammond now linethe walls of the Starboard Room in Carrol's Creek restaurant in Annapolis.The permanent collection of silk-screened posters depicts graphicimpressions of Annapolis, Chesapeake Bay life, and the sailing scene.Surrounding by busy marinas and with a commanding view of the capital and harbor, Carrol's Creek makes an appropriate location for this exhibit.Hammond works have been shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Maryland Institute of Art and the Addison-Ripley Gallery in Washington, among others.

I harbor high hopes that Columbia can blossom to the next level in creating a "go to" environment that supports and nurtures art and artists. Recently the Columbia Association has stepped up offering public forums on this and Jane Dembner of the Association has been doing a wonderful job. But Columbia needs just a little bit more than just the enthusiasm. We need more residents to spread the support around. Redevelopment is helping this with new residences downtown. I have sat in Barbara Kellner's "Columbia Archives" and watched old grainy films of James Rouse lecturing a group of urban architects at a conference in the '70s - saying he full well expected Columbia's population to be around 300,000 residents by the late 1990s.

An installation artist who sculpts with mirrors and salt, an innovative cellist and a self-taught photographer whose work has been informed by the four decades that she has spent battling a rare genetic illness are the winners of the 2013 Baker Artist Awards. The $25,000 awards, announced Thursday night on Maryland Public Television's "ArtWorks," are being bestowed upon Dariusz Skoraczewski, the principal cellist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; sculptor Jonathan Latiano, a recent graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art ; and photographer Lynne Parks.

Weekends are wonderfully musical around here, offering, more often than not, too many events for any one listener to take in, without benefit of helicopter or cloning. The choices I made last weekend paid handsome dividends. On Saturday night at the Gordon Center, which boasts some of the most satisfying acoustics around, the Concert Artists of Baltimore, led by Edward Polochick, delivered a typically diverse program in typically dynamic fashion. When it comes to our local professional orchestras, the Baltimore Symphony rightly holds pride of place; it's one of America's finest, after all. To my ears, the next ensemble in any Baltimore-area ranking would have to be Concert Artists, which, more often than not, plays way beyond its pay scale and produces a sound much richer than its size would suggest.

Marcella E. Grice, an artist and calligrapher, died April 13 from complications of heart disease at Sinai Hospital. She was 87. The daughter of an insurance executive and a homemaker, the former Marcella Editha Harman was born in Baltimore and raised in Charles Village. Mrs. Grice, who was known as Editha, graduated in 1942 from Seton High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1946 from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University. In the 1980s, she earned a master's degree in audio-visual communication from Towson University.

For the past four years, artist Patrick Reid O'Brien has hammered together his display at the Sugarloaf Craft Festival like a carpenter. He starts by attaching pieces of old shutters together. Over the next three hours, he places the art. Then come the finishing touches: faux hardwood floors and Oriental-style rugs. By the time he's finished - the setup takes about 12 hours - O'Brien will have turned a small section of the Maryland State Fairgrounds into a vintage beach cottage.

Cathy Z. Sawdey makes spare use of thin lines to outline the full-figured models in her exhibit "Life Lines: Figurative Drawings" at the Artists' Gallery. Her very selective use of color also ensures that you're mostly looking at the expanses of white space representing her fleshy subjects. There is a bluntly presentational quality to how most of the models are posed. In "Woman Leaning Back on Elbow," the model assumes a casually direct pose. The physicality of that pose is underscored by the fact that the woman's downcast head and closed eyes seemingly ensure that her body is on public view and yet her thoughts remain private.

THE ARTIST approaches with a piece of construction paper on which is depicted a tableau of great emotional energy: jagged lines, bold circles, vivid splotches, all in tasteful shades of crayon."

Visitors celebrating Virginia's 80th Historic Garden Week at the Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont might not immediately see a connection to Baltimore. The American painter, known for his portraiture, hailed from Detroit. His home, recognized as a National Historic Landmark, is just outside Fredericksburg, Va. It is Melchers' wife, Corinne, who provides the link. Born into a socially prominent Baltimore family in 1880, she married the middle-aged Melchers when she was in her 20s. So what was a nice Baltimore girl doing in Falmouth, Va.?

Mavis S. "Sherry" Sheedy, a retired Baltimore public schools art teacher and longtime museum docent, died April 4 of congestive heart failure at Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster. The Reisterstown resident was 74. The daughter of a civil engineer and a registered nurse, Mavis Sherron Grantham was born and raised in Whitney, Texas, where she graduated in 1956 from Whitney High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1960 in Spanish from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and later earned a master's degree in art education from Towson University.