Exhibit of work by J. Ford Huffman opening in D.C.
Longtime USA Today visual journalist J. Ford Huffman is the subject of a solo art show opening Wednesday at the Art Registry Gallery in Georgetown, D.C.
J. Ford is a sculptor. An illustrator. A creator of miniatures settings and what we used to call shadowboxes.
For example, here’s Tourist City Motel, a piece he built two years ago:
The hotel at the bottom is a piece from J. Ford’s model train set in the early 1960s, he says. The photo in the background is his own shot of a sign in Winchester, Va. Also included are a leather bag, plastic cars, fabrics and a Fuller Brush letter opener, all antiques in their own right..
Here’s how J. Ford’s web site describes his work:
CONCEPT: In the theater, a proscenium arch frames the stage, which is the venue, the set, for a play.
In this series of assemblage works, each box, each frame acts as a proscenium arch for the stage inside and for your imagination.
Industria Argentina includes white shell-shaped buttons J. Ford found in a flea market in Buenos Aires. From 2007.
Most of the stages are conceived and developed as narratives. Each stage offers objects, colors and textures as references, as guides and as invitations to help your mind create a story (Relax. You don’t have to think of a story. It’s all right if you just look.)
The Star Explorer seems like a cross between a vintage Pan Am pamphlet and an episode of the X-Files. J. Ford says it was created in 2008 as “a guide to the universe inspired by a 1935 diagram.”
EXECUTION: In the studio, the artist groups elements according to theme and tone, and according to shape, color, size and spatial relationship. The objective is to make the art work together as design and as content. A work-in-progress can take days or months. The evolution from concept to execution is affected by the process and the materials. Usually at least two or three stages are in development simultaneously.
Dollsville has a strong Hollywood feel, despite the Tara-like building facade, the rhinestones and the Barbie Christmas ornament.
Men of Action includes contemporary plastic soldiers and a boxed children’s toy from 1932, found in St. Mary’s W.Va.
News: A New Thing was inspired by a trip to the Newseum last year, J. Ford says.
A graduate of West Virginia University, J. Ford spent time as the managing editor of the Rochester Times-Union and the Democrat and Chronicle and helped build prototypes for the launch of USA Today in 1982. He was named USA Today’s deputy managing editor for Design in 1999.
He took a buyout from Gannett in 2008, spent half-a-year as a presentation editor for the Washington Post and then embarked on a career as a news design and management consultant, teacher, free-lance book reviewer and, obviously, an artist.
You can find the exhibit here:
Art Registry Gallery
Upstairs at Todd Christofaro
3146 Dumbarton St. (at Wisconsin), Georgetown, D.C.
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Read more about the Art Registry here.
In addition, J. Ford will have two pieces in a group exhibit in Alexandria called “Pandora’s Box.” That exhibit runs Dec. 10 to Jan. 10 at the Target Gallery of the Torpedo Factory Art Center at 105 North Union St. Find more details here.