Brickscape, 1983
Oil on Canvas, 32" x 22"
Marian Van Landingham was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1937, and currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia, where she has been a longtime community leader, politician, and artist. She received her BA and MA degrees in political science at Emory University, where she also studied the fine arts and journalism. As a community leader, Van Landingham spearheaded in 1974 the transformation of a decrepit military storage building into the Torpedo Factory Art Center, which today houses over 150 artist studios, one of which is her own. Her book On Target describes the community campaign to save and transform the building, a life-changing experience that led to her election to the Virginia House of Delegates, where she served for 24 years. Van Landingham has won numerous awards for her service—including the Washingtonian of the Year Award in 1974, Governor’s Award for the Arts (Virginia) in 1979, the Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project in 2006—and has even had an award named after her, the Marian Van Landingham Lifetime Service Award, which is given to Alexandria community members. As an artist, Landingham is a painter and printmaker. Many of her artworks are large, almost human scale, often depicting a passageway, long hallway, or alley that invite the viewer into such scenes as a quiet Italian village, the corner of a garden, or the open space of a room.